Where the Wild Things Are

/ tara / 3 Comments

Home decor in the ’70s was a wondrous time of paisley, popcorn ceilings, shag rugs and fearless color combinations.  As you may have noticed in the “Interior Before Shots”, we have some fine examples of that ’70s era decorative goodness right here at the ranch.

It would be a shame to let all of that visual history go to waste, so I have been working on a photography project to preserve – at least in images – the various colors, patterns, and textures in the house, before the time comes for demolition.  Continue reading →

How to Dig a Hole, Good News, and Swifts

/ tara / 1 Comment

Hello friends and followers, and welcome to this week’s weekly update.

As I mentioned last time, the next big thing is the septic system, so we will (hopefully sooner than later) be doing soil testing to get an idea of how quickly water can be dispersed into the soil at what depth.  This involves digging some pretty big holes, so that should be as exciting as it will be photogenic.  (Is that sarcasm? Only time will tell). Continue reading →

The Blower Door Test

/ tara / 1 Comment

There are certain things that one takes for granted in life, and for me, one of those things has been paying PG&E for the gas and electricity it takes to keep our house warm in the winter, and presently, to keep the trailer cool here in the heat of the north bay summer.

One of my favorite things is turning up the thermostat when its cold out, but I never really thought about it beyond anticipating how great that burst of warmth is going to feel.  I didn’t wonder about why it was necessary in the first place – it just seemed like a fact of life that if it was cold out, it would get cold inside, and if it was hot out, it would get hot inside. Continue reading →

The Barn and the Bees

/ tara / 4 Comments

The activity on the ranch this week has been in the barn and in the various types of life and death around the barn.

Andy has been making huge progress in removing a variety of unnecessary and dubiously constructed shelves, tables, and platforms from the barn, as well as clearing out massive amounts of sawdust, regular dust, and quite a few previously-vacated mud and paper wasp nests. Continue reading →

Welcome to the Ranch

/ tara / Leave a comment

Hello World!

In this, the inaugural post of the Gimpy Dog Ranch project blog, I shall attempt to give everyone some idea of how we are making out after our very first week living on the property. I’m writing this post from the dinette table of our rented trailer: this is where we will be living, parked on the property, for the duration of the project. Continue reading →