Playatech and Cotton Candy

This is what Jeff and I spent last weekend doing:

He built.  I painted some of the pieces inbetween painting the bathroom door.   (You can see it on the floor behind the bench in the picture below.)

Overall, the whole thing cost about $18.
Not a bad way to furnish.

Thanks Playatech!
Thanks Husband!!

Day three...

We spent the rest of day three working on the roof, getting more supplies from Rawlins, Fixin' a Flat, papercreting and improving our general living conditions.

We ran out of water for the papercrete and ran out of daylight to fully finish the pyramid before dark, so it was a productive but rather unsatisfying day.  Frustration led to another long night with little sleep, and when we woke up in the middle of the night it was really cold and the entire night sky was overcast, causing both of us in our sleep deprived state to panic and imagine getting poured on with heavy rain before we could pack up everything before we had to leave to go back to Denver.

So, at 3:00am we got up and got down to feverishly putting everything in the car that was coming home and everything that was staying into the pyramid to await our return.  Note: the car was parked 1/4 mile away on the main road since the Civic isn't much for offroading in its old age.

In less than two hours we were ready to head home, but too exhausted to drive safely and not quite ready to bail on our project without some pictures.

Oh, and it never did rain.  The sun came up while we were napping in the car and it was yet again a beautiful (if a bit cold) sunrise!

We were parked out by the highway on the road that runs through our property, and since it was nice again, we drove the 6 miles back to our driveway to get in a few parting shots.

Don't worry

We're not going to leave a bunch of junk just laying around ruining the natural beauty of the landscape.  The end goal is to have a hidden oasis in the middle of the desert, camoflaged from the main road, but like a giant zen garden once you get past the berm we're building.  Inside we'll have a greenhouse, buildings to live and work in and lots of plants, flowers and trees.

Hopefully within 5-10 years, you won't even know it's there unless we invite you to come see it.  It will be a lot of work, but it will be worth it.  It's an investment in our future retirement.

Wiley

One hazard of setting up a homestead in the middle of nowhere.... critters.

And, boy were there critters, though the one that concerned us the most was Wiley - the coyote next door.  Here's his burrow:

10 feet from the front door of the pyramid.

Fresh scat too big to be a fox, definitely canine, not a house-dog.  We never saw him, but we heard a bunch of coyotes making all sorts of racket in the early morning hours just before sunrise all three days.

With the fire and all the people smells it's likely that he snuck out on us at some point and it's doubtful he'll be back.

Lovely.

A pissing contest ensued.

We won.

Day two in the middle of nowhere

Next morning, we headed straight out to the property before the sun was even up.  We found the "driveway" -our little dirt road- with only a little difficulty and got right to work unloading all of our junk and half-ass sorting it out.

We got a path dug out amongst the sagebrush and prickly pear cactus and got started clearing a spot for the cabin - a pyramid, no boring square for us!

After a couple of hours we had done all we could do with getting set up and decided to head into town to get some of the stuff we had planned on getting in Rawlins, like concrete, blocks for the fire pit, food and sprayfoam.

We went back out and spent the rest of the day just digging out holes for the tires that became the foundation for the pyramid.  We barely got the corners on before we ran out of light and had to set up the tent inside the bottom half of the pyramid.  It ended up being rather cozy, even without full walls or a roof.

Dinner was shish kabobs over the fire and Damn were they Tasty!

We were sore, tired and dirty, but we did a sponge bath and settled in to sleep.  Well, as much as one can sleep with the wind, cold, critters, imagination, plans for the next day and general discomfort of camping.

Day One - We channel Sanford and Son

Here's what the Ranch looked like before we started:

This is what it looked like after we unloaded:

We've been collecting cardboard, paper (shredded, wole, soaked, re-formed, re-cycled and everything in between), Masonite, plastic bottles, old tires, and all kinds of other assorted junk, tools, hardware and ideas to make our dreams of an oasis a reality! 

We bought it, now where the hell IS it??

The Friday before Labor Day, we packed up all of the crap that we're been saving, salvaging, scrounging and buying and headed up to Wyoming for the first adventure on the property.  We've been calling it Red Spring Ranch as a play on one Japanese pronuciation of our German last name.


Our house and garage are now EMPTY!!! of everything dome and pyramid and building related, except for the paper models.  (Didn't know we had that much room here : )


We braved I-25 at 3pm and fought our way out of Colorado, dodging accidents (including one really bad rollover) and countless stupid drivers.  After a couple quick stops for food and caffeine, we got into Rawlins around 7:30pm and headed right out to the land.  Dusk hit while we were enroute and the evening critter parade started.  By the time we got out to the ranch, we'd dodged 2 deer, a few mice and countless rabbits.


Then we missed our driveway.  A lot.  For an hour.  The land is very overgrown, and even though there is a dirt track, it can be difficult to find even in the daytime, even knowing it's there.  We were in the AO, we knew that, but it was a sliver moon and our headlights didn't do jack for the sides of the road.  (And the wife is just about night-blind, even with her glasses and a flashlight.)    Jeff finally went exploring off road and found it, but there was no way we could get ourselves on the property without serious issues, so back to town we went to find a place to crash and hopefully get some sleep before heading out again.

BTW, Mom, the Hampton Inn in Rawlins is really nice!