13th moon: October 12, 2000. We hired the local power company to drill the 6 foot deep holes for the poles and drop the poles into the holes. (I knew the power company must be good for something out here in solar power land.) The following day, before we could get the poles aligned and concreted in place, it began to rain. It rained and rained for days and days. By the time it stopped raining, 8 inches had fallen, almost a full year's supply here in the high desert. Those nice 6 foot holes at the corners of our foundation trenches had filled almost all the way up with mud, packing the leaning poles into immobility. Quite a setback for our schedule! The mud will have to be dug out by hand. The poles will have to be freed from its gooey embrace and made vertical so they can be surrounded with concrete.

14th moon: November 11, 2000. Slow progress with the mud removal task.

15th moon: December 10, 2000. Beth's sister Carolyn was between jobs and came out to visit for two weeks. We did a lot of sightseeing and she helped with some of the pole straightening. We now have the 4 outside poles aligned and concreted. The process we developed is as follows: We use the post hole digger to lift the mud up and out of the hole one bite at a time. We then back up an old non-running boom truck to the pole. The truck is known as the tow truck because it has to be towed everywhere it goes. When it needs to go backward, as in when backing up to a pole, it must be hand pushed. We then wrap a heavy strap around the midpoint of the pole and hoist it up and down while adjusting its position until it is exactly where it should be and is also exactly vertical. We then brace it with lumber to hold it vertical and pour a load of post mix into the bottom of the hole to immobilize the bottom end of the pole.

16th moon: January 9, 2001. We spent a couple of weeks during this moon in the Commonwealth of Virginia visiting friends and family and taking care of some business matters. Not much was accomplished in the way of progress on the construction of our house. We still have some poles to straighten. Beth was elected to the Board of directors of the Sunizona Ash Creek Association for a two-year term.

17th moon: February 8, 2001. 6 or the 8 perimeter poles for the house are now aligned and in place. We have ordered 15 female ducklings for arrival next month. We find that duck eggs are richer than chicken eggs and the yolk is more yellow. We also just generally like ducks better than chicken. Paul has been constructing an area of finger lakes in his spare time at the end of the River Jordan. We have dug up some bamboo from the yard of the lady who owns B & B Feeds in the Elfrida / McNeil area and transplanted it to the shores of our mini-river. It is part of a permaculture plan for recycling chicken waste. Bamboo likes water and Nitrogen. Any bird waste that makes its way into the River Jordan will end up nourishing the bamboo. We have also ordered 10 Pauwlonia Trees for the same purpose.

In the winter, the sun is lower in the sky and the days are shorter. We have found that the incoming solar power is not quite sufficient to meet our needs, so we run the generator about 20 minutes in the evening to keep the batteries in our power system more full.

18th moon: March 9, 2001. We now have all 8 of the main poles for the house aligned and concreted in place. Paul has contacted a local welding and fabricating firm to supply and install the 450 feet of heavy steel c-channel that will form the top and bottom perimeter around these poles. The top channels will support the roof trusses we will build. The bottom channels will become the forms for pouring the concrete slab for the house. After the pour they will remain in place to provide extra strength for the structure, which is going to have to stand up to frequent winds in excess of 70 miles per hour.

We have begun to prepare the garden for the planting of the 2001 crop. The ducks arrived by mail a couple of days after they hatched. We have 11 survivors out of the 15 that began the journey. Hatchery ducks do not have the benefit of picking up oil from their mother's feathers, so they have to wait a month or two until their first feathers come in before they can go swimming. Otherwise they would get soaked and chilled.

The Skunk During this moon we had a series of gruesome poultry murders overnight in the chicken / Guinea yard. The birds became terrorized and afraid of the dark. Paul borrowed a live trap from a friend and caught a skunk and shot it. Below are some excerpts of the news Beth sent to her family regarding the great Chicken Murder Mystery:

**********************
Sunizona, Arizona - March 1, 2001

A skunk was captured and executed today for the murders of 2 chickens and 3 guineas over the course of 10 days.

The skunk had appealed to Bill Clinton for clemency, but no phone call was forthcoming by the time the sentence was carried out at approximately 1:30 pm Arizona time.

Officials consider the case closed, and state they are relieved that no others were injured or killed during this murderous spree. One person, close to the case, was heard to express concerns and regrets regarding the death penalty, but reluctantly acknowleged the necessity in this case.
*****
Actually, this case didn't stink at all until after the execution. And this is the Wild West, where you can be hung/shot on suspicion..........No formalities here. We have our own brand of justice, and his name is "Smith and Wesson", (or actually "Ruger" in this case.)

Then (an hour later), the two prosecutors went over to move the cage away from the chicken pen (and put it where the dogs couldn't get to it). EUWWWWWWWW.....man that is the *nastiest* smell I have ever had to deal with!!! VERY strong and sickening.

