My home area is a bit like that. City people flocking in for the cheap taxes. Then they immediately want to implement city rules that would make our taxes go up and completely negate why they said they wanted to move there. It's sad and I hate it.

I've seen a few try to drill wells ... with a water table at over 1,000 feet that gets expensive.  Saw one newbie watering his lawn!!  What these idiots don't realize is they can't use water like they do in the city - most of us don't have wells, we use water catchment and in the drought that's been rough on us.  My tanks are full and I have enough to carry me for a couple of years - literally - but a 1000 gal tank might last 3-4 months or less the way they're trying to use it.  ( I have 6 1,500 gal tanks - about 9000 gallons )

They paid stupid prices for their 5 / 10 / 20 acre tract (land should go for $500-750 an acre) and there's no way that they're going to get their $7,500 per 5 acre tact back out of it!  I just saw one place offered through an agent for $1,000,000 for 40 acres - 40 bare acres!!!!!  Oh we have a great view, but you can't take a bath in or drink a view!

Thankfully we do have some county / state rules in place.  We're an international Dark Sky area (yeh, you should see the Milky Way from here!!) so the newbies can't just go sticking their sodium lights up to light up the desert.  I knew it wasn't going to be the city (THANK GOD!!!) when I moved out here and I have no interest in making a city out of it and wish that those who want city would just go back to the city!

(( Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox now... ))

I saw this so I stole it, please don't report me but this is what it looks like:


We have stars like you wouldn't believe!!!!!

We're not as remote as you, Al, but definitely rural. County has 17000 people, our town, only about 300. We have our own septic system and well, hire someone to pick up trash weekly (or drive it to the"dump." AKA transfer station. Or a parking lot where someone else drives it to a transfer station.

I still laugh - my older son prefers an urban/suburban environment. He does this spiel for checklist on house buying : where does the water come from? Oh, it comes in from the road? Cool. And where does it go? Oh back to the road? Good. And trash? Put it out by the road? And it's gone? Cool!

The irony of it all? When he bought his house in the Boston suburbs? Yup. Well. Septic.

We had to make another trip up Christmas mountain so I took my Lumix Camera up with me and got some better pictures.
I added the first one just because. It's a massive piece of hanging rock ... and if you follow the road off the right side of the picture you'll see that it switches back to come right under this mass.


These next two are similar to the ones I removed from the previous post, just much better pictures.




And ... the repeater still isn't working. Before it wasn't working right, now it just isn't working! So that means another trip up there.

Sky is about to drive me nuts - or drive herself into living in her crate. Over the last few months that Sasha was here, she'd piddle in the kitchen overnight, I'm guessing she just couldn't hold it. It was easy enough to grab a mop when I got up - but that's pressed board and it's in need of being replaced. (( I should note that the woman who lived here before I bought it had dogs and her son said that it wasn't uncommon for them to mess in the kitchen ... ))

Sky, on the other hand will go out, mark everything in sight and then come in and piddle in the kitchen - damn, girl, you were just out, what's this??!!?? She hasn't done it when I'm around the kitchen - sneaky little B!!
I've mopped with vinegar but that doesn't stop her, I guess she holds her nose .... argh!!!!

Have you tried nature's miracle? Really does work.

I've got a few problems with the kitchen floor.  First, it's been a porta-potty for more than one dog (and more than my dogs if I've been told right)  It's particle board (pressed board) so having gotten wet repeatedly it's beginning <???> to deteriorate.  Someone put down linoleum and someone else took it apart (neither someone being me!) so any water get through the scraps and onto the particle board.  I've left the back door open for air flow which results in condensation on the floor - doesn't help the water problem!

*I* have no idea how that floor is attached to what under the trailer, so don't just want to rip it up and find that there aren't any reasonable crosspieces to which I can tie new flooring.   There's a flooring company up in Alpine and I've been tempted to stop and talk to them but from what I see they do, mostly, carpet, lamination and linoleum - not sure about "whole floor" replacement.

Nature's miracle - any idea how that would work on particle board???

Off topic ('course a lot of my chatter is off topic)
Since the doctor doesn't seem to think there's any reason for me to be hiring a chauffeur for the hearse any time soon, I've been looking at things I need to do to this trailer beside the kitchen floor.

Since I like to leave the doors open for cross ventilation and don't have a screen for the front patio door I figured I'd look and see what was available - and got blown away!  Now if I had the frame, I could replace the screen to less than $25.00 but since I have to replace the frame as well even a kit is gonna run me around $125.  $125 for 4 pieces of aluminum plus corner pieces plus the rollers.  They's mighty proud of that frame!!

So i have used this on particle board. Followed by the no more marking line. Splinter no longer pees on the dryer but it did stain the wood. I didn't care because the wood was already discolored. And sorry ahead of time for even responding, i may be the only one here that has used natures miracle on unsealed wood.

Not a problem, that's exactly what I wanted to know. I didn't want to find that the enzymatic action went into the wood and destroyed what integrity it has left.

