Packing and Cleaning

 Got my car back on Saturday, hopefully, they got it right this time. At least the rattle that I have been dealing with since the first time they rebuilt the engine is gone.

I continue to prepare to leave for Alaska. Cleaning the house, preparing the garden for planting and doing all the paperwork. Today I will be cleaning and oiling all of the wood furniture, a yearly spring project.

Last night we got some snow, we can always use the moisture, though it does mess with working on the garden. Yesterday I drained, cleaned and refilled the hot tub.

This morning out my bedroom window.

Here are a couple of pictures from the other day.

Sunday at the Hollar

Part of my preparation for going to Alaska was to have my favorite sandwich from the Hollar Restaurant in Madrid. They have been closed due to the pandemic, but reopened on the 4th of March. I had planned to have lunch on Tuesday while working at the gallery, then, I saw that my friend Lucy was playing at brunch on Sunday. Having not seen her in awhile I thought it would be a great time to go. The sun was out and the town was crowded, thought for the most part people had masks and were social distancing. I got to the Hollar and placed my order, Seared Tuna Sandwich, then found a table.
There are only a few "Hugs" that I truly remember. The first one came in the late '60s or early '70s, I was at Olympic Village in Squaw Valley California at a dance. I was walking though the crowd with a couple of girls I had meet skiing. When out of the dark a girl jumped into my arms gave me a huge hug, then she disappeared into the night. By the time I realized who she was she was gone. Another time I had met a young lady, again at Squaw Valley though a different year. We hit it off from the moment we met and spent the next week together. At one point we were in the shower, she was in my arms, when our movement caused the hot water to turn off. The cold water in a cabin, in the winter at Lake Tahoe is very cold. Needless to say when the water hit her back she squeezed me very tightly.
This brings us back to the Hollar, where Lucy took me in her arms and held on tightly and for a long time. I do love a great hug and am fortunate to have had three really incredibly, memorable Hugs.
My thanks to Carolyn, Eva and Lucy. 

Lucy at the Hollar

March 7, 2021

Wonderful cloudy sunrise the other day.

Click on the image to view full size

Only, a couple of more weeks before I leave. My friend will arrive in 12 days to look after my property while I am gone. Attempting to do everything I need to before I leave. The car is still in the shop and hopefully I will have it back by the end of the week. Garden is almost ready, have to check all the irrigation systems as soon as it gets warm enough. 

Time to prepare

I leave for Alaska at the end of the month. I will be house sitting and working at my sister's toy store in Homer for a couple of months. I am so looking forward to seeing Alaska. Looking through the hiking books and facebook links for places to go and things to do. I may make it in time to catch to Aurora. I will be there for the King Salmon and Shorebird Festivals. I ordered extra memory chips for the cameras and a new portable hard drive. After playing around with my, Zhiyun 4, I was able to get it to work again, yeah.

Friday, I took my car to be serviced, as a friend, will be housesitting at my house and using my car. I knew there was an oil leak, turns out the head gasket and cam are leaking oil. They are now rebuilding the engine, again. They are taking responsibility for most of the cost of the repair, thank you Subaru. I have a brand new Outback to drive for the week.

Cranked up the tiller and started to prepare the garden for planting. Emptied the raised beds, repaired and refilled them. I am working on tilling the rest of the garden and will then redo the drip system.

Grabbed a shot of a female Red-Shafted Flicker on the fence through my window.

I was out smoking a turkey breast the other day, this is a selfie I took, a reflection in the Weber BBQ.

Playing around with my iPhone12ProMax.

Turkey Breast, Bacon, Hasselback Potato.

Water is Back

My pump guy came back with all the parts needed to get water back in the house.
After letting the hot water heater heat the water I was able to take a shower and do all the dishes. I am now doing two weeks of laundry.
It also means I can bake again, so a loaf of bread and a batch of brownies.

Had a fabulous sunset the other night. 

An Afternoon of Live Music

At the Mine Shaft Tavern

Madrid, New Mexico

a Saturday afternoon of outdoor music

with Timbo, Lance and Jerry

Jerry

Lance

Timbo

 

Still No Water

A week without water in the house. I was contacted by my pump guy, on Saturday, he has the part and will come out on Sunday to fix the pump. He was coming on Monday but another job calls.

So, today, Sunday he comes to the house, take the pump apart and finds a broken part within the pump. Everything is sitting in pieces while he goes back to see about getting the part that is needed. So no water, maybe tomorrow, most likely not until Thursday.

Dishes are piled high around the house, dirty clothes are everywhere. running out of dishes to use.

Of course there is good news, booked my flight to Alaska for the end of March. I will be gone for about 3 months. I have arranged for a house sitter to watch my house. More to come as I get closer to the date.

Went down to the Mine Shaft Tavern to meet a friend and ran into another friend, who was about to play at the Cantina. I stayed around to take some pictures at his request. I never did run into the person I was looking for, but did talk with her later, we are going to try to connect some other time.

This morning, a I lay in bed, looking out my window, I watch a Hawk attempt to catch a House Finch, the Finch got away. The other day I saw a rabbit streak by, a Coyote in hot pursuit, another missed attempt.

Hope you all have good week.

Snow in the Mountains

 Sunday night it started to snow, we had 50mph winds, gusts to 70. This proved to be a disaster as it blew out the heater in my solar shed. This resulted in my water lines freezing, as the pump that moves the water into the house is in the shed. Normally, that is not much of a problem, but because of the cold and snow I lost electricity.
It got so cold the solar panels were working overtime, without the sun, they love it when it is cold. So, I had to go out and cover some of the panels to cut down on the light hitting them. As the clouds got thicker I had to uncover and then cover/uncover throughout the day, so I could keep charging my batteries. 

I relit the heater and waited for the pipes to unfreeze. That night, Monday, I heard to pump running, though there was no water coming into the house. I went out to the shed to prime the pump, unfortunately the line for the storage tank was still frozen. I shut the pump down and figured I would fix it in the morning.

Got up on, Tuesday, and went out to work on the pump. I turned it on and water went everywhere. The flange that attached the pump motor to the turbines had cracked in two places. Went in and found the invoice for the pump and called my pump guy. He called back and I explained what had happened, I then sent him some pictures, as he requested. He called back within the hour, he could get a new pump the next day or a flange in 3-5 days. The price difference is about $400, I will wait for the flange, besides he can't get here for 5-7 days as he is booked. I, also live in the mountains on two miles of dirt road, which is currently inundated with snow and snowdrifts, so I doubt that he would be able to get here for at least 5 days. Fortunately, I plan for this and keep a case of water on-hand.

This morning, Tuesday, I went out to clear the snow off of the panels and feed the birds. Since, it was a "warm" 20 degrees out I took a walk around my property. so quiet and peaceful all covered in snow.