Slowly

and hopefully - but surely.


We've decided to stay another week on the great windswept prairie that is Cheyenne.  Our original thought was to be out by the end of July, but my work load has been crazy so packing has been delayed.


I work from home.  A useful arrangement for someone planning to move out into the desert.  There isn't much of a call for a museum exhibits person out there.  We've been developing the latest incarnation of the exhibit I work on for the past year.  However, we are working with foreign governments, both for the objects and the tour, and we've had some delays.  The project has been squashed into the time period that I'd planned to be packing.


Packing...I've been finding it difficult.  We don't have much stuff here.  But the arrival of the hormone brain has had serious repercussions.  I can't hold a thought for more than a moment.  I've been experiencing some level of this since I was in my early 30s, but it seems to have hit very hard, all of a sudden.  The hot flashes are curious, I have to say.  I live in the arid west and have, save 3 and half years, since I was 12.  I'm not used to feeling sweaty.  Sweat just evaporates away here.  I used to teach gymnastics, I was active and even then I never felt particularly sweaty.  When the hot flash comes on, my upper lip sweats and then rapidly the flush moves across my upper torso, down my arms and quickly to my legs, leaving a thin film of perspiration.  I feel both hot and cold, especially if there is a breeze.  One moment I'm fine and the next I feel like I've just been moved in front of a VERY hot fire.  Then, a minute or so later, it's gone.  The stupid, however, seems to be sticking around.  Maybe that's partially because I'm not sleeping well.  Either way, it's been making packing, or rather sorting, rather slow.


Dave, however, has been making great strides in preparing for the trip.  The flatbed trailer is being adjusted to carry our motorcycles.  The chocks are on and the E-track is going on now.  The bikes will be secured to the trailer and I will tow it behind my cute little Xterra.  I'm a little concerned about Raton Pass, but....

Later this trailer will hold a water tank.  We will be doing catchment on the property, but until we get a good roof over our heads (with lots of square footage for collecting water) we'll be fetching water from town.

Making Our Own Electricity

Solar Electricity...

That's the route we've planned on taking when we finally get to our beautiful 20 acres in Terlingua Ranch.  Our property actually has power poles not far away, but we both really like the idea of being off the grid and not having power lines to impede our view.  (Plus, having just a few poles installed is VERY expensive.)  Neither of us are electrical geniuses, though we have family members who are very well versed.  (In fact, my brother-in-law like unit is a commercial electrician, licensed in Texas and he's done electrical work on the giant wind turbines.)  But, we need to understand and we wanted to have the system right from the start, so we decided to utilize a company in western Colorado to help us figure out our system.  The phone company in the Big Bend area requires a certain amount of storage capacity, and a system to supply it, before they will run the phone line.  (Yup, out in the middle of nowhere, we have a phone box, including, I'm told, fiber optic cable for our internet.)  Yesterday we got our quote.  We're hoping that tomorrow Dave will be able to drive to Glenwood Springs (ish) to pick it all up.  It's a system that will power us in the trailer, meet the phone companies requirements and be expandable for when we have the house built.  

In the meantime, we purchased a couple of smaller (tiny) units for charging electronics and batteries.  The first is a little cheapie unit from Harbor Freight.  A $15 battery charger.  So far I've charged 4 AA batteries in about 90 minutes.  I have yet to check the output with a volt meter, so we'll see how it really did.  The second thing we got is the Goal Zero 7 watt panel with battery charger/power pack.  I used it this morning to charge my Nook.  While the Nook wasn't so low on power that I was being told to charge it, it was pretty low and would probably need charging while I was reading tonight.  I was super happy to see the little amber light come on as soon as I plugged it into the panel!  (My husband called me a geeklette.)  Less than 3 hours later, I had a fully charged Nook!

Goal Zero charger and Nook soaking up the sun.

As if the Desert isn't Hot Enough

A little over a week ago I turned 47.

The next day the hot flashes started.

I thought I might be having a heart attack.

No, really.

I broke out in an odd sweat, the kind you get just before you throw up - but there was no nausea.  This happened several times, each lasting about 30 seconds to a minute.  I had no idea what was happening.  I secretly wondered if I was having a heart attack.  


The next day my sister-in-law came over.  She'd just ridden two hours on her motorcycle.  As she came into my kitchen she said, "Hot flashes in a motorcycle helmet are no fun."  That's when the epiphany came.  I was having hot flashes.  I've had other perimenopause symptoms for years, but this was new.  She said she had just begun experiencing the same symptoms and also had wondered if she was having a heart attack.


So, the hot flashes have started.  In two weeks, I'll be moving to the desert.  Perfect timing....

The bit of desert to which we are moving.