Homeowners

We have finally realized our dream of buying a place of our own. A place we can improve to fit our needs, mostly as a more energy efficient and water conserving home. A place where we can put down roots, both figuratively by integrating into the community and literally by planting trees we can watch grow to maturity over the years. A place where we can track the changing seasons and compare them year to year.

I knew this place was ours as soon as I saw it on the MLS listing my sweetie sent me. I looked at the picture and said, "That's my home!" Now realize that everything we looked at required us to evaluate what it would take to make it work for our needs and ask ourselves whether we'd be satisfied living there for years to come. This one, however, immediately felt right to me. I did not share this with anyone for fear of jinxing it.

I looked at the address and knew it was mine; it was ingrained in my memory that very first day. It took a bit longer to convince the seller that it was indeed my home. They wanted us to jump through their many hoops before accepting our money and giving me my keys. But, they acquiesced in the end and I have my house.

Early in the month when we were struggling with the anxiety of waiting out the bidding process, we meandered about the property, noting the scattering of trash and debris. Something metal caught my eye. When I picked it up, I saw it was a pig.



Just a little pig, something to hang on a wall. One might think it was interesting but not meaningful in any way. To us, though, this pig had significance.


You see, the rental house we live in has a pig weathervane. We did not put this weathervane up but have used it often as a landmark when giving directions to the house.

Finding a pig on the property was a sign. It reassured us that, yes, it was all going to work out. We would get the house, even though the process was frustrating and challenging. Over the weeks any time one of us would get excessively worried that we weren't going to get the house, the other would say, "Don't worry. The pig wouldn't lie."

The pig didn't lie and, for this, it will be given a place of honor near our front entrance. Whenever things look grim, we will look upon it and remember that everything will work out alright. We simply must relax and believe in the "Power of the Pig."

Shoo! Stay Outta My Garden!

Crunchy Munchy, living in a city, has little experience with the ravages wildlife can wreak on a garden. We've lived remotely in the past and seen how quickly quail can wipe out the lettuce patch and even lost newly planted prickly pear cactus to hungry jackrabbits. In her post, she wonders what critters people deal with and how they discourage them from eating all the home-grown goodies.

We will have our work cut out for us when it comes to gardening in an animal-rich area. In our short forays out onto the property, we have observed lots of rabbits, quail, and round-tailed ground squirrels (kind of a half-pint squirrel that burrows in the soil like a chipmunk). Javelina, a peccary - not a wild pig, are common; a herd can decimate a garden in one night. Deer are likely. I suspect we may also see raccoons, skunks, and possibly the odd opossum. Given our proximity to the mountains, it is not out of the realm of possibility for a hungry black bear yearling to wander down through the neighborhood, and finding fruit trees would simply be heaven.

Besides wanting to protect our crops from marauding wildlife, we will also want to discourage the concentration of such wildlife on our property. There are carnivores in the area that want to eat. The neighbor has already told us that bobcats are not unusual and he's even had a mountain lion crossing his property on an occasional basis. Coyotes are everywhere, so their presence is a given. Perhaps their cousin, the gray fox, also traverses the washes in search of easy prey. We expect to see and hear owls; the more, the better if they'll keep the rodents in check for us!

Much to my relief, the neighbor mentioned that while he's seen a lot of snakes, there have been few rattlesnakes. I have nothing against rattlesnakes but I would prefer that my dogs don't encounter them, especially since Polie has such a strong prey drive that he would almost certainly be bitten. Thanks to Angel's very early morning bathroom habits, our chances of encountering active reptiles is greatly increased.

I love seeing and observing wildlife, but when it comes to a garden, they will not be welcome. We have not yet determined how we can discourage them adequately, but I suspect a lot of fencing is in our future. We may need to bury hardware cloth or chicken wire to prevent burrowing pests. We may need to run an electric strand (solar powered?) around the fence down low to gently discourage further exploration. Or maybe we just need to fence the whole place and let Polie run free.

I've noticed a distinct lack of gardens in our neighborhood. Is it because so few people garden anymore with their busy lives or because they've tried and failed? I guess we're going to find out.

Mental Overload

Sharon mentioned that I was "currently preoccupied with moving" in her recent post about a new challenge. Yeah, you could say that. I mean, how could I not be? It is consuming my life (and my brain) right now! For example, here is my "to do" list through early next week:

• Pack.


• Take big pile of laundry to laundromat (now that we finally have a vehicle again).


• Buy new locks & mail box for the new place.


• Pack.


• Close on the new place.


• Change the locks.


• Pack.


• Call to set up utilities, phone, & Internet.


• Pay final rent & give notice for our current rental place.


• Pack.


• Get emissions test done on vehicle.


