Where Water Falls from the Sky

I came back home from the Kerrville Folk Festival to a full tank of pure rain water. I didn't have to haul 8 pound per gallon canisters from the water plant at 10 cents a gallon. Nor did I have to pay any municipality to pipe it to me. IT LITERALLY JUST FELL FROM THE SKY!

Now, if oil fell from the sky, which could very well happen here during the hurricane season, you'd catch it right?

Just sayin'.

The Desert in Bloom

A Bee In A Bonnet (Click to Enlarge)

Terlingua Chihuahua Races

Ruby Road Sign, Snow in Terlingua

My nearest neighbors, Ben and Vanessa delighted me when they brought their hand made Ruby Road sign to Terlingua and installed it at our intersection. They are the only other residents, part time or not, on Ruby Road. I named the street after my grandmother, and coincidentally, Ruby is also the name of Vanessa's car, as well as my red Volvo.

Ben and Vanessa, who live most of the time in Fredericksburg, have a great house in progress very close to my place. I got lucky.

Friends from Austin, The Lonesome Heroes, came by Earth Language for dinner on their way out of town after rockin the Starlight Theater. We talked about the status of the music industry, outdated concepts, and new opportunities in the modern musical landscape.

And then it snowed....

This is the most snow I have seen out here. I had a temporary igloo.

I went by Don's place, and he had one too.

Ruby was covered....

The snow melted by afternoon, as I was headed to Mexico to visit my friends Abe and Josie, which will be the subject of the next post.

My Afternoon Run Measured with an iPhone

It sure is nice to have a gravel exercise track right outside my door, where I don't have to worry about traffic, noise, or pollution. Here is the 3 mile run/walk routine I did this afternoon after the sun came out after a rainy winter day:

(Click the picture to enlarge)

Instead of 4 times around for a mile, as is dizzyingly typical for an exercise track, this one is once around for 3 miles,. I used an iPhone App called Runkeeper which monitors my location, speed, etc and then uploads it and gives statistics. This run seemed mostly flat, but it is nice to be able to look back and see the slight changes in elevation and other interesting data. After being near sea level for the last couple of weeks, the sudden altitude out here had me out of breath pretty quickly.

Water, Sun, Food, Bicycles, Friends

I've been back out in Terlingua for a few weeks and am excited to have accomplished all of the things I wanted to get done this time around. With help from friends and 'experts', I was able to optimize my solar system, organize my new temporary living space, and most importantly, set up water catchment.

Now that I have a shed with an angled roof, it opened up an opportunity to install my solar panels on my roof as as well as set up water catchment.

It turns out that Ryan, the solar guy is equally proficient with water catchment as he is with solar electricity. He says that plumbing and and wiring are more or less the same thing.

Ryan's partner in crime, Diego...

I got the catchment set up just in time. There is a 60% chance of rain in the next few days. I just need to leave out some cement bags to seal the deal.

My one almost dead battery has made a bit of a comeback. I can run my interior light all night if I want and since I have converted my modem, router, and laptop computer to DC, I can run everything without the energy drain of an inverter. During these winter days, if it is sunny, I can use and charge my computer between the hours of about 10 am and 3 pm. Once I have a full charge, my computer can work unplugged for about 3 hours.

Since my iPhone hardly draws any power, I use that for streaming radio and podcasts and reading the New York Times. I have even watched movies on it. I have one switch inside the shed that turns the whole network on and off.

The nights here have been COLD. One morning, I woke up to 18 degrees INSIDE the shed. I was very warm, however, wrapped in a down sleeping bag, two other down comforters, and a ski suit. I am looking into some sort of non toxic DIY insulation solution for the shed. I am also looking into getting a small propane heater suitable for indoor use. It doesn't get any colder out here than this past week, so I feel that it was a good test and quite manageable.

Other highlights from this most recent visit included...

My first visit to the brand new Terlingua Farmer's Market...

Eating fresh Terlingua Greens from the Farmer's Market...

Riding mountain bicycles through the desert under full moonlight with my Denton friend Remington Pohlmeyer...

And hanging out with my new neighbors Jim and Anna, also musicians who are building a house out here.

I got the privilege of helping them raise a wall...