WELL, WELL, WELL

   Yes, folks, after 5 years of hauling water either from town or from the community well, we now have our own well! Whoo hoo! One day out of the blue, I decided enough is enough! Even tho Pa is the one who did the most water hauling, I knew it took a lot out of him and the truck going up and down once or twice a week on our bumpy roads. I did some research and contacted a company in Colorado and asked if they would give us a discount on having a seismic water survey done on our property if I could get 10 other property owners to do a survey at the same time. Louis Day, the owner of the company contacted me and said if we could get 10 people to do the water survey at the same time, he would give us a 30 % discount! Boy, that lit my fire! I contacted every property owner I knew and after 3 months, got firm commitments from 10 property owners. After they made a down payment to Mr. Day, he scheduled 2 weeks to come to our little community to begin the surveys. I had no idea what to expect so told the property owners that it was like an ultra sound to see if their property was pregnant with water. The whole process was pretty interesting.

They look the land over and decide where they think there might possibly be water. They pound a copper clad post into the ground.

 They drill a hole between two copper clad posts about 4 feet deep.

They pour water into the hole.

Hook up wires to their computer

Then they yell "fire in the hole" and shoot off some contraption that has an explosive in it down the hole. The explosion vibrates and some how or other sends seismic readings into their computer. Pretty simple actually. The computer and program is pretty darned expensive tho.
    God really had his hand in all this. I just happened to pick a company that is owned by a God fearing man. He used to be a Baptist minister in Texas. He treated each property like it was his own and would not give up until he found a water source on each property. He usually does up to 12 soundings on 40 acres but if it took more, he did more...no extra charge. He did mine last. I had "witched" our property and found water in three different places close to the house. Mr. Day said he had no faith in witching for water. We gathered together before he got started and prayed that he would find water on our ranch. I told him to start with the places I had already marked. All three places indicated there was water about 350 ft down or less and was flowing at 6 gallons a minute. Nuff said! End of water survey. I told him he didn't need to do any more soundings since my "witching" proved to be accurate. He named each spot "Witchy Woman 1,2 and 3. Hmmm should I hire my self out? Unfortunately, I only knew there was water there and not how far down it was.  It was sad to see Mr. Day and his helper leave after all the properties were  done. We all bonded pretty quick and felt like old friends. We were so impressed with his integrity and work ethic. We had them over for dinner and met them in St Johns for dinner .
      We'd heard good things about a well drilling company located in Snowflake, AZ. called Willis Drilling and Pump so Pa got a hold of them to see what it would cost to drill a well. They sent us a proposal that we liked and we set up a time for them to come out and start drillin'.
     Next thing we knew, there was a huge well drilling truck parked in the yard. This was an awesome piece of work! It could do anything except bake bread. The truck can pick up the pipe, screw it together, drill, unscrew the drill, screw in more and go back to drilling. It was amazing! Darn thing cost 1.1 million dollars. Willis didn't have much faith in the seismic survey since most of the wells they have put in at the ranch are 700 ft deep or more.

Getting ready

 and we're off! I had no idea well drilling was such a messy job. One of our markers was in the middle of the driveway so I'm glad we didn't have them drill there. Lots of sand and clay oozing up.

 The rig is so big, I couldn't get a picture of the entire thing without going into the next county to get a shot.

 The rig is in the air sitting on jacks.

 Messy, messy, messy. It was like glue and of course a couple of dogs walked thru it. Practically had to use a pressure washer to get it out of their fur.

 Casing going down!

 Pa supervising and making sure they do it right.

 Trench from the well to the water tank to put the pipes in. Since we get such freezing temps here, they have to put it deep.

