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Updates in western Texas

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Lately I have been working like a mad woman, and I’m not complaining, much ;), I would like to have a little more time around the SkyCastle, especially with the latest projects that PB has been doing. This blog post is an update on what has been going on, with summer sliding into fall, the nights and mornings are getting cooler, almost cold, it’s funny how 50 degrees F feels so cold right after summer, yet next spring that same temperature will feel quite nice. The picture above is a volcanic plug, the hardened material that stays put as the rest of the softer material (dirt & rocks) washes and erodes away over the eons. My friend calls these thumb buttes. I like the dead tree in front of this butte.

 

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This is a picture of a building PB started a couple of years ago, he tends to be a little ADD on projects, starting things then getting distracted by another project, eventually returning to the first one to finish it. The idea is to use this as a guest house, and for us to live in it while the SkyCastle gets an overhaul, mainly the roof and perhaps rearranging some of the living spaces that are more easily done when we aren’t LIVING in it. :)

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This is a late evening picture of the SkyCastle, just under the peak roof on the left side of the picture you can just make out the windows PB installed.

 

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My drive home, I’m in my “neighborhood” here, we have 70 something miles of unpaved road, I’m a couple of miles from the SkyCastle here.

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A rare picture of myself, PB snapped the picture in the fading light of evening time.

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Here are some pictures of PB’s chicken rotisserie in action, of course this is still very much a work in progress, but as you can see, it has actually cooked a chicken, and we ate it. The fire in the box needs to be hotter, something that is about to happen very soon. He also improved the tick-tock clock pendulum mechanism, I’ll write about it soon.

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Some of the views I get to see when I’m out on the road traveling from town to town doing my job. I pulled over, jumped out of the truck, crossed the highway and tramped through the grass to squat down in front of this prickly pear cactus encrusted in tunas. This is a well known mountain in my area.

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The sky out here is magnificent, we are at the tail end of our rainy season, it clouds up every evening, sometimes it rains, sometimes it stays dry, either way, the sky is impressive.

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One of our “neighbors”, a big bull, he kindly posed for me when I whistled loudly to get his attention. I have no idea what breed of …

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August 29, 2015 No Comments
Communities

The Edge of Green tiny home

edgetinyhome01
Another tiny home, I really like the layout of this one as well as the material it’s made of. I love how they incorporated the solar panels into the building, not only collecting sun rays, it is doubling as shade for windows and a deck. Much of the building materials were recycled, some from Craigslist, some from Habitat for Humanity and such.

I LOVE the kitchen, for a small space, they really made it best of it for the kitchen by making a U shaped kitchen. I have also been noting the marine heater that I keep seeing in the tiny homes lately, they have them for propane as well as wood burning, they are TINY but apparently put out a good amount of heat. I’ll be checking those out more.

I think their biggest problem they are having now is not living in such a small space, but finding a place to park their home, it would seem they have had to move more than a few times, once was because of a HOA, apparently they didn’t like having a tiny home or “mobile” home in their neighborhood. Another time was because they property they were on went on the market. There were other issues with other properties. I think it’s harder for them because they want to live in town or closer in to town because of jobs, that really limits where you can plant your tiny home. I hope they are able to find someplace where they can stay for a longer amount of time.

Watch and enjoy, I’ll include a link to their website below.


https://youtu.be/TRHcygdYjBw

https://edgeofgreencasitas.wordpress.com/




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August 27, 2015 No Comments
Communities

Low-energy rotisserie made from scrap

chicken-cooker
The chicken cooker went live, this is something PB has been working on for a few months now, I might have thought it wouldn’t be finished, but I stopped doubting PB a long time ago.

He wanted a dedicated chicken rotisserie cooker and needed a way to make the chicken turn on a spit, we considered buying an electric motor to achieve this, but in good PB fashion, we call it Bobbage, he used miscellaneous parts found on the property and manufactured a clock works pendulum and weight that would turn the chicken over the heat.

He spent the most time working on and tweaking the clockwork mechanism, going through several different iterations, he finally settled on this design. The body of the cooker used to be the main body of a Lehman’s manual washing machine, we received that many years ago from a neighbor, PB fixed her chainsaw that is no longer made and parts aren’t available, she really liked that chainsaw and didn’t want to have to buy a new one, she had this manual washing machine but never used it. I didn’t like it much once I tried it, but the wringer on it was worth its weight in gold.

