Daily observations of my simple life.

Rain Again:

I woke to the sun rising orange over the mountains. Clouds gathered here and there and outside there were puddles again. Don't know how much it rained last night but enough to have standing water. Guess I'll have to wait for it to dry out before I start up the electric lawn mower again.

Next week the grandsons come. I got a call yesterday that an extra one is coming and that grandma should make a hotel reservation in Las Vegas for the 31st. as one of the grandsons will have to fly home for a baseball game. That will be on the agenda for today, get reservations.

Yesterday, I got some of the paperwork cleared away, sigh, but still more to do. More housework today, will need a clean house for company. I'm wondering what to do with the chicks as my grandsons will need the spare bathroom. I'm thinking the garage will be a good place to set them up but haven't decided what in. The chicks are doing well, growing and their little wing feathers grow everyday. Beginning to get an idea of the colors. Visualize them in the barnyard.

Sage gets a hug and a kiss everyday, for those who always inquire. I want to get some pasture fenced for her and Cheriki as I believe they are stable enough to let them out of the high fences. I just don't want Sage to do my trees in.

Time to get to work.

Posted by: cactusandquail at 15:40 | link | comments (2)

Grey Day:

It's grey out there and a bit cool. I'm still in here drinking my morning java after going out to feed. I'm catching up on others blogs. I know I've been woefully selfish only posting and ignoring,  but Spring is a busy time. I'm a bit slow this morning so this gives into my urge to rest a bit, while reading what everyone is up to.

My house is messy. When I work outdoors the clutter begins. If only I could handle all the junk mail like I do junk phone calls. If you give to charity you get zillions of letters telling you all sorts of sad stories. It' s hard for me to decide what to give to and I hate to have so much mail. Seems like they spend an aweful lot of money mailing out those address labels and pleas for more money. So besides all the weeding I must weed through and throw out excess mail. It lays on my desk, on my kitchen table, in a basket, in a sack. Sigh.

Looks like a bit more rain today, maybe.

I had dinner with my neighbor the other evening and I told her the story I read in Mother Earth News.  She is the neighbor that is tearing down a house and is hoping to build it somewhere else. Here is the story.

This lady who lived near Bisbee Az. had just gone through a divorce. She had a pickup truck, a horse and $5000. to her name. She had no job and was living with her sister. She wanted a home of her own. With a can do attitude she began looking for land. Finally she found a 40 acre piece in a country area that was somewhat scenic for desert land. It was owner financed so she put a small amount down  and reasonable payments. She then contacted a surveyer, she managed to keep the cost down by doing part of the work herself. She subdivided her property into 4 parcels, three nine acre parcels and one 14 acre parcel. The 14 acre parcel was the spot she liked the most. She then went right to work and sold 2 of the 9 acres for cash paying off her land loan. The third she set up with payments so she would have income. With her remaining cash from land sales she ordered adobe bricks and she did a lot of scrounging of materials. She found a shed for free and had it hauled to her property. She built a corral of desert materials for her horse. She and her brother-in-law built the house and then she built a rock casita with lean to for hay storage. She did this all in less than 6 months. The cost of her home? After all her land sales was $500. and she had income. She is totallly off the grid, does water catchment for water for her horse. She planned the roof so she would gather enough rain from the 2 -10 inch rainfall in the area. She buys drinking water from town and does her laundry in town or on a wash board. She runs her tv on 12 volt, heats by wood. The picture of the house is beautiful and comfy. I am so inspired by this story and deep down I want to do something like that. Just start from scratch and have a payed for totally off the grid house. Hmmm.

Guess I'd better go  clean house and finish my days work while pondering this. 

Posted by: cactusandquail at 17:22 | link | comments (6)

Spring Has Sprung:

Is this the first day of Spring? I'm thinking it is and it was a gorgeous one. Most of my day was spent caring for animals and tackling weeds. I mow for short periods, then clip and haul basket loads to the animals. In between I ran to get water 4 times today. I hope to do 3 or 4 loads tomorrow as well which should pretty much have the tank filled.  I may dump a load of water where I want to pull weeds. Some of those mustard weeds have tough stems and so I pull them up by the roots. It was fine while the ground was wet but impossible now. I've been pretty conservative the last two weeks as I had my water tank off the truck. Sunday, my daughter came by and we both slid the tank on the truck again. I had dinner at my daughters. She made her chili Colorado and we had taco's . Yum.  She has baby kittens. I'm really tempted but my dog is not friendly to cats. I'll think on it. They are black tabbies.

