Yeah, It's all about Ben....again

Didn't get much done to day but I did learn that cinder blocks make good scratching posts. There seems to be a real lull at the Field Lab this week. I hope it is only because I plan on getting the green house project underway next week. Maybe I just need a brief break before the big push. Today: 1. Re-bladed turbine one and tilted it back into working position 2. Did NOT move my water tanks back into place 3. Dropped off some welding tips to Ben who has borrowed my welder 4. Gave a tour to 3 locals I met a couple of weeks ago 5. Checked Betty's wind turbine that had problems after the wind storm - all that was wrong was a cord had gotten tangled up in the rotor shaft of the blades 6. Fed my fab four longhorns and hung out with them.

The only saving grace of the day was #7. Checked Ben's progress at 5;30PM and he kicked ass again on day 2 of his project. It always makes me feel good to see something HAPPENING out here quickly - especially when it is a house springing out of the desert that I know will be completed, not halfway built and then abandoned like so many of the dwellings out here.

Ben the Builder

Took 2 hours to police the grounds today. Somewhere out in the desert is a roll of toilet paper yet to be found. Cleaning up was just about all I could muster today. The Brewster County Tax Assessors office is due to come out today or tomorrow, so I stuck around and kind of waited for them. They are coming at my request as I have filed for a homestead exemption. They were a no show today. Will work on getting the water tanks back into position tomorrow.

Since I didn't accomplish much at home, I took a drive over to check out a newbie here named Ben - my new builder hero. What's not to like about a guy who can do it all himself, has a plan and executes it in a timely manor, and doesn't mind having his picture on my blog. He built the platform last year in about a week and just got out here and framed these walls in one day. Does my heart good to see such precise effort - especially out here.

WIND!!

Another beautiful dead calm morning at the Field Lab. Like yesterday, I began with watching the moon set just at sunrise . As I had been warned by Weather.com, I knew this nice/still morning would be short lived. Spent an hour and a half lowering 3 of my wind turbines and removing their blades. I would rather test just one turbine in high winds.

The McCoys delivery arrived at 1:00PM. We had 22 longhorns in the yard watching my materials get off-loaded. It was just starting to get breezy. I had a late lunch at the Grub Shack and got back home at 2:30 - just in time for major wind and a dust storm. It was a little bit scary out here for awhile. Just after sunset, the winds died out. My instruments showed a max speed of 46.9 mph with an average wind speed throughout the afternoon of 25 mph. My lone test turbine survived the gales ( but made some unearthly noises )and needless to say, the battery bank is fully charged. The group of very good friends I have fallen in with here checked in with one another throughout the storm to make sure everyone was ok.

My two "empty" 3000 gallon water tanks moved a couple of feet - Note to Self: Put some water in them! No real damage here but I will have to take most of tomorrow morning to clean up debris that resulted from my recyclables getting loose.

Got this email from Tom Michael at KRTS Marfa Public Radio late this afternoon.... "John, KRTS is off-the-air due to high winds... we may not be airing our TALK AT TEN if we're not up again tomorrow morning.. fyi." My interview might be postponed - but better tune in or log on tomorrow just in case!!

a whole lot o' poopin' goin' on

Got up in time to watch the full moon set this morning...a great way to start the day. After last evening's wind storm it was dead calm all night long. Morning chores were really glamorous here at the Field Lab. Collected 2 wheel barrow loads of longhorn dung from around the yard. The big cows leave nice concise piles that are easy to scoop up in one go, but the calves like to drop lots of little pellets all over the place - they look like large junior mints. Worked on another compost bin for longhorn dung only - I don't want to mix the DNA from my humanure compost (just in case a home cloning kit comes out on the market anytime soon). Cleared a spot for my next delivery due tomorrow from McCoys. Called the shipping container guys in Ft. Stockton and it looks promising. Will head up there Thurs or Fri to hopefully pick one out. Ended the day with a nice hot shower. In my never ending quest to provide insite into life at the Field Lab - here is another nice blast of color from tonight's sunset. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO_18raXemk

