House Update—Minor Set Back

The City of Payson has decided (via a computer program) that our lot is a hillside lot. Hillside lots come with a list of restrictions such as replanting any plants that were disturbed during the excavation and building. Most of the things we were going to do anyway as we are trying to preserve the integrity of the land and impact it as little as possible. But there are some annoying things that we have to do such as putting a fence around the building site. This hillside business also means that we have to have our architect draw up additional plans that address the city's list for hillside lots.

We thought we would be submitting our completed plans to the city this week....not so. We continue to be patient but.......

We are heading out to Home Depot to get their take on a kitchen design for us. The folks in the Payson Home Depot are very helpful and knowledgable and there is no obligation to purchase your cabinets, counters, etc. from them.

Here are some photos from our walk at the park last night. We had rain, thunder and lighting last night. Cloudy and muggy today. It's a full moon so we are wondering if we can go to the golf course in the early morning hours to watch elk or coyotes???

Bass Fishing Tournament

Fifteen of the best bass fisherman in the world were in Payson on Saturday. The fisherman answered questions, were interviewed by TV, radio and newspaper folks and signed autographs.

The National Guard was also there with their entire mobile unit called the "Fun Zone," which includes climbing walls, simulated fishing games, and wave riders. They also had a full-sized replica of NASCAR Number 88, which is Dale Earnhart Jr.'s racing machine plus the motorcycle called the National Guard chopper.

The Arizona Game and Fish Department (Yes, it is Game and Fish and not Fish and Game.) had free family fishing with loaner roads plus wildlife displays. The kids had a ball playing on lots of blow up slides and "jumpy houses."

And there was a concert in the early evening.......country western, of course. It's nice having this park about a mile away from us. We walk the lake almost daily.

Elk Workshop

Randy and I attended an AZ Game and Fish Department Elk Watching Workshop last night. We learned about elk biology and habits. We have been hearing the bull elks in the evening as this is their mating season (late September until mid October). The "bugle" they make is quite a sound. Bull Elk Bugling

A bull elk stands 5 feet at the shoulder and is 9 feet in length. They weigh 600 pounds to half a ton. The cows weigh 500 pounds and the calves that are born in the spring weigh 100 pounds by fall. There are 30-35,000 elk in the state. Their predators are mountain lions and bears, and these critters mostly prey on the calves. Each cow only has one calf and a herd of 100 cows will have 40-60 calves.
Part of the workshop was jumping on a school bus and taking a field trip to view the elk in their natural habitat in the Rim Country. We drove about 20 minutes outside of town to a cattle ranch and waited for over an hour in a meadow. No elk.......just cows.

The rancher was roping cows. He stopped by to tell us that the herd had been in the meadow every night this week.....except, of course, on the night we were there to see them! He said the day had been hotter (92 degrees) and the elk would most likely be down in the meadow later in the evening. We had to leave as it was getting dark and we couldn't see much out of our binoculars or spotting scopes.

I am not disappointed as I know I will be seeing many elk. There is a lot of elk scat on our building site. (The scat looks like Milk Duds.)

Buster Still Hunts

We have a yard with a six foot fence and it seemed there was not much "wildlife" in it. We thought the cats would be bored.....no mice, rats, etc. to hunt. Well, Buster proved us wrong as he caught a ground squirrel today and proudly brought it home.
I did feel sorry for the squirrel....cute little guy. But the pleased look on Buster's face kinda made it worthwhile.

One of our neighbors said that he used to use a live squirrel trap and catch the squirrels in his yard and then relocate them. Apparently the squirrels wreck havoc in flower or vegetable gardens. But now he says he just traps them as there are too many of them to worry about trying to save them. Sad...but maybe they have overpopulated this area.

Bird Feeders Are Up

We unpacked the bird feeders and got some seed at WalMart. It's not the best seed and we will try and find a feed store in the future in the hopes that they will have better quality seed.

So far we have attracted some Lesser Goldfinches. There is not much action on the other feeder. We also hung up a hummingbird feeder and have seen two types of hummers so far: Rufous and Black-Chinned (a new one for us).

Altitude Issues

Payson's altitude is 5000 feet. So when you go to Phoenix and buy a bag of chips like the one on the left. It will look like the one on the right by the time you get to Payson. The bags definitely take up more storage space when they are all "blown up." I noticed this in the Payson grocery stores as well. Some bags on the shelves were blown up and some were not. Which one is the best one to buy?

We also noticed that our seal-a-meal doesn't work very well here. It won't stop running as it can't seem to suck all of the air out of the bag.

There is definitely less air pressure in Payson!

