Is she still alive? Does anybody care?

     Don't faint! Yep it's me once again after a 2 or 3 year absence. I just ran out of things to say. The ranch is pretty much running itself with an assist from Pa. Every day is pretty much routine which I thought we would get away from by moving here.
     Sad days behind us as we had to put Harley and Jaz to sleep from complications of bad teeth. I don't know what it is about Arizona but as soon as we moved here, the dogs teeth started going to hell. Tilly visited the dog dentist and had 11 teeth pulled and was on antibiotics for a week.  She is feeling lots better and can eat just like all her teeth are there. Harley and Jaz were over 10 years old so they had a good life. We adopted a rottie from our neighbor whose husband passed away. She had been pretty neglected. After coming to live with us, she refused to go outside except to go potty. She loved being in the house. She was such a sweet thing. Unfortunately about 9 months later, she came down with pancreatitis and the Dr. couldn't save her so we had her put down. I adopted a German Shepherd from the pound in Saint Johns. Best $25.00 I ever spent!

He is completely bonded to me and never leaves my side. That can get pretty irritating sometimes. He was about a year old and we've had him for about 3 years. Turns out he has hip dysplasia but he isn't in pain and has figured how to get up and down. Slippery floors are his downfall but he manages to get back up. He is extremely gentle and gets along with everyone and other dogs.
   I told Pa that since Tilly is getting older (she's about 14) that I wanted to get another Mini Schnauzer because I needed somthing to sit in my lap to love on when she goes to dog heaven. I was a member of the Holbrook Animal Shelter Facebook page, so was always getting pictures of dogs for adoption. One day this little guy showed up.

I knew right away that my son-in-law in Vegas would want him so I sent him a picture. Love at first sight. He contacted the animal shelter to see if they would allow adoptions out of state and they said they would. Off I went to the shelter which is about 90 miles away to get him for his new Vegas family. I offered to meet them in Flagstaff but they said no, he would come and get him. Two days later my daughter called and asked if I was still willing to meet them in Flagstaff so they could get the dog sooner than later. Of course I said sure. Three hours later, Ringo as he was known at the pound met his new family. They loved him and named him Stanley (don't ask) Who would name a dog Stanley? Someone who loves ice hockey, that's who.
   About two weeks later, this little lady showed up on the shelter web site.

Her name is Chloe. Her owners had to surrender her to the shelter because they were living in a motel and were told to get rid of her or find someplace else to live. Lucky me! Chloe is 4 years old and became an instant member of the family. She acts like she's lived here forever. We've had her for 9 months or so. I keep seeing all sorts of dogs I'd love to adopt but Pa says absolutely NOT!
    Our winter this year was pretty mild until the last week of December. It got very cold and we had 7 inches of snow in one day.

Our friend Nick came from California and spent Christmas with us. He spent the entire day playing in the snow while Pa and I hugged the stove. It was cold. In January it actually got to 6 degrees below zero. January was cold, February was cold and so far, March is windy. We've had more snow since the third week of December till now than we've had the entire 8 years we've lived here. I don't mind since I don't have to be anywhere.
   This past summer, Nick and Pa built a patio onto the front of the house. It is made with hand made Mexican brick given to us by another friend named Nick. The steps were added before the snowstorm in December.

It was a lot of work but so worth it, says I who didn't do a thing except provide drinks of cold water. Pa might have another opinion.
   We got a new toy to run around the ranch with. It's is so much fun but I always worry I will run out of gas somewhere far from home so I don't venture far.

The Grannie Mobile is nice but it doesn't go off road very well like an ATV will do.
   I am still crafting and spend hours a day in my craft room. It's much more enjoyable than cleaning house! We tore out the garden after finally giving up on the darned thing. After two years of not getting enough to can or barely eat, I said tear it out!!! I do miss it tho. A friend in Australia does classes on Strawbale gardening so I may try a few bales this year. What I really want is an underground green house but Pa isn't the least bit interested in building one.
  I'll leave you with a few pictures of things I've made. I know you are dying to see them, ha ha.

Guess that kinda catches us up for now. Until next time.....if there is a next time.

