Pumpkin Patch Ranch

Summer 2009

2010-11-26T14:16:00.014-07:00

Meanwhile, back at the ranch . . .

In July, 2009, with the help of our friends, Richard and Dianna, we installed metal fascia covering on the well house. (As always, I’m using “we” in a very loose sense here. You see who’s doing the work.) We could have painted the beams, but the fascia covers are way more durable and long-lasting on the parts of wood most exposed to wind, rain and storms.

You just slide the covers under the metal trim and nail them down. Richard is a building contractor and recommended this method. He has been a big help and a sounding board for Sam.

For the last couple of years, Richard and Dianna hoped to buy part of our ranch and become our neighbors, but recently their plans may have changed. We would love to have them as neighbors, but we know sometimes things change in life, and we know God is in charge, whatever happens.

A few months later, in September, we spent a weekend painting and closing in the eaves.

We cut long strips of pressboard, which I painted the same color as the fascia coverings.

These were to cover the exposed beams under the eaves. We also installed vents, to allow a little airflow in and out of the building, and Sam used a foam sealer around all the seams and holes.

For the gable ends, we chose a nice bright shade of green. I used to be afraid to use bright colors, but I’m tired of being boring! For now, we’re going to leave the blocks their natural gray color. Having grown up with painted block walls, I know how the paint flakes, chips and fades after a few years. Stucco would be nice, but for a well house, it’s probably not worth the extra effort, time and money.

Our final project that weekend was to evict several families of mice who had taken up residence in the well house over the previous year. We had to drag almost everything stored in the building out onto the dirt driveway – 5 shelf units (4 shelves each) covered with building materials and boxes of stuff, furniture, lawn chairs, just tons of stuff. Much of it had to be vacuumed out and washed of mouse droppings or shredded paper nests. What fun! Sam wanted to kill every mouse he could find, but I voted for letting them run free into the desert to find new homes.

Sam propped the huge water storage tank up on blocks, then washed down the floor with bleach and water, which made the inside smell nice and fresh again. This took most of the day, and we barely got everything cleaned and reinstalled before a late monsoon storm hit.

We spent that night sleeping on our air mattress on the floor of the newly cleaned well house, intending to close off the last few inches of open eaves the following day. At 3 a.m., we woke up to high-pitched squeaks and beady eyes peering at us from the top of the block walls. Sam’s loose translation of mouse-speak was, “Hey, guys, they cleaned the whole condo, it’s time to move back in!” For the next hour, we attempted to get back to sleep, while watching these amazing mice flatten themselves against the block walls and run straight up and down them, no problem. Sam agreed to buy mousetraps at Walmart in the morning, and I no longer had any opposition to that. Around 4 a.m., I mumbled to Sam, “Is that Walmart in Benson open 24 hours?” Within 5 minutes we were on our way, and Sam bought 4 mousetraps, a jar of peanut butter and a box of plastic spoons. (I was asleep in the car). As he paid, the checkout lady looked puzzled at his choice of items. Sam’s southern drawl kicked in, “My bride thought the mice were cute . . . until they came back!”

In the year since, we’ve found only small lizards and harmless grandaddy-long-leg spiders inside the well house, and we can live with those. The lizards eat whatever other bugs may be around.

Back at the ranch, after the storm of the night before, the morning air was clean and beautiful. This is our view looking northwest from the well house.

And this is our view looking northeast, toward the spot where we hope to build our house, just beyond the electric post.

Sam and Jan’s International Vacation – July 2010

2010-08-20T16:01:00.037-07:00

As you can see, we packed light for our international vacation this summer. The first leg of our trip took us to the Atlanta airport, where Sam juggled this nice little piece of luggage.

Next stop was Dublin. What a lot of green! What cute little towns and quaint old buildings! Our plans also included stops in Rome, Athens and Cairo.

More green. Wait a minute. Kudzu? In Ireland? Well, actually we were in Georgia . . . Dublin, Georgia. If we’d made it to Rome, Athens and Cairo, we would still have been in Georgia. Who knew it could be so exciting?

