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

Thursday, June 22, 2006

June 10,11,12,16,17,18, and 19

First of all, my apologies for not posting more over the last month. Things have gotten very busy for Tina and I as we prepare to move out to the Ranch. Obviously we’re only in the initial stages of the process, but it’s become kind of all consuming. Tina’s job now basically requires her to be in both states at one time - not an easy task! I’ve been perusing my triple career as a couriers service owner/rancher/author with about as much gusto as can be hoped for under the circumstances. To make a long (and not terribly interesting) story short, I need to sleep for about a month.

The slow crawl of overpriced birch paneling across the ceiling of the ranch house continues. In some places it looks absolutely professional: in others, like hell. Basically, creating the roof has been a lot like creating your own puzzle. First you have to design the damn thing. Then you have to cut out the pieces. Finally, you’ve got to fit it all together. Its both frustrating and time consuming, possibly because I’m not much of a carpenter. All the same, more than half of the job has been completed.

The bathroom situation is much better. We’ve put in new flooring, tiled it, repainted the bathtub, replaced the fixtures, and painted some of the walls. We also replaced the old rotten bathtub walls (I don’t know what the proper word for them would be) with new, faux-tile walls that look about 1000% better. Unfortunately, we did all of this just in time for Barker Spring’s pressure to suddenly drop from 3/4s household normal to 1/4 in the matter of a week. In retrospect this is completely normal for summertime, but it caught me by surprise all of the same. I’m going to setup a backup storage and pumping system next trip. Hopefully I’ll be able to install some kind of switch in the bathroom wall specifically to turn the pump on and off, but that might have to wait a bit. I’m not sure how inventive I’ll be feeling.

I did get something accomplished that’s been put off for years - I finally installed spinning ventilation ducts on the warehouse roof. It’s needed them for a long time, but idea of cutting holes into the roof of the warehouse has always filled me with dread. I was convinced that I’d somehow screw it up and ruin the entire building. Fortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case. The livability of what will soon be Big T’s primary work area has been vastly and permanently improved. With proper ventilation steel buildings can actually be quite pleasant inside, even in the hottest periods of the desert summer.

Our new trees continue to prosper, as do the older Russian Olives. A couple of last year’s experiments seem to be trying to make a comeback as well. The blackberry bush is (of course) flourishing, and one of each of the Poplar Hybrids and Mission Olive trees are trying to make a comeback straight out of their root structures. It will take forever, of course, but what the hell. We’ve got the rest of our lives to let them grow.