Tuesday morning Update: LOCAL RADIO INTERVIEWS
The weekday talk show on KRTS 93.5 FM is "TALK AT TEN,” live at 10 AM and replayed at 6:30 PM.UPCOMING GUESTS: Wednesday, February 11: John Wells, Field Lab, Terlingua, on sustainable living. Hear it online at www.marfapublicradio.org

Wind but no rain

Started off the day preoccupied with a 50% chance of rain by night fall. As usual, any chance of rain seems to "cloud" my mind all day. Installed my new plumbing line off the SHWH to provide me with a faucet at waist level. Holding my dinner dishes up to the shower head wasn't really working for me. Also installed my digital thermometer sensor to give me a reading on the water temperature. In the photo - the top temp is the ambient air temp and the bottom one is the water temp. Cooked a Cornish game hen in the solar oven today - gifted it to Chuck and Kathy for part of there normal freezer to microwave dinner meal. I don't have much room to talk as most of my meals still come out of a can.

Good sunny/warm/breezy day all day. Beatrice, Guillermo, and Clive were here from about 8AM till 5PM. Pretty funny to watch a big ol' longhorn get sleepy. I got quite a lot of dung to shovel up from the visits I've had over the last week or so. At around 6:45PM, 20 more longhorns showed up for a snack just as the sky was getting dark and I was preparing for rain. I lured them to the end of my driveway with half a bale of alfalfa and some range feed. Ermengard came back to the house a little later but got spooked by the high winds and took off like a bat out of hell. We had good gusty conditions tonight but just a spit of rain. My wind turbines were getting a workout with gusts of 35 - 40 mph....they were all making noises I hadn't heard yet. Seems to be calming down out there now at 8:30. Back to another sunny day tomorrow.

Aoudad Hunters

This photo from the afternoon - Beatrice being hand fed. I'm more afraid to hand a dog biscuit to Chuck's dog Hanna than I am sticking my fingers this close to Beatrice's choppers. Had a successful trip to Alpine today. Stocked up on food for me, range feed for my longhorn buddies, and more plumbing bits to rig a faucet from my SHWH for worshing dishes. Prepped the parts for this new addition to my quality of life this afternoon. Also ordered another 180 cinder blocks, 20 bags of concrete, and some 3/8" re bar just for fun. Getting ready to start the big construction project of the spring - the greenhouse building. Even got a good lead on some shipping containers out of Ft. Stockton. As usual, things seem to keep coming together. The tricky part out here is making things happen.

A neighbor/friend that I met last year is out this weekend on his meager 460 acres just SW of me. His buddy bagged an Aoudad this trip. This is the real life version of World of Warcraft. Now I'm not quite up to hunting yet myself...but as far as father/son bonding goes - camping and hunting beats the hell out of sitting around the house watching TV or playing computer games all weekend.

Gusty winds out of the east tonight - my mini wind farm is screaming away out there. 50% chance of a thunderstorm tomorrow night......yippeeeee!

Plant Rescue

After last night's dinner rush at the Longhorn Cafe, things calmed down but had guests lingering in the yard until long after sunset. Only had 5 here for breakfast this morning. Took a cue from my longhorn buddies and went out to breakfast myself.
Planning another supply run to Alpine tomorrow so I have been compiling the list off and on all day to make the most of the trip. Only other task on the agenda was to rescue some baby agaves from an "abandoned dream" about two miles away from me. Just a shell of a home made trailed left but a nice healthy (but thirsty) agave with some sprouts nearby. In return for taking her young, I gave the mother plant (pictured above) 5 gallons of water. Hopefully, the transplants will take to the Field Lab. Also did quite a bit of exploring during my plant rescue outing. Sorry to all you folks across the world still shivering with winter - we had a high of 90 today.

Beatrice and Guillermo came back for dinner with another young bull calf I have named Clive. Beatrice finally took range feed right out of my hand tonight. Kind of makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I'm pretty easy to please these days.