~ Retired and Starting My Future In The Foothills ~

[NYRIR]

Congrats Gryeyes! I'm so happy for you!

 

[Carols Clucks]

Quote:
Hose bibs? From one building to the next? My water supply is a well, with a low flow (less than a gallon a minute) and the pump itself is "very tired" and works too hard, blowing the circuit breaker. Therefore, there is no water flow from the well. The well drilling company is going to dig the fairly shallow well deeper, and the pump will be replaced. This will take some time, what with permits through the county and all that....

The closest other building is my next door neighbor a good 300 feet away from the property line between us.

So your suggestion confuses me a bit. Can you explain further? My neighbor was going to pull his garden hose over to the property line and leave a nozzle on it, so I could fill buckets with water. What exactly were you describing?

For 300 feet you are going to need a few hoses but for your case I would:

Hook up one hose to an outside hose bib of his, like one on maybe a garage wall or similar, use and adapter (hardware store should have, if not a female hose repair end should work-cut off the male end and replace so you have two female ends) screw the second end to a similar exterior hose bib, open your hose bib and his and the water that flows through his house and garage will also flow through yours.

you will get lower pressure, so will the neighbor when you are using water, but we can run 12 apartments off the next door building of 12 with just 2 hoses.

 

[gryeyes]

Nothing to report today. Last couple days have been "fibro" days and I forced myself to go to work because I need to conserve my leave credits. I suspect I'll need a day off here and there as the house and property gets all fixed up for occupation. I am already taking this Tuesday off in conjunction with my alternate Monday off.

I had planned on going Up The Hill today but didn't make it, spending the entire day in the recliner either watching TV or sleeping. The dogs and Smudge (Himalayan) have kept me company, nestled against me under the lap blanket or draped across my chest and shoulder. It rained all day, too, and the prospect of loading anything in the car in the driving rain was just too much to consider.

The contractor called me this morning and apologized that he couldn't do any work today, due to the rain. (Something about water and electrical power tools not being safe to mix.) But he went shopping for materials and will be ready to start when the rain stops.

After work last night, I went to WalMart and splurged big time: bought a big screen TV set, 47 inches. Got an awesome deal on it and added a sound bar to the purchase. The sound bar actually has an FM radio tuner in it, too, and will also charge and play iPods! The techno-geek in me is thrilled. My current living room TV set is 26 inches and will go into the guest bedroom / office / Incubation room once I actually move in full-time. But I had to have a TV set for the DirecTV guy to hook up the system on Monday, right???

Rain or not, tomorrow I'm going Up The Hill. Today was a wonderful day of slug-like rest.

 

[Mattemma]

Congrats on the house! We have the black chain link that is covered with the vinyl or whatever it is.I could not find any pics of the driveway gate.They are 2 6 foot panels. I am fine to open the gate,but my dh wishes for the auto opener!

https://picasaweb.google.com/mattemma06/Spring2010#5459632384438696882

Here is one of the gate;
https://picasaweb.google.com/mattemma06/YardJune2009#5349793858776671218

I love the fence,but it meant no new driveway and/or siding for the house.

We did the chainlink due to yard flooding. I try to grow plants up the fence,but you can also buy mesh covering.The slats they sell are to expensive.

 

[gryeyes]

I, and my two little dogs Zorro and Dooley, spent the night in my house last night. I have a small rolling cart I'm using as a table, a chair loaned by my friends Hhandbasket and Farmer Lew, a wooden stool, and my AeroBed. Plus a toaster, Keurig coffee maker, hot pot, couple more small appliances, and the fridge that came with the sale of the house. (Better than the one I own in the house I'm renting.)

It rained all night, very hard. Sounded wonderful. I would go out on the porch to smoke and watch and listen to the rain. All my little sparkly, solar things looked magnificent in the rain in the dark.

The "digger" for the septic tank service came back and covered the tank this morning. DirecTV is coming out to set me up this afternoon. I've been trying to put the 47" TV stand together. There are screws my Skil power drill can't quite reach to set. Crud. Meanwhile, my ancient clock radio has been keeping me company with my favorite Soft Rock music.

Got a call from Lowes, and delivery of the major appliances has been pushed back about ten days. It was planned for tomorrow. Okay, no biggie; I don't have water OR propane yet. Now I can use my extra day off tomorrow for another trip from Down The Hill and the puchase of a 32 gallon, wheeled trash container and a nice, long hose to connect to the next door neighbor's spigot. Plus a timer for the lamp to make this place look occupied, instead of leaving it on all the time.

I'm gonna go take some picture of some things around the yard.

 

[gryeyes]

DirecTV, at this particular point in time, can only install standard service, not High Definition, due to the location and height of the many trees on my property. The line of sight is there, but HD uses THREE satellites and the right and left ones are "marginal" in every sky shot the technicians attempted. I declined standard service and will re-schedule. It turns out the best shot would be right where the one problematic Ponderosa Pine is growing next to the garage/someday coop. The contractor who is going to do a lot of the work had already told me that tree was infected with something that kills Ponderosa pines and would need to come down "before too long."