We spent the first week with Sam’s sister Faye, her husband John and son Carl. Faye was celebrating a milestone birthday (which I’m not at liberty to disclose). We forgot our camera, and it took us a week to consistently remember we could use Sam’s Blackberry phone. So . . . no pictures of the beautiful birthday girl!

One of Sam’s old haunts is Fincher’s Barbeque in Macon, GA. On our first visit (of 3), our waitress was Hadley, which prompted speculation on the lack of child labor laws in the South. However, Hadley’s proficient and professional service was a highlight of our meal. We also got to know her dad Jake and grandmother, Mrs. Fincher, current owners of the historic restaurants. Fincher's Barbecue Restaurants

We visited the Museum of Aviation at Robins Air Force Base, where many of Sam’s family have worked since the 1980’s. For years, Sam has kidded me about my job at the county courthouse in Holbrook, AZ, and the fact that it’s now a museum (therefore I must be old). Revenge was sweet when Sam pointed out plane after plane in the air museum, saying “I used to work on this one, and on that one…”.

It’s quite a collection of planes and history.

Our friends, Vic and Bobbie (you'll see them later), took us to Juliette, Georgia, where the movie, “Fried Green Tomatoes” was filmed. We had lunch at the Whistle Stop Café, which looks much the same as in the movie, complete with ceiling fans and no air conditioning. It was 91 degrees inside, faintly cooler than outside, and humid of course. Iced sweet tea never tasted so good.

A few days later, we hit the road! Problem is, what road should we take? Every road has multiple numbers, and the signs never quite matched the numbers on the map.

Somehow we found our way toward the coast and spent an afternoon in Savannah. I’ve long wanted to visit this beautiful city, where the Spanish moss hangs from the trees and historic old buildings have stood for 250 years.

The Savannah Cotton Exchange sits above the Savannah River, among old warehouses turned into shops and restaurants. Cotton was evidently a major factor in the city’s prosperity in the 1800’s.

As we continued down the coast, we got a hankerin’ to see the Atlantic Ocean, so we took a side trip to St. Simons Island. We found more trees draped with Spanish moss, surrounding old and new summer estates. Fortunately, the shores and beaches are public.

The next morning we got out early, to spend the cool part of the day at Okefenokee Swamp. Of course, with humidity of 98 percent and high temperatures of the same, “cool” is relative. But we had a lot of fun touring the park by boat, train and on foot.

Alligators were large and everywhere.

So were spiders. And snakes. All in all, I had a great time on my first visit to a swamp!

A few days later we convinced Vic and Bobbie to join us on another road trip. First stop was Stone Mountain, east of Atlanta. It’s the largest exposed piece of granite in the world. The Confederate Memorial carved on the side is larger than Mount Rushmore and was begun by the same artist.

Our first adventure was a hike to the top, quite an accomplishment in the heat. Our trip back down involved dangling by cables as the gondola dropped over the edge. We rode the train around the bottom, then checked out the park attractions. The 4D movie was great (my first 3D/4D experience). We also tried out a climbing adventure course, ate lunch and wandered the shops.

Next stop was Chattanooga, Tennessee, just over Georgia’s northern border. We spent the morning at picturesque Rock City Gardens, on top of Lookout Mountain. Panoramic views of 7 states, but the trails taking you to the views were my favorite.

The paths wind up and down through massive rock formations, overgrown with native plants, over old stone bridges and through caves. It’s the kind of early 20th century charm that we love.

After a wonderful lunch at Mount Vernon Restaurant (Dennis' cousin’s place) we spent the afternoon and evening in downtown Chattanooga. Utilizing the public art, Vic and Bobbie demonstrated their dating days, when Vic would watch old movies and Bobbie nodded off.

More public art, and a rescue in process. Sam and Vic have known each other since grade school, with the dubious distinction of having been thrown out of the school library every time they were together. Not much has changed. It’s a wonder Bobbie and I didn’t throw them out of the car on this trip.

