What the ???

Early this morning I watched a dust bunny roll across my floor. It presented itself about 5 feet in front of my chair. Curious, I got up to look at it. Upon further inspection, I realized it was a juvenile? scorpion, amber in color, almost opaque which helped it blend very well into my hardwood floors. I know this isn't Arizona, but it looked a lot like one of these....

http://phoenix.about.com/od/arizonapicturesandphotos/ig/Arizona-Bark-Scorpions/Scorpion-11.htm

I don't know where it came from but it sure gathered some dust and lint amd a few cat hairs along the way. It didn't appear to be feeling very well. Maybe it ate some of those termite carcasses the one-armed bug man chemically "treated" when I bought the place.

My street, from the end of it looking north. Looks like my house is the end of the road.

Maybe this is my mid-life crisis but I have decided to start training for a some 5k and maybe some day, 10k "fun" runs. There is one on August 1st that I don't think I'll be ready for (at least not to run) but in October the Susan G. Komen race for the cure comes to Reno. I will at least be ready to walk that one! It's hard to train consistently with my schedule especially recently where I have been working until very late at night or very early in the morning and then having to start all over again at 0730. It's taken me two days to recover from working through the weekend. Today I am off and feel pretty good but it's going to be very windy which makes my hike unpleasant and more difficult navigating the hills.This is the view looking east from atop a nearby street about two miles from the house. The near rooftops are in the Fieldcreek development. Sound familiar?

Thistles along the fence of the golf course. This is what they look like right before they shoot their alien pod people spores into your face.

First Bloom

I noticed the first rose bloom of the season yesterday on my way out the front door. While I think roses are very pretty and fragrant, I would never purchase rose bushes. I despise bees and wasps and yellow jackets a whole lot more than I like flowers so personally, I would never plant sweet things that attract them. Besides, roses are a pain in the a** to prune. I realize that these haven't had any attention for a year or so, but if I get impaled much more by those razor sharp thorns, I'm gonna rip 'em all out! In fact I'm gonna offer them to people at the hospital along with my three other major commodities of the property, rocks, weeds, and horse manure. You come dig it up, you can have it!

Right Under my Nose

Last night I fought off my desire to flop down on the new sofa and vegetate and instead managed to drag the hose around the yard and get some plants watered. I have given up on figuring out the fancy drip irrigation system that the previous owners installed. Guess I'm gonna have to call somebody in to look at it. With temps reaching the 90's this weekend I thought I'd better give whatever plants survived the long vacant summer last, a chance at survival this year.

As I was watering along the patio, I noticed a familiar fragrance that I love. As I looked/sniffed closer for the source of the perfume, I realized that what I had first thought as some sort of sage gone to weed in a valiant effort to survive, was in fact the plant that I was planning to go purchase and plant, already there in sextuplicate awaiting a long needed drink. Lavender. Even in it's gone-to-seed state the water rehydrated their fragrance, subtle yet unmistakable, lavender. Ahhhhh.

Oh boy, look what I bought.........an acre of weeds.

I am finally starting to settle in to the new house. While I am not just thrilled with the house itself or the set up of the property, I am thrilled with the location and as they say in real estate, "Location, location, location." I drove back to Lemmon Valley last night to clean out my thrift store donations which I had left in the old garage. I remembered my original intent to move to Golden Valley and after going back, I am happy that I never quite found the right place there. It's always amazing to me how the universe takes care of me if I just let it.

My biggest project is still my one acre of weeds. I made the horses corral larger and they helped clear a good portion, but it's pretty hard work moving 12 foot, six rail horse panels around by myself so the push mower, my back, and if I get really desperate, the neighbor's belching weed-eater, will have to take care of the rest.

So, now I concentrate on cleaning up this place and making it as cozy as I can. Today I have some furniture being delivered, this is the first new furniture I have ever bought, (R C Willey has some occasional good bargains in their clearance section) a leather sofa, an entertainment center and a hutch for upstairs linen storage. My old round screen T.V. is going to look p-r-e-t-t-y small dwarfed inside the middle of an entertainment center built for today's monster flat screens.

close to closing

Last Wednesday the pest control man, a one and a half armed local who grew up just down the road from my new house, and is totally into all bugs, not just termites, treated the house and soil for the beginnings of termite infestation. He dropped a few names of his friends in the horse and vet business, I may have picked up a cheaper hay source from him.
The water filtration installer was also there. I now have (or will have), a whole house reverse osmosis water filter. It even includes the two exterior water spigots. I guess that across the valley where the arsenic level is high, the untreated water out of the hose kills any vegetation that you might try to nurture.
As I mentioned before, I have been incredibly calm throughout this entire home purchasing process. That is my universal indicator that it is the right thing for me at this time. I get an occasional hint of trepidation, usually upon awakening over one little thing or another, like how will I get those boulders out of there, or realizing that I don't have any outbuildings,
or wondering if there's enough room to make a "drive" on the south side of the house between it and the neighbors fence, so I can make a horseshoe to pull my trailers around the back. These are all logistics.

I also have to decide where to install the above ground oil fuel tank for the furnace. I am going to have the below ground tank abandoned and filled with slurry so that it can no longer haunt me with the threat of possible, eventual underground leakage. Here's some information that I never knew, if the square footage of a house is too great, you will have to have not one, but two furnaces to heat the place.

The actual commitment to purchase the house is a little thrilling? scary? as the closing date nears, but I wouldn't say it was stressful. The biggest stress stems from all of the work of moving and coordinating minor repairs found at inspection and the arrangements for the addition of outbuildings. But hey! What else do I have to do with my summer?

Weigh-in

Bubba circa 2003.



Bubba circa last month!



Finally bought the diet kit-teh food, 10% less fat than regular. Started mixing with the old food so maybe they won't notice. The first time I weighed Izzy she was a mere 11 lbs. Last night she tipped the scales at 13 pounds! And in the blue corner, weighing in at an impressive 19.5 pounds, the one and only Bubba-licious.

Izzy,dreaming of being as big as her
brother one day.

What Bubba thinks of of diet food.