CONSTRUCTION CONTINUES....INTERIOR UPDATE

Limpia Crossing is a "POA"....a property owners' association (a rather loosely enforced one), where the minimum lot size is 5 acres. Most folks....us included....have 5 acres or a bit more....while some others have 10 acres...and a very few more than that.   Limpia is about halfway between the town of Fort Davis (the highest town in Texas with a population of about 1000) and the McDonald Observatory complex....each about 7 miles.  Above is the entrance to Limpia Crossing, which is about a mile above sea level.

A recent blog showed progress on the property...burying electric and water lines and the installation of the septic system.  Now it is time to take a look inside...above shows how the room was (rather poorly) constructed with the sheet rock removed.  Our three man Mexican crew has done wonders making improvements both structurally and cosmetically.

Here is a look early on in our design to lift the ceilings of two of the rooms up to the roof line.  Pam and I have taken 'great pains' to design as much room as possible into the 650 square foot space in "phase one" of our construction project.  Lifting up the ceilings and bringing in the outdoors with lots of glass both work to this end as you will see in a future blog.  Note the new load beam running from the back to the front in the photo.....to the left of that divider will be the kitchen....to the right is part of the living area.

Here is another view of the load beam...and a look into the kitchen area.  Beyond those studs in the rear is the bedroom and closet area.   Above the load beam space is available for the HVAC system, a Carrier 2 ton heat pump / air conditioning system.   Houses out here don't have basements so things like HVAC and water heaters are designed into the interior spaces somewhere.   Stay tuned for more updates on interior construction....this next week our 'ventanas' (windows) will arrive!!  

Wondering where Fort Davis, Texas is located?.....well, wonder no more.

BIG BEND RANCH RODEO

The Cowgirl Chicks are 5 ladies who take their itinerant acrobatic riding to events around the southwest.....and they are the kind of thing you have to see to believe.   Their gravity defying feats bring folks of all ages to their feet!  (yes, that is a 2nd cowgirl hanging off the back of the horse by her feet!!)

The Big Bend Ranch Rodeo is an annual August event in Alpine...and it was our first rodeo.  A ranch rodeo is a regional and family style rodeo as contrasted to the larger, professional rodeos.  In the Big Bend version 20 regional ranches sent 6 participants each for events that included roping and riding of all sorts.   These are full time and part time cowboys (and cowgirls) who come together for a fun time as well as to see which ranch takes home top honors.....this year those honors went to a ranch in Southeastern New Mexico.

Here the "cowpokes" gather for opening ceremonies that include a benediction, the national anthem and a tribute to the State of Texas.   (note the little guys in the photo with their dads).

Getting ready for the National Anthem....note even the little cowboys have their hats on their hearts.

In between events there is always some cowboy / cowgirl chat.

One of the popular events is the cattle branding....where the cowboys rope the horns and the rear leg of a steer, wrestle it to the ground and then simulate a branding.

When the red flag goes down the clock stops....note here one of the "cowpokes" is a member of the distaff sex....and I can tell you she held her own out there.

A hilarious event is the "mutton bustin'" event....where youngsters as young as 3 years old come out of the chute doing their best to stay on the back of a nervous sheep.   Here this little guy takes a tumble after staying on the sheep's back for about 3 seconds.

This 7 year old gal was the mutton bustin' winner.  She wrapped her arms around the sheep's neck and her legs around its middle and just held on.

More cowboy chat...this time involving one of the youngest cowboys..and you should have seen this little guy ride like the wind around the arena....he must have been born on horseback!!

And this cowgirl chick rode two steeds standing up around the arena...and she was really moving.  Later in the show she rode 5 horses standing and threw in a 3 foot high jump in for "effect".  Never saw anything like it.

And the mutton bustin' champ just keeps going...like the energizer bunny.

We left the ranch rodeo under the full moon in Southwest Texas...we went with friends Debbie and Mike Murphy....and had a great time.  Can't wait until next year for more "get along little doggie".   As Pam says.....WAHOO!

CONSTRUCTION AT LIMPIA CROSSING

                                  The Davis Mountains of West Texas....with just a peek of
                                         our property on the right....that's our tower.

Sorry for the blog hiatus....but we have been busy since our last post about the Fort Davis 4th of July celebration.   Construction has begun.....and continues.

Here Buster Mill's loader slowly fills in what had been the foundation for the house that was struck by lightening and burned down back in 2012.  And you can see the evidence of trenches in the background...for our buried electric cables.   We did not want overhead electric lines.

Dirt and more dirt...for filling in the foundation hole....as well as the electric lines after they were buried 4 feet down...as well as the leach field for the septic tank....LOTS of dirt had to be brought in and put in place.  The digging here was difficult due to all the rock just below ground level.

This is our 1250 gallon septic tank....they used to be concrete...or even metal...but now this heavy duty plastic is the latest design.   It was buried just to the left of where it sits...and a good leach field was installed to work with it.

AEP, the local electric company from Marfa, is hooking up our electric line....not a bad view at all from that bucket, eh?

Here is a photo of the primary electric line buried 4 feet down.

