25th moon: October 2, 2001. Today we poured the first section of the floor in the house. It was a bedroom floor that includes no plumbing and thus required no pipes to be in place before the pour. Paul is still working on putting pipes in place underneath the future bathroom sections.

26th moon: November 1, 2001. We have a crew of friends from Texas and Virginia here helping to build the walls and lift them into place and "skin" them with sheets of OSB (Oriented Strand Board, a modern replacement for plywood). We celebrated two calendar years of life in Arizona on October 23. On October 26, the last section of concrete floor was poured in the house. We all put initials and handprints and pawprints in an inconspicuous section of the floor.

27th moon: November 30, 2001. (A "Blue moon" - the second full moon of the month). We were able to move into the house in mid-November. Actually, we sectioned off about 20% of the house centered on the master bedroom so we could seal, insulate, and heat it for the winter. Beth's parents were here one day helping with window installation and taking pictures. Conditions are still primitive inside, but it is definitely better than being cooped up in the 8x30 travel trailer. We still use the toilet and shower in the Viga building as plumbing fixtures are not yet installed in the house. The travel trailer still provides the propane-powered refrigerator and stove. So, even though we are living in the house now, some of the house functions are distributed across two other structures.

One November weekend day we went to Mexico to purchase a propane range. We thought it would be easier to find one there as most of the gas units sold in the US are fitted with orifices for natural gas rather than propane and would have to be converted. So we walked a few blocks into Agua Prieta, Sonora, from Douglas, Arizona to an appliance store. They had a nice contenental-style 6-burner range. Our plan was to get it delivered to our vehicle on the Arizona side. Since we don't have auto insurance for Mexico, we never drive there. Unfortunately, it turned out that the store could only deliver within Mexico. So we purchased the stove and one of the salesmen hand-trucked it to the pedestrian crossing point at the border. We then manhandled it up to the entry station, where immigration checked our IDs and customs wanted to open the box and verify that it actually contained a stove and not an illegal alien or a load of dope. We then slid the box out the door on the Arizona side and Paul went to the car to get our little wheeled dolly. We wheeled the stove to the car and took it home. A bit more of an adventure than the usual stove purchase. A propane refrigerator is on its way to us from an Amish manufacturer in Illinois.

This fall our two turkeys were mature and becoming more obnoxious by the day, stealing dog food and leaving big gobs of turkey poop on the trailer patio. We decided to rename them from "George & Gracie" to "Thanksgiving and Christmas". The weekend before Thanksgiving, two local high school girls who are our friends were kind enough to slaughter them for us. The birds came back quartered in plastic bags and went into the freezer. We cooked a front quarter from Gracie on the Grill and she was delicious - much better tasting than a Butterball from the supermarket. As we munched on our Thanksgiving dinner, we were thankful for the friends who helped us get the walls up in the house this fall, allowing us to move in.

28th moon: December 30, 2001. Paul spent his spare time in December digging a 110-foot trench between the house and the propane tank so we could get propane to the house. Pipe was laid and connections were made. It starts freezing overnight here in November. We had installed a wall-vent propane heater in the bedroom and had been supplying it with bottled propane until it got hooked up to our real propane supply. For safety we keep a carbon monoxide detector near the heater, but so far it has not detected anything.

29th moon: January 28, 2002. Paul spent his spare time in January installing the propane pipes in the wall between the kitchen and the utility room. This now powers our stove and our propane refrigerator. The water heater for the kitchen is still sitting in its shipping box.

30th moon: February 27, 2002. A friend and a relative from back east visited this month, helping us install 3 doors, seat 2 toilets, and hang a couple of windows and lots of insulation for the exterior walls. We also got the instant-on propane hot water heater hung on a wall in the pantry.

31st moon: March 28, 2002. Paul spent his spare time this month running hot water plumbing in the wall between the kitchen and the utility room. He cut a hole in the roof for the exhaust pipe from the water heater and ran the chimney pipe up through the hole. Finally all the connections were made and we now have hot running water in the temporary kitchen sink.

32nd moon: April 26, 2002. The toilet in the guest bathroom area of our winter living quarters (the master bedroom plus 2 future bathrooms) is now connected to the water supply and working. We connected the house water lines permanently to the pressure system in the Viga Building this month. One of the two casement windows along the north wall of the master bedroom was installed this month.

33rd moon: May 26, 2002 After installing the second casement window on the north wall of the master bedrooom, Paul filed his nomination petitions in Bisbee for his candidacy for the office of Justice of the Peace in the district that runs from Sunizona northward through Willcox in Cochise County.

He is running as an independent and he will be on the November general election ballot without having to go through a primary contest.

34th moon: June 24, 2002 While Beth made a trip back to Virginia, Paul built the wall that will separate the library room from the guest bedroom.

35th moon: July 24, 2002. Our friend Michael dropped by for a visit this month on the way back to Texas from one of his western wanderings in the Utah area. He and Paul discussed ideas for the roof system over the proposed 12-foot wide veranda that will surround the house on 3 sides.

Paul and Michael visited an abandoned marble quarry on the north slope of the Dragoon Mountains.

Jake the German Shepard is now Rattlesnake Jake. One July evening Paul, Beth, and Michael were standing around a campfire in the front yard when Jake came up to us crying like a baby. A quick examination showed no obvious signs of injury, but over the next hour his nose began to swell rapidly until it was about twice its normal size on one side. We concluded that in his evening wanderings he had stuck his nose into a hole that contained a rattlesnake and had been bitten. Jake is a very nosy dog and is always sticking his nose into the various rodent holes around the mesquite bushes. He slept it off for a couple of days and the swelling began to go away. We gave him some antibiotics from the vet because the venom is usually accompanied by some bacteria that can cause their own complications.

We had always assumed that the rattlesnake population would decrease on our land as we became more firmly entrenched here, but it hasn't happened yet. We dealt with 7 or 8 rattlesnakes this summer.

36th moon: August 22, 2002. Before Michael left he helped Paul frame in the west guest bedroom wall and part of the closet that will be on the north side of that room.

37th moon: September 21, 2002. Paul finished framing the guest bedroom closet and wired the guest bedroom in preparation for doing the insulation and sheetrock for that room. With winter approaching again, our focus has shifted from preparing to pour the veranda to getting on with the task of sealing up the house for cold weather. It will be fairly easy to finish the guest bedroom work, so we have decided to move our bed into that room for the winter to allow Paul to do some work in the master bedroom area. We still have to wall off the bathroom / closet area on the south side of the master bedroom and finish the insulation and drywall there.

We have purchased a wood fireplace that will stand where we had planned to build a kiva fireplace in the living room.