Mundane?

Just thought we should give everyone a brief update on what we've been up to lately. Casey has been hard at work, wearing his mechanic hat.  We took an Ohioan SUV over to Beechie's to replace a whipped wheel bearing.  We hope this old girl has a good trip back north!





We also took a little time to help Dennis and Debbie with their Kia Sportage, which ate its timing belt several weeks ago.  We had thought that it was an interference engine, meaning the valves would all be junk, but it turned out it's not!  Dennis picked a good vehicle, and soon we'll pop a new timing belt on and she'll be as good as gold.





While we still haven't seen a single drop of rain since September, we were blessed recently with a low hanging cloud.  We awoke one morning to the unmistakable scent of damp desert (an amazing, heavenly smell that should be bottled and put in laundry detergent). 


The cloud lingered for a few hours that morning, then dissipated as the sun got higher.  The plants seemed grateful, but not every location was as lucky to have a dewy morning.  The vegetation is all extremely thirsty and the roads are tuning to dust and blowing away.  We need rain!


We also went back to Alpine to work on the Simple Pump installation.  This time we were working on the solar/electrical side of the installation, and everything went very smoothly.  Soon we will make a fourth trip to the site and retrofit the pump to an above-ground discharge.  We're looking forward to checking this job off the to-do list!


The deep freeze we got last month is still wreaking havoc with residents, and we got to see one tenacious amateur plumber's attempt to fix his water system.  I predict that soon spray foam will replace duct tape as the glue that holds our world together.


On our way home from our trip to Alpine, we were very upset to spot a wildfire burning on Cienega Mountain, just south of the checkpoint.  We took several photos, but most came out blurry and useless.  The one above barely captures the ring of fire spreading through the grasslands, but it's the best we've got.  According to Marfa Public Radio, over 8,000 acres were burned in the fire.





Back at the home-front, our hens were hard at work laying some gigantic eggs.  The egg on the left represents the average size of our eggs laid by the Brahmas.  On the right, one of the giants we got with a large clutch of eggs one morning.  One of the giant eggs turned out to have a double yolk, and the others were just big 'uns.





We got a call this past Monday morning that a palette of solar panels we had ordered for a customer was going to arrive in Alpine (even though the shipping address we gave was Terlingua) in just a few hours.  We had been expecting the delivery to arrive on Tuesday, so Casey had to put his pickup truck rack project into overdrive.  It was mostly done by the time he left.... 





And I butchered the last of my meat birds yesterday.  Casey once again was too squeamish to help. Sheesh.





The battery box we were building for one of our customers turned out pretty good, though it took us longer to construct than expected.





It was finished just in time for the panels to be delivered!  The panels are now resting from their journey, safe inside the small building.




Thanks for reading and have a beautiful day!