And here is our service panel....a 200amp box that services the RV electric, the house 200 amp  subpanel and the well house 100 amp subpanel.

This photo is when we had grass....before the heavy equip ment started digging trenches everywhere.   We hope to have grass again soon.....!!

As soon as the utilities were in....so were we!!   We moved from a local campground to our own RV setup on the property this past week.  The Cottonwood tree is our only survivor of 5 trees on the upper half of our 5.2 acres....and it got the first long drink of water once the well was hooked up!!....then Ali and then Pam and then me..all getting a taste of cold, great tasting well water from 400 feet down!!

Inside renovations were going on at the same time the dirt work was happening.   Jose' Uranga and his two man crew started 'tearing up the inside'.  (more on the inside work later).

We had thought we would go with decorated concrete for flooring...but after taking a look at cork (much easier on the old bones and not so cold on the feet) we changed our minds.  Here we look at two cork samples with our (new) carpet made by the Zapotec Indians in south central Mexico.   (Can you pick out the cork sample that we did??)

Here is our 200 amp subpanel inside (what will be) a closet area.  Wired up by yours truly, I might add!!

This is our view to the north.....we call this "40 shades of green" ...our version of Ireland or Scotland.   Now that we are onsight our work as general contractors will be easier.   And now that the dirtwork is complete our focus is inside work with Jose, Andy and Isael....our very capable crew from Alpine, Texas.   

More later on our construction progress....and again our apologies for the drought in the blog since early July.  

AN OLD FASHIONED 4TH OF JULY

The town of Fort Davis, Texas surely knows how to "live it up" for the 4th of July.   Around the town square there were vendors selling all manner of things from Mexican hand made carpets (yup, we got one) to clothing and all kinds of food vendors were there too.  The day began with the parade at 10am and it was great....followed by an ice cream social at the library...and the Alpine Community Band playing patriotic songs....and then the Great BBQ followed by an old west "shoot out".....and all capped off with a wonderful fireworks display.   A great show indeed.

The Midland, TX sheriff's posse made the trip with their steeds to help the town celebrate.

The mounted color guard came at the front of the parade....all duded up with period uniforms from the old Fort Davis days.  There must have been a hundred horses in the parade....well, it is Texas after all.

                        The poodles made a very colorful 4th of July appearance. 

Little kids on red, white and blue bikes pedaled the mile long parade route.

And more horses....with some bareback riding in this group.

The observatory was well represented with this 75th anniversary float.  (Did I mention Pam and I are "stargazer" members of the observatory?)

   Some sisters from nearby Mexico showed up for the parade.

Many old and colorful cars and trucks were brought out for the festivities....there was even a Delorean with the gull wing doors.

These young ladies (we unfortunately could not see the full name on their banner) moved their horses around in unison.   Very colorful and very talented.

The Conestoga wagon propelled by a couple of cardboard steeds attached to an ATV....very clever indeed!

This patriotic gent checked out the very colorful and extremely well done carpets and carpet runners from the Zapotec Indians in Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca Mexico.

Back to the parade....this young lad had a great time riding his go cart and showing off the holiday colors.

And what could be more fun than this cowboy riding his steer.

The Girl Scouts were very well represented......

as was the food pantry.   Fort Davis does a wonderful job keeping a very well stocked and quite active food pantry.  Just one of the town's successes.

As the sign says, this was a wonderful Old Fashioned Fort Davis 4th of July.   We thoroughly enjoyed it all....capped off with fireworks we watched from our friends patio.   A great time.

DUST DEVILS

The Navajo call these dust "cyclones"  Chiindii.....or the spirits of dead Navajos.
 Navajo legend has it if the Chiindii spins clock wise it is said to be a good spirit...and if it spins counter clockwise it indicates a "notso" spirit.   Weather specialists call them dust devils, or sand augers or dancing devils.

Dust devils are formed when hot air near the surface rises quickly through a pocket of cooler, low pressure air above it.  As the hot air continues to rise it stretches, making the dust devil grow higher as it intensifies.   As the hot air rises and cools, more hot air is "sucked in" from the bottom and the dust devil becomes self sustaining....for a time anyway.   We got the above photo while driving on I-10 from Arizona to the New Mexico border.   We have seen them in Texas and Nevada as well.

Above a diagram showing how dust devils are formed.

Speaking of Las Vegas, here a small dust devil forms next to the Red Rock Hotel and Casino.
Here they call them Nevada tornadoes. 

Dust Devils are found everywhere...like this "nigoma cia aka" in Kenya....which means "women's devil / demon"....(sorry ladies).

This dust devil formed in Australia, where they are known as "willy - willy's"....gotta love those Aussies....and while we're at it.. "throw another shrimp on the barbie"!


Egypt calls them "winds of ghosts"....in other  middle east countries they are called "djin" or genies, and they can be several hundred yards high!   

It's quite fun to run across these dust devils, like we did this one alongside a secondary road in Arizona.   They aren't as much fun when they cross the road as they can act like a sand blaster on a vehicle.   Interesting stuff.....another example of Mother Nature at work.