Daily observations of my simple life.

A little warmer this morning. I'm actually going to get to take a morning shower. I have water in the house in the a.m. So far the wind has not come up so I'm going to get out and do mail, take eggs to food bank buy more drinking water and catfood. Surpisingly the hens are laying. Maybe they like cuddling up in the warm nest boxes with hay. Found eggs like easter eggs in a large plastic bin I have full of shredded paper.  Those girls!

I took water out for the quail this a.m. too. They were looking longingly all over the yard. Got much closer to the  house than usual. There is a flock of maybe 30 - 50 of them that come in everyday.  Love seeing them crossing the courtyard.

Hope my palm trees make it. They are looking pretty brown. My poor cactus are all leaning over after the freeze.  Sigh. There's going to be weather, whether or not. 

I've been feeling guilty staying in a warm house cuddled up in front of my computer reading interesting blogs.

Posted by: cactusandquail at 18:00 | link | comments (2)

Brrrrrr!  Brrrrr!   Brrrrr!

Really cold here. Heard it was 18 degrees in Kingman. Had to break the ice on the horse trough and couldn't break the ice on the chicken water so boiled water to pour on. Chickens loved it. They all gathered around and enjoyed the steam bath. Last night I brought big containers of water in the house so I would have unfrozen water for the burro and mustang. My house water doesn't come on till afternoon as everything is frozen. Breeze died down so that keeps it less cold. I felt bad this morning because the quail couldn't find water to drink. I had added the boiled water to water behind the house and the quail come from the front. I showered last night and saved the water so I  would have toilet flushing water.

 

Posted by: cactusandquail at 19:58 | link | comments (5)

Texas Delayed:

Weather is not good so Texas trip will be delayed a week. I'm hoping this cold spell will settle down and I can travel less chilled. Brrrrr. We had snow yesterday and heavy frost this morning. Cold and Breezy this early afternoon. I'm told Texas is expecting an ice storm. Not for me. 

Put up some pictures of Texas property on my other blog. Will be trying more  pictures here as I have time to learn. : )

http://www.simplelvn.blogspot.com

Posted by: cactusandquail at 19:51 | link | comments (2)

Windy Woes:

I'm in the countdown for my trip to Texas. Two weeks ago I had my son-in-law help me load my slide on camper onto my truck. The inside was pretty bad as my grandson lived in it for two years. I've been cleaning and taking it step by step. Yesterday I went to town and had a new skylight put in. I was amazed, it only cost me $30. another rv place quoted $180. Then after several tries at propane places I finally found a fellow who knew what he was doing. He put in the propane lickety split. My grandson had put in an extend a stay and most of the fellows at propane stations didn't understand what it was. This fellow knew right away and fixed it pronto, no charge. I looked all over for the kind of tape you sew into curtains that have the little hooks but couldn't find it so I settled on several packages of safety pins. I'll use them to hook up the curtains until I can take the old tape out of the musty old drapes. 

Picked up my mail and had to carry it out in their largest postal carrier. I am sooooo tired of every charity in the country sending me endless requests. I have chosen my charities, Heifer, Kiva.org. and my three children I support. Now I must sort through all this stuff, take all the entrals out and stuff them in their envelopes and remail them with "no Mail"  There were about 5 items in the whole box that actually were my mail. I'm overwhelmed. The post office here is closing down and the lady said all the junk mail will not go to my new mailing address. Hooray!

I went home after a pretty good day and curled up to read a letter from one of my children. Little Mayra, who is growing and becoming very beautiful. I read the Heifer newsletter and wrote out the two bills addressed to me, electricity and internet. All bills paid this month just cell phone still to come.  I guess I could do it on line, but don't

Slept poorly for some reason but this morning was beautiful for about an hour. Now the wind is up again. The wind here is just so hard to work in. I can imagine how hard it's going to be climbing in and out of the camper hanging onto  stuff in this wind. Not fun. I love my desert homestead but I hate the wind. My chickens and peacocks hide out and when they try to travel from place to place the wind whips them sideways and even into the air. Whatever is not tied down winds up against the fence to be plucked off when the wind dies down and put back in place. This must be the Mexican storm as the wind is blowing to the Northwest. They say another one is coming that will blow from the North. Sigh, Hope we get some rain , it's been a long time and is very needed.

