Sunday, January 6, 2008

Out in the Field

If I were to try to convey the nature of our life here in the hinterland, I might have to use these words: mountains, desert, and lakes; Basin and Range, roadcuts, wide open spaces, and small but cozy living spaces. MOH and I live in a tiny house, one small enough that the refrigerator is in the dining room. Our "outback" town hosts businesses of the mostly mom-and-pop variety, with only one or two minor chain stores besides a few nationally known fast food places and major gas stations. The presence of locally owned and operated stores is quaint and harks back to times before big-box stores came to dominate the landscape. We enjoy the small town atmosphere, and shop here whenever possible, though many particular things are hard to find. We then will go to one of several “nearby” larger towns, often Reno, or we will buy online.

The driveway at our little house is made of dirt and gravel (right now it is of frozen mud, ice, and snow), and it's steep at the upper end. The tightness of the street, with other vehicles parked nearby, makes pulling out of the driveway a little difficult. We both back our trucks into the driveway to park side-by-side, and we use 4WD to pull out uphill whenever mud, snow, or ice covers the ground. Both our trucks sit outside in the weather, uncovered. Temperatures here at the house, in our "banana belt" location, are often 0 to 10 degrees F, sometimes warmer, not often colder. Right now, one truck won't start, and we don't yet know the cause.

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