2012: Chapter 25.1 - Jawbone And Weekenders

I've been told that the jawbone Takota chews on is probably from a cow but it could be a horse. As an aside, the 4 year old neighbor boy, Jackson, turns it upside down and uses it for a pretend gun. It is nice to see kids use their imagination these days!

Oh yeah - we were jawing with our neighbor, Rob, and he told us something funny. The full-time neighborhood residents have a term for those of us who only come up on weekends - Citidiots! (City + Idiots) I think that is hilarious; guess we are citidiots.

2012: Chapter 25 - Early Holiday At The Cottage

Yay! We got what we wanted, at least for the last 15 months; a new refrigerator and stove. The Home Depot sleigh and two reindeer delivery men dropped them off on Friday.  Installation of the fridge was a breeze. Can you say, "plug it in?" LOL. The gas stove needs conversion to propane, so we elected to have our gas company do it in a few days. We'll have them light the furnace pilot too. As the sleigh flew (ahem I mean drove) away it carried the old and I do mean OLD stove, fridge and dishwasher.

The next day we finished installing the dishwasher we started last visit. Prepping the new stove area included cutting away some of the counter top backsplash and repairing an area under the cupboards. It had obviously been home to that mouse we trapped when we first moved in. While Bill was busy with that project, I removed that scuzzy wallpaper behind the refrigerator and painted the wall.

The weekend wasn't all work (even though work in Sedona is play).  The weather was perfect - 70's in the day and 40's at night. An electric blanket helped us make it through the 40's. A lunch at Indian Gardens was fun. A customer thought I worked there and asked me, "Do you carry Red Rock passes?" Maybe someday I will work there.

On our way back to the cottage, we saw a woman walking her dog on the bridge over Oak Creek. Suddenly the dog jumped off the bridge footpath and landed with its legs dangling through the bridge's railroad rails (see photo below). We helped the dog get to safety. Poor thing was shaking like a leaf, but wasn't hurt :-)

Autumn leaves still adorn most trees, but at least half have fallen to the ground. Takota, our neighbor's dog, was having fun chewing on some type of animal jawbone (again, see photo below).

Can't wait to cook something next time!

The old appliances (and that wallpaper behind the fridge) - ick!

Bill and the new appliances, (except that microwave)

Bridge over Oak Creek where the dog got stuck in

Jawbone that Takota chews on

Autumn leaves near Indian Gardens (our favorite place)

Our street sign that Bill fixed last year after a tree branch snapped it

2012: Chapter 24 - No Job Is Finished Until The Wallpaper Work Is Done

Happy Veteran's Day to all Vets, especially the ones in our families!!!

Thank you for your service

Aargh! More wallpaper to remove. I'll get back to that shortly. Sedona was COLD this weekend. The snow flurries that blanketed us on Saturday afternoon turned into a 20 degree night. How to stay warm? We are experimenting with different ways to do that. We haven't yet turned on our propane powered furnace. Last year we weren't sure that it worked very well. For now, we have a few small electric room heaters and electric blankets. We'll see.

The hard freeze also caused a water pipe on our neighbor's roof to burst. She wasn't there (her place is also a weekend get-away) so we turned off her water and called to let her know. She was so thankful and proceeded to call her handyman to fix the problem. As neighbors, we all watch out for each other.

The cold weather has some good points: WAY LESS BUGS, eagles return (hope to see some again this year), crisp air to breathe, pretty clouds from winter storms, etc.

On Saturday we returned "Watch For Me On The Mountain" (a book about Geronimo) to the library then headed to Home Depot in Cottonwood. We have finally reached the point in the renovation to put in a new refrigerator and stove. Yay! We haven't had a stove in several months. The gas stove that came with the house was very old. Each burner had a pilot light that was continually lit. Needless to say, it used a lot of propane plus had a faint smelly odor permeating the place. The old fridge worked ok but its harvest gold color simply does not match a black stove and dishwasher. So in two weeks it's "bye bye" to the old and "hello" to the new. We also went to good friend, Joy's new place in Sedona to check it out for her. She also uses it as a get-away. It is GORGEOUS and only about 13 miles from our place.

Oh yeah, back to the wallpaper. As it turned out, the height of new fridge required removal of the kitchen cabinet over the fridge. It came off easy enough, but much to my chagrin, there was more wallpaper behind the cabinet! Darn! Well now that I'm quite expert at removal, the job should go pretty well (I hope). I'm glad to get rid of that cabinet anyway. I never use a cabinet over a fridge because it is too awkward.

We also took out the gross old dishwasher and are in the process of putting in our 2 year old one from home that came up north after we got a new one. Thankfully no plumbing broke during the process.

OK, I could go on and on but need to get caught up on some Glendale home stuff. So until next time...Namaste my friend, Namaste.

~M~

Winter storm heading to Sedona

Winter storm clouds over Bell Rock

A few snow flurries landed on a table at Indian Gardens