Life in a House

I killed my first scorpion the other night.  It was in the kitchen.  It’s not uncommon around here to find them in the house.  The one I killed was little, they have the worst sting.  Fortunately the hammer was in the kitchen and I picked it up, preparing to swing away at it.  Jim reminded me he was on a tile floor and to please dial back the force.  Now we have the rubber mallet on standby for future killings.

Our neighbors have suffered the loss of two gigantic agave plants.  They were just huge.

They were collapsed like this when we returned to Tucson.  At first we though it was lack of water, but one out of the three was fine.  Turns out they were done in by the agave snout weevil.  It’s an evil bug that attacks old or sick agaves and lays their eggs in the center.  Then the eggs hatch and proceed to eat the core of the plant.  This is really a problem for people raising agave for tequila.  It took no effort to tip the center of the plant over, it had been hollowed out.

Here is a picture of the bougainvillea.  Every time I use that word I have to look it up.  Do you think I could learn out to spell that?

A cloudy day gave us a stupendous sunset.  We did not see so many from the RV park. 

This guy flew in this morning and perched on the wall for a bit.  Then he flew off, looking for lunch.  I wish he would eat the Gila woodpecker who spends much of the day screaming like a crazy thing.  He’s very annoying.

Well, it’s time to go out and prune the lemon tree.  It’s developed an odd growth pattern that I would like to discourage.  The deer have pruned the orange trees for us, so they don’t need any attention. 

News From Brazil

Does this sound familiar?  From the WAPO.

Meanwhile, mainstream media is losing its influence. Society has lost its former cohesion. Political parties and trade unions, which once gave meaning to political projects and ideologies, no longer draw support and solidarity. As a result, people’s political choices are often guided by messages generated by their social networks. And when the corruption of political parties, statesmen and leaders is exposed, anger against politicians overshadows all other concerns. That is exactly what happened here in Brazil.

Yesterday, Brazil elected a leader, Jair Bolsonaro, who out trumps our current president.  He’s openly misogynistic, homophobic and has a stated opinion that minorities must bow to the majorities.  He wants to seize land set aside for indigenous people.  This land would be in the Amazon rain forest.  He has announced his desire for increased mining, drilling and agriculture in the forest, as well as putting a paved road through it.  He also has plans to withdraw from the Paris climate accords.

All of the above is not good for the planet.  The UN report on climate change said we have twelve years to do change our emissions to keep temperatures from rising two degrees.  That’s pretty much the cut off for catastrophic changes to the planet.

So, it’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.

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!

Outside

We hiked today.  The desert is eerily green.

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That’s it, that’s all I’ve got!

And So It Begins

It was (again) off to Home Depot this morning.  Buying a house means multiple trips to the big box hardware stores.  Today’s mission was the acquisition of a blower.  We really did not want to do it, they’re noisy and annoying but it became clear over the past few days that it would be inevitable.  A low voltage lights timer/transformer, 100 feet of power cord and a blower came home with us.



The driveway is stamped concrete.  It would not have been my first choice, but it came with the house.  The orange and purple flowers from the neighbor’s yard blow into our yard and get stuck in the grooves.  Using a broom is just wasted effort.



Jim has chased the debris off the drive way and down the street and blown it into the wash.



This is a terrible picture of a Northern Cardinal.  He was out in the wash this morning flitting around.  The camera had a split second to see him and didn’t finish the focus.  Better pictures are on the web.  Until today, I didn’t know they were in the south west – now I do.



I pulled weeds today, part of which was about 20 feet of a vine with stickers.  It’s amazing how all of the plants have stickers, they are well protected.  We also have this volunteer in the hopseed hedge.  Look at the plants to the left and right, and then look at that tall ferny looking thing in the middle.  That was not there when we left in May.  What ever it is, it’s a fast grower.  We’re going to out source its removal, it has a substantial base.



Tomorrow we’re hoping for the beginning of hiking season.  Enough dealing with the house!  I need to go outside.

The RV Goes to Storage

Today was exhausting!  I believe the bulk of my neuro transmitters have been depleted due to stress.  It was stupid stress, it all worked out, but until it’s over, you don’t know how things will go.

We took the RV up to Marana to storage.  I really hate doing this, I keep reading that it’s not good for a diesel to sit, but then again we’ve been staying in Tucson for months at a whack without moving and it’s always been ok.  The difference is that the RV is off power this time.  We’re thinking maybe solar panels would be good, except for that we have no clue as to how to attach them to the batteries. 
Here is Jim, turning the battery disconnect switches.  We’re going to go up to the RV at least once a month to run the generator and the engine which will top off the batteries. 



Jim did an excellent job of getting her between the poles and the 5th wheel next door.  You can’t see it in this picture, but that 5th wheel is the same length (41 feet) that we are.  I am always boggled at how much people are willing to tow.



One side of the storage place.  It’s really huge.  The manager lives on site and it’s surrounded by fences with razor wire.



So, we’re out of the RV, the RV is in storage and now we wonder what will happen.  Will we take up traveling again or will we not?  We honestly have no clue.

This happened later.....