A Long Week

    Stephen's new job allows him to work only a couple of days a week and still make the same amount as before. This has been perfect because the house was not complete when we moved out to the ranch. The chickens needed more space being in smaller pens than they were used to. They had just started to lay again so we needed to get them into a coop as soon as possible. We decided to spend a week getting things in order.
    First on our list was to get the chickens in a new home with more space. We had only kept our best mother hens, one rooster and two pullets (all but two are game chickens). We needed to build a coop that would keep them safe as well as give them warmth for the winter. We took into account the fact that we now live in an area with bob cats, mountain lions, coyotes, and snakes. We used landscaping timbers for the outside border and then dug down around the coop to install tin. The tin would be harder for snakes to climb. It would also make digging into the coop a longer task so we could respond to the chickens if they alerted to danger. We then added a small room with laying boxes that would keep them out of the weather. The chickens were very happy to be in their new home. We still wanted to be sure they were protected so in a final effort to do that we built a dog pen around three sides so that at night the dogs can keep them safe.

    The next job to tackle was one I was desperately waiting for... inside plumbing! Stephen is licensed in water and waste water so this part was the easiest. The hardest part was digging a huge hole for our septic tank. I tried to help but he really did most of the work. This was a huge stepping stone in getting things the way we want them. Once the septic was in it was time to install the toilet. I could not wait for this to be marked off our list but I would have to because it was getting too late and darkness was fast approaching. (Solar power was next on the list!)
    The next day Stephen wanted to start by installing the solar panel. This would be a quick job since we had a completed 1600 watt panel. We had also purchased a smaller panel as well as additional squares to build another large panel later. We wanted to have plenty of power for the house and shop so we also bought two large wind generators. Stephen installed the solar panel and then we got to the toilet.

 

          
        The installation of the toilet took most of the day but we still had a bit of time to install the roof trim. Everything was coming along just as we hoped. We spent the rest of the day relaxing in the cool evening breeze. Out in the desert you can see a million stars when darkness falls. The Milky Way looks like thick cloud cover and shooting stars are common. Some nights it takes forever for the moon to come up and on others, it comes up almost as soon as the sun goes down. I think the evenings are my favorite part of living here.