Sunday at a New House

We’ve reached the stage where the bulk of the big things are done with the house.  We’ve entered the stage of the small irritating tasks.  It seems like everything just takes forever.  Monday I have to find a handy person who will come out and hang sun shades outside and a new light over the dining table and make the pipe under the kitchen sink stop dribbling.  Sometime this week the local gardener is coming back to take away the ugly chiminea and dig up some ugly plants.  I’m also hoping he’ll take the corpse of the tree we cut down yesterday.  That sucker grew about 12 feet in 5 months.

It was funny, we were out in the yard yesterday morning, and heard someone saying “good morning.”  After a couple of repetitions we realized it was directed to us.  We said hi, and the neighbor asked us what were our plans for that tree.  As it turns out she and her husband have been cutting it to the ground for the last three years.  We went to Home Depot and got a saw and dispatched it.



Eventually we hope to get the roots dug out so it will stop growing.

In the 1970s my Dad was Special Agent in Charge of the Arizona FBI office.  Part of his job was to liaise with the Native Americans on the reservations.  The reservations are sovereign nations, and deal with the US Federal Government.  Anyway, during his time here he acquired several beautiful Navajo weavings.  Today’s project was to get one of them up on the wall. 

I resurrected my sewing machine.  It’s a metal Bernina, it’s amazingly heavy.  When we had houses, I sewed a lot, mainly quilts.  The machine has been in storage since 2007, and I’ve lost all my muscle memory on how to use it.  Took a few minutes to remember how to do anything.



Anyway, I made a sleeve for a dowel.  Then I sewed it to the weaving by hand.  Several finger stabbings later, it was attached.



The half inch dowel fit and we got it hung.  It’s centered and level.  We’re happy.



Here we have the remnants of a recirculating water fountain.  Now it's a breeding pond for mosquitoes.  That thing will have to go.

In news of the sporting world, Lewis Hamilton has won his fifth F1 world championship.  Good show Lewis!