Ladder Canyon Sustainability Life on the Edge

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Rick with grandson Jack raising the solar panels on the roof to better capture the winter sun. In March, near the Vernal Equinox, they will be lowered again to capture the higher rays of summer.

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Back on Board

Been working way too many hours and not keeping up online. In recognition of the Autumnal Equinox (in the Northern Hemisphere) this week it is time to raise the solar panels. I'm glad we went up yesterday to do it as it was sunny and nice where as today a steady rain is falling. Hanging out on metal roofs in the rain in not a good idea.

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Weird Weather

It's only 54 degrees. Hope this doesn't predict the winter.

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Annual Utility Bill

Our earthship is amazingly functional. It does a wonderful job of heating, cooling, lighting, and otherwise powering our home and all our gadgets. We do however have to occasionally buy some propane which we use for cooking, heating hot water, and powering a space heater in the bathroom for early morning middle of the winter showers. We had our tank refilled last week. I finally found our bill from last year and it turns out that the first week of August last year was the last time we filled the tank. So.......

in the last year we only used 106.5 gallons of propane! Because we got it the week it was on sale, we spent $226.00 for our total utility bill (including tax) for the entire year. When we lived in a conventional house in town we would have been happy if that had been our utility bill for the month because it was often far higher. 

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No Water Problems Here

Last time I posted (before the photo of the front yard) was about 3 weeks ago when our cisterns had gotten as low as we had ever seen. I'm glad to report that they are now at 100%. Catch water works, even in the desert.

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Enjoying the evening from the front yard. #earthship #sustainability

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Yay! Rain

I am so happy. We are in a severe drought and it started raining. Checked the cisterns when it started and we were at 44%, it is still raining and we are now at 48%. So that is about 200 gallons added to our supply.

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Kat the Mighty Hunter

Kat has been an indoor cat for the 8 years or so she's lived with us since we adopted her from the pound. Suddenly she's decided she needs to be an out door mountain kind of cat. Living in back of beyond we have our fair share of mice who try to infiltrate the earthship. Kat has served admirably as a mouser. Now her true predatory instincts are coming out. I went out to water the few miserable plants we have left in the garden following last weeks horrific winds and Kat snuck out the door. I can't get her to come back in and so far she has captured 2 lizards and a baby chipmunk. That is completely outside her job description and I want her to stop. Anyway, it will be interesting to see if she tries to escape again. I'm sure she'll come into the house when it gets dark.

[genrefluent]

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With speeds like this, I’ll not be online much today. Wish we could find an ISP that could deliver on what they promise.

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Free range chickens and their fresh eggs are another amenity we enjoy on the edge.

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Detail of a coverlet I wove several years ago. I'm thinking about returning to the fiber arts.

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Springtime

Life on the edge is always interesting. 80 degrees on Tuesday, April 10th and today it is snowing. Ah, springtime in the Rockies.

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This is what it looked like on Monday

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Life on the Edge

Life on the Edge is terrific. I marvel at the beauty of nature every time I glance to the south, to the wall of windows facing the canyon. It is always a gorgeous panorama. Sometimes it is brilliant sunshine creating a bold relief of shadow and luminosity on the rock wall of the canyon's far side. Sometimes it is the cloud enshrouded mystery of nothingness as the canyon is devoured by snow in what looks like a Sung Dynasty landscape painting. It is always enough to make me thankful for the beauty of the natural world. 

Walks, even just to take out the trash or open the gate, reveal the paths of our neighbors.  Tracks of elk, deer, and turkey show who has been hanging out nearby.

The only drawback is the deterioration of our Verizon signal. Our "high speed" MiFi is sporadic and when it does work is the speed of dial up. This has precluded me from posting and uploading photos. 

Today, I've made the trek into town to run errands but also to read the attachments that would not download and hopefully to upload some of what I've wanted to post over the last week or so. I've really been missing Twitter but the conversation there moves so fast that my replies, by the time they send, are way behind.

So here's to celebrating life on the edge and trying to get my head around perhaps dropping off the internet until the cyber infrastructure reaches throughout the country. 

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The one big drawback about Life on the Edge is internet speeds, the other is cell phone connectivity since there are no landlines.

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Other people's earthships

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1st Winter Tomato

We had our first winter tomato today on tacos for lunch. It was kinda small and had a somewhat tough skin but was amazingly sweet and flavorful. We started the plants from seed inside the earthship, in the gray water planter, just after the first freeze last fall.  When they flower, I take a soft paint brush and brush the flowers going from flower to flower and plant to plant. No bees in the house.