• Go by DMV to pay annual registration & change address.


• Pack.


• Go by post office and put hold on mail coming in to new place until we get moved.


• Install the mailbox if there's time.

I don't want to even think about how much more there is to do after finishing this list (like taxes, moving, change of address, etc.) Today was a long, difficult day and my brain is just fried.

Mmmm, fried brain anyone? Maybe with a plate of steamed chard on the side?

P.S. No need to say, "Here's hoping you have a smooth move." I know ya'll wish me the best. I'm just whining...

Bad Laundry Karma

An open letter to a washer woman from a past life:

Dear Washer Woman,

I am sorry that I cannot address you by name, because I never bothered to learn it. In my eyes, you were simply cheap labor and there was no need to learn your name or even treat you as a human being.

That the laundry was done and the clothes or linens I needed were always available was a given in my pampered life. Such manual tasks were so far beneath me that it never would have occurred to me to question how it got done or who washed my dirty shorts. You were invisible to me; that is, unless the work was not completed, in which case the full force of my wrath came down upon your tired shoulders.

Please accept my sincerest of apologies for not recognizing my poor treatment of you while we were both alive those many years ago. My only hope is that your current reincarnation may stumble across this letter and realize that I am trying to make amends for past errors in a past life.

How did I come to realize, in this lifetime, that I abused and neglected you in a former one? Well, it was a slow process. Because having someone else wash my clothes would not even occur to me now, I purchased a machine to do the task for me. Over time, I became dissatisfied with how it did the job. (You were far more skilled, and quieter, too.) I recently sold this machine as I had another person's machine at my disposal.

Only a few loads of laundry later, though, this other person's machine rebelled. It squealed when spinning the clothes and smelled of burning rubber. Fearing a fire, I ceased using it. (Unlike my treatment of you, I was unwilling to continue abusing the machine.) This left me with the choice of hand-washing everything, as you used to do for me, or paying to use public machines. Because my body is not used to the physical labor of hand-washing heavy clothes, I opted to pay to machine-wash some items despite the financial cost.

We are moving our household soon and my time is consumed with packing, as well as meeting another outside commitment. I decided to save all of my soiled clothing and linens for a trip to the public machines just a mile away. Forces were already starting to gather in response to my bad karma with you, though.

Our ruling government informed me that I needed to pay my annual tribute to continue operating my motor vehicle, the common mode of transportation in these times. Before doing so, however, they wanted confirmation that it would not spew nasty waste products along behind it, much like the droppings left by horses in the streets of yore. My conveyance needed repairs first and is currently in the hands of skilled mechanics, who will insist on appropriate compensation upon completion of the job. (I cannot ignore their requests for enough to buy food for their children, as I could yours. They are not indebted to me.)

With the short distance involved, my laundry could be transported by bicycle in the meantime. Or so I thought. As I loaded up my workhorse of a bike this morning, a mechanical problem surfaced making it unreliable. My dirty laundry tumbled out of the bags onto my feet, and I was forced to wash much of it by hand.

This still does not explain how I came to know of our past relationship. After all these little signs, I suspected there might be larger forces at work than simply bad luck or bad timing. I sought out and consulted a Laundry Psychic. She helped me recognize that my dirty laundry went much further back than just this week, and together we teased out the past life transgression that has resulted in my current laundry woes.

Again, Washer Woman, please accept my deepest apologies for not valuing your work or respecting you as a fellow human being.

Peace be with you in this life and the next,

Chile

Death of a Friendship

I don't know why this is on my mind today. This friendship died years ago, a sudden and unexpected death. Perhaps it is in my thoughts because I am looking through address files so I can notify family and friends when we finally close on the house.

Here are two realities, so far apart that the death of the friendship was all but inevitable.

First, I present the actual invitation I once extended, trying to persuade my friend to come to Oregon for a visit:


BOOK YOUR VACATION AT CASA DE CHILE

Plush accommodations:

A spacious bedroom awaits you with in-room dining, where you’ll sleep gently supported by a feather-lite mattress above plush pile carpeting. Bird’s eye views greet you in the morning from the second-story picture window overlooking a wooded grove, surrounded by multi-colored displays of seasonal flowers. Enjoy your gourmet breakfast on the balcony and watch the wildlife frolic among the trees.

A canine companion will be furnished with your room, to reduce the homesick feeling one gets from leaving their own at home. Regular dispensation of treats will insure its friendliness and attentiveness to you.

A private bathroom is available, stocked with soft absorbent towels in beautiful colors. Make time in the evenings for a relaxing bubble bath for your tired legs after a long day of fun activities. You can listen to music and be surrounded by glowing candles, or you can catch up on your latest reading. Marvel in the smooth feeling left after bathing in our soft local waters.

