1) not crashed/broken/irreparably damaged the car or truck, despite best efforts of the local terrain, and best efforts of the truck to disregard its front wheel capabilities.
2) repaired the hydro-electric & drinking water system for at least 5 unrelated issues: broken pipe (located, resealed); no hot water (increased flow to hydro system to generate extra electricity to power hot water heater); battery not charging (insufficient flow to hydro, opened tube); air in tube (flushed system); blocked filters (cleaned it, flushed system). Actually that last one happens on pretty much a daily basis. Apart from the fact that the head of the hydro system is at the top of a waterfall, which is reached by a precariously muddy narrow path along the sheer cliffside of a vine-draped river gully, it’s actually rather satisfying going up there and cleaning it out. Less fun is following the pipes, which don’t follow the path, for troubleshooting purposes.
3) brokered a cautious alliance with Cloudbridge public enemy number 1! Well okay, he’s not a public enemy at all, he’s just a neighbor with whom we’ve had a turbulent past: his land is surrounded on all sides by Cloudbridge, and he has clashed with us in past regarding trail usage, signage, etc. He uses his land to farm, ostensibly, but it seems more likely that he is holding out for a wealthy buyer. Sadly, Cloudbridge is not that buyer, as much as we would like to be, and so his land remains a treeless scar in the middle of our reforestation project. Well, we had a long talk & tried to figure out just why boundary issues have been such a big deal up till now. We have arranged to collaborate on a once- or twice-monthly basis to do trail maintenance and repairs, on the hope that a better working relationship with will prevent the sort of acrimony we’ve had in past.
So I feel like so far things have been successful, albeit full of challenges. But that’s the whole point of being here! I am going to be damn good at facing challenges after this. So long as they are related to hydro-electric systems or nonfunctioning 4WD, at least…
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