Hail Yeah!

Well, it’s been a hot minute, but we finally have a new episode of The Grid Is For Squares to share with you all! We missed you.

We went up to the property on the Saturday after the election and a big rain storm followed us north the entire drive. In other places, that might be seen as a bad omen, but for Californians there is nothing more blessed than the first rain of the year. The fires are out! We can breathe the air again!

And, if you remember from our previous episode, the last time we went up to the property we dug a rain catchment basin. Which means we have now officially catching rain! The system works!

It was very cold, however, and after the second night of shivering and discomfort I woke up with a bit of… existential panic. So I talk a bit about what it's like to not really be an Outdoors Person while still trying to do this Extremely Difficult Outdoors Thing.

This episode is Part 1 of us chatting about our latest trip up to the property. Stay tuned next time for Part 2!

Well it’s been a hot minute, but we finally have a new episode of The Grid Is For Squares to share with you all! We missed you.

It’s been a whole month since we last posted an episode… a lot has happened, but the most important news in our local world is that the rain has begun! We went up to the property on the Saturday after the election and a big rainstorm followed us north the entire drive. In other places that might be seen as a bad omen, but for Californians there is nothing more blessed than the first rain of the season. It even hailed! Hail yeah.

Which means the fires are out! Mostly. The Creek Fire, the huge wildfire near our property, is now at 95% containment. It turned out to be the biggest single wildfire in California history at 380,000 acres or 600 square miles. Now that it’s out, our air quality has improved so so much; it went from 200 AQI to 20. We can breathe the air again! It’s such a relief.

And, if you remember from our previous episode, we went up to the property in October to dig a rain catchment basin. Which means we have now officially started catching rain! We received 0.24 inches of rain while we were up there and caught 25 gallons of water. We should be catching more, based on the math—closer to 75 gallons for the amount of rain we got—but it’s still 25 gallons of water that we wouldn’t have otherwise. The system works! We built a rain catchment and then we caught rain!

It wasn’t a simple task to bottle up the water from the catchment, though; we had to find a way to filter out the leaves and detritus before bottling it up. But Vince ended up using his beloved Milwaukee Wet/Dry Vac with some mesh over the nozzle and it worked like a charm. We definitely recommend that approach if you’re facing a similar task. And we got another 0.4 inches of rain after we left, so we look forward to another 50 gallons of water in the catchment when we get up there next.

It precipitated all through the first night and the next day, including that dramatic episode of hail. Vince and his mom worked on some building projects inside the greenhouse to stay dry while I just read my Kindle in the bed. The rain was such a relief that we didn’t mind being stuck indoors. It was very cold, however, and after the second night of shivering and discomfort I woke up with a bit of… existential panic.

It was as cold as the very first time we slept on our property, Thanksgiving 2019, but back then it was novel. It was an adventure. Now… it’s just uncomfortable. Now it’s just my life. But Vince and his mom didn’t seem to be bothered by the cold at all, which made me start spiraling about not being “tough enough” or “strong enough” to handle it. If they can do it, why can’t I just force myself to be comfortable too? And if this isn’t what I’m into, why am I doing it? What even is my life?

It was a bad morning. (Mondays, am I right?) But I pulled my shit together and ultimately decided to get a motel room for 2 nights so I could sleep more comfortably while still coming to the property during the days; not only did I have a lot of work to do, but I needed to take that time to remember why I do love this property and what I do get out of it. At the end of the day, I don’t regret buying property. It’s not easy, but the best things in life rarely are.

We got a lot done over the course of the next several days, but we’ll talk about all that during the next episode. Have a good (and safe) Thanksgiving, friends!