Gourmet meals:

You will be waited on hand and foot at the Casa, with every culinary delight prepared for your enjoyment. Wake up to the smell of freshly brewed organic decaffeinated java or revel in the intense yet smooth flavors of the house’s specialty lattes. Non-dairy milks are the norm, but dairy options are available by request. Breakfast can be a simple affair of date-sweetened organic oatmeal or heartier whole-wheat blueberry pancakes with vegan “butter” and flavorful maple syrup. Seasonal organic and local fruit rounds out the breakfast platter.

Lunches are healthy meals begun with a freshly assembled salad. Organic baby greens are tossed with a light balsamic vinaigrette and your choice from a large array of available seasonal local produce. The meal continues with gourmet sandwiches, soups, or pasta dishes.

Tea provides a pleasant break in the afternoon activities. You may opt for a quiet herb tea, the serenity of a nice Japanese green tea, or spice up your day with Indian chai. Snacks, such as whole-wheat fig cookies or fresh fruit, are available.

Dinner is where the ethnic cooking skills of our Master Chef shine. Alert our staff to your ethnic preferences and we will cater our cooking specifically to your tastes. (French cooking is not included in this package.) One night may feature sushi dishes such as smoked salmon hand-rolls and Caterpillar inside-out rolls. Another night may boast local Wild Pacific salmon, grilled and then served with a sweet and spicy raspberry-chipotle sauce or peach salsa, accompanied by lightly steamed asparagus and baby red potatoes. Mexican enchiladas assembled with made-from-scratch corn tortillas and fire-roasted chiles go perfectly with the chef’s original tamale cornbread recipe. The more adventuresome foodie might try the green Mexico City-style enchiladas made with tomatillas and avocados. Good ol’ American burgers and potato salad are offered as well, with a healthy twist. The tasty burgers are cholesterol-free low-calorie soy burgers, but no one will know the difference if we don’t tell. Our potato salad is the perfect blend of tender potato chunks, hard-boiled organic eggs, mayonnaise, pickles, and seasonings.

No gourmet dinner is complete without dessert. Most of our desserts feature chocolate, as should always be the case. Nibble on fruit and cake slices dipped in velvety-smooth chocolate fondue. Or cool off with a bowl of gourmet cherry chunk chocolate almond ice cream. On hot summer days, homemade ice cream may be available. Our brownies are so chewy and delicious, you’d never suspect they are also fat-free and good for you. For those not enthused by chocolate, perhaps luscious red strawberries dripping in syrup atop mountains of whipped cream over hot homemade sweet biscuits will tempt you. Or enjoy a traditional yet delicious piece of hot apple pie ala mode.

Fun activities:

You’ll need to plan on being active during your stay in order to burn off all the calories from the great food. Brisk morning walks through a lovely park next door will jump-start your metabolism for the day. Enjoy walking amidst the forests of pines, cottonwoods, and hazelnut trees. On some trails, you may forget you’re still in the city. Choose between soft bark-chip trails along the quiet canoe trail or paved trails along the rushing local river. Watch ospreys searching for fish and Wood Ducks escorting flotillas of chicks along the water. Benches are provided frequently for resting and enjoying the scenery. People-watching provides many opportunities for laughter.

For those wanting more strenuous exercise, head out to nearby arboretum in a local park. You can stroll through the arboretum grounds at a leisurely pace or challenge yourself with the steeper hikes up to the mountain summit. Expansive views of the area are the reward for your hike, with the occasional treat of seeing a Harrier cruise by over the open meadows. Wildflowers of brilliant blues and purples will greet you around every bend. Visitors are cautioned to stay on the trail to avoid the poison oak.

Another view of the city can be had at the top of a butte right in the middle of town. No need to walk if tired, you can drive right up to the top. On the way up, you’ll pass the small cliffs popular with the local climbing crowd. It is top-roped and appears to be a fairly easy and enjoyable climb. Or visit the local climbing gym just down the road.

You can also explore the area by water. Several businesses in town offer canoe and kayak rentals. With the long and winding canoe trail, you won’t just go in circles in a big green pond. A more exciting alternative might be driving several hours to a coastal bay highly popular with the surf kayakers. Or, you can relax on a beach and watch the surfers play in the waves. There is closer coastal access as well if you simply want to enjoy the ocean’s edge and check out the tide pools for colorful starfish and anemones.

Wilderness area hikes in the Cascades are available for visitors willing to drive several hours to the wilderness area. Central Oregon also offers explorations into the High Desert, starting with Bend’s High Desert Museum, reminiscent of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.

