Stock tank tub it is

We made the leap and purchased our bathtub/shower basin for the tiny house today - at our local feed store where we also got another rain barrel to assist in the composting toilet process (more info on the logistics of that here).
Obviously there's a LOT of work that needs to be done before it will be truly useable, but it was satisfying to see if fill the space and I even got in it to imagine my first bath in a loooong time. I'm adding to my pinterest board for the tiny house all the time, too.

I am not a compensated endorser, however I DO love this new candle I bought when Huckberry had them on sale recently (along with this sweet Breaking Bad T-shirt for Keith). Terrific smell (this one is agave + honeysuckle), 50-hour burn time (burns evenly with the 2 wicks), hand poured, and the company donates to animal rescues. Probably have to get another one for the bathroom once it's bath time.

My container veggies are still growing and going strong. I got one full blossom on the pepper plant (right), but the weather hasn't been hot enough for it to transform into an actual pepper. The 2 Galina tomato plants are blossoming as well, but as the nighttime temps dip into the 50s and 40s we're going to have to move everything inside soon.

Smoky skies

This is the worst the forest fire smoke has been this year and it's really settling in the valley. Apparently it's similar all over the region and even in western Montana. So the pups and I have been laying low this week, really not all that different from the rest of the summer, but not taking walks to the river. Watching movies, reading, listening to records, counting down the days until Keith comes home (less than 2 weeks!).

Our stone pine appears to be dying and I don't know why. It was doing great earlier this summer and I don't know if it got too hot in August or I over-watered it or what, but I'm not sure how to save it. Google isn't much help for stone pine research, so if you know how to care for trees let me know. I'm sure it needs replanted, but the sudden decline is confusing. It seems like it was doing better when I was neglecting it.

It's definitely feeling more like fall. I took the air conditioner out of the window this weekend and have been mostly sleeping with the windows closed. All summer I was wishing for time to pass and now that it's almost another season I am glad. I pretty much wrote off the summer of 2012 - I didn't get anything worthwhile accomplished, on the tiny house or otherwise, and most of my energy went into making it through the day.

I've decided not to make an extensive list of tiny house project I want to finish (too overwhelming) and instead give us the mental and economic freedom to concentrate on our 2 main before-winter projects: finishing the bathroom and getting a wood stove. 

Of course the bathroom project is muy importante - at least the toilet part is - and I'm hoping it won't take long to finish. I have pinned some ideas on my tiny house design inspiration board for exposed copper plumbing and stock tank tubs (not as rare as I first thought) and accessories. 

We've been wanting to convert back to wood (from the propane heater we currently have) due to excessive humidity issues and this weekend my uncle and his girlfriend came up to visit and mentioned he had one he was refurbishing (he installs them for a living) so we're going to get a good deal on one - we just have to reconnect the stovepipe through the ceiling.

I've been reconsidering the interior of the house, too - just like me, it's not finished and I'm still making plans to change things - to make it look more cabin-like. We're already doing the rustic/salvaged look, so we might as well go for it. I really like the look of this interior (minus the Jesus art) and this and this. So I am going to lobby to cover up the walls on the bedroom end of the house (since the plywood has leached through the paint and we have some other cosmetic issues there) with some sort of wood.

In other words, once Keith gets home: it's ON. 

Lately

the parade is over - hometown celebration, this weekend

a surprisingly clear day, it's been very smoky lately

 my new hand thrown tea mug from Sunday Market in Missoula

 in my everlasting search to find a top blanket that is dog-proof, 

we're trying this one from West Elm

one  pepper plant is blooming

one tomato plant is clearly a dwarf

listening to songs like this on my record player

Mid-summer Weekend Reunion

Keith was coming off a fire at the end of last week and had a few days' leeway before having to go back out again, so we made an impromptu meeting over the pass in Lolo (and Missoula). It was great spending a couple days together, but it was also hard to say goodbye again. Counting down until the end of fire season. 

Hopefully there is an end. It was weird watching the national news Saturday evening and seeing Featherville mentioned. Wonder if the Church of the Wildwood will make it?

Half-way Through Summer

Half-way through the Summer Spent Separately. AKA working out of state to pay off debts. AKA at least there's True Blood, Dexter, and plenty of books.

Also: blackberries are on. First pick was over 5 gallons, second pick was about 3 gallons.
Still a pick left.

If you've never tried blackberry jalapeno jelly, you're missing out on life.

 

The healthy eating agenda is still pretty much on track. I've been eating a lot of breaded eggplant slices w/marinara, quinoa/klamata olive/feta salad, Italian stuffed tomatoes... well pretty much those three things on rotation. Pinned a lot more recipes I'll probably never get around to making but sound good on my "get in my belly" board.

A rock with a crack it in makes a good recipe holder.

Lazlo always has to protest having to sit for a photo. Petting him the other night I felt a lump in the fat part of his chest, so Mr. Brown is going to the vet next week.

Mia Pia is swimmer extraordinaire. Now only if she could kick the fleas. (Apparently it's a bad year for the, mild winter + wet spring = flea epidemic.)

The river continues to drop every day and when we go in the evenings it's that perfect balance of almost equal air and water temps. The skies have turned hazy in the past week or so, no doubt from all the forest fires. Makes me think of Armageddon. "Cause my worst case scenario brain takes over sometimes.

We haven't had rain for a while now so logically the rain barrel is slowly emptying, between feet washing after the river, filling the dog water bowl and watering the plants on the porch I am not sure how much longer it will last. If we had multiple barrels I wouldn't be worried since the early summer was nearly constant thunderstorms. Definitely need to put that on the list of projects. A friend in Kooskia also posted this rainwater harvesting sketch from Mother Earth News on facebook the other day - definitely like this idea.

