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A Chihuahuan Desert New Year

It’s hard to believe that another year has come and gone. Time seems to fly by faster and faster the older I get. I told a friend that at my age I can’t afford to kill time because time is killing me. I have to make the most of every day.

Once again, Cheryl and I celebrated — or rather slept through — the transition to the New Year out at our off-grid cabin. With a waning moon, the stars were definitely big and bright deep in the heart of Texas. And the nights were cold out in the Chihuahuan Desert where the creosote offers little protection from the north winds.

We headed to the cabin after spending a couple of days with my 95 year-old Dad down in South Texas. Still in great health and with a mind as sharp as ever, Dad is my hero and inspiration. He is an eternal optimist and has remained curious about the world — although he is now resigned to exploring new places by way of his favorite travel shows.

We were excited to meet the Perry family, friends from church, staying at our guest cabin. This was their first visit to Big Bend National Park and they had some fun days planned for their girls. We had the opportunity to share a pleasant night around the campfire before they headed back to Katy.

As always, we had a list of projects, a truck full of materials, and only a few days to make a little more progress on our off-grid paradise. So, we wasted no time.


The first thing on my list was to start on the outdoor cooking area under the solar porch at our guest cabin. The plan is to build half walls clad in corrugated tin to serve as a wind block. I built a cooking counter out of recycled lumber and coated it with spare urethane. I will complete the half-walls on our next visit and then lay pavers to cut down on the dust.


I recently created a shadow box to display my Cub Scout knot board. I made this knot display on March 27, 1967 when I was a member of Pack 60 in McAllen. I recently found it in a box of stuff up in the attic and thought it would be a fun addition to the guest cabin.


I also replenished our firewood supply at the cabin. A couple of weeks ago, my friends Mike and Jeff invited me to join them at Jeff’s father-in-law’s ranch in Navasota where a big, old pecan tree had crashed to the ground and was destined for the burn pile. The three of us spent a morning cutting and gathering firewood for the cabin.


Cheryl tried something new on our little Blackstone grill. Since we don’t have an oven at the cabin, she used the grill as a makeshift oven and baked some really delicious cookies — lots and lots of cookies. We were so encouraged by the success of this experiment that Cheryl will try her hand at making pizza on the Blackstone on our next visit. I am absolutely ready for that!


The rest of our time was spent catching up on a lot of general maintenance items. I installed new light fixtures and added shelves to our (former solar equipment) closet in the main cabin. I also serviced our propane heaters, mouse-proofed our outdoor toilet and shower area, and completed a few others miscellaneous things on the list. Always something on the list.


The weather was amazing. Pleasant days, amazing sunsets, really dark and cold nights, and the soothing and therapeutic silence of the desert. This is a gift — a wonderful gift from God. We are excited about the the year ahead and the opportunity to spend many more days in the embrace of the Chihuahuan Desert and vast Big Bend skies.

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Making Every Trip to the Cabin Count

Our place out in Big Bend is just a few miles shy of 600 miles from our driveway in the suburbs to our gate in the desert. The trip takes us 10 hours — including stops for breakfast and lunch and refueling. So, we have to make the most of every trip to the cabin.

Cheryl and I managed to coordinate a few days for a quick trip to the desert. We left Katy this past Sunday after church and returned home on Thursday. Although our time out west was short and I did have to work remotely, we did manage to get a few things done.


The first thing on the list was to install light fixtures in the guest cabin. We use LED lights because they are more efficient and consume less energy from our solar batteries. I added a light in the bathroom, the main room in the cabin, and on the front porch.


My neighbors Joe and Lisa squeezed us in to their busy schedule and helped us add some more components to our solar system — including adding wiring to recharge batteries on cloudy days by using our generator. A good back up to our solar panels.


Speaking of solar panels, I finally got around to cleaning the solar panels that service our main cabin. These panels and the batteries are now five years old and still working well. However, our upcoming upgrade will enable us to produce and store more power. More in that in the coming months.


