Within about 3 weeks of moving in I finally went and bought new flags for the property! I bought 1 for the front gate of the property to "stake my claim" and proudly display my patriotic love...for all my neighbors to know! At my house, flags are up year round, not just holidays. This one is temporarily attached to this fence until I install a 20-30 ft tall pole that I plan to cement into the ground near there at the front edge of the property.
The view coming from the house up the driveway to the gate, flag happily flying in the wind! Love it!!!
Here is where I installed the other flag on the front of the house! =)
It wasn't long before we had our first haboob in the new house. A haboob is an Arizona dust storm. And every one I've ever experienced I lived up in a city and let me tell you, they are very different. Out here, they are starting and picking up speed, gathering all the loose dust and there ins't much in the way of houses and buildings to get in their way, slow them down or break them up. So they are fierce out here! Not only that but I have strong cross winds east to west on this property and that is even evident in the ways the mature trees have grown, angled to the west. So this storm came and slammed right into us. We were safely inside but I was fascinated by how different it was to be in the country. I quickly realized that if your windows and doors aren't new or need some work, it is seriously like the DUST BOWL and you WILL get dust in your house. Plus, both of our flags flew off the poles and ended up in the yards.
The haboob as it was coming in.
Still in the distance. With each dust storm we are learning to go out and take the flags down, make sure all windows are closed tight, make sure there are no clothes on the line, make sure there aren't any light weight items (watering can) sitting on the front porch or else it will take off across the yard. We have also learned to not put boxes or trash items into the burn pile until we are going to actually burn them because I made the mistake once of piling up 30 of our old boxes into the trash pile to burn the next day, a storm hit and ALL 30 of those boxes were spread throughout our property! The next morning I got to go gather those up alone after taking Riley to school and burned them immediately. Lesson learned!!!
We have also learned with the age of this house that if any electronic items are plugged in and not in a surge protector, unplug it in a storm. Also, no bathing or showering in a storm as we have a metal roof. I also learned that it is near pointless to have cute light weight plastic chairs setup in the backyard in a seating arrangement because when a dust storm hits 1-3 times a week June to September in southern Arizona...those chairs WILL be relocated. So I can either replace them every time or just take the damn chairs and put them in the shop until we actually have company!!! Which is what I did! As some people might say that these situations and things we have gone through for our first few storms must suck, I totally DISAGREE! We are loving learning and learning together! With each new thing I learn as a single, 30 year old woman, I am eager to share that with my 11 year old son and he is just as happy to learn about something because he likes to be helpful. And he has accepted that we are on this journey of living in the country, doing for ourselves, fixing things, learning new ways to do things, being useful. And for the most part, he loves all of that and has had very little complaints! Well, he did complain the first 3 weeks we lived here without internet or cable! Lol! Because we just used the data on our phones and my WiFi hot spot to do stuff on my laptop which was strictly prohibited to work stuff. So he bored with no TV but we had a lot of family time playing board games, working around the house and watching DVDs. Then our appt came around finally and they setup our satellite internet and now we have basic cable. I opted to not do what we always did in the past which was to have the largest package and a DVR to record ALL those shows we loved so much. We wanted a simpler life...one that doesn't involve a lot of time on the couch. So we have basic cable and I made sure it included the Disney channels for Riley and HGTV and Food Network for me! =D
I took on my first plumbing project! When we first moved in the master bathroom sink drain was messed up. It took me 2 trips to the store to end up with all the right materials I needed, watched several videos and had to buy 2 new tools I didn't have. But alas, I got that baby on! And it took some muscle and plenty of curse words in my frustrations but honestly...I almost cried when it was done because I did it! I mean think about it...I'm this cute, 30 year old woman who has lived in the city the last 15 years and although I have a desire to do a lot and fix a lot...being able to fix stuff like plumbing issues had yet to happen in my life until THAT day! And I couldn't have been more proud!
After having fixed the new drain and stopper and spending so much time below that nasty sink I just knew I had to clean up that area while it was on my mind. So I taped off the pipe and the drawers and painted the back and left side with white spray paint. Then I used a glittery metallic paint I had and painted the bottom just for fun! With the painting done, the paper removed and everything all dry I put my organizers in there! So proud of myself for that one!
XoXo,
Elizabeth
