Our New Toilet (the outhouse is the in-house) and what did you get for Christmas?

This is the finished project and one we made for ourselves as a holiday gift at the end of 2010. What used to be here was a store bought version which lasted a whole 5 1/2 years and that cost $1000 and that is the lower end cost of these things. Why do we have a composting toilet in the first place? Because we live at 7600 feet above sea level and this particular home site I believe is 7600 feet of ROCK!! None the less, we couldn't have put in a septic tank if we wanted to so we did the alternative...composting toilet. I will put this in perspective here and show you the plastic piece of SH@% we bought:

The thing started leaking a long time back so the boards underneath are there to try to level it but that didn't work most of the time. In the back corner you see the battery that we devised to make the fan work...there is a very small solar panel on the roof that allows the electricity to be stored in said battery but the set-up was just plain ugly! The bucket there on the right contains the "flush" that we use...you may have heard the rhyme: if you pee let it be, if you poop add a scoop? Well, that is the scoop contents...again, just a tad bit unsightly. But the toidy itself just started falling apart, hence the next photo:

The seat broke, the cover was falling off and on the right upper side of the base was a growing crack...did I mention this cost us $1000???

So, finally one day I said to my hubby (who wanted to build our own toilet in the first place mind you but noooo, I wanted a "real" one)...can we please build our own now? Live and learn. So, David and I started researching sawdust toilets in general on the world wide web and low and behold most of the sites recommend...you guessed it, store-bought ones!! There is even a site out there telling the 5 reasons you should consider buying over building. I can debate every one of them but that is another story. So, how do you build your own sawdust toilet you might ask...well, you probably won't ask but should you want to know...I am at your service.

David took measurements, cut out all the holes and you will notice that there isn't just one hole on top. He planned it so that the flush bucket, the battery and a switch to turn it on and off are all planned for. The back hole is for the venting pipe that came off the old one. We went on Christmas eve and bought the pretty blue paint, door pulls and hinges!! I got to paint it as I usually "get" to paint most things around this homestead.

So, here it is ready to put all the necessary pieces together. David wired the fan that goes in the vent to the battery and then we were ready to finish the installation.

And yes, he did clean up the battery before installing it but isn't that just the coolest thing?? It has it's own door and the little light switch above it is all we need to turn it off and on...awesome!!

Now the flush bucket was installed so it is handy for that second part of our rhyme. Oh, and I forgot to mention the toilet seat that we had to purchase so let's see we already had the wood, slush bucket, and many 5 gallon buckets (that are also hidden cozily away) from our recent re-stuccoing of the exterior of our home last summer so all we had to purchase was the toilet seat, white hinges, door pull and the paint! Not bad compared to our previous $1000 flop. I am very happy with our new toilet and have enjoyed immensely sharing the experience with you!! One last peak at the finished product just in case you want to try this yourself!! 

Happiness is a homemade toilet for the holidays!!