However you choose to spend your time during your visit at Casa de Chile, we guarantee you’ll have a great visit!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My invitation to her was declined. Here is what she should have sent me (as warning) when I went to visit her three years later:


CHOOSING A WORKING VACATION

Economy accommodations:

You will be allowed to sleep in a crowded office with an air mattress that must be deflated and put away each morning. No space will be provided in the closet for clothing or belongings but they must be kept out of sight. Even though several rooms will be in the process of being painted, the realtor may call to show the place and it must not look messy. Second story views showcase neighboring condos.

Remember, the rambunctious canines here are known for chewing up anything they can get their mouths on. They are trained under strict guidelines so friendly offerings of treats are highly discouraged.

Only the master bathroom may be used as the office bathroom is slated for painting...by you (the guest) and your host. Used towels and personal toiletries must be put away immediately after showering. No down time for relaxing is likely to be available, even though your host 'pre-approved' and actively encouraged taking the opportunity to visit with other friends in the area. Upon arrival, you will be discouraged from actually taking time away from painting your host's place to see these friends.

What meals?

Dinner on the night of your arrival will not be provided, despite our choice to book you on an airline known for no meal service. You can order take-out food from a busy restaurant at 10:30 pm since your host's current unemployed (by choice) status does not leave time to prepare a meal for you.

Despite full knowledge of your dietary requirements, no soymilk will be on hand for your much-needed cup of coffee in the morning and there will be no time to run to the store or coffee shop. Also, if you can't eat your cold cereal dry or with apple juice, you'll just have to go hungry until you abandon your post to see friends for lunch...as you were initially encouraged to do.

No fresh produce will be provided. Remember, as soon as you leave, your host is heading out on a two-week international vacation; it would be shameful to have food on hand that might spoil during that time. Besides, you'll be getting lunch with your friends.

When you come back from lunch in your dress clothes, you will be locked out of the house with no notice. No note. No cell phone contact. Nothing. You may sit your butt down on the cold steps and wait in the wind until your host returns with the dogs.

You would be smart to have your lunch friends take you by a grocery store for soymilk and munchies because there is no dinner plan. There is bread and Brie; too bad you can't eat dairy. After the issue is settled that you are at fault for being locked out in the cold for 45 minutes, it will be time for you to get to work painting. After all, we'll be behind schedule because you trotted off to lunch.

If you insist, a stop by a coffee shop may be possible...on your dime, of course. We will have to visit a hardware store late in the evening since no painting supplies will be acquired and no prep work will be done prior to your arrival.

Work schedule:

No fun activities are scheduled. You are coming to work and work you shall. Despite promises of Internet access to view Pete's Pond, you shall instead be subjected to hours of NPR radio news because that is your host's preference. Conversation will be strongly discouraged, especially since you are thoughtlessly going to lunch with your friends.

After working until midnight to catch up on the painting, you will be permitted to set the air mattress up in the room just painted. The windows will be left open, despite the chilled night air, to minimize the headache likely from the paint fumes. If the guest insists, she may stretch the sheets over the couch downstairs and sleep there instead. The cold shoulder treatment will continue; after all, you had lunch with your friends...

Expect to be shunned should you decide you've had enough of this treatment. You are on your own to find other accommodations, a ride, and a way to get back home. Your host will never speak to you again.

Thanks for visiting!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Girl's Gotta Eat

I've been trying to cook most of our meals lately even though we're swamped but we have picked up take-out a few times. We're lucky there are places nearby where getting vegan and relatively low fat food is easy. Our choices lately have included veggie burritos at Chipotle's Mexican Grill (which is no longer associated with the "Golden Arches" so I wish people would quit telling me how evil I am for eating there), veggie sandwiches at Subway, and veggie no-cheese take 'n bake pizza at Papa Murphy's .

However, cooking at home accomplishes several other things besides just filling our bellies: it's generally healthier and includes more organic ingredients, it's cheaper, and it helps reduce the amount of food left in the house that will have to be moved. The downside is the time it takes to cook from scratch and then clean up the kitchen....which is why we've ended up eating the take-out here and there.


Pasta is a fast and easy carbohydrate to cook for a hearty meal, so it shouldn't surprise you to see that it has featured in a number of dinners lately.


My shopping trip a while back to the new Asian store in town gave me vegetarian ramen-style noodles. These were wonderful in an Asian soup with fresh veggies.


With some chilly days lately, soup has been an easy and appealing option for meals. Last night, I made this hearty soup using carrots and sweet potatoes from the CSA share as well as frozen organic green beans. The little meaty-looking things in this and the previous soup are faux beefy bits from the Asian store.


And, of course, pasta can be used in plain ol' spaghetti dishes. Whole wheat noodles provide a bit more energy and bulk than cheap processed spaghetti.


