Schizophrenia High

Lots to cover today—let’s get to work. Yipes! That sounded like a schoolteacher statement didn’t it? Egads! That persona is supposed to be on vacation. What the hell is SHE doing appearing in my blog?

The down and dirty: (There! That sounds MUCH better!) Loads of stuff has gone on since the beginning of the week. I feel like I’ve lived two lifetimes since school got out; one whole lifetime just this last week. I need a vacation, not just the ones I take inside my head—which are perpetual.


I know I’ve been promising a roof was going to go up since, like, last October and no one more than I has looked forward to that; heck I’m probably the ONLY one who’s been looking forward to that, ‘cause, as with most of this adventure, there’s not too many scintillating ways to describe the construction trades/work . At least not until the structure is done and ready to move into.





However! That there pic proves that the roofers were here this week. And the pics below show that there’s actually a roof covering atop the house now. I had to take to my bed I was so overwhelmed. (I truly did take to my bed, but it had more to do with lack of sleep and the unrelenting heat than the fact that the roof was going up. I think.)

OK—here’s the construction-speak of ‘da haps’ here: The trusses are all up and secured with hurricane ties. The decking (plywood layer between the roofing outside and the sheet rock/rough cut planks inside) is all in place and unsecured. j/k It’s all nailed or screwed down. And in place, too. The portal (por-TALL, as we Neueva Mexicanas pronounce it) is posted, beamed, planked, decked and roofed. AND: THE WHOLE ROOF IS UP!! I’d do the ‘raise the roof’ arm pumping motion, but I’d like the damn thing to stay in place for at least ONE day. Now that THAT benchmark has been completed it’s all kind of anticlimactic. It didn’t bring any welling up and falling of tears like the trusses going up did. I must be desensitized to it all anymore.

Maybe I’m too attached to my life as trailer trash….

The Tin Can seems to be getting smaller and smaller by the day. Must be shrinking from the heat. Or the 11 months’ worth of accumulation that won’t fit into the storage units, BB The Jeep or my new classroom (though I’ve put plenty in there of late.) It took me 2.5 hrs to go through house receipts last night. I couldn’t go to bed until I sorted and filed ‘em all since the full-sized air mattress that serves as my bed is the only space big enough for me to pile all that dead tree matter. I only have two more months of it. I’d burn TTC, but it’s worth about 3 mortgage payments. I won’t be sad to see it go, though.

Since the roof is now done, the outside plywood sheeting on the parapets will get done when the crew returns on Monday, then the stucco crew comes and does their thing and covers the outside, and anything not covered in the 10 mil white membrane that serves as the roof covering, while we start putting in all the windows I’ve had so carefully had hauled from Colorado and stored for over a year. Exciting as this stage is, it’s doubly so for me since I can now move all my winter stuff out of TTC and into the freed up room in the place where the rest of my stuff lives—in more square footage of room than TTC offers me, I might add.

Then we’ll do doors. I guess I should go buy them sometime soon, eh? Yea, yea. I’m getting there. The sheet rock will go up somewhere in there, a compromise I made due to costs and the near give-away prices of sheet rock now since no one is building. Then the interior plastering gets applied. That’s going to be really cheap since 90% of the materials for it came from my arroyo. I still have a bit of that pile o’dirt to sift. Guess I should do that, too. ~Sheesh!~

Then the cabinetry and finishing work. Then: WE’RE DONE! (Y’all know better than to hold yer breath for that, don’t ya?)

Electrical is nearly done as of today, too. And the plumbing, as well. (Can we see tons of money flying out of my hands? It is.) Inspections for those will happen mid-week next week.

Naps to stave off sunburn and windburn have become de riguer for me. Except for spending last weekend in Clovis and Portales, NM. A true MUST-NOT-DO for any of you who may dare to venture out this way someday. SKIP those two burgs. (Though Lake Sumner, near the town of Fort Sumner where Billy the Kid is buried is quite nice!) I can mark them off my list of places to see/do in NM, and with glee I have done so. I have also been able to mark off the town of Grants, up north by the Rezs. It’s unremarkable as well, which is not what can be said for seeing the Acoma Pueblo, nearby to Grants. That place is a must-see! But I’m being tangential.