WELL, WELL, WELL

   Yes, folks, after 5 years of hauling water either from town or from the community well, we now have our own well! Whoo hoo! One day out of the blue, I decided enough is enough! Even tho Pa is the one who did the most water hauling, I knew it took a lot out of him and the truck going up and down once or twice a week on our bumpy roads. I did some research and contacted a company in Colorado and asked if they would give us a discount on having a seismic water survey done on our property if I could get 10 other property owners to do a survey at the same time. Louis Day, the owner of the company contacted me and said if we could get 10 people to do the water survey at the same time, he would give us a 30 % discount! Boy, that lit my fire! I contacted every property owner I knew and after 3 months, got firm commitments from 10 property owners. After they made a down payment to Mr. Day, he scheduled 2 weeks to come to our little community to begin the surveys. I had no idea what to expect so told the property owners that it was like an ultra sound to see if their property was pregnant with water. The whole process was pretty interesting.

They look the land over and decide where they think there might possibly be water. They pound a copper clad post into the ground.

 They drill a hole between two copper clad posts about 4 feet deep.

They pour water into the hole.

Hook up wires to their computer

Then they yell "fire in the hole" and shoot off some contraption that has an explosive in it down the hole. The explosion vibrates and some how or other sends seismic readings into their computer. Pretty simple actually. The computer and program is pretty darned expensive tho.
    God really had his hand in all this. I just happened to pick a company that is owned by a God fearing man. He used to be a Baptist minister in Texas. He treated each property like it was his own and would not give up until he found a water source on each property. He usually does up to 12 soundings on 40 acres but if it took more, he did more...no extra charge. He did mine last. I had "witched" our property and found water in three different places close to the house. Mr. Day said he had no faith in witching for water. We gathered together before he got started and prayed that he would find water on our ranch. I told him to start with the places I had already marked. All three places indicated there was water about 350 ft down or less and was flowing at 6 gallons a minute. Nuff said! End of water survey. I told him he didn't need to do any more soundings since my "witching" proved to be accurate. He named each spot "Witchy Woman 1,2 and 3. Hmmm should I hire my self out? Unfortunately, I only knew there was water there and not how far down it was.  It was sad to see Mr. Day and his helper leave after all the properties were  done. We all bonded pretty quick and felt like old friends. We were so impressed with his integrity and work ethic. We had them over for dinner and met them in St Johns for dinner .
      We'd heard good things about a well drilling company located in Snowflake, AZ. called Willis Drilling and Pump so Pa got a hold of them to see what it would cost to drill a well. They sent us a proposal that we liked and we set up a time for them to come out and start drillin'.
     Next thing we knew, there was a huge well drilling truck parked in the yard. This was an awesome piece of work! It could do anything except bake bread. The truck can pick up the pipe, screw it together, drill, unscrew the drill, screw in more and go back to drilling. It was amazing! Darn thing cost 1.1 million dollars. Willis didn't have much faith in the seismic survey since most of the wells they have put in at the ranch are 700 ft deep or more.

Getting ready

 and we're off! I had no idea well drilling was such a messy job. One of our markers was in the middle of the driveway so I'm glad we didn't have them drill there. Lots of sand and clay oozing up.

 The rig is so big, I couldn't get a picture of the entire thing without going into the next county to get a shot.

 The rig is in the air sitting on jacks.

 Messy, messy, messy. It was like glue and of course a couple of dogs walked thru it. Practically had to use a pressure washer to get it out of their fur.

 Casing going down!

 Pa supervising and making sure they do it right.

 Trench from the well to the water tank to put the pipes in. Since we get such freezing temps here, they have to put it deep.