Mountains in May

I wanted to share the musings going through my head on my walk today, the 4th day of May. On the first day of May in these west central mountains of NM I was a bit sluggish after having gotten home late the night before from a conference in Albq 150 miles away so I didn't walk until the afternoon. It was a coolish day with clouds and snow in the forecast for the morrow. I went on my usual 3.5 mile route in my "subdivision" you have to take that pretty loosely compared to city type subdivisions but those of you that know where I live know what I mean...dirt roads and hills to climb in every direction. So, there I was on the high road when I came upon the same snake I saw a week or so ago and he was none too happy. The snow flakes had just started falling- only flurries mind you but the snake thought that winter was over and he was pissed! I left him alone this time...I had given him a couple of pets on our last encounter but I didn't think he would appreciate human interference at that time. It snowed on me again a couple times but not too worry it was really okay weather for a brisk walk. Got home and we started a fire and watched our weekly movie and all was ducky! Next day, the 2nd of May...it was really supposed to snow so I waited on a walk to let the temps warm up and the snow to do its thing. I made homemade macaroni and cheese...the kind you bake in the oven and drool over. It was gluten free of course and quite yummy. I also made David his black walnut cookies, cleaned up a bit and watched the snow off and on all morning. About 2:30 it looked a little dark out there but nothing was falling from the sky so I bundled up good as the thermometer showed 36 lovely degrees out there. Just as soon as I stepped out the door flakes started to fall. By the time I got to the end of the driveway the flakes were starting to cover the ground...and cover...and cover. I made it down to the end of the road (1/3mile) and said to no one in particular except my faithful mutt Roly that I was an idiot and was turning around. I had to hold both gloved hands up to my face to try to ward off the stinging snow pellets that were accosting me and I was completely covered in the white stuff so much that I looked like a human snowman. None too happy I made it back home without frostbite even though it was now 29 degrees. I changed into warm/dry clothes and made myself a cup of hot cocoa and sat looking out the window from which I could see nothing but white. Still grumpy I whined to my Facebook friends about the weather here and got zero sympathy! We went to bed that evening with the snow still coming down in bursts with a grand accumulation of only a couple of inches. So, that brings me to day 3...Monday, May 3rd. I had a lunch date as a belated birthday present with friends and neighbors so I decided to take my walk early and to do an extra bit since I had got ripped-off the day before. With the sun out and the ground covered in snow I set off pretty well bundled. It was beautiful and awesomely quiet as only snow can bring to the world. Roly and I and a few birds were the only people out and my walk was blissful for the most part...as I took such a long walk things (dirt roads in particular) were starting to melt so I got in some resistance training as well by carrying around 2-3 extra pounds per boot of mud. But even the mud didn't ruin my walk...it was simply wonderful. I have the benefit of being able to work from home so after my wonderful lunch out I worked most of the afternoon then worked on my crochet in the evening and life was just good!! Now, for the last day of this incredibly long diatribe. I had a doctor appt in Reserve which is an hour away but a gorgeous drive from here. On the way home I had the sunroof open...did I say sunroof after just yesterday walking through the snow?? Yup, it got into the 70's today. So, after planting my birthday card from big sister (have you ever seen those cards with wildflower seeds embedded?, thanks Jo) I went on my daily walk with shorts and sandels on...can you believe it??? So, anyway, I am walking up a hilly dirt road that no one lives on and here comes a rarity...a car. Census workers looking for some directions...that done I moved on up the hill but as is my unfortunate custom I had to pee...never can make the whole walk without that little task and since I had just seen actual people on my walk I thought I would go off road a little more than usual. So, here I am in the required position for females when I hear this clomp, clomp coming down the road. I looked up and there was a Pronghorn (antelope) loping along the road all by himself. Now this is so rare as I have never seen an antelope this high up...they are plains dwellers so you can just imagine my surprise. I was going to ask Roly about it as he had walked on ahead of me and had probably scared up the poor pronghorn in the first place but he wasn't talking!! After I caught up with him a raven flew over my head startling me and him on his way to the juvenile heard he was hanging with. Ravens are not like crows as they usually mate up when adults but in the teenage years they tend to congregate and we kept scaring them up for the rest of the walk so we got a lot of raven cat-calls, if you will. From the high road you can see a long ways in all directions and the plain is not green but the mountains are and that too is a rarity in the spring. We usually see green only after the summer rains. It was just gorgeous up there except that the bark beetle has infested some of the pines and if you didn't know they were dying it almost looked like fall foliage. Now I am sitting in my new lawn chair that I got last week but couldn't put it out due to our wintry weather...so much can change in a day. Still have on the shorts but the wind is picking up and I am about to head inside. David planted one row of corn and one of beans today as a test run. The month of May can hold many surprises up here in these mountains and no one can say this beautiful day in the 70's can hold out. I do hope we are done with the snow for this spring though....

I have to work the next 2 days and no telling what adventures I will have on my walks again starting on Friday...hope they are as fun as the first 4 days of May!!

heaven

Could this bug know more about enjoying life than we do? And by the way...does anyone know what it is? We have had these in our house for 2 winters now and don't know what they are. They are sort of greenish and brown, they don't hurt anything and they kinda smell flowery when you touch them. We call them Herbie for Herbie the Love Bug. If you know...let me know...just curious.