I went to sleep in between geocaching around Clovis and Portales during a geocaching weekend event that went on last weekend. I went with three other geocachers I know pretty well and we were geocaching snobs and refused to play the wonderfully intricate geo-game that the host cacher had devised (on a grand scale) and we were, pure and simple, geo-sluts. We just raced all over the area finding as many caches as we could in two days. We even ventured into Texas (“Proud home state of Dubya”) so we could say we’d cached in TX. It’s a…thang with us cachers. Please don’t try to understand it. We didn’t linger in that ‘republic’—grabbed 2 or 3 on the TX side o'the border and scampered safely back to the Land of Enchantment before Homeland Security found us crossing state borders without a national ID, passport, wads of cash (all the better to bribe them with, or is that Mexico?), eye scan records, reproducible fingerprints (none of those hi-tech fake plasticized ones that the movies tell you are viable—they’re not. All because us New Mexicans are considered to be part of Old Mexico, so, nationalistically, it makes ~sig heil~ sense that we be ‘documented’.

Oops! That should trigger a few red-Fed flags. (Please write to me while I am an unrecorded guest of the US Federal Government at an undisclosed—open secret—location somewhere near Gitmo, or since I’m a woman, teacher, non-supporter of “Our” pResident [typo is intentional], non-supporter of the ‘war’, ad nauseum, I’ll probably be sequestered in the Bermuda Triangle. Waaay kewl!)

See what living next to TX does to me? I foresee no further need to ever set foot there again. Nor will I. And they can all stay in TX, too! Damn Texans! They give Californians a good name.

OK, my tangent is over. So, I had fun caching last weekend. I found 44 more caches and am now the proud claimant to 591 of the dastardly buggars. It’s fun. Y’all ought to try it. (JLK: They even have underwater caches that require scuba gear!)


OK, here’s a better lizard pic for y’all. No bunny pics, there’s too many of ‘em to catch in digital format, but they are bounding all around out here. They are everywhere. And two of the newest ones were chasing each other around the other evening. They even tried to make even more bunnies! Right in front of me!! (Must be high school aged bunnies. No boundries, scruples, or bunny motels.) No rattlers. Yet. At least not around The Tin Can. Booger and I have gone on a few jaunts. That’s been fun.

Enjoy the pics, as ever. Siete, more or less, mananas Y’all!

If I Had a Hammer--June 18th,2008

…I sure as heck wouldn’t be spending my week in a classroom at the University of New Mexico (UNM)! Actually, I have 2 hammers, and they are both well cared for and well used. Just not this week. Crew #4 has only the 12 foot high clerestory trusses, decking and other little carpenter details to install as far as that work goes. There’s some other bug-like things that they’re adding to keep any water on the roof from gathering in corners (crickets). It ain’t gonna be the flattest roof, but it also ain’t gonna be a 12-5 pitched one neither. I’m having a super heavy-duty membrane roof put on, (once again, y’all—NEXT WEEK. This time, truly, it’s for real!) so I decided tonight that I’m just going to run a hose up there and make an oversized slip ‘n slide out of the kitchen roof and portal area. I guess that ‘water element’ (read: pond) I was joking about a few months ago should really get built so that I have someplace to land without getting hurt. It’ll be FUN!


So, yea, the roof will be installed next Weds and Thurs. I still don’t think I need a roof, but everyone says I do. Whatever. It’s been so hot up here this past couple of weeks (in the low 100’s) that when I go out to find some shade under the decking to read my ‘required summer reading’ for my AP classes for next year, I sit on the raised footing of the kiva fireplace, lean up against one of the log posts, light a cigarette and settle in. And before I know it my trailer trash park residents are slowly meandering over and into the house. Ya know—it NEVER fails! I pick up a book and all of sudden everyone decides it’s time to chat. ~sigh~ I knew there was a reason I hung out in hidey spots, remote wildernesses or libraries for a reason. But, the house was well planned by the architect (ME) for great air flow and I was hogging it all, until the doorways got blocked by one of the crew members. No respect!

The next thing you know it’s a full-fledged party and the beers get hauled out of the fridges and no one brings a bottle opener so I just pop ‘em off by laying the edge of the cap on an edge of the fireplace frame and one good solid smack with the heel of my hand and the beer is consumable. I haven’t broken a bottle neck yet. BB’s trailer hitch works well, too. (None of you ever use the word ‘sophisticated’ to describe me, do you? I sure hope not, ‘cause you’d be wrong.) It’s nice having everyone up here, but there are times that I wish I had by solitude and aloneness back. I also realized I should be charging these folks rent! I’m too magnanimous for my own good.