It's important to keep on top of the weekly CSA share so the produce doesn't pile up in the refrigerator. The soups above were filled with CSA veggies, but not everything from the share can go in a soup.


After several weeks of getting loads of oranges, I juiced them all to use in tasty orange bread.


Cleaning out the garden is another step taken towards prepping for the move.

Our own purple broccoli! I can't remember how I cooked it, but we did enjoy it.


The Brussels sprout plants never produced so we harvested the leaves and cut the plants back almost to the ground. After blanching the leaves, I dehydrated them with three different seasonings (salt, chile powder/salt, and cumin/salt). Tasty for snacking.


My sweetie harvested all of his ripe peppers a couple of weeks ago. These came from plants that he nurtured through the winter on our patio or in the house. Since clipping off the ripe peppers, many of the plants have bloomed and some have even set new fruit already. This picture shows the veggies that will go into some homemade escabeche (pickled peppers).


Here is the cooked escabeche. The recipe can be processed in a hot water bath but I only had enough to make this small jar so it went right into the fridge.


No time to post recipes but I probably wouldn't make these dishes exactly the same next time anyway. While I want tasty food, the focus lately is primarily on using up what I can from the refrigerator, freezer, and pantry. When moving, I usually strive to use up almost all of the food in the house before loading the truck. We won't be doing that this time due to our emergency food supplies, but we're using up quite a lot of it - not a bad idea since the emergency stocks need to be rotated anyway. Hopefully we can get a new garden going by fall to help replace what we've eaten.

Moving Along

From your perspective as a reader of this blog, I know it doesn't look like much is going on here. But trust me, there is a beehive of busy activity behind the scenes. We're slogging our way through the mountain of paperwork and bureaucracy involved with buying a home; we're packing for the move; we're making plans for the new place - initial minor repairs needed, how to arrange the rooms, where to put the bikes, how to deal with floodplain issues, etc.; and we're keeping up with our regular lives, as well.

(Edited to remove reference to a Page that no longer exists.)

I'd love to post more, but I need to go pack up all our books now. The dogs are getting confused by the stacks of boxes springing up in the middle of every room. By moving the books and the bookshelf up to the storage unit, we'll free up a small area to stack packed boxes against a wall.

A Rare Bird

Note: click on any photo to enlarge.
So, I'm sitting at my computer doing some editing this morning. It is a slightly overcast day, but bright enough that it was worthwhile to open the window shade for light. Every now and then, I glance outside at the back yard, typically when I'm pausing to think about something.

I glance out the window and see a bird. What?! That is not the normal backyard sparrow, thrasher, or cactus wren. My mind registers disbelief.


The bird is black and white. It is walking up and down the trunk of my mesquite tree fanning its wings and tail. Displaying.

I know this bird but it shouldn't be here, not in the desert. It is a bird of pine-oak woodlands, trees found only in the riparian mountain canyons in these parts.

Maybe it's migrating through and my yard happened to be a good stopping place. I often have an unusual flycatcher or warbler for a brief stop in the spring when the bugs are abundant on my citrus trees.

But this bird? I must be hallucinating. It doesn't make sense for it to be here, not in my yard. I call my husband to tell him there is no f*cking way he's going to believe me, but there is a Painted Redstart in our yard.

He does believe me. He knows me well enough after 20 years to know I wouldn't lie about something like this. About the number of chocolate chip cookies that are left, maybe, but not about a rare bird.

I describe what the bird is doing. The nearby pile of composting chicken manure must be providing a nice swarm of tasty insects for the bird lands in it briefly. I'm sad my sweetie is not home to see it and we both hope that it stays around for the rest of the day to allow him a glimpse later.


The bird lands frequently on this rock. It's a good place to sit and watch for tasty bugs. It also provides a hard surface to bash an insect until it quits squirming enough to swallow it down.


Finally, it turns to show off its red breast.

After hanging up the phone, I decide to try to get a photo. It won't be easy with my little point and shoot digital, but it's worth a try. Redstarts don't tend to spook as easily as some other species. I edge out into the yard, moving in slow motion, glad that I wore dull colors. I snap pictures from a distance that I know will not be any good.

The bird alights low in the pomegranate tree and preens for a while. I move a few more inches. I can barely hear it, but I can see that it is singing a little. I wait patiently as the foliage is too dense to get a photo.


The bird finally returns to its fly-catching.


I love redstarts. They have always been one of my favorite birds, and I'm so pleased to have one visit before leaving this house.

I search online for redstart sightings in Tucson and see they are uncommon but the sighting seem to occur in late March and early April - migration time. I wonder what else might turn up this spring?