Of course being in the wilderness, you do have challenges. Boy, did those drillers have a challenge. Murphy's Law was in full swing and what could go wrong, did go wrong. What should have been a two day project at most turned out to be a solid two week project. We hit water right at the mark of 330 feet which was what the survey said it would be but they went to 400 feet so we would have a reservoir . After all was said and done, no water would come out.......WHAT?  Yes, there is water there, why the heck isn't it pumping up? Pa and I were sweating bullets because we had the exact amount of money it would take to to put in a 400 foot well. Next! Up comes 400 ft of water pipe and well casing and water pump. The pump is filled with mud. Down goes the drill to drill it out again. Down goes the 400 ft of water pipe and well casing and pump. NO water. Ok, lets try this again tomorrow. Next day, up comes 400 ft of water pipe.....darn it some of the pipe broke coming up the shaft. Replace that and put a larger pump to try that. No luck! Up comes everything again. Down goes the drill to blow the mud out of the well. Up comes mud and rocks breaking two of the solar panels for the well. Tomorrow is another day. Up comes the water pipe, add old 3 gallon per minute pump, down goes everything. No water. Up comes 400 ft of water pipe and the pump. The pump has collapsed! They have never experienced anything like it before. By the time all was said and done and the owners of the company said if the next thing didn't work, they had no idea what to do, we proceeded onward. New parts of water pipe, new casing which had broken being hauled up and down so many times. Back to the 6 gallon pump. They put a special kind of  mud down the shaft to hold back the clay and gunk and let it sit over  night. Then they baled it out and put in all new casing that has slits in it to let the water in. They usually only put in 30 or 40 ft and the rest solid casing. This time they put in 350 ft of the slitted casing and the rest solid. Instead of a 6 ft casing at the top, they put in a steel 8 ft casing. And of course replaced the broken solar panels. Let me tell ya, they didn't make any profit on this well. They didn't charge us any extra for all the added pipe , etc or the 2 extra weeks of work they put in to give us a well. They were bound and determined to get us water! Another showing of God's hand in picking out the right well drillers. I can't even remember the many times they pulled up everything and started over. We highly recommend Willis Pump and Drilling.
    I haven't been blogging because I've put a bunch of blather on Facebook. I'll try to catch you up on the past year or so. Last August, I got a sudden urge to go to the dog pound in Saint Johns. I'd been wanting a German Shepherd to take with me on walks. Even with my gun, I still didn't feel safe. Lo and behold, there he was!
Just waiting for his Mama. All the other dogs were barking , acting like they would tear your arm off and there was this guy acting all cool and laid back. The cop at the pound said someone had dropped him off in the middle of the night and put him in a cage. He had no information on him at all but thought he was about a year old. I did my best to convince Pa that we needed him which the cop thought was quite funny. I prevailed in the end and for the staggering amount of $25.00 I adopted Duke. I named him after John Wayne. He already knew how to sit, stay, lay down, and shake and stay. He was so calm and collected when we brought him home, the other dogs hardly noticed he was here. He gets along with the other dogs, is not the least bit food aggressive and bonded to me like glue. I had no idea how many times I got up in a day to go to another room until he started following me. He even opens the shower door to make sure I'm really in there! He is my constant companion. Unfortunately, Tilly was in heat when he arrived and he was very interested in making German Shepherd-Mini Schnauzer puppies. We didn't know if he got to her or not so we had her spayed just in case.
     We lost our dog Harley this past year. He was having all sorts of medical issues and went down hill fast. He was Steve's pal so we were sad when he passed away. He was such a love bug, we miss him.
   Last years garden was pretty much a bust as usual. All my tomatoes got blossom end rot so I had none to can. Carrots did pretty good and I canned 12 pints of green beans!

My cousin Vern and his wife Carolyn came for an over night visit. I haven't seen him since I was in the 3rd grade or so.

My friend Todd rode his motorcycle all the way from Michigan and spent the night. He was on his way to Vegas.He sent me an e-book so I've been downloading all sorts of books to read. I love it.

I made a huge floor to floor quilt for our bed. Took about 6 months. Unfortunately Pa doesn't like it because it is too heavy so it's not getting used. Might make a nice wedding gift for my grandson who is getting married in November.
Various family members have stopped in for a visit, Steve's daughter, her husband and grandson, my daughter and family. Lots of ranch friends have stopped by while visiting their property. I've  hosted Thanksgiving and Christmas for the past 4 years for the people here who have no kitchen and hosted many dinners for people visiting their property. Never a dull moment . My friend Katie and I took our annual March weekend to Albuquerque to attend a rubber stamp show and shop till we drop.
   My computer got hacked or hijacked and someone was using up our 10 gigs of internet time in 3 days. That was expensive to get fixed.
   I visited my mom last summer and will do the same in Sept or so. I lost 12 pounds! (just by not eating). Pa has lost quite a bit of weight by only eating once a day. He wasn't trying to , just wasn't hungry.
    After 3 years of begging, we finally got chickens! We get 6 eggs a day and pass them around to all our friends. They are part Marana and part Rhode Island Red. They are so pretty and fun to watch.