Of course being in the wilderness, you do have challenges. Boy, did those drillers have a challenge. Murphy's Law was in full swing and what could go wrong, did go wrong. What should have been a two day project at most turned out to be a solid two week project. We hit water right at the mark of 330 feet which was what the survey said it would be but they went to 400 feet so we would have a reservoir . After all was said and done, no water would come out.......WHAT?  Yes, there is water there, why the heck isn't it pumping up? Pa and I were sweating bullets because we had the exact amount of money it would take to to put in a 400 foot well. Next! Up comes 400 ft of water pipe and well casing and water pump. The pump is filled with mud. Down goes the drill to drill it out again. Down goes the 400 ft of water pipe and well casing and pump. NO water. Ok, lets try this again tomorrow. Next day, up comes 400 ft of water pipe.....darn it some of the pipe broke coming up the shaft. Replace that and put a larger pump to try that. No luck! Up comes everything again. Down goes the drill to blow the mud out of the well. Up comes mud and rocks breaking two of the solar panels for the well. Tomorrow is another day. Up comes the water pipe, add old 3 gallon per minute pump, down goes everything. No water. Up comes 400 ft of water pipe and the pump. The pump has collapsed! They have never experienced anything like it before. By the time all was said and done and the owners of the company said if the next thing didn't work, they had no idea what to do, we proceeded onward. New parts of water pipe, new casing which had broken being hauled up and down so many times. Back to the 6 gallon pump. They put a special kind of  mud down the shaft to hold back the clay and gunk and let it sit over  night. Then they baled it out and put in all new casing that has slits in it to let the water in. They usually only put in 30 or 40 ft and the rest solid casing. This time they put in 350 ft of the slitted casing and the rest solid. Instead of a 6 ft casing at the top, they put in a steel 8 ft casing. And of course replaced the broken solar panels. Let me tell ya, they didn't make any profit on this well. They didn't charge us any extra for all the added pipe , etc or the 2 extra weeks of work they put in to give us a well. They were bound and determined to get us water! Another showing of God's hand in picking out the right well drillers. I can't even remember the many times they pulled up everything and started over. We highly recommend Willis Pump and Drilling.
    I haven't been blogging because I've put a bunch of blather on Facebook. I'll try to catch you up on the past year or so. Last August, I got a sudden urge to go to the dog pound in Saint Johns. I'd been wanting a German Shepherd to take with me on walks. Even with my gun, I still didn't feel safe. Lo and behold, there he was!
Just waiting for his Mama. All the other dogs were barking , acting like they would tear your arm off and there was this guy acting all cool and laid back. The cop at the pound said someone had dropped him off in the middle of the night and put him in a cage. He had no information on him at all but thought he was about a year old. I did my best to convince Pa that we needed him which the cop thought was quite funny. I prevailed in the end and for the staggering amount of $25.00 I adopted Duke. I named him after John Wayne. He already knew how to sit, stay, lay down, and shake and stay. He was so calm and collected when we brought him home, the other dogs hardly noticed he was here. He gets along with the other dogs, is not the least bit food aggressive and bonded to me like glue. I had no idea how many times I got up in a day to go to another room until he started following me. He even opens the shower door to make sure I'm really in there! He is my constant companion. Unfortunately, Tilly was in heat when he arrived and he was very interested in making German Shepherd-Mini Schnauzer puppies. We didn't know if he got to her or not so we had her spayed just in case.
     We lost our dog Harley this past year. He was having all sorts of medical issues and went down hill fast. He was Steve's pal so we were sad when he passed away. He was such a love bug, we miss him.
   Last years garden was pretty much a bust as usual. All my tomatoes got blossom end rot so I had none to can. Carrots did pretty good and I canned 12 pints of green beans!

My cousin Vern and his wife Carolyn came for an over night visit. I haven't seen him since I was in the 3rd grade or so.

My friend Todd rode his motorcycle all the way from Michigan and spent the night. He was on his way to Vegas.He sent me an e-book so I've been downloading all sorts of books to read. I love it.

I made a huge floor to floor quilt for our bed. Took about 6 months. Unfortunately Pa doesn't like it because it is too heavy so it's not getting used. Might make a nice wedding gift for my grandson who is getting married in November.
Various family members have stopped in for a visit, Steve's daughter, her husband and grandson, my daughter and family. Lots of ranch friends have stopped by while visiting their property. I've  hosted Thanksgiving and Christmas for the past 4 years for the people here who have no kitchen and hosted many dinners for people visiting their property. Never a dull moment . My friend Katie and I took our annual March weekend to Albuquerque to attend a rubber stamp show and shop till we drop.
   My computer got hacked or hijacked and someone was using up our 10 gigs of internet time in 3 days. That was expensive to get fixed.
   I visited my mom last summer and will do the same in Sept or so. I lost 12 pounds! (just by not eating). Pa has lost quite a bit of weight by only eating once a day. He wasn't trying to , just wasn't hungry.
    After 3 years of begging, we finally got chickens! We get 6 eggs a day and pass them around to all our friends. They are part Marana and part Rhode Island Red. They are so pretty and fun to watch.

I've been crafting as usual.

and last but not least, our 5000 gallon metal water tank sprung a leak and started collapsing on itself so Pa had to buy another one and get it installed. It is a plastic 1100 gallon tank which is all we need since we put in the well.

Quite a difference in size! He'll use the welder and tear the old one apart. I want him to cut it in half length wise and use it as a swimming pool!
Ok, that catches us up for now. Hope you haven't fallen asleep reading this massive missive!