A little Excitement this morning on the Ranch!!

2015 Bring it on!

   As I said, life always changes. Can't expect things to ever stay the same. EVER

   The last week of December I got an e-mail from an x-coworker from the county health department. 

   She was letting me know that there was an opening for my old job driving a transit van for senior and disabled people.

  I had this job for 7 years before I went to truck driving school (trying to save the house a little over 2 years ago, That's another story). 

   Anyway I accepted the job and put in my notice at Lander.

   I told them I could start January 6th. That would give me time to pack my things and get myself settled in back at home.

  

 

  But my son on the other hand, received not so good news...

   December 31st the Copper mine where he has worked  as a driller for 6 years shut down. It had filed for bankruptcy months ago. The possibility of this was on the fringes of everybody's minds but we were hoping they would find a buyer or investor. But with the copper and silver prices dropping it was becoming less likely. Finally the rug was pulled out.

   Now what? How would he be able to buy property now?

 Roll with the punches. 

    Hoping 2015 will bring us all to where we want to be, 

Cheers!

January 1 2015 SNOW DAY!

  Big Snow "storm" came across most of Arizona . People are commenting that some places in the SW haven't seen snow since the 70's!

  Yea, I know I said I don't do the cold but I have to make sacrifices sometimes for good pictures. 

So I pitched in gas money for my son to drive me up to Hualapai Mountain.

The Garden

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Moving Mocha

 
 In Mocha's best intrest I moved him to a friends house in Tonopah where he will have the company of 3 other horses and have more space while we get through this transition. 

  She came out to trailer him back to her place this afternoon.

 It won't be easy having him so far away and not getting to see him every day but it is a better place for him right now.

Winter is closing in! Brrrr!

 Kingman Arizona is usually 10 to 20 degrees cooler than what I am use to down in the valley. 

I don't do cold well.  Time to buy propane.

 RV Furnace doesn't work. 
Might just get a propane wall heater and yank the furnace and use the space for extra storage.


  Meanwhile.   

   Electric is expensive and I didn't want to jack up my sons electric bill using my little electric floor heater so he let me use his little buddy propane heater.  He drilled a hole in the floor to run the propane hose through so the tank could be kept outside.It worked pretty well for a few weeks but as the nights got colder it was apparent I would need something more. 



   Although not very safe, I bought a neat little vintage heater on Craigslist list for $50. I love it!

 It will get me by for now. I just have to be extra careful with it. 

  My 7 gallon tank lasted about a week to week  to week and a half only using it at night. If I used it all day on weekends when I was there all day it only lasted about 4 days. I don't like to be cold.

  Eventually we will get a wall heater with a thermostat and use this in out rock shop after we get it built wherever we end up someday.

But my flowers are still blooming! ...

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Gardening with my Grand Daughter

  All 3 of my grown sons and my 3 grandchildren live here in Kingman. So spending time with them takes away from my homesickness. I look forward to spending more time with them after we move up here permanently. 

  Since my grandchildren were born I have been living 150 miles apart from them.  I had only been able to on see them on holidays and sporadic weekends if they stopped by on their way down to Phoenix. I have never been able to attend any Christmas concerts, parades or trick-or-treating with them. Soon they will be too old to want to hang out with grandma. 

   All the money in the world can't buy back that time. 

  Last weekend I had my Granddaughter over for to help me plant my winter garden. I had already started the seeds and the seedlings were past ready to transplant. I love to plan things like this to make memories. I had done it with my kids whenever I could and now I have the opportunity to do this with my Grand kids.

I taught her how to build a trellis out of bamboo for the pole beans..


 

She is such a good helper and eager to learn...

She was proud of her accomplishment.

Afterwards we fed my virmacomposting worms some vegetable scraps



 Then we finished the day with cookies and herbal tea.

    I invited my grandson too but he opted to go to the park to practice stunts with his scooter. He is hoping to get a sponsor.... 
  (As I was saying about getting too old to want to hang out with grandma...)

A new job, a new location, moving into the RV

  My hours were cut back in December of 2013 at my job in Wickenburg. It's bad enough to not make enough for the mortgage let alone coming up short for the utilities as well. So I have been looking for work elsewhere. It wasn't going to get any better there. 

THE PLAN

  To stay at my middle son's house in the 5th wheel in Kingman  while I work up here where there are more jobs.

  I was hired  the 8th of August at Lander Industries. Assembly line work making Renegade Hoof Boots for barefoot horses. I actually bought a pair for my horse about 6 years ago.

 Mr. & Mrs. Lander started the business in their kitchen about 11 years ago. Kurt Lander invented it himself. It outgrew their kitchen into their garage. Then just this summer they expanded to a building in the industrial park near the Kingman airport and ship all over the world.

 So I moved into our 5th wheel parked in my son's back yard. 

My husband is staying at the house. "Holding down the fort".

  My son can't have pets at his rental. Besides if no one was living at the house the bank would assume we abandoned it and take it over. We want to hold onto it till they give us an eviction notice or till my son buys property that we can move onto, whichever comes first, so this is just how it is going to have to be for awhile.

 I drive home every other weekend to visit. I head down after work Friday, get to be home Saturday then about noon Sunday drive back to Kingman.

 Every trip back to Kingman I brought a carload stuff from the house for the RV.  And stuff to sell on craigslist up there as there is a greater population of potential buyers.

To help myself feel a little more at home, I planted a little garden next to my sons house and brought some potted plants from the house.

 My 2 oldest sons sealed up all the seams and installed brand new roof vents to make sure it wouldn't spring any leaks when the rains come.. 

   My boys take good care of their mom :)

   I am looking forward to having a garden and pond again and keeping chickens. It will come, in time. And life will be normal again. Just a new normal.

  

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