Cloudy Saturday with rain in the forecast. We need the rain but it makes passage through the desert roads more of a challenge. Most areas of the roads that get under water have drive arounds. But there are a few that don’t.
The morning cloudy sky made for some beautiful photos of Ladrone and sun rise towards the Manzano Mountains.
#artoftinyliving #plateauhamedecolquhoun #jafoproduction #manzano #mountains #modernpioneerism #camping #drycamping #homemade #ladrone #campground
Days have been quiet, Thanksgiving day we had 9 campers which all stated they enjoyed their time. The hardest part for us hosting campers is that we want campers to come camp to enjoy the beautiful views and the land. We get campers that come late at night and leave early in the morning. Maybe it shouldn’t matter, they paid to camp, but that’s not the idea of camping here.
But I have to realize that they are probably getting to experience the land even in such a short period of time. The peacefulness and the ability to relax, hopefully get a good sleep before heading out for another drive.
The community is now offering tours of the Mesa, for all campers. Come see the views, learn some of the history of bombings, aliens and more!!
Living out in the desert one of our issues is trying to socialize the dogs. To do this we take them to parks and the occasional dog park. Dreugan loves dog parks that have the agility stuff..
When we go to a dog park we usually go in when it’s empty. Dreugan has a lot of anxiety towards other dogs as he has been attacked multiple times by other dogs (Not in a dog park, but while walking him on a leash).
We took Dreugan and Amigo to a dog park in a town near us, it had been empty when we got there, so we took the opportunity. Just as we let the boys off leash a man comes with 4 Boston terriers, as he’s walking to the gate his dog barks and charges the fence at Dreugan which sets him off. Right away we go to put the leash back on Dreugan, the guy with the Boston’s doesn’t slow down at all to give us time to leash Dreugan. But we luckily got him leashed up and started to walk to the opposite side of the park (This is a pretty good size park). While walking I told Brent this could be good for Dreugan (Thinking the guy would take his dogs the opposite direction) as the Boston’s would play, and Dreugan would realize they wouldn’t hurt him.
But no the guys walk through the gates and let them go, never saying anything to them. The dogs beeline it straight to us. 2 of them pouncing poor Amigo and bigger one coming for Dreugan. I was pulling Dreugan back as I envisioned a dead Boston. Remind you Dreugan is over 100 lbs… But Dreugan didn’t do anything he kept backing up. Brent and I stepped between our dogs and the Boston’s, at which time they head back to their humane (their humane never called them back). We try moving further away as the only way out is where the Boston’s and guy is standing. But the Boston’s were only gone a few seconds before heading right back at us.. Again the one went right for Dreugan and the other 2 after Amigo. This time though Dreugan wasn’t taking it as the one trying to bite me, but I was able to keep Dreugan under control long enough for Brent to pull the Boston away and yell at the guy to get his dogs before they got hurt. At which the Boston owner replied “this is a dog park”… He had called them back at that point and we had hoped he would move away from the gate so we could leave, but nope..The Boston’s made one more attempt to come towards us.. But this time Brent told the guy if he didn’t get them under control, and they came back again they will get hurt.. At that point the guy leashed them up and left all the while saying we had no right having an aggressive dog in the park.
If he would have given us a chance we would have left, ours were leashed, we gave him plenty of space. But I do have to say I was impressed with Dreugan, he could have hurt the Boston, but didn’t even try or threaten until the Boston tried to bite me, that’s when he snarled.
It really upset me, I was hoping for a learning experience for Dreugan, even though he handled it okay, I feel it did not help his anxiety.
Mornings have been a bit chilly here at Plateau Hame De Colquhoun , It was 17 outside when we got up this morning… Since we run a buddy heater for our heat, we only tend to run it at night before going to bed and in the morning when we get up. This morning when we got out of the warm bed, it was 30 degrees inside. The dogs wanted out, but Weillow met me with her teeth chattering.. Weillow wears a jacket and crawls up on the couch at night under blankets.. Like us she was probably warm until she had to go to the bathroom.
