Midian Ranch Blog

This is the web log for Midian Ranch, an isolated homestead in rural Nevada. It is owned by Jason and Tina Walters, whom are also its regular posters. This blog is exclusively for the enlightenment and edification of our friends, family, and colleagues.

My Photo
Name:
Location: Gerlach, Nevada, United States

Saturday, October 24, 2009

With Cousin Maeve [the Mega Baby]

Baby Cassidy Laughs

Eye Hand Coordination

Great Article

I've just gotten done reading an eccentric article by author Claire Wolfe (called by some the Ayn Rand of the 21st Century) in this month's issue of Backwoods Home Magazine (Issue #120). Entitled Learning To Love The High Desert, it sums up what it's like to live in places like the Black Rock Desert quite nicely. Since it isn't available online – and since I highly recommend having a subscription to Backwoods Home in any case – I've taken the liberty of including a few quotes:

“Then there's the damn weather. It's so hot you want to shove a dog out of the only patch of shade, dig a pit in the dirt, and snooze. Then – bazam! - It's so cold you're slamming windows shut, donning jackets, and stuffing old tee-shirts into cracks in the walls of your trailer.”

“The terrain is severe and gaunt, it's true, and the plants are more likely to puncture the skin than delight the eye. The animal life is more likely to bear scales than fur and even the hoppy toads are deadly poisonous. But the desert is every bit as alive as the woods, and you feel the age and raw, primal violence of it everywhere you go. The constant cycle of life and death is everywhere evident.”

“The beauty of a home electrical system, when it works and even when it doesn't work all that well is that you built it... It only works if you stand on your feet and do something about it, ignoring a lifetime's indoctrination that you shouldn't worry your little head because this is a job for the big boys. This, to me, is more precious than electric lights at night.”

Really, I couldn't have put these things better myself.

Family Picture