Homestead Update

 I've been watching You Tube videos of people who are 'homesteading'.  Living off their land.  Lots of growing food, raising animals for food, canning and preserving, baking - even making homemade eggnog.  I love the idea of learning new skills and trying different things so while we are most definitely still relying on the grocery store for our food, I am saving videos to try new things.  Homemade eggnog for the holidays is a definite 'on the list'.  It will also justify the canning jars I'm saving for no reason other than you never know when you can use them.

It's been three weeks since I last posted and I have no explanation for that other than the days fly by.  

Landscaping took 3 weeks total but the finished result was worth the wait.  Here are some pics:

We are very proud of the labyrinth which we did entirely by ourselves.  It was pretty clear the landscapers weren't sure what to do so we knocked it out in about six hours split into three sessions.  Early evening or morning to keep the heat down.  Once we got going on it, it was fun to watch it come together and on Monday morning when the landscape company owner stopped by to check in, I answered the front door and he said 'hey, labyrinth making people!'.  He agreed it was awesome.  

The birdbaths are getting used very frequently - I keep trying to capture the spa days in progress on video but they are fast.  Yesterday, there were two blue birds taking some very serious baths - flapping around so much it just looked like water splashing - the bird creating it was pretty much invisible.  It was amazing and I sure hope to get it on video soon.  

A neighbor we hadn't met before visited last week to see what we had been working on - the labyrinth.  Her house is across from ours with the 12th tee area between us.  She commented on the birdbaths - how the birds will 'poop all over the fence'.  Yep, they do.  Guess what?  Bird poop washes off.  She also commented that in the future, we will probably need to remove plants because they will expand so much.  Um, no, we WANT the yard to be full of huge plants and are willing to wait a few years for that...and will take care in pruning, shaping, trimming when the time comes.  

When she left and was well out of earshot, I said 'wow, she's a ray of sunshine, isn't she?' to no one in particular.  

It's all how you look at it, my friend.  I've got plenty of things to obsess and overthink - but bird poop on our back fence isn't one of them.  

About a week after landscape completion, we have voles or moles attacking the plants in the front yard.  They will (potentially) kill all the plants - so needless to say, we are on it.  We bought some 'sonic sound' emitters which may deter them.  We've also ordered some nasty smelling pellets which they hate the smell of.  (Hoping we don't hate the smell of them as well but...we'll see.  If they keep them away, then the smell might be worth it).  I'm lining up a host of other options which may involve mayhem and death (of them) but hopefully, we won't need it.  Another non-harm method is using peppermint oil and putting cloth or cotton balls soaked with the oil near the plants.  We'll roll out any and all approaches in the upcoming weeks.  

The 'punch list' has revealed a couple 'big' things.  The builder has agreed to have all closet and pantry shelving redone - the shelves will be removed, cleaned, sanded and re-painted.  It's a huge amount of work for us and the company doing the work - I'm kicking myself for doing a stock up trip this week so the pantry has a lot more food that it did a week ago - but it's got to be done.  

My friend C. visited last week - while she was of course welcome to stay here, I wanted to treat her to some 'me' time (for her, not me) and got her a room at Atlantis and booked her a massage.  We spent two evenings and a good chunk of last Thursday here at the house hanging out.  We played slots a bit and I had one of my most extraordinary winning streaks on a Dragonlink machine with her cheering me on.  It was lovely.  During our preparing for her visit, I cleaned the pantry door and realized something was very wrong.  The glass insert was 'moving' as I wiped and then it became clear that the edges of the glass insert were 'shattering'.  Turns out the door is warped so they will be replacing the entire door.  

We're also still having issues with the 'combination' lock on the man door from the garage to the side yard.  And still have tile and grout work to be fixed as well.  

I struggle with the 'people here' concept of all this stuff but it has to get done so I'll deal.  

B. is winding down his deployment in Texas and will hopefully be returning to KY later this month.  His leave status is a bit up in the air at the moment because he's got some irons in the fire for where he'll land next.  We know we will see him before the end of 2020 - we just don't know when - and whenever it is, we'll be thrilled.  

H. started his new job with Dr. Pepper Keurig and is loving it.  He gets home nightly absolutely exhausted but he is loving the work and the company seems really great.  

J. had his first (of two) planning sessions for his radiation treatment and he will have the second planning session next week.  Radiation treatments will start the week after and so far, he's aiming for a 4:30 time daily.  That leaves his mornings free for golf.  

