Category — Sara

Here are some of the things keeping us busy:

1. Eating freshly butchered (and roasted) chicken. The meat was tougher, but I realized that I liked it better that way. It tasted more like real meat than the mushy crap from the supermarket. It was also much tastier.

2. Making sourdough bread. I made the starter completely from scratch, so it is filled with native, wild yeasties. The starter took off like crazy, so I know I have some really active yeast. I have the first loaves rising as we speak and I will let you know how they taste.

3. We started drinking fresh, raw, goat’s milk and kefir… yum! I love the food scene here. We’re also part of a local CSA (community supported agriculture) and will be getting a load of fresh vegetables every week. Oh, we also get fresh, free-range eggs. Damn, we’re eating well!

4. The monsoon rains are here in full force. We got plenty of rain in July, right around the average, but now it’s here for real. At 4:00 p.m. yesterday afternoon there were a few fluffy clouds and by 4:30 it was starting to rain. Around 5:00 the wind started blowing extremely hard and erratic and the rain came down in sheets. We later found out that there was a microburst nearby and we were feeling the effects of that. For those unfamiliar with microbursts, they are large masses of colder air that suddenly drop to the ground and can create tornado-strength winds. There are places here where metal t-posts are bent almost in half because of a microburst. They are also responsible for a lot of the plane crashes that occur as a plane is just landing or taking off.

5. I’ve started working again… for now. I’m working a couple of overnights and a couple of days, working with people with developmental disabilities. I’m glad this opportunity is here in town, because there is no way I would drive 3 hours per day to work in Tucson. I have mixed feelings about the work. On one hand, I’m thankful for the chance to make some extra money, on the other hand… it’s work! I’m still doing my web design and have other projects going

6. The music scene is getting bigger and better here. Someone I met last year has moved to the area and he plays old-timey clawhammer banjo; along with fiddle, guitar, and mandolin. We’ve been talking about putting together a string band called the Arivaca Ramblers and I would play fiddle along with his banjo and our resident washtub bass player might join in as well. There are also three jam sessions a week going on and I’m working on having a fourth. I don’t make it to all of them, but it’s nice to have them available.

7. Sara paints every day and is currently working on a new, looser style that I love. Awesome colors and powerful style. It’s nice to see her feeling well enough to do this. Two days ago she spent the day making a butt-load of banana bread using raw coconut oil and agave nectar for sweetening.

8. I’ve joined a group that practices gentle hatha yoga twice a week and Sara plans to attend also. We meet twice a week and practice for an hour. Last time, my back felt sooooo much better and I was hooked.

9. After yoga class on Mondays, we have an hour-long quiet meditation. Although I practice meditation throughout the week and take moments of mindfulness throughout the day, it’s nice to sit with other people. The energy is different.

10. Twice a month we meet to watch a DVD of Adyashanti, a spiritual teacher from the Japanese Zen tradition with a practical and often humorous bent. I love listening to this guy because what he says makes sense, is helpful, and he’s very down to earth.

11. I joined a video club called Earth Cinema Circle where I receive a DVD bi-monthly with independent films related to environmental topics. I’m not sure if I’m going to simply pass around the DVD or if we’ll try to have a bi-monthly showing as a group. I think this will fit in well with our Arivaca Local group.

12. Speaking of Arivaca Local, the group is continuing. The website is up and people are participating in the forum and last week we had a very good turnout for the potluck. We have decided to have the potlucks the last Sunday of the month and the barter faire the second Saturday morning of the month. We have also talked about other ideas, such as Sara’s idea to have fundraisers and then use the money for such things as sending people to workshops, bringing speakers in, or even starting our own local Heifer International-type program. I’m excited to see how this all grows.

And that is a little taste of what has been going on in our lives here in Arivaca. This is such a difference from what we experienced in Las Cruces. Arivaca is alive, energized, vital, and… home.

We woke up early at Rusty’s RV Ranch outside of Rodeo, NM and enjoyed an amazing sunrise while we drank our morning coffee. We were on the road by 6:30 a.m. and thought it would be an uneventful last leg of the trip to Arivaca. About five minutes later we found out otherwise. The temperature gauge wouldn’t drop below the red line even though we had barely started, so I pulled over to see if I could figure anything out. I noticed the radiator overflow tank was empty and when I looked closer I saw that the damn thing had cracked down the side (towards the bottom, no less) for about three inches. I knew I just had to make it to Arivaca and then I would have more time to get it replaced, so I grabbed a plastic baggy and some duct tape and patched it up as best I could. It was still leaking, but slower and when I started up again it stayed cool enough to keep going.

The rest of the trip WAS uneventful and although there were a few more hills to climb, we managed not to overheat again. We stopped in Green Valley, AZ for a few groceries and arrived in Arivaca around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. I parked the motorhome near the house we are renting and partially underneath some large mesquite trees to provide a little shade from the summer sun. It is still too hot to be in their during the day, but in the morning and evening it is just fine.

