May 2020 - February 2021 Move to New Mexico and New Mexico Astronomy Compound Build

May 20, 2020 - June 12, 2020 The Move to New Mexico:

The Clavinova was the first to leave and the last to arrive in Silver City. It left Georgia on May 19th. It sat in a warehouse in Missouri for almost a month before we would see it again at our rental house in Silver City.

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The moving van with all of our stuff except the sewing machines and telescopes left Canton, Georgia on May 22 after an almost full day of loading. The U-haul was used as a shuttle from the basement entrance to the moving van, sitting out on the street. Since we took our rather extensive home gym this saved the movers time.

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We did some last minute cleaning to prepare for the closing but by 8:00 PM we were on our way to Oxford, AL and our first stop in racing the truck to NM. We had to get there first because we still needed to rent the storage building for most of our stuff and the house for the rest of it and for a place to live. We didn't know how long construction would take and in the midst of the Corona Virus, we didn't want to stay in an extended-stay hotel.

We were driving our Chrysler minivan and Kevin's Jeep, both loaded to the max with high value or precious items. Of course we hit a terrible rain storm just south of Atlanta.

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Part of the precious cargo headed for New Mexico. Huge Giraffe - he jabberred the whole way over. Then we packed other items around him.

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We spent nights in Oxford, AL, Monroe, LA, Weatherford, TX (after a late lunch at Spring Creek BBQ in south Arlington, Tx, of course), and Van Horn, TX. We saw a roadrunner as we were leaving Van Horn for our final leg to Deming/Silver City.

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Our first stop - May 26, Deming, NM to rent our 15x50 storage room. For now, all we put in it was the Jeep and the kayak. Then we had lunch and headed out to Silver City to get our rental house. We had made the cross country journey in record time and had a few days to get settled in before the moving van arrived on Saturday May 30th.

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Saturday May 30 - the moving van arrives today. We got up early and drove down to Deming. The moving van was already there (but his helpers weren't.) So we let him get set up and soon they arrived. It took them all morning to unload and it was a much slower process than we anticipated because they had to unwrap everything that had been wrapped in blankets. It was also more chaotic as the truck wasn't really loaded in an organized fashion, but more with the eye to filling all available space. But a little after noon we started north to deliver the items that were going to our rental house in Silver City. Here is a view of the storage building pretty early in the process.

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We are very excited to find a herd of deer roaming the neighborhood around our rental house in Silver City. We see them in groups of 2 to 6 around different yards, walking down the street and in the wild areas between rows of houses. These two were grazing between our house and the house next door.

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We had a few days to relax, get most of the household goods unpacked, utilities connected and then on June 4th we drove back to El Paso to fly back to Georgia to wrap up the house and go to closing. We were flying one way to Atlanta and had some concerns with the Corona Virus raging around the country and with El Paso being the hot spot in this area. But we got to a deserted airport for our 11 am flight and it looked like an airport in the middle of the night, pre-Corona. We flew Delta direct to Atlanta, all middle seats were empty and masks were required, although a loose interpretation of what constituted a mask and how it should be worn applied.

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We rented a car to drive up to Canton and ate dinner at La Parilla. Then we drove by the house to check on it and headed for the Hampton Inn next to Cracker Barrel on Riverstone. It was amazing how much had changed in the two short weeks we were gone. Georgia DOT had started working the widening of Hwy 20 between I-575 and our house and much of it was torn up.

The next morning, we breakfasted at Cracker Barrel across the street from the hotel and then drove to the house for the final cleaning and load our few remaining items in the Mustang for the drive back. On Saturday we had lunch with a friend and coworker from Lockheed and drove up to the cemetery to say goodbye to Barry's parents. We weren't sure when we would see them again.

Wild turkey wandering the grounds of the Georgia National Cemetery. There was a flock of half a dozen wandering among the trees and headstones.

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Monday June 8th. Closing Day - We went to the house and did a final walkthrough and said good bye. Then we took the Mustang and returned the rental car to a really seedy shopping center in Marietta - one of the few non-airport Avis locations open during the pandemic! We drove back up to Canton and had lunch and then showed up at the closing attorney's office about 15 minutes before 2 PM. The buyers and real estate agent arrived shortly after we did. They signed many papers, we signed a few and then it was done. We had opted for a wire transfer and the attorney said it would show up in a while (contrary to the movies - wire transfers are not immediate!)

We left town and got on the road to Silver City. It was fun driving the Mustang and it was a pretty day for driving it. I kept checking the bank to see if the transfer had shown up. As we arrived in Douglassville and dinner at Texas Roadhouse, it was there. Now we could relax - the house closed and we had our money. We were on the road for the last cross-country drive and the new adventure in New Mexico awaited us! We retraced our drive of two weeks ago, staying in the same towns and hotels.

We did notice an increase in traffic on this trip. Perhaps the country is opening up post Corona Virus pandemic. We also noticed on this drive, psychologically, we were now "going home" to New Mexico. At Van Horn we called the airport parking lot where we had left Cranberry, our minivan in El Paso and told them we'd be there by lunch. We picked up the van and then started for Silver City. On Friday June 12th, we got home, unpacked the Mustang and relaxed.

We have much to do in the next phase to build our Astronomy compound, but we have also accomplished a tremendous amount during the midst of a country-wide shut down. We sold our house in Georgia. We are living in New Mexico and all of our stuff is here.

June 12 - June 30 Starting Lot Development:

The first order of business was to find our general contractor, get a quote and get him under contract. We had recommendations from our nearest neighbor who had built last year about this time. It took us the rest of June to accomplish this.

June 19, 2020 Lori got this great picture of the conjunction of the moon and Venus from the back yard of our rental house.

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June 20, 2020 We went out to the lot and using GPS coordinates and our iPhones, we marked the approximate center of our observatory. At dusk we saw lots of jack rabbits hopping in the fields and on the roads.

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June 20, 2020 We set up the 60dA camera on a tripod at the center of the pier location. Barry took an image every 5 degrees around a full 360 degree sweep. We did this 3 times. Once before dark, once at dusk when everyones' lights came on and then once after it was dark enough to see Polaris so that he could adjust the tripod location slightly (about 3-4 degrees). This would allow us to plan where to put the buildings to block the local lights from the observatory. The rest stop lights, shown here, are the most obtrusive but they will be blocked by the shop.

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June 21, 2020 We are in New Mexico, we have a fenced yard, let's set up the telescope! What we discovered is that in the middle of Silver City the skies were darker than at our house in Cherokee county, Georgia. There also weren't too many really offensive local lights.

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June 22, 2020 Barry had finally gotten in touch with our general contractor and today we meet with him and his wife over dinner at Yi's Garden, a restaurant in Deming. We bring this proposed layout of our lot along with other information we think they will need to provide an estimate.

They are an interesting couple. Both in their 70's and have been doing this a long time. We know they deliver because everyone at the astronomy village really recommends them. Vinita (the wife) does the paperwork, the proposal and will ultimately do battle with the state to get the permits and rent the heavy equipment. Fred is the strong silent type. He is very reticent and thinks carefully before speaking. We leave encouraged that things are starting to happen. They promise to get us a proposal in a few days.

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June 22, 2020 Our first image from Silver City. NGC-6384 Three total hours of LRGB exposures; Celestron 14 HD Edge at F11; ZWO ASI1600 Monochrome camera with filterwheel; Silver City, NM 6/22/2020.

