Settling In

It was a fairly quiet week on the hill. I have been slowly organizing the boxes from the garage. Because I had so little to begin with the task is not overwhelming.

Tracy continues to clear out from under the oak trees around the driveway, and I am bringing wheel barrel fulls of dirt to the front yard under the eaves, where rain had made deep furrows in the red dirt brought in as "top soil".

I went for a long walk on Sunday afternoon, while Tracy was on his way to Texas A & M with Ashley. I found a good deal of the red dirt that was supposed to be in my front yard. It was in the creek bottom. It made quite the trip to get there. And I paid for it!

I took the photo here on my walk. It is a view of the house I had only seen on paper. I was walking on my neighbor's land to get the shot, but I don't think he would mind.

The buzzards aare still landing on the house. I made glass shard strips to keep them from landing on the sky deck railings. They seem to be working, but I don't know what to do to keep them off the roof. I may need to add a strip of metal roofing that just sticks up and has no depth, so their feces-covered feet don't have anything to hold onto. I get a little queasy when I think of cleaning up after them- which I have done now many times. Yesterday is the first day in a while that I saw no signs of any new landings. I am hoping today is the second day for the same!!

We are STILL working on getting Internet service out there. We have been talking with Home Town Computing for about six weeks now. My last conversation with them yesterday was not hopeful. They had a fire in their building last week, which put everything AT LEAST a week behind. I am still working from Grace Street, while renting it out. I feel like I am infringing on my renter's privacy, even though she is happy that someone is here during the day. Anyway, getting Internet service out there will most certainly prove to be a saga.

I've been sitting out back on the deck every night I am home, watching the stars and talking on the phone with Tracy. I see meteors and satellites every night. And the Milky Way is a thing of wonder, especially through night binoculars. The cool breeze is aaallmost enough for a wrap!

I am trying not to focus on all there is to do, but rather look back at how far it has all come. And then take everything one day, one task at a time. In the meantime, Big Hill feels more and more like Home everyday. And that is really a dream come true.

Settling In

The level of dust replication is slowing slipping. Wish I could say the same for cat hair! It is absolutely amazing how much hair one little 5 1/2 pound cat can leave on the floor- and still be so fluffy!!!

Still no front yard, but Tracy and I did clean it up a bit this weekend. And! the burn ban was lifted, so I have been able to have a couple of fires as well. I really want to get more dirt and mulch in to stem the erosion that is taking place along the front of the house. A gutter system would be nice as well. Darn that budget thing.

Still fighting the buzzard war- black vultures to be exact. They are surprisingly adaptive. They will move down a foot or to another gable when they see they aren't welcome at one (see above photo for ferocious pinwheel weapontry). I find the best thing is to be diligent and "yell" them away before the first one has a chance to land. Problem is, you have to BE there for this to work....

To that end - having limited success in moving forward with Home Town Computing internet service. Tracy and I have been working on it for over a month. The good news is they know us now, know where we live, and have tentatively agreed that we are eligible for their land based wireless service. Hope the internet speed is faster than the set-up!

Even though the weather has been tremendously hot, I can feel summer losing its grip. I just sense it in the air. In the cooler evenings, in the northerly breezes, in the slightly shorter days. Autumn is coming

Until next time, peace from the hill.

I am the Daughter of an Eighty Year Old Man!

Boy, I'm not sure how that makes Dad feel, but it sure makes me feel old. We had a family get together for him in Cadeville this weekend. Several of we girls went early to help around the house and try and keep Mom from working with her one "perfectly normal" shoulder while her bones continue to knit together in the broken one.

What will remain imprinted in my mind from the weekend was the look of pure glee on Dad's face as he rode a two-foot clown bicycle- better than anyone else there. Same goes for the stilt walking. That's an eighty years old to look forward to, right?

In home front news, I got home late Sunday and Mike had just about completed putting the ipe around the sides of the deck. The next morning I saw my bedroom in the morning light and noticed water damage on the floor. I walked to the living and kitchen areas and noticed water damage on the wall in the kitchen. Rats! Rain got through the rock walls again. One more trip to the engineer and Mike says he has it licked- he has to move the flashing away from the back of the walls a bit so that water can't pool up when the rain comes down as hard and steady as it did over the weekend.

The kitchen wall will definitely need repairing. We'll see how I feel about the floor. It may just need a rug. That and a complete fix to the leakage problem.

In buzzard news...there was no sign of activity when I got home. Not surprising since Mike was out the this weekend- and the pinwheels are still up on the deck, along with a dandling water hose. However, this morning I saw two of the varmints flying towards the dead tree across the valley- usually a stopping place on the way to my much nicer deck. I went outside several minutes later, happy to see that there were no birds on the deck. Then I turned around to go inside and saw one perched on the corner of the roof right over the hot tub. Eeeeewww! I suppose I could place pin wheels on every corner of the roof, but they would probably adapt to that too.

We are thinking of motion sensor witch laugh things you get at Halloween. Any suggestions out there are welcome. (Forget termination. They are protected birds- $15,000 and six months in jail for harming them).

Oh, and they live twenty years. I just need to be HOME to fight them off. Arrgghhh!!