Stephanie the carpenter left for good today. I was sorry to see her go, but we all need to do what’s best for us in this life. I wish her well and am still thanking her for all of her hard work and high level of skill and interest she took in building my ‘trophy’. She’s definitely invited back to see the finished work of art. I may even let her on the Slip ‘n Slide;)

Since I’m back to a roof reference, Brett and Felicia have been heading up the ladder to go catch some of the cooler air in the evening up there on the decking. I found myself being very possessive of it. I should be the first one up there, but this ain’t possible since it wouldn’t be in place if the crew hadn’t been atop it to install it. Dang it anyway! I’ll have it for a good long time. I guess I can let the two young things and their developing fetus enjoy it while they’re here. I guess. ~Harumph!~ And NORBERT wanted to sleep up there last night ‘cause his trailer was so hot, still, at 10 pm. I think he ended up just sleeping in the bed of his truck on some blue foam sheets and a blanket. We’ll all be up there if the overnight temps stay the way they are. The 30 mph winds that kick up around 1 am every night are a bit of a deterrent, however. None of us want to go chasing bedding as it flies aloft and heads for the neighboring county.

I’m trying to come up with some really expressive ways to describe the progress on the house, but there’s only so many ways I know of to talk about a long, arduous process that’s just more of the same. 2100 square feet of lumber and its installation isn’t really much I’ve read many glorious or glowing stories about. And I sure don’t want to start a whole new genre. Not yet, anyway.

I’ve been at UNM all this week, and through Friday, for my Advanced Placement teacher seminar. It’s been pretty good, but it’s tough being a teacher being taught by a teacher who’s stretching out the material because too much time as been assigned for the amount that needs to be presented. As teachers we all know all those tricks that the instructor’s been using, and we’re acting just like the kids do when we, ourselves, do it. I’ll get the REAL down-and-dirty details when I meet with a couple of the other AP English teachers next month. Alcohol will be served, so it should go really fast and in a really fun way. I may want to record the meeting since I may have trouble remembering what we’re there for. The two I’m meeting with are great fun, so who knows how many meetings we’ll have to have?

The news on the Mom front is just frustrating and beyond ridiculous. I have no desire to cough up the ludicrousness of any of it. I did spend last week in Phoenix with Mom. That’s all there is worth mentioning here.
Some cactus blooms fer y'all to enjoy. Bunny and better lizard pics in the next bang-bang/back-to-back posting.

And the fun ends here. This time, anyway.
Muchas mananas, muchachas y muchachos!

Reveal: T2tWRanchita

That's me just below center and to the right--the orangey-red blob.

OK. It’s time to reveal what T2tWRanchita means and why I named my hunk o’land and house with such a “thoroughly modern Milly” moniker. I’m sure many of you would expect me to name it some nice, warm, fuzzy name like Lavender Ladies Land or Old Rugger’s Retirement Roost. Fuggedaboutit! I named it, and modernized the acronym ‘cause it’s totally how I want to live my life from now on. And, it’s also how I think I’ve lived a good part of my life up to date. I just never found a succinct enough phrase until I started thinking about the profundity of actually having a house of my own sitting on terra firma that I hold the deed to. When an event like that happens to a bastard child like me, the adult bastard child has to get creative.

Tits to the Wind Ranchita. That’s what it is. In modern English. I guess I could use Olde English font to give it some sense of it having some historical significance, but…naw. It’s a damn ugly font, for one. It’s also harder than heck to read. I’d also have to get all Shakepearean with it. Ick! Could you hear THAT interpretation? Ye Olde Swinging Mammaries In Ye Olde Aire Estate! Ha!! Or how about: Ye Olde Hag’s Wind Swept Teats Castle and Keep! Modern is the only way to go with this. Truly.

Now that THAT English lesson is done~whew!~ Let’s get on to what’s been going on up here since the German ‘n his Gal and their interns have been here. There’s now 2 more caravans (trailers) on the land and a Vanagon that comes and goes each weekend. I am assured by Sue at the TG Homeowner’s Association that no one is complaining about my new ‘ land venture’. She says she’d shoo ‘em away from their grumpiness if they did call her about it. She’s such a gem; my most grateful thanks, Sue!

Bank Boy in Underoos is still being a petulant child with an overidentification disorder of the Superman images on his tighty whities. So be it. I’ve found a couple of options, and the math the bank gave me shows me in better shape than what they last told me. I’m still over the 80% ‘limit’ in my usage of monies, but, Who the F*** cares? Why put out a number that’s only worth 80% of what’s offered? I still have options, so I’m still fluid. Sweating, still, but fluid.

Crew #4 worked 14 hrs. one day last week to have everything done for the mono-pour of the bond beam on Friday!



I got to learn how to read a transit so now every wall is level—at the top. We won’t go into detail about what’s between the footing and the bottom of the bond beam, ok? I’m trying to stay positive here. Anyway, the bond beam does exactly that—it makes many of the mistakes not be an issue anymore. Or as much. And the roof will lie properly. Or something along those lines. All that matters is that the forms for the pour were diligently done, the pour took 5 hours of non-stop labor on the part of 5 crew members and I put myself on the payroll and did some of the grunt work while they did all the true construction work. But, hey! I got covered with some cement, too! I’m one of the gang now!!