I also hung a new pic in the guest cabin — of me and my friend Bobby Cooley hiking in the Himalayas. At our recent staff retreat, Bobby presented me with a door knocker and a poem that he had written. Bobby knows that my new theme song is Toby Keith’s “Don’t Let the Old Man In.” The door knocker and poem are a reminder to not let the old man in when he comes knocking at my door.


Another item on my list was to add a cooler to the outdoor cooking area. I took one of our old coolers and made a box with a hinged lid and then mounted it on a frame. This will give us a spot to ice down water and soft drinks and Gatorade when we have lots of guests at the cabin. Very convenient.


So, got a few things done while enjoying fantastic weather and amazing sunsets. I will be back at the cabin in November when we host the men from Manna House in Brookshire for a Big Bend adventure. Manna House is a residential recovery program for men dealing with addictions. Love this ministry and excited about the opportunity for us to enjoy adventure, good food, and conversation around the campfire.

Stay tuned and thanks for following our off-grid adventure.

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The Beauty of Rustic

For the past several years I have developed an interest in how to reclaim and repurpose wood that, by all appearances, should be tossed on a burn pile. I like wood that is weathered and worn, scarred from use and abuse — wood that looks sad at best. So, I am always on the lookout for wood waiting to be reclaimed and repurposed.

One of my friends recently replaced a fence for a widow. He told me that the pickets had rested on a 12-inch rot board. My ears perked up. “The rot board looks pretty bad,” he said. I had to see it.


When I finally saw the rot board I knew immediately that it was perfect for my next project at our guest cabin in Big Bend — a small countertop in front of the large window with a view to Red Bluff. I could not wait to repurpose these 12-inch boards and started drawing out my plans.

As for the legs for the countertop, these came a few days later when I helped my friend take apart another fence blown over by a storm. I culled out the 4 x 4 posts and set them aside. These posts were more than sufficiently weathered and matched the character of the rot boards.

With all of our reclaimed wood in the bed of my Tundra, Cheryl and I headed to our cabin on Monday. We made one stop at McCoy’s in Alpine to pick up a few more things we would need for this week’s projects and then drove the last hour down Highway 118 to the cabin.


The countertop build took several hours. Fortunately, I had already lightly sanded the rot boards before coming to the cabin. I sanded just enough to knock off the rough edges and splinters but not so much as to ruin the patina of the wood. The patina, after all, is the character that gives old wood its rustic charm.

Because the edges of the boards were so uneven, I chose not to run them through my jointer or to use biscuits to join the pieces. Instead, I made my own version of flat bar to join and level them from beneath.


The next step was to apply several coats of clear Polycrylic to seal the boards. This added lots of smoothness to the boards. I was pleased with the results.

Next, I added a ledger board that would serve to hold up one side of the countertop beneath the large window. Once I had the height of the countertop, I cut the 4 x 4 posts to measure to make the legs.


I did a dry fit of the legs against the bottom of the countertop and then scribed a cut line to make the legs fit tight against the weathered wood. Once the countertop was level and the legs plumb, I used Timberlock screws to fasten everything together.


I then made a second smaller counter to serve as a place to set a 5-gallon water jug and temporary plastic sink for a hand-washing station. I may modify this later whenever we pressurize the water to this cabin — but in the meantime this will serve the purpose.


I also finished the open closest area between the bunk beds. This is intended as a place for guests to stow gear and hang clothes. Once again, I used reclaimed rot boards to make the shelf. I then affixed hooks to another piece of rot board and screwed that in to the back wall of the closet.


To finish the bunk beds, I added a grab bar to make it easier to get into the top bunks and also added a safety rail to each top bunk. The bunk beds are strong and the black iron ladder and grab bars should be able to handle lots of use.


My neighbor Joe, the jack-of-all-off-grid-skills, stopped by to finish the install of the mini-split. He wired things so that we can run the mini-split off a generator while we wait to set up our solar panels. Wow! The mini-split did a great job of quickly cooling the well-insulated space in spite of the triple digit temps.


I finally got around to making a set of temporary steps into the cabin. We will replace these when we add the front deck that will span the length of the cabin and be shaded by a solar panel awning.