Posted by: cactusandquail at 18:25 | link | comments (6)
win

Who we are:

I like to read the blogs of others and I often wonder if the whole thing is about who we are. Trying to express that in some way. I know from the time I was a child I wanted to live in the country close to nature. I like space, how selfish of me, open space. Even in stores I hate to have people hovering around asking how they can help. There's a scripture that says something like "Live quietly and mind your own business".  I like that, not that I'm not interested in others, I just don't like hearing negative comments about others. I like to give others space too.

I am very appreciative of nature and love the colors, moods, changing seasons, comings and goings of wildlife. I wonder why so much of life seems to be removed from that. I wonder how people are so caught up in a life away from nature. On the last Survivor show there was this outstanding young man,Ozzie. I thought he should have won but he said that his fantasy from the time he was a child his dream was to live like the family Robinson. On a deserted island with animals, gathering food, making shelter, etc. He said he found it very hard to come back to reality after the show to the concrete jungle and found he was depressed. He certainly was a natural on that island. How have we gotten so far removed from the simple life of nature and paradise. I guess who I am is, I would love to see developers, instead of making huge comglomerates of houses right next to each other and shopping malls, build self sustainable communities, full of food bearing trees, gardens, chickens, smaller flocks of animals that produce food, solar and wind power. Yet few seem to see this as an ideal way to live or see themselves as part of nature. Are we only products of advertising and movies?  So many get rid of fruit bearing trees for ornimentals, because it's messy and it's work. They would rather have some trucker truck in their food from some remote place, the grocer set up the supplies, etc. No satisfaction from something they have cared for.

The period in my life after my marriage broke up I had to go to work to live.  I hunkered down and stuck it out, paid the mortgage and the bills but all that time I was dreaming of how I could return to nature and a less structured life. Finally here I am back on a piece of land trying to set up some kind of self sustaining lifestyle, although my years are now limited. This is who I am and if I could I would live even more remotely. 

Posted by: cactusandquail at 16:49 | link | comments (5)

New Pictures Up.

I've got some new pictures up on my other blog. Tried here but they won't take any more pictures.

http://www.simplelvn.blogspot.com

Posted by: cactusandquail at 19:34 | link | comments (4)

Sliding into 2007

I woke early after retiring early after a simple supper of red wine and cold salmon paties. Yummy. Today, the beginning of a new year I had a task. My son-in-law was going to help me load on my slide-on camper. This little camper was my first rv that I bought before I retired. I wanted to use it on my little red Toyota truck. Little did I know about weight factors. In those days, I took only a few short trips mostly to the ocean where I enjoyed oceanside views in my camper kitchen. Very cozy and fun but too heavy for my little truck.

Next adventure for my little camper was to park under a tree at my daughters overlooking the horse pasture. There I lived for 6 months while I waited for the lease on my home to run out so I could move back home. It got cold , really cold. Cabover campers have airspace under the bed where cold weather can really make you miserable at night without electricity. Still for the most part I enjoyed that time, it was a beautiful spot, I enjoyed the horses and I was there for my grandchildren while my daughter was at work.

Little camper got parked at my house in California and there she stayed. I moved to Arizona and my son moved into my old house. My grandson moved into the camper and lived in it for about 2 years, hooked up to the house. Last Spring my grandson and his friend loaded it on his dad's pickup and brought it here for me. There it sat parked, I didn't even look in but once or twice. It was in sad condition after a teenage boy had made her his home for 2 years.  I remembered her sparkling new demeanor when I first owned her and just sighed.

Yesterday, I began the process of cleaning. Still have lots to do. Scrub the floor, clean the sink, vacumn out the drawers, and corners., those things I've done but the cushions need pounding and vacumning, new curtains, walls scrubbed, debugged. mattress sprayed and vacumned.  Now she is loaded on the truck and YES, this truck is sturdy enough to carry this slide on. 2007, I hope to travel a bit, IF I can find a proper care giver for my little farm.

Posted by: cactusandquail at 00:18 | link | comments