Camping at a hot springs camp ground in the middle of the Oregon deserts. For those that have not been to Oregon, much of the state is desert.

Stage 6

Sometimes things are obvious and some times not so much so.

The 7 stages of Alzheimer's list has been around long before our exposure to the disease. Mostly I have pretty faithfully ignored it. Seemed to me that it was a bit nit picky and that there are days when one is this and other days when it might not.

But this time I glanced at the list and settled down to read "Stage 6". It sounded way to biographical. I had to put it down and look at it later.

Yesterday, she was not sure I should be sleeping with her. She was not sure even of my identity. I wrote down the day we were married, the where and how long ago that was (56 years 2 months and 14 days). I left the list so she could read it. That seemed to be enough to allow me be her husband!

Then this week we had a big event, one of those that seem possible to be a defining moment. Sometimes that defining thing can be instant and sometimes it can be ominous but not provable. Not sure about this one yet, but Miriam seems have crossed a barrier, one of those big ones.

We will see.

It was cold friday morning, so i was motivated to hang the front door.
I bought it from a Dentist who was remodeling. The door came with a lock set and two keys! It is just about perfect for my little house.
It is the color it was when i bought it.
There will be a change!

There is always a pile of scrap wood. I recycled some of the wood in this project and bought a LOT of new.
Oh well.

Most job sites look pretty awful just before they look better.

This one is no exception. 

My goal is to finish all of the outside work by the end of August.

Fall is coming, along with a lot of rain (this is not desert, alas).

Gotta work steadily!

progress

The weather has been hot, then reasonable, now hot again.

I am reminded that this is mid August and that fall is not far away. Our little house is coming along quite well. I go to work at the crack of dawn and work until we have breakfast, about 10. Then if it is around 100 degrees, I wait it out until afternoon.

It is not any cooler then, but the little house is out of the sun and feels a LOT more comfortable. The house faces east, so the morning sun beats right in. In the summer it can be pretty uncomfortably with that sun pounding down, but in the winter that heat will be wonderful, and I have windows to take advantage of it.

For the most part house construction is pretty much one size fits all. If the house is in cold climate they put in a bigger furnace, if it is in hot climate, just put in a killer air conditioning system.

This house is different. It is designed to fit on this piece of ground, with these weather and sun conditions.

Will it work as well as I think?

No one knows until it is basically too late to do much about it.

Oh well.

Today was 102. When i got up at 4:45 it was 82.

When I designed my tiny house Daughter 1 said that I MUST make provision for an AC unit. I did not take that too serious until today.

By late morning it was 100 in the new house. That really caught my attention. So i began doing research. Units as small as what I needed are not too easy to find. I read reviews and instructions. I checked on line. Sears had just the unit I was looking for and it had decent reviews.

So we drove over to the areas shopping center and bought the little AC.

Next year we should be able to stay cool even if it isn't.

chickens

Daughter one can be a bit impetuous.

Last spring we talked about the benefit of having chickens on the one acre "farm." then suddenly there was two then 4 more and before it was over we had 10 baby chickens. It turned out that all but one was female (a pullet I am learning!).

That was a while back. Daughter figured they would begin laying in August and this week they began.

This morning I made two omelets. One for me and one for Miriam. Each used 4 little pullet eggs. It was very good.

I didn't hire on as a cook, and I have not made many Omelets a long time. 

We three graduated from high school together in 1955, 57 years ago -- yikes. Two biologist and me. One was a top line teacher the other a superb cold water fish specialist. Such company I keep!

I put the smaller window on top and the larger on the bottom. Now when i sit I look out to the mountains and when i stand I can still se them mountains.
Cost? An hour's time and maybe a half buck worth of fasteners.
Sometimes I do what I didn't do for customers: remodel the work I just did!
I plan on spending a fair amount of time sitting in my leather recliner until I can make a pair of Morris Chairs!

windows

I put the windows in today.
The large window is made up of two smaller windows. unfortuntely there is a 5" section that is the top of one and the bottom of another window.
I sat up a chair and it is horrible. I can't see anything I want to see. That divider section blocks way too much.
So, it comes out and something else takes it's place.
Found a used window that might work. Still not sure.
Rats!

I like red cars, they look so good in  photographs.
Not likely to buy one soon, but I still like them!

So I bought it

It didn't seem too complicated.

In my life a good air compressor is pretty important. Mine was at the bottom of the pond during our recent non flood (a flood is a different legal thing). It needed to be replaced, and the insurance company would help pay for it.

I wanted a particular brand and even a particular color. It seems the nice small company that made fabulous compressors was bought out by a biggie and began producing imported junk. But the original company is still making their usual version. The color labels their origin.

So I found the right one at Amazon. Ahh, Good old Amazon. So I placed the order. The tool is quality and the price was appropriate. First thing I know I get a response from some company I have never heard of that they have shipped the compressor. That is OK, except that I got two emails and they shipped one to two different addresses. I had asked (I thought) to have it shipped, not to my current address, but to friend David's address, who needed to borrow it for a while. They sent one to both addresses.

I emailed them. Sorry, but it has been shipped. Maybe you can return one later.

Later came I tried to return one. They might take it back for credit if I paid to have it shipped to their office in HagoPago.

I ended up gifting the 2nd one to my dear friend David, whose motorhome we are living in, rather than pay and risk with them.

Not happy about the whole thing. The only moral I can come up with is that I should really take physical possession of larger ticket items when I purchase them (in other words, don't buy on line from Amazon, who "sold" the order to the HagoPago guys).

Amazon did not come out looking good. Not happy about that one either.