We’re still out of propane, the flies are still here but we’re much cheered.
Well, for one thing we’re better than we remember at cooking on the fire. Sage got a fire going today with wet wood while the rain was coming down steadily. No small feat, that. And the whole time was completely cheery. Meanwhile I was on a fly-killing spree inside. I think I got a bunch and there are noticeably less (you can’t hear them as much) but still I think we’re going to have to be complete hillbillies and get a fly-strip in town on Monday when our paycheck clears.
The fire got even easier to manage when I remembered that we had a piece of tin under the yurt to put over the grate – keeps the fire from being rained on. Then I had another revelation and got the air pump for the broken solar shower (it leaked but pumped nicely) and using it as a bellows made a roaring fire on top of a bed of glowing white-hot coals. So now we have a pot of rice cooking outside in the rain as easily as if we had it on the stove. So while things may not be going swimmingly we’re still having a great time.
Last night we had a fun night. After dinner I went to upload Sage’s entry. I don’t know if I fully described how we do that. All we need to do is get within about 100 feet of the house and we can get an internet connection by radio from our LAN inside. While I was sitting out there I noticed that it was really noisy with cicadas and hounds and whatall. Remembering that I have a microphone on the laptop I recorded a bit. The sound quality isn’t the best but I think it probably gives you an idea of just how not quiet it is in the country. You can listen to it here. Be advised that it’s a little over 200K (I didn’t edit or optimize it at all) so it may take a little time to download. The notify list people already heard about it but I wanted to share it with anyone who is interested.
Then I came home and Sage and I looked at some more sites in need of redesigning but didn’t have the energy to do anything but look. After that we read more of Aama in America – A Pilgrimage of the Heart by Broughton Coburn. A fun book about an 84 year old Nepalese woman’s first visit to the US. We’re having a ball with it and while we don’t like the author a whole lot and think his relationship with his soon-to-be wife really needs help, the story is compelling. We’ll post a review when we finish.
Today was not much out of the ordinary short of cooking on the fire (which a year ago we did as a matter of daily routine rain or shine) and all the rain which while a blessing makes cooking a challenge, albeit a fun one for now.
And all that said I’ll end it here, go outside to fetch the pot of rice off the fire (almost said stove – with the tin over it it sort of looks like a little one!) and perhaps write a bit more.
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