How can there be so many colors?

Who said toilets have to be all the same?
This is a composting toilet system, which is not the usual situation, but it will be very gentle on the water and on the drain field.
It is installed now and it works just fine!

back in our Washington home

In the last month I have been away from Miriam almost 3 weeks.

There was some serious cabinet and furniture making in there as well as some equally serious grandpa duty, which was wonderful.

We had a family crisis last month. It is not something I want to talk about just now, but it is not insignificant. Through it all my job as grandpa was more important than ever.

My grandkids lost two grandfathers recently. One was 93 the other 96. New Jersey and Arizona. Neither was extremely close to the grandkids, and were a generation older. I did not have too much to do with either of them, but it is a reminder of our mortality.

While I was gone one of our hens was attacked by something or someone and was seriously injured. She died a few days later. Today another  hen has similar, but not nearly as serious wounds. She will survive.

The tiny house, aka The Villa, is more comfortable thanks to serious time in the wood shop. It is warm and it is easy to keep warm. Of course it has not been terribly cold.

Here in this end of the country, the sun goes down about 4:15. That is early, and it does affect our heads. Miriam is sure that she has never seen it get dark so early, but she has.

When I returned this last week Miriam knew who I was and has not had identity issues. That is good, we have spent good time together.

Meanwhile the RV refer conked out again. I found one that will fit the space at HomeDepot (we don't have a LOT of shopping options here in the back country!). So, tomorrow I get the new refer and begin to modify the RV end of The Villa to accommodate the new device.

So, back to construction/destruction/change!

Miriam a long time ago.

change

When I returned today I was overwhelmed by the changes that have happened in two weeks.

Not good.

My sister and I when we were young and cute!
My hair naturally parts on the right, but when I was a kid Hitler was a big item and he parted his hair on the right and my father insisted that my part be on the left!
When I was older I changed it back, but by then Hitler was long gone.

Away too much

I have been away from Miriam and daughter one for almost two weeks.

There is work to do on our Idaho house; work on the cabinets to finish our 'tiny house'; there is extended grandpa duty among other things.

Right now I am in Portland doing Grandpa duty. It has been good. Another part of my family is involved in a major crisis and I had some Grandpa Duty there. I take the Grandpa part of my life very seriously.

Daughter one, the one I live near, says that Grandpa Duty trumps everything else.

In the time I have been gone, I am told that Miriam has gone from confusion about who the family members are to almost total non-recognition. She asked daughter one when it was that they met. "You were one of the first people I met after I was born." The illogic did not affect Miriam, but the information gave her satisfaction. Getting ready for bed Miriam says to daughter: "I am so glad we met."

She asks about when "daddy" is coming home. We have not used the "Mommy/daddy" terms for each other, so it usually means she is wondering about her father. When asked she will respond that her father is Leonard, and that she thinks she is married to David.

None of this sits well with us, but it is the rapidity of the change that has us confused.

I did not finish my cabinet work in Idaho and need to go back soon. Winter is coming and I am anxious to get the heavy work done.

Most likely I'll stay with Miriam until the first of next week then take off for a week. That should be enough time to complete my work there.

It is time to spend time with my dear Miriam.

There is talk about expanding our livestock flock next year. Adding a few thousand honey bees might just do that!

power!

A week or two ago three guys put a $3000 floor in the new shop here on the “farm.” Earlier two of the same crew put a $2300 roof on the same building. I know, I wrote the checks.

I mention the money part, because I REALLY am not used to writing checks that size. In fact when the final check was written (it was to be for $3300, I automatically wrote it for $33!).

Then last week, I rented a trencher and my son-in-law used it to dig around 400 feet of trenches. New power lines from the box at the house to the new shop and then back to the old shop. There is a water line to the tiny house, and even more wonderful a line to bring in 20 amps of power to my tiny house.

Twenty does not seem like much when you first think of it, but it is a lot for a tiny house. I will feel blessed. That same trench holds another pipe that holds cables for TV and for Internet.

Boy am I spoiled!

