Fixing up the ranch video

Our Anniversary Present

IT'S THE GREEN ONE!

Our anniversary tractor is ready for delivery, but it has to wait another week until we get back from solar fielding in Arizona.

Hi! This is Grandma's new baby :)





















Last Friday, on our way home after the AZ trip, we finally got the tractor delivered.
Here we go caravaning to the ranch. Mark and the babies are following me as I am driving the tractor to it's new home.



















It was a nice, rainy afternoon and I wish we could have stayed and played, but it was also lightning and since we are exposed to it all up there, we did not think it's too safe. So we parked John and went home.



















This is too much fun!



















Saturday morning, I jumped out of bed at 5:00 am and was ready to go tractoring.
We did a lot of grading work, brush dragging, roots yanking and dumping that day.

Hi Mom!!!!

Mark gets his turn first thing in the morning.

It wants to rain again. Perfect day to push the dirt around.

Clouds were coming and going all day, but we only had a little drizzle.

OK. It's my turn!

I am making the driveway flat.

The sand dunes need a lot of improvement for the future storage containers and wood cutting area also.

The truck needs a less bumpy spot to park on too.

This morning I was up with the chickens and back in the tractor. My sand dunes are almost gone. I need to grease up John tomorrow morning and we are ready to hit the sand again.

A Solar Fielding Month

We did 3 solar field testing in September. The first one was on the farms outside of Florence, Arizona.
That was the job where everything went wrong. Anything that could break did break.
Each pile was a 14 feet long, heavy, steel pipe and we had about 12 of these to hammer into the ground.
The progress as follows:
We drove one pile, we had a hydraulic leak.
We drove another pile, we had another hydraulic leak.
We drove another pile, we had a hydraulic hose broke.
We had to drive clear into Phoenix to get the hose rebuilt.
Two hours eveporated.
When we came back, the farmer told us that the tractor shop around the corner could have fixed the hose. Hmmmmm....now you telling me.....
Hose replaced, leakes fixed and bolts tightened, we are ready to drive some more piles.
Next pile, half way into the ground, the hammer broke in half.
Here we are (Earl and myself) fixing the post vibe.

Buck and Spitz are enjoying the hotel life, as always.

Not in Arizona any more...

Mark is in Canada for a week, without the family.

We can't do work in Canada, so the Canadian union labor workers do my slave jobs and I get to stay home to clean the house.

This Hummer was Mark's work truck while out there and he had 3 helpers, two to replace me and one to replace him. tihihihihihi...

His job is to order these men around.

Oh boy! We bent this one good.

I am back in business (above). We are in Luke AFB back in Arizona.

We had this "cute crawler" to drive some of the piles for us this time.

I am logging the drive time and the condition of the pile after it's pulled back out.

My wide brim KMart gardening hat is pretty awesome to keep the sun out of my face, but it does not serve as a hardhat. Most of the time, I put the hardhat on top of it, so my boss doesn't scream.

Hoo hoo hoo...don't push so hard!
Poor steel :(

Not enough to bend it, they had to break it in half as they were pulling it out.

Luke AFB had some pokie bushes that we should not have driven over, because the morning when we were ready to drive home we found a tire like this.

The babies were missing out on the work fun, because doggies are not welcome on the AFB.

They had a new adventure every day. They were in a daycamp at PetSmart Hotel while we worked. They had a great time and got a good report card every afternoon. They made lots of friends, played a lot and they crashed out the minute they walked into the hotel room and slept from 6:00 pm to 5:00 am each day.

A Fireplace Tale Part 1

What? A tale? No! It's a tail. Spitzers is having a last look at the fireplace before the living room turns into a construction zone.

The winter look

The summer look

The construction look

Someone built this as strong as a vault.

Let's see if any gold is hidden in there

No gold, but this sure is a lot of work. Mark is sick of my home projects.

Pain pain pain...

Building the hearth

Waiting for the installers

All in

Making a model paper wall

A Fireplace Tale Part 2

Gluing the rocks

Building the Wall

Finished the wall

Test Fire

The finishing touches

Ready for the winter

Happy New Year!

Desert Day

We had a family day in Palm Desert yesterday.

Buck had to come along for Spitzs' visit to the eye doctor.
The doctor said Spitz is doing great, however the eye site is not coming back.
We can only hope that his normal weight will come back though, because he gained 8 lbs from the steroid pills. He finished them yesterday, so now it's time for a weight loss program.

I took the babies to the Palm Desert City Park to walk around. It was 104, so they did not move too much. We found a fountain/shower for kids, so took advantage of cooling Buck down. He was happier when dripping wet.

We went shopping to PetSmart. Buck was scarring the fish in the aquariums and he had a great time annoying the cats. One of the cat was so mad at him, she was screaming and scratching to attack, but the glass cage protected us from her.

They had to see the groomer for a bath session and that's not among their favorit activities.
While Buck & Spitz were having a bath, Mark & I went out to dinner to the Cheesecake Factory.
Mark evaluated the dinner as a waste of time and terrible food. We didn't even have time or room for dessert. Sigh.......

The clean doggies are happy to be back in their cool home.