A Whirlwind August!

It all began with our only vehicle breaking down.  It needs a few K worth of work to make it useable.  Realizing our vulnerability living 6 miles from town and only having one vehicle, we decided to purchase a small, runaround vehicle that is good on gas instead of rushing to fix our car.  So we now have a 2nd car.  We will fix the other car in a month or two.

We then had a visit from our granddaughter, Cali.  On her "Bucket List" (9 yrs old, and she has a bucket list...) was to visit Las Vegas.  So, we fulfilled that 'list item' for her.  She was here for a week and we all had the best time.  Several trips "over the hump" to Vegas while she was here.  She went to the pool every day that we weren't in Vegas, she wore Mona, our 6 month old puppy, out on a daily basis.  They were inseperable.  We also made her dress to be the Jr. Bridesmaid at her Aunt Kelsey's wedding.......

During the first week in August, my daughter Kelsey, announced that she and Keith (my now son-in-law) were getting married on August 26th THIS YEAR instead of next August as had been their plan.  She was planning/executing a small wedding in a local park.  So, off to Portland I went on the 23rd.  Kelsey and I spent the next two days gathering together the "stuff" for a small wedding.  She rented the Gazebo at Shute Park in Hillsboro.  During all this, I took a fall the day before the wedding.  I was coming down a set of concrete stairs and missed a step (I guess?) and skinned my knee, shin and 2 toes.  Yes, the mother of the bride was bandaged up for the big day.  Fortunately, the dress I'd chosen to wear covered up the worst of it!

Wedding day came and we discoverd that across the park at the ampitheatre, a mexican christian rock band was playing that afternoon as well using a very good PA system so it was nice and LOUD.  They wouldn't quiet down for the 15 minutes the aisle (path) walk and ceremony would have taken.  This is one of those occassions where I'm glad that it wasn't being video taped!  The pictures taken don't have sound, so it's all OK!  Kelsey was beautiful, they look happy and it's easy to forget the music!

Kelsey & her Grandmothers

Maxine Oliver & Helen Woodruff

The "Oliver Clan"

Aunt LeAnn (my sister), Grandma (my Mom),

Kelsey and Me

Kelsey is expecting a baby, due December 21st.  They know it's a girl and her name will be Alexandria Raynne Rodriguez.  While she will be my first real grandchild, she will be joining the ranks with our 4 other grandchildren.  I really like the Grandma thing!  So, I will be back in Portland around Christmas time this year.

 

Landscaping in the Desert

It's a really hard thing to do!  The dirt here is like concrete.  A "bunker-buster" bomb would just bounce off this dirt. Jeff thinks that's why Nellis  AFB uses the skies over our heads for flight practice.  If they accidentally dropped a bomb, it wouldn't even disturb this ground! 

We bought 10 plants to put in the front yard and a shovel.  The shovel wouldn't go into the ground further than about 2 inches.  We had to go back to the store and buy a pick axe!  We were then able to dig and got the plants in.  Now we water twice a day to keep them alive.  This is a pretty hardcore place to try to keep anything alive without significant work.  However, the rest of the plants are doing great and we're waiting for them now to grow into trees/large bushes over time.

We still need to bring in rock for a walkway from the driveways (one on each side) to the front door.  We also need to bring in decorative rock to go in and amongst our new plants.  We need to do it by fall, as we won't have any rain until then.  When it's dry, no problem walking on the current gravel walkway that has partially sunk into the ground.... but when it raining, it's a mess.  I've completely ruined a pair of shoes  just walking from the car to the house!  There are so many options for decorative rock, that we're still deciding which we want to use, and where we'll use it.  It will take several years to "develop" this stark empty acre, so we're not trying to rush it and make the wrong decisions on what we want to do. 

I am going to try to create artifical large boulders and rocks.  Buying them is out of the question as they are SO expensive.  Got the info on how to make them.... fairly simple looking, but I won't know for sure until I start.  (Painting them to look like real rocks is probably going to be the hardest part....)  Will begin with smaller rocks and work my way up to creating boulders.  I do have a vision of how/where they'll be in the front yard.  Now, we'll see if I can actually create something that looks like what I have in mind!

Our New Addition!

We have acquired a new member the family.......Mona.

Mona is a 6 week old German Shepard mix.  She was one of a litter of 7 (& Mom) that were surrendered to the county animal shelter. 



