BUILDING TOWARD A REBUILD

From the R.M. Dolin novel, “AN UNSUSTAINABLE LIFE – The Book of Darwin”

Chapter 8: Building Toward a Rebuild

Before unpacking the long list of things that must be done before winter unleashes its torrent fury, Darwin concedes that with newfound wealth comes the ability to afford crews for all repairs and improvements and for some necessary things he will. He knows himself well enough to know though, most things he has to do himself. The thing about men tied to the land, in general, and engineers specifically, is they’re wired weird, they have to do for themselves as much as possible even when faster, more convenient, and better-quality options are available. Darwin recognizes that while his goal is to do as much as he can by himself, he has to respect the raw power of nature and winter’s not going to slow roll its way toward harshness, so he must move as aggressively as he can while he can.

The first thing Darwin does while waiting to close on Marquez Mountain is find himself a reliable four-wheel drive. This wouldn’t have happened quickly had Victor not had a cousin in Santa Fe who works at the Ford dealership. In overall appearance, Darwin’s late-model F150 doesn’t look at all like Victor’s; different color, different rims, different accessories. The dent patterns, though, along with the rust riddles are remarkably similar. Darwin’s fortunate to have found a pickup with standard transmission, in high mountain terrain standards have more utility than automatics.

As soon as he has his truck Darwin heads to Albuquerque for needed supplies. It’s four-hundred miles round trip so he plans on being gone multiple days. His first stop is the Winnebago dealer where he buys a twenty-six-foot fully self-contained travel trailer having two slide outs. The thing he likes about Winnebago’s is they seal the edges and joints so rodents can’t get inside. He also appreciates the way his RV comes with lots of storage, he’s gonna need it by the time this trip’s over. It takes all morning to clear the paperwork and file the registration before he can head over to the electrical supply center to purchase a 24-kilowatt power generator that runs on propane. While there, he grabs everything needed for the electrical outlets and lights he’ll run in the hacienda. It’s not possible to hide the wiring within the house’s adobe walls so he buys trim that at least allows the open wires to be hidden in plain sight.

Darwin next ventures to a heating and air conditioning outlet to purchase a forced-air furnace that runs on propane. As he explains to the salesman, he can’t run duct-work in the hacienda’s walls, floors, or ceilings so the salesman suggests installing mini-split heat pumps in each room. While efficient and effective, their drawback is they rely on electricity for heat and circulation, so are not well suited for the limited availability of energy in a solar powered home. Instead, Darwin decides when he raises the roof, he’ll not raise the height of interior non-load-bearing walls, this will allow air flow from one central location to deliver heat throughout the house.

Next up is a stop at a solar power provider. By the time he’s done, he’s purchased an entire system, including an array of photovoltaic solar panels, a battery bank for energy storage, and the inverters necessary to convert sun energy into 12-volt DC power going in, and stored DC power into 120-volt AC current coming out. At this point he’s out of room in his truck and trailer, so negotiates with the solar provider to haul all the stuff he’s purchased thus far over to Marquez Mountain. Darwin and salesman talk at length about Darwin’s two-phase installation plan. In stage one, which runs from now until next summer, Darwin needs a temporary solar setup with panels on the ground and the controls and battery bank in the event tent he plans to purchase. Once hacienda restorations are complete the solar system needs to be permanently installed. The salesman suggests that the solar panel farm only be installed once for both phases because it’s better to keep them on the ground than on the roof of a five-hundred-year-old hacienda. The battery bank and controllers are easily moved to the house’s utility room once that gets constructed.

With space in the pickup and trailer restored and the day almost over, Darwin’s stops at an event center. He wants to rent a forty foot by forty foot event tent for six months but the salesman points out that by the time he pays for a six month rental he can buy a tent twice over and it just so happens they have a tent that’s only been used a few seasons in excellent condition that Darwin can purchase outright or a fraction of the rental cost. Darwin agrees to buy the used festival tent if they haul it to Marquez Mountain and set it up this week on his pre-leveled spot. This isn’t a problem since the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta wrapped up last week and his crew has no other fiestas planned this year.