I've been crafting as usual.

and last but not least, our 5000 gallon metal water tank sprung a leak and started collapsing on itself so Pa had to buy another one and get it installed. It is a plastic 1100 gallon tank which is all we need since we put in the well.

Quite a difference in size! He'll use the welder and tear the old one apart. I want him to cut it in half length wise and use it as a swimming pool!
Ok, that catches us up for now. Hope you haven't fallen asleep reading this massive missive!

Things I've learn by living off the grid

 The most important thing I've learn about living off the grid is to be prepared! After we bought our property, Pa started going to garage sales and buying every nut, bolt, screw, nail and tool he could find. Living 25 miles from the little burg of Saint Johns, it would be a great inconvenience to have togo  50 miles round trip to buy one bolt or screw. Plus it pays to have 2 of each tool you use so you don't have to stop in the middle of a project to run 170 mile round trip to Show Low to replace that drill, saw or what ever.

 The second thing I've learned is your life revolves around the sun. Why? Because it charges your batteries via your solar panels. I run the big appliances like the washing machine or dishwasher when the sun is shining and after 9 am so the batteries have had a chance to charge. We usually charge up our phones when the sun is shining also. I rarely use the dryer because even on the coldest day, your clothes will get dry with the sun shining. On cloudy days, we run our 7 kw generator for a couple hours in the morning to charge the batteries for most of the day and then again at night to carry us over thru the night. It run on gas. We also have a 17 kw Generac propane generator than can run the entire house if need be. We never use it so it is practically new. Pa just used it to weld something. We are going to sell it so if you know of any one who needs one, let us know. $3000.00. We are going to replace it with one that starts automatically when the battery power

 runs low. Otherwise our 12 solar panels and 8 batteries run everything including 2 tv's, 2 computers, washer, dish washer, fridge and freezer. That brings up the subject of being sure you buy the most energy savings appliances you can find. You don't need a kizillion solar panels and batteries to run your house. We know of people who've spent $30,000 and $50,000 on their set up and don't get near the out put we do on our smaller set up.

You need a good wood stove. Ours is made by England  Stove Works and heats up our whole 2020 square foot house. We do have a furnace, propane, but it isn't hooked up cause we don't need it. We just discovered last year that we don't even have dual pane windows! I hope to replace those one at a time maybe next year. ( We bought a floor model)Our outer walls are 6 inches thick and the house has what is called a winter package which includes thick walls and the properly pitched roof. If you are going to buy a manufactured home, buy one close to where you live. We bought ours in Kingman, AZ and they had to haul it all the way across the state. When I saw it I almost fainted, knowing it would never look like a real house ever again. Cracks everywhere! The sales office didn't know anyone in this area so used his own people to travel from all over 3 states to put everything back together. The carpet guy was a disaster so someone else had to come and redo a lot of his work...at the expense of the sales office.

 Another thing: You have to be able to make it thru life without other people around. Our nearest neighbor lives 2 1/2 miles away and we see him once a month or so. I am never lonely out here. We have 3 sets of friends here that we know would drop everything and rush over if we had an emergency. Well, maybe 2 since Tom never has his phone on! It is a rare occasion for someone to drive down our road unless they are coming to visit.

