Thursday, May 27th 2010

 

Las Tusas Chronicles officially begin

 

 

Yep, we got a beautiful Spring shower at the camp. The new awning on the stage worked perfectly, we stayed dry while torrents of hail and rain filled the forest and meadow with a frenzy of much needed water and humidity.

 

 

 Below Austin and Amelia arrived as Eric Travis and I were installing the acoustic insulation on the ceiling of the stage which you can just make out at the top edge of that image. We quit working and visited while the generator continued to charge the batteries at the 50 amp setting. 

 

 

Yeah the rain came in a few places on the stage. We'll address those minor leaking issues today, as well as finish installing the insulation. I'll run to the Sapello store and buy gasoline for the generator, and thanks to Michael Drechsler's generous donation we can afford the gas.  This is really something how the old-timers keep on kicking-in regardless of whether they can make it here. Michael is wheelchair bound in British Columbia.  Really makes me  appreciative of the community here via everywhere.

 

 Still there are a few things to do. At some point today I need to modify the cigarette lighter inverter I use to charge my netbook  in the Trooper, so that we can make sure there is enough power to run Nell's CPAC  (breathing) machine  so she can camp too.  We already had it on the Killawatt meter so ought to know what it draws.  Anyway I'll devote some time and attention to that this morning. 

 Above the Tusas kitchen area has a lot of activity yesterday. This crew went to town and picked up bunches of pre-made pizzas, so they missed the first shower, but they caught the second one which was even better than the first. You'll be as happy to hear that there isn't a cloud in the sky this morning, the Rain God did what needed doing and doused the forest before Memorial Day weekend, perfect!

 

 

We have sand all around the horno which we hauled up from the river. The sand is very comfortable to stand and sit on, as well as keeping the notorious New Mexico clay at bay. Behind Jack, Austin and Ally you can see the gigantic pile of Pinon we cut and hauled down the hill on Tuesday.

 

While I was in town yesterday picking up compost from Slim a major multitasking effort I also went to the hardware store bought two sheets of plywood for the truck, then to Wal-mart, quickly checked the price of the tarps ($37.50 btw) bought dog and cat food, plastic and Styrofoam cups, dark roast coffee  ,synthetic creamer, rope, and three big sacks of oranges which you can see were a huge success

 

 I screwed up one of the multitasking projects, at the hardware store I asked for 2 sheets CDX waferboard, the guy asked which one I wanted, CDX or waferboard, I was so sure or distracted I said CDX, and wound up with two very expensive pieces of 1/2inch plywood to be used for hauling compost a couple of times until Slim runs out. The compost is beautiful material if anyone needs it for their garden I'll hook you up with Slim and Jose. Like I said I am a bit distracted at the moment, nevertheless today I'll get a crew down here  and  unload this compost and shoot more pictures.

Brittany and Vidal looking too cool for school with brightly colored hair.

 Warmest seat in the place is between the camp fire ring and the horno, yeah there is a little mud visible on the right. That is the spot where adobe was mixed for the five or more layers Toast and her gang added to the horno this year.  The oven get up to 350 degrees lickity-split now and we have seen it go up to 475 degrees, perfect for pizza.

 

What else can I say?

 

 

This is going to be the best Tusas ever