We're a small town bit of a drive from anywhere else and the local newspaper devotes a full page a week to the shelter and their quest to rehome everything; dogs, cats, birds, goats, sheep, chicken, pigs, pot-bellied pigs, horses, burros, cows even partially tamed or injured/disabled wild range mustangs that run through the valley here.   The Shelter has a great marketing person with a corner of the page highlighting statistics of the shelter, calling out arrivals, adoptions and euthansias.   Only about 1/4 are adopted and of course, it tugs the heartstrings.  

Once we saw these puppies still showing in the paper 3 weeks after they arrived, we had to go get one.  We have the room for a 2nd big dog, and after understanding Tiki's real value as a watch/protection dog while in Mexio and traveling, we want another dog of that type ready to take over the job.

We have become parents to an infant all over again.  Every 20 minutes outside to"P" & have a treat if successful, then restricting her to all but the family room and laundry area.  At least that will only mean one room with carpet that will have to be deep cleaned after potty training is completely over.  She sleeps in the laundry room, there being nothing there that she can destroy.  So far so good on blending with the pack.  Ladybug's feelings were very hurt the 1st night.  Tiki just wanted it to avoid the baby all together.  But, here we are 5 days later with Mona & Ladybug playing together every waking moment, and Tiki allowing Mona to crawl all over her.  Ladybug no longer hates me, she thinks Mona was a gift to her!  Wonder what she'll think when Mona grows to outweigh her by 40 lbs!





It's Windy!!!!

We sit on the western side of the bowl that is the Pahrump Valley about 3 miles from the base of the western edge Mts.  Our home faces south.  Just SW of the house is a low section of the Mts. and the wind comes screeching into the valley through this low spot.  We're directly in it's path.  This is the weather that has come from So. Cal. and is moving east picking up speed across the CA desert, then funnelling through to our valley at full force.

The winds started yesterday afternoon.  We went to the store about 4PM and there was a touch of breeze when we left as well as when we got into the car to return home, but nothing of any consequence whatsoever.  By the time we got home, the car was being pitched, tossed and thrown all over the road for the last couple of miles.  When I opened my car door at home, the door was ripped out of my hand and flung wide open.  I was worried it would damage the door hinge!  Wow!  Taking the bags of groceries out of the car with one of us holding the liftgate so it wouldn't fly up and get blown off the car was a real feat.

We had made sure than anything that was loose on the property was secured or removed before the wind hit, so we're starting to learn what a wind forecast really means for us.  After the last wind, we are the new proud owners of a free-standing basketball hoop, a 5-gallon bucket and a boot.  No one had come to claim them yet, so the bucket went into our enclosed dog yard, the boot went in the garbage and we moved the basketball hoop to the empty acre to next door hoping whoever owns it would see it there and take it home before it could blow back onto our property.  So far, it's still on the empty property next door.

Still have some good gusts blowing this morning.  The dogs don't like it much and only want to be out just long enough to do the deed then they're at the sliding glass door looking pathetic with hair blowing straight out in one direction.   We keep expecting a wind gust to pick Ladybug up and plaster her to the fence!  Can't say that I blame them for not wanting to be out there......

The Exterior of the House

With this batch of photos, you have now seen the entire property.  Be sure to scroll down and view the batch I posted last night, too.

The front of the property from across the road.

The property goes to the row of pine trees you see at the back of the property of the neighbor behind us.

Behind the car is our little utility trailer in which we hauled everything we had acquired while in Mexico.  Good thing we brought our Mexico stuff as it was enough to get through now without needing to buy much to survive, as everything else we have is still in Oregon.

Jeff's temporary fence back yard.  This was to give "the Girls" a yard again.  Actual property line is the row of trees and Jeff is already planning how to fence in the entire property and remove this temporary fence.  This shed is the ugliest thing I've ever seen.  It was thrown together at some point in time by someone and was never painted.  It will be removed in the not too distant future as it is falling apart.

This view from the back patio door off the dining room. 

Looking from the back door toward the northeast.

To the east from the patio door steps.  Town is 6 miles "dead east" of here.

NOW, the work really begins and there will be no more pics until there is progress!

Battoning down the hatches here... it's supposed to be windy as heck later this evening.



Rest of the House!

OK, showing the rest of the house warts (dirt & grime) and all!

In case I haven't yet given you a perspective on the house, think long rectangle.  At one end is the Master Suite, the other end the Family Room.  From the Master, the next rooms are Living Room on the south side of the house, Kitchen & Dining on the north side.  Then, you enter the hallway & end up in the Family Room.

These photos start in the Family Room, looking down the hallway toward the Living Room (yes, that's the carpet steam cleaner in the living room).  The cabinet you see just around the corner in the hallway in the left side of the hallway is the computer/office desk.  There are two Bedrooms off the hall to the left.

