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Updates in western Texas

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Lately I have been working like a mad woman, and I’m not complaining, much ;), I would like to have a little more time around the SkyCastle, especially with the latest projects that PB has been doing. This blog post is an update on what has been going on, with summer sliding into fall, the nights and mornings are getting cooler, almost cold, it’s funny how 50 degrees F feels so cold right after summer, yet next spring that same temperature will feel quite nice. The picture above is a volcanic plug, the hardened material that stays put as the rest of the softer material (dirt & rocks) washes and erodes away over the eons. My friend calls these thumb buttes. I like the dead tree in front of this butte.

 

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This is a picture of a building PB started a couple of years ago, he tends to be a little ADD on projects, starting things then getting distracted by another project, eventually returning to the first one to finish it. The idea is to use this as a guest house, and for us to live in it while the SkyCastle gets an overhaul, mainly the roof and perhaps rearranging some of the living spaces that are more easily done when we aren’t LIVING in it. :)

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This is a late evening picture of the SkyCastle, just under the peak roof on the left side of the picture you can just make out the windows PB installed.

 

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My drive home, I’m in my “neighborhood” here, we have 70 something miles of unpaved road, I’m a couple of miles from the SkyCastle here.

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A rare picture of myself, PB snapped the picture in the fading light of evening time.

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Here are some pictures of PB’s chicken rotisserie in action, of course this is still very much a work in progress, but as you can see, it has actually cooked a chicken, and we ate it. The fire in the box needs to be hotter, something that is about to happen very soon. He also improved the tick-tock clock pendulum mechanism, I’ll write about it soon.

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Some of the views I get to see when I’m out on the road traveling from town to town doing my job. I pulled over, jumped out of the truck, crossed the highway and tramped through the grass to squat down in front of this prickly pear cactus encrusted in tunas. This is a well known mountain in my area.

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The sky out here is magnificent, we are at the tail end of our rainy season, it clouds up every evening, sometimes it rains, sometimes it stays dry, either way, the sky is impressive.

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One of our “neighbors”, a big bull, he kindly posed for me when I whistled loudly to get his attention. I have no idea what breed of …

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Community

Here I am

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My dream, it’s something I have had more or less since I was a very little girl, I’ve always loved nature, wild places, as a young child I traveled through the desert with my family on our way from California to Texas on 2 separate occasions. We traveled over the road so I had the opportunity to watch as miles and miles of untamed, wild land slipping past the window. We would stop to take breaks, to eat, to stretch our legs, and to allow 3 young children to get some pent up energy out before the next leg of the trip. Not having a lot of money, we fixed sandwiches and slept in the old Dodge van my dad converted into a camper van the summer before.

 

Being a nature child, I hated wearing shoes, my mother was convinced I would step on a scorpion or even worse, a snake as I ran, barefoot across the still hot asphalt in the dark, once I hit the hard packed sand I was in heaven. The sky was vast, the stars innumerable, the cool desert wind blowing my curly hair back, yes this was the life I wanted. And no, I didn’t step on anything :)

 

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As an adult, I had the opportunity to visit and play in the mountains, these were the Pacific Northwest mountains, juicy, wet, green, alive with more life per square foot than anywhere else I had been before. Well that nailed it for me, I wanted to live in the desert AND mountains.

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Some 8 years ago my dream came true, my hubby and I shut our life down in the city and moved 500 miles west, in far western Texas, on a mountain side, in the high desert, a paradise like no other. It’s rough and tumble, but a paradise for me none the less.

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Today I look back upon my life, all the bumps, all the good and bad times, all the seeming dead ends and U turns, and here I am, I still have contact with that little girl who so desperately wanted to live in a wild place, she is happily living inside of me. Today I turned half a century old, I feel so blessed to have good health, good family, good friends, a great church and I get to spend it here, living like I want to live.

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I think one of the things I learned about life is how to be content, how to be happy, no matter what is going on around me, I cannot control all of the exterior things, but I have absolute control over how I deal with it between my own two ears. Being content doesn’t mean settling for less than, there is nothing wrong with reaching for better, reaching for more, but it’s good to have a contented attitude about …

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Community

Snow on the Sky Castle

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One of the things I enjoy about the area where we live is we get all kinds of weather, even some extremes, but none of it lasts very long, our winters are mild compared to the rest of the country. We get snow a few times a winter, it’s usually a few inches and doesn’t last very long, it’s just enough to turn all of us into children again.

Last week we had such an event, fortunately I didn’t have to venture out in my vehicle and was able to stay home and enjoy the snow while it lasted. Our biggest “problem” during such times is making sure we have enough wood to burn in the woodstove to keep warm. PB kept us well stocked and kept the Sky Castle toasty warm.