Since that transaction goes quicker than expected, Darwin decides to squeeze in a trip to the home improvement center. Considering all the crap he needs to buy, it doesn’t really take long, but then again he’s never been one to agonize when it comes to shopping. He starts with every hand and power tool conceivably needed for the work ahead, including a table saw, miter saw, drill press, power planer, planer/jointer, shaper table, dust collector, air compressor, and chainsaw. Along with all that he purchases an array of skill saws, jig saws, drills, nail guns, spray guns, and power rollers. If that weren’t enough, he fills two shopping carts with all the stuff that goes with all the stuff he bought, like pressure regulator and hoses for his air compressor. He also grabs an assortment of hand tools that are too numerous to list. Once all that’s paid for and delivery is negotiated, Darwin heads over to the plumbing department to gather water and drainpipes, along with an array of fittings needed to plumb the kitchen & bathroom and connect his RV to water and sewer.

With construction and off-grid living items checked off his list, Darwin treats himself to happy hour at a brew pub in time for the puck drop of the Blackhawk’s match against the evil Detroit Red Wings. With the match decided early in the third period, Darwin checks into a hotel that allows him to park his RV in their lot. The next morning after coffee and huevos rancheros at a nearby Mexican restaurant the hotel clerk raves about, Darwin launches into day two shopping. He starts at a home furnishing store where he buys bedding, an assortment of small kitchen appliances, and requisite plates, cups, and flatware. It’s pretty dang darn amazing the stuff one needs when starting from zero, like a toaster, he almost forgot to buy a toaster. Being in a home furnishings store reminds him he needs a stove, oven, washer, dryer, fridge, and freezer. Not for right-now use, he needs them available to install as he spends the winter refurbishing the house, so, it’s back to the home improvement center. Luckily, they haven’t sent yesterday’s stuff so he’s able to add new items to the delivery truck.

The last stop on his list is clothes, he needs to be totally outfitted; boots, pants, coats, gloves, socks, etc. Since he’s basically a tee shirt and jeans guy that stop doesn’t take as long as one might imagine. With buyer’s fatigue setting in, Darwin decides to forgo getting food supplies for now, that’s something he can acquire as needed in Taos. He spends another night in Albuquerque for two reasons, first, it’s getting late and he doesn’t want to pull the RV up Taos canyon in the dark, and second, he keeps remembering items he needs and figures he should spend the night thinking about what he’s forgotten and hit things again in the morning. Besides, staying an extra night allows him of continue his exciting culinary exploration of New Mexican cuisine.

It’s fortuitous he stays over because as he’s leaving the following morning it suddenly hits him, he needs wilderness survival gear for both outdoor living and self-defense. That’s when he’s introduced to New Mexico’s bizarre eight day waiting period for handgun purchases. Since Victor has a nephew who can sell Darwin pistols off the books with no registration or waiting period, he leaves Albuquerque content with his rifles, shotguns, significant array of ammunition, and shitload of basic wilderness survival necessities.

It takes Darwin several days back at the ranch to unpack and set things up. The tent guys showed up as promised and within hours his RV’s quasi-permanently parked inside the tent beside his pickup. He watches the tent crew leave already lamenting his next trip to Albuquerque for the things the things he bought require him to buy; things like a gun safe. Now that he owns guns, he needs a gun safe and he didn’t think about that while he was just there.

In addition to the exceedingly long list of things Darwin must do before winter, he has a list of stuff he intends to contract out, the major one being installation of a septic tank and drain field. This requires a skilled professional who has a backhoe and as it turns out, Victor has a cousin who’s available. This is the most intense and complicated of all the projects in his entire property restoration portfolio. Not so much for the septic tank or drain field, but because running waste lines from the house to the septic tank involves digging under the Hacienda foundation, if there even is a foundation. He has to lift the brick floor in the bathroom and dig into the dirt sub-floor to run drainage lines connecting to a sink, bathtub/shower and toilet; all of which are new additions to this five-hundred-year-old house. The drain lines must grade toward the septic tank on a gravity flow. Luckily, the bedroom he’s transforming into a bathroom is large enough to accommodate what’s planned. The kitchen drains are luckily in line with the bathroom drains so he only has to run one main line under the footings to the septic tank.