It's been an hour since I first spotted the bird. I keep looking outside, hoping for another glimpse. Once in a while, I get one. Please stay, little bird, just for another few hours. I want to share this joy with my sweetie. Otherwise he may not forgive me for eating most of the chocolate chip cookies.

Wildlife in the 'Hood

Tucson, surprisingly to some, has a fair amount of wildlife in the city. There are green - well, desert - spaces for critters to inhabit, despite the extensive development and sprawl. Although housing density is pretty high in some areas, it is not uncommon to find lots ranging from 1/5th of an acre up to half an acre within the city limits. There are city and county parks scattered about, including long linear parks along washes.

The various large washes running through the city are usually dry and partially filled with brush and some trees. During rains, however, they can run with water. Currently, several washes have been running with water for weeks due to our wet winter. Snowmelt from the mountains also drains into these washes so they are expected to have water in them for a while yet. During the summer monsoon season, when we can experience torrential downpours, the washes occasionally fill up to near capacity, threatening to overflow their banks.

A couple of years ago, a friend and I were walking along the path at the top of one of these washes and watched the water rise up to the banks. We stood on a pedestrian bridge spanning the wash until nerves drove us off. Feeling the bridge shake as large debris slammed into the pilings was a reminder of how powerful nature can be. Watching a huge metal tank, the size of a semi truck, going downstream was even more exciting. It bobbed and spun in the roiling water, standing up on end just before reaching a bridge with vehicular traffic traveling on it. We were relieved to see it slip under the bridge at the last moment. It came to a rest, and still sits, on the bottom of the wash a couple hundred yards beyond the bridge.

But, back to the wildlife. These washes provide habitat and corridors for wildlife to live and travel between the mountains and the city. While most of us just see small round-tailed ground squirrels, cottontail rabbits, and the occasional coyote in town, some people find bobcats and black bears in their back yards. And I'm not just talking about folks living right in the mountain foothills, either. Two friends of mine that live in the city in less heavily developed areas have seen bobcats in their yards.

In our neighborhood, we have a resident pair of coyotes that we occasionally see on our morning walks with the dogs. We also see hawks frequently and are thrilled to watch a pair of Cooper's Hawks starting a nest in a large pine tree just a couple of streets away from us. We have not located the nest for the Harris Hawks we see occasionally but suspect it is closer to the large wash a couple of miles north of us.

In our trips out to the new place, we have already seen quite a few birds, rabbits, and ground squirrels. Since it is closer to the mountains than our current home, we suspect we may see more of the bigger wildlife than we do in town. This was confirmed yesterday when one of the neighbors came over to introduce himself while we were doing our inspection. He told us javelina (peccaries, not wild boar or pigs) and bobcats are seen regularly. He's also had a mountain lion go right through his yard and corrals, surprisingly not disturbing his horses. I asked about snakes, not because I am afraid of them but because I don't want our dogs to encounter rattlers, and was relieved to hear that non-venomous varieties were more the norm. I wouldn't be surprised if we also get the occasional deer in our yard or hear of a black bear sighting in the area once in a while.

We're really looking forward to being able to enjoy a bit more nature, although all these critters will mean we have to work a little harder to keep them out of the garden and chicken coop!

Short Move, Fast Packing

I am not packing up to my usual standards. Our last few moves have been long distance ones. When you move across the country, you have to pack very carefully. Every bit of space needs to be utilized in order to fit everything onto the truck (and the truck was too small last time - I had to give away my favorite desk right at the end). Every fragile item must be wrapped and padded to avoid breakage during the move; no matter how tightly the truck is packed, boxes can still shift on the road.

This move, however, is a local one and that means some of the pressure is off. I don't have to worry quite as much about space or having everything ready to go in one big trip. Because the distance is short, too, I'm not worrying quite as much about breakage, although I am taking reasonable precautions. Breakage due to careless packing would just be senseless waste and you know how I feel about that.

Yesterday I finally got my first boxes packed for this move. I've picked up a lot of canning jars over the past few years at thrift stores, yard sales, and church rummage sales. Rarely do they come in the original boxes with dividers to separate and protect the jars. In order to store them, I had to create box dividers and try to find proper-sized boxes to hold these loose jars. Finding the perfect-sized box never happens so there is always extra space between the jars which could result in them knocking against each other when transported. In the back of my mind, I've always known that I'd need to go back to these and wrap each jar when it came time to move.


This was a box with a pretty good fit, although I had to use cardboard on two sides to shrink the inside dimensions.


Instead of wrapping each jar, I just laid a t-shirt over them and tucked it down between them.


Topped off with a couple more shirts, the box and jars are secure.


