Monday, August 29, 2005

Under a hot Arizona sun

Yesterday, we got the second post to the gate up. Today, I am going to clear some of the brush from the property before it dries out and becomes a fuel for a potential wild fire. I am going to try and get as much done on this before it gets too hot. Yesterday, was quite hot and today looks to be even hotter.

Later in the day I hope to get some work done revising my cover letter. I am also going to start another encyclopedia article and work on an abstract for a conference in Boston in October 2006. I should be able to get fairly coherent versions of all three done by Friday. At least that is this week's modest goal.

On Dr. Camicao's advice I am going to delete the entry with the sample cover letter. Thanks, to Miriam for providing one last detailed critique. The emphasis on teaching over publication by US universities still troubles me. There does not really seem to be any way around this obstacle. It is the classic Catch-22 clause detailed in Joseph Heller's novel.

Yesterday, I only posted the one blog entry out of respect for the Russian-German memorial day. In the near future I will not be posting so much on the various deported peoples. In the last week I had one post on the Russian-Koreans, three on the Kalmyks, one on the Chechens and one on the Russian-Germans. On the 1st I will blog on the cotton industry in Uzbekistan. The rest of the entries will be about life in Arivaca and the nuts and bolts of writing.

4 comments:

Chris O'Byrne said...

I saw the weather forecast for Arivaca for the next couple of days... wow!
Also, here is a short description of someone's success harvesting rainwater. With a relatively small roof, they are able to gather the water needs of two people for a year with just over 3 inches of rainfall. The average rainfall in Arivaca for July is 3.8 inches! There is hope.

J. Otto Pohl said...

Yes it is hot. I am sure it is possible to harvest enough rain water to survive. Especially, if you store the monsoon rains. But, it seems to me a dual system would be best. A well either wind or solar and rain catching. We had a shortage during the monsoons because the well had no sun to run on. At anyrate it is hot and dry now.

Chris O'Byrne said...

I totally agree! In fact, I like the idea of a triple system even better. I have no intention of living totally off of the grid, I just like the idea of being prepared.

J. Otto Pohl said...

Triple? What else besides a well and rain collection? Everybody in Arivaca is "off the grid" in regards to water.