I don't know why this is in a different font or underlined so just forget that part. I called this post heaven b/c I just read a really good book by Jodi Picoult called Change of Heart. She is by far my favorite author but this book just really got me thinking. That was her intention by the way so I guess she did good. It is about a guy on death row. He wants to donate his heart to a little girl that desperately needs one and the story in pure Jodi fashion is told by 4 of the characters. This flower you are looking at and the next one are a pink geranium that I planted in a huge planter and has done exactly what is was supposed to and grew to a huge height. The blooms in the last few days were just too gorgeous to not share...so I am.

So why heaven? I have been wondering about this place for as long as I can remember and wonder if these beautiful flowers aren't heaven...right here on earth. In the book I mentioned it asks where heaven is and one answer is that it is inside you and outside you. A very simple answer that makes much more sense than golden sidewalks and milk and honey, many mansions, etc. I have been asking questions my whole life. I have annoyed teachers, both scholastic and religious b/c I don't seem to be able to just take someone else's word for my beliefs. That is the whole point of this book so it really hit home for me. I couldn't stay in the Christian church as a young person because no one could or seemingly wanted to answer my many questions. I joined the Baha'i faith because one of their principles is "individual investigation" yeah well, that turned out to be half true. You could investigate all you wanted but the only answers that were provided were quoted scripture. That just didn't sit with me so I left the religion behind never to be involved with another organized or unorganized religion. I did take up Shamanism for a while and it served me well for a time as it is individual and you get the answers that are only right for you. Why don't I still practice that? I am not entirely sure except that it didn't seem right for me any longer.

This was given to me 2 christmas's ago and a friend of mine told me that they wouldn't live past their season because of how they were grown in the nursery. Well, I guess this one proved to me that asking a question and getting an answer (that I don't agree with) may show to me that I can find things out for myself and form my own new belief in that area of life. This dude is thriving and it is still in the original little pot that came from the grocery store where it was purchased.
One of the things that Jodi brings up in the book is the Gnostic gospels that many haven't ever heard of but were written at the same time as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John but were hidden away so that the Orthodox Christian church could be formed in a more controlled manner. There were many different schools of thought at that time and it was probably a bit chaotic so those in charge made it much simpler. The problem was they left out some pretty cool teachings one of which is that religion by definition had to be personal- and that if you simply believed what others told you to believe or said the right words during a church service or just got baptized, it wasn't enough to reach spiritual fulfillment. Above all, the Gnostics said, ASK QUESTIONS!! and so they were labeled as heretic and disappeared...until 1945 when 2 brothers dug up the ancient gospels by accident. The biggest thing that was lost in these gospels was the belief that people might reach spiritual enlightenment in a variety of ways, rather than one "right" way.
I recently went to a Jewish service and felt the same thing that I do at a Christian service...this is the only way to God so you better join us. I don't think so folks and this book has been a great reminder of what I already believe and I appreciate this author very much for helping to bring these thoughts to light...so to speak.

Hike at Rocky Point

Last Sunday, the 15th of Feb we helped our friends Jerry and Judi celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary by going on a hike to a place that David dubbed Rocky Point...Judi and I are comfy sitting upon the namesake.
We all take a breather on a couple of downed logs. It was a beautiful winter's day.

This is the best rendition of a camel rock that I have ever seen...it has that casino beat out for sure!
You might want to zoom in but this is a pretty cool "lizard" rock too.
Believe it or not this is the same area. One side was full of gorgeous rock out-croppings and the other was oak groves with fallen leaves that reminded us of Arkansas.

just stuff

We had 6 deer come up real close to the house one evening just before dark. We have on the ground water feeders for birds and rabbits but had never seen deer water there before. I attempted to take their picture through the living room window but it was too dark. The colors in the sky are pretty though.
Tigger and Psssk are doing pretty well. We have renamed Tabby a few times over the year. She is now Paranoid Schizophrenic Kitty thusly we call her PSSSK for short. You can tell she really likes us. She even follows us into the bedroom at night to sit in the window but we still cannot touch her. Tigger can though, he is her hero!
And then there is Bubba aka Roly Poly Catfish. You would probably just want to be called Bubba if you had that name. Everybody loves Bubba. We sure do. We may be in for some snowy weather the next few days. If so I may post some snow pics.

