NEW WATER LINES

When the concrete slab is poured for the new garage, a large section in front of the house will also be concrete.  The new patio will come out about 12 feet, to the left of center, and the walkway to the garage will be to the right side of the house.   Before that all gets covered, I decided to run some new water, and irrigation pipe.  Any excuse to dig with the new toy, right! 

When I did all of the concrete at the Havasu house, I also thought ahead, and put water lines, and electrical conduit in place before the concrete was poured.  When the concrete is down, it's a little late to start thinking about digging trenches.

When the new garage is up, the electrical service will come through this new dig.  Today, I'll lay the electrical conduit in the trench, along with another water line.  So far, the digging has been fairly easy, with only a few large rocks buried in the ground.  For the type of work I've been doing around the house, this tractor/backhoe has been almost perfect.  I'm really glad I didn't get a smaller machine.

The new engineer's drawings were supposed to be FedExed to my contractor before 3pm yesterday, but I didn't get a call that they arrived.  So, I'll be on the phone early this morning, to see what the latest holdup is.  It seems with these construction projects, there's always a fly in the ointment somewhere, but my patience is starting to wear a little thin.  This garage needs to get built, so we can get serious about moving all of our stuff to Tucson!

TREASURES

A Sunday afternoon visit from Marc & Laila, sent Grandma & the just turned 7 year old, on a treasure hunt.  After a couple of spins around the property, and the collection of a few more "treasures", it was time to clean them all up.  With a mini wash tub, Laila used a toothbrush to scrub some of the dirt off the loot.  Most of the stuff was a collection of small, multicolored, round pieces of glass, and a few other assorted items.   The important thing is that the search has become a Grandma and Grand Daughter special activity.

When Marc & Laila left, I settled in to watch the Las Vegas Drag Race, and game 4 of the Giants - Tigers World Series.  With most of my fantasy drag race picks eliminated early, and only one race left, I've all but conceded the championship to Marc.  My failure to pick drivers at one of the races has pretty much sealed my fate.  This new to me fantasy sports activity started last year when my other son Mike was on assignment in Afghanistan.  Mike is going to be leaving again for a 4 month deployment in Afghanistan, with a mid November departure.  He says the money is good, and it sets him up for another promotion within the National Security Agency, but that doesn't relieve any of his family's anxiety, knowing he'll be back in a very dangerous place.

Some of the treasures.

Many years ago, while growing up in Central California, I was a huge San Francisco Giants fan.  I watched them play at the old Seals Stadium in 1958, right after they moved from New York City.  I  took my Grandfather Dewey to a Giants night game (brrrrrr), at Candlestick Park in the 70's, and my other Grandfather Walter, was also a devoted Giants fan, listening to every game on the radio.  Over the years, I lost interest in baseball, but when the Giants made it to the World Series again this year, I couldn't wait to watch the games on TV.  Last nights game was a squeaker, with the Giants winning game 4 in the 10th inning, and the Series for the second time in 3 years.  When we head to Alaska next year, Nancy, who has season tickets, has promised to take me to a game.  Can't wait.................!

BAT GIRL & A BIRTHDAY

In Marc, Chandra, and Laila's neighborhood, the evening for trick or treating was yesterday, a few days before Halloween.  Patty and I arrived in time to get a few pictures of Miss Laila in her Bat costume, before she started searching for the perfect treat.  Her friend Emma had joined the Halloween Party, and we left as scores of costumed kids started arriving at the door.

Earlier in the day, Marc took Patty and I to lunch at Hotrods, a huge new themed restaurant with a NASCAR Sprint Cup Car displayed in the lobby.  It was the day of my birth yesterday, and even though I don't celebrate birthdays anymore, other folks still feel like they have to do, or say something about this particular day.  I guess I shouldn't sound like a whiner, and just be glad that my world is right, and that I have family & friends who care about me.  Thanks to Marc for the lunch, to Chandra for my favorite "snowball cookies", to Laila for my new book - Killing Kennedy, to Mike & Amy for the shirt, and to my wife for putting up with me, for all of these years!

Life is good!

IT'S A PUMPKIN FEST

The end of October signals the season of ghosts, goblins, witches, trick or treaters, and of course, pumpkins.  Yesterday afternoon, Patty and I brought our pumpkin over to Marc, Chandra, & Laila's house, and the pumpkin seeds started flying.