Patching the roof enough to hold him over winter is the other large project that must be quickly completed. His initial plan to deal with the house’s low ceilings is to lower the floor since the bricks are sitting on dirt. However, he quickly realizes that would result in the floor being below the footings, which creates all sorts of structural challenges. An easier alternative is to raise the roof, which will be one of next spring’s major undertakings. His plan is to lift the vigas off the existing roof using a crane. As each log comes off, he’ll examine them for health and replace any not structurally sound. Then, he’ll hire a crew to add four additional feet of height to each support wall using adobe bricks. Once that’s done, he’ll reinstall the vigas and have a modern flat roof installed containing heavy insulation, light mirrors, and skylights to provide natural light. Once the roof raising project’s complete, he’ll get a stucco crew to put a fresh face on the hacienda exterior and a plaster crew to do the same inside.

While the roof is off, Darwin intends to construct three additions, each requiring the installation of footings and exterior walls. The planned additions include a portico along the front wall that protrudes six feet into the courtyard, a mechanical room along the back wall of the hacienda for his furnace, water heater, generator, solar battery bank, and freshwater tank, and a master bedroom. He’ll use the house’s current back door for interior access to the mechanical room then add an exterior door to that addition.

His plan is to cut an arched doorway around an existing exterior window leading to the large master bedroom addition. He chose the location for his new master bedroom based on the view he’ll have out the glass exterior wall he envisions that will face the Rio Grande valley and mystical Jemez mountains. It will have amazing sunset views but does not offer early morning light. He intends to add a kiva fireplace in the master bedroom along with heat pipes in the floor that will circulate hot water generated from the passive solar system he’ll install on the roof. Since each roof over each addition requires new vigas, he’ll prep over winter by harvesting ponderosa logs off the mountain and bringing them to his shop where they’ll be shaved, cut to length, and allowed to air-dry several months.

Darwin makes temporary plywood doors to fit in the hacienda’s front and back door frames. He intends to build permanent doors over the winter but won’t install them until the restoration is nearly done. He likes the idea of queuing up projects to occupy his winter because he worries that boredom due to isolation may be the hardest challenge to overcome in wilderness survival. Another winter project he’s looking forward to is setting up a wood and metal workshop in the event tent. He wanted to do that in the attached garage of the house he and Becky bought, but Becky said no. Now that Becky is no more, he’s free to have his dream shop, so in some sort of weird way, breaking up with her is a good thing.

Eventually he’ll install new windows throughout the house but for now is content to use sheets of plexiglass to temporarily enclose each window opening. With the house now sealed and the kiva cleaned Darwin’s ready to declare war on the colony of pack rats that have taken up defensive positions throughout the house. He expects the conflict to wage throughout winter with hand-to-hand combat likely at times. Current war planning projections estimate that if everything goes according to plan, ultimate victory won’t be achieved until sometime after next spring.

Darwin lights the kiva intending to keep it stoked all winter. With two-foot-thick adobe walls, brick floors, and a heavy thatch roof, the house’s thermo-load is massive and with poorly insulated doors and windows, even if he keeps a constant fire, he’ll likely not warm the house till spring. The constant fire in the kiva should at least burn off the century’s old musty odors and will serve as his first salvo in the pending war on rats. With that objective in mind, Darwin’s been spending an hour every day cutting and splitting firewood. There’s enough piñon and juniper dead fall around the house to last him several seasons and once consumed, he’ll start working his way up the mountain gathering dead fall in a proactive act of forest fire mitigation. By his estimate, he’ll never run out of readily available dry firewood because by the time he works his way to the top of Marquez Mountain consuming deadfall, there’ll be a fresh crop waiting to be harvested at the base of the mountain as the cycle becomes recursive.