This box, on the other hand, not only has way too much space between the jars, it has different sized jars. I scrounged up several more jars to fill in the open spots.


Each jar had to be individually wrapped. An old pair of pants for yard work filled in the space from the smaller jars.

For packing, I use plain newsprint. The ink from newspapers is a huge mess when packing and unpacking. Years ago, I realized it made more sense to get the paper without ink. Most newspaper publishers will sell their endrolls for a pittance. (Endrolls are the last bit of paper leftover on the roll of newsprint; the machines can't use it all the way to the end.)

After the move, the paper can be recycled or re-used. We intend to re-use ours for the rocket stove, possible future wood stove, compost, and sheet mulching.

Right now, though, I need to go get another endroll as I'm almost out of paper.

No Time for Zombies

It's crunch time for clearing out the clutter around here. Anything that belongs to someone else has to go home. Nor will anything that is not essential or that does not hold great sentimental meaning be making the move with us. Why?


Chile's # 1 rule for clearing clutter: Love it, Use it, or Lose it!

These two books are outta here. It's not that they aren't interesting or good reads, mind you. In fact, I enjoyed the beginnings of both but that is as far as I got before reality kicked in.

The Zombie Survival Guide is a very serious-minded how-to manual for surviving real life zombie attacks. Reading it was a bit disconcerting as not one bit of tongue-in-cheek humor slipped through the cracks. I probably would have eventually finished reading the whole book but other obligations and books that took themselves less seriously interfered. This guide will be entrusted to a friend at my CSA who is interested in horror lore. Should zombies attack locally, I have her phone number and will contact her for advice.

The second book, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, was a loaner from a friend. I started it and was thoroughly enjoying it, especially since the humor does come through on the pages. However, I simply don't have the spare time to read it right now so I regretfully returned it to her this morning. As she is quite a fan of the classics, it's probably wise to avoid mentioning that I've never read the original version. (Does watching several movies based loosely on the tale count?) Someday perhaps I will have time to read the classics but not this year.

Sorry, folks, but this is no time for zombies. And quite probably there is no good time for zombies. I may be preparing for climate change, peak oil, and the possibility of economic collapse but I'm really not ready to start worrying about the zombie hordes on top of all the rest.

Blog Neglect

Dear Blog,

I apologize for the neglect you will be suffering over the next few weeks. It's not that I don't love you anymore; it's simply that there are not enough hours in each day to give you the attention and care you are accustomed to receiving.

I know, I know, it's not fair. Just when you've discovered a new way we can play and have fun together, I up and leave you in the lurch. You jealously scan other blogs with new feed every day and wonder why you are left alone with no new content for days on end.

Let's compromise. You forgive me for the upcoming neglect and I'll add a new page on Moving to update as I get things accomplished. That way you'll at least get a little action regularly.

Don't worry, I'm not about to drop you off at the shelter for abandoned blogs. I just need you to understand that I won't be able to play with you as much as I have in the past.

Sincerely,

Chile

Blogspot has Pages finally

When did this happen? Obviously I haven't been paying attention. The ability to have stand-along pages is one of the features I've envied on Wordpress blogs. For those of you who are readers but not bloggers, pages are simply stand-alone ... pages ... on the blog that have their own links in the sidebar or in tabs along the top of the blog's home page. I've wanted to have these for information that continues to accumulate, such as my recipes and solar cooking log. The only way I've been able to do that in the past is to write a post and then just keep editing it to update. Then I make a link to that post so it looks like a page.

Well, now I don't have to go through that to have special separate pages. Over time, I will create a number of new pages for this blog. For now, you'll notice there are new tabs across the top of the blog (under the header) for Home, My Recipes, and Solar Cooking Log. I think I found all the links in my other posts and updated them to these new pages, but please let me know if you find one I've missed.

Are there any other pages of information you would like me to create? I know the index of post topics in the sidebar can be unwieldy at times, so please let me know how I can help you find what you want to read. Some possibilities I can think of are moving the local resources to a page and putting an index to some of the how-to posts on their own page. Should some of the bigger categories, like food preservation, be organized into a page where I can group everything about dehydration separate from canning separate from pickling, etc.? Would the blog look better with the link lists all tucked away onto their own pages or would you be less likely to bother seeing what else is out there?

I need feedback from you. After all, this blog is for you as much as it is for me!

The Long Search for Home

In case you missed the news, we've finally found our new home! To those of you who think I'm making a big deal about this, it is a big deal for us. We have been talking about the need to find our own home - somewhere - for over two years. It took us a long time to decide where we wanted to live, a process which even included asking you for advice.