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June 24, 2020 The lot before clearing. We meet Fred out at the lot to discuss the plans and meet his foreman, Donnie. The first step is to mark the outline of the total area to be cleared. Donnie and Micheal mark the center front of the property and a location along the south property line representing the front of the house. But then they go back to work at Stewart's house (another astronomer) to finish up his septic tank and the pad for his manufactured home.

We make a stop at Ace and buy a 300 ft measuring tape, flags, posts, and other supplies for measuring and marking.

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M-92, a globular cluster in Hercules; Stack of eighty 2-minute exposures; Celestron 14 HD Edge at F11; ZWO ASI094 One-shot color camera; Silver City, NM 6/30/2020

The ZWO ASI-094 camera arrived from High Point / China on June 26. We had shipped it off to them in early April for repairs. We tested it out on M-92.

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July 2020:

July 1, 2020 We signed the contract with the General Contractor and put down the downpayment. On each of the five different itemized contracts, there were entries for permits. At the time we didn't fully appreciate what a challenge those would represent in the time of Covid 19 when the state was pretty much closed down.

Here is a listing of the permits:

- Land-use or flood plain permit - you have to provide your "plan" for how the property is to be used, signed contracts with the septic tank installer, well driller, and Columbus electric.

- Septic tank permit requiring a GPS location of the well and overall plan showing septic tank and adjacent septic tanks and wells.

- Metal building permit (Workshop) requiring engineering drawings for building and foundation of metal shop building

- Metal building permit (Garage) requiring engineering drawings for building and foundation of metal shop building

- Manufactured home foundation permit requiring engineering drawingsof the foundation

- Well permit requiring a contract with the well driller and GPS location of the well.

- Manufactured home transportation permit

- Manufactured home blocking (installation) permit

- Electrical permit - when all electrical work has been completed and prior to the electricity being turned on for the first time

- Occupancy permit

The first five were going to be done by the general contractor, we found out we would have to do the well permit, the manufactured home builder does the transportation and blocking permits, the electrician does the electrical and we have yet to determine who does the occupancy permit.

Barry got this great photo of hte lizard on our back patio. Every day becomes a game to try to find which wall the lizard has moved to. He might disappear for several days but so far, he has always come back!

July 2, 2020 Received a quote from the well driller with the notation that we needed to apply for the well permit.

July 6, 2020 Drove to Anthony, TX (El Paso) to meet with Mueller building representative and the general contractor to order the shop and garage.

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July 8, 2020 Barry got up early and took a picture of Comet NEOWISE from out backyard. We also mailed the application for the well permit and the signed contract and check to the driller.

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July 9, 2020 Barry got up and went planet hunting. Here is a great photo of Jupiter with its moon Calisto and Calisto's shadow on the face of Jupiter.

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July 9, 2020 Barry also got this great shot of Saturn. The rings are always stunning!

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July 9, 2020 And finally, Mars - a small and elusive planet to photograph!

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July 10, 2020 We met with Fred's choice of electrician who, overall, seemed uninterested in the job. So we will have to look further...

July 11, 2020 Another member of the astronomy village invited Barry to the local radio control flying field and we got to fly for the first time in several years! Here Barry is launching the F-22 foamy. It is a wide open field with no trees as far as the eye can see. It is also located adjacent to the Grant county airport.

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July 11, 2020 our lot has been cleared! Here you can see the outline of our Astronomy compound. Barry took this image with the GoPro camera mounted on our quadcopter. You can see the houses of our two nearest neighbors and a cameo of Barry and Lori.

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This is a video shot from a quadcopter flying over our lot in the astronomy village after the brush was partially cleared earlier in the day. The cleared areas define where the driveways and buildings will be built in the near future.

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July 12, 2020 We ordered our modular home from the dealer in Deming. That was a day-long ordeal with lots of choices. We are going to have it set on a crawlspace which complicates the installation.

July 13, 2020 The piano arrives and is in great shape!

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July 14, 2020 We met with a second electrician - Miguel. We provided a package of information and he is going to give us a quote in a few days.

July 14, 2020 Barry and I took a first run at locating and staking out the four corners of the buildings to see how they block the lights for the observatory.

July 16, 2020 Barry turns in the request for service to Columbus Electric. Before they can proceed, their engineer must provide an estimate and he is out until the beginning of August! Arghhhhh!

July 17, 2020 We drove out to Grant County airport with the camera and tripod and took this picture of Comet NEOWISE not long after sunset.

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July 18, 2020 After going to the flying field, Barry drove down to the lot and gave Fred the metal building drawings and templates for the footers that had come in the mail. Barry was excited to see the backhoe had arrived and Donnie started working on the foundation crawlspace for the house! This was about as far as they could go without the track hoe because the caliche is so hard.

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July 19, 2020 After a terrible rainstorm and checking the weather which predicted clouds and rain for the near future, we packed up the telescope. The summer monsoons were upon us and we were interested to see what that really meant in a land where there is less rain in a year than we would get in a month in Georgia.

July 21, 2020 Barry and I adjusted the location of the buildings because Fred had moved the house closer to Loco Rd to better line up with the adjacent house before they started digging. We discovered that opened a gap in the light blocking and we had to move the observatory. We agonized about that for a couple of days.

July 23, 2020 Barry had an epiphany on how to use the perpendicular bisector method to square up the corners of the building. So we went out once more to square up the buildings and to firm up the location of the observatory.

We decided to make a run down to El Paso to look at Hal's Hobby House for a new airplane for Barry, check out a fabric store and eat in a favorite chain restaurant. Just outside of Las Cruces is this giant roadrunner sculpture on the side of the road and we discovered there is a rest stop associated with it. We changed drivers and Barry decided to chase the road runner. He never caught him, though. Barry got a new airplane, Kevin got a new desk (which we shipped to him) and I got dinner at Texas Roadhouse!

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July 26, 2020 We drove out one more time to look at the locations of the buildings and to look at the lights from the rest area on the back of the house. We were surprised to find they had marked the corners of the shop and were starting to level the area for the pad. Unfortunately there was one high corner and they would spend the next month working to build up the other three corners for a level pad above grade.They brought in loads of AB fill (aggregate base) which they mixed with dirt and then packed into place.

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July 29, 2020 At long last we got a quote from the electrician.

July 31, 2020 Our appointment with the Motor Vehicle Department has finally arrived. We made this in early June right after the closing on our house. We are prepared to get Barry's Real ID driver's license, and register the three cars. No driver's license - although we had his Passport, GA driver's license and two NM proofs of residency, his social security card was a copy. REJECT! We also could not register the Mustang (we didn't have the car present), or the Jeep (Kevin isn't a NM resident), even though Barry had a power of attorney and the Jeep there. Only the van got registered! Next window of opportunity - August 19, a backup round of appointments I made back in June.

The desert around Deming and Silver City is in bloom. Here is a shot of one of the Yucca blooks near oour house. They are gorgeous!

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August 2020:

While there is a lot of activity behind the scenes there is very little visible activity at the lot. Nothing seems to be happening. The partially dug foundation for the house is just sitting there. We try to be patient.

August 7, 2020 We get a cryptic phone call from Luna county that our house permit is ready but since wee didn't personally apply for it, we are unsure what it means. I call Vinita and she explains that it is the foundation permit for the house. She provides no other information on the status of things other than she'll be putting the request for metal building permits in next week, presumably she has been waiting on the engineering drawings for the foundation.

