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!

Ready or not, I'm moving in!

I want to be sleeping here by the weekend...

The chimney's up,

and the woodstove got its first burn.

My stuff is piling up...

...and the range and refrigerator have arrived.

The refrigerator will be in the new addition, in the distant future. For now, I think somewhere along the back wall, out of the sunshine, will be best.

Browser was a little anxious about the move,
until I found a box just his size!