Disaster!

On Wednesday a day my husband went to a convention in Las Vegas and I was enjoying a nice home alone time I left the house for all of 2 hours and came back to a flood. The entire downstairs was an inch deep and water was pouring from the ceiling of the office. Drywall, or maybe better said wet wall, and insulation had fallen from the ceiling. Panic! Finally i found some valves and turned them off. The pipes to the solar panels had burst. We spent 2 hours getting the water out. My floors had nver looked so clean. But now service master is here and fans and humidifiers are going non stop. They are taking drywall out and are planning on removing the wood floor. Talk about a forced remodel! So this is it for the time being at my house. The dogs and cats are puzzled a bit like their owners, wondering where their home is now.

Treasures and Trash

This is one of the many junk sites I go to when I'm looking for stuff to make collages with. I call these my shopping sites. When this area was less settled people would go out this road and just dump their garbage. Sometimes they still do but new garbage to me is just garbage. Old garbage somehow is treasure. This stuff just seems to be melting into the earth. Look how it's almost the same color. I can also find old pot sherds in the same area and pieces of arrowheads. For this you need a really sharp eye because those things really are the same color. People have dumped stuff here for a long time.

More Snow

We couldn't even dig our way into the yurt. This year we put supports in so it doesn't cave in. Last year the whole thing got torqued and the dome cracked. I'm hoping mice aren't living out the winter in it. The barn looks good. Last year the elk hung out in the horse stalls and all the panels turned into spaghetti. This year the horse stalls are behind all that snow and I couldn't get in. I moved the panels out further so I hope they survived.

We just couldn't get enough of winter here. So we headed on up to Colorado to our little place. Here are pictures of the barn the yurt and the house. Up here we are truly off the grid. The walk in is probably 1/8 mile. We walked in on ski tracks only falling off once in awhile. We pulled the toboggan and wore packs to carry all our stuff. The dogs had it easy. Ginger leads no matter if the trail is packed or not. She is a golden retriever mix and a little lame. And Sadie the dog equipped for snow, a great Pyrenees / Anatolian mountain Sheppard mix, follows behind letting us break trail for her. No dummy she. The house was like an ice box and it took the entire day and some of the next day to get it comfortable. We carry water up from the river in a bucket. Mark lost one, it went sailing on down and no one was willing to retrieve it. The water is far down we need a rope to lower the bucket. We end up with electricity since the batteries are full and we have solar panels setup but heat is the wood stove and water is from the river. Once at the house we retrieved our snow shoes and then we could go anywhere. It's like magic. Instead of just looking at the snowy forest you can actually get in it and go anywhere on top of the snow. In some spots you can cross the river on snow bridges. There had been some melting so you scurry on across. Even Ginger looks a little aprehensive. A little like walking on water. Now it's back to spring which I'm not complaining about. I just have a little dread because on it's heels comes the roaring hot summer, too soon and too long.

Snow in Sedona

This was the scene at our house early yesterday morning. It never lasts long here but it is so beautiful while its here. The pond was red and every single branch was loaded with snow. I had a meeting to go to in town and it is just a little higher up than us so they had more snow. People were out with their snow shovels happy to put that garage ornament to use and get a little exercise. By afternoon it was all gone here and we are left with serious mud. I spent time in the horses pens moving mud to get drainage going. The horses were let out. They all look a little mud colored themselves.

Prickly Heart

In spite of my run in with these prickly pears I have been seeing a lot of heart shaped pads lately. So in honor of St Valentine I offer this heart.

Cactus Pants

Today I put on my cactus pants. Let me explain. Several months ago I was riding with friends leading the way as usual. I was headed up a very steep hill covered with pinon, juniper, cactus, various other prickly plants, and large volcanic boulders. Why? I'm not sure, but we were very bored with our regular routes. Anyway I was leaning downhill off over the side of my horse to avoid a low tree branch and, you guessed it, just fell off into a very large prickly pear. I was covered in thorns! My friend had to pull as many as she could, they were in my back where I couldn't see them and then I had to get back on my horse and ride home. It was one of the most uncomfortable rides I've ever been on. The long and short of it is that these pants are still prickly after several washings. I've always wondered what that would be like to fall full body into a cactus and now I know. But to fall off just by leaning over is just a little embarassing!