Inspectors

Just passed the plumbing rough-in inspection on Friday, and passed the septic system last week, too! Batting 1000 so far on inspections. I guess I hired the right guys...

Plumbing by Redwolf

Left to right:
vanity, water heater, toilet, tub/shower

Shower hardware installed but no hot water yet...

Outdoor faucet!

Bedroom closet!

Larkspur!

Piñon flowers, and...

Piñon cones!

Reflecting in the bedroom window

Plumbing (Out of) My Depth(s)...

Another burst of activity!

Oh My God! Running (cold) water - in the house!

And it drains out, too.
And dig that science homeroom style faucet...

Water and vent pipes fill the wall between the bathroom and the pantry.

Vent pipes... more to come...
If these windows opened, we'd have to move the pipes. But they don't.

The tub/shower.

1,000 gallon septic tank, ready to install.

Tank in (beneath green covers), and distribution field going in.

Only the tank covers visible now.

Two big loads of gravel, for the distribution field, and the driveway,
and the French Drain on the north side of the house.

The distribution field now invisible!

Gravel over and gravel under 4" leaky pipe.

French Drain,
carrying water from the north side, away from the house.

Closed in!

Well, the walls are up, and the roof is ready for tar and sand (a Brai roof), window holes are cut.

The east wall, last wall to be skinned - note the just-completed window framing.

East wall finished.

West wall with evening shadows...

North wall.

Fascia detail - the extra strip at the top is to bring the drip-edge away from the fascia.

Mark cutting windows.

Inside.

And, finally, the 5 window views: bedroom(3), bathroom(1), and pantry(1).
...with actual construction soundtrack...

Mongolia Calling!

My old friend Bari (we met about 27 years ago at Lama Foundation) and his new wife from Mongolia, Urnaa, came to visit, set up and blessed the ger, and spent the night. Her many insights and affinity for the lifestyle greatly added to my continuing education in Mongolian cloud houses.

Video of the blessing in Mongolian...

The weather, very warm for the first day of March - about 60º - makes mud still a real problem, but because of the cold nights, at least it's melting fairly slowly.

The road to my driveway...

I've been diligently keeping the dug footings for the new addition dry after chipping out the accumulated snow and ice. The boards over the trench let me easily throw a tarp over the whole thing when snow or rain threaten (like today).

We've made a list of materials for the next step - creating the forms for the concrete and all the structural, plumbing, and electrical doodads that will be a part of it.

Sage Suede Shoes, part 1

I'm in Questa, out of Taos! Taos Telecom installed my Wild Blue dish yesterday and I finally got back online. Embarrassing how much I miss the net, the web... I'm caught!

One-half mile of Llano Rd, and "My Road" are both covered in semi-permanent packed snow/ice:

Llano Rd (left) and "My Rd."

Many many simple needs have creative solutions. Today I joined the Northside Spa in Taos, for occasional deep hygiene, and steam!

My outhouse (indoor plumbing is still far down the road) doesn't have a hole (or a roof [coming tomorrow]) - It's rigged like portable camp toilet, cash and carry:

Washing dishes now involves carrying water from

the outdoor hydrant (good water pressure!),

boiling water on a campstove,
dipping water from a white plastic bucket,
and when I rinse, the water drains into another white plastic bucket...

I think you pretty much have to be a bachelor to live like this - but it's not bad, and getting better...

I've just unloaded the camera -
Stay tuned, if you care to see pix of my ascent out of Taos, into chaos...

Curtains!
Heat retention and privacy...

We've replaced the 4 smallwindows we removed -
and taped them, on the inside - they're double paned.
When the addition is finished, the lower row will be indoors,
with no windows, and these guys will be part of the new addition:
Browser the cat has his personal entrance about 10 feet above the ground:
Here, still under construction...

almost done - Browser's already gotten the hang of it.
The indoor part of the catwalk is almost done, too:
He didn't have much interest in the wooden ladder at first:
Oh, NOW you like the ladder...

More excitement coming soon - Wood for the ger deck arrives tomorrow!
Stay tuned for one more installment of
Sage Suede Shoes.

Also waiting in the wings:
a long-lost cousin, and a long lost friend with new wife from Mongolia!