Okay, caught up on posts:

Saturday, May 21, 2016:
I spent the morning cleaning the pellet stove. I should have cleaned it earlier. It was a mess. The combustion chamber had a big block of crud. The stove should operate better and be more efficient.
Today was the first warm day of the year: 72F degrees. A little windy. I went exploring in the afternoon. Downed trees blocking the road prevented me from reaching the top of Broke Off mountain. I also explored to the east in the area where is the northeast corner of the defunct Petaca Land Grant. The land grant was surveyed in 1878 and some day I am going to go looking for the survey markers they made.
On the ridge above the cabin there were a couple elk and at least six turkeys that all ran off when I got close. There was a tree that had fallen in the last week blocking the road. I pulled the tree out with the Jeep Wranger.
I got a couple calls asking to buy my elk tag. I had already agreed to sell it to someone else for $1,700, but one of the callers today offered $2,400.  I hate to break the first deal, but I have not yet received his payment and today's offer is for considerably more.

I took a picture of the cabin early this morning:

I checked out the fence at the south end of the Tio Grande. It looks like there is some work to be done:

Continuing the post blast:

Friday, May 20, 2016:
Going back to the cabin was easier today with the Wrangler: 4-wheel drive and mud tires. It was still a little slippery. I got a late start as the blower I ordered for the pellet stove was to be delivered today by Fedex and requires a signature. They said it would not be available until late afternoon, so I will get it next week.

Thursday, May 19, 2016:
I was just going to run out to the post office in Tres Piedras today. It was to be a trip of about 1.5 hours. Well, because I had dad's pickup, it was exciting. The road was wetter than I expected. Several times I nearly slid off the road when there was a big drop, or nearly slid into a ditch, or nearly got stuck. I did not dare try and go back to the cabin once I made it out. Thus, I had an unplanned trip to Albuquerque for the night. I will go back up tomorrow with my Jeep Wrangler.

Wednesday, May 18, 2016:

I am snowed-in for a few days. There is about five inches of show on the ground. That in itself is not such a problem, but it is melting and the cabin road is impassible when wet, especially without 4-wheel drive.

I spent the day installing a dead-bolt and door latch on the front door of the cabin. It had only a board you spun around to hold it closed when you were inside, and a padlock on the outside to hold it closed and to lock it from the outside. There were old horse shoes used as handles. It was rather crummy. One really bad problem was the door would not close tight when you went out. It came out really well. The door closes tight when latched, and the dead-bolt opens and closes smoothly. 

No elk today, but nine deer hung around the cabin all day. They are the first deer I have seen.
Here are photos of a strange one a a cute one:

Tuesday, May 17, 2016:

I spent much of today with a home inspector. I have an escrow account with the previous owner to fix problems found in the inspection. He said it will be a few days to get the report.

The elk cow herd (about 20) spent the evening in front of the cabin. Interestingly, there were coyotes stalking them. They have a remarkably loud howl.

It snowed this evening and during the night. Check out the elk herd;

Monday, May 16, 2016:

I went to the post office in the morning so I got a late start going to the cabin in dad's pickup. It is 2-wheel drive with highway tires. I needed to get to the cabin before the road got wet and before the furniture in the bed got wet. I was really rushing on the forest roads because it started raining of and on around Tres Piedras. As I got higher, the rain turned to a heavy sleet storm. It was coming down hard when I reached the cabin. Fortunately, I got there before the road was very slippery.  

Sunday, May 15, 2016:

I loaded my dad's pickup with some crud furniture that my sister Brenda was giving away. The furniture has been in her driveway all winter, so it is in bad condition and dirty. I figure I can clean them up and make use of them at the cabin. I also have seven sheets of 2-inch thick Styrofoam. I plan on insulating the windows and the well pump hole.

Saturday, May 14, 2016:

I have been very unimpressed by the efficency of the pellet stove. I finally found the owners manual and see that it has a blower. Well, it has not been blowing any air. Yesterday, I opend up the cover and saw the blower. It had dead insects and crud in the fan blades, so it obviously has not been turning. I spun it by hand and found it was hard to turn and made a grinding noise. This morning, I made a video of the blower not turning when the stove fire had been going for quite some time. About 30 minutes later, the blower suddenly started up. A bunch of crud came flying out the front of the stove and the fan was making a loud grinding noise. Well at least it works. Over time, the grinding noise went away, except for a loud rattle from inside the stove.  