We have habitat for humanity resale shops dotted around and sometimes you can find old screen doors there for super cheap. Used to you could put out a feeler to any nearby construction/window companies and nab tear outs from them but not sure they do that anymore with the price they can get for scrap. May have to look at the magnetic screen doors for the interim.

The habitat for humanity re-store is a great place. Some are better then others. We also have a good will thats specifically used building supplies. Ok its all relative that the re-store is 50 miles one way or 120 one way to the really good one or 102 miles to the good will. Weird place to look but have you checked ebay?

I would probably build a screen door with wood. But in dry hot weather it can bow so not such a permanent idea. I have been trying to get my sliding door replaced because its held together with gorilla glue so my diy stuff may be a little too primitive.

What I'm looking for is either a sliding screen door - whole - or the kit to make one.  I've made a couple of screens for windows from the kits and they're (fairly) quick and easy --- and  lot less expensive than a replacement screen.  What surprised me is that the kit and complete are almost the same price for screen door.  
The nearest habitat for humanity is about 300 miles up the road.

It's getting to be that time of year for my normal "cool weather" grouse.  Last month we were still well into the 90's most days with our lows being in the 70's ... fall is here and we're doing well to get into the 80's during the day and our nights are a very chilly low 50!

We have cooled off here. High 70, low around 42 now. The doves are camping in the backyard which makes for some entertainment. They have it in their head that when they disperse off the back patio when someone walks out that they want to land and sit on the roof of my greenhouse, only there's nothing for them to really latch onto so I end up with about 4 doves sliding down my greenhouse roof and falling off.

TwisterII wrote:

We have cooled off here. High 70, low around 42 now. The doves are camping in the backyard which makes for some entertainment. They have it in their head that when they disperse off the back patio when someone walks out that they want to land and sit on the roof of my greenhouse, only there's nothing for them to really latch onto so I end up with about 4 doves sliding down my greenhouse roof and falling off.

Now that is funny

We have yet to have a frost here though chilly today. High of 56 and overnight low of 43. Tomorrow back up to the mid 60s with lows in the 50s for the next several days. Almost beginning to look like no frost until November. That would be a whole month late. Even this might be a record. Downside? It's been raining. And raining. And raining

Our ski area opened sunday. That about sums up our weather. And i babysit a very determined 6 year old with a plastic toboggan that is convinced squirt is going to be the next balto (cartoon disney version).

I haven't said much here for a while.  It seems as if I can't keep a cat ... either they just die on me and I can't figure out why or they disappear, which I presume means they were lunch (or a midnite snack) for one of our aerial predators.

They fellow who brought me over the orange tabbies brought me over a couple of VERY young kittens.  They're too young to be around the dogs - in fact I'm guessing they were in the 6 week range (maybe?!?)  They'd been weaned and were eating "solid" food (read canned kitten food) ... one of them died the second night they were here so I have one lonely kitten who still isn't big enough to face the dogs.  I've brought it (I'm not sure...) out and put it in Sasha's crate and the dogs irritated the blazes out of her.    But she (for lack if anything better, I don't like calling an animal an it) has gotten a couple of "nose tweaks" in.  Avalanche is very careful about how he approaches her in the crate - 'course he's always been wary of the feline variety. I'm going to see if I can convince her that she's an indoor cat but not sure how that's gonna work since I leave the back door open when the weather's good enough.

---

I have some Nature's Miracle on order ... for a little over a week now. Amazon normally does better than that and it's from Amazon not a third party ( I've gotten bit a couple of times by them. )

The dogs took of yesterday, Sky can maneuver the gate I have in the front door - she did and both of them had a good run. Avalanche stopped to talk to a couple who had rented one of the BnB camping sites. Bet that impressed them. "C'mere Avalanche!" ... "Nope, they're petting me!" ARGH!!!!!!

I'm bored and rambling.

Young kittens can be difficult. I've had to only deal with a few that were super young. Two we got at the 6 week range and we also ended up losing one of that pair. Think it fell into the water bowl and got some water breathed in and things just didn't set right after that. They can be a little head heavy at that age and open dishes of water, milk, or runny soft food can find it's way into their noses and down into their lungs. My last young one I got in the 4-5 week range. He was about starved when I got him so I used a syringe to feed and water him the first week. Carried him, and his fleas, around in my pocket. Fed him canned pate smeared on a mat for him to lick up and kept things somewhat elevated so his giant head would be a little more balanced and not pull his tiny emaciated body forward into his food and water plates.

Well, said kitten isn't brave enough to face the dogs but she felt brave enough to face the outside world last evening. I have her in the back bathroom with food, water and litter pan (remind me to change it today!) There's a large box flattened out across the door so she can't just go wandering but I'd been using another box with towels in it to keep the flattened out box up against the door frame. She found that she can get on top of that box and from there across the top of the flat box ... which led right to the outside door. I went back to pet/play with her before I went to be and lo! no kitten. Grabbed my flashlight and checked to make sure she wasn't in the house, she wasn't so I went out and she was playing around the back of the trailer. Saving grace, she came right to me when I went out but sheesh!