On October 7th, Salvation Army will arrive to haul away most of our furniture - Lazy Boy has most of what we ordered but the dining room furniture has been delayed until November.  We plan to accept delivery of all they have in October and then we'll wait for the dining room - no choice.  So we've worked on moving some items out to the garage - the small purple couch I bought online from Overstock.com a while back (way before we knew we were moving) is in the garage now.  J. and I flipped it over and did a repair of the underside where the cats had been scratching.  The repair worked fine - glad I had some fabric scraps we could use as cover - it's really a cute couch and if we had room, we'd keep it - but we don't so out it goes.  

Guess that's pretty much the news to report for now.  Days just blend one after the other and I guess it's a retirement joy to just let them flow.  Nothing super pressing to worry about and while there is always plenty to do, I treasure being somewhat slow on inertia.  After decades of always feeling hurried, rushed and urgently busy, it's lovely to just let the time go. 

Labyrinth Progress

J. and I went out this evening and got started on the labyrinth. I'm glad we did because it really helped us figure out how it will (hopefully) work.

 The landscaped areas in our yard have 3/8" decomposed granite for the walking paths and 3/4" mocha for the planted areas.  We were planning to use the same stones for the labyrinth - but had some concerns that the mocha stones were too big for some areas of the labyrinth.   Some areas of the labyrinth are intricate including clover designs at the end of each accent section.

We'd asked the landscaper to get us more small 3/8" stone in a dark color -that stone was going to be delivered on Monday.  But as we started filling in the walking paths with the smaller stone, we realized that two small stones would create  more issues with one area 'bleeding' into another.  

Here are pics in process so far.  

We emailed pics to the landscaper and cancelled the order for the smaller stone.  We let him know it was possible we would need more stones to complete our project but we will know on Monday.  

Free play Saturday for both of us at Atlantis tomorrow.  No more weekend food credits so we'll use comps and possibly go to the buffet for lunch.  Then home and once it cools off a bit, we'll head back out for more work outside.  Hoping between tomorrow and Sunday, we can get a lot done - would love to surprise the work crew by having the project close to completed when they arrive on Monday morning. 

Let me know what you think in the comments, please! 

Sticky Shelves

The missing bench arrived yesterday via UPS.  Haven't seen a credit for the 'return' so guess they figured it out - perhaps the lady in Wisconsin and I ordered the same bench and mine went to her and hers went to me?  Maybe she was in the same boat seeing her bench traveling across the country nowhere near Wisconsin for the first couple days and then it arrived 'early' for her.  J. put it together and it's a really pretty bench.  Pics soon.  (Waiting for the 'full effect' of yard completed and ready for it's pictorial debut).  It's really beautiful and we are very happy with how it's turning out.

The punch list guy Logan has been here off and on a few times this past week.  He is getting done with all the little stuff and it's nice to not have small pieces of blue tape everywhere.  He's got a great work ethic, great people skills and is such a nice young man.  

One of the issues we're having are sticky shelves.  As we were going through the list, we ventured into my walk in closet - which was hard because I'd moved a ton of stuff in there to make my room more accessible.  I couldn't move something on the shelf - a wood jewelry organizer that I had placed on the shelf - and he realized that the sticky shelf issue wasn't just the pantry.  No, it is every single shelf in every single closet throughout the house.  It's a lot of shelves. 

He talked to the job sup (Ryan) and they said they could have the shelves redone - or we could just use shelf liner.  I think up until he witnessed the issue in a bedroom closet they were hoping we'd just say 'we'll just line the shelves in the pantry - no biggie'.  But no.  I'm not saying that.  This is a custom built home and we paid a lot for it.  Worth every penny, blessed we could afford it, thankful it is ours - but having shelf issues here for the rest of forever is likely not going to be OK with me.  This type of 'issue' is a thing that will have me ruminating nightly for decades at 3AM - and I shouldn't set myself up for that.  It messes with the 'joy' of this house - having an issue that was created by a lack of attention to detail - be something we decide to 'live with' for years.  

So we notified Logan to notify the builder that we want every shelf in every closet in every room of the house redone.  Sanded, cleaned and painted again with fresh paint.  We will also be notifying the builder that we will expect them to pay for labor to assist us in emptying everything out of every closet and the pantry and putting it back post re-paint.  We shouldn't have to do all this again - 

I dread the work crews here for the next few weeks.  Dread the dust, the noise, the smell, people in and out constantly.  I was so ready - once the punch list items were done and the landscaping was finished - to feel like 'now it's ours.  No more work crew.  Time to prepare for dark Winter and make it home'.  But no.  We'll be prepping for dark Winter while moving a ton of stuff in and out of closets throughout the house.  Argh!

