Against Nature

We just spent Friday and Saturday out on our property trying to build our new goat barn. We were able to get the foundation, floor, and walls put together. Home Depot didn't have in stock the metal roofing we needed so we won't be able to complete the job till the rest of our order comes in. We did, however, get a healthy start on it. Would you believe I forgot my camera? So I have no pictures at this time. We will be heading back out there tomorrow so I will bring it with me.

While there we had some not so kind weather to work with. The usual for around here. Mike says it really reminds him of Iraq. The temperatures averaged around 100 and the wind blew till we were all covered from head to foot with sand. We even had sandy boogers (I finally got the spelling right!!!). Two days with no shower, same clothes, standing nearly constant outside in 100 degree temps, and covered in sand. We were so glad to get in last night and get cleaned up to go to church tomorrow.

We did move the camper out onto the property to keep the baby in. Mike rented a generator since there is not power out there yet, and that kept the necessities going. The A/C and refrigerator were the most important. Of course having the convenience of a potty was also nice for the kids.

I think I've mentioned before that I sleep terribly for the first few nights I camp in a new spot. Out on our new property was no different. The generator and the A/c normaly make so much noise I think I would have gotten by with a decent nights sleep if they had stayed on. However, we were having a little trouble keeping the generator going and about 1:00AM it stopped. At that time it was cool enough that we didn't need it, so Mike opened up a few windows instead. Around 3:00AM the coyotes started up again, their howls sounding like the high pitched "yips" of Pomeranian dogs. When the coyotes got started all the dogs in the neighborhood joined them. Then somebody decided to make a drag run down the street, stopping at a house somewhere. Most of the streets here are straight and flat, really they are tempting to cut out on and see how fast you can get going, but do you have to do that so early in the morning? At this point I figured that I would just stay awake, cast my eyes to the east and watch the sun rise. I watched and watched. Seemed like it was dawn for forever and yet the sun was never coming up. Just before it did rise I fell back to sleep.

We are having to build with some obstacles of nature in mind. The first one being the winds there. While in New Hampshire you have to build keeping the snow load in mind, here you must always keep in mind the wind load. The fella who will be installing the 5ft. chain link fence all around our property told us that one year they had 95mph sustained winds come through that area. Our direct neighbor had installed one of those cheap metal sheds for storage. The wind picked it up and sat it down in the neighbors yard but not before taking out the shared chain link fence in the mean time. I said to myself when he was telling this story "oh, no". As he spoke to us there say, still in package (so he had no idea) our cheap metal shed, yet to be built. We'll be taking extra precautions with it to keep it on the ground. Again he said that the winds were bad enough that they tore the roof off of it, then picked the whole thing up and turned it over. His stories went on and on about the damage that wind can do out there.

The next battle against nature has more to do with the farm animals than anything else. Those coyotes are gonna be a real problem with mostly our chickens but our goats too. They would love to chew on leg of goat. Really the best protection for them would be to get a llama. Llamas take on goats as their babies and will protect them to death. The coyotes would mess with an animal that big. Also llamas don't eat much at all, and they provide hair/wool that I could spin. I'm not sure how much they run around here though. Otherwise we are going to have to do some fence burying. We were told that electric fencing doesn't work here mostly because the air is too dry and the wires cannot conduct the electricty, otherwise this would be our choice of trying to keep bad critters out and good ones in.

While we were building there several people stopped by to say hi and chat. First of all the fencing guy. He was working on someone else's fence behind us and decided to come have a chat. He was so nice and went out of his way to install and temporary water faucet so we could get fresh water. Chaparral's water was voted the third best tasting water in the country (and El Paso is trying to get it too). Then another fella stopped by praising the fact that a husband wife team were working together to build. He said he and his wife built their house together, he seemed like a real nice guy also.

The next one needs a whole new paragraph to explain since it is so interesting the way it came about. The next person who stopped was a lady that Mike has met before but I never have. This lady also became aquaintances with the Mitchell's. Here's how Mike initially met her. After my delivery with Katie I stayed in the hospital for a couple of days. One day the doctor came in and said I saw a bunch of kids down in the lobby, those aren't yours are they? For some reason I remember Mike not being able to come at that moment but sometime later, so I knew they weren't mine. However Mike did come during the time that family was still in the lobby. Which of them spoke up first I'm not sure, but there is always a kindred spirit when large families spot one another, especially when both are Christian, since we are a minority. So this is how Mike met this family. I have no idea what their last name is. However the wife's first name is not easy to forget, it's Muffy. I guess Becky Mitchell had been keeping in touch with Muffy and letting them know that we were moving out to Chaparral, which also happens to be where Muffy's family lives. So when Muffy happened to drive by and saw the 12 passenger van the idea popped into her head that it could be us.

She hopped out and asked us if we were the Perry's. I was able to get aquainted with her and find out where she lives. They also have goats, chicken, and 7 children, and her husband is military. So the Lord has provided a source of fellowship for us there in Chaparral, NM.

Also our friends the Salzman's, they were courious to see where we lived. So while out on a "date" (they have six children), they decided to drive by the area and stopped in for a chat.

Then a Mexican couple who are neighbors on a road next to ours stopped by. Their motives were much more than neighborly though. I guess she sells home decor products and wanted to know if I would need anything like that. Her husband seemed to be pushing the products more than she. They were, however, a very nice couple.

So we've been welcomed to the neighborhood already, even by the coyotes who serenaded us on Friday night.

One more thing I wanted to add was that the entire land is loaded with goat's head thorns. The children have already become used to them and I found Mikey twice walking barefoot. The thorns have popped all of the children's bike tires. We will now be looking into purchasing the all rubber tubes for their tires. At $15 a tube, times two tubes for each bike, times five bikes, that could get expesive. We'll have to buy them a little at a time maybe. We will also have to keep the floor vacuumed a lot since those things come in on your shoes and deposit themselves in the carpet. Little Katie will be crawling around soon and I'd hate to see her get them in her hands. I'm enclosing a link to view particulars about goats head thorns if you are curious enough.

This is a good site for a description and pictures of it. http://www.goatheads.com/goatheads.html

Denise