I have been a bad blogger and not doing enough upkeep on this blog. Mostly that’s because I have been working on the dog run and doing it in tiny bites – a few hours here and a few there. The missus calls it my “installation.” It is almost complete and I would like to post photos, but the camera has taken residence in her car and I forget to get it out.

There is some additional news I can add. Firstly with regards to the cabin project, the front door is almost complete and only awaits a small piece of window glass…. Which should come in today or tomorrow.

Another cabin-related item is that we have decided to go ahead and see about getting a new roof and not wait until we sell our house in Corrales as had been the plan. This has been the rainiest summer since we’ve lived in New Mexico and the roof has performed so very poorly that the ceiling in the front of the living room has simply failed. This morning I tore out the ruined area and patched it (I will paint after I close the shop) but that will also fail if the rains continue… but it had to be done since we have guests coming (more on that below).

Regarding the main project – the strawbale house on the land -- there has been an interesting development. Santa Fe County called and informed us that the permits were ready. Back in January they should also have been available but the evil sob I was working with (and who stole my money) did not provide them with the correct number of plans and refused to give me one. Therefore, the county would not provide me with permits. Suddenly the plans are available. I see four possible developments:

1. The county decided to waive its own requirements just to get my paperwork off their desks.
2. The county thought better of forgoing the cash I would have to shell out to complete the permitting process and relaxed their requirements.
3. The note that was on the plans detailing that the requisite number of plans had not been provided was misplaced and no one re-checked to see if everything was in order so that the permit could be issued.
4. The evil SOB dropped off the final set of plans in order to get that wrinkle out of the way. One of the demands we have made is that he provide permits and that would cost him money. This way, I am out money and he does not have to look quite such an asshole for not allowing the permitting process to go forward.

I don’t really know what the skinny is, but it does not really matter: I can’t build until our lawsuit us settled. I have heard that those who go ahead and build when still under contract with this scheming fellow get sued.

The German Invasion

We have distant-ish family coming to visit. Susan’s Mother’s Cousin’s Daughter, her husband and their two children arrive on Monday. Some 5 years ago they visited us when we were living in Albuquerque. They had the husband’s sister in tow and that didn’t work out very well (it did not help that only Susan’s Mother’s Cousin’s Daughter (I have no idea what kind of relation that is) really spoke English and I do not speak German. To make matters even more fun, the husband’s sister only spoke Farsi. It gets all complicated.

But it is a nice family and the kids will be quite a bit older, most likely speak English pretty well since they’ve been studying it in school, and will be at a better age to not let the heat (they live in Munich where August highs are in the 70’s) get the better of them.

So I am under the gun to get the cabin in better order and make sure the Corrales house is in good shape. This is the one silver lining of still having the Corrales House: a place to put visiting relatives.