Crazy Monkey Ranch

Well, I know it’s been ages since we’ve posted any progress…  Things have been on a kind of status quo hold for the last few months vis a vis the ranch itself.

We have fixed up the trailer a little since we got it.  We replaced the roof vent with a functioning one, replaced the glass in the two broken windows, and installed crank handles on all the windows.  We bought 2 new propane bottles and installed a new rack for them, after painting the tongue to look new and white.  When we got the trailer, the oven didn’t work right, but a little tweaking has it running spot on temp, and we can even cook pizzas in it without too much drama.

We took the trailer out with us to the SLV Fest in Monte Vista, and things went well, but we ripped off the door on the way back into the ranch.  We really need to get the new easement graded, if we ever get the money to rent a tractor for a month, and the production surplus to use it.

We then fixed up the door and took the trailer with us to Sock Summit in Portland. This trip went well, despite one of the old tires delaminating on our way into Oceanside, California.  While in San Diego, we “borrowed” my brother’s 8 solar panels.

Over the following month or so, we built a jerry rigged rack for 4 of the panels (the charger he gave us will only support 4) and bought a single lone deep cycle battery (which will eventually find itself a permanent home on the trailer tongue).  We tried to use this setup to power our 12v thermo-electric cooler, and it worked fine, except the cooler does not have a low voltage cutoff, so on a cloudy day it drained the battery dead, and the charger turned off, never to come on again, and our food all melted.  I jump started the charger, and installed a cheep low voltage cut off on the cooler, and the cooler turned off when the battery fell to 10.5 volts, never to turn on again until I unplugged the cord and plugged it back in. Again, the food suffered.

Then we went and borrowed an inverter from Chris at Brandywine Woodworking and then bought a “refrigerator” from Target.  This seamed to work the first night, but in the end (after another day) we discovered that this thermo-electric unit was horribly inefficient and didn’t’ even manage to keep the inside below 50º. So we returned that one to Target and went to Sears and bought a real 2.7 cu-ft refrigerator, and have been using it for a couple hours now, and have already had to readjust the temp setting back from 28º.   This one also seams to be a lot more efficient, and should last longer on the battery.  We will see come tomorrow morning.

In other ranch news, the shed is about the same as it was, but we have added stairs to the front, and have been using it as our wood shop for winder production for several months now.  It is a bit cramped, but it is working out well.  We have slowly upgraded the workspace by adding some built in shelves to organize router and drill bits, and adding more extension cords to have easier to reach plugs for all the tools.  We recently replaced the 2 600w flood lights with a couple standard fluorescent shop lights. The new lights are way brighter, and a whole lot cooler.  Not to mention easier on the generator, especially when one of the big tools is turning on.

The propane generator that I was using stopped working well, so I had to buy a new generator a couple months ago, which is gas powered, and has worked flawlessly.  After a while of letting it sit, I decided to try adding a real pressure regulator to the propane generator’s supply line, and it has worked flawlessly ever since.  We have been using it to power the lights in the trailer up until now, when we just got the inverter for the solar system.  We will still use it at the trailer when the days are cloudy and the battery is low.

The animals all seam immensely happy here at the ranch. We built a little animal run off the trailer and they can all go outside.  The cats, especially, are much softer and cleaner looking than they have ever been.

Well, that’s all the news that is the news.  Hopefully we will have some more progressy progress to report over the next couple months.

Thanks to the magic of Craigslist, we are now the proud owners of this “new” trailer. It’s a 1969 14 foot Forester. It’s in good enough condition, and we towed it all the way to the property with just a few issues going up a few of the hills.

All in all, our Element is a good car. We love the Element, and have asked it to do things that it wasn’t spec’ed for … like towing a 14′ trailer up a hill through the dirt.

Trailer from the side

Trailer from the front

Here’s the shed, almost finished, with Benny on top of it. He got almost all of the shingles on the last time we were out. All that’s left is the gable ends.

Approaching the Ranch

On Monday I realized I was desperately low on finishing oil for all the winder orders we have this week. So, I decided to drive down to the ranch after I shipped Monday’s winders, spend the night, then head to Collector’s Specialty Woods in the morning and pick up some more oil so we could finish the next batch of winders. I stopped by Foxworth on the way and grabbed the 1×6 for the fascia along the way.  Luckily I got there just minutes before they closed.

Monday night, since the sun stays up so much longer all of a sudden, I had time to nail up the last 4 pairs of rafters before heading off to “bed”.

Monday's Progress

The night was really windy.  The forecast had said 40mph gusts! I was really glad to be sleeping in the Element instead of the tent. A bit before it got dark I saw three pronghorns walking across the south edge of our property. This was very cool because neither of us had yet seen any actual large wildlife on our actual property. We have seen plenty of evidence, and we have seen mule dear, pronghorns and even mustangs on neighboring property, but never on our own property.

In the morning I headed out to get the oil. I decided to try out the Red Rocks road instead of going all the way to Walsenburg. The drive was pleasant and pretty. When I got close to Gardner the snow started coming down really good and the road was completely covered. I found my way to Collector’s Specialty Wood (from memory) and bought their last drop of oil (literally) and a couple small pieces of interesting wood for drop spindles and buttons.

As I left Gardner the roads were clear, the sky was blue and the sun was shining brightly. On the way back to the ranch I stopped t George’s Drive-In for a burger. It’s not really a drive-in, just an ordinary dinner. The food was pretty good, the price reasonable, and the service friendly and competent. Which is all very good since this is the closest burger to the ranch, unless you count the cattle.

Tuesday's Progress

When I got back to the ranch it was still far too windy to put u the osb, so I worked on the fascia.  Then I went for a short walk through Greasewood Arroyo while I waited for the wind to calm down some more. Around 2:00 I felt safe in climbing the ladder with a 4×8 sheet, so I started on the OSB sheathing. The first sheet I forgot that the last rafter isn’t spaced at 16″ so the joint with the next sheet isn’t over a rafter.  I will have to buy some H clips and try to retrofit them. I also ended up cutting the second sheet all wrong, and had to trim a bit more off to get it to go on straight.  Luckily the drip edge flashing will hide my mistakes there. The second side went much better. I aligned the two sheets with the joint over a rafter, and nailed them up whole. After they were well nailed I trimmed off the excess in place.

Then it was time to leave. I left the shed this time with the roof 2/3 sheathed, so at least part of it will stay dry.

We left on Friday afternoon, and had the shed about 75% done. The four walls are up, the door is on and hinged, and the rafters are mostly up, except for the end 2, which are built, but not installed.

The shed, as we left it on Friday afternoon

Not bad for 3 days’ work, eh?