Kissing couple

David is helping our friends Jerry and Judi build their house and I went over for lunch one afternoon. As I was leaving and giving my hubby a kiss g'bye their photographer son Jeff snapped this picture. Well...he didn't get the first one in time...not realizing we were on candid camera so we posed for this one. All told David got 5 g'bye kisses! The house is coming along great. Maybe next time I will get a shot of it for show and tell. Otherwise, all is good here. David and I have been harvesting pinion nuts...we have a great crop this year. He roasted them and eats them like sunflower seeds. I am not a great fan of them myself...especially if you have to go to great lengths to get them out of the shell but I don't mind the harvesting.

Sister's 40th Birthday

The birthday girl is the one behind me with the rabbit ears...I guess you are never too old to be a kid. Then our parents bring us home matching T-shirts and hats to wear at her party by the lake in PK Texas which makes us look young again too. We played a game called ladder ball that my sister's grandson brought and David and I really liked it so he came home and made one for us to play. I guess my sister turning 40...the baby in the family...turned us all back into kids for a while. Not a bad birthday present for any of us! Have fun...we are!

Friends at the Catwalk

My friends Pat and Heather and I went to Glenwood last monday to walk the Catwalk National Forest Trail. The first pic is me and Pat tightening our shoelaces. The next is me and Pat stopping along the walk for a pose.
Then you should see Heather looking at her camera after taking a pic through the grate of the river below. Then me and Heather posing in front of some rocks and finally one of the waterfall with a swimming hole under it. The catwalk is only 1.1 mile to the end but it is rather humid there this time of year and a rather difficult walk for some of us wimps. I being the youngest, in this case only by one year, still had the hardest time of it. We did treat ourselves on the way home to my favorite restaurant in Reserve so that made up for any hard times. We had a great time and I hope the pics convey that for you!

Denver in June

Some people I know get to hike in Zion every week. Others live in the wilds of Oregon but me I get to go to an Infection Control conference in downtown Denver in June. You know, I never once saw the Rocky mountains once I was safely escorted from the airport to my hotel room. I did get to see a little bit of downtown and it was nice and a bit fun even. I saw the Coors stadium but chose not to go to a game on my last night...too tired from all that learning at the conference. I got taken to a very nice french restaurant by one of the vendors (me and about 13 other folks) wow what a bill that must have been. It has taken me 3 days home of naps every day to recuperate but I think I might be done now. Soon we are leaving for a 10 or more day road trip to visit friends at Zion and family in Oregon so we will know how the other people live! David stayed home to work and feed chickens while I was gone.

Water Canyon Fir

Took this picture of this beautiful tree while Josh and Nichole hiked around a bit and baby Jamie lay asleep in his car seat.
The mountain behind it is the Magdalena Mountains and I think up in that area is where the new Magdalena Ridge Observatory is located. They had the road closed, not that I could have made it up there in my Honda Civic, but they are still doing construction on the observatory grounds.

Isn't it a beautiful day in New Mexico?? ~sigh~

It is well into June and the high is in the mid 80's slightly breezy and just a great time to be out if it weren't for a bit of pesky gnats and flies...oh well, can't have everything.

Going to Denver next week for a conference and staying in a big hotel downtown. I will take a few pictures if I get a chance. I could go see a CR baseball game but just not sure...I could just swim in the hotel pool and hang out!!

I quit crying after the kids left finally but I sure do miss them! I have a MySpace account now to show off and look at my grandkids pictures. It is protected by my ability to invite only friends and family so if you want to or already have an account...look me up and I will hook you up to my site.