On the way home, we took back roads through the southern edge of the Smoky Mountains. We ate lunch in Helen, Georgia, overlooking the Chattahoochee River, with streams of tubing tourists floating by. Actually, the young and thin ones float, but the old and chubby ones tend to drag bottom. Within an hour, we figured out which group we were in and decided not to go tubing.

Helen is a cute Bavarian tourist town off the beaten path, and made a fun end to another great vacation!

Dingus Update

2010-06-24T15:18:00.018-07:00

Dingus Magee is growing like a weed. This is what he looked like almost 2 months ago.

Sam took him on his first walk, with a harness and leash. Across the street and back took 10 minutes. Since then, we take him out on the patio once or twice a week, and he’s only escaped the harness once when I didn’t have my eye right on him.

The top of my recliner is his favorite place to sleep, even (or especially) when I’m sitting in it. I feel little paws on the back of my head, and eventually his head will come down over my shoulder and he’ll end up in my lap.

“We” have had to learn that the cursor on the computer screen is not a bug or a toy to play with. Sam is thrilled that, after 3 cats in the past 7 years who ignored the laser pointer, he finally has one who loves to chase the little red light as it scampers around the room. It’s a good way to wear him out! (Dingus, that is. Sam just reclines in his chair and chuckles.)

Of course, some of the best toys are free. He had hours of fun with the paper sack. Pumpkin even played with him for awhile.

Dingus continues to torment Pumpkin, but discipline has slowed him down some. This is how it starts. He just cannot resist Pumpkin’s tail.

Pumpkin tries to warn him and get him to back off.

But things quickly escalate. Sam calls this the "Ninja" move. There’s a short spat, which doesn’t faze Dingus at all, then further rumblings from Pumpkin until Sam or I swat Dingus and say “No”. Fortunately, he’s good at playing by himself, too.

He’s over 4 months old now. The appropriate boy-parts will be removed by the vet next week, so we’re hoping things will calm down after that.

Our beautiful big boy.

Lizards & Things

2010-05-12T15:16:00.009-07:00

As long as we’re talking about animals, I’ll show you some of the reptiles we have seen out at the ranch. Not as cuddly as kittens, but we do like reptiles! Sorry, we’re strange that way. Remember we visited Reptile Gardens in South Dakota last summer!

As I mentioned earlier, Sam was building the block walls in December, 2007. He mixed the mortar by shoveling sand and cement into the wheelbarrow and adding water. One afternoon, a shovel-full of sand landed in the wheelbarrow and continued to wriggle.

This big boy had been hibernating in the sandpile and was sleepy enough that he hung around awhile. Sam later discovered that he’s called a Clark’s Spiny Lizard.

Before returning him to his winter burrow or sand cave, Sam officially and properly recorded his length as 8 or 9 inches.

Off and on during the next year, we would see him (or a relative) roaming the well house walls or scurrying through the weeds.

In August, 2008, Sam renewed his friendship with Mr. Spiny and a distant smaller cousin. Sam swears the big lizard recognized him as a friend!

New Member of the Family

2010-05-08T17:02:00.010-07:00

Sam and I have a new member of the family! His name is Dingus Magee (Dingus for short). He's 12 weeks old, with a lot of playful energy, but he's also a sweetheart.

Everything's a toy to Dingus, and every possible minute is playtime. Feet and ankles are frequently attacked. Fortunately, his birth home taught him the word, "No", and he's also litter box trained!

Pumpkin has been less-than-amused from the start, but Dingus follows her around, attacking and trying to get her to play. Pumpkin is spending a lot of time in places that Dingus can't yet reach, such as the top of the bedroom dresser.

Dingus lies in wait...

But the two are getting along better all the time. We're certain they will be best friends ... once Dingus grows up and settles down a bit. At least Pumpkin is no longer bored!

We hope to post more pictures in the coming weeks.