Darwin positions his RV within the festival tent in such a way he can connect to the newly installed septic tank on a gravity flow. This leaves one remaining pre-winter project of critical importance. Water is without a doubt the most challenging task at hand requiring careful thought-out engineering solutions. Victor hooks Darwin up with his sister-in-law’s second cousin in Santa Fe who uses agave syrup in his essential oil business. The agave comes up from Mexico in 300-gallon square plastic tanks encased inside metal cages with bottom drains. Darwin acquires three emptied tanks for the two separate water supply lines he intends to install. He builds a platform beside the RV inside the event tent elevated such that the two tanks he places on the platform each have their lower drain ports above the height of his RV water intake ports. This allows gravity to feed water into the camper without having to rely on pumps. One platform tank is designated potable water and the other is for non-potable water. The third tank he purchased is used to transport potable water. He loads that tank in his pickup and drives to Questa to fill it. Once back he transfers the fresh water from the pickup tank to the potable water platform tank using a pump. He draws non-potable water directly from Kismet Creek by running a hose from the event tent to the creek and pumping water directly into the non-potable platform tank.

Non-potable water is used for things like showering, laundry, toilet, and whatever construction activities require the use of water. Potable water is used for cooking, washing dishes, and of course, morning coffee. He uses bottled water for direct consumption. Darwin places a four-micron filter system on each tank’s outflow line to capture any particles making it past the pump’s filter. To mitigate bacterial hazards, he works a deal with an off-grid supplier for chlorine tablets that he adds each time he refills a tank. Utilizing this three-tank system is a game changer because the rate of potable water consumption is significantly reduced, which means the frequency of water runs to Questa is equally reduced. Refilling the non-potable tank is just a matter of pumping water from Kismet Creek for a few minutes, so, uber convenient.

The unresolved concern in his water supply strategy is whether the platform tanks will freeze on cold winter nights. In theory, water at the top of the tank may freeze but the pressure on the water at the bottom of the tank should prevent it from freezing. While uncertain this theory holds, Darwin decides to let nature decide. To prevent the hoses running from each tank to the RV from freezing, he wraps heat tape around each line and covers that with insulation. For added assurance, he places wool moving blankets around the platform tanks and hopes because they’re in the event tent protected from wind, snow, and sudden temperature drops, there won’t be a problem. In case things don’t go as planned, the RV’s equipped with a thirty-five-gallon water tank along with an additional ten gallons stored in the water heater. That water won’t freeze as long as he doesn’t run out of propane.

Next summer when construction chaos calms down, Darwin intends to replace his event tent with an equally large site built metal building even though the tent salesman assures him his poly-coated vinyl reinforced tent skin will last several years. One nice feature of his tent is that it has several clear plastic windows allowing sun to naturally light the interior. The camper slide-outs both conveniently align with tent windows so Darwin can awaken to sunshine peering in from the bedroom slide out and enjoy gazing outside the kitchen slide out as he sips morning coffee. The camper is fully self-contained and quite comfortable with an ample kitchen, relaxing couch, comfortable queen-sized bed, a built-in radio/CD player, and a full bathroom with shower. He’s so satisfied with his temporary housing, his sense of urgency about completing the hacienda refurbishment on an overly optimistic timeline is seriously mitigated.

Other than Victor frequently stopping by no one visits except Addison who’s dropped by two times under the pretense of documents needing to be signed. Each time she lingers over idle small talk that eventually flows into happy hour. Once, Skyler drives all the way out for no reason at all, she just shows up on a Friday afternoon with a six-pack claiming she’s the official Taos welcome wagon. While Darwin enjoys their company, he’s starting to suspect the three of them are running some sort of dead man’s pool and need to lock down the precise time of his demise. One positive part of Victor’s frequent visits is he hooks Darwin up with locals for whatever refurbishment project is currently underway. For example, Victor lines up his cousin Manny for the septic work and his brother-in-law’s stepson for the roof repairs. He introduces Darwin to his nephew Mateo who’s eager to fill in whenever Darwin needs an extra set of hands. Victor is lining up concrete, stucco, plaster, and roofing crews for the spring and while Darwin appreciates all of Victor’s help, he enjoys teasing him about which relative he’ll find for which project.

