We finally made it back out to the land and are in the process of bedding down for the night. We had to remove the plastic film from the yurt as it was askew, and I didn't put it back on because we're hella tired and it would be really hard, and because it's a little wet still here and there and that would mess with the yurt which is slightly jacked up from the wind or a large animal or something. And it's going to rain tonight and tomorrow.
The greenhouse film over the hexayurt had shifted so that it covered the doorway of the yurt, which had been opened somehow. The sun shining into the yurt through the door combined with the blockage of any breezes by the film caused the temperature inside the yurt to soar.
We ran into some of our neighbors as we crossed the creek up a little ways from our place. They seem nice. Very down to earth. That's reassuring.
We're both really tired, and didn't eat well enough, but we're better organized than we were on previous attempts.
No sign of the cat yet. The neighbors we met said that cats are ambient here, so she is effectively our cat, if she shows up again.
I'm glad to be here because every step is constructive or at least remedial. Cleaning up a bag's worth of trash feels good. It feels good to have a base or foundation on which to build. The hotel was very convenient, but there was no space to "do" anything. We mostly just watched TV. We've caught up on almost all of the Comic Book Superhero movies now.
It should be possible to incrementally improve our physical conditions here to the point where we're as comfortable here as we would be at the hotel. (Except for internet maybe?)
The idea of getting out from under the "Good Place Effect" is very motivating.
The place is a mess, but it shouldn't take more than a week to get most of it cleaned up. Dealing with dismantling the junk like the wrecked pre-fab house.
It's time to plan the garden. First week of February has passed. What to plant? Fava? Sorghum?
The little frogs are thunderous.
Last night wasn't too bad. It did rain a little, but only tiny sprinkles for a few minutes at a time. No drips detected in yurt, Huzzah!
I slept okay, but I had bad acid tummy before bed, that tends to mean lower energy levels the next day. We woke up just after 6 AM and it was still dark. We went back to sleep and slept in until 9-ish. So that's good. Another three hours of sleep is great.
I woke up feeling lame physically (low energy and a slight headache) but pretty good emotionally. We're here, and all we have to do today is eat and think. Maybe write some of it down.
We foolishly left all the folding camp chairs out in the rain, d'oh! Now there's nothing to sit on this morning.
Sarah heard a vehicle driving slowly along the road like they were checking things out, but I didn't see them. A few minutes later they came back and honked once, and a guy came a little ways down our driveway. It turns out he and his friend were looking for a property they saw listed and were interested in, however we couldn't help them find it.
Between meeting the neighbors yesterday and now these guys today this has been super-social by the standards of the neighborhood. Usually we see no one except sometimes passing folks on the dirt road. I take all this as a good sign.
Most of the morning was taken up with the routine: making coffee, coming to terms with reality, getting mom up, etc. The sun came out for a minute so I plugged the chunk into the 100W solar panel. It got ~48W until the clouds came back, and about ~17W after that. It should be mostly charged by sunset.
There is a lot to do, but it's important to pace myself. Sarah made a huge breakfast of potatoes and eggs, so that's a promising start to the day and to the whole trip. Eating a huge breakfast is going to be key. I'm looking forward to some of my brains coming back online as I power up. Neat.
The rain comes in little gentle waves. I got a bit of video of the creek, which doesn't quite flow over our driveway anymore, It's reduced to a very slow trickle, almost like a bunch of long ponds in a row, end-to-end.
Today we got up really early because we needed to renew the truck rental by 9:15 AM and that meant driving out far enough to get a good signal for the phone. We decided to all go and do laundry and use the laundry's wi-fi and then run some errands. We got back by about 2:30 PM.
There's more rain forecast so we put up some stuff under a tarp on the little deck. The yurt seems to do fine with light rain and bits of wind. Some of the seams have weakened and one half of the roof sagged a bit, but I was able to mend all that well enough with a bit more Gorilla™ "tough and wide" tape. Part of the idea here is to find out how temporary these foam panel "hexayurts" really are. The folks at Burning Man only use them for so long, eh?
Other than that we spent the afternoon making food and cleaning up. There's a lot to do, but it's important not to over-exert ourselves. We're better organized than we were on previous attempts, but there's still a lot to figure out and nail down.
We saw a flyer for Cal's Books' regeneration as a co-op.
The yurt cools off too quickly, mostly due to airflow from outside. With the plastic off it's worse.
I took some photos and started to write alt text for them.
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Sarah got up early, well, before me, today and made herself some coffee and had a nice time. I slept in. I managed to collect nine bags of trash and put them in the truck, so that's good. Sarah cleaned up and cooked some pancakes.
Still no sign of the cat. Wah. T_T
It's been lovely all day, tiny bits of sun to warm up but mostly cloudy about to rain but not quite, so it was really pleasant, occasional light breezes. It's just begun to rain lightly now. Sarah read a Poirot story from the book.
There are a lot of little thoughts that occur to me throughout the day that might be worth jotting down and putting in the blog, maybe I should carry around a little pad and pencil? I don't remember them now.
We have discussed making a model of the land in a text adventure format.
There was a break in the clouds last night when I went out to relieve myself, and I could see Orion, and Mars, and the Milky way... the Universe is absolutely stupendous. I could see the redness of Orion's left shoulder! (I am mildly ashamed that I didn't know what star that is and had to look it up later, but gratified that it turned out to be Betelgeuse, a red supergiant!)
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It rained all last night, but not hard. There are a few puddles but no runnels. The yurt has a couple of small leaks but other than that it seems to be holding up well.
Sarah went up the opposite hill to call and renew the truck rental. We get spotty reception up there. I should check that out. That leaves us with nothing specific to do, in the sense that we can now go back to bed and wait for the rain to ease up before attempting breakfast.
It's very nice having a unit of indoors where we can turn on the lights, have heat, and read a book or watch "TV" on the computer. The irony of coming to the outdoors only to immediately implement indoors matches the irony of returning to simple computers and assembly only to immediately implement a higher level language (Forth.)
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Yeah, it rained all day. We slept in. Didn't get much done today.
In the late afternoon the oblique sun broke through the clouds and there was a lovely rainbow.
About this image...
In the late afternoon the oblique sun broke through the clouds and there was a lovely rainbow.
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
I took Sarah's phone up the south hill and the weather app updated, so that makes me think that "personal hotspot" internet tethering might work.
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It finally stopped raining some time before dawn. We have to return the truck in the morning by 9:15 AM and it's forecast to be gloomy tomorrow and Friday (solar power, eh?), and then rain on Saturday, so we decided to pack it in for a bit and check back into the hotel for a few nights. That way we can do the laundry, take nice showers, and use the internet, etc.
It was sunny all day, we spent the day cleaning, organizing, and packing up. We got the camp all tidied up and prepped for the rain. We didn't roll out until four. I got a little too much sun.
How hard psychologically it is when it rains all day, alllllll daaaaaaay.
How we packed up in good order.