While Marc, Chandra, & Patty were busy with their carving knives, Laila started separating the seeds from the "goo", while Grandpa supervised.  By the way, this was a contest, and I was the self appointed judge, who during this political season, made it quite clear, that I would consider any bribes that were offered.    I also made the point, that there wasn't going to be an appeal process, and my decision was the final word. 

For about an hour, I watched the 3 pumpkin carving fanatics craft their masterpieces, and sort of helped Laila put the seeds in a bowel.  I think more seeds made their way to my mouth, than to the bowel.

When the dust settled, 3 of the 4 contestants showed off their creations, (Mom was Laila's artist).  No knives yet for this 7 year old.  Chandra continued carving her second pumpkin, and was done in record time.

Who has the biggest smile - Patty or the Jack O Lantern?

Marc was convinced that he had the winner.

 

With candles inside, the finished products were on display in the kitchen.  What would the judge decide?   Don't tell anybody, but this arbiter of  the Pumpkin Picasso's had already made up his mind.

And the winner is..........Long before Laila displayed her ghost pumpkin, created by Mom, the judge knew who the winner would be.  How could Grandpa resist that smile, which turned out to be the ultimate bribe.

While Chandra put the finishing touches on a delicious pot roast dinner, Laila, Grandma & Grandpa played Jr. Monopoly on the living room floor.  I didn't know the game even existed.  It's a much simpler version of the regular game, and it goes much faster.  For me, it went real fast, as I was the first to go bankrupt.  Grandma turned out to be the winner, but in the end, she and I were both winners, spending some wonderful time with our family.

CRITTERS

There seems to always be a downside to just about everything.  Having a home in the Arizona Desert city of Lake Havasu for the past 10 years, has provided us with a nice warm climate to spend the winters.  However, the downside is that it's brutally hot in the summer, and many folks like us, take off for cooler environments during those 100+  degree months.

Now that we are in the process of moving from a city environment, to a rural environment, one of the downsides is that we have to deal with many more types of "critters", than we did in our home in the city.  About the only creature that we had to worry about in Lake Havasu, was the ever present cricket, and a twice yearly spraying by a pest control company, pretty much kept them under control.

Flash forward to our new home on 4 acres, surrounded by wide open desert, and the issue of dealing with unwanted critters, has been amplified considerably.  Yesterday, I had a local pest control company come by, and spray the house, inside and out.  There was a lot of conversation about how to deal with the various pests that inhabit the area, and yes, we can expect to encounter rattlesnakes on our property.  When, and hopefully if, Patty encounters a rattler, I know the scream will be heard clear back in Lake Havasu!  As much as Patty and I don't like snakes, the critter that dominated the discussion was the "desert packrat".  I have already run across evidence outside the house, that they are present, and these rodents can cause a heck of a lot of damage, if they are not controlled.  I have  heard several stories from folks about how these critters can cause huge damage in vehicles, and in houses, when they start chewing on things like wiring.  Not quite to the panic mode, I had the pest company set out some bait stations, around the house and the motor home, and then made a quick trip to the hardware store for some mothballs, (it seems that packrats don't like the smell), some D-Con poison, and some super size, good old fashioned mouse traps.  Despite all the advancements with chemicals, and other pest control devices, the wooden mouse trap still serves as one of the best ways to deal with rodents.

So far, so good, after spending about a month on the property.  No evidence of critters in the house, and let's hope it stays that way!



 

YARD WORK & ELECTRICITY

 This is where the large pile of vegetation, and debris was stacked, but now gone.

 

For the past several weeks, I've been clearing the property of unwanted growth, such as small trees, cactus, and other assorted natural vegetation.  The pile of debris had grown quite large, and rather than wait until I had my small trailer here to haul it away, I had a guy with a truck and trailer come by yesterday.  It took him two loads, but by early afternoon, most of the pile, including scrap lumber, was gone.

At about the same time, I had an electrician install an electrical dryer plug in the laundry room.  The house is set up with natural gas, which is great for the kitchen, but not for our electric dryer.  For just a little more money, we could have purchased, and converted to a new gas dryer, but we've decided to use our current washer and dryer till the wheels fall off. 

On the Lake Havasu scene, real estate agents have been showing our house to prospective buyers, but no offer yet.  Back in Tucson, still no building permit until the engineer gets new drawings to the county, which should happen next week.  I'm anxious to get the garage done, so that we can empty the Havasu house, and complete the move here to Tucson.