My grandson is coming on Saturday along with his friend, (my adopted grandson). They will be spending Spring break with me and want to make a little cash so we'll see if they can get my back porch up. I saw the hog barn they built while I was in California and was pretty impressed. We'll be spending a couple days in the mountains as well.

Shirley called and said the tumor was benign. I was so glad. Frank got on the phone and said he'd like to come back and spend a month or so . I guess I will have a handyman for awhile. I honestly enjoy myself more when I have the place to myself. I can sit out and enjoy the skyline understurbed, no one to tell me not to do this or that as they can do it. Sigh.

The chicks are doing fine. I lost one little grey silkie. It was laying in the water dish like it may have drowned in it's sleep or another chick had stepped on it's head when it was drinking. They tend to hop on each other fiestally with no concern.

Carlos, my peacock,  has been spreading his feathers grandly and doing the shimmy in front of Luchia, the hen. I've taken pictures and if all else fails I'll scan them into a file and  see if I can put them on this page. Luchia is looking for a nest. I chased her home twice this week as she keeps eyeing a high patch of weeds between my fence and the neighbors. I set her up a fine nest and hope she will stay home to set. Baby peacocks, won't that be grand.

I'm happily farming my little rural home. I'm thinking a little about milk goats and chickens as my crops. Read a great recipe for goat cheese. People who live on goats milk live long and it also can be fed to chickens. In the  fall I hope to plant my olive trees. They have been growing steadily in containers on my porch. I love olive trees. Oh and the octillo fence that I planted in the mountains has leaves and flowers on it. It's growing!!!!  I also found a small octillo I planted in my cactus garden here with little leaves on it. Some of my iris are blooming now. I planted them last fall.  I just recently played a tape I have about Julliete of the herbs. This is a woman who traveled her whole life learning about how gypsy's, pheasant farmers and nomads tended their animals and used plants. She was an English woman who had studied to be a veternarian. What a lovely soul. She loved her lemon trees and olive trees and herbs and traveled with her children on foot or on boat to many places in the world. At the time the film was taken she was living on a Greek island in a little cottage without running water, electricity or heat. She gathered wood and carried water. A book of hers called, "Travelers Joy" is a favorite of mine. I love to read it when I'm camping.

Sunday I went to the swap meet and got some paint. I want to put some trim on the barn and paint some scenes on the solid fence. She and I talked about property values here. Like me she moved here less than 5 years ago. She said a 2 1/2 acre lot next to her with no improvements and no water would have sold when she moved there for $2500. It sold last week for $26,000. Investors from everywhere are calling realtors daily and buying whatever they can at whatever price is asked. Not a sleepy little valley anymore but still beautiful.

Magnificent sunset this evening. Bless the day with gratetude and joy.

Posted by: cactusandquail at 09:49 | link | comments (3)

Life Can Be Beautiful:

Despite the great shadow the developer is casting on Mohave County, life today is beautiful.

My dear Cheriki got out of her corral this week and I got the thrill of my life when I walked across the pasture and my dog and my horse were following me. That's a wish from the time I was a very young girl. Cheriki is letting me hold her halter while I brush her coat. Even though she sometimes likes to kick up her heels she is always gentle around me.