Off to Phoenix

We loaded up the car with our old lawn furniture. We inherited the three chairs and chaise from Randy's mom. They are good pieces and worth recoating and rewebbing. We got a quote in California before we left.....$860. We took it to a vinyl company in Phoenix and the bill was $430. AND they put something special on it that withstands the Arizona sun. We're so glad we didn't have it done in California. I'll post the finished product when we get them back in October.
The drive to Phoenix looks like this...two lane road and not much traffic. It's 75 miles and takes about an hour and a half. The scenery changes as you get closer to Phoenix......lots of Saguaro cactus. They fascinate me and I hope to learn more about them.
We hit Trader Joe's and Costco in Scottsdale and stocked up on the way home. I do miss Trader Joe's!

Beautiful Sunsets

We took a stroll last night at Green Valley Park which is located about a mile from our rental house. As you can see the sunset was just beautiful. Ducks and Canada Geese live on this pond. The ducks live on one side and the geese live on the other.
We are adjusting to the climate change. The high today is 85 degrees with some clouds so it is comfortable. The house stays about 75 degrees and the air conditioner only runs for a few hours in the afternoon. We will see what our electric and propane bill is at the end of the month.

Getting Official

I spent some time at the local DMV this morning registering my car and getting an Arizona driver's license. People are very friendly in Payson....everywhere we go. It's really noticeable.The DMV has an efficient system as you get the license and the plate from them in a matter of minutes.
On the house front.....we talked to our architect this morning and made a few inside changes to the plans due to a furnace needing proper venting. The structural engineer has been told that we need his plans NOW. Matt, the builder, was out at the site this morning and is rearing to go. After we get the plans from the structural engineer, Matt can take them to the City of Payson/Building Department for approval. This can take up to 2 weeks but we are hopeful that it will be quicker as not much new building is happening right now. We are getting anxious to get started!

Unpacked in Payson

This is the front of our rental house. As you can see there is quite a bit of rock/granite. Each plant has a drip line so it's pretty maintenance free. We can only water on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Half the garage is packed with boxes that we are not going to open until we move into our new house.

We have a bit of lawn in the back which Buster likes. We thought we could sell our lawnmowers at our estate sale but not yet.

The kitchen is finally unpacked....that took the longest to get together.

The cat pen is working at night although the cats hate it. We are keeping them coyote safe. We have heard the coyotes on two occasions. They have a high pitched "yip" that is actually quite eerie.

Our new washing machines arrived yesterday. Boy are they nice....have the steam feature to save water and they are very quiet.

We are going to relax tomorrow in honor of Labor Day.

Leaving Marin

On Monday we got up early and packed the car. Randy took the cats and his beloved plants in the Fit. The cats were housed in a dog crate with two beds, food and a litter box.

I got everything else in my car....suitcases, emergency kitchen supplies, safe with valuables, computer....it was full, but I could still see out the back window.

The vet gave us tranquilizers for the cats but we decided to see how they reacted to the car ride before giving them anything. They settled down quickly and slept the whole day. We only stopped for short periods of time to get gas and a snack so the car wouldn't get hot.

We drove from 8:00 am until 6:30 pm the first day. It was a long day. We spent the night in Needles at a pet friendly Motel 6 for $35.99 (How much I asked?).

Buster went a little crazy in the motel room and we gave him a tranquilizer at one in the morning. That settled him down! The cats did think it was fun to sleep in the bed with us....not something we let them do on a regular basis.

The second day was an easier drive and we made it to Payson by noon. We picked up house keys for the rental house, unloaded the cars and looked forward to seeing the moving van the next day.

Estate Sale

The Estate Sale was a five day event (2 days to set up and 3 days to sell) and I never want to go through the experience again. It was interesting to watch them price items. A broken leather chair was priced the same as our entertainment center.

The estate sale guy thought we didn't have enough items so he brought in stuff from another estate which included at least 1000 cookbooks (It was quite a collection....every topic of culinary interest was covered. This woman even had a Grits Cookbook.) Estate sale guy also brought in hutches, dining tables, various kitchen items and art work by Calder (priced high and UGLY....maybe his beginning work??). Our house looked like a furniture store showroom.

The cats didn't want any part of this so they stayed outside all day. They came in when everyone left at 5 o'clock and went immediately to their bed which they gladly shared. They were exhausted!

We slept in various places during this event.....Randy got the Lazyboy until it was sold. I went from bed to bed until there was nothing left and I had to use the blowup bed. A motel room might have been a wiser idea but we were trying to be frugal.

All in all I guess it was a success because the house was empty at the end of the three days. People bought all kinds of weird things.....a pile of firewood, an oak barrel filled with cherry tomato plants, a half full bottle of laundry detergent and the broiler pan out of the oven (which was not supposed to be sold). With the $$$ from the Estate Sale we almost paid for the moving van.....so I guess it was worth it.