To Gallup

We went to Gallup, New Mexico yesterday to check out wood stoves. It's about 97 miles away and we heard we could get one cheaper there. NOT!!!!! Turns out they were more expensive. The price of steel has gone way up and of course the prices are passed on to the customer. Tomorrow we are heading back to Show Low, and buy one there which my gut feeling was to do so all along. So anyway the trip was pretty much a wasted effort. We really couldn't do any shopping with the dogs along but did stop at Golden Corral and filled up on salad and pot roast. They have the best pot roast! Gallup has a lot of brand name restaurants plus other places to shop but you know men, if it doesn't have tools, forget it. I will have to go by myself one of these days. As it is now, I don't miss shopping, don't miss town, don't miss much of anything, not even TV!

Living off the grid, what does that mean? We will have to generate our own electricity, as of this moment, I am constructing a large wheel cage and connecting it to a thingamagig and will force Pa to run in circles to generate our power. Ok, so I am joking. For the time being, we will buy 8 batteries and an inverter and will use our propane generator to keep them charged up. We will eventually buy solar panels so the sun can do most of the work. We are on a strict budget at the moment which is why solar panels will have to wait. We will wait till the house is set up before ordering our propane tank. Water will be hauled in from town. We have a 1600 gallon water truck to do this in. We could put in a well but they are so expensive and there is no guarantee that you will even hit water or that the water will be drinkable. At one cent a gallon, we can haul a lot of water for the price of a well. As mentioned before, we will be using a septic tank. I don't know if outhouses are legal anymore but we heard of someone out here that was digging one  a few years ago and died right there in the hole he was digging. 

We have also had people ask how we could live so far from emergency or medical services since we are both 60 plus. We refuse to live in fear or let our lives be ruled by "What if". We believe that no matter what, once God calls us home, there is no stopping Him. If I am going to die, this is where I want to travel to Heaven from. I always said I hoped God would wait for the Rapture until we moved out here because this is where I wanted to be raptured from. I told Pa that if I am dying, to park me under one of our trees, facing the sun, and let me go in peace. I have no fear of dying because I believe in Jesus Christ and have faith that he will keep his promises to me. It is amazing to go to a funeral of a non believer and see that they have no hope of a here after and then go to a funeral of someone who is a Christian and see the difference in the memorial service. Give that some thought today.

Daisy Mae has invited us to dinner tonight. She is a fabulous cook and a good friend. I'm so glad she is part of my life!