The fireplace is complete! It took a little bit of engineering for me to be able to help Dave lift the heavy stone surround, but, his brainwork paid off!
We lifted the mantle piece and carried it into the livingroom where I was able to sit it atop the specially built contraption and hold it here while he secured it in place. Piece of cake!
I'm enjoying the warmth and the ambiance of the fire, but the "boys" really love it and it's been in near constant use since it was finally done.....
As a matter of fact, Dave is standing in front of it right now, watching the Bills play in frigid 5 degree temperatures at Highmark Stadium.....glad we're not there right now!
Jesse and Erin are due to arrive in a week or so and we're really looking forward to their visit. In preparation we've taken a few reconnaissance desert drives and done a bit of housekeeping, including washing and clipping sweet Lewis. He smells divine after his bath and, since he's always right in their faces, we thought it would be nice to have lavendar scent wafting around him instead of the normal peanut butter and dog breath.
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| he drops his tail and quietly disappears when he sees the bath supplies come out |
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| shake! |
Peanut butter breath comes from his new Kong obsession. You'll remember I've started giving him a frozen, stuffed Kong when he pesters for attention. I try to stuff it with novel and possibly interesting things for him to discover as he licks through the frozen layer of peanut butter. Some ideas are winners, some are not.....but it's all a game.
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| he carefully avoided the rice crispies when they fell out of the Kong |
Rice Crispies, asparagus and pumpkin - not very interesting. Bran cereal, dog cookies and peanut butter - big hits! He loves asparagus raw, but evidently limp frozen stalks aren't as interesting and he really dislikes the oft suggested pumpkin. He's always been an individual so I'm not surprised.
We're trying out a few new to us mapping/tracking apps with varying degrees of success. What3Words, GAIA GPS and Avenza Maps to name a few. We really just like to bumble around in the desert and see where we end up, but I've been led to believe that there is an area that we should be careful when and where we poke around and I'm hoping these maps will help us stay in welcome territory!
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| exploring near Vulture Peak |
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| checking the road ahead |
Since the fireplace job is done we've been taking it a little easy. Dave helped our "neighbor" Steve lift and put into place a garden wall he's building, I tried a new recipe for a Jelly Donut Cake to make use of a jar of delicous home made strawberry jam that Erin sent us. and a neighbor came over to move a large dirt pile the previous owners left for us behind the house. The cake turned out really, really good and I'll definitely make it again, using more jelly next time.
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| Mmmm - Jelly Donut Cake |
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| Dave has tractor envy....he'd love to be using this little machine instead of our neighbor |
We've been enjoying our second cup and happy hours very much. We've found spots to stay in the warm sun while we consume and converse, both morning and late afternoon. We always have company. One morning we had a hawk fly in to sample the pomegranate half.
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| hawk on the pomegranate |
Lewis is always with us, of course, but since we've been offering pomegranates, or oranges or apples to our feathered friends, they continue to keep us laughing with their antics. Another day a normally loud and self confident Thrasher displayed an unusual behavior at the apple offering. We don't really know what it was doing but it started eating, suddenly looked up and noticed the little seated gargoyle a few posts away. At the risk of anthropomorphizing, it looked shocked to see the odd creature watching and it responded by squatting down, staring at it and wiggling its outstretched wings. It then hopped down from the apple and walked over directly below the unmoving gargoyle and proceeded to squat and wiggle for quite awhile. Finally it just flew away and we didn't see it again for the rest of the day. Was it embarrassed, relieved, shocked, unnerved? I didn't have my camera outside so I only have this bad camera shot to show you.....
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| can you see him dancing around below the gargoyle? |
In the afternoons we move around to the side of the house where the sun will eventually set. It gives us another hour or so of warm sunshine to enjoy. Again, Lewis is our constant companion.
We've been living in this house since mid October, and yesterday Lewis just discovered the light over the side garage door. As we sat and enjoyed our wine we watched him stare at it and circle it and woof softly at it for minutes. At first I thought something was up there, a snake, a bird, something sinister.....Nope, just a light fixture......What a knucklehead he is!
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| oof oof oof |
We were planning a short, two week trip down to Tucson and then to Borrego Springs in the beginning of February but have decided to cancel. We think it's just not a good idea to expose ourselves anymore than is necessary just because "I want to". We'll be back on the road in the spring, and that will have to be soon enough. This certainly isn't a hardship, we're happy here and enjoying the house and exploring new areas. Right?