THE TOWN BETWEEN THE TRACKS

While working at the Grand Canyon this summer, we decided to move from Lake Havasu City, to Tucson.  The basis for that decision wasn't that we don't like where we've lived for the past 10 years, conversely, it was that we wanted to be closer to Marc, Chandra, and Laila. 

When we started looking for  a new place to live, we focused on the southeast area, which included the small community of Vail.  We're about 20 miles from downtown Tucson, and about 15 minutes away from where Marc, Chandra, and Laila live.  We're still in the desert, but the elevation is a little over 3,000 feet, so our summers will be a little cooler, and so will the winters.

When we found the property that we ended up buying, it was only about a mile and a half from what is considered downtown Vail.  When you think of "downtown", the business area of Vail isn't very big.  There's only about a dozen businesses, including the post office.  No banks, no grocery stores, no WalMarts!  It's about a 6 mile drive to the nearest large grocery store.  The original town was built between the Southern Pacific tracks, and owed it's origin to the railroad, which arrived in the area in 1880.   

When Patty and I made a quick trip to the Post Office yesterday, we stopped across the street at the original Post Office building, pictured above.  The structure is in such bad shape, that someone has placed a large tarp over the top to keep out the water.  There is an effort to restore and maintain this historic building, but it doesn't look like much progress has been made.   

If someone doesn't like trains, living where we do, might just be a bit problematic.  Our little community of manufactured homes on acreage, is the only development, other than a few businesses, between the railroad tracks.  From our back deck, we see the mostly eastbound trains pass by, and they are about a 1/4 mile away.  We can't see the westbound tracks.  The town between the tracks is our new home, and watching trains pass by in our backyard isn't something that bothers me, even a little bit!     

VOTE

When Patty and I sort of retired 11 years ago, we began a nomadic lifestyle, that has taken us all around this great country many times.  In fact, in just about all of those 11 years, we spend more days in the motor home than we do in our real house.  In RV circles, I guess you might say that we are 1/2, or 3/4 timers, as opposed to full time RV'ers.

This type of living, where we're on the go for many months, or work camping in locations like Alaska, or the Grand Canyon, requires many adjustments.  We've never had mail delivered to our house, because we're often not there.  We were fortunate to find a great business in Lake Havasu, that forwards our mail, and maintains our personal mail box.  Thanks Bill & Nancy! 

Not too long after moving to Arizona, we signed up to vote by mail.  No matter where we are in the country, our ballots are forwarded to us, and we can participate in this most basic privilege of our democracy.  We just received our general election ballots for the upcoming Nov 6 election, and mailed them off yesterday.  I'm not going to get into a partisan political diatribe, but I will encourage everyone who reads this blog, to find a way to vote.  There are millions of veterans who have served, fought, been injured, and yes, even killed, so that future generations have the right to decide who, and how their country is governed.  It doesn't matter what your political beliefs are.  What matters is that you find a way to participate in this fundamental process, that is the foundation of our free society.    There are NO excuses, please VOTE!

MEET OSCAR

Since first arriving here in Tucson almost a month ago, I started seeing this little horned toad around the front of the motor home.  Every few days, I would notice this little guy, and have always been afraid that I'm going to step on him.  Because he's become so familiar, I decided to give him a name, and Oscar it is.  As lizards go, horned toads don't move very fast, and Oscar is so small, it takes him awhile to cover any distances.  Yesterday morning, I coaxed Oscar into my hand, so that I could get his picture, and introduce him to the world.  I don't know if he's full grown, or if he's just a baby, but for being a reptile, I think he's kind of cute.  Now, if I can just avoid what may be the inevitable.
  

 Oscar blends in with his natural surroundings so well, he's hard to see.

 What a face!

Marc and Laila came by for a couple of hours yesterday, and they gave the metal detector a good workout.  My nemesis - the deck screw, was not only firmly embedded in the deck, but they are scattered all over the property, along with lots of other stuff.  Laila found everything from screws, and nails, to something that looked like part of a fence decoration.

At 4pm, I picked up Patty from the airport, and we stopped at Marc & Chandra's for a short visit.  When we got  back to the ranch, we had time to catch up on all of Patty's Hawaiian adventures, and I brought her up to speed and what I've been doing here on the property.  It was good to have my wife back, and I'm sure she's happy to be back with her family, including the four legged kids.  