Friday, I received my chick order through the mail. I went up to the back door of the post office and was greeted by a man carrying a box peeping loudly. They are now all at home in my spare bathroom tub. First I put down a rug, then cardboard boxes, then bedding (grass hay) I put up two heat lamps and under them I placed my crockpot ceramic jar wrapped with a wash  cloth. It has warmed up nicely and the chicks love to cuddle up next to it. They have fresh water and food and they are busily eating and lazily sleeping all the time. I got 12 silkies, 6 arracana pullets, 6 mixed brown egg laying pullets, and 6 red jungle chickens. Pullets are baby girl chicks. The red jungle chickens are the oldest breed known and I have never seen them before. The chicks look like little owls with puffs under their eyes and they are a wonderful mahogany color. What a nice variety. The silkies are straight run which means I could get roosters or hens in the mix. The rest are pullets except one red jungle chicken rooster. I should have lots of egg layers and lots of setters. I want to sell eggs at the farmers market. Green and brown eggs!  Arracana's lay green and blue eggs.

Last evening the little girl down the block came over and we watched the chicks for awhile and then we went out for my evening walk with my dog. We walked far back and found the most beautiful field full of orange poppies. Golden fields of poppies, such a treat.

The day before my neighbor and I went to the mountains to look at 40 acres I had found. It was a gorgeous drive and we walked the property. Just as we were leaving we noticed the 4 sale sign was no longer there. After we had decided, "When can we close?"  When I got home I called and asked if it was sold and I was told it had been taken off the market as they had decided to hold on to it. All I could do was give her my phone number and address in case they changed their minds. sigh. This is what happens when developers come in, people are hanging on to get big profits from the growth. No more cheap land. I was a little concerned about buying with my neighbor anyway. We are congenial but things go wrong and then--------friendships get spoiled due to misunderstandings.

My apricot tree that I planted last year has baby apricots on it. I'm so excited. I wonder if any of my other fruit trees will fruit this year. I have apricots, apples, plums, cherries, pears, figs, pistachios, pecans and pommegranites plus fruiting cactus. Farming is so fun. Some of my desert trees aren't doing so well, may be too much rain this year.

My trip to California was wonderful, I traveled half way and spent the night in my motorhome at a rest area. So many flowers now. Took some nice scenic routes , then spent the night at my sons, visited with the grands and then next day visited my 93 year old dad. I headed on home from there after stopping at Trader Joes to stock up. I went out from Santa Maria, ( Michael Jacksons trial place) out old 166. It was gorgeous. I love that route. Spent another night at a rest area and then on home by Sunday afternoon. It's been a busy week pulling , mowing, cutting weeds and getting organized. I have been taking large baskets of green cuttings to all the animals, which I'm sure they are most grateful for. 

 Monday I woke to no phone, so no computer and of course I had no tv. So the phone guy came out and informed me the road grader had cut the phone lines, and the tv guy came out and re- attached my cut dish lines. By afternoon I was all set up again, phone and tv and anxiously waiting for the chicks. I finally called and they said it would be more like Friday when they arrived so I just relaxed and tended to weeds.

So life is beautiful.

Posted by: cactusandquail at 17:23 | link | comments (5)

More Puddles:

I woke last night and out my window was moonlight on small lakes and water filled tire tracks. The sunshiny week with Springlike symptoms gave a false sense of oncoming warm weather. The long warm days had been spent pulling weeds and starting Spring cleaning. Yesterday morning had started with sparse high white clouds but by afternoon dark clouds rolled in. Early evening thunder rolled across the valley and the downpour started. I felt like holing up in my bed and sleeping. I went to the vidio store rented some movies and came home and made fried eggplant. The movie "Perfect Strangers" had just enough adventure and suspense to make it intriquing.

I woke up in the middle of Wednesday night and couldn't sleep. Tv is getting so old and I didn't feel like going on the computer so I padded into my spare room in my barefeet to look through the bookshelves. I found several and padded back to my bed, propped up and picked a book. The book I picked was , "SHEEP, STARS, AND SOLITUDE," by Francis Raymond Line. I had started the book but got distracted. A couple years ago I got another book by the Line brothers about their trek across America on foot before they started college. The trek was life changing. Francis later became a feature writer for National Geographic and he and his wife made a trek on foot to the bottom of the Grand Canyon every year to celebrate their wedding aniversery. I was camping at Burro Creek when I read that book, lightning striking around me, safe under the ramada, reading by propane light. What a read, these young men slept under highway signs, climbed mountains and treked through deserts, worked in mines, and sold shoestrings to eat. Yes, that's traveling on a shoestring. The books title, "FOOT BY FOOT" .

