Gratuitous Snow

Day after Thanksgiving, 4" of snow and still snowing...

I haven't been up to Questa since the snow, but here's what it looked like day before yesterday:

We pulled most of the north wall off and got a glimpse at the structure underneath. Mark removed the windows (below) and we covered everything in clear plastic (above).

As much as possible, we're trying to save the wood for re-use. We'll selectively undo the plastic to insert the door openings (to bedroom and pantry), and to install electric.

I picked up a small woodstove:

So much to do! The stove needs to be installed in the south room, and the ger platform is coming up soon.

At Thanksgiving I suddenly saw myself as a Questa person visiting Taos... get packing!

Oh yes, most important of all, my brother Herb and wife Janice appeared briefly the night before the night before Thanksgiving... They got to see what I'm up to and ply me with gifts - Strawberry jam and pear butter and a pumpkin pie - all home made - and candles and a mountain of tupperware.

Without further ado, here they are:

Janice & Herb

One last pic of the walkway, removed for the electric and water, maybe for good:

Snow pix from the site, tomorrow!

Fixing to Blog Blues

As a coda to yesterday's post, here's the possible view from the bedroom window if we mirror the current house plan, from the bathroom if we don't:

Nice?

Today the phone man and the Septic Inspector came around, the visits overlapping but distinct.

The phone wire coming out of the ground by the shed is dead. Phone man came with a metal dector, and we were able to find a live phone wire nearby. He brought underground phone cable to the house, but can't hook up until we have the ground cable that comes with the electric line. No. 6 cable from ground to phone box (northeast corner on the east side).

Phone line trench - I guess the phone box will go on this wall... kind of visible...

The leach field for the septic system needs to be huge for even a single bedroom cottage - for a two-bedroom, some trees will have to go, for a three bdrm, it'd be too far uphill...

yellow line is leach field - good for one bdrm, tight for two bdrms...
green line is 25' from arroyo.

Fine with me if the improvements on this property are small but well-made, though. Today I decided we could perhaps do a trench around the patio for water and electric, threading through the trees, to the far northeast corner of the addition - with a ditch witch, if Edwin has access to a smaller trenching device.

It'd save some beautiful flagstone work... So much digging soon, soon...