Darwin’s convinced fate is rewarding him for a very intense, very productive month by delaying serious snowfalls. Now, with Thanksgiving approaching, most Taos County residents agree ski season will open early, which means the inevitable invasion of Texans is not far off. Darwin is satisfied he’s met all his per-winter goals and can relax into what should become his annual winter routine. He begins each day by leaving the warm comport of his RV to scamper over to the hacienda to stroke the kiva fire making sure to make lots of noise on his approach so the packrats are forewarned. Once the fire is going, he retreats back to his RV for his first hot cup of coffee. He’ll relax at RV kitchen table for a couple hours either researching ideas and solutions for his latest project or journaling. Turns out it wasn’t some grand psychological issue preventing him from writing in his journal, it was just that he didn’t have anything to say. Once he starts chronicling his refurbishment efforts, writing becomes essential. Maybe it’s the engineer in him that needs to capture and record the details of technical endeavors but if he’s being honest, it’s really his sense that in some way what he’s doing needs to be understood by whoever comes after him and as the history of his hacienda makes clear, there absolutely will be someone who comes after him.

With his New Mexico life in order and winter in waiting, Darwin makes plans to return to Chicago for Thanksgiving. He intends to set up some sort of regular visiting schedule so he can actively be involved in Issac’s life and ensure Vincent’s stepping up to take care of business in his new dad/husband/doctor role. Addison and Skyler each separately invite Darwin to their Thanksgiving Day dinner but to be safe, he’s not picking a team. He’s come to enjoy spending time with both ladies; it helps take his mind off Becky. To be clear, there’s nothing going on with either Skyler or Addison yet, even though it’s increasingly obvious they wish there was.

Victor and Mateo agree to check in on the place whenever Darwin travels. There isn’t much to do or worry about, but Mateo does at least agree to remain on the offensive in the looming war on rats and to keep the kiva fire stoked as best he can. The only other responsibility is to make sure the water lines don’t freeze, the gas pilots stay lit, and propane tanks don’t empty. In addition to the two thirty-pound propane tanks that came with the RV, Darwin has a twenty-pounder for emergency backup and a five-hundred-gallon tank he rents from a propane distributor. There are multiple propane distributors around Taos but Victor’s cousin Augustine, who’s once removed on his mother’s side, promises to deliver within twenty-four hours and to always provide his best discounted rate.

As Darwin is enjoying today’s morning coffee along with some light journaling, he spots the Appaloosa stallion drinking from Kismet Creek at the edge of the trees decrementing the end of Marquez Mountain and beginning of the Rio Grande valley. Over time each of his mares discretely approaches the creek for a drink before disappearing like ghosts back into the trees. It shocks Darwin, seeing how decimated the herd appears and with winter on the horizon he’s worried they’re in trouble. He immediately contacts Victor about where he can order two semi-loads of hay. Victor urges Darwin to let the mustangs be, but Darwin insists that if the appaloosa’s journey, herding his mares down from the mountain meadow is anything like his journey was going up to the meadow, they’ll need nourishment to sustain them on their way to wherever it is they winter. Darwin gets that it’s wrong to feed wild animals and assures Victor it’s a one-time deal, he just wants to help his herd over a hump. Victor reluctantly agrees to reach out to his sister’s husband’s, second cousin over in Chama who can probably deliver hay later this afternoon provided Darwin pays in cash and is neighborly enough to offer both drivers a couple cans of Coors for the long drive back to Chama, per standard Northern New Mexico protocol.