 Money: Every thing costs more here than in a big city. Want the internet? $100.00 a month on satellite which is the only thing available here . We get 15 gigs a month and always run out before the internet resets. You can't stream live videos, listen to the radio on your computer, watch TV programs or watch craft shows on YouTube. Cell phone? $100.00 a month. I've got Tom on our account and my mom also but mom never uses hers and Tom seldom does. As for Pa? He uses it more than anyone. He usually uses 5 times the minutes I use. Groceries? EXPENSIVE!!!! We were used to the 99 cent only store, Mexican grocery store and Costco when we lived in Vegas. Our choices here are Safeway...expensive! Basha's ( in Springerville...120 mile round trip) or Walmart and Safeway in Show Low (170 mile round trip) We do have a very small IGA store in St. Johns but they are too expensive, out of date stuff and the dogs won't even eat their meat. The nearest Costco is in Phoenix or Albuquerque, NM. There is a Sam's Club in Flagstaff which is a 3 hour trip one way. We usually wait to see what is on sale at Basha's and then buy just the sales items and buy the rest at Walmart. We shop once a month for the most part. Wood for the stove is pretty pricey if you buy it already cut and split. Or you can buy a permit  go out  into the forest and haul out half burned logs. The log bit and the forest is for younger folks, not us older ones. Luckily Pa made friends with a guy in Reserve, NM that gives us a great, great deal on pine. He has his own saw mill. For around $80.00 we get enough wood to last the winter. We can also cut up the juniper that was pulled down when they put in the roads out here but it is full of sand and eats up your chain on the chain saw. One thing that is cheap here is car insurance since we live in a poor county. We went with Esurance which cut our bill in half.