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Community

Deep winter for the Sky Castle

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This is our 8th year living out here, we have fallen into a comfortable routine, the summers have its advantages, longer days, warm weather (cool nights for sleeping), getting more done during the longer daylight hours, but there are downsides, such as the critters, bugs, spiders and other creepy crawlies that are active in the warmer weather.

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Community

Yes, Texas has mountains…

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…and other random thoughts. :) One of the questions I get asked when I tell people where I live (on a mountain side, in the high desert, of far western Texas), they ask “Texas has mountains?” or “I didn’t know there were mountains in Texas…”. Well I’m here to tell you that Texas DOES have mountains, I live a mile high, in the Davis Mountains, which used to be called the Apache Mountains, fitting for me because I am part Apache (as well as Comanche), not enough to claim any benefits, but enough to give me some physical features and a wonderful heritage.

I can say that I feel so much at home here, like I have come home, I always wanted to live in the mountains and in the desert, I get to do both.

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Community

Ascalapha Odorata aka Duppy Bat

My late night visitor, these huge creatures show up each year in late spring early summer, they become active in the late evening and night, they can startle or even scare you, though they are completely harmless, unless you count your reaction as you jump off the trail and try not to trip or fall.

I have been walking across my property at night, the flashlight illuminating my way, when something large and dark darts through the shaft of light, my initial reaction is it must be a bat, it’s the same size and general shape of a bat, as it flits through the light again, I realize that bats aren’t attracted to light, they fly around in the dark but tend to avoid light and people.

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Community

Winter wonderland

PICT0001We had a very pretty day yesterday, it was one of those rare days that was cold but not so bitter that you didn’t want to go out. My friend and I had to go into town in the morning, it had been foggy, windy and cold overnight, we didn’t know what to expect in the morning, there was a chance we couldn’t go into town. We woke up to this sight, a winter wonderland of ice crystals that had grown on the windward side, growing in furry spiky delicate ice crystals.

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Community

Sky castle in early fall

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It’s Sept 1, summer is all but over, the days are still warm but the nights are cooling off quite a bit, I notice the cottonwood trees in town are starting to turn that crisp yellow color, in a few more weeks it will be a riot of yellow with some reds, rusts and burgundy from some of the other trees.

The animals are putting on their fall into winter coats, adding weight to make it through the cold winter that is about to beset us. I just saw a fluffy squirrel looking in the window at me, this year has been a banner year for the squirrels, they are still fearful of us, but don’t get too concerned over our daily coming and going.

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Community

Pictures of the neighborhood

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A few weeks ago, I grabbed the camera on my way over to a friend’s house, I get to live in and drive through some very pretty country, we have been here a little over 5 years now, one of the first things I thought when we first moved here was that I hope I never get used to the views out here, I’m still awed by them. This is the high desert, in the mountains of far western Texas.

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Community

Life in the sky castle

I sit looking out the window, my view is magnificent, I am looking down across a high desert mountain valley, words cannot describe the beauty of the landscape that falls below me, but this is a harsh beauty, full of plants, bugs and critters that poke, stick, sting and bite. Some might find this a torture, I find it to be my Heaven on earth.

PB and I moved out here 5 years ago this last December, in some ways it was a huge move, in other ways it felt like coming home. After buying up just under 6 acres on a mountain side, in the high desert of far western Texas, one of the first things PB did was build our cabin, what would become our sky castle.

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Stops Along the Way: Part 2

Five o’clock quickly arrived at my desk on my first night as a full-time RVer.  I left my office and walked into the dark parking lot knowing I would be home in less than 30 seconds.  No one from work knew it.  Since I land acting and print gigs on occasion, they believe my camper is to go on jobs out of town.  Half-truths go a long way.  I also made it a point for them to know that owning an RV has always been a dream of mine.  I considered letting my co-workers know of my new lifestyle, but I’ve grown less trusting with age.  My managers may feel less compelled to give me higher raises since I have fewer expenses.  My supervisor may look at me with scorn if I come in late on a snowy day. Co-workers may think I’m just plain kooky… and they would be right!  Yes, none of these things would be fair, but life isn’t fair and neither are people’s judgments and actions.  If the folks at work ever did find out (and some may already suspect), I guess it wouldn’t be a big deal.  However, why put myself out there if I don’t have to?

As I approached close to my camper, I visually took it all in.  “This is my home!”.  Realizing this felt odd, good… and a little scary.  I got in the van and drove to my RV friendly parking spot.  Like a dog, I instinctively circled the lot twice before parking.  There were two big rig trucks settled in for the night, so I parked next to them under a light post.

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Community

Dogs and kids…

…know how to have fun when it snows! When I was a kid, I loved snow days, I lived in central Texas so we didn’t get snow every winter, and when we did, it was usually only a few inches and it would only last a few days, as soon as the sun came back out, it was gone. I remember having to use several of my neighbor’s yards to have enough snow to make a snowman.

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