The lack of communication and progress are very frustrating. We don't know if the holdup is permitting, manpower, that they are busy elsewhere or what. When we do see Fred, there is precious little information forthcoming. We decide to call for a meeting.

While the days are incredibly hot (100+ sometimes), the evenings cool off pretty rapidly and one of our favorite things to do is sit on the front porch of our rental house and watch the epic sunsets and, clouds permitting, the stars and planets come up. Right over the house, to the south Jupiter and Saturn, typically make thier appearance. Some nights we bring out the ETX and look at them. The sky is very steady here and although the ETX is only a 3.5 in aperture, the planets are pretty clear.

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August 8, 2020 As a distraction, a friend from Georgia has discovered a remote astronomy site in Namibia which is quite reasonably priced. So he and Barry decide to give it a try and Barry selects NGC 6744 to image. It takes a few days to get all of the images and then we put in a request to get some additional luminance frames.

August 11, 2020 Dinner at Marie's Italian Restaurant with the general contractor to discuss what the status is of our lot development. We learn some of the permits are still in work, but most importantly, there are no track hoes to be had. Apparently there is an Amazon distribution center going in near El Paso and they have contracted all of the track hoes in the area. We left the meeting a bit demoralized but they assured us they would continue looking for one.

August 12, 2020 The engineer from Columbus Electric who has to give us a quote, has returned to work. So we can finally move forward with getting a contract with Columbus Electric.

August 14, 2020 We attended a planet party at one of the other astronomer's observatory in the astronomy village. We met a few more neighbors in the process. We drove by our lot...no activity since the last visit.

August 15, 2020 We met Fred at the lot and Donnie was working on the pad for the shop, using AB (aggregate base) to pack it down and fill the low corners. The truck that was bringing in the AB was also taking out loads of caliche. Donnie was also digging out some more of the pit for the house foundation. No update on the track hoe from Fred.

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August 18, 2020 Round 2 with the Motor Vehicle Department and we had much success. Barry and I both got our RealID's processed (although the actual card comes in the mail in 45-55 days). We had the Mustang at the office and it got registered and we registered Kevin's Jeep (which we had also brought along) in both Kevin and Barry's names (after FedExing papers back and forth with Kevin in the two week intereim between appointments). We are officially residents of New Mexico and we also registered to vote!!

August 19, 2020 While we were enjoying lunch at the Little Toad Brewery, Vinita called and said she had a lead on a track hoe but it would cost more. We agreed to additional fees to get it so that we could make some progress. Unfortunately it fell through.

August 20, 2020 We finally had all of our images from Namibia: NGC-6744, an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Pavo in the southern hemisphere. It is considered to be a Milky Way mimic in our vicinity; 3.5 hours of total LRGB exposure; 20 in. iDK at 3420 mm; ASA DDM85XL mount; FLI Proline 16803 monchrome CCD camera with filterwheel; SkyGems Remote Obsevatory, Namibia, Africa 8/20/2020

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August 21, 2020 We drove down to Deming to swap the Jeep with the van and put the Jeep back in the storage building. We stopped by the lot to check in on progress. Donnie was there working and he told us that the track hoe would be there on Monday! It was coming from Albuquerque. That was exciting news indeed!

August 22, 2020 We, the electrician (Miguel) and Fred are supposed to meet at the lot to discuss the trenching for the electrical cable from the pole to the power panel and for the rest of the lot. Miguel is late becasue he has an emergency and can't make it until after lunch, Fred leaves and we leave and come back when Miguel calls that he is on his way. We discuss the plan and he does a telecom with the engineer from Columbus, who is an old friend of the family. Small world!

While Fred is there, we discuss the hole for the pier with him as we want him to dig it while the track hoe is there.

August 22, 2020 We got our second photo from Namibia finished and processed: The Helix Nebula in the southern hemisphere; 5 hours of total LRGB exposure; 20 in. iDK at 3420 mm; ASA DDM85XL mount; FLI Proline 16803 monchrome CCD camera with filterwheel; SkyGems Remote Obsevatory, Namibia, Africa 8/22/2020

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August 25, 2020 The trackhoe arrives! Another heavy machinery operator, Brandon, first digs the foundation of the house, then the septic tank, the eletrical trench from the power pole, the pier hole and then remaining trenches. The original contract had specified three days but it took the whole week they were required to rent it.

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Standing at the septic tank end and looking along the 125 ft leach field. The white layer starting about a foot down and the white pile adjacent to the trench is the caliche and it is hard and hard to dig!

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This video was taken of an excavator, called a track hoe, digging through caliche in Southern New Mexico for an electrical trench. Caliche is a hard rock-like calcium carbonate layer that occurs about a foot below the surface and goes down at least 12 feet (as far as we dug)! The process is pound, pound, pound, then scoop.

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Barry flew the quadcopter to get a birds eye view of all of the trenches. They filled them in a short while later so the heavy equipment could maneuver around the lot. The house is in the forground, the electrical trench is off to the left. The septic tank and leach field are off to the right and the pier hole is covered by a sheet of plywood.

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September 2020:

September 1, 2020 This was supposed to be a big day - Columbus Electric and the electrician were supposed to arrive and install the transformer, the power pole and run wires so the trenches could be closed up. The short version is that we were stood up by both without the courtesy of being told. We arrived early and waited a long time. It was a demoralizing day.

September 3, 2020 Columbus Electric installing the transformer on the electric pole.

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We set up the ETX on the front porch of our rental house to look at Jupiter and Saturn. When we went to go inside, this creature was lurking by our front door. It is called a whip scorpion or a vinagaroon (because of the vinegar scent). It is supposedly not terribly poinsonous to humans but he certainly looks scary. Our son said it looked like the creature Khan put in Checkov's ear in the Wrath of Khan.

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September 4, 2020 The electrician installed the electric pole and ran the cables for the buildings. While we were watching them, the owner of the garage doorplace in Deming stopped by with his quote.

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The electrician suggested a new restaurant in Deming, Mama Fatz, when he heard we were headed out to lunch after watching all the electric work. The septic tank was expected, but we were hungry so we decided to go and come back.

Mama Fatz was a hamburger place with real ice cream. We got to eat inside and it was terrific. This was a mural on the wall in the seating area.

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When we got back after lunch, the septic tank had arrived! Fred said they had a crane on the back of the truck and lifted the two parts into the hole. Septic tanks in New Mexico have above ground access ports for pumping and maintenance. Much better than the concrete lids in Georgia where you get to dig up the yard! There is not a lot of room to spare in that hole!

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This is a video of a dust devil that formed on our lot today.

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As we were leaving the lot after this very eventful day, we saw this antelope in an empty lot north of our place.

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September 5, 2020 We went to the lot and Fred and Donnie were determining the level of the area for the house foundation. We didn't stay long and went back home.

Barry set up the C-14 in the front yard and we had a private planet party with visual observing only - looking at Saturn and Jupiter. We also looked at the Dumbell Nebula, M13, the Double Cluster and the Andromeda Galaxy.

Lawn care is included with our rental and they mow about once ever 6 weeks whether it needs it or not. LOL!

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September 7, 2020 Happy Labor Day! Barry went to hit baseballs this morning and took slow motion video with the Go Pro. We captured this still from the video.

