Summer Arrives

It must be summer…I took The Box (RV trailer) up to The Lot/Sanderling last week and will be spending this Memorial Day weekend there. Last week’s activities were mostly centered around getting The Box ready: restocking food, clothing, bedding, checking the mechanicals, getting propane tanks filled, and flushing the RV-specific antifreeze out of the water lines. I hope The Box is ready for the season! Our driveway looks a little bare now that The Box is not sitting there but it does make getting in and out of the garage much easier.

Weather at The Lot was still a factor last week; while I was trying to put water in The Box’s fresh water tank it started to hail and there were a few snowflakes mixed in. I left about half the water in jugs under the RV and will have to put it in this weekend after I arrive. Here are a couple photos of the trip up with The Box:

Snow present at the top of Hoosier Pass

Snow-capped mountain from Hoosier Pass

While getting my first load of water these deer were seen near the road:

Deer near the community well

The white spots in this photo (below) are hailstones that fell, keeping me from filling the The Box’s fresh water tank. I went into The Box to wait out the storm but it didn’t quit before I had to head home.

White hailstones mark the passing of a spring storm

The chipper will go to Sanderling this weekend. I put a high altitude kit in the carburetor (for use over 5,000 foot elevation). It seemed to help when we chipped up the Cottonwood tree branches a month ago; now we’ll see how well it works at 9,500 feet elevation.

Around-the-house news:

Pam has spent many hours cleaning up the front corner of our property and the Mary Lynn Memorial Garden spot. Weeds and a type of vine take over quickly and are hard to remove, particularly the vines. Pam put in some flowers in flower pots; the results look great.

Corner of our lot after Pam’s attention

Bugs, particularly gnats, are a problem this year, more so than in the past. We don’t know why but the little buggers are quite the irritant when we work outside. Their bites do itch. Insect repellents don’t seem to be effective; we have tried Backwoods Off and other Deet products with no discernible results.

On a bit of a side note, last year we received some very sweet and tasty peaches from a neighbor’s tree. Pam kept several pits and planted them in a container, leaving it outside over the winter. One has sprouted, much to our surprise. We’ll see if it survives and if so, decide where to plant it.

Peach tree sprout

We received the larger window air conditioner I had ordered (10,000 btu capacity) and I installed it in one of the dining area windows. While our roof-mounted swamp cooler unit still works, it’s wearing out (very noisy) and should be replaced. Given that we can take the AC unit with us when we move but cannot take the swamp cooler,  we decided to go the AC route instead of putting $500.00 plus into the cooler (which is mounted on the roof and hard to access for repair or replacement). Temps are supposed to be near 90 this weekend so Pam will give the AC unit a good workout.

New LG brand AC unit

Our trimmed-back Cottonwood tree is leafed out and we have noticed some new sprouts starting to grow from the remaining branches. It will take several years for those new sprouts to fill in for the limbs that were removed, but it’s good to see the tree is not on the “way out” after limb surgery. Purchase of the AC unit was tied to the loss of foliage on the Cottonwood.  The living room windows (behind the tree) face west; the blazing afternoon sun in the high desert heats the house up unbearably without the shade we used to depend on.  Hopefully the AC unit will be a more aggressive cooling mechanism than the swamp cooler was.

Our Cottonwood as it looks now

One final note. You will now see a link to my blog’s Privacy Policy from both the blog’s main page and from the About Us page. The new GDPR rules and regulations apply to any site where people can leave comments so I thought I better put out a policy. It is based on a template and a little awkward but you will get the idea. Please read if you have any interest in this sort of thing.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

I’ll be staying home with the feral kitten litters this holiday weekend.  At 8 weeks (the four kittens) and 5 weeks (one kitten), all of the babies are beginning to eat solid food and drink water.  Although still nursing, their nursing days are numbered.  The transition period from mom’s milk to kibble tends to be tricky and can result in dehydration and diarrhea if not monitored. I guess I will be the monitor.

The first weekend at Sanderling is a cleanup weekend anyway.  Fields will walk The Lot, pick up any garbage and debris that has blown in during the winter, clean the weeds off the driveway, fill the hummer feeder etc.  (I assume sitting in his chair and gazing at the mountains will be worked in there somewhere. ) I’ll miss the frothy spring green of the aspen leaves this time around.

Drive Safely.  Happy Trails.