City to Gritty

Wow it has been so long since I posted an update, to those of you who are staying up on my frequency, I apologize!

Our visit in August was the second weekend and it was a quick trip. We left Friday, later than anticipated, and returned to the city on Sunday. Our goals were to weed whack the weeds in our pretty new driveway, walk the property line with our newly acquired coordinates, and pump at least two rounds of water from the spring in the ravine to our newly purchased 550 gallon water tank. None of these things ended up happening…

When we arrived on Friday it was almost 6pm so we had just shy of two hours of day light left, plenty of time to get things staged for the water pumping. We got to the spring site and… it.. was… DRY!!! We instantly felt so bummed, but let’s be realistic, it is August in the desert, it is not weird for things to dry up. I researched springs a bit and found some great explanation videos that brought me peace of mind, and hope, in that maybe the water will be back in the spring. So we headed up to the homesite to get ready for dinner and to close up our evening.

This weekend was poised to be a great time to stargaze at the property as it was the weekend of the Perseid Meteor Shower, but, as it turns out, it is also a full moon night. We were able to see a couple meteors throughout the weekend, but the moon stole the show Friday night. We were able to use our telescope my dad got Greyson a few years ago and take the coolest time-lapse of the moon rising, I posted it below.

Saturday morning we started off on our projects and wanted to get going on knocking the weeds down in the driveway. The weed whacker is not working and after a couple hours of tinkering, still not working. Steve chalked it up to the elevation difference and we scrapped this goal for the weekend.

Next up, getting the water from the tanks in the ravine to the new potable water tank. Fun fact, potable water tanks are black to keep algae from growing. As we were getting this staged up the Ranger alarm went off and indicated that our neighbors from the top of the mountain above us were coming down to see what we were up to. We got to spend a lot of time with these two lovely people and really learned SO much from them. As a matter of fact, we are starting to redraw our plans to do what they are doing – living part time off grid. The more we spoke to them about it, the bigger my dream eyes got. He was so excited about our water find and talked to us at great lengths about how quirky the water rights language is in the CCR’s. Things we knew, obviously, but still weird to hear that if someone finds water on my property that they can develop it if they so choose. They cannot store articles on my property, but if they want to run 10 miles of hose from my ravine to their house, they can. Crazy, right? The boys all went down to the ravine to start working the pump and how to get the water from the little tanks to the big tank up top. It worked, and in the end, we are so lucky the neighbors stopped by because his engineering brain really helped Steve when it came to navigating the gravity part of this scenario. We pumped just about 100 gallons into the new tank, but that was it because the spring was, say it with me… Bone… Dry…

Next! Let’s try to walk the property lines! The fella at the county planner’s office gave me walking directions from the survey pin we found, but then also added, “ya know, OnX is pretty accurate too..” We wanted to give it a shot anyway, but it ended up just being frustrating and hot. We walked East about half way of what we were instructed and were about 400ft away from the neighbor’s fence line. Either the fence is 400ft off or we are, and according to OnX – it was us. So we scrapped this goal too. The kids were hot and miserable, so dragging them all over the 30+ acres sounds like torture to me too…

Saturday night we were able to see about a dozen meteors before the moon turned the night into day. Greyson got to see his first meteor which was such a fun experience!

Sunday, before heading out, we accepted an invitation to the neighbors cabin to see what their operation looks like. It was the most harrowing road, but wow what a view! They have a completely off grid cabin and live up there about half of the year. They bring a tank of water up in their truck to top off their potable water tank, do some chores, work on improvements, relax, hike, and then head back to the city. Living the absolute dream. I want that!

We are not going to be visiting the property again until after Steve’s big buck hunt the first week of October. We want to make sure our resident buck is not spooked. Steve is really hoping to get a deer on our property, but, now, is prepared to do so with the addition of Little Red our new 4-wheeler! We are thinking we will be out again the first weekend in November. We have so much to do at our home in the city that it is necessary for us to spend a little extra time here. The garden is coming into full harvest mode, the kitchen remodel is almost done, food prep for winter is underway, and homeschooling is becoming more of a priority as our big kid gets older and more interested in learning.

Stay tuned for more adventures, as we go along, this dream is evolving and our eyes are being opened to the possibilities ahead of us if we aren’t afraid of the work… We are just getting started in all this, so happy that you all are joining us!