Since our old TV was tanked in the flood, I am going to buy a new one. Don’t have to be tempted by the thought of a big screen, there is not room, but there is 18 vertical inches available. I think that I can work a 26 inch LED into that spot. That will truly be by far the largest TV we have ever owned. 

And, the internet. Just thinking of not having it and I go blank. It is both a great source of company and inspiration as well as a fabulous time waster, but that is what I have now, so maybe that part is OK too!

This is that wonderful time of year when the garden produces an abundance of great food. The harvest exceeds our ability to consume, so we can, we freeze, and we compost.

Before long it will be dry beans and canned tomato and corn with home made bread, which does not sound too bad either!

winter is a comin

For the last year I have had one major preoccupation. That is getting ready for this winter.

Last winter was pretty mild here and we were not comfortable. I have seen it 30 below zero in this valley and I have seen 24 to 30 inches of snow on the flat. Once that snow stuck around for over a month.

So I have reason for my preoccupation.

I have drawn, and calculated. I have done research and I have talked with people I think know more than I do (both hard to do and easy to do!). I have dug and I have built and I have insulated and weather stripped and gone through a case and a half of caulking and a half dozen bottles of magic expandable foam goo.

And, in the cool of the night I wonder. But in a few weeks we will put it all to the test.

Winter is coming on, and I think we are about ready. There are still a few tees that have not been crossed and a few I’s without dots, but it is coming together.

When my family came to this valley almost a century and a half ago, they didn’t make it all the way from Iowa in one year, they “wintered” in Salt Lake City. Their horses had gone lame and it was too late in the season to go on.

I have no idea what they did that winter in SLC, but it can be pretty nasty cold there too. Somehow they pulled it off, and did the hard way. It was not a matter of reprogramming the thermostat. 

When they got here in mid summer, one of their early concern was where they would spend the next winter. Somehow they pulled it off, though 1 in 10 who began the western run from Iowa and Kansas, did not make it.

So right now my emotions are all over the place. I am thankful for progress for the tiny house that has risen on the other end of the barn, but I still have a few apprehensions about my winter calculations: Are we ( and mostly my beloved Miriam) going to be passably comfortable?

I think we will, but we won’t actually know for a bit yet. 

The license plate tells me that this one is the one I just bought!

Start of a collection?

Last week I drove the pickup and the flat bed trailer 250 miles west to Salem to pick up a car I bought off Craig’s list! It is another dark blue Cavalier, almost identical to Miriam’s. It has fewer miles and is in pretty decent shape, and I just bought it for a parts car.

The interior is quite nice, though a slight different color than Miriam’s Cavalier. So, I’ll exchange the interior, save the engine and all the parts I might need one day.

I was tempted to keep that car as our daily driver, but alas it does not have AC (not needed in Salem) and that is a deal breaker. No AC, no drive! 

The owner told me that the linkage for the transmission was loose but was an easy fix. He drove the rig onto the trailer, and once here I drove it off the trailer. I backed it up against the fence to turn it around and the linkage came complete loose and it is stuck in reverse. 

Then this week I made a decision about the flooring in the tiny house and went to Idaho for a couple days to do the millwork on the flooring.

Someone said to Daughter one: “Your dad sure doesn’t let grass grow under his feet does he?” No, she replied. 

It is called Vernacular Architecture. It is what non professional people do because they need it done.

late summer busy

It has been a busy time here.

The tiny house is coming along fine, but I am the sole worker and I don’t get as much done any day as I might like. Fall weather is approaching, it is often quite cool in the morning and the squash plants show a bit of frost damage. 

Miriam, of course, is not doing better, there is no better with this hellish disease. She forgets who we all are from time to time, but always insists that she needs to be with her husband.

One night in bed she told me to leave since I was not her husband. That took a while to get it all straightened out. Somehow it was sadly comedic.

Miriam saw a new doctor last week (her old one moved. When daughter informed the Doc that her mother was stage 6 Alzheimer’s the Doc said: “Ahh, that changes everything.” Miriam really needs some surgery, but we all (including the Doctor) agree that it isn’t going to happen.

The big worry now is that she fall. 

A broken major bone now is cataclysmic.