Goodbye to Sylvie December 31st 2007

Miss Jan and I had to say goodbye to our very special kitty today. Our cat Sylvie was hit by a car this afternoon. When Miss Jan came home from work, Sylvie called out from under our steps to let her know she was hurt. Miss Jan took her to the vet and when they x-rayed her, they found that her pelvis had been crushed. I drove in from the PPR. When I arrived at the vets, Miss Jan and I said our goodbyes to Sylvie and then the Doctor made her go to sleep. Her loss makes a big hole in our little family, and in our hearts. Private funeral services will be held at the PPR on January 1st 2008.

(Click on picture below to see animated GIF)

20,000 leagues under the desert

January, 2007, Sam camped out on the PPR. While waiting for the electric company to install the conduit wire and transformers, we called Titan Drilling and asked John to come and drill our well. We had consulted with John about water prior to buying the land, and kept in touch with him throughout the year. With our drilling permit in hand, John brought his rig out, and he and his assistant spent 2 days drilling and installing the casing and pipe. They struck water at 280 feet, but continued to a final depth of 350 feet to ensure our well would supply water during the occasional dry spell. The final step was the installation of a pump on the 3rd day, making this the quickest and most costly project at the PPR so far. It has also been one of our greatest pleasures. Our water is pure, plentiful and tastes great! In the desert or anywhere, that's something to thank God for!

Drilling the well (no sound)


Water at the PPR (no sound)

The Big Dig

In late November 2006, the company Sam worked for closed its doors. After much discussion and prayer, we decided that instead of looking for a full-time job, Sam would use his time and skills to put in the utilities on the ranch. He phoned and emailed, networked and web-surfed, and quickly learned what would be involved. In early December he spent a day calculating where to put the electric lines and meter pedestal. Our good neighbors, Brian & Gina, offered to share the costs. At 6 a.m. on December 28, Sam and our good friend, Al, met the backhoe delivery truck at the PPR.











Al volunteered months before to do the digging, and had no idea what he was in for! It began to snow at 6 a.m. and didn't stop till 4 p.m. Even with freezing temperatures and poor visibility, Al and Sam dug 600 feet that first day, 52" deep by 24" wide.











"Cowboy" Al became one with that backhoe, and admitted he even dozed off a couple of times while operating it! He was a real trooper. Sam and I were in charge of the measuring stick, caution tape, rebar & rebar caps, and marking the route with a transit and white paint. Wayne & Lorrie came out to help on the weekends. A tire repair and changing the teeth on the backhoe bucket took a day or two, but 9 days later we had 1,800 feet of trenches ready for electric and phone lines. Sam and I camped out in Don & Linda's motorhome for most of January to keep an eye on the open trenches. I learned that my commute to work is just under an hour, mostly on the freeway, and it's beautiful at sunrise!

Eight feet of snow!

Over almost two years of owning our little ranch, we have found that the weather is quite different than Tucson. The biggest factor is the elevation. Tucson is roughly 2600 feet above sea level. The ranch is just a smidge over 4100 feet. The evenings cool down quite a bit, even in the summer. And it snows in the winter time!

Mid-March 2006 brought quite a severe late season blizzard to the area. We had heard of the snow on the evening weather, but had no idea of the magnitude. The day after the blizzard, we thought the roads might be clear, so we ventured out after church to see if the storm had left devastation in its path like the snows up north. To our delight, we found that the PPR had not been damaged. We were shocked though to see that the snow was nearly eight feet. You heard it right, EIGHT FEET! Having never seen so much snow, we had to measure it and take pictures for posterity. As you marvel at the snow fall, just bear in mind that if you plan on travelling to the PPR during the winter months, you definitely want snow chains in the trunk and a cold weather survival kit.

You can imagine our embarassment when we learned that snow is not measured in linear feet. Oh well......it did snow.

Big Sister’s request

My (Sam’s) big sister requested sunsets and flowers, so here they are. After purchasing the land and camping a few times, we really did nothing more until late 2006.
Many times during this period we walked the land, took pictures and thought about where to build our home. We are amazed at the number of plants and cactus that we never notice until the rains come and trigger a bounty of blooms in colors you wouldn’t expect in this land of muted browns and greens. We don’t know what most of them are, but we enjoy them just the same.


Another wonderful by-product of the monsoon season are the incredible sunsets and sunrises. I always take the time to enjoy them.

I believe in God and I view each sunset as a work of art, painted especially for us by our creator. This thought always calms me and helps me remember what's important in life.

A little work before the purchase

Because we live in the desert where there is a whole bunch of rock and very hard earth, we decided to invest a little money to have a perc test done before we signed the papers. On September 3rd 2005 we hired a backhoe operator and a septic engineer to do a percolation test. This test ensures that you can effectively install a septic system and have the leach field drain properly. Little did we know the test has to be done near where you are building the house. We quickly decided on a proposed building site and the test began. All went well. We also called a well driller out to the property and asked his opinion as to whether or not there was water. Having drilled many wells in the area, he confidently said "pick where you want your well and I will get you water". These were just a couple of peace-of-mind items that we wanted to check on before we signed on the dotted line.

Our first morning as land owners

Jan and I closed on our land September 16th 2005. After the closing, we headed out to our new "ranch" for a night of camping. The land we found is 12.4 acres and is about 40 miles east of Tucson. We noticed after our first sunset that evening that Tucson has so many lights, it looks like the sun never really goes down to the west, but remains a faint glow below the horizon. Fortunately this does not spoil what seems like trillions of stars above in the night sky. After a good night's rest, we awoke to a magnificent sunrise and Jan walked around the land and took a few photos. Here is one looking northeast across our ranch. This will give you a little idea why we chose this land.

A little bit about us

Hello to all who stop in to see our blog. We are Sam and Jan Ingram.

The story related to this blog actually started sometime in the middle of 2005 when we started looking for a piece of land to buy. We drove many miles and rocky roads and looked at many parcels before we finally found one we liked and could afford. We hope you enjoy our blog as we share our endeavor to build our dream home.