I need her to get about 50% bigger before I'm going to let her go wandering in the house - kitty claws are good but cat claws work better with the dogs. Obviously she's brave, bold and ready to face a world which will eat her given the chance - if I can't keep her alive I think I'll give up on cats ......

Oh what a difference a month can make!  Little kitty is still a pretty small cat but she's big enough to face down the dogs.  Avalanche learned a long time ago that when a kitty raises it's paw that it's time to back up!  Sky hasn't learned that yet but she's learning - or maybe she's just a slow learner!

Said kitty, who's coal black btw, has the run of the house now and she's spending most of her time out here with all the rest of us and is as often in the middle of some rough housing as not.  Had to laugh at Sky today, she picked the kitten up by the scruff of her neck and walked off with her ... when she set it back down all she got from the kitty was a real disgusted look!!  One time the two dogs were standing over her so I went to make sure she was okay - oh yeh, she was okay, just daring one of them to get a nose close to her four upraised paws!!
ETA: Kitty and I are going to have a discussion if she doesn't do something about her teeth. 'Love bites' are one thing but this little girl is drawing blood! Reaction has gotten her popped a couple of times and I hate myself when I do that but geeze cat!!

The dogs have relaxed a lot in the past month or so.  Seems as if evening is play time and they're wrestling more.  Regrettably, Sasha would get into the play and then end up screaming because someone pushed her wrong so everyone just went and laid down.  There are times I miss her more than others, working outside - near her grave - is all too often one of those times.

I'm envious that you can have cats mixed in with your pack. I want my cats to have the run of the house so bad but kenzi just won't have it. Kye might would come around but kenzi just won't.

There are times I wonder!  Like when Sky picked her up but it was obvious she wasn't hurting her and the kitten didn't even to seem to really mind.  

Since I have so many predators around here and haven't been able to keep a cat, I'm trying to see if I can convince the kitten that she's an inside cat.  Easy enough to do right now when all the doors are shut but when it warms up again ... well, we'll see. She's been out when she accidently got out, played around outside and I'd like to have a cat that kills the mice / rats that live out here but I guess she can do the job from inside. On that note, Avalanche chased something in the kitchen the other night ... not sure what it was and he didn't have it when he came out of the kitchen ... who really knows.

This kitten isn't the least bit affectionate she follows me as I go from room to room and sleeps behind my knees (I tend to sleep on my side) but if I pick her up she's not having any of it - "Let me down!!!"

Rambling ... like an old Nash or maybe a Gremlin.

My youngest cat strongly dislikes being picked up. She is a cuddle bug and wants to be in my lap and on my feet and constantly petted, but she gets really weird and panicky if I pick her up. My other cat is a pack cat. I can tote her around anywhere but she spent a certain amount of time in my pocket being carried around when I first got her while my youngest I got in the middle of moving houses and she just didn't get the same early interaction of my other. They have never been outside. I have screens on everything and they lay against the screens when the windows are open but no going outside. They live in the basement at this house so I don't have to worry about door darting when I or the dogs go out. At the other house they were kept in the bedroom portion of the house.

Ah yes!  Welcome to the Big Bend Home for the halt and the aged!

Avalanche and Sky were playing last evening when I heard this yelp / scream from Avalanche who went hobbling away on three legs.  Not sure what happened but he hobbled around all last night. 'Course, Sky's like, "C'mon I wanna play!" and Avalanche's having none of it. It seems a bit tender this morning but he's walking on it.

Silly kitty, who loves to be right underfoot paid the price for that this morning.  I was making some coffee and stepped sideways - right where the kitty was.  Loud screech (small kitty, completely out of proportion) and she goes hobbling off on three legs.

And then there's me ... I had to have someone to put in the aged category and today I feel all my well earned aches and pains!

My home for the lame has turned into a zoo!!!  The more the kitten is out in the family room (my living / sleeping room) the more she instigates play with the "big cats" (or something, it's like she doesn't know any better. (( or she's got a for real death wish! )) )

She's wandered out a couple of times but as soon as I go back in she's right behind me!  I'd say I have a house cat this time but I figure the first time she comes across one of those four legged toys that can run, that'll be history.  

I'm rambling but no one else's seems to be saying a lot, so I guess I may as well.

Hope everyone had a safe "winter solstice" holiday ( can't wish someone a "Merry Christmas" cause they may not be Christian, can't wish some folks a "Happy Hannukah" cause they may not be Jewish, can't wish them a "Happy Yule" because someone's going to be offended by the pagan reference ... and while the atheist's might be satisfied with "Happy Solstice" everyone else will be up in arms.

Let's try "I hope you all will have a safe, sane, sober and happy New Year!!!!" (( did I really say "sane and sober", I think I sorta remember a few that were anything but!! ))