I have not been making posts the last couple weeks, so here they are in a couple blasts:


Wednesday, May 11, 2016:
The former ranch manager and I spent the day repairing the water system. We did further bailing to get the water level a couple inches deep. The outlet was not providing electricity, so we replaced the electrical outlet. I discovered that the outlet is on a 20amp breaker in the electrical shed. For some reason (stay tuned), water was not flowing from the original pump that was submerged. We put in a new pump and the water still did not flow. I suggested that the pump might be turning backward if the electricity was backward. A test showed that was the case. He had miss-wired the outlet causing the pumps to run backward. Once the outlet was rewired, the water system was up and working okay. I can now take showers and use the toilet. It snowed hard all afternoon while we were out working on the water system.
I have been able to get remote videos from the porch camera using the Lowes/Iris system. Today, I upgraded to the their next generation hub and it all came to a screeching halt. The new hub does not support a web interface, only a mobile-app interface. When I tried to load the app to my phone it said that the app does not support my device. Ugh. I have a tablet in Tucson that I will try in a couple weeks. Until then, no web cam videos.
No elk today.

Tuesday, May 10, 2016:

This morning my local cattle rancher dropped by. He is going to be grazing 30 head of yearlings, and one cow, on my property starting in June. Our deal is that he pays me for the grazing, and I pay him to take care of the fence. It will probably even out. 

One of my biggest issues is that I get no cell phone signal here at the cabin. My carrier is AT&T. The rancher suggested trying Viero. I spent the afternoon messing with a cell phone signal booster device I found in the closet (left behind by the previous owner). Magically, I found one particular location and orientation for the antenna that gives me a 4G signal strength of four bars on AT&T. Amazing! I can do texts, voice, and, very importantly, internet. I can use my phone as a wireless internet hot spot for my computer. This means that I can drop DishNet internet that is costing me $80/mo.   

The elk are out in front of the cabin every morning and evening.

Monday, May 9, 2016: 

I spent the morning with the Forest Service Fisheries guy. He brought  a UTV for us to drive up the Tio Grande valley. Mainly, he was looking for a fish barrier on the creek that had not been inspected for about ten years. We found it about twenty yards beyond my property line in the National Forest. He said that it needs work to be more effective. The purpose of the barrier is to prevent non-native species (brown and rainbow) trout from getting upstream. They are trying to keep the creek's population of Rio Grande Cutthroat trout as pure as possible. The road up to there on my property is pretty crude, and dangerously narrow with a drop off in one place. He said they woul have to do some road work to bring up their trucks. I said that would be fine. There is also a culvert at a creek crossing that is not good for creatures going up and down the creek, so they may want to improve that too. We found an elk antler and brought back a hand-held plow that I spotted yesterday. 

I realized that the reason the well pump hole was flooded was due to drainage routes and the low spot at the well hole. The top of the culvert (that contains the pump and pressure tank) has a moat around it about 16 inshes deep. The drainage from the back of the cabin and the hillside runs right down to the low spot which is that moat. I spent the afternoon improving the drainage near the well hole to help prevent it from flooding in the future. I am digging three different ditches and filling in the moat around the well hole. 

Sunday, May 8, 2016:

Drove up to the cabin after being away for a month. I discovered that the well hole with the pressure tank and booster pump was about three feet deep in water. The pump and pressure switch were completely submerged. The electrical outlet was above the water but it was evident that it too had been submerged. I spent about four hours bailing out the hole (it is about six feet deep with a concrete floor and the side is the cylinder of a steel culvert four feet in diameter). I did not dare plug in the pump, so I am going without water until Wednesday when the ranch manager of the previous owner is coming. Everything else seems to be okay. I have a couple gallons of drinking water and camping toilet bags, so I can survive for several days without the water system. 

Before dark, I drove up the Tio Grande a little way and walked around the property some just to have some fun for the day.

May 1: snow day. I hope that there will not be much snow and it melts and dries up in the next few days as I hope to get up to the cabin later this week.