So PB took the stainless steel body and made that be the body of the chicken cooker. He used a lightweight sink for the lid. The main part of the clockwork mechanism is an old circular saw blade, the chain and sprockets came from an old trash compactor that someone gave us years ago.

This is propane fired, but it can be made to use wood or charcoal.

The rest of the materials were scavenged from here and there. I purchased a chicken from the grocery store a few days ago, I am shocked at how expensive chicken is now, they were running near $10 for a medium-small chicken! When I got home, PB had the chicken turning on the spit.

It still needs to be tweaked, but for the first test run, it was pretty tasty :)


https://youtu.be/xtkgOgu45wY




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August 23, 2015 No Comments

Underground housing guru

How many of you remember Mike Oehler and his “$50 & Up Underground House Book“? I have a copy of this book and if I didn’t already live in a Sky Castle, I would want to live like this, since we have a mountain side we live on, it would be perfect!

I found this recent video, I am excited to find he is still alive and kicking and his mind is still sharp.


https://youtu.be/8B6xR3T37gI

I was quite excited to see how he is living now, underground, and it’s clear his design is still relevant and stands the test of time.




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August 19, 2015 No Comments

Backup plan for internet

What’s your backup plan? Do you have one? I hope so, everyone needs one no matter where or how they live. Today I’ll discuss communication. A few weeks ago, we had a huge thunderstorm that knocked out the electricity where I live, that’s not such a problem for us because we are off-grid and make our own power, BUT it also knocked out our internet, that is our only source of communication as well as entertainment and other things.

Eventually the power came back on for the neighborhood, but the internet didn’t come back on for nearly 2 days. That is our local wireless internet that comes from 2 towns away, it’s some 40 miles away. I do have a cell phone, but it doesn’t work here, no signal, I can use it when I get out on the road, but for here, it’s useless. My backup for communication and internet is my neighbor, he has satellite internet and a landline phone.

I was able to take my tablet down to his place and at least check my email and do some other things online, I really dislike satellite internet, it’s slow, expensive and they meter your bandwidth (ie they give you X amount of data download per month, if you go over then they knock you back to dial up speed for the remainder of the month unless you pay extra to have your data bandwidth reset), but with that being said, I will say it’s pretty reliable, as long as you have power then you will have internet.

I have been trying to talk my neighbor into changing over to our wireless internet, but I’m just as happy he hasn’t because of times like this.

This is our setup, what would you do if your power went out or your internet went down? Are you prepared with a backup? Perhaps you could use a neighbor if they used a different internet provider, or chances are you could even go to a local store or restaurant, most of them have free wifi, I wouldn’t want to rely on that exclusively, but it’s good in a pinch.




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August 14, 2015 No Comments
Communities

Tiny home documentary

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Most of the tiny home videos I find tend to be snippets, showing a 15 minute (on average) slice of life in a tiny home, usually not much more than a nickel tour. This video shows so much more, it’s not just about the how, but the why, the history of the folk who are building their own tiny home on wheels.

They started out to finish in a couple of months, what most take a year or more to do, they did discover that it was going to take longer than they thought to complete the tiny home. The family discussion was interesting, with Christopher’s brother wondering how people will judge you because they perceive you can’t “afford” a “real” home…

It seemed that in the beginning, Christopher’s family didn’t have much confidence in him or his ability to finish this project, I was happy to see their reactions when they saw the (more finished) tiny home for the first time, they actually pitched in and helped do some of the work.

One of the phrases that really caught my attention is when I heard the words “debt free”, for me that is a huge accomplishment and something (I believe) we should all strive to be (become).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ke8dir3_kw





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August 12, 2015 No Comments
Communities

Here I am

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My dream, it’s something I have had more or less since I was a very little girl, I’ve always loved nature, wild places, as a young child I traveled through the desert with my family on our way from California to Texas on 2 separate occasions. We traveled over the road so I had the opportunity to watch as miles and miles of untamed, wild land slipping past the window. We would stop to take breaks, to eat, to stretch our legs, and to allow 3 young children to get some pent up energy out before the next leg of the trip. Not having a lot of money, we fixed sandwiches and slept in the old Dodge van my dad converted into a camper van the summer before.

