Thursday, January 13, 2011

Making a Return to Life

Two and a half months after the fire, life has finally started to feel somewhat sane again.

We got our yaks back a day or two before Christmas, and they seem to be quite happy with the snow.

Despite the fact that we have a stream and plenty of grazing land, the girls had trekked nearly 5 miles away. They were found in the middle of the road by a local rancher. He had them for 2 weeks before our ad appeared in the local paper and he contacted our friends (we still can't get cell service on our land).

Meanwhile we live in the middle of nowhere (no jobs, no industry) and had no fire insurance (or any kind of insurance) and since our tools and materials we used to make money with are burnt to cinders, we're trying to figure out how to support ourselves.

Fortunately Quantum has some brilliant ideas for wind turbines, and hopefully the plans will be on our website soon.

Squeaky is gaining weight and a couple more pounds and he should be back to full strength. He and Raz (the cat we found the day after the fire) are getting along...somewhat. Raz is an unneutered male and Squeaky is a neutered male. Raz seems to be either gay or thinks Squeaky is female. Since Squeaky has been home, he prowls the house like a lovelorn stalker, howling and yowling and sometimes even trying to hump the Squeakster!

Despite the hardships (-10 degrees the other night) it's amazing and beautiful here.  At dawn the sun shines pink on the snow-capped mountains. And now we've got an entire week of 50 degree or higher weather predicted!

I've been studying about cold frames, and once I get enough manure - believe it or not, the yaks don't produce enough! - I'll be writing about my experiences with them.