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 2

The dish is in place! I'm online (obviously...)!

Also check out the cat's outdoor entrance.
Browser has to climb the scratching post and jump up onto the ledge,
and he does!
...but it makes me nervous, so I'm looking for a cat ladder to replace it...This is the future home of the ger -
I'm leveling it as much as possible before we build the platform.

I scalped two tall "flagpoles" that stood by the parking lot and recruited them for a clothesline.

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!