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September 10, 2020 We woke up yesterday to a terrible thunderstorm and it rained on and off all day, sometimes very hard. The temperature dropped as well. When we arrived at our lot today, the house foundation area had lots of water in it. The footers for the metal buildings were also half-filled with water and they lost a day's work yesterday. The concrete man was installing the metal expansion joints in preparation for pouring the concrete.

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September 12, 2020 Kevin arrives to visit. He'll be working from here all week but we will still get to visit in the evenings and weekends! It is so great to see him - we hadn't visited in person since last Christmas. After picking him up, we stopped by Las Cruces to buy some specialty foodstuffs for him to showcase his newly acquired gourmet cooking skills and then went to dinner (inside) at Olive Garden before driving back to Silver City.

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September 13, 2020 After lunch, we all went for a drive up to Jack's Peak on Burro Mountain south of Silver City. Although we were in the jeep it was pretty rough going and I eventually chickened out and we turned around before reaching out destination. This was a view coming back down the mountain.

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September 15, 2020 First concerete! At 1 PM today, the trucks are supposed to arrive to pour the footers for the shop foundation. They had finished the rebar and wire and had gotten the inspection yesterday. This shows the rebar cage of one of the footers for the main building columns.

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The cement truck arrived early at 12:30 PM and only Donnie and his crew were there. Here, Barry is watching them pour the footers. The rest of the crew and Fred arrived around 1 just as they were finishing.

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After they finished the concrete, everyone hopped onto finishing up the septic tank since that had also been inspected. Here they are filling the trench for the leach field.

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September 16, 2020 After Kevin finished work for the day, we had dinner in and then we drove up to Pinos Altos and beyond into the Gila Wilderness. We took this photo of the bark of an alligator pinon tree.

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We also saw some very healthy agave cactus.

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Barry, Lori and Kevin in the Gila Wilderness.

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While we were driving in the Gila Wilderness the sun set over the mountains.

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September 17, 2020 Today they pour the slab for the shop building. Start time 6:30 AM, so we set an alarm and headed down bright and early. Here the sun is coming over the eastern mountains and they have already started.

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Here the crew is leveling and smoothing the concrete by screeding the surface.

September 17, 2020 We were notified by Mueller that our two buildings would be delivered on Monday. We were very excited! Unfortunately, on September 18, 2020 we were notified (ominously) by Mueller that their computers went down and in fact, our buildings would not be delivered on Monday.

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Here Jose is using a "floor polisher" to smooth the concrete. It rotates with large scrapers on the bottomside.

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September 19, 2020 Today we drove to Deming to walk through our manufactured home. This will be the first time we see the finished building in the colors and with the options we chose. It rolled out of the assembly line yesterday.

We thought long and hard about the concept of a manufactured home. In New Mexico, a significant number of the homes are pre-fabricated.This is partly because it is cost-prohibitive and sometimes impossible to find contractors who will drive out of the cities to build a site-built home. We looked around the astronomy village and manufactured homes are the route almost all of the other astronomers have taken. When in Rome... And after experiencing the complexity of getting all of the pieces to come together with going this route, we are so glad we didn't try to build a site-built home, particularly during COVID-19.

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September 22, 2020 The construction crew is putting the final touches on leveling of the foundation for the house.

We spoke with Mueller Buildings today, it turned out that they had been hit by a ransomeware attack. They had no idea when the computers would be back up and when our buildings would be delivered. They hoped it would be early next week.

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Removing the the forms from the shop foundation.

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September 23, 2020 We went to the lot to await the arrival of the insulation for the metal buildings. While we were waiting, the electrical inspector arrived and gave us the okay for temporary power. Then a Ryder truck arrived with the insulation. Unfortunately, it turned out to be the insulation only for the garage building.

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September 24, 2020 The preparation for the foundation for the house completed and waiting for inspection.

Still no word on the delivery of the buildings.We picked up the insulation from the lot and took it to our storage building in Deming.

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September 29, 2020 The pour of the concrete for the house foundation started at 7 AM. They were done by 10 AM.

Trucks arrived at staggered times but they were still finishing with the first truck when the third one arrived. We were worried the concrete would harden in the third truck before they got to it.

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October 2020:

Things were really starting to move fast. We were hopeful that October would be a very productive month on the lot.

October 1, 2020 After the inspection of the electrical system, we thought Columbus and our electrician would be out in short order to give us temporary power with outlets for Fred. After a few days we asked our electrician and he told us to call Columbus. Barry did and found out there was a $100 deposit (refundable in a year) and a $25.installation fee (on top of the $1500+ we had paid already..). We paid that and they came out to turn on the power and bring a meter which the Columbus electrician scrounged out of the back of his truck.

As always Columbus was due at 10 and didn't show. So on our way into Deming for lunch, we stopped at Columbus - the technicians thought is was 1 PM. They showed at 1:30.

Here the electrician from Columbus is connecting the power to the lot.

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October 2, 2020 Mueller Buildings called today- they were back up and running. Our buildings will load on the 8th and be delivered Monday October 12. Yeahhhh!

The fields are alive with the bloom of fall wildflowers. There are lots of yellows and purples. Here are some flowers on our lot in the astronomy village.

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As we were waiting for the foundation concrete to cure (for 7 days), we hung around Silver City most days. One morning, the streetsweeper went through our neighborhood. Man were we surprised.

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One evening we ran out to get gas and were sitting at a Silver City gas station when Barry pointed out a tree where there were a lot of buzzards sitting.

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October 3, 2020 The FLARE rocket launch in Las Cruces. We got up and got on the road early to drive to Las Cruces and be there by 9 am. Masks and social distancing not optional! We brought the Ascender, the Majestic and the Cherokee E. We flew each of them twice. Here Barry is connecting the electrical leads to the Ascender.

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Barry set up the GoPro Hero 8 Black edition at the base of the launchpad and aimed it up to capture the launch and flight of the Ascender on an E16-6 engine at 240 frames per second. We then slowed down the launch in Pinnacle Studio.

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The is a different flight of the Ascender with an on-board 808 keychain camera.

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The launch of the Cherokee E as viewed from the Go Pro Hero 8 Black at the base of the launch pad. It is launched on an E12-6 rocket engine. This was the first flight and the parachute didn't bring it down very quickly. Barry walked a long way for the recovery!

There are three slow motion launches on this video again edited in Pinnacle Studio. The first is the Cherokee E.

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The launch of the Majestic on E16-6 with the on-board keychain camera. It really spins as it climbs! This is due to minor impefections in the alignment of the fins.

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October 5, 2020 Although the concrete still has three days to cure, the house is going to be moved from Solitaire in Deming to our lot and positioned to me moved onto the foundation later this week.

Originally we were told it would be there before lunch. We arrived at 8AM and hung out watching Fred's people work on preparing the ramp for the house and filling the AB into the gaps between the concrete ribbons in the house foundation.

At 11 AM we called Solitaire and were told it was looking more like 1 PM. So we drove into Deming for lunch at Taco Bell. We took our burritos to the Solitaire dealer and set up a stakeout. Finally at 1:15 PM, both halves of the house left there to make to 30 mile drive to our lot. We followed behind.

This is the front part of the house about to merge onto I-10 east of Deming.

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Here you can see both halves making the turn into New Mexico Astronomy Village.

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When we arrived back at the lot, we found that the site was perfectly prepared for the house. Donnie and his crew did a beautiful job on short notice!

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The house is poised to move onto the foundation when the concrete has cured.