We also found a vehicle to drive within a day of arriving. It is a big, gas-guzzling white van that has several interesting personality quirks, but it gets us around town and that’s all we need for now. We are renting it from a friend of ours and may end up buying it. We used it to go to La Gitana last night and we had an incredibly wonderful evening seeing most of our old friends and getting caught up. It feels so good to be back in what we now know for sure is our home. Sara is already feeling better and a lot less stressed and feels like this is where she is meant to be. We both feel that and are thankful we are back.

While it was sad to say goodbye to our friends, Steve and Kathy, we were excited to be back on the road again. Sara’s prescriptions were finally ready, so we spent the morning picking those up, delivering them to Walgreens, picking up a couple of items from our storage shed and getting packed up and ready to go. We hit the road at 12:30 pm and instead of taking I-10 westward, we dropped down towards El Paso and took NM-9 west, thus bypassing another large hill outside of Las Cruces.

We arrived in Rodeo around 6 pm and we are staying at Rusty’s RV Ranch with an incredible view of the Chiricahuas outside our windows. Just after we settled in and hooked everything up, the storm we saw brewing for the last hour finally hit. Well, maybe not hit, but it did graze us. Further up in the mountains the lightning was blazing away, but all we received was about 20 minutes worth of rain.

Now I’m sitting here writing this post with the window screen wide pulled open to let all of the fresh air in and to give me an unobstructed view of the mountains. There are Cassin’s Sparrows singing away, as happy for the monsoon rains as I am. Although the temperature was close to 90 in Las Cruces, it is only 70 right now and feels delicious.

We will leave fairly early tomorrow to get over Mule Pass in Bisbee before the day’s heat makes it too difficult. After that, we should not have to deal with any more potentially overheating climbs. And best of all, by the end of the day we should be back home in Arivaca after a 9-month absence.

The kitchen and dining area of the motor home has proven to be more than adequate for our needs. The dinette is the usual two bench seats with a table in between that can also fold down to create another bed. We usually only sit here when preparing food and then move to the front to eat where the seating is more comfortable. This is also where Sara does some of her painting as the table allows her more room to spread things out. Underneath each of the two bench seats there are large drawers that are currently filled with Sara’s art supplies. Above the table is a space saver coffee pot and several cabinets that go all the way across as far as the driver’s seat.

Our kitchen needs have always been simple and this kitchen accommodates that. The double sink is plenty big for washing up and the four drawers down one side hold all the tools and supplies we need with one even serving double-duty as a tool drawer. The small counter space to the left holds our 7-gallon container of drinking water (we prefer to keep our filtered drinking water separate) and is very handy for filling up glasses and bottles throughout the day. The stove and oven are to the right of the sink and we rarely use either one. Most heating and cooking is done in either the microwave or the electric frying pan. Once we get our rice cooker from our storage in Las Cruces, that will reduce stove use even more. To make the most of the available room, we have a board that fits across the entire stove top and a cutting board on top of that. It makes a great place to put the electric frying pan or to prep food. We’ve thought about adding a toaster oven since most of what we use the oven for is heating small items, but we’ve been very dissatisfied with how they toast bread. Maybe we’ll keep looking.

Further down from the sink area is the refrigerator/freezer. I love this fridge! When plugged into AC (as we are at the campground), it runs off of that. Once we disconnect the AC, it automatically switches to propane/DC. The DC is only used to run the controls and sensors and that takes very little juice. The actual cooling is accomplished by the propane heating up the gas that is used as a refrigerant. After a couple of slick phase changes, the inside of the fridge is cooled off and it works well enough to maintain the freezer as well. This means that we can keep the fridge running 24/7 until we either run out of DC or propane.

Speaking of propane and DC, this would be a good time to talk about my plans for both of those. Currently, our only propane is in a tank that is physically attached to the motor home. I want to be able to replenish propane by simply bringing in one of those 20# tanks and exchanging it, something I can easily do no matter where I’m at. To accomplish this, I just need to add a T connector to the existing line to allow the system to draw from either the built-in tank or the portable tank. Before we leave Minnesota (currently scheduled for the end of July), I plan to drive the motor home to a place in Rochester that will both fill the tank and attach a T connector. After this is done, the portable tank will be the main source of propane and the built-in tank will be the backup and also what is used to power the fridge while we’re driving.

For DC, I’ve been exploring solar and the best way to set that all up. At first I was planning on a larger setup with at least 2 large panels and the whole works, but then I did a realistic analysis of how much juice we actually use… it ain’t that much! I’ve come to realize that without an extensive solar system, there is no way to run the air conditioning. My research has confirmed this and most people use either AC or a generator when they want air conditioning. That leaves the microwave and fans as the biggest draws. Well, we hardly ever use the microwave and I bought a fan for the back that I can run directly off of DC and I bought a little fan for the front that runs off of AC, but only draws 0.5 amps. So the long and short of all this is that I can get by with one solar panel of around 85 W and an inverter of no more than 1500 W and the whole thing should cost less than $1000. The price is well worth it, because it means that we can be self-sufficient for all of our electrical needs and would only have to run the generator when we needed air conditioning.