Ringing in the New Year

On New Year's Eve, Gerald and I headed up to Stanton for the annual reenactment of the killing of Charlie Stanton. Stanton was the man for whom the ghost town at the base of Rich Hill is named. He was extremely unpopular. The story goes that his killers were in the process of fleeing town when a marshal told them they should return, there would certainly be a reward.

The show was a lot of fun. It was held in the restored opera house. Every seat for all of the three performances was taken, and some disappointed revelers were turned away at the door.

The weather on New Year's Day was beautiful and sunny, with temperatures in the 60s.

Dave Owen came up on Friday to help Gerald install flue pipe for our fireplace. Gerald really wanted to get some heat in the house. Unfortunately, the roof jack the roofers installed didn't line up with the flue pipe.

I walked in just as Gerald (above) and Dave were contemplating what to do. Gerald contacted Arizona Fireplaces. They had a part that would solve the problem.


Meanwhile, Bubba and I went for a walk. Tracks were everywhere. This track was more than twice the size of Bubba's, making me wonder what it was. A coyote? Bobcat? Something else?










On Saturday, workers from Heliocol came out to install our solar hot water system. We hoped that they would get it all done so we could have hot water, but it turned out they needed to make two trips. So we made plans to meet them the following Friday.

We left with the hope that the following weekend we might finally have heat and hot water, which would make our lives at the land much more comfortable.