We can run the heater all night and probably will if we feel it’s going to get cold. Cold to us is when it doesn’t warm up during the day. Usually our days warm up enough to warm the inside of the RV nicely, we open windows and doors to get the heat in, but before it starts to cool off we shut everything down to trap in the warmth. We tend to stay at an even temp (depending on outside temp) until around 9-10 pm.. If we plan on staying up a bit we kick on the #buddyheater until we are ready for bed or it warms up. We do this as we feel safer, and save on propane even though we have smoke and Co2 detectors, sleeping with the heater off.. In the morning the first to wake up turns on the heater.
We had talked about doing wood, but if you’ve ever seen any of our photos trees are pretty sparse, and the cost of wood isn’t worth it.
What have you used for heat. Comment below and let us know.
Our first Kitchen we had set up here at Plateau Hame De Colquhoun . It lasted 2 months, we then upgraded to a heavy duty carport, and used pieces of the old one to build a shower house. During this time you couldn’t go into town and shower due to Covid. What we did was use an electric water pump (ran off the generator), an on demand water heater. The 2nd carport lasted until the end of January, shower lasted about a month.
We have come along way since then. Still no shower, but that’s okay we can go in now and shower at Planet Fitness (Los Lunas, NM) . We are solid now, no tarps, no carport for the winds to destroy.
What does living in the middle of the desert off grid mean? It means dealing with the weather, heat, wild life, lack of running water. It means camping 24/7. Problem I have now if I want to vacation I don’t enjoy going camping like I used to. Vacation to me is a running water, flush toilet oh and shower all under the same roof.
But the question is do I miss it? It’s good for a vacation but most of the time I don’t mind using it. I don’t mind going out and using the “hut” as we call it( a compost toilet in a small tin building). We have running water (5 gallon water jugs with a hand pump) showers are located at planet fitness,
I used to be able to tell you what was on TV on any given night, now I rarely watch TV. We tend to spend evenings sitting outside, our TV is the sunset. We spend more time with other people, then we did when we lived in town. In town we didn’t know our neighbors. Here we hang out, help, check in on all our neighbors, we are a family.
Living out here is hard, it will test you, it’s not for the faint of heart. There’s been times we’ve thought about quitting, but in the end we love it.
#artoftinyliving #platrauhamedecolquhoun #moderpionerrism #jafoproductions #desertlife #offgrid #compost #Rvlife #desertlife #tinyliving
From windy 80-degree day to snowing 34-degree day. Living off-grid depending on solar for electricity isn’t always easy. We are on day 3 of not much sun, which means we aren’t able to run many electrical items.
The 8k solar is set up so that we can hook a generator up to it, it’ll automatically start the generator if not getting enough sun to charge the batteries, and batteries get to a certain % of drainage, thus shutting the generator down once the batteries are charged. Whereas plugging straight into a generator, that generator has to stay running.
The issue is we do not have a generator that is capable of being hooked up to the solar (Capable one is on our wish list). So until then on cloudy days we start eliminating electric usage.
Not running lights, no tv, unplug any unnecessary items.
#artoftinyliving #modernpioneerism #desertlife #solarenergy #offgridliving #weather #rvlifestyle #cloudyday #sunnyday #electricity
It’s been a busy week. We’ve had a week of campers, an event coming up April 2nd here at Plateau Hame De Colquhoun . Still don’t have everything set up the way we’d like, but that is mostly due to cost of lumber..
it’s warming up, though been windy. Which makes clearing tumble weeds a daily task, though Dreugan loves chasing them.
#artoftinyliving #modernpioneerism #desertlifestyle #desertlife #desertliving #highdesertlife
Went and ate at the RSH Steakhouse in Belen tonight, highly recommend going it ever in town!!
Back here Plateau Hame De Colquhoun we are getting ready for a small private event. We haven’t had much of a chance to start working on the new store front. But hoping soon we’ll be able to. So many projects, so little time. We have high wind advisories for tomorrow, which means we won’t get much done. But that’s okay as it’s off to the dentist tomorrow for me.
#artoftinyliving #modernpioneerism #camping #desertlife #desertliving #highdesert #offgridliving
As much as we love our independence and adventure of living where many dare to live. It can be very hard and lonely at times. Within this desolate area we have a community that watch out for each other. We have became a family. As a family we check up on each other, visit and get annoyed with each other. We know all that is going on, for if one sees something or someone unusual, we all get a call.
Ka-Hoon Campground and Event Center 