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

The wooden monster is defeated!!  When the last board was finally removed, I felt like Rocky at the top of the steps in Philadelphia.  Victory at last.  With lots of limitations, such as drill battery life, blisters, sore muscles,  and an IPOD that died mid project, the 3 day task of dismantling the old deck was finished yesterday afternoon.  I now have a pretty good pile of reusable 2x6 lumber, that I know will come in handy for some future project.  There's a lot of things I'm not, but determination isn't on that list. 

 

The source of my frustration during this demo project was the 3 1/2 inch deck screws that were about one inch longer than they needed to be.  Many wouldn't budge, and like the above example, many would back out a short distance, then the drill bit would lose it's grip, spinning, and ruining the screw head.

In addition to the pile of reusable boards, I also have a pile of scrap lumber, that needs to be hauled away with all of the trees and vegetation that I removed with the backhoe.  I was going to wait until I got my small trailer down here, and haul the stuff away myself.  However, I think I'll check into hiring someone with a large enough trailer to get rid of everything all at once.

Patty returns home today, with a flight from Sacratomatoes, to Phoenix, then Tucson, arriving this afternoon at 3:45.  In my almost daily phone calls with her, and the following of Nancy's blog, it sounds like they had a great time in Maui.  Patty has not been to the new property since we closed escrow, and I'm sure she has lots of things she wants to do inside the house.  We were tentatively planning on briefly returning to Lake Havasu to transfer a load of stuff, but that may wait for a few weeks, if the garage project gets started soon.  

DONE!

BUILDING PERMIT WOES

My garage contractor (The ,Original Shed & Garage Co.), submitted an application to Pima County 6 days ago, for a building permit.  Yesterday, I stopped by the business, to check on the permit status, and was told that minutes before I arrived, the denied application was returned to the Garage Co. by the Pima County Development Services Department.   The main reason for denial was the fact that the square footage of the garage I want to build, exceeds the maximum allowable, which is either, 1,500 square feet, or 70% of the house square footage.  In our case, the 1,500 square footage is the larger of the two, and my proposed 32' X 48' garage is 1,536 square feet, 36 feet over the maximum.  Who comes up with these rules? 

On top of being over the maximum by 36 square feet, the county said there is a 10 X 12 shed on the property, which deducts another 120 square feet off the 1,500 maximum.  Huh, what shed?  Another reason for denial was that the engineered plans were only good up to 1,024 square feet.  The last reason for rejection was the county said they needed a plot map showing where the Natural Open Space (NOS) boundaries are located.

With the mindset of wanting to be like a bull in a china shop, tempered with the reality of knowing that wouldn't get me very far, I headed off to the building department.  While waiting about 30 minutes for my name to be called, I had time to formulate my strategy, for turning this thing around, or so I thought. 

On the square footage issue, the county had looked at an older Google satellite image of the property, and it showed a 10x12 shed.  When told in my most convincing voice, that we had just purchased the property, and the shed was no longer there, the gal signed off on that 120 square feet.  OK, so now I'm still over the maximum by 36 square feet, and there's no way they are going to allow the extra footage, unless I go through the waiver process, that requires fees, notification to the neighbors, and other stuff.  Not going there, so I asked if taking a foot off the back of the building (32 x 47 = 1,504) would be allowable.  The gal, being a black & white type of person, said "nope, that's still 4 square feet over, you'll have to go down to 32 x 46".  When a guy got involved regarding the building plans, I brought up the square footage issue once again, asking him if  the 1,504 number would fly, he said they weren't going to quibble over 4 square feet, and I could resubmit the application at the revised number of 32 x 47.  He must have had a little more horsepower, because the gal didn't say a word.

The other issues of new plot map and engineered plans were addressed with the Garage Co., and I was assured that the engineers stamp of approval, and the new map would be resubmitted to the county, the first of next week.  So, another weeks delay, and my garage got 1 foot shorter, but at least it's still going to happen someday, I think.
 

 

 I was almost there, when the batteries in my drills died.  I calculated that there were approx. 420 deck screws in this old deck, and I'm guessing that about 1/3 of them would not come out.  The blisters on my right hand are testament to their stubbornness!

MAKING PROGRESS

Besides dismantling another section of the old deck, about the only other thing I got accomplished yesterday was the contacting of a few more awning companies for bids.  Those estimates should be in by sometime next week.  Still no garage building permit from the county.  I can see where a lot of the building industry frustration is rooted.

I talked to the president of the homeowners association, and he needs one more member of the architectural committee to sign off, and then I'll have the green light from them.  As long as my drill bits hold out, more boards will be removed today, and I think I might just have to pay a visit to the Pima County building permit folks.