 

Being a nature child, I hated wearing shoes, my mother was convinced I would step on a scorpion or even worse, a snake as I ran, barefoot across the still hot asphalt in the dark, once I hit the hard packed sand I was in heaven. The sky was vast, the stars innumerable, the cool desert wind blowing my curly hair back, yes this was the life I wanted. And no, I didn’t step on anything :)

 

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As an adult, I had the opportunity to visit and play in the mountains, these were the Pacific Northwest mountains, juicy, wet, green, alive with more life per square foot than anywhere else I had been before. Well that nailed it for me, I wanted to live in the desert AND mountains.

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Some 8 years ago my dream came true, my hubby and I shut our life down in the city and moved 500 miles west, in far western Texas, on a mountain side, in the high desert, a paradise like no other. It’s rough and tumble, but a paradise for me none the less.

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Today I look back upon my life, all the bumps, all the good and bad times, all the seeming dead ends and U turns, and here I am, I still have contact with that little girl who so desperately wanted to live in a wild place, she is happily living inside of me. Today I turned half a century old, I feel so blessed to have good health, good family, good friends, a great church and I get to spend it here, living like I want to live.

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I think one of the things I learned about life is how to be content, how to be happy, no matter what is going on around me, I cannot control all of the exterior things, but I have absolute control over how I deal with it between my own two ears. Being content doesn’t mean settling for less than, there is nothing wrong with reaching for better, reaching for more, but it’s good to have a contented attitude about …

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August 8, 2015 4 Comments
Communities

The Lilypad

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The Lilypad, love the name, love the home, it’s one of the cutest tiny homes I’ve seen, I know I say that a lot, but it’s the truth, each one I come across seems to be better than the one before, this one will be hard to beat.

Measuring in at 8 feet long, 8.6 feet wide, and 248 square feet, it sports 2 lofts and quite an interesting and functional floor plan. The Lilypad can be both on and off-grid. As of the time of this video, it rests between a house and garage in Portland OR, a beautiful setting for a beautiful tiny home.

I love the color scheme and setup inside, it’s warm, inviting, full of rich purple, emerald and gold hues. Anita’s decorating talent really shines here.

I hope you enjoy this video as much as I did.

https://youtu.be/0GeKa4vQpHQ

To learn more about this tiny home, visit
https://tinyhousegiantjourney.com/2015/05/01/eclectic-eco-friendly-tiny-home/
https://www.lilypadplanet.com/




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August 4, 2015 No Comments
Communities

Do what you love, love what you do

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What is your passion? If money were no object (and just what does that actually mean anyhow???) what would you be doing right now? Now, how can you turn this passion into your living?

Something I enjoy doing is taking pictures, I fully intend on turning this passion into a living. The first thing that makes this possible is I have to take better pictures than the average person, my photos have to be of a quality that someone will want to part with their money to posses one of my photos.

Most EVERYONE has the ability to take pictures with little trouble, nearly everyone has a smartphone and some of the those phones can take some great pictures. But not everyone knows how to take really good pictures, look on most phones and you will find dozens of selfies and mediocre shots.

I did not go to school to learn how to take pictures, what I did was I looked at other photographers to see how they take fantastic pictures, I looked at how they framed their shots, I have learned about lighting (morning and evening tend to be the best times to take outdoor pictures), framing and lighting are the 2 biggies, being in the right place at the right time, I am always making note of a particular place that would make a good shot, but knowing I’ll come back at a time of day when the lighting would make for a great shot.

I have also learned about filters, color enhancing, basically taking a good picture and making it fantastic, something special. This requires a LOT of experimenting, taking lots of pictures, lots and lots. I would say that if I would take 1 picture of a scene, I actually take 20 or more shots of that same scene, using different filters, different angles, sometimes the difference between a mediocre shot and a prizewinning shot is just a matter of a slight angle change.

I also know that some days I may come home with a memory stick full of duds, and that’s OK too. I am not at a point where I can just go out merely to snap pictures, but since the job I do requires me to drive all over west Texas in some very scenic areas, and since I have a very flexible schedule, I have the opportunity to get some wonderful pictures. Honestly I would be taking these pictures anyhow, I love doing it, it’s my passion and in the year I’ve been doing this, my skills have improved greatly.

So now I have all of these pictures, how do I get money for these images? I plan on turning my photos into postcards and such for the tourists that pass through our towns. Living in such a scenic area, much of the income that comes into these towns come directly …

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July 30, 2015 No Comments
Communities

What are you doing?

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Where do you see yourself next week, next month, next year, in a decade? Are you actively planning your life or are you merely floating through the flotsam and jetsam of your daily grind? Far too many of us are living like the latter, just trying to get to that next paycheck so you can pay your rent (or mortgage), pay your car payment, pay your utilities, pay your credit cards, for some folk just buying food can be a penny pinching challenge.