We've been actively looking for a home to buy for over a year and a half, locally for about the last 9 months. It had been very frustrating locally because our budget didn't give us many choices and the choices that were available were being snatched up by investors looking to flip or rent the properties. We'd resigned ourselves to having to settle for a house that needed considerable repairs (although the termite-ridden house didn't even make the list!), was on a smaller lot than we wanted, and was not in the best of neighborhoods. We've been stressed and depressed over the housing situation for so long, we hardly know anything else.

This changed a few weeks ago due to two things. The first was finally giving in and asking a realtor to help us. We'd resisted this but it turned out to be a good move. Having your own realtor means you can get in to see properties much faster than if you are relying solely on contacting the selling agent. Despite the fact that my sweetie did searches on available properties several times a day, it was helpful to have another pair of eyes doing this as well; plus realtors have access to a little more information than the public.

The other was when my sweetie was doing a map search and accidentally clicked out too far from the city center. Now, let me give a little background. In our research into where to live, we considered darn near every option from big city to rural middle of nowhere, moving without employment lined up, continuing as renters as long as the job held out, and even buying a property in any small town within 120 miles with my sweetie commuting weekly and living in an apartment in the city. Many were not great options, especially in this economic climate.

In the last couple of months, discouraged at the lack of appropriate properties in the city, we began to consider outlying areas. Using our budget as a guide, we investigated a number of possibilities. In every case, the problem ultimately ended up being lack of bikeable options. House prices are lower but the roads accessing these outlying areas are narrow, often winding, and have no shoulders, not to mention bike lanes. We were also warned about the problem of drunk drivers in some of these areas. While biking may not be possible all the time for us, we want it to be a possibility, especially as the long-range implications of peak oil point to rising gas prices.

Some outlying areas were not even considered because the home prices were beyond our means. This is one of the areas my sweetie accidentally ended up in on his recent map search for real estate. And, low and behold, there were a few possibilities...if we were willing to accept manufactured housing instead of a site-built house. By this time, the answer was emphatically yes. In fact, manufactured houses offer us some advantages over site-built houses: easy access under the house means re-plumbing for graywater use is far easier, under the house is a cool zone that may be appropriate for "root cellaring" some produce, and they are generally built with good insulation and dual-pane windows.

We contacted our realtor and took a trip out to see several places, picking what seemed to be the nicest one first. It was nice, inside and out but it's best to look at all the options before jumping into something. So, we looked at the next one. Well, actually we just drove to it and didn't even get out of the vehicle. Uh uh, nope, no way, not at that price. Off to the next, with dubious directions. The directions were so bad that we never did find the place. Mentally, my sweetie and I had already crossed it off the list anyway because the dirt road crossed a wash that was running at the entrance to the neighborhood. It had not rained recently which meant that the road might very well be impassable during the summer monsoon season. Ergo, not an option.

We agreed to meet the realtors later to draw up an offer on the first place. When they called the seller's agent, we were stunned to find out there was already an offer on it. Luckily, it was a brand new listing and the sellers were not considering any offers for the first five days. By then, there were a total of three offers so the lucky seller got to pit us against one another for the "highest and best" offer. Since it was priced lower than our budget limit, we swallowed hard and increased our offer. We decided to do what it was going to take to get a home.

And then we waited, on pins and needles, for an answer. Three more days, after making the higher bid, of sitting by the phone waiting to find out whether we could finally stop looking or if we were still at Square One. Late Friday, after we were sure we'd spend a sleepless weekend without knowing, we heard our offer was accepted.

Yay! We're still negotiating the closing date but in any case, we hope to be moved to our new home by the end of April. It's been a long, long search for home. On one level, we can finally relax. On many others, the work is just beginning - the packing, the moving, the unpacking, planning a garden, meeting the neighbors, getting to know the community, and so on. Settling in will be hard work, but so much easier than not being able to act on our dreams.

Finally!

After what seemed like an eternity, the offer we made on a house was accepted this evening. We hope to close before the end of the month and then we will, finally, have our own place. A place where we can collect rainwater. A place where we can work to improve the soil over the years and grow a big garden. A place where we can set up solar cooking, a cob oven, and the rocket stove. A place of our own.

We're exhausted now after several sleepless nights wondering what was taking so long for the seller to make a decision. So, no more details tonight ... but no more suspense at my news!

Tick Tock, Tick Tock, Tick Tock

Why, when you are waiting for news, does time seem to slow down?

I'll be back when the requisite time has passed and I can tell you if I have any news for you. Until then, you can find me by the compost bin mixing household shreddings (newspaper, chipboard packaging, corrugated cardboard, and old files) with chicken poop. Or working on my taxes. Or trying new recipes in the kitchen, like kohlrabi fritters. Or maybe even reading books about how to survive the zombie hordes.

Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, tick tock....