MOVING WOOD & BLOCK

The smaller section of the former front deck, is now situated in it's new permanent location, adjacent to the back patio deck.  I removed the block steps, and most were used at either end of the back deck.  When I removed the entire deck from the front of the house, this wasn't part of the plan,  it just kind of worked out that way. 

My earlier complaint about trying to remove the front deck by hand, is still valid, as the larger section has to be dismantled.  It's way to large to haul away, and besides, there's still a lot of good lumber in that old deck.  Has anybody priced, or purchased lumber lately?  So, it was back at those impossible deck screws, that have phillips heads as soft as a warm cube of butter.  No matter how well I have matched the phillips drill bit to the screw, most still just spin, making the screw a semi permanent part of the wood.  I think there have been 2 or 3 boards, where I was able to remove all of the screws, and retrieve the board intact.   Removal of all the other boards have required a hammer, a demo bar, and lots of un-repeatable words and phrases. 

It was mid afternoon when the awning company guy showed up to take a look at the front of the house.  By then, I was ready to call it a day, in my battle with the old deck, and it's semi permanent screws.  Make no mistake, the old deck is going down, it's just going to take awhile, as my physical, and verbal assault continues against the wooden monster.

WILEY COYOTE

 Very poor image of a coyote, just outside the motor home.

On some nights, the howling of the coyotes is so close, it seems that they are right outside the house.  We've all heard Mr. Wiley Coyote barking off in the distance, but I'm talking about hearing them just a few feet away, probably down in one of the two washes that are on our property.   Yesterday morning, just before the sun came up, while sitting at the table in front of the computer, I watched Wiley walk about 15 feet away from the motor home.  I quickly grabbed the camera, and took the picture through the window, but due to it still being mostly dark, the image is not very good.  Wiley's buddy came along right behind him, but the second picture was even worse.  The two coyotes were only in view for a few seconds, then they disappeared off into the desert toward the railroad tracks.

One of my errands yesterday was to pick up the new tractor seat bottom that I had ordered from the Kubota Dealer.  As you can see, the old one was in pretty bad shape, and the new one is shown below. 

Still no building permit, but the paperwork has been submitted to the county.  With any luck, it should be issued by the end of this week.   I had the concrete contractor rebid the smaller garage project, and also the adding of a patio and walkway at the front of the house.  The square footage of the two jobs was about the same as the larger garage, but I was able to negotiate the price down by $500.  He's ready to go, but reluctant to start without the permit.  Stay tuned.........

FRONT DECK GONE

The deck at the front of the house, although it looked OK, was not built properly, with much of the wood touching the soil.  This problem was identified when we had the house inspected, prior to our purchase of the property.  From day 1, I knew it had to go, and yesterday was the day.

The first, and fatally flawed plan of action, was to dismantle the deck by hand, removing each and every screw.  The picture below shows a small area that was done in exactly that manner.  The only problem was that many of the screws simply would not come out, and the drill would just spin while it ruined the screw head.   The plan to save the wood wasn't working very well, so I went to Plan B.

Enter the orange painted machine, and suddenly, the deck with it's firmly implanted screws, was no match for the hydraulic monster!  I carefully got the backhoe behind the top deck, near the front door, and slowly pulled it away from the house.  I only lost a small part of a house trim board that can easily be replaced.  With the deck safely away from the house, I chained it to the tractor, and pulled it away from the front door.  Then, I changed the front bucket to the pallet forks, and picked up the smaller deck that was next to the front door, and moved it around to the back deck for it's temporary new home.  (see last picture)

At first, I thought there was no way that I would be able to pick up the big section with the forks, but after a couple of tries at getting exactly to the center of the deck, I was able to pick it up, and move it toward the front of the property.  The pictures below show the deck removed, and the area that will become a covered front patio, and walkway to the new garage.
 

I will be the first to admit that I've always wanted some acreage, and a tractor to play with.  Back in the 90's, we purchased 4 acres near Lake Don Pedro, with the intent to build a house, and develop the property.  That plan never materialized, and we ended up selling the property before we retired.  Improving this property will be a work in progress for quite some time, and this deck removal project would have been a back breaker without my newest, best friend, the orange monster!  Yea, I know, it's a feeble attempt to rationalize the $21,000 tractor purchase price, but, at my age, life is all about the "bucket list", and my orange friend is one more checkmark off the list.