Easter eggs

Instead of the normal five eggs we get each day, today we got seven and a weird little bonus huevo.

TURKEY day

Happy Thanksgiving, from a couple of turkeys.

Getaway

We're back from a long weekend spent relaxing and adventuring at the Chinati Hot Springs, five hours away in Ruidosa, Texas.  We'll be posting an album of photos from the trip on our Facebook Page, if you want to see more of this gorgeous area.

We had a great time and met so many wonderful new friends. Strong and sassy West Texas gals Maddie and Sierra kept the whole operation running like clockwork while the full-time managers took a vacation of their own. We look forward to seeing Maddie around Alpine, where she has just bought the old Richie Hotel next to Murphy St. Raspa Co. and La Yarda.

Geologist lovebirds David and Stephanie found their way to Chinati all they way from Fort Worth, and seemed to be loving the every minute of their stay in the Big Bend.

David and Stephanie promised to come visit us in Terlingua soon, and were curious about acquiring property in the region.  They already have the smarts, the skills, and the passion to thrive out here ... just need to work out some details!






While in Presidio, we stopped to check out the High School's very large PV array. We wanted to see the famous Big Ol' Battery (BOB) which is supposed to supplement the overextended power grid in the Big Bend, but it wasn't as easy to find as we had thought.

The Presidio rocketry team also recently had the great distinction of being selected to have their project sent to the International Space Station via the Dragon spacecraft in September:

Presidio High School Student Project Will Fly To NASA’s International Space Station

The rocketry team participated in a NASA launch of a different kind back in 2010:

We also made our first trip to Mexico (I know, we should be ashamed that we've been here three years and this was our first trip) where there was much to see -- including lots of flags, fliers, posters, and other political ads for the recent federal elections.

It is a little disappointing to see the PRI back in power, but we can hope that their strong-arm political tactics are behind them.  In any event, the people have spoken.  Democracy can be messy, but that's kind of the point.

Hot springs oasis

We're celebrating our 1 year anniversary at the Chinati Hot Springs in Ruidosa, TX.

We'll be offline until Monday, possibly longer.

There will be lots of photos, so stay tuned.   :)

Telephone Sanitization

January: named for Janus, a god who looks both ways in time, so to speak.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season, and I know more than a few people are very glad the days will now be getting longer again.

We are back from our vacation in Florida and feeling refreshed (and well fed --- mmm, sushi! crabs! fried bass!).  Casey will be welding again tomorrow and today I am catching up on house chores. It will be nice to start off the new year extra fresh (though cleaning has it's own hazards, especially when the desert puts a hurting on all your clothing), and we have lots of fun, productive projects coming up in the months ahead.

The first day after we got back home, the dogs were still a little mad at us for leaving them behind, but they are over it now (we did bring back a couple new toys, after all). 

Arick took good care of them both (read: spoiled them the whole time) and we really appreciate his help as well as Kathie & Bob's hospitality.  Without them, we couldn't have taken any kind of vacation!

Thanks are also owed to Courtney & John for making sure we had every opportunity to widen our pallets and watch the "speakies" in surround sound.

Thanks also to Arthur, for helping us with our video on wind turbine blades and for donating so many blades/parts for our wind power experiments!

And to everyone else, too many wonderful people to name here, who helped make 2011 such a wonderful year.

Thanks for reading, and now I must get back to laundry!

Respite

Another Great Year

It has been another eventful year for us, with lots of projects in progress and completed.  Our favorite project was getting married, but solar and home improvements close behind.

We have expanded our homestead with a new shop/garage building, a storage shed, our bathroom, and the second version of our chicken coop/run. 

We look forward to even more interesting projects in 2012, including a live video monitor of our animals, and starting a miniature dairy with Nigerian dwarf goats.

Happy New Year, everyone.