As a final project, I reorganized our wood storage rack and painted it black. I added a couple of shelves to the rack to keep the smaller stuff on top and the heavier logs on the bottom section. This should make it easier for us to access what we need.

So, it’s been a great week completing projects at the cabin that add rustic charm. It’s always fun to dream about, plan, and complete projects that get us closer to completion of the guest cabin and make our place a bit more organized.


We did get lots of rain and a little hail this week. We love the magnificent storms in the desert. As soon as the thunder and lightning started, we sat on the front porch to watch the display until the rain drove us inside the cabin. We make it a point every time one of these storms rolls in to listen to John Denver’s “Annie’s Song” — “You fill up my senses, like a storm in the desert.”


Cheryl and I are headed into Study Butte in a few minutes to get a few more items for tonight’s cookout with our neighbors. We love hosting our desert version of a block party every time we visit our cabin. We will head back to the suburbs on Saturday. As always, thanks for following our adventure.

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Five Years of Progress in the Desert

Five amazing years!

It’s hard to believe that Cheryl and I are ending year number five of our off-grid adventure in Big Bend. And what an amazing five years it has been.

One of the mantras we have adopted as we have worked to develop our slice of the Chihuahuan Desert is “slow progress is better than no progress.” But slow progress times a few visits each year actually equals a lot of progress.


This past week, my good friend Mike Aronson and I made the 9-hour and 60-minute journey to Dos Arbolitos (the name of our little 20-acre place in the desert). The plan for this trip was to work on the guest cabin — a gift from my Band of Fathers men’s group.


On a previous visit I built a wall to divide the main room of the cabin from the bathroom. My good neighbor Joe Pound then wired the cabin in preparation for the addition of solar panels. With the wiring done and receptacles in place it was time for the next step — insulation.

Mike and I decided we could make more progress by dividing and conquering, so we each took ownership of a project.


I took on the task of insulating the walls of the main room with R-13 insulation. I left one 16-inch section open for the time being. Joe will later run the refrigerant lines for the mini-split that will heat and cool the cabin through that section of the wall. Once those lines are in place then I will add insulation and nail in the bead-board paneling to that section of the wall.


While I worked on insulating the cabin, Mike loaded up the paint sprayer and primed and painted all of the bead-board paneling for the walls of the cabin. We set up a paint station against the outside walls of my shipping container shop. Fortunately it was not too windy to paint.

Cheryl and I chose the color “Sands of Time” for the walls of the cabin accented with white base and trim boards. I purchased pre-primed boards for the trim and will later paint these with a white semi-gloss paint.


Mike installed the beard-board paneling. Painting these panels ahead of time was the smart thing to do. He measured and cut the openings for outlets and made a lot of angled cuts for the upper sections of the side walls. Once everything was in place, we added the trim pieces and baseboard.


While Mike installed the paneling, I worked on framing the door and windows. As in our main cabin, I used corner blocks with a Texas Star for the window and door trim. I like this look much better than mitered corners.


After we finished the work on the main room, we put away the tools and then swept and mopped the floor. I then hung a pic of the guys in my Band of Fathers group that built the cabin in November 2022. There are a lot of guys not in the picture because they were unable to participate in the build but who contributed generously to make this blessing a reality. I am honored to do life in community with these dear brothers.


The final touch was hanging my old Boy Scout flag above the door. In the early 1970’s I became the patrol leader for the Buffalo Patrol in Troop 68. My sweet mother surprised me with the coolest flag ever. It was the envy of the troop. I have treasured the flag ever since as a reminder of her love and kindness.


I was happy to find a pic of me with the patrol flag taken in July 1972 while camping at Buffalo Trails Scout Ranch in the Davis Mountains. This pic is a reminder of how much I have enjoyed adventuring from a young age. And now, as a man in his late sixties, I still enjoy adventuring. My theme song for this stage of life is Toby Keith’s “Don’t Let the Old Man In” — a reminder to stay active to the end.

As I look back on the past five years I see a trail of God’s blessings — the distinctive signature of His kindness. And as I look ahead in anticipation of the coming years, I am excited to see what good things will happen as we continue to develop Dos Arbolitos.