Well, I guess I'll schedule that sooner than later. Meanwhile, I'll have to bring up my spare DVD player and some movies to watch when I take TV breaks for the next .... however long.....

Today I drove Up The Hill just to take a few things and chill out for a while, because my heart is happy there.

Bought a new hose (50 ft long) and a thingamabob attachment that that allows you to spray different patterns of water. And a bucket from Lowe's. Hooked the hose up to the next door neighbor's spigot and pulled it through the fence to my side. I have since learned that a five gallon bucket of water will suffice for two flushes. Success! I can ... well..... you know. Instead of driving like a madwoman over to HHandbasket & Farmer Lew's place to use their "facility."

Oh, I think I promised some pictures, right?

Magnetic thingie for the fridge.

Wall decoration over the place where the dining table will go.

Wall lamp I just love, in the living room.

My AeroBed set up all by its lonesome in the master bedroom.

A fancy bird cage I bought at an estate liquidator business, with some "flameless" candles in it. And the faux impatiens hanging from the hook over it have little twinkly lights embedded into the foliage. I think they make the porch entrance look nice.

Another faux basket of impatiens. (I have a third, of purple blossoms, too.)

Mr. Grumpy Stump, whom I love dearly, holding a mushroom "lantern" which lights at night. He stands to the side of the front porch steps.

Not sure if you can see them or not, but there are colorful, mosaic solar lamps placed across the bottom front of the porch. Very pretty during the day and especially gorgeous at night.

I won't be back Up The Hill until Friday night after work.

 

[Jferlisi]

Love it so far. Ya its a beetle that burrows in the trees and kills them. We have pine trees lining 2 sides of our five acres and we have 4 dif types going in a row
ex w x y z w x y z. So on and so fourth down both sides and it has killed all of the Ponderosa Pine. We where told there is something you can spray on them or around them or something i was only catching parts of that convo that kills the beetles.

 

[NYRIR]

Gryeyes..I can hear how much you love that house and property...does a heart good to be somewhere like that

I am happy for you

BTW...I love your fridge magnet!

 

[thebirdguy]

Congratulations!!! I am so happy and excited for you!!!

 

[gryeyes]

Been a few days since I updated this blog thread of mine.

Every night for the past week I have driven Up The Hill after work to drop off something at the house. Friday, I took the afternoon off to drive to Placerville to handle a pesky little DMV issue; chose that office because I had to go to Diamond Springs (between Placerville and Somerset if you come in from Hwy 50, instead of the route I usually takedown Hwy 16) to sign the contract for the propane work, hand over two checks (one for the work and to own the tank instead of leasing it, and the other for a deposit on the propane itself, once completed). So ironic that I bought this house and handled ALL the massive quantities of paperwork almost entirely via e-mail attachments with PDF documents, plus the bank wiring the money to the escrow account, and yet I have to be physically present at the propane company office to make these arrangements.

Now I'll have to find the time to go to the County Building department to get a permit for the work - again, no online applications - before the work can even start. Luckily, I don't NEED propane for heat this time of year (and I have electric baseboard heaters anyway) nor do I have my stove (or washer/dryer) on site yet.

No running water yet, either. Hopefully by the end of the month... But the property had been weed-whacked! Woo hoo! The contractor had been there!

I went Down The Hill after HHandbasket, Farmer Lew and I enjoyed "endless pizza" at the Charles Mitchell Winery right next door - so to speak, address-wise, but quite a bit of distance in terms of very long driveways - for 10 bucks a person. Excellent thin crust, baked in a stone oven, gourmet pizzas, too. Oh, and we bought and shared a bottle of wine.

Saturday I slept in, as I don't metabolize red wine over night as well as I used to do in my youth. Crap - I had a hangover!

Came back Up The Hill in the early evening, bringing Zorro and Dooley with me. Dinner and some deep belly laughs at the Willis residence, as well as chick handling time. We went in on an order of chicks from Ideal; they're fostering my Buckeye chicks until I get moved in up here. No wine this time, although we hadn't finished that bottle we bought.

When I got to my house, I discovered the contractor had placed the materials for the coop conversion in the garage, along with other
supplies like electrical conduit and ...metal things. Z-strips?

We sorta slept here last night. We did, at least, spend the night here. I got skeeter-bit earlier and welt up pretty bad from 'em. Even with my trusty tube of hydrocortisone anti-itch cream, it was a rocky night.

But now, I'm sitting in the only chair, on my wonderful front porch, with a cup of coffee, a cigarette and a fresh peach for my morning snack. The dogs and I have walked the property twice (once to fill the bucket with water) and now they're snoozing in the sun on the porch near my chair. Dooley took off once after a very surprised grey squirrel.

The automatic chicken door from Foy's is out of stock, so I bought one from somewhere else and put it together on the porch. After a while, Dooley decided to walk through it.

I absolutely must bring some chairs from home next weekend.

Edited to add photos.