Before the landscapers leave for the day today, they are going to put down the labyrinth template and J. and I are going to try to start working on it.  We think we can manage to do some of the stonework ourselves over the weekend.  To say the lead landscaper (Manuel) is skeptical about this plan would be an understatement.  We're hoping when he arrives on Monday, we can (at least) have each space on the labyrinth template 'coded' with what stone goes where - and maybe have started placing the stones where they go.  We have decided to use a smaller stone for the 2nd fill-in (not the colored stone we're using throughout the rest of the landscape) and that will be delivered sometime on Monday.  

J. went out last night and dug a hole and we put Dani and Chloe's cremains in.  They are pretty much (roughly) in the center of the labyrinth and I will probably get a small plaque to put on the fence nearby in their memory.  Sweetest dogs ever and we miss them.  

Sounds like the landscapers think they'll finish up by Wednesday next week.  And J. has a procedure to place 'pellets' in his prostate on Wednesday as well - another 'holy crap, he's taking Xanax again' day.  

The amount of binge watching on Netflix occurring these days may be a problem.  I'm even watching 'dubbed' Swedish, Finnish and a host of other 'other language' based series.  There is just SO MUCH content out there - 

Feeling the Cold

Windows open this morning to let in some of the low 40's fresh air.  Cats are loving having the windows open - so much activity and added sound to their window sitting.  

California is on fire and the pictures of San Francisco with bright orange skies posted by my cousin are gut wrenching.  She was outside for fifteen minutes and returned home with her eyelashes covered with ash.  

The bench was officially delivered to a lady in Wisconsin - Home Depot offered to reship and I declined.  They are processing a refund and J. and I will trek to Lowes and/or Home Depot to find a bench for the corner of our garden. 

The backyard is really coming together and pretty soon, J. and I will need to be involved in getting the labyrinth going.  Can't wait to see how that goes and really glad we have help from the landscapers.  

I'm heading to Reno for free play at Atlantis, using our weekly food credits to bring home lunch and then heading straight home.  I'm in a self-imposed break (mostly) of slot play - trying to rebuild up fun money.  We've met our tier requirement through June, 2021 so I'd like to have plenty of money beginning January, 2021 to re-qualify.  

J. booked a massage on his birthday next Saturday and we've decided to use the money we'd earmarked for our 30th anniversary celebration (last March) to have a fun day at the casino.  We'll also head to the steakhouse for dinner that evening - if we can get a reservation for an early seating.  Then we'll play into the evening and head home.  Should be fun! 

Where's Our Bench?

 Received an email from Home Depot that the bench we ordered for our Zen corner would arrive today.  

Today came and went and as we did our nightly TV watching, I checked the order status.  It showed delivered but the bench is most definitely not here.  It would be pretty hard to miss.

When I clicked on the UPS tracking link, it shows the bench was deliverd - to Lyndon Station, WI!

Printed out all the confirmations and delivery status screens and will be contacting them tomorrow.

Will also be contacting the company we ordered some other outdoor garden items who have charged me for $200 worth of stuff while only delivering $90 worth of stuff. 

COVID makes all these follow-ups challenging.  People are working at home - or people aren't going in at all and the company just tells you 'we'll respond as soon as we can'.  

I ordered a Disney purse in June - used a gift card - and am STILL waiting for my order.  Emails result in a 'standard' reply - and while I certainly am understanding of the impact the pandemic is having on everything, it sure seems hard to imagine that a purse I ordered three months ago hasn't arrived yet.  Even more concerning is I have no way to get the credit back on the gift card - so I'm out the funds and still waiting.  Phoning them results in a series of 'we will answer your call as soon as we can' as you're being disconnected.  

I'm sure everything will resolve eventually.

The backyard is looking so beautiful - will add some pics soon.  It's so very different from any yard we've ever had in our lives but we really are excited about it.  The birds still show up looking for their 'spa' (bird bath) and we know as soon as everything is set up again, they will return and be so happy.  

Next on the list to get are some hummingbird feeders and some bird feeding stations.  

B. messaged me today which was lovely.  He's busy and when he's not 'on duty', he's working on his Arizona State University class - so he's got way less 'free time' these days.  He's pretty sure they will be done with their deployment by October 25th and he'll hopefully get a months worth of leave in November/December.  Might be home for one of the holidays which would be lovely.

H.'s new job is going well but it's a big adjustment.  He's considering moving in with a co-worker he's known for a month or so - closer to where his route will be and also half what he's currently paying.  We don't want him to rush into making a change - his anxiety's high enough with a new job.  But we'll see how it goes.  He's really enjoying the job and that's really good to here.  

