Life As We Know It...

Most of you are aware that we generate our own electricity on the ranch. We have a diesel generator that powers all the houses, outbuildings and the barn. With the price of diesel skyrocketing, life as we know it is about to change.

We are used to having power all day long, and shutting the generator off at night. In an experiment to save money, CG is wanting to shut the generator off during the day as well. We were just talking about it, and if we shut the power off from 10:AM until 2: or 3:PM, it might have a significant impact on our fuel consumption.

But what would this mean for us? No power during the day. We wouldn't be able to use lights, wash laundry or dishes, watch TV, use the Internet, or flush the toilet. I wouldn't be able to blog whenever I wanted to. It sounds like a huge inconvenience, but we don't have a choice. We'll just have to plan ahead.

I'll do a couple loads of laundry in the morning, and a few more in the evening. I'll store jugs of water for drinking (plus one in the bathroom for flushin') The boys won't be able to watch movies any time they want (which is a good thing). I will miss the Internet, but with a battery on my laptop I could still write my blogs, and post them in the evening. I will have to put batteries in my CD player. It's possible I will get more things accomplished (as long as they don't require any kind of electricity)

I suggested investigating switching the power to a solar system, with the diesel as a backup. Or looking into wind. Or something. The price of fuel is only going to increase, it makes sense to look at alternatives which would pay for themselves in short order, perhaps even in a year or two. Or less.

If you NEED to contact me, please do it before 10:AM my time, or in the evening. :-(

I'll keep you posted as things develop. If I'm not online, you'll know why...

Snow in May

As I was driving H-Bomb in to school on Thursday, his last day of preschool before "summer" vacation, this is what greeted us as we rose out of the canyon:


You've got to be kidding. Snow??? It was only raining at our house on the ranch, elevation 5,300, but it was pretty cold. Not cold enough to worry about my tomato plants, but cold enough to require a jacket. Cold enough to annoy me, when it should be at least 70 outside and only four days ago I was hot in a tank top.




It wasn't sticking to the road, which is good, because I was also running a few minutes behind. Finding the jackets and wrangling boys into them. We hadn't needed to wear jackets in a while, so they were, shall we say, misplaced.

H-Bomb asked, "Mommy, is it CHRISTMAS??" The kid can't wait for Christmas.

"Um, no, actually it's close to summer. Your summer vacation starts tomorrow in fact."


This picture above was taken on our way back from town, elevation about 7,000 feet. Notice there is no snow in the foreground. There wasn't much snow in town either, which is fortunate because our fruit trees were in full bloom.


And this picture, where in the morning the ground had been white with snow? Three hours later it was all melted off, except for in the mountains. Freaky weather. H-Bomb was disappointed that there wasn't enough snow to make a snowman, or even a snowball. I wasn't disappointed one bit. And my tomatoes are still fine.

Water, Tentatively

So, our water was switched over again yesterday. That means, the three houses down here are currently receiving water from CG's secondary well, approximately 1/10 mile up the road, near her house.

The cold water seems to be better. After an initial faucet running/clearing out, it didn't smell like glue or fuel or anything, and had just a few grains of sand in it. That's a big improvement from what we've been experiencing.

The hot water still has a smell, a residue of plumbing glue, an eau d' fuel. After talking with Uncle Fred, we think we are going to have to drain the hot water heater with a hose and see if that helps. If it doesn't, we may need a new hot water heater. However, we're not jumping to, ahem, conclusions, until we drain the heater.

I took a shower at CG's again today. I was sooo looking forward to showering at our house this morning. But no. We still made coffee with bottled water. We'll just wait and see.

Things are looking up, however slightly. Unfortunately this doesn't bode well for the environment, as it appears our well water may indeed be contaminated. Again, we'll wait and see. And of course keep you all posted.

ABEG Just Blew Us Off.

Number One and I have been trying to find out the results of our water test by any means necessary. In other words, we have asked anyone we could think of who might have seen them.

