Flying Tanks and New Neighbors

3,000 gallons of protentail water storage did finaly made it to the fort. No holes. No one hurt. Even the corn snake stowaway that came with the tank. Could not blame him for taking off after bouncing and rolling along Hwy 10 @ 80 mphs. Meaux and I lucked out as a trucker on the feeder road seen what happened and noticed there was no way the two of us were going to get that moster back on the trailer. Many Thanks to a strangers help.

Thelast 14 miles on dirt road was the worst. It took close to an hour and half, with many stops picking up straps that were bounced off. Relieved to have made it to our turn off, we notice something not quite right. We drive up closer to the Fort and out comes running, from a half put up tent and car in the Arroyo that is at the top of Ladder Falls. She introudeces her self as our new neigbor, she has a flat and could use some help. Of course. It takes helping and looking out for one another in the desert to exist beside we just happen to have another neigbor that is one of the town's tire guys.

Ladder Falls (view from new neigbor's Land)

2020 July 4th getaway

Was so nice to get out of the House and hit the road to Terlingua.
Gas up twice with pee stop and disinfect gets us there.
The Rain clouds did their thing starting South of Alpine at one of my favorite mountains.
Cathedral Mountain in rain cloud:

It is 2020 the year of Census Taking. Seems they did not venture past security:

The Rain fell as it does in the desert summer and produced many rainbows upon our arrival, as if being greeted by the spirts.

the goal of the visit was to get the power system "fixed." See it has been giving me some issues the last few visits, and I have been suspicious of the charge controller, so I brought a replacement. Upon arrival and hooking up batteries, all system was a go. No issue presented them self. As if to fix its self. What the Heck!
I proceeded to change out the controller as I have been told it is a great upgrade to the one I replaced. Next an upgrade in batteries and more amp hours.
Here is a before and after photo of installation:

Another goal was to finish out the water guzzler. Well almost got this one done in the quick 3 day visit.
Ran 200' of 1/2 pex pipe and set float valve and water troth. Had a leak at the tank at first. Issue was the 2" threaded female pvc attachment could not get a lot of threads on the ibc valve and the teflon tape would not seal. Jeff came by and had some pipe dope, and this solved the problem. So I got the troth set but some how while rocking it it the level got moved and would over flow. I will need to redo next trip.

The wind has been blowing as it does and at some point since the last trip it blew hard enough to lift one of the catchment cover pole supports out of the ground. so we got to rocking it in to keep it in place.

PoopBox build & Big Buck

The start of the outhouse rebuild begins and east tx buck.

Ready for Christmas....

RIP Squirt, Christmas Dinner from the Land

The second leg to my holiday trip is complete. Christmas @ the Fort. Creosote Bush tree with ornaments and laser lights light up the desert night sky.

Squirt "queen of all things small" passed away and now runs freely with the wind out at the ranch.She will be missed.
Here she is being conceived at the porch in town:

Squirt with mom Blue as a puppy:

Squirt at the Fort a week before passing:

We eat Quail and Squirrel(from east tx) with letchigia and prickly pear pads. The cactus did not come out so good, need to learn how to prepare, but the birds were oh so fresh and tasty.

I was going to finish out the ceiling, but as the desert wanted, I did not get it done. As soon as I got all rolled out to start the work , my nail gun hose popped. Needing to feel like I got something done, I added a gutter to the bath house roof and rain barrel for another 50 gallons of catchment. Also got the wing wall next to the sink finished out with an added window. Really helps with cutting down the wind. Got the trailer loaded up with some rocks for the backyard at home as well. As always waiting on the next trip out to the Salvage Yard.

Yummy Quail:


Blackrock Draw:

Sunrise and sunset pic's:

Also finished out the inside of the cabin walls with tar paper to cover the insulation. Looks good for now and makes my paintings pop.

Closeups's of paintings:

A look into the kitchen and finished wing wall: