Catching Up

How do you like my new look? Isn't this just me? A girl's gotta be prepared for anything out here. and boy, I'm ready for anything.
Seriously, I found this photo on The Graphics Fairy and fell in love with it. I thought I should put it in every post so you would know how "country" I've become.

Finally the hummers are back. We've had a couple earlier in the summer but now we have 12-15 fighting over the feeder. I finally had to put up a second one in the back yard so there would be enough food for everyone.

 I can't help myself, I just love these little birds.

 We've had some great rains. We just love it. Lots of lightning and thunder. We got an inch from this rain which filled up our barrels and water tanks, 650 gallons and then they were running over.

 The next afternoon, we got another inch in a short time. Another 650 gallons.

 Our big rain tank has close to 2500 gallons in it for the garden. Wayne was over for dinner on Wednesday and left to go home around 10:30 pm. Pa and I took our showers and went to bed and the phone started ringing. Everytime Pa answered it, no one was there but caller ID showed it was Wayne. I told Pa I bet he was stuck in the wash and couldn't get a signal and we had better drive down the road to see if he was ok. There he was, in the wash, stuck up to his hubcaps. We tried to pull him out but he was too stuck. He had to leave the truck in the wash and come home with us for the night. We figured it would be a good signal for others to see the truck there so they wouldn't try to make it across.
The next morning, we used Wayne's tractor to pull the truck out. It was so stuck, the tractor had a hard time getting it out.

 We drove down to our new friend, Noah's place to see how he was coming along with his earth house. He has a lot of work to do!!!

 It doesn't seem that big to me for a family of four plus mother. Maybe it will be bigger when he gets it done.

 All that packed earth should provide some good insulation. He isn't going to put in traditional windows. He is going to use glass blocks. I would have to have more windows if it were me and ones that open but hey, it's his house and he can make it like he wants.

 We were showing Wayne one of Pa's cowboy hats. Handsome dude, isn't he?

 This is Wayne's hat that Pa tried on. Personally I think I looked better in it than Pa did but I was the one taking the pictures, so ya can't see how beautiful I looked in it, ha ha.

 I looked out the kitchen window during dinner and let out a scream. "Look at the rainbow!!!!It is so beautiful!" The guys looked at me like I was crazy and went on eating. What's wrong with guys that they can't appreciate the beauty surrounding them?

 My Mars pictures look better than the Mars Rover, don't ya think? I don't know why the colors turned out so weird. I still think the rainbow was beautiful. It was huge and no matter what, I couldn't get the whole thing in the lens.

 Just beautiful

Ya gotta admit, they are different!
Last Saturday I spent the day in Flagstaff with my bud, Katie. We went everywhere. I left the house at 6 in the morning and didn't get home till 8 in the evening. I was exhausted but it was worth it just to spend some time with another woman. I don't know what I would do without that girl!!!! She came over Thursday and we played in my craft room. A good time was had by all.
Today Pa is over at Wayne's to give him some moral support. All of us are so tired of our corrupt POA board. Wayne finally reached the boiling point and went to town to ask some questions of one of the officers and she wouldn't talk to him so he let it be known that he and some others out here are ready to sue. The president of the board called and set up a meeting to discuss the issues with him this morning. Arizona has laws concerning the operation of HOA'S/POA's but no office to make sure the laws are being obeyed. Our officers won't even let the property owners attend the meetings which is illegal. The Attorney General's Office said it wasn't their problem, just vote the officers out. We can't do that because the president of the board controls over 300 properties between what he owns and what the real estate company owns. He controls the votes for all of them. He hand picks who he wants on the board, all "yes" men/women and votes to put them on there. Their main goal is to make sure their buddy has the road contract. They don't even bid the contract out, just hand it to him. I think a kid in a sand box could do a better job on the roads. And get this, he is not responsible for the survey markers he knocks out and loses!!!! Aren't those legal markers? How are you supposed to know where your property boundaries are? They expect people to hire a surveyor to come and resurvey the property!!!! We can't even use the community well. It takes 3 hours to fill up a 250 gallon tote. Each property owner is supposed to get 4000 gallons from the community well a month. At the last yearly meeting which we were allowed to attend, everyone voted to get the well fixed with a huge tank and a solar pump. There wasn't one NO vote. Guess what, the officers decided not to do what the property owners want. Unfortunately most of the property owners don't live out here, they are scattered all over the U.S. so they don't know what it is like to live out here. We are being forced to either put in a well or drive to town to buy water. The big selling point for buying out here is that you didn't have to put in a well since you could use the community well. What a crock!!!!!
In spite of the cons of living out here, we try to concentrate on the pros . We are just so tired of our corrupt board. But all in all we absolutely love it.If we ever move again, we will never buy property where they have an association. When we speak to an attorney, we will ask him if there is anyway, we can legally withdraw from the association. Probably not.