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October 6, 2020 Friends visited us from Ft. Worth and we all drove up into the Gila National Forest. Along the way we passed this tree which had a rock in the middle of the branches.

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Lori and Barry with Julie and Eric, old friends from Ft. Worth.

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Sunset from an overlook in the Gila National Forest. It was a smokey day due to the fires in Arizona, but it made for an awesome sunset!

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October 9, 2020 Barry preps the QuadCopter for an early morning flight over the lot to capture video.

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October 9, 2020 An updated Quadcopter / GoPro video of the progress on the lot.

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Although we arrived early and expected the house set up crew early, the morning wore on without their arrival. Here Barry helps out work on the garage foundation by using a pickaxe to dig footers.

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I entertained myself by taking pictures of this blooming shrub. I think it is a rubber rabbit shrub and they grow in abundance in the fields in this part of New Mexico. They are small very round bushy shrubs and they turn the fields yellow this time of year.

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We went to lunch and came back and waited some more. Finally around 3 PM, the house setup guy arrived with his "house cat". This is a small, very powerful tracked remote controlled vehicle that moves the house halves around like they are nothing. Here Barry is talking with the setup guy as he unloads his house cat. It looks like it would be fun to play with.

The operator was very good at his job. He stood behind one half of the house, with the cat out of view at the other end, and manuevered the house parallel to the other half already on the foundation and within 6 inches along the entire length.

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The first view of the house in position sitting on the foundation! Monday - leveling and blocking!

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October 12, 2020. It is 9 AM and the truck delivering our Mueller buildings arrives on time! Here Brandon, Barry, Donnie and Jesse watch it back into position.

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Unloading the parts for the shop and garage buildings from the truck. The material for the shop is staged on the left side while the material for the garage was put on tthe other side of the lot.

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A view of the Mueller truck and forklift unloading material.

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The Mueller truck was unloaded and gone in a little over an hour and a half. Today is supposed to be the start of the mating and levelling of the house. So we settle in to wait for the set up crew. While sitting in our lawn chairs waiting, we noticed lots of bird tracks in the dirt around the house. We think they might be roadrunner tracks!

At 11:30 we leave for lunch in Deming. When we return, the set up crew has arrived and is starting to work.

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Erecting the first center column of the metal shop building with assistance from the backhoe.

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The construction crew raises the first rafter using the backhoe.

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Meanwhile, Donnie and crew have jumped right into putting up the framework of the building. Here they have used the backhoe to lift the rafter and attach it to the column. Jessie has shimmied to the center to unhook the backhoe.

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The house setup crew focuses on the back half of the house - by the end of the day they have removed its tires and axles and blocked and shimmed it. They have aslo removed its hitch. Another crew member has been removing the furring strips holding on the protective plastic sheeting on each half of the house along the centerline.

At the end of the day, they haul away the tires, axles and hitch.

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The set up crew has also placed the two glides at two separate locations on the front of the house. When they are ready, this is what they use to move the front half laterally to mate up with the back half.

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October 13, 2020 Brandon and Jesse install purlins - longitudinal members supporting the roof, while Michael assists from the ground.

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Shortly after lunch, the setup crew has removed the plastic and support boards and are almost ready for mating.

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The front half of the house is moved laterally on glides using come-alongs to bring the two halves together for mating. Unfortunately something goes awry and the house drops off one of the glides. Fortunately there does not appear to be any damage.

After a couple more attempts they are successful.

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A view of the shop at the end of the day.

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The well drilling rig arrives! We had contracted with them in early July. We were consistently two weeks out in their schedule. The last date we had was October 19, 2020 and they actually arrived and early this time!

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We had been at the lot since 8 AM and had come home covered in dust and exhausted. After dinner, we got cleaned up and were watching baseball and Barry decided he wanted to scope because the skies were so beautiful.

He captured this beautiful image of Mars using our Celestron C14 Telescope at F11 with ZWO ASI094 color camera. October 13, 2020.

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October 14, 2020 The drill rig is deployed and they set up to drill our well.

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This is the first drill bit they used to drill the well. Each of the three heads rotate as the drill rotates. This was used to drill down about 10 feet to allow for insertion of a large diameter metal tube with a spout off the side. Its purpose is to direct the foam and water into a trench they dug to channel it away from the house foundation and the garage forms.

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Starting to drill our well. Although there was some discussion of using a well dowser, Barry showed the drillers where we wanted the well and they started drilling without complaint. Here is the the very beginning of our well!

Shortly after this video was taken, the short length of tube shown in the video is seated around the drill area to contain the drilling foam. It isused to bring the debris up from the hole and carry it away.

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The setup crew finished the outside of the house by blocking the front half. They installed lag bolts at the centerline along the bottom (from underneath) and the top (from the crawlspacein the attic) about every 12 inches, alternating direction. They also installed flashing at the roof centerline and then a cap of shingles.

The last thing they did was to tie down the house to the concrete foundation along the front and back edges.

The crew moved indoors and started work on the finish work there. The only remaining outdoor task is to install the lap siding on the ends and paint it. That will happen next week.

This picture also shows the foundation is recessed into the ground. There will be a block wall added all the way around the base of the house, creating a crawl space. Then soil is back-filled and graded so that the house sits essentially level with the surrounding ground.

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And Donnie and Nick are finishing up the forms and rebar for the garage foundation. So lots of things were happening on the lot today!

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This day was very windy all day. This blew a lot of dirt and sand around. Barry also noticed the wind causing the girts or longituginal z-section beams on our shop building fluttering as the wind excited their natural frequency. At this point they are only attached on the ends. Later in the day, the construction crew added temporary wooden supports to keep them from moving around.

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October 15, 2020 Today we played hookey in the morning and Barry went to hit baseballs. When we arrived the drilling crew had solved their problems from the night before and drilling was in full swing. They were at 180 ft and had hit first water. This is a view of "Barry's Moat" a ditch to allow the foam and water from the well to be directed away from the house.

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This picture shows water and foam gushing from the standpipe. To the right of the driller is a circular scooper. It is used to take samples of the tailings. These are preserved to provide information for the well report.

In the background you can see the finished forms for the foundation of the garage. We are awaiting the inspector.

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A video of the well drilling in in progress. They have just added another section of drill pipe. When they first re-engage, water which has filled the hole comes gushing out. Then as they make contact with the bottom and start to drill, the foam comes out and carries the debris (tailings) from the drilling operation.

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This is the grid of well tailing samples. Read from right to left, near to far. They represent the samples collected, four times per 20 ft. length of drill pipe. There are 16 rows for the 320 ft. final well depth. The initial consistency is a coarse sand from the caliche. The final consistency is a fine gravel from granite.

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October 16, 2020 Barry had ordered a 16 in. diameter x 12 ft. long cardboard sonotube from L&P Building Supply in Las Cruces for the observatory pier. It had come in earlier in the week and on Friday we drove to Las Cruces to pick it up. We had to get creative to make it fit in the van. It rested on the front passenger dash up against the wind shield. We laid down the front and rear passenger-side seat and it still extended out the back. We tied it longidutinally and then had to get creative tieing the hatch shut since Chrysler didn't give us anything to grab onto.

This allowed us to drive home at 60 mph with no issues.

The only problem occurred when we drove on the gravel roads around NMAV. The dust blew into the back of the van through the open tailgate and we had a fine layer of dirt covering everything when we got home.