From the Family Room, this is the right side of the hallway looking toward the Living Room.  The rooms you see are the Laundry & exit door to the backyard, the Main Bath and a Bedroom.  The cupboard & overhead you see down the hall are the linens storage and the countertop make a great purse/wallet, keys and phone charging area right in the middle of the house.

This view is from the hallway just next to the desk looking back into the Family Room.

The computer desk built-in is just outside the Family Room door, which works well.

One of 3 identical bedrooms.  Carpet hasn't been cleaned in this room, so I'm hoping that spot comes out!  Bedrooms will eventually become a guest room, a sewing room and a music room.

The hall Linen storage and purse, wallet, phone charger station.  Just past it is the hall coat closet, then the Dining Room.

....and FINALLY...... The Living Room!

Perspective is from the end of the hall. The front door to the left of the front window.

Photo taken from the Dining Room.

The Dining Room is directly to the right. The door to the Master Suite is between the Living Room and the corner door to the Kitchen (where you see the microwave in the wall).

That's it for the house!  You've now seen the entire interior.  Next up will be exterior pics of the house and our empty acre!

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Pictures of the next room ready to photograph...the Family Room

Finally!  Another room to share.  This is the Family Room at the opposite end of the house from the master bedroom. This is a very comfortable room to hang out in and the only furnished room other than our bedroom and the dining room.  This is the only room that has been painted.  We're very slow at it, with our not completely functioning selves, however, we are just taking it slow and doing what we can when we can. 

This is Tiki on the couch....she's (or maybe it's we that are) lucky this set came from Salvation Army.  She seems to have claimed this spot as her own.  This room is 30'x18'.  Behind "Tiki's" couch there is about 5' of space between the back of the couch and the window.  This space is currently Jeff's music area.  Once we get one of the  bedrooms painted & window coverings hung, he'll move up from a "music space" to a

"music room"!

No clue what Jeff had on TV.  Does anyone recognize it?  Notice dog hasn't moved.........

Turning to the left in the room, this is what's just left of the loveseat in the 1st picture.  It's a nice toasty fireplace with an air blower.  Heats the room beautifully.  Since this room is at one end of the house, we can essentially turn on the heat once in the mornings to warm the place up, then start a fire that evening and be comfortable all day even when it's in the low 20's outside.  This room offers wonderful, natural solar heat just with it's eastward facing windows.

Moving to the only part of the house with any decoration.  This is what we ended up with from Mexico.  Have more, but before we bought the utility trailer to haul our collection of stuff from Mexico, I brought a lot of it to Portland.  It will arrive with the remainder of our belongings next month when Jeff goes north to be the long haul driver and bring our items in storage home. 

Wondering what's behind the curtain????

It's a large square hole in the wall.  Intended to place a flat screen TV inside the wall on a built-in TV shelf.  The problem is, the hole is not big enough or in the correct location to be useful to us.  So, we will at some time in the future, call a handyman to come turn the hole into a built in shelf similar to the shelf you see just to the left of the hanging Mexican blanket covering the hole.  There's the dog again........she moved.

 The dog once more and the final angle for the family room.  The opening you see is into the hall/office alcove.  The open door you see just outside the family room is the laundry.

As you can see, this room is bright and airy and I mentioned it natural solar heat qualities. This time of year it's very nice since it has been cold here.  Not sure how much I'll appreciate it when it's 100 degrees out there.  Might have to replace window coverings with thermals to survive.

Next up for pictures will be the hall/office alcoves, the 3 bedrooms, bath and laundry all at the family room end of the house.  Currently, the living room is an empty staging area for everything - I'm not ready yet to show you the pile of removed mini-blinds and torn curtains, bent curtain rods or the rug cleaner & vacuum that currently reside in the living room!

I will leave you with photos of the mountains east of Pahrump after a little dusting of new snow last week.  Central Pahrump, if there is such a thing, is the intersetcion of Hwy 372 (from CA) and SR160.  It's the only thing that resembles a downtown.  It is at the base of the non-snow covered foothills.  This shot is from our location, about 6 miles west of town.  We are on the opposite side of the valley and  about 3 miles from the mountains to the west, which are also the border between Nevada & California.  As we sit in a bowl surrounded by mountains on all sides, the entire set of mountains were snow covered and it was "muy bonita"!  (See, I did learn "pequeno Espanol"!)

Same shot, non-telephoto.  We love the blue sky everyday.  Don't love it quite as much as the blue sky along with the beach in Mexico, but this is HOME and we're happy to be here!