J. played golf today in Sparks.  Had a good round and his group finished 2nd.  

We're watching a crazy movie with Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman and a host of other big names.  It's sort of typical crazy Bruce Willis and J. says it might be our new Christmas movie.  It's called RED.  We've been watching a slew of crime dramas and J. said something silly was in order.  This certainly fits that description.

Musical Obsessions

 J. and I found a hairstylist near us - in the shopping center closest to our house which is an almost completely vacant property.  A pizza place, frozen yogurt shop, Starbucks, a uniform store, G.'s hair salon and a few other spaces that appear to be mostly meeting spaces.  

G. is in her 70's and is a fascinating, eclectic personality.  She rented stations to other stylists before the pandemic and since reopening, the shop is pretty much just her.  She's made me braver about trying a different hair style in my 61st year on the planet - and she was shocked when I said I was 60.  "No!, can't be true" she exclaimed - but I told her it most certainly was true.  She said 'you and your husband have such 'young' energy, I can't reconcile your age number with you'.  I told her she must made my day/week/month.  And said I owed it to starting to use moisturizer in my 30's and adding a renewal serum in my late 40's. 

I always enjoy the music she plays - she uses Spotify and says she picks song lists she thinks people will like.  Last visit (4 weeks ago), I heard a song that was just so beautiful, it gave me chills.  I kept saying parts of the lyrics over and over in my head to try to remember the words - but since the words were in Italian (which I thought was Spanish at the time), I didn't have a lot of luck when I tried Google searching like crazy to find the song.  I was obsessed with finding it - searched repeatedly over the course of several days - no luck.  

I went for a haircut today - which was literally a 15 minute appointment 'cuz I'm letting it grow a bit so all she needed to do was do a little touching up - and as soon as I sat in the chair, I told her about my quest for the song I heard last time I was there.  I described the chorus of the song as I remembered it - and she said 'I know what song it is, I think'.  She got her phone, played it - and sure enough!  There it was!!  Chills again - and thrilled to know what it was.  

I've been obsessing about that song for four weeks and hearing it again - can only be described as pure joy.  I always feel so darn blessed to have music that just brings me to my knees - how much I just treasure finding songs I love - usually, it's the lyrics - but this song is just a combination of catchy chorus, soaring vocals and two cellos in the background.  It's breathtaking.  

To me. Right?  Because you may listen to it and be all sorts of 'meh' about it.  Who knows. (The song is "Il Libro Dell'Amore" - The Book of Love.  Which it turns out is an older song and has been sung by Peter Gabriel and The Magnetic Fields, to name a couple).  The version I love is the one by Two Cellos featuring Zucchero. 

Music is powerful.  How much my heart warms at finding this newest obsession to play over and over is difficult to describe but how overwhelmingly blessed I feel today. 

I read the blog of an acquaintance who is battling cancer.  She's always known her treatments weren't trying to cure her cancer - there is no chance of that.  She was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer two years ago and started any and all treatments that would prolong her life - to have as much time as possible with her family - including 4 children ranging in age from 20 to 3 (today).  She shared she'd read her daily devotional and burst into tears as she approached an appointment where PET scan results would be discussed.  She thought maybe God was preparing her for bad news.  The news was OK - no huge changes good or bad - and in her case, that's 'good' because staying even is fine.  

She said she is choosing joy - which shouldn't be confused with happiness.  Happiness is often based mostly on circumstance while joy comes from whatever floats your boat.  In her case, it's her deep faith and closeness to God.  

Joy for me these days is enjoying this amazing home with all the beautiful nature that surrounds us.  Music to sing along with when traveling on the road for whatever - a haircut or a trip to Atlantis.  Joy is now also including what is going to be a truly beautiful backyard - and then nightly visits from rabbits and birds.  (We are pretty sure rabbits visited last night because some of the flowering plants are flowerless.  I can't be mad at bunnies eating flowers.  Really.  I can't.).  

Now Those are BOULDERS

Landscaping has started on our homestead and wow, it's a process.  They've finished digging the trenches for all the drip watering and sprinklers.  Yesterday, they delivered 13 fairly large boulders.  The two workers placed the boulders in a pretty linear design along an also linear design of river rock which is on top of the slight slope we have from our yard to the golf course.  That area was hard to plan for because without a lot of building up of dirt (in some small areas) and possibly adding a retaining wall (very expensive), it would be almost impossible to get things to grow there.  Largish river rock is the answer so there's about a 3 feet 'border' to our yard of stones.

The linear-ness of the added boulders didn't sit right with me - nature doesn't place huge rocks in any sort of 'pattern' really and while I don't expect our professionally landscaped yard to look as random as the hills behind us, I didn't like the two very linear things that I was seeing.