Wind

My good friend Frances thought many years ago when I said that wind was just the Earth breathing that I was just a newbie to NM and really had no idea what I was saying. Well, I hate to air dirty laundry so I will only show you my clean stuff... Yes the wind, she is a blowin'. Mostly I still think that the wind is the Earth breathing and then sometimes I think she has a hyperventilation problem or something. Maybe she just needs to blow off all the world's pollution and so needs to take really deep breaths now and then. It is spring and that is when it blows the hardest. On this clothes line is a little wind indicator and while I was hanging out my clothes I saw (and felt) it gust up to about 30mph. I guess I don't have to mention that they dried pretty quick. What you don't see in the picture is our wind generator so while everyone is bitching about being so close to Mother Earth's gills we are making electricity so when the electric company goes down in about 10 days for some scheduled maintenance I don't have to worry about my freezer! So even though I am no longer a newbie, I still like the wind. I am about to go take a walk with my Mom and we will fight the wind (at least in one direction). There are always two sides to every story. In one direction we will have a little boost on our walk.
I must be getting less depressed if I can finally see the positive sides to a given situation!! I have a little book on Happiness that I had put up high on a shelf...it fell down right onto my desk today so I read it again. Must be the Universe trying to help me out. Thanks... I can use it.

The wind should keep up its work through this month and then we will have our month of summer and only wish the breeze would blow. We had a 10% chance of rain yesterday and you could see the clouds with rain in them but they couldn't find their way to the ground. The humidity finally got above 20% on my new weather station though so maybe next time...I had thought that maybe it wasn't working (the humidity gauge) but alas it just won't register below 20. For those of you who like it sunny, dry and windy NM is the place to be right now. I wouldn't be anywhere else!

Me neither

I got a birthday card from a good friend that says "What a coincidence... good wine gets better with age AND we age better with wine!!!

I definitely agree...

Elk and Bending over Man

These are two neat oddities that if you use a little imagination you can see on Highway 60 between Datil and Pie Town. The elk may be more obvious than the man... let me know if you can't see him in the 2nd picture. He is in the middle of the picture and is above the wires.
We are in the throes of spring: wind, cold nights and sometimes warm days. It is very dry and conditions are great for fire so if you drive through this canyon--no throwing of cig butts!
For that matter all of this area is off limits for any kind of fire starter. It is a tinder box out here in frontier country.

continued from last post, read it first

You should start at the previous post and work your way back up here....
Here is another shot of the river as I was going back UP the trail. The trail starts out as a lovely meander as you can see from the trail head. When you think there is no river and are about to give up you get to a gate and the trail goes back the other direction so you can see the beautiful green trees indicating water... then the steep decline starts and you have already come this far and there is hopes of a hot springs at the bottom. Well, not this time! I was let down like I said but the river was a bit facinating and the trees just budding out were a beautiful testament to spring. But I did have to climb back up out of there and that was a chore. The last picture is those same Gila Mountains now closer to sundown instead of sunrise. I got home just after 9pm and started this journey at 5:30am so it was a long day and only took me 5 min from the time I got home until I was in bed!!

Day trip to Siver City and the Gila

On my way to Sliver City for a workshop on grant writing... BORING!! I took some pics on the way down and then stopped for a hike on the way home. The 1st pic is the Gila mountains at sunrise. Then the next is looking the other direction at the foothills bathed in first morning light.

The beautiful purple tree which I think may be a crabapple b/c it was the Crabapple B&B in the community of Glenwood NM and it was just the best example of spring I have seen yet in Catron County.

THe pics of the river were on my hike in the afternoon... in the next post (didn't have enough room for all the pics) I will show you the name of the trail. This is the San Fransisco River which eventually joins up with the Gila River, I think. Anyway, there had been a flood of sorts here in January when some snow melt from the mountains came down in a rush from some unexpected rain and it was amazing how fast the water was running and the amount of damage and destruction that was left behind. I could hardly get to the bank due to all the log jams and debris. I was disappointed because there is supposed to be a Hot Spring down there and I couldn't find it after much exploring.

This cat is driving me crazy

About every morning between 3-5am this cat, Tigger is his real name, wakes me up scratching loudly at the door wanting to go outside. I got so I was letting him out maybe twice a night and of course letting him back in!!! Well, I decided this had to stop so I got out the squirt bottle... now I chase him down the hall and squirt water at him and he goes away at least for a while. When he comes back scratching all I have to do is say NO, Tigger and he goes away without being chased. I figure another week of this and he just might get the hint!
Isn't he cute sitting on the back of the couch on the folded laundry?? I eventually just left the blanket there for him. He is so spoiled I am aware but sometimes you have to pick your battles and mine is the 3-5am wakings...

