Ground Party Papers - Third Sunday of July

In this issue…

1. Lifestyle - Making a deal with the dust devil
2. Profile - Brewing cups of joy with the Finley family
3. Classifieds - These ones are real!
4. Editor’s Note - Introducing the Ground Party Pulse
5. Local Politics - County Supervisor candidate survey results
6. Alternative Building - Work parties are better than political parties
7. Opt Out News - ADEQ’s official word on interceptor sizing
10. Classifieds - The funny ones

Making a deal with the dust devil 

Rural Arizona — where the sunsets are breathtaking and the dust storms are biblical. Even when the weather is mellow, sunlight beams in through your windows, and suddenly, an ocean of tiny invaders are dancing in the air, laughing at your attempts to keep a clean home.

Here comes the air filter. Not the overpriced contraptions hawked by Big Air, but the clever, effective, do-it-yourself filters that even your sleepy cousin could assemble. There are three levels to this mad science, each more ingenious than the last.

Level One: The Quick and Not-So-Dirty

Take a 20" box fan, slap a 20" filter on it, and hey — instant air purifier. It’s as cheap as it sounds, but don’t be fooled. This beast works. It’s the MacGyver of air filters. Just tape the filter to the back of the fan, plug it in, and watch as the dust gets sucked out of your life. If you’re into desert rat chic, you can build a handsome wooden container for your rig.

Level Two: The Cube of Cleanliness

For the semi-serious dust warrior who’s ready to invest a bit more elbow grease for a lot more payoff. Take four filters and shape them into a cube, then enclose the top with a box fan. The airflow is better, the filtration is more thorough, and it’s still a dirt cheap dust cheat.

Level Three: The Cylindrical Savior

If you’re truly committed to winning the dust war, this DIY marvel costs a bit more but takes up less space, assembles in a flash, and operates like a dream. Get yourself a high-MERV filter cylinder, and a size-matched commercial shop fan, and stick 'em together.  It’s self-supporting, no need for extra carpentry, just plug and play. And my favorite part – the stronger component materials in shop fans make them less noisy than their flimsy plastic counterparts.

So, tape up, cube out, or go full cylinder — and reduce dust accumulation by over 50%.

Brewing cups of joy with the Finley family

The Finley family are the modern-day stewards of the historic Saxon House in Willcox, now branded as the Dos Cabezas coffee shop, and they infuse the establishment with a spirit of kindness, hard work, and a touch of faith. Keeping the place up and running is a labor of love – love for their community more than brewing joe or making a profit.  

Dos Cabezas was hatched in April 2023, when Ashley Finley, a 43-year-old realtor, decided to turn a mundane real estate transaction into a family enterprise. The building, known historically as the “Saxon House” after the original owner from 100 years ago, had first started serving coffee under the name Source of Coffee a few years earlier. But when the owners decided to move on, Ashley, their realtor, and her family saw potential in the historic building. Two months later, the doors of Dos Cabezas swung open.

The heart of this operation beats with the efforts of the entire Finley clan. Chloe, the 17-year-old daughter, juggles drinks and the cash register. She leverages her compulsive orderliness to ensure that, when under her watch, the whole operation hums along as scheduled. She dreams of being a vet tech one day, but for now, she’s willing to deal with us annoying humans.

Jasper, 24, is a mellow force behind the counter, always keen to see that customers are satisfied with their hand-crafted drinks. He was previously manager at Safeway but then had to do battle with PANDAS autoimmune disease, and bested his symptoms with unusual success. Now he focuses on Dos Cabezas and channels his experiences into his music, recording under the name Common Celestials – producing a chill vibe that takes the edge off the hustle and bustle of the coffee shop.

Dakota, in her early twenties, is the logistical mastermind, handling supply orders, perfecting the drink menu, and ensuring compliance with code. Like the rest of her family, she’s always thinking up ways to serve her community, like when she organized drive-in movie screenings during the lockdown.

Ashley’s husband Jake is the groundskeeper and maintenance man.  Part of the motivation for taking on this venture was Ashley’s desire to get Jake, a former cook, back into a kitchen and serving up his own menu of meals.  Expect sandwiches, soups, and salads in Dos Cabezas’ future.

Then there's little Annaleigh, the grandchild, who at just 11 months old, represents the future of this family enterprise. Ashley dreams of passing the coffee shop down to her, ensuring it remains a staple in the community for generations.

The family’s commitment to the community is tireless. They've used Dos Cabezas to organize school supply drives, sent trucks full of donated supplies to victims of the Rio Doso fire in New Mexico, and have already hosted numerous weddings, baby showers, and birthday parties. It looks and smells like a coffee shop, but its deeper purpose is as a community center, a place of connection.

I, too, have been the beneficiary of the Finleys’ altruistic spirit.  I often stay until right up to closing time, tapping away at my laptop.  When I was working on my pro se lawsuit with ADWR, they must have picked up on the urgency of my work, and intuitively offered to keep letting me use their wifi out on the back patio.  A huge help when I was out of the hotspot data I rely on at home.

While I was interviewing Ashley for this profile, an elderly woman walked in and introduced herself as a former employee from the building’s past life as a restaurant.  She was visiting from out of town, excited to share the old photos and stories she brought with her.  I overheard that there may be more than just history in the shop’s walls - the local legend is that a benevolent spirit haunts the building.  What to do when the haunted energy begins to feel restless?  A shot of whiskey placed above the fireplace makes it all better.

After the visitor said her goodbyes, Ashley got up, smiling, and slapped a finger on my table.  “That’s why we keep this place open,” she said.

Classifieds
_{(Yeah, real ones.)}

Introducing the Ground Party Pulse — aka the paywall. 

Boy is this newsletter a lot of work.  Especially everything beyond the writing – researching groundwater policy, engaging with elected officials and state agencies, taking the ADWR to court, digging up government meeting records, and the whole deal.  Fortunately, there are already 15 of the 117 subscribers that are already pitching in with those $5 and $10 bills every month.

For now, I’m going to keep pushing.  If I can get 50 paid subscribers by November, I’ll double down on my commitment to this project. That’s 1/7th of the 350 subscribers I would need to pay myself $25/hour.

What’s included in the Pulse?

This time around it's a whole lot of valuable information about our county supervisor candidates. I sent out a slew of questions on the following topics, and got a variety of positions and opinions from them:

• Opt out permits

• Support for septic opt out

• More mega feedlots

• Suburban development

• Groundwater regulations

• Open meeting laws 

• and more

You’ll also get my assessment of the pros and cons of each candidate, and details on their campaign contributions.

Click here for the Pulse.

The Pulse will also include…

• Important Breaking News alerts

• Builder Inspo features (inspiring alternative/traditional builds from around the globe)

• The (satire) Classifieds section

• Politics and elections coverage

If you reply to this email with a few sentences about why you read the Ground Party Papers, I’ll hook you up with 6 months of the Pulse for only $1/month.  That’s 6 dollars for the next 12 newsletters.  That’s pretty good, y’all.

Hope to see you on the other side of the paywall.

Christian

The Ground Party Papers are issued every first and third Sunday of the month.

Thanks for reading!