Entertainment: What entertainment? Saint Johns is so dead, the grim reaper just looks and laughs. We stopped in once at the Senior Center to see if they offered sight seeing trips or movies or dances or any kind of entertainment. We thought we had entered a mausoleum! There were a few old folks that looked like they didn't have the energy to lift a fork. So all the Senior Center had to offer was lunch. Nearest movies? 170 mile round trip to Show Low. Eating out: We have one Mexican restaurant, one fast food Mexican restaurant , a tiny pizza place and a Subway sandwich shop. We do have 4 gas stations tho...for a population of 3500. There is only one chain restaurant in Show Low and that is Denny's. They do have McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell ect plus a few home owned places to eat. We usually eat at the Chinese buffet but after 4 years, it all tastes the same. We sure do wish Olive Garden, Outback, Golden Corral would come to Show Low! I hate to cook!
Hobbies: You definitely need a hobby living off the grid to keep you from getting lonely or bored. Unfortunately Pa has no inside hobbies so goes stir crazy when the weather is too cold, too snowy, too rainy. During the decent weather, he keeps busy piddling around in his shop, a 40 ft storage container. Most people out here think he is a workaholic cause he is always busy. He checks on other people's places out here to make sure no one has broken in and ransacked their place. We are fortunate that we got every thing done and in place within the first year we lived here so it's mostly maintenance which keeps him busy.
I have my craft room where I spend the majority of my day when I'm not cleaning house or something. And I love to read. I can honestly say I have never been bored or lonely during the past 4 years. And in the summer, I garden.
Speaking of gardens..... you have to have a way to collect rainwater living out here. We currently have 4000 gallons of rain water stored just for garden use. When it starts to get low, the monsoon season starts and that  fills the storage tanks back up. You have to accept the fact that you will be sharing your garden with birds, rabbits, mice and rats. Oh, and ground squirrels too. As soon as my grapes started to grow, the birds ate them all. We pretty much have the rabbits fenced out but they do get in once in a while. There is no way to fence the other critters out. Decorative flowers in the front of your house? Even tho we have each individual flower fenced off, the rabbits have learned to turn the cages over and eat the plants. I tried hanging pots off a lattice and the ground squirrels climbed across the window screen and chomped on the petunias. They sure were cute tho! We use water buckets to catch mice and rats. They fall in and drown. You'd think that after 4 years, they would be gone by now. Gardening is downright hard out here. You have to keep your plants under shade cloth most of the time because we are so close to the sun, they burn up pretty easy. You have to buy seeds or plants with a short growing season unless you have a green house which we don't.  Some times I don't think it is worth it. Last year was a waste of time, we got so little out of it.
Drinking Water: If you can't afford a well....expensive!... you have to haul water from town at 2 cents a gallon. We have a community well that is 11 miles from our house so we haul water from there. We have a 4500 gallon holding tank for water so big lesson here....DON'T WASTE WATER! We take short showers unless I'm washing my hair. It takes forever to rinse out conditioner. It also takes forever for the water to get from the water heater to the bathroom so I've been filling a bucket with cold water till the hot water hits the shower. I use it to water the dogs, inside plants and fill the bird bath. We use a front load washer that only takes 8 gallons of water as opposed to a top load that takes 40 gallons. Plus it really spins the clothes pretty dry so it doesn't take so long hanging on the line. Pa usually makes a water run twice a week to keep the big tank filled.
Water heater: Only buy an instant water heater living off the grid. It will save you big bucks on propane since it only runs when you want hot water.
Big lesson for me: Learn to live with dust, sand and ashes. We get a month long wind in the spring and when we first moved here, I was sweeping the kitchen floor 3 and 4 times a day. What a waste of time! In the spring , summer and fall you have to deal with dust and sand. In the winter you have to deal with ashes from cleaning out the wood stove. Just accept it and only dust when it gets an inch thick or you have company coming or you can no longer see the TV screen or computer screen.
Buy a good handgun! We have coyotes, wolves, bobcats, puma's , bulls, mad cows with calves and rattle snakes ( I've never seen a rattler here but Pa has) and an occasional badger. It is not safe to go for a walk unless you have a handy gun. A big dog would help also and I'm working on that. Pa is just a tad resistant to having another dog around but all our friends tells him he needs a large dog one to protect me if nothing else. Our Mini Schnauzers let us know when someone is coming but wouldn't be much protection if some one wanted to do us harm.With my Christmas money from last year, I bought myself a nice Ruger 38. Thing kicks like a son of a gun and dislocated my thumb when I was practicing with it. Might help if I held it right! Always carry a knife. They come in so handy in case you shoot something and want to take the skin home. Always carry your cell phone with you in case of an emergency.
Most people here have 4 wheeled drive. Since we don't absolutely have to go anywhere being retired and all, we've gotten by with 2 wheel drive. A pick up truck is a necessity. You never know when you will find something interesting along side the road you need to pick up and haul home. Plus you need one to haul water.
Enjoy Nature: Since setting up the bird bath, we get all sorts of birds. They are so much fun to watch. We get one kind or another all year long. My favorites are bluebirds, our local road runner and humming birds. We have some beautiful king/rat snakes out here. The coyotes are gorgeous! They have plenty to eat with the bunnies and such. I throw out my left overs and meat scraps and the coyotes snatch them up right away. Don't tell the local rancher I'm feeding them! Depending on the rain and what time it arrives, we get all sorts of beautiful wild flowers. We have close to 1000 juniper trees on our 40 acres and a few cedars so I get to see something green all year long. I got so tired of the brown of Vegas. We have breath taking sunsets. We love the monsoon season. There are all sorts of National Parks around us....I just wish I could get Pa to go. We have fishing and hunting , Pa put in for a hunting license but didn't get picked. Maybe next year?
So, all in all, living off the grid in the middle of nowhere is absolutely wonderful. We wouldn't have it any other way. I'm sure I've learned a lot more than this but this is all I could think of off the cuff.
Till next time!

Brought to you by Arizona Skies

 Where has the year gone? All we need to do is blink and it is a new month already. As we get ready for Thanksgiving, it's time to reflect on what we are thankful for. As usual we will be having our friends over for dinner. I guess I'll be long gone from this earth before anyone else out here gets a full kitchen to cook in. I hate to cook but there is nothing hard about cooking a turkey and dressing. Our friend Nancy is providing the pies this year so that is one less thing to do. We invited a total of 10 people over this year but 5 of them had other plans.

 As for myself, I am so grateful for my good health. Here I am 68 years old and am on no medications. All Pa is doing is some eye drops for his eyes and that is it! How many people our age do you know that is taking no medications? Not too many, I'm sure.

 Second: I'm so grateful that we get to live out here away from the hustle and bustle of the roaring crowds. Pa went to Vegas a couple of months ago with plans to visit all sorts of old friends. He came home early because he couldn't stand the traffic and all the stuff going on it the big city. He did take the time to go to Costco and the 99cent only store. I love Kirkland Tuna! And Kirkland coffee and just about anything that Costco sells. Oh why can't we get a Costco in Show Low? Please!!!