Unfortunately, Beth was dumb enough to wear her slippers (leather with rubber soles), and Paul was wearing his boots. Neither of us realized until we were back at the trailer that our shoes had picked up the smell, and boy do my slippers reek! Hopefully a few days (weeks?) outside will air them out. :-(

Dumb, dumb, dumb........next time I'll make sure I'm wearing my tennis shoes - at least those can go in the washer! **********************

19th moon: April 9, 2001. The welding crew has begun work on the steel side beams for the house. They brought a crane, a forklift, and a motorized wheeled platform to stand on while welding 14 feet above the ground. Our friend Michael will arrive next week to help us get started with the construction of the roof and its support trusses.

We have planted beans, peas, lettuce, and onions in the garden and have watermelons, cucumbers, squash, and tomatoes growing in a seed tray in the window of the office in the Las Vigas Building.

The ducklings are thriving and Beth loves them. The following is an excerpt of a meesage she posted about them to the Guinea fowl message board on the Internet:

> I know this isn't very guin-related, but I have to share! We have 11female
> baby ducks that are 1 1/2 months old. It's a really nice warm sunny day
> today (70 - we're in SE AZ), so for the first time we let them roam and
> splash a bit in the very small (a foot wide), shallow "river" (which leads
> from the water-tank in the bird-pen); and "finger-lakes" my husband has
> created (a foot wide and a couple of yards long) Our water tank overflows
> into the river and thus on into the finger lakes, creating an oasis here in
> the Arizona desert.
>
> Anyway, the ducklings had been happily splashing away for about an hour,
> when we looked over to see two of our three adult male ducks leading them
> over to the main pen about 200 feet away, which has two kiddie pools in it.
> It was quite a sight to see these cute little babies following the two males
> down the little river towards the pen . Then, at the open gate to the pen
> (which is very wide), the adults went on in and the babies stopped dead -
> "Oh No, there's these big birds in there!!!" They saw a couple of guineas
> and a couple of hens and panicked! The ducklings turned around and made a
> beeline as fast as their little legs would carry them back over towards the
> finger-lakes, their night-time bin (which is there lying on it's side so
> they can get in), and me (who was standing there laughing), peep-quacking
> all the way! It was soooooo cute!!! Oh I wish I had had my camera out.
>
> Sorry, guin-lovers, I think I like my ducks best of all .
>
> Beth McKnight - and the cutest baby ducks you ever did see...

20th moon: May 7, 2001. We have begun building and installing the trusses that will hold up the roof panels. Our friend Michael is here helping with the engineering and construction. Each truss is composed of a rough sawn 2x6 about 26 feet long on top connected to another 2x6 on bottom by sections of steel pipe arranged in a web. This makes what is in essence a 2x28 piece of steel-reinforced wood.

21st moon: June 6, 2001. We are awaiting the delivery of the structural insulated panels for the roof. They are scheduled to show up here in two days. I have asked a local rancher to bring his forklift over to unload the panels, which will weigh several thousand pounds.

22nd moon: July 5, 2001. Michael has been here for a few days helping to hoist the roof panels into place. After hoisting a few with our homemade construction crane, we decided to rent a rough terrain forklift for a day to complete the job with less danger of having a construction accident with our crane, which was straining and flexing under the load. Paul is preparing the order for the sheet steel which will go on top of the panels. Beth has chosen Blue as the color for the steel sheets.

We have arrived at the beginning of the monsoon season with its afternoon thunderstorms, greening grass, and moister air.

23rd moon: August 4, 2001. Paul has applied all the full-length blue steel sheets to the south slope of the roof and has begun work on the east slope. He is saving the shorter sheets, which will have to be cut on a diagonal angle at one end, for last. While Michael was here last month, he and Paul worked out the prototype which will be used for at least some of the 24 sections of in-fill wall between the vertical pipes. It uses standard 2x6 frame construction with an outer skin of Oriented Strand Board and standard fiberglass roll insulation. We are still pouring some of the sections of footing that lie under the wall areas, with about 80 feet to go. Our pole building architecture allows us to build the roof before we do the floor and walls.

The garden has been a bust this year producing not much more than green onions and watermelon. We had problems with the drip system accumulating algae in the filter and clogging up the flow of water to the garden. There was a section of garden hose leading to the drip system that was translucent, allowing algae to multiply within the hose.

24rd moon: September 2, 2001. Beth's sister Carolyn is here helping Paul finish applying all those steel sheets to the roof. She is a real trooper, getting up before the sun rises and helping Paul lift them up onto the roof, cut them when necessary, and screw them down so the wind won't blow them away. We also poured some more of the footings and a base for the big kiva fireplace in the living room.

This moon completes our second year in Arizona. We still live "out of" rather than "in" the 30-foot Shasta trailer, but that is getting old and we are really looking forward to being able to make the move to the house. Hey, all we need is floors and walls. It can't be too much longer...