SOOOO glad to have my hot tub back...

It's been 6 months almost to the day that I last emptied my hot tub and went to Arkansas for a week. I was supposed to fill it back up when I got home but I got curious to see how much different my electric bill would be without it running. One month ended up being 6 months but what I learned is that during the coldest months I spend an extra $30 on electricity to run it. I also learned that it is worth every penny. I have a muscle condition that most certainly benefits from the warm water. I only built a shower in this house b/c I had the tub outside so I have missed it muchly! You can see the door in the back round leading into the house. That is actually a bathroom door so that I can easily slip back into the house and dry off or whatever when it is cold. Today is March 29th and although it could be cold, wet or windy this time of year in the Datil Mountains it is sunny, warm and very nice to be outside. You can see I had my morning coffee out there. You can also see in the pic that there is a spout coming off the roof. Behind the fence is an 1100 gallon water tank that collects rain water. THat is what I filled the tub with yesterday. Cool huh? Well, that is where you will find me nearly every morning and many evenings now for just about the rest of my life!! I love it...

A chair and a half

I allowed my old comfy recliner to go out into the cabin so I needed a new recliner for the house. My good friends living in a 5th wheel while they are building their house got a new reclining love seat for their motor home due to the uncomfortable thing called furniture that comes with those things. Anyway, I was in love with it and wanted something similar. My living room is small so I got the next best thing... a reclining chair and 1/2 as they call it. It looks leather in the picture but it is not. It is a pretty neat fabric that animals can't destroy too easily (that is NOT a challenge oh cats o' mine). It sits two people that like each other a lot quite comfortably and one person can take a great nap in it as well so it fits the bill just fine.
I hate spending money on things like this especially with just having bought a used car and a new freezer. I think I have spent my quota for 2008 already. It's a good thing I took that extra assignment at work this month. I now work 2 days a week instead of only one.
I wish we could all just have what we want when we want it without it causing any harm to our planet but that isn't the case. Read the Pencil Warrior's comments in this weeks edition of the www.MyMountainMail.com and see what you think about the idea of luxury and convenience that we take for granted in this country.
It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood and I better get out there and enjoy it so...later!

A creek in Arkansas

This isn't Rainwalker Mesa, it isn't even in NM but my brand new daughter-in-law took this picture in Decatur Arkansas right after a recent snow. She got some really good shots and one of my favorite pics to take myself is looking down a creek, stream or river and shooting.
So, way to go Nichole! I was going to put wedding pictures on here but I just can't bring myself to do it. I am not comfortable putting pictures of my children on the world wide web. I am too fearful of weirdos out there so if you are one of them please do not visit my blog again. There! Now maybe I can feel better about putting pictures of my kids on here. Maybe one day I will even be able to put grandkids on here....but not yet.
We did have a small smackering of snowfall yesterday morning. It looked like powdered sugar on a strawberry or cake or something like that. Today is cool but beautiful. It is supposed to get windy again by the end of the week. Last weekend the wind must have blown 50mph here but it is March in NM so don't complain, just hold on. April will get here and things will get back to the normal 20mph winds. I don't mind, we have a wind generator so it is just electricity to me but lots of folks don't like getting dirt in their teeth when they smile. And the chickens know it is March cuz they are laying better again. We are getting about 6-9 eggs a day and I can't sell them fast enough. One of us are going to have to go on a selling campaign. The price of feed went up (read the price of fuel went up) so we increased our egg price to $2.50 a dozen. This still beats store prices around here so it is a bargain. They are wonderful eggs and I think I will go make myself an omelet for breakfast. To-da-loo!

My new car

This is my new Honda Civic 2002. I really like it and figure it may be the last new to me car I ever buy with the economy situation right now. The next transportation may be a mule!
We went to Arkansas in it and got 41 mpg going there. We had a tail wind and it is all down hill from this elevation but still it was very cool to get that good of gas mileage especially when gas prices went up 2 days before we left. If you click on the picture of the front facing view of the car you can read the license plate (it isn't hard to guess)!!
Maybe next I will get some wedding pics on here. That's all for now...