Well, faithful readers, I promised you pictures of our new little cabin, and here they are. In fact, lots of them!

The first pic shows the house on day one, when it was little more than four railroad ties set in the earth and a floor made from plywood and pressure-treated two-by-six. The well-drilling rig is in the background.

The second pic shows the cabin with all the framing and the roof and some of the plywood wall sheathing done. You can see the framed openings for the two windows and the door.

In the third pic the outside surface of the walls has been done. For this we did what's called "board and batton," or alternating wide and narrow vertical rough-sawn planks of wood.

The fourth pic shows the house nearing completion. The windows are in, and the interior walls have all been finished. Christina and Tatou strike fantastic poses!

And finally, the fifth pic shows our new home in pretty much finished condition; in fact this pic was taken this morning. Off in the distance are my containers, and off to the right is Mr. Wexler, the moped.

A few days after finishing the house, we tackled the water situation. The well has in fact been drilled, but there is probably another month of trench-digging, electrical wiring, and plumbing to be done before we have any running water, so in the meantime we set up the water tower system seen in pic six. The water in the blue barrel feeds both the shower behind the tower as well as the kitchen seen to the right. For a better picture of the shower, click here.

And last but not least, the final picture shows the venue for the endlessly recurring West Mesa Ping Pong World Championships, to be played from now until eternity between Christina Sporrong of Sweden and Christian Ristow of Brazil! May the best ping ponger win!