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On our way home from Las Cruces with the sonotube, we stopped back by the lot. The drilling crew had reached 320 ft. and stopped drilling. This video shows them inserting the 6 in. diameter PVC casing. The segments at the bottom of the hole is a solid bullet-shaped piece. Then they have a 20 ft. solid PVC segment, a 20 ft. perforated segment, another solid segment, another perforated segment and then solid the rest of the way to the surface. The pump will sit inside the casing and be attached to a 1 in. diameter PVC water pipe to bring water to the surface.

Before they seal the well with concrete, they pack the bore around the PVC with pea gravel.

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October 19, 2020 We went to the lot to find that Donnie and his son were sick. Brandon, Jessie and Michael were working on the shop, the driller was there (but not his assistant, so no communication) and the forms for the garage slab had not been inspected. We drove down to Deming for lunch and stopped back by to see if the set-up crew for the house had come. But they had not. So after a busy, productive week, things had slowed again.

October 20, 2020 We went to the lot late since Barry had a haircut appointment. They have started the siding on the building and are working around the door. Also the concrete forms for the garage passed inspection.

October 21, 2020 We voted in the morning - that went well, fairly short lines, social distancing, etc. It took us all of 20 minutes. When we arrived at the lot, Fred told us they would pour the footers for the garage today so we hung around to watch that.

The drilling crew was gone, they had filled in Barry's moat and taken away their drilling rig. They had also poured concrete around the well pipe and capped it until we were ready for installation of the pressure tank.

After the footer pour we drove to Deming and went to lunch. To our surprise when we got back the house set-up crew was there to work on the carpet joining and to side the house. (Interesting set of skills!).

October 21, 2020 When we got home, after dinner, Barry took some video of Mars. He stacked the images to produce this terrific photo.

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October 23, 2020 We arrived at the lot early for the garage concrete pour. In this photo they are about half done.

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October 23, 2020 Barry and Lori watching the garage foundation pour. It was complete by about 9:30 AM.

We picked up some trash and were about to go to lunch, when I spotted four of the house tiedowns pulling out. We called Fred over and he was very upset. It turned out that Donnie had started a new tube of the adhesive on the last four and it was a different color. It was either defective or didn't mix properly when they filled the holes before they put in the all-thread. At any rate, it had to be fixed.

Fred got some expanding bolts, they cleaned up the holes and inserted the new expanding bolts. I tried not to think about how the pull-out strength of those compared to the initial installation.

On the way home, Cranberry (our minivan) got hit by a rock from a passing gravel truck and it put a double chip in his windshield. This had not been a stellar day!

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October 26, 2020 The set-up crew had finished the siding, sort of. Here they are working on the south end. They told us (and we agreed) that it still needed another coat of paint but they had run out and would need to pick up more from the factory. There was also some trim that needed to be finished.

They let us walk through for the first time since it had been joined on the lot. It was exciting to see it all put together. There was still some touch-up needed where ceiling paint had gotten on the walls and wall paint had gotten on the ceiling, but overall we were very pleased.

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October 27, 2020 It snowed! We stayed inside, cozy and warm until late in the day. When we drove around Silver City to look at the state of the roads. They were pretty open but would re-freeze later tonight.

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October 28, 2020 We drove out to the lot-only Jessie and Donnie working - siding the south wall of the shop. As expected they had not worked the previous day. Pretty much all of the snow had melted except on the slopes of Cooke's Peak.

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October 30, 2020 We went to get our flu shots at the Silver City Health clinic- they were running a drive-thru flu shot clinic. After that we were supposed to drop off Cranberry for a new windshield but the one that had come in was damaged. So he ordered one from Mopar. Arrival TBD.

We went down to the lot- and they had finished the walls of the shop! Here Brandon and Jessie are starting on the roof.

I also called SNJ Home movers to see when they were going to be back out to finish up so we could get the keys.

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The house set up crew has been using a step ladder to span the gap between the ground and the porch of the house. We decided we needed to build a ramp to allow them, us and visitors to enter the house safely until the blocking is complete and the trench is filled in. Here is version 1.0 of Barry's ramp. It is wide enough so that you don't feel you will fall off the side and it is very sturdy. We have gotten many positive comments about it!

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October 31, 2020 We went to the lot to meet SNJ and Barry worked some on prepping the observatory pier hole for pouring the pier and block. SNJ was supposed to meet us late morning. They finally arrived around 3:30 PM. He walked through with us, told us to mark what we needed fixed and said one crew would be out Monday to finish up the interior.

We went home and watched the Florida football game.

November 2020:

November 3, 2020 Brandon working on the roof of the shop building.

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November 4, 2020 The set up crew did not come on Monday as promised. The new promise day is Saturday.

Miguel, the electrician, is supposed to meet us at 9:30 AM to wire the house to the main power panel so we will have electricity inside. He showed up at 2:45 PM. But, he did finish before the end of the day and before we went home, we had power on in the house. We spent about half an hour flipping light switches and turning on and off fans and lights and generally figuring out which switch controlled what light. Having electricity in the house is a major step forward!

November 5, 2020 We go to Harbor Freight in Silver City to start collecting shop lights for the shop and garage. We need 12 for each building. We find 6 and none expected in anytime soon. This is going to be a long process since they won't order them - you have to go to other stores to find them.

November 6, 2020 SNJ's inside set-up guy arrives unexpectedly, while we were in the middle of doing paint touch up. We explained that we decided to do that to free him up to do the stucco work. He is ok with that and we paint to our heart's content.

November 7, 2020 Today the outside set-up crew is supposed to repaint the ends of the house. We arrive at the lot to find Donnie and crew connecting the house to the septic tank. Here Donnie is using the backhoe to reopen the trench from the house to the septic tank for the sewer line. They are kicking up dirt and working right near the house.

We are torn between telling the set-up crew from SNJ not to come and seeing if they do. We needn't have worried. They didn't come. But as it turned out the Solitaire factory has been closed by the state because of a Covid outbreak and they couldn't get the paint. A text telling us this would have been nice...

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November 9, 2020 We call Jason at Solitaire and tell him we want the keys and we will paint the ends of the house ourselves. We just want to feel like we are moving forward. Jason calls later to tell us he will turn over the keys on Thursday (today is Monday) at 11 AM. But he says Solitaire insists on painting the house the following Monday and we won't have heat until the A/C units can be set. We are fine with that.

November 11, 2020 We drive to Las Cruces (2.5 hours each way) to find the remainder of the shop lights. They are supposedly in stock at Harbor Freight. We are also going to Home Depot to look at washers/dryers and to pick up some other stuff we haven't found in Silver City. Harbor Freight only has 5 lights, in spite of their inventory online saying they had 10. But we take them and now we are only missing one for the shop set.

We get to Home Depot and, because it is Veterans Day, it is super crowded (unpleasantly so under normal circumstances and even more so under Covid rules). We buy the washer and dryer after the sales person tells us that if we wait it may be a long wait since they have had some supply issues due to Covid.

Since moving to Silver City, we have spent about all the time we wish to in a laundromat - so we figure, even though we don't have water in the house yet, Home Depot could go ahead and deliver them. After Home Depot, we have steaks at Texas Road House before heading home.

November 12, 2020 We go to the lot really early as the garage door for the shop building is due to be installed today. We are pleasantly surprised when they are already there when we arrive - one of the few businesses in New Mexico that showed up on time!

