where i am today

I bought shindagger in March of 2006. Began living on it in october of '07. The first year i didn't do much. I made a lot of plans, built a compost bin, forged a trail to the top of my property, cleared some tent space, and dug a fire pit.

Last year I started building. It should be said that I live a little bit like a gypsy in a 1960's era canned ham travel trailer. It has a full kitchen, and ice box, and most of what i need. What it lacks is storage space, a shower and a toilet. For a toilet i've been using a Joseph Jenkins style humanure system since i moved onto the land. So what i needed was storage space and a place to take a shower.

A good (great) friend of mine, Robbie, is an architect in CO, and he offered to design a small strawbale building at no cost. He even drove down to El Paso, twice, to help me build it. Construction started in December, and I worked on it until March. You can see construction pictures here. The interior of the building is still bare earth, and the building still needs a few more layers of plaster, but by march of '09 the exterior of the building was almost totally finished, and i could lock it up and escape the desert for the summer.

I returned in September and focused my attention on water. I bought a water tank, and had a truck come out to fill it. Recently, I got a nice DC water pump and built a small solar powered pump house (pictured above), which brings me to today... In the back of my truck is a cast iron clawfoot tub i found on craigslist. To install it i need to floor and plum the inside of the house.

I hate digging.