Roofing the Well House – January 2008

2010-03-15T22:50:00.025-07:00

Here’s my hard worker again! Between Christmas 2007 and New Year’s Day 2008, just a few days after finishing the block walls, Sam was already thinking about the roof. We were still in Dennis & Joni’s trailer at the ranch, and Sam spent some time figuring the best way to build the roof and rafters. We have a couple of books on building: “Independent Builder: Designing & Building A House Your Way”, by Sam Clark, part of The Real Goods solar living books. And “Housebuilding: A Do-It-Yourself Guide” by R.J. Cristoforo, a Popular Science book.

We read the chapters on roofs and roofing and the concepts began to come together in our heads (especially Sam’s). He did some rough sketches, then gave me the dimensions and I did a slightly-less-rough sketch on graph paper. I have learned a bit about drawing plans from my dad, the engineer, who has designed and built quite a few houses and buildings in his life. Actually, he loves to draw plans even more than he likes to build, and often comes up with interesting designs.

Our friend Wayne came out one day (I was at work, and we don’t have photos) and they began cutting wood. They put up the end supports and ridge beam, then started on the rafters, but every one that they cut was wrong. Several frustrating hours later, Sam realized that his ridge beam was 2 x 6”, but the sketch showed a 2 x 8”. The missing 2” brought the pitch of the roof down, so the angle cuts were all off.

He solved the problem by drawing a template on a big piece of particle board and cutting each rafter the same. We ended up with something less than a 4:12 pitch, but it worked great. For many of the rafters, he used reclaimed boards we bought from our friend Dave’s step-dad. They were 2 x 8”, so he ripped (cut off) 2” to make them 2 x 6”. The rafters were attached to the ridge beam and the top plate (on the walls) with metal joist hangers. Sorry, no good pictures of that, either.

On New Year’s Day, I was off work and of course I wanted to help out. Sam gave me the job of mixing up more grout . . .

And pouring it down into the holes that had rebar coming up through the blocks. By the way, you can see the aforementioned ridge beam behind me.

By January 2nd, we had 28 rafters up, 14 on each side, and Sam had rough-framed the door opening.

A few days later, Sam got me started on nailing the particle board to the rafters to make the roof sheathing. It was windy that day, but fortunately, the impending storm never materialized.

Meanwhile, Sam marked and cut the ends of the rafters all the same length.

Now it looks like a real building! The back of the roof (on the right) has a 9” overhang, but we built a 27” overhang on the front, to act as a small porch or protection from raindrops as you open the door. The rafters on the sides hang over about a foot.

On January 12th, our friend Paul came over to help Sam frame the door and balance and hang it. Paul’s an awesome carpenter, and the two guys got that door to where it swings shut with the tip of a finger. Paul and his wife Vicki spend the winters in an RV park in Benson, just 7 or 8 miles from the PPR, but you may also remember them from our photos of South Dakota last summer. They were our tour guides for a day, and we also borrowed Vicki’s motorcycle and sidecar another day. Thanks, guys!

Neither Sam nor I like heights real well, but when you have a roof to build, you just deal with it! The next step was nailing down the tarpaper, which helps make the roof waterproof. Then we nailed a thin metal dripedge around the edges, over the tarpaper. Sam went looking for roofing materials at Benson Lumber, a great small-town hardware and lumber store. We really like metal roofs, so he asked for prices on a metal roof and shingles. A metal roof was $2,000, shingles were $300. Sam knows me well, so he said to the guy, “I’ll talk to my bride, and be back tomorrow to get the shingles!”

We did a lot of measuring to get the rows straight. We used marking string, stretched from one end to the other, which you pop against the tarpaper. The string is covered with red chalky dust and leaves a red line that’s easy to follow. Before we started, Sam shuffled the packs of shingles, so the brown to beige shading was randomly scattered across the roof. I think it turned out real pretty.

Asphalt shingles are nailed down and they also have a strip of tar adhesive across the top that softens in warm weather and adheres to the shingle above. But this was January and months away from warm weather, so Sam’s motto of “be prepared” kicked in. He asked the guys at Benson Lumber for advice, and they recommended painting an extra strip of roofing cement under the edge of each shingle. That’s what I’m doing in the photo above.