We are also supposed to get the keys to the house today and 11 AM comes and goes. We text Jason to ask if he will be there soon because if not we are going to lunch. He texts back to let him know when we get back (translation, I am not on my way, in fact, I forgot, so why don't you go eat and let me know when you are done...).

We do meet up with him, do the walk through and then he gives us the keys. The house is ours!

November 16, 2020 New Mexico has a huge surge in Covid cases so we are entering a 2 week lockdown. Only essential stores open at 25% capacity, restaurants once again go to a take-out only model. When we went to the lot, Donnie and crew were putting up the first iron for the garage. Now they are going to be splitting their time between the garage and blocking the house. If it is too windy to hang the metal siding, they will block.

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November 18, 2020 The washer and dryer arrive! Barry has widened the ramp to allow for a hand truck and we temporarily moved it to the back door. Version 2.0 has rails and is 8 inches wider!

It is good that he widened it - the dolly for the washer just fits inside the rails and the washer barely made it in through the door. About an inch to spare on each side!

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November 21, 2020 We drive to El Paso to pick up Kevin as he arrives for Thanksgiving. He can work from Silver City, so after much soul searching about the trip in general, he decides to come early and stay for a week after to avoid some of the other travelers. All guidance says NOT to visit family during the holidays, but he self-isolated for a couple of weeks before the trip and then got tested (negative). We are really excited to have him here.

We plan to swoop into El Paso (a local and national Covid hot-spot), with no stops except to pick him up, drive back to Deming and pick up takeout and then go to the new house and picnic with lawn chairs and a card table for dinner.

November 23, 2020 The electrician starts work on putting electrical power to the shop building and installing the shop lights.

November 25, 2020 Since the weather has cleared, Barry set up the telescope again and took a couple of photos. But he needed to be able to take new flat fields. In Georgia, he had the light screen mounted on the wall, but in the backyard of our rental house that is not possible. So Barry used his dew shield and modified it to allow for use of the light screen.

It worked perfectly and Barry obtained flat fields he could use.

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PGC5100 and surrounding galaxy field; Stack of thirty-six 5-minute exposures; Celestron 14 HD Edge at F11; ZWO ASI094 One-shot color camera; Silver City, NM 11/15/2020

Barry took this on 11/15 but couldn't process it until he had the new flat fields.

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The Crab Nebula, M1; Stack of twelve 5-minute exposures; Celestron 14 HD Edge at F11; ZWO ASI094 One-shot color camera; Silver City, NM 11/15/2020

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November 27, 2020 Since Kevin had the day off we drove down to Deming to visit the Aerostat fixed blimp site south of the city.We were in luck as it was tethered on the ground instead of being deployed, so we got to see it up close.

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The Bat Nebula, NGC6995. This is a close-up of the eastern part of the Veil Nebula; Stack of thirteen 3-minute exposures binned 4x4; Celestron 14 HD Edge at F11; ZWO ASI094 One-shot color camera; Silver City, NM 11/27/2020

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November 29, 2020 We packed a picnic lunch and drove a loop across Hwy 152 to Caballo, down to Hatch (chile capital of the world!), over to Deming and back home. The drive was gorgeous through the higher elevations of the Black Range between Silver City and Caballo. This is a view from one of these overlooks.

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Kevin and Lori on the drive to Hatch.

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November 29, 2020 We stopped in Hatch for lunch. We tried to go to Sparky's but they were crowded, so we ate our picnic lunch before continuing on to Deming and back to Silver City.

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Barry struck up a conversation with this guy that we met in Hatch.

When we got back, Vinita called and told us Fred, our general contractor had tested positive for Covid. Not good news!

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The Triangulum Galaxy, M33; Stack of twelve 5-minute exposures; Celestron 14 HD Edge at F11; ZWO ASI094 One-shot color camera; Silver City, NM 11/30/2020

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December 2020:

December 3, 2020 Work on the garage is progressing slowly as is the blocking of the house. Because it has been windy most days there is more blocking going on than anything else. While they are making progress, there are just soooo many blocks to set.

This is a view of the blocks completed along the back wall of the house. There is one more row to go, but before they do that they have to fill the blocks with concrete to strengthen the block wall.

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December 3, 2020 Barry and I decided to do some work in the shop building since it is complete (but not inspected) and we'd like to start bringing things over from the rented storage building in Deming. We cleared out construction debris and swept the floor. There are still some items remaining - like the insulation for the garage.

In this view of the shop you can see the 12x10 ft. garage door and the shop lights we worked so hard to get.

The puffy white finish on the walls is insulation. We chose to insulate both the shop and the garage buildings which is a much cleaner install if it is done when the building is assembled.

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December 3, 2020 We got news that the heater in the house should be working, even without the A/C units. Before we left to go back to Silver City, we went in and tried it - the blowers came on but no heat. So we called the A/C folks and they are going to send someone out. It would be really nice to have heat, since it is getting in the 20's at night.

As we left the lot, we crossed paths with a herd of antelope.

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December 5, 2020 Kevin was due to fly back today but then we discussed the complexities of him coming back for Christmas in just 2 weeks and the safety of making two trips through the airports. He decided to stay through December 27. What a wonderful Christmas present!

December 7, 2020 Barry and I drive to El Paso in search of shop lights since we had exhausted the Silver City and Las Cruces supplies. I have to say Harbor Freight has the worst customer service imaginable. They won't let you order the lights online or in the store and they won't hold the ones they have while you drive for three hours to pick them up.

There are three stores in El Paso - one, according to online inventory has 7, one has 4 and one has 2. The first one really had 3, the second one had 5 and the final one had 1. So we got the 9 we needed but we had to go to every store. We arrive home 9 hours later, exhausted.

Four-Panel (2x2) Mosaic of The Triangulum Galaxy, M33; Each panel is a stack of thirty-six 5-minute exposures; Celestron 14 HD Edge at F11; ZWO ASI094 One-shot color camera; Silver City, NM Taken over a period 12/2/2020 - 12/7/2020.

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December 8, 2020 The heater guy comes late in the day and tells us there are two problems - the thermostat is for a heat pump (we bought a conventional heating - A/C system) and it is wired wrong. So he temporarily rewires it and we have to run it on "Emergency" until we get new thermostats. But we have heat! We leave it on overnight and, hopefully tomorrow when we arrive it will be warmer than 41 degrees F in the house!

December 9, 2020 The house is warm! And the siding on the garage is finished so the guys are working on the gutters before starting to put up the roofing.

Today we take delivery of our new dining room table. We sold the kitchen table we had at the house in Georgia. We found this one at a furniture store in Silver City and loved the wood.

The cabinets in the background are built into the house.

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December 12, 2020 We rent a U-haul and move all remaining household items including the furniture from the Deming storage room to the house. We have been moving vanfuls of boxes and unpacking them as we go. But we felt it was time to get the furniture and the remainder of the house items. The shop and garage items will need to stay put until those buildings are completed and inspected.

December 13, 2020 At last, the new windshield is in and we take our minivan to get its windshield replaced.

December 14, 2020 When we go to the lot, we walk over to see how the garage is coming. Donnie tells us it is complete. Now we can get the garage door company out to install the doors. Donnie and his crew will jump on the blocking of the house full time. Michael, Rubin and Chance are mixing mortar and filling it in the blocks while Donnie blocks the north end of the house.

