Starting a new life

Before we could consider being out here full time (without making ourselves crazy running out to the store/some unsuspecting person's hose every time we needed water), we needed to get our water running. Ok, no problem, we needed to dig a well. Well, to get anything up here to do that, we needed something vehicles could negotiate. Enter: the driveway.

our brand new driveway

Now that we had a driveway, the well driller could get up here and drill and he did. And it only cost twice as much as we'd estimated (as they had to dig twice as deep). Ouch.

As you can likely tell from the above photo, water doesn't simply flow out of a well. A pump is necessary and, for a pump to work, you need electricity. Amazingly, despite the relative closeness of our neighbors, there was no electricity anywhere near our property. So, we had our very own poles put in along the driveway. While they have elicited reactions from a number of visitors, we actually don't find them particularly unsightly. I find it pretty enjoyable to easily trace my electricity to its source (plus the new lines are all shiny). To house aforementioned pump (protect it from freezing, etc.), one requires an (aptly named) pump house. My father-in-law graciously took on this task, constructing most of it in Portland and then driving it out here in the bed of his pickup. It is, in my opinion quite lovely, not to mention sturdy. It also came in handy for him later, as you will hear in future posts.

one pole and the pump house (I will take and add better
photos of both once I get our camera fixed - oops.)

With the well dug, electricity hooked up, the pump installed and protected, and a spigot attached, we had water!

wrapped spigot head, well head, and hole

Next up was the palapa. I got to help a little on this one, holding the 4 x 6s straight, while Tres filled the sand in around them. He and his dad did the rest, building the walls with plywood and wrapping the tarp over top quite ingeniously (it gets pretty windy from time to time and we didn't want it blowing off or ripping). The palapa made itself immediately useful - providing much-needed shade, a protected storage and cooking area, and a windscreen.

palapa posts

completed palapa

This has gotten a bit longer than I'd anticipated, so I'll finish for now and continue next week with moving out here and building the shop. Happy weekend!