 Third: I'm grateful for all our friends, old and new. There are people here at the ranch that we can depend on if we ever need help with anything. We help them also. We actually had company this year. When we moved here everyone said they would come to  visit and never did. Pa's brother came last year and this year we had visits from my Vegas daughter and her family, our dear friend from Salt Lake, Pa's best friend since high school and his wife and Pa's daughter and husband. It was a bonanza year for visits. So those of you from Illinois and Alabama need to get off your butt and come for a visit! And all you Vegas people who haven't come yet, bring your ATV's and boats and get over here! We have 300 miles of dirt road to play on and there are all sorts of lakes within an hour's drive. We fished a couple of times this year. Trout fishing isn't near exciting as Stripper fishing like at Lake Mead but they sure are tasty!

 Fourth: I'm really grateful that I never get bored or lonely out here. I love the stillness and quiet. I love watching the birds and other wild life flitting around. I have my craft room and belong to the PaperbackSwapClub so never have to buy books, just exchange them. There is a small library in town that I frequent once a month or so. I've become friends with a crafty lady who works in the post office. She's been here and I've been to her house. Since she works full time, it's hard to find a day we can get together to craft. And I have my two girlfriends in Holbrook who both work, so it's hard to schedule time with them also. I've not seen any new women at the ranch. For some reason, it's men who move here all by themselves. They are either divorced or never been married. Where are all the pioneer women?

 I could go on and on about the things I'm grateful for but I'll talk about my garden instead. It was pretty much a waste of time. My tomatoes never ripened so I only got to can because Tom gave me some of his tomatoes. Pa brought me 10 bags of cukes from the 99cent only store so I was able to make 8 quarts of pickles. The bunnies ate the green beans. The wind blew and dried up all the blossoms on the strawberries. I did get a nice crop of carrots for the first time. I froze 4 quarts of them and ate the rest. My rhubarb just fell over and died so I don't know if it will come up next year. I had a great batch of grapes on the vines and the birds ate them when they were the size of seeds. It's growing on the fence so I don't know if I could put a bird net over them to protect them. This next year, I'm planting thorny blackberries since my thornless ones didn't do a thing in 3 years. Turns out thornless ones start over every year from the ground where thorny ones start growing again from the previous vines, like grapes do. I've decided next year I am only planting the basics, not anything exotic or anything that takes up lots of room by spreading out over the garden. I did save the seeds from those organic mini sweet bells and got a nice crop of them but my regular green bells didn't do much. I bought them from Lowes instead of grew them from seeds.

 Let's see, what else is new? I've been posting on Facebook which is why I haven't kept up the blog. We have the ranch running pretty smoothly so there isn't too much exciting to write about.

 We do have a resident Roadrunner and he's lots of fun to watch. I wish there was a wild bird food for Roadrunners. They make sounds like a dog whining and a purring sound. He seems to like my truck to perch on. I saw some dried mealy worms at Lowe's and thought of buying a bag of them.

 One of the residents here had a big blow up with the rancher because he cut his fence and ran his cattle thru his property. Words were exchanged and the rancher said he would kill the resident and his dog. A couple of months later, someone messed with the residents propane tanks and he could have blown himself up if he had lit a match. He called the sheriff and they wouldn't even come out. A few days later, someone knocked the tops off the propane tanks and that could have been a disaster if they hadn't been checked first. The sheriff isn't interested in finding out who did it.

 We haven't been doing much of anything around here. I'm always up to go exploring but when I mention it, my words fall on deaf ears. Guess I could go by myself. I still want to go to El Morro National Monument which is only a couple hours away. Maybe next year?

 My mom will turn 90 in January and I am trying to figure out how to show up and surprise her. I'll either have to fly out of Phoenix or Vegas.

 Here is a picture of a rainbow that was just on the horizon. I've never see one like that.

 Most of the sunset pictures were taken on different days. Just beautiful

Pa just got back from town with my lunch so I'll say good bye for now!