The Chief Lookkingglass Pow-wow is this weekend. Last year I shot a few b/w Polaroids and this year I'm taking a whole pack of PX70 Color Shade in the SX-70 - pretty excited.

Breaking bad habits

Six weeks of stress eating and watching as much television-on-DVD as humanly possible (oh, Dexter) has caught up with me. I go through cycles of eating fairly decently, but most of the time when I am left to my own devices, I revert to a diet that is admittedly horrible.

I am trying to change.

Step 1: Break up with the microwave. It's lazy. Put some effort into it. I mean, we bought our camp chef oven for a reason. And the propane's already paid for.

To start I built me a pan of bean burritos in jalapeno tortillas smothered in enchilada sauce. Reheating is easy, just throw some tin foil on the little baking sheet and cook on low for 20 minutes or so.

Gets a delicious crunch on the bottom. This little oven would have no trouble roasting veggies, I never even turn it up past the very lowest setting.

Step 2: Don't eat after 7 p.m. They say sumo wrestlers gain enormous amounts of weight by eating a huge meal and then going directly to sleep. Sounds plausible at this point in my short experiment. And instead of trying to convince myself that energy bites are okay to devour because all the ingredients are "basically good" I've started satiating my sweet tooth with an apple and peanut butter after dinner.

Lunch with my very thoughtful friend Melinda in the park last week meant taking leftovers of a delicious quinoa klamata olive feta salad home. And the other day she dropped off a huge bowl of vegetarian chili for me. I am always thinking how I could eat better if only someone would deliver food to me!

I've missed about a month of yoga, which was really starting to feel beneficial. I will be glad to get back to it this weekend. My yoga teacher recommended some books and one I really enjoyed was The Wisdom of Yoga: A Seeker's Guide to Extraordinary Living. I know yoga is seen as some new age flakey woo woo thing, but I have experienced beneficial results, and reading that book made me consider what is possible. 

Last night I read most of Why I Am A Buddhist. My family only went to church for weddings and funerals and I've never felt an affinity with the Christianity I was exposed to growing up. I am more of a science person. Or nature person. I really don't feel the need to have a spiritual awakening - though peak experiences shouldn't be discounted or diminished - but I am finding a lot of what Asma writes in it is in line with what I already believe: all living creatures deserve our compassion, we should try to reduce suffering in the world, truth must be self-tested, that everything is temporary. 

And my temporary physical separation from my husband is....temporary. We talk almost every day and Skype when we can. But there's no replacement for the real tangible within arms reach. I'm trying to appreciate the opportunity that I have, being alone isn't something I'm used to. We've been together pretty much since we met in 1997/98. Then again if this summer job means we get some burdens/bills get paid and we possibly have enough coin to scrape together a short getaway once he returns, it might be worth the separation. The jury is still out.

Too Hot For Pants

Obviously we're not the only ones in the country dealing with hot weather.  
But I am officially declaring July 2012 as Too Hot For Pants. 

We're still hitting the river about every other day. Lazlo is getting better at holding his breath and dredging rocks from the bottom, but for some reason he tries to chew on them so we're discussing what's appropriate behavior with rocks.

We found a tennis ball at the beach last week so I attempted to lure Mia out deeper in the river with it and it worked. Swimming is not her favorite activity, she'd rather scour the beach for treasures, but she is able to make a few doggy paddle strokes when I take her out and throw the ball back to the shore.

Pretty impressive for a dog that survived Hurricane Katrina. We're taking it slow, though.

My potted veggies are growing well, though it still seems unlikely they'll get big enough to produce fruit. 

Mr. Stone Pine has some volunteer clover growing in the pot. 

I have a single corn plant growing (among the bindweed) on the side of the house. Assuming that an unsterilized corn kernel from the bird feeder is the source. It's not going to produce anything since corn needs to be pollinated by other corn plants, but I don't really have the heart to pull it up. Found some sunflowers starting to sprout in my potted veggies, too. Someone at the bird seed factory was napping when this bag went through.

My parents convinced me to buy an air conditioner for the tiny house. I was so reluctant (for four years now) for obvious reasons but with Keith being gone and the dogs spending most of Mon.-Wed. inside while I'm at work, there was no other solution. I didn't feel comfortable putting them in the dog pen during this kind of heat. 

So we have an air conditioner now. Other than using more electricity, the biggest con is that it's in the window above the bed and so in the evenings when I turn off the A/C I don't get a breeze through that window. It's cut down on the air flow considerably and the house tends to stay hotter in the evenings. 

Take the lack of air flow and throw in the sultry, oppressive weather and it's most definitely Too Hot For Pants. 

Keith is on his way to fire camp - finally, after being in Montana over a month. They've been driving back and forth between the co. HQ in Billings and the site of the contract starting point, Cody, Wyo. knowing something would happen soon. And now it finally is.

Water dogs

The temps are rising and even though we now have a little air conditioner for the tiny house (a lifesaver, thanks to my parents) we try to hit the river about every other day to cool off. It's very crowded this time of year but the river has been dropping rapidly and now we can walk downriver to the rock beach and have some space.

I think Lazlo is part Lab as much as he likes swimming. Just saying "swimmin" gets him all worked up. We get to the river and all he does is swim and dig for rocks. Not sure how he got onto the rock digging, but Mia has been watching him and decided she can do it, too - in a little shallower water.

I tried coaxing her out deeper, but she was not at all on board with that. She needs to be touching the bottom at all times. Though she will stick her face underwater, so whatever.

I can only be out in the sun for about an hour at a time without feeling like I'm frying (even with SPF55) and every time I tell Lazlo it's time to go home it breaks his little doggy heart. I think he would live in the water - except there are no blankets to crawl under at night there. 

Julyness