Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone has a chance to enjoy the beautiful full moon tonight.  Weather forecasts are predicting warmer temperatures for the next few days, so we are looking forward to getting lots more done on the house.  New Years Eve day was a beautiful sunny one, but winds whipped all day at 20-30 miles per hour, making work a constant battle. Sorry for the the lack of new pictures and video, but we are trying hard to stay on top of everything on our plate right now.  We have to work everyday just to stay warm, fed, and keep up with chores, construction, water, solar installs, battery banks, et cetera.

Here's a great picture of the full moon rising over the West Corazón.

And as a bonus, a great picture of our new mailbox!  We are so excited about getting mail :)

Moving Along

Well, we've had some good times and some bad times this holiday season.  Aside, thanks to everyone who sent birthday wishes and holiday greetings! There was no "white Christmas" here, but it was in the high 20s at night. Beautiful days are returning and we are still working on walls.  One new hurdle we've realized is the wind.  It never seems to stop blowing on our property, which means wind power will probably be fantastic, but it makes working on our platform hard (especially on cold days). The computer problems are persisting, but we will share more photos as soon as possible. We have also set up mail delivery, though no letters have arrived yet. We got two flat tires on Xmas eve, but luckily we made contact with the tire company this morning so the replacements should arrive soon. We're hanging in there! Thanks for following us everyone!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Well, we have had a very interesting and productive time since our last post -- mostly.The big tragedy is that our laptop computer (the only computer we brought) is having motherboard issues.  The keyboard has bit the dust and we will have to ship it back to the company to fix or replace it.  Without a computer we are struggling to get stuff done! We can't edit or post video blogs, look up building information, or even get in touch with family and friends reliably! Fortunately we have been allowed to borrow our friend Arick's netbbook to check email occasionally. 

In other news, we met a great guy in Study Butte who is building an algae-based power station.  We can't stress enough how interesting the people out here are! Tim is a geophysicist with some great ideas for alternative energy, and we look forward to working with him in the future. Rocks rock!

Chilly Morning

We  woke up to 26 degrees at 8 am with 15 to 20 mph winds. Tomorrow is supposed to be a break in the arctic front, thankfully. A good friend of ours happens to be the alternative energy supply guy in these parts, and he has a connection for broken solar panels. Many of these panels are repairable and there will be some quite interesting stuff, pictures and info on the site soon to come. As usual, we will have no trouble keeping busy even huddled inside the tent, because we have much internet research and work to do. The design of our small home has been altered a bit, and we will now have vaulted ceiling with a contemporary attached roof. To combat the hot roof oven effect on the inside, we will be using a reflective barrier. Hopefully we will have a stable internet connection at some point so we can upload some more blog videos.  

Chance of Snow

It's been chilly at night lately, hovering around freezing for several evenings in a row. Yesterday we drove into the Big Town and saw that snow had fallen just a bit north of us.  I had to ask Casey as we were driving "Is that snow on Elephant Mtn?" and by the time we had reached the cedar trees we could see ice on the branches.

The next few days here are supposed to be -- uncomfortable.  For those of you who have never been to the desert in winter, the best part about it is usually the sun, but if the sun doesn't come out a few days in a row, nothing really warms up and the wind will bite right through you if you are under dressed.

The NOAA is predicting a chance of snow Thursday night ... we'll see what happens!

Thanks for reading :)