A Tough Few Weeks on the Hill

Living out here is not for the faint of heart, that’s for sure.
Here is a rundown of what we have had to deal with on the hill in the last couple of weeks.

More buzzard landings, more buzzard poo. (though not as often, thank goodness!)

There is significant erosion of paid for dirt in the front of the house from the long steady storm, followed by a fast and furious one. I have been out there throwing rocks and sticks and local dirt as often as I can to fill up the holes and try to prevent further erosion, but the permanent remedy will require more brought in dirt, plants and a gutter system.

We’ve had rain leaking around the dry stack walls and chimney into bedroom, kitchen and den- only in the long storm, the one I call the 40 Days and Nights Storm, because it seemed to last that long. Mike had the walls and chimney wrapped in plastic by the second storm. He’s already had to unwrap and wrap again – for the arrival of company followed by more threat of rain. I told him he could continue to do that as often as needed, but that it might be more economical to just go ahead and stop the leaking. Certainly more attractive.

In the second storm, the ferocious one, we had a lightning strike to a largish oak tree in the mot closest to the well house, resulting in blown out well pump, a cost of $500.

Internet has been out since the tower in town got hit by the storm. Although the other two towers are working, we still don’t have Internet. BJ from HTComp is here now working on it. I have been driving to Grace Street to work.

A couple of the sound system areas are without sound…..hopefully a simple fix on that one.

Girly Man was accidentally locked in the bedroom closest all night (by me); he didn’t make a peep. But he did pee and poo in a plastic bin on the floor. It probably seemed to him like an upgraded litter box. However, I was in the middle of unpacking my winter clothes, and the bin he used held my leather coat (direct hit), leather pants, cashmere sweaters x 2, wool sweater (direct hit) and several other sweaters. I think the coat is a goner.

Mike did get the windmill remnant hung on the wall above the margerita window. It looks as good as I hoped it would.

I have to believe it will all calm down as time goes by. All I can say is, thank God for the view. And that I finally have my piano out here. And for wine. And for Tracy. See, the good still outweighs the bad- by far.

Internet!!!

The punch list is slowly dwindling. It is mostly small things, with a couple of biggies in there- wax/ buff the kitchen cabinets and redo the outside paint touch ups.

Tracy is out at the house this afternoon overseeing the Internet install. That's right, I am coming into the 21st century! I hope....I have learned not to take any of it for granted. I am getting wireless terrestrial service. Interestingly, the tower I will get my signal from is the old downtown tower, just a couple of blocks from The Little House on Grace. It's all connected down here. I really look forward to getting to office from home. What a joy that will be!

Speaking of being at home, perhaps with more home time I can keep the vultures off the deck. I had actually stated to relax after almost two weeks with no landings. Then on Sunday, Tracy and I were on the couch watching TV and he saw two of them land on the hot tub deck. My heart just sank. So, we went out and put back all our blue jay trailer trash shiny and sharp stuff. We'll see. My "next door neighbors, the Noells, says it is only an intermittent problem. Goodie!!

So far I have spotted on the hot tub deck the following animals. Vulture, road runner, sparrow, hummingbird, racoon, opposuum, ferrel cat, inch worm, ant, wasp, horse fly, dragonfly. It's a regular Wild Kingdom.

I enjoyed a 4-day weekend this past holiday weekend. I tacked on Friday to make it longer. It was wonderful. On Friday I cleaned house at a leisurely pace, on Saturday Tracy and I went to College Station to watch the Aggies WIN a game, and we visited Ashley. She is settling in to her much different world down there. On Sunday I sang at church and then "chillaxed" the rest of the day. Yesterday, Tracy and I got out in the "yard" and cleared and burned. Still working on taming the front area around the house. When I have a few extra dollars I will bring in more dirt and plant some wild seed of some sort. Anything right now to cover up the red dirt.

All in all, it's been a good two weeks since I last wrote. Labor Day has come and gone, there are no more summer markers in 2009. Let the holiday season begin!