The landscape company owner came by yesterday and totally agreed - so he is here this morning to work with his team to get them to re-situate the boulders into more groupings. Even said the same thing I did about 'too linear'.  We sync alike with him.  It is hard to visualize the finished area when all we're seeing so far is bare earth and rocks everywhere.  But we trust him and it will be beautiful when it's finished.

In researching the idea of a labyrinth, I went back to the website of The Labyrinth Company to get ideas of what pattern to use.  I was planning to basically 'freehand' the design ourselves - so was looking at some fairly simple patterns we could recreate (or die trying to, anyway!) and noticed a 'template' tab that I hadn't noticed before.  And viola!  Just like that - they will place any design you like on weed fabric so you can then fill in the template with whatever medium you're using to create the labyrinth.  We're going to use decorative rock but we could have also tried plants, mulch, etc. .  

I ordered the template at 9:30PM Saturday night and it arrived Monday morning - from Connecticut!  We haven't taken it out of the box yet because we're not at the labyrinth stage of our projects yet but we will soon!  

150ish plants are being delivered today and we'll keep them watered until planted.  It will be at least another two weeks of work until completion but most of what we liked had to be ordered.  Worth the wait.  

We've decided to place the cremains of Dani & Chloe under the labyrinth.  Researched if it was legal and didn't find any reference at all in the Carson City ordinances - so we asked our landscaper and he said it's fine.  I feel a bit torn about doing it - because if/when we leave this house someday, they'll still be there - but it's OK.  It feels better than leaving them in our closet which is where Dani has been for a long time and now Chloe, too.  We loved those dogs and they will be close to our hearts as we sit in our lovely garden corner nightly watching rabbits and birds.  

Yesterday, the punch list guy was here most of the day working away on fixing the little things that have needed tweaking since we moved in.  He put up towel racks in bathrooms and did a lot of patching, texturing and painting.  He'll return next Thursday to continue so we're doing a constant 'eagle eye' approach in every room.  No firm 'deadline' for this process (yet) other than that we are very ready to not have workers here off and on for weeks.  

Today, we're planning to head to Reno to go to a nursery where we saw some other plants that our landscaper is having a hard time finding - we'll have lunch down town - free play at El Dorado and a down town adventure with a nice lunch.  

I made a big grocery list to get stocked up a bit - but changed my mind.  A website I follow is doing what they call 'Shelftember' - shop first from what you have and supplement as little as you can at the grocery store.  We've got lots of frozen meat we need to use up - and enough pantry stuff to feed us for a few weeks, I think - so we're going to 'eat down' our pantry and freezer before doing a stock up.  I'm considering thawing a bunch of beef cuts and grinding them up into 'ground beef' for soups and chili. 

Winter is coming - and while I haven't lived in a snowy climate long, I feel compelled to have 3-4 weeks of supplies 'on hand' in case it's a bad stretch of snowy days.  Picture a fire in the fireplace, cup of something warm in my hand and piddling in the kitchen cooking stews, soups and baking.  It's going to be a lovely winter!  

In other news, I survived my colonoscopy procedure and am SO GLAD that's off the list for another 3-5 years.  A week ago today was my prep day and it never fails that no matter how 'easy' the prep seems at the start, there will come a point where misery rules the day.  Adding to that this year was a procedure where I needed to be there at 6:30 AM with a prep step that happens at midnight 'the night before your procedure'.  That translated into very little sleep that night - but oh well.  It's done.  Yay! 

J. has a huge 'packet' of stuff we're going through for getting him set up for radiation treatments.  Like everything else in life, 'tis a process.  We're lucky to be retired where our days are open for the most part 'cuz they don't call you to say 'when would you like to schedule such and such?'.  They send you a list of appointments pre-set - way to get it done! 

I've been waking up at 6:30ish these days - sometimes 'assisted' by the construction crew working on our neighbors house but mostly just the small amount of light that comes in through the shutters.  While it's lovely to curl up and sleep another hour or two some mornings, I'm feeling like getting up earlier is helping me sleep so much better every night.  

Our neighbors were visiting their 'in-process' house yesterday - (SIDENOTE:  we LOVE THEM.  So fun and nice. Can't wait to have them for neighbors - two genuinely nice people who are very excited to have made the move from California to Nevada!) - and the crew working on their house didn't start at 6:30AM this morning so yay!  But I still got up!  Another yay!  

Time to get dressed.  J. says 'just pull on some shorts and come out to look'.  Um, no.  Bed head, tank top with no bra is not a look I want to show the general public.  LOL.  I need to get dressed presentably.