RH and Wifey didn't see them. CG said she sent her only copy to ABEG. CG's bookkeeper didn't keep a copy, but thought the water was only tested for e. coli and other bacteria. Well, that's not what we are smelling in the water, obviously. If that's the case, we definitely need more testing. We emailed ABEG and asked that they email us the results. First, ABEG said they hadn't received them.

Today, water results in hand, ABEG emailed us this response:

"I sent it back to CG so that she can show it you and discuss it with you. We are in the process of hiring an environmental consultant firm to handle the matter, so please coordinate any issues, concerns, or actions with CG who will coordinate with me.

I don't know what to say about this. It's great about the environmental consultant firm, as long as they start at the very beginning: The Well Pump. The Plumbing. Instead of jumping to the Environmental Disaster Conclusion.

But people around these parts don't seem to be very good at "coordinating." You know how it goes, A tells B and B tells C and before you know it, it's all twisted around and not at all what A originally said. And we don't like being kept out of the loop. Especially when it's our family, our boys, indeed our future, that could be most impacted.

Don't blow us off, ABEG. It doesn't suit you.

Greedy Bastards

This ranch has been coveted by many many many different people, organizations and entities, most likely since the beginning of time. Indeed, when I got one of my first jobs, working for the association which supplies books to our area's national parks, it became crystally and frighteningly clear:

The National Park wants our Ranch.

The ranch is bordered by a National Park, henceforth known and referred to as Greedy Bastard National Park, or GBNP. At or shortly after the time GBNP came into existence, they took some of what had been the ranch property. I don't know when or how it came about or even how many acres they took, but they took them.

At a meeting with the superintendent, he pointed to a map on the wall, and proceeded to explain why the park "needs" to attain the ranch property. These Greedy Bastards will never stop campaigning and promoting their ideas until they get their way.

This morning, C.G. was down for coffee. She, #1 and I were talking about ABEG and some other things. I mentioned that when I went down to Greedy Bastard NP the other day to buy a map, the employees were circling around like a pack of hungry wolves: "I heard the lease extension was signed. Was it signed? How long is it for? Blah, blah, blah." Okay, to be honest it was just one ranger, but still that is one ranger too many to be sooooo interested in and giving me the third degree about the recent developments down here. I just said, "I guess I don't know."

I said to C.G., "so is the park still wanting this place, has ABEG mentioned anything recently?" And C.G. replied that on Friday, she got an email from ABEG, wanting to know when she would be coming to the Big City so they could discuss the issues of park expansion and a bit of development down here. So apparently this issue is not just in people's minds, it is in the Forefront of Negotiations. This is terrifying to us.

Those Greedy Bastards will keep pushing and pushing until ABEG caves. It appears to be only a matter of time. "Maintain a working cattle ranch," ABEG? Wasn't that your "goal" when you purchased this place? Please keep that in mind.

Too bad we didn't know about all this when the Governor was here.

We need to fight this, and fight it HARD. Who's with us? In the coming months, I'll let you know if there's anything you can do to help.

'ello, Guvnah

On Tuesday, we got a visit from the Governor of our fine state. I'm not sure how it came about, something to do with ABEG bigwigs, the USGS and some environmental guy who flew in from D.C. just to attend. Or so he said.

Anyway, H-Bomb, Sawed Off and I hurried home from preschool so we wouldn't miss lunch. (and then Sawed Off missed all of lunch anyway, fell asleep in the van on the way home). I had H-Bomb practice saying "Governor" all the way home. We had a delicious catered lunch, listened to some people talk, met the Governor, who said H-Bomb could call him "John" because that's easier to say.

It was fairly low-key and casual. Good food. ABEG promoting their World Domination Master Plan, and the Governor being practical and asking about first steps that could be taken now, bringing the focus back to our region, if not just the ranch, rather than the whole freakin' world.

I believe he is a good guy who asked some good questions. What does ABEG want from him? Take a guess. You are right: $$$$$
Freakin' ABEG. At least they paid for lunch.