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Donnie presented us a gift from the crew which they all chipped in on and Brandon made. It is a gorgeous wooden nameplate for our new house! Such a special gift will get a prominant place in the house.

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December 19, 2020 The garage doors get installed! Here they are as the panels are being inserted.

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December 20, 2020 Kevin's last Sunday before he leaves. We all decide to take a drive down Hwy 90 toward Lordsburg. The drive is gorgeous, crossing the continental divide and then a panoramic valley opens up below us.

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December 21, 2020 Tonight is the conjunction of the planets Saturn and Jupiter when they are so close they appear to merge in the night sky. This occurence is the closest since the year 1623 and the closest observable event since 1226. Think about that! Barry takes this image about an hour after the closest approach. It is pretty amazing to catch both planets in a single image. We stood outside (freezing) for a while looking through the telescope to watch it.

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December 23, 2020 We worked most of the day emptying the Shop building and moving all of the remaining construction items to the garage. Now we can lock up the shop building and start moving in items from the storage room in Deming.

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December 25, 2020 Christmas in Silver City. When we moved here, we thought surely we'd be in our new house by Christmas. But it didn"t happen and we celebrated Christmas in our rental house in Silver City. But Kevin was here so we had many things to be thankful for and we enjoyed the day. It was relaxed and low key.

December 26, 2020 We decided to rent a U-Haul and have Kevin help us to empty out the storage building and move as much of the remaining items, including the exercise equipment to the shop. It was a big task with lots of heavy items and we couldn't have done it without him. In addition to the workout equipment, we got all of the shop tools, tables and rolling carts. The storage building wasn't completely empty when we got done but everything else would fit in several van loads.

December 27, 2020 Today we drive Kevin to the airport in El Paso. His visit has drawn to a close and we are not sure the next time we will see him. We will miss him terribly. It has been really nice visiting with him for such an extended period.

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January 2021:

January 11, 2021 Barry and I went to the lot and spent the day assembling the Smith machine and installing casters so it stopped being an immovable object. Now it can be rolled around and the weight lifting equipment rearranged!

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January 12, 2021 Barry's new telescope arrives! It is a Sky Watcher Esprit 100 mm F5.5 APO 3-Element Refractor. I had ordered it before Thanksgiving and it was backordered. I was excited that his Christmas gift was only a few weeks late.

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The new Esprit 100 mounted on our tripod in Silver City ready for a night of imaging.

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The first image with the new telescope: The Rosette Nebula (NGC 2237); Stack of forty 3-minute exposures; Sky-Watcher Esprit 100 APO refractor at F-5.5; ZWO ASI094 One-shot color camera; Silver City, NM 01/14/2021

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January 18, 2021 Barry worrked the better part of two days hanging his airplanes in the new shop building. This puts them safely off the floor and out of the way so they won't get damaged.

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January 19, 2021 Meanwhile, Donnie and crew have finished the blocking, filling in the trench and leveling the dirt around the house. They have also built the forms for the patio at the back of the house!

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January 22, 2021 The last piece of the puzzle to be put in place before we can move in, is running the water into the house. The well pressure tank was delivered almost a month ago and we have been trying to get a plumber out to install it and the piping. He promises but never delivers. We called other plumbers. No one is responsive! Barry and I decided to design and install the filtration system so that all the plumber has to do is hook up the plumbing. And now we wait.

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January 26, 2021 A cold front hits and we have snow on Sunday and then again on Tuesday. In Silver City it was around 6 inches deep. This is a view from the front door of our house. We stayed in for several days and when we ventured out it was in Kevin's jeep. All work stopped at the lot.

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Barry found an epic icicle on the back patio. Here he recreates the Norman Bates scene from Psycho (sans shower) using the icicle!

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January 29, 2021 The weather warms a little and they pour the patio. Once this hardens, we can finally get the air conditioners installed, since we were waiting to set them on the patio. It turns out really nice and we are looking forward to warm summer evenings and cooking out!

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One worry we have had is fast available internet. There are no providers in this stretch of Hwy 180 because of the low population density. There is no available cable, much less fiber optic cable. We spoke with a neighbor and they suggested a provider who resells data from cell phone carriers. So we decided to give it a try. We test out the LPDA (log periodic dipole) antenna they provide to see if we can pull in signal from the AT&T tower in Deming (about 20 miles away). We are actually pretty impressed. We consitently get speeds of 50-100 Mbps down and 15-20 Mbps up. Signal strength is low. It is supposedly unlimited data, but we will see how that works out.

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February 2021:

February 1, 2021 Well we were stood up by the plumber again so we decide to do it ourselves. We buy all of the PVC, elbows, connectors and glue. Barry measures and cuts and slowly we piece it all together.

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Barry even teaches me how to use the purple primer and glue. Here is my first run!

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February 1, 2021 While we were working on the plumbing, the inspector called for the final house inspection. He came out, looked around, crawled under the house, checked the electrical panel and gave us our occupancy permit. We can officially move in! (Now all we need is the water!) Interestingly, he just checks that the water line is properly connected to the house, not that the other end is connected to the well.

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February 2, 2021 This spectacular sunrise from our rental house in Silver City reflects our ebullient mood over getting the occupancy permit yesterday and the progress we made on the plumbing. We can feel the final move drawing closer.

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Our first load of landscaping gravel arrivels - crusher fine. This will be spread over the entire area of our occupied space. The remaining land of the 5 acres will be left wild. The piece of wood in the center is where the pier for the telescope will be. We will begin observatory construction soon!

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February 3, 2021 We have been treated with some awesome sunrises this week. This one in shades of red from our back door, looking east, Silver City.

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February, 4, 2021 Our first water flows from the kitchen faucet! We had a few setbacks in making this happen. We discovered a check valve (that we didn't realize was a check valve) just off the pressure tank that was pointing in the wrong direction. So the first attempt to start the water system was unsuccessful. We had to remove and replumb that area. But we have water. We have our occupancy permit. So we can finally move in.

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February 10, 2021 The move is set for February 13. The movers we hired will take all of the big items including the piano. We could have done everything else ourselves but we were not really able to do the piano so we decided to let them take the furniture. But we started moving small items in the van. Huge Giraffe is heading out to get in for the ride down to the lot.

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February 11, 2021 Donnie and crew have been removing construction items this week since they are done with the landscaping. This is a sure sign that this process is almost over. It is starting to feel real!

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February 13, 2021 Final moving day. We rented the truck the night before and were ready with everything disassembled when the movers arrived. We got to the lot shortly after lunch and they made short work of unloading the truck. They did a terrific job.

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February 13, 2021 The first item to leave our home in Georgia was the piano. Somehow it seemed serendipitious that it was the last item off the truck when we moved into our new house in New Mexico.

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February 14, 2021 Happy Valentine's Day. I gave Barry a cowboy hat for Valentine'S Day. Now he definitely looks like a native New Mexican.

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February 15, 2021 Now that the house and compound are finished, we have decided to have Fred's guys help us with building, at least, the pier and slab for the observatory. They started work on it this week and here Barry is cutting the sonotube for the pier to the appropriate length. Pouring the concrete for it will be the first step. Follow the "NMAV Observatory Build" page for further information on that process.

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The move is done, the build is finished and we are now living at the New Mexico Astronomy village. It seems appropriate to sign-off of this blog with Rozzie, our resident alien and his new cowboy hat. Thanks for following our adventure!

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