Now I sat propped up reading Francis Lines book about a sheep herder who took 2000 sheep from the Salt River Valley in Arizona to the high country for summer feeding. Francis Line took the journey with this mightly little Mexican man who for some 40 odd years made this journey twice a year with his sheepsies. What a vivid account of the hardships, the sheeps suffering, the beauty . I was taken in, knowing full well the terrain and unforgiving nature of Arizona's wilderness. How I understood the magic of the brightness of the stars, the quiet, the cholla forests, the small wonderous creatures that survive.

Thursday morning arriving, my day is full of the spirit of Arizona wilderness, this in the face of impending new development everywhere in this county. I'm to meet with my neighbor and travel north to the site where she is to tear down a house. We meet and talk about the development. South of us a Las Vegas developer has bought 7000 acres where he is going to put in a cooky cutter golf course development with homes , club house, shopping center, and half million dollar homes. We are just soooo upset as this guy secreted his whole plan but has already broken ground.

Traveling North my neighbor showed me land that was $1000. an acre last year and is now selling for $25,000. an acre. I'm in awe of the house she is tearing down. Chicken houses, hobby houses, a whole house, all with good lumber she gets to have. She wants to rebuild somewhere away from the growth. We threw ideas around and by the end of the day she had a deal going with a man who has 40 acres he is about to lose due to little money. She will make the payments for 10 acres so she can build. I'm excited for her but I wouldn't want the job she has ahead. Tearing down a house is formidable even with workers. Long days of work and hauling ahead for her. She has three men who will work for her and she is the foreman. Blessings to her and her dreams. The man who purchased the property is going to develop it in some commercial way, another Las Vegas man. This whole area is inhabited for the most part by lower income people, the desert rats, the survivors with little resources. Now Las Vegas is spreading and the area is changing. I resent it that money can destroy the dreams of those who have just enough while those who are rich can buy up whatever and override the simple way of life I hold dear. I'm not looking forward to a golf course down my block. The news of a golf course in Laughlin is how all the effluent from the golf course is costing the county more than all the other effluent combined. Why does that make sense? Why such waste for a stupid game? Take a walk in the wilderness and enjoy nature. I'm sad, development means lights, lights mean the stars will be dulled. We';ll have more traffic, smog, higher prices, on and on. Now, I'm looking for property in the mountains. Sometimes I wish the crush of unappreciative humans, the greedy glut of commercial expansion would just disappear. Be gone with you, give us back the beauty of nature, the peace of a simple life.  

Posted by: cactusandquail at 16:06 | link | comments (5)

Time Passes:

It's been a week of lovely sunshiny weather. Every day I go out and cut baskets of greens for the critters and pull weeds. I've been Spring cleaning and  savoring the beautiful evenings.

Yesterday I spent the day with the guy down the street. He helped me haul in several bookcases and get them set up. Since Frank is gone he will be the handyman and do some small profects every week.  I took him to lunch and I enjoyed talking to him. He had some worthwhile things to say.

All the weed pulling I'm feeling a little soft today. I've been out weeding all ready and have to make several trips to get water. I work and come in and rest, go out and work some more and come in and rest. Not a high energy day.

I will be going to Calif. either Friday or Monday and stay a week , got to be back to pick up the chicks by the 15th. That will be exciting.

My neighbor called last night and was telling me she is clearing a property that just sold. She will be bringing home a house, and several sheds. Wow. She all ready has two trailers and a guest house on her property besides the main mobile. I'm wondering how she can put anything else on it. It would seem like she could get some pretty big bucks for the house as she says it is only a couple years old. The people who purchased the property are wealthy and have plans to build a huge house and don't want anything else on the property.

I'm enjoying my privacy. I love going out and having no one to contend with . I'm reorganizing the garage to suit me. I enjoy going out in my curlers early to feed and then sitting in my room looking out the window at the sunrise watching the animals eat while I have my coffee.  Peaceful, no one walks past the window.

Posted by: cactusandquail at 19:14 | link | comments (2)