No this isn’t an infomercial, but this is guaranteed to be the first day of the rest of your life, you can spend it like you have been doing it, or you can make a change. I see so many people here on this site, posting comments, saying they are sick of the rat race, the are tired of not really living, they want to be free. Besides posting comments to strangers online, I have to wonder what else they might be doing to actually make a change for themselves…

That sounds tough hearted, even mean, but if they, or perhaps you don’t make some hard choices, then your/their life isn’t going to change. I also wonder if living free (to some) might actually mean living for free, the dream of living off the land sounds like a great thing, living without money. But the reality is, living totally without money just isn’t something that can be done IMHO, sure you can barter, and maybe you can even live off of someone else, but you still need basic necessities, food, clothes and shelter, either you are going to BUY them or someone else is going to BUY them and provide them to you.

I am not picking on those who post comments and replies here wanting to go off-grid with someone else, it’s a nice dream, a nice start, but don’t allow that to be your only action, if you truly want to do something, then it’s up to you to figure out how you are going to achieve this dream, you are the one who must make your dream a reality. It takes perseverance, hard work, and yes, it’s going to take some money.

It’s possible to get yourself setup to not have to need much money, PB and I have done that for the most part, but it wasn’t free, it wasn’t easy, it took hard work for many years, saving and planning. We purchased raw land in an area with few building codes (ie we could build our own place with little interference from the powers that be) and a place with low property taxes, we didn’t do a lot of improvements on the property so our taxes stay low. We paid for everything up front using our savings so there is no debt. We don’t do things that incur debt, no credit cards, …

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July 28, 2015 2 Comments

Rainwater harvesting, and a teaser!

Shelter, food and water are the trinity of life, actually that should be in the reverse order, water absolutely comes first, without it, there would be no life for us. Water is becoming an increasingly rare and expensive commodity, fresh clean water is even more rare, there are but a few ways to get water. Where I live, many get their water from wells, fortunately our water is good water, the only reason to filter it is because of having to store it in tanks.

Another way of getting water is to collect what falls freely from the sky, I know that some states (in the USA) restrict rain water catchment, which I think is such a wrong thing to do to people. But for the states that do not restrict rain water catchment, it’s a great way to supplement your water use, it can even be used for your main water use.

We have a few water tanks around the Sky Castle, we have two tanks directly connected to the roof to catch the rain water, we have another tank under the house that holds more water, we gravity pump the water into that tank, it’s a 1550 gallon black poly tank, the other tanks are around 1000 gallon metal tanks. I am looking at getting two 3000 gallon black poly tanks, we could fill those easily in just a few good rains, considering we use between 200-300 gallons a month (yes, I said per MONTH), that amount of water would easily hold us. I would treat this water with bleach and run it through our Berkey Light water purifier for our drinking and cooking water.

Right now we are in our monsoon season, it lasts a couple of months, we get rain nearly everyday, usually in the evening, yesterday we had a deluge, a couple of inches of rain in a couple of hours, this morning as I was going out to work, I stopped at one of our low water crossings, the water had drained away, but there were some large rocks and small boulders in the middle of the road. I had some extra time before I had to go to work, so I hopped out of my truck, donned my heavy leather work gloves and moved rock. One of them was at the extreme end of my ability to pick it up, but I endured and got the road cleared. I could drive around it in my truck, but not everyone out here could have, I don’t mind doing that, it’s part of living out here on unpaved, mountain roads. It’s amazing how powerful water is.

On a completely different subject, this is a teaser for an article I’ll write this coming weekend, PB has been busy working on a clockwork mechanism, he manufactured it using spare parts, a saw blade, all thread, various metal …

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July 24, 2015 No Comments
Communities

Off-Grid with his own personal natural gas well

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Ted Baker is my kind of man, independent, sharp, knows what he wants but is also flexible to change his path when need be. As I was watching this video, there came a mention of natural gas, my first thought was how is this guy using natural gas when he’s that far away from civilization? I quickly learned that Baker has something most of us would only dream about having, a natural gas well! I have never heard of anyone having their own personal natural gas well, this was preexisting on the property before he purchased it and was able to make use of it, I’m a little jealous :)

Watch and enjoy this video


https://youtu.be/yoIuvOSRRw4




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July 22, 2015 No Comments