It’s an amazing event, bond beam pouring. This crew didn’t stop to breathe for the entire 5 hours. The guy who brought the pumper truck even helped out, especially when Carolyn had her ladder fall out from under her and was swinging from the forms. She has nice ladder step marks down one leg.


The cement truck guy got a bottle of water from me, along with everyone else, even though all he did was sit the whole time. There’s always one at a construction site, isn’t there? I shoveled up the over-pours before they dried to the block. Yup, tough work, I know. But I broke a good sweat down there on the ground while everyone else was up on ladders or scaffolding where they could catch a breeze. I did some other stuff, too. I just can’t remember what. It wasn’t much, trust me.



OK, so the bond beam cured over the weekend. I got 4 showers a day while it was acting like bacon, tobacco, venal sinners who visit Lourdes (curing…get it?) I took my usual shower as daily hygiene demands in the desert, then three more through the course of each day as I sprayed down the cement with water so as to keep it happier. Or something like that. Cracking, heat reduction, fever blisters, I don’t know. Something. My dad loved to water the lawn and sneak cigarettes while he watered. He was always happy making his escape from the house and getting away with something. I thought about him a lot while I took my soakings. I was pretty happy watering, too. His ghost and I laughed a bunch as we played at making rainbows with the water spray. I had the best ones since I had to shoot the water up high enough to hit the top of the 12 foot clerestory. Water droplets on Transitions lenses make for some interesting viewing, btw.

The crew returned from the various corners of the state that they escape to on weekends (except Carolyn. She stayed behind this time, so we did laundry on Sat. and went to Albuquerque for shopping at Michael’s on Sunday) and Monday saw the forms come down and some other tedious pooh-pooh-ca-ca tasks. I was driving all over hell and back doing more errands so I couldn’t help ‘em. Bummer!

Tuesday saw the top plate (2x4s set atop the cement beam with low grade munitions so the trusses have something to get nailed/screwed into) get partway done, two trusses were temporarily erected over the garage and a third log post and two 6”x12” timbers got cut, notched, placed, and pegged into place. I’m having a hard time getting used to having anything overhead, so I’m ducking as I walk around inside the house now. It’s making me somewhat grumpy, too. Do I REALLY need a roof? I mean REALLY? I like being able to see the stars every night from any room in the house. Shoooooot! I guess I’ll be ok with it; just not yet. It’s just WEIRD!!


The posts and beams look totally kewl, though! Impressive, actually. Guess I’ll quit bitchin’ now, ‘cause I really DO love them.

I worked out a new design for the kiva fireplace. I’ll wait until it’s built to show y’all what it looks like. There’s also going to be little secret compartments built in;) (Hey! A pirate queen has to stash her booty somewhere!)








Carolyn mixed up some tints and adobe clay to do test colors and mixtures. Yes, we’re actually far enough along to have to address the interior plastering. Woo hoo! Sadly, though, I can’t have my pirate themed master bathroom as detailed as I had hoped. Guess I’ll tone it down and go for a higher level of sophistication. Yea, right!

Tomorrow more trusses will be installed. The top plate will be added as we go/complete the different roof sections. The roof (I know, I’ve been saying this since October…) will go on in the next week and a half. Banker Boy says he won’t release any more funds until that is done. Idiot that he is, I planned for that and we’ll have enough money to cover us until the roof is ON! So there!! The guy is SUCH a moron!!

Speaking of morons--Here's a compare/contrast pair of pics for you. The Rex version of a 'finished' viga and the truly finished version of the same damn log, as done by the stellar crew #4. I LOVE THIS CREW!!


On the Mum front—I’ll be there next week. Let’s just say that the ugliness that has always been directed toward me in my relationship with/from my younger brother Paul has been released from the dungeon that I had wrestled it all into over the last 30 years or so. It’s gonna get nothing but uglier as he gets more panicked about maybe actually having to WORK soon. Poor dear! Can you say litigation? Can you say Mum’s being held hostage in her own house? Can you say Paul won’t let me talk to her on the phone anymore? I knew you could….Today’s blog has been brought to you by the letter W (w is for water) and the number 4.

Great sunset pic thanks to the smoke from the obviously-gone-out-of-control controlled burn that’s been burning since Friday on Mount Ladron, 60 or so miles west of me. We’ve seen the burning hot spots from here!
And there’s a bunny picture for you. And a lizard pic, too! Enjoy! Muchos mananas from now.