Midian Ranch Blog

This is the web log for Midian Ranch, an isolated homestead in rural Nevada. It is owned by Jason and Tina Walters, whom are also its regular posters. This blog is exclusively for the enlightenment and edification of our friends, family, and colleagues.

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Location: Gerlach, Nevada, United States

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

December 18,19, and 20

It's absolutely beautiful out at Midian right now; like something from another world that you have only ever dreamed about, but never thought that you would actually see. Unfortunately that world is the ice planet Hoth from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back rather than some tropical hidden world from a Tarzan book but, hey, what can you do? The pipes are frozen, burst, or shattered, although thankfully only those above ground so patching them up temporarily hasn't been a very big deal. Also the incredible cold (as low as 4 degrees) has caused the efficiency of the ranch's battery bank to decrease dramatically by about 10%. Nothing to get alarmed about but disconcerting nonetheless.

Steve, Blackfish, and I did some serious drinking on Saturday night (Donna passed out). It was kind of like a desert version of drinking scene from Jaws with Steve as Roy Scheider, Blackfish as Robert Shaw, and me (sadly) as a kind of hippy survivalist version of Richard Dreyfuss. It was a lot of fun, although by the end of it I had begun to chew upon my own foot in true Jason style. Of course it's better to eat your own foot than have a giant shark do it like in Jaws, but sharks are in short supply out on the playa anyhow.

The outbuilding behind the ranch house is starting to look at lot less like a trailer and a lot more like a building. I figure by the summer of 2005 it should look genuinely pretty nice. I'm considering fencing in the area between it and the ranch house to create a sort of shaded garden for Tina with trees, plants, and stuff. The "pantry" Tina and I have been building is getting close to done and should hold a good amount of food. Next step: propane refrigerator

Sunday, December 05, 2004

Weekend of November 27th

Tina and I are nothing of not persistant. Here it is so damn cold that even the Jacksons (the family whose grandfather first homesteaded the Valley) seem to have deserted the area for warmer, more sensible climes; yet we Walters are still staggering around trying to build stuff. Tina and I did our best to work on the ranch but we were hampered at every turn by freezing cold, ankle-deep snow, and high winds. The ground froze so completely that the tractor couldn't break through it with the cutting box, but we managed to get some work done on what will soon be our vehicle storage yard all the same. We also managed to frame up the little room that we are going to turn into a pantry in spite of some extremely adverse wind conditions. I think that with a little love & a lot of paint it will look pretty good by the time we are finished.

T and Snap have been a very good sports about all of this. I know that they would both rather be cooling their heels in (a compatatively warm) San Francisco than staggering around in the snow and mud homesteading, but they both keep at it with little complaint. Well, to be honest Snap isn't all that helpful on acount of the fact that he's a dog, but he hasn't been unhelpful or anything so it counts. Tina has been a gem in spite of the fact that the pipes froze this time out, keeping us from staying as clean as we would like to.