Then I handed the shingles to Sam, who nailed them down straight, with the proper spacing and overlap. I can’t remember the exact system, but we also had to cut the shingles to the correct half- or third- sizes when we got to the edges of the roof.

At some point between installation of the particle board and tarpaper, Sam must have nailed the fascia boards in place against the edges of the rafters, because there they are. Along the ridge of the roof, we cut the shingles into thirds and folded them over the ridge and overlapped them, making what’s called a Boston ridge. Believe me, I don’t remember all this stuff – I’m looking it up in the homebuilding books! Later Sam cut plywood to fit on the gable ends and nailed it up, which finished the ends of the building nicely.

Here we are on January 27th, only a month from when we started, and the roof is waterproof and complete. And we’re happy to report that despite 2 years of frequent strong winds and thunderous rain storms, that beautiful little roof has not budged an inch!

We're Only 2 Years Behind - PPR, Fall 2007

2010-02-28T17:15:00.022-07:00

Hello, friends & family! Not much going on out at the Pumpkin Patch Ranch lately. Our jobs keep us so busy, we haven’t been able to work on it much. Every once in awhile, I get motivated to catch up on blog entries, but once I do, you won’t hear from us very often. Of course, you don’t hear from us now, so . . .

Last summer we shared our vacation pictures with you all; that was fun. Before that, we left off with the beginning of the well house, pouring the concrete slab and starting the block walls during the summer of 2007.

Sam worked with our friend Mike doing concrete curbing that summer and fall, but we spent some of our weeks and weekends at the ranch.

By mid October, Sam had built the block walls halfway up to their eventual height of 80 inches, 10 courses of block. In the beginning, it seemed like every block had to be lifted and placed 2 or 3 times, to get it level and straight. He got better and better as the walls went up, but at 32 lbs. a block, he still figures he lifted thousands of pounds of block that year!

In early December, my (Jan’s) parents camped out at the PPR for a week, and my dad helped Sam build.

Pa and Ma brought their little home-built camper, “La Tortuga” (Spanish for “turtle”), which draws a crowd wherever it goes. It’s 12 feet long, 6 feet wide and tongue-in-groove cedar on the outside. Inside, it has a little kitchen area, tiny sink, a sofa that pulls out into a bed, and everything else they need for camping.

Pa helped Sam build the corner leads for the 2nd half of the wall height.

Sam (and occasionally I) were staying in Dennis & Joni’s trailer again. They’re our good friends from church, who live just a few miles from the ranch on the other side of the freeway. We also dragged Super Dave’s utility trailer out there, with scaffolding for Sam to use as the walls got higher.

By mid December, the walls were 9 courses high and the mornings getting colder.

Frost on the blocks! Frost on the Pumpkin . . . Patch Ranch. You have to understand, this is Arizona and we get excited about things like that. The PPR gets snow every winter!

The rust-colored pipe beside Sam’s right foot is our water well. Not much to look at for $16,000! It included the wiring box right behind it. The small tank to the left is our water pressure tank, which Sam set up and installed plumbing from the well to the tank, and electrical wiring from . . . our electric connection. I have no idea how he did this. Even though I was right there and handed him tools and stuff! This pressure tank will eventually be moved inside the well house. Sam also installed the electric meter box that you can see behind and above the pressure tank. That’s where we plug in power tools and lights and anything else that needs electricity. Like the travel trailer. Sam did the electrical and plumbing months before. The plumbing includes a hose connection with a “Y”, so we can attach the water hose from the trailer and the yellow garden hose. Isn’t he smart? He thought of everything.

We filled the corners with grout, a concrete concoction that drops down the centers of the block, hardens and strengthens the whole wall. I think we actually grouted the first 5 rows before starting on the top half, and did every section that had rebar coming up through, which was every 2 feet or so along the length of the walls.

The last thing Sam did as the cells filled up with grout was to install a “J-bolt” that stuck out the top. The “J” part went down in the concrete, and a wooden block with a hole in the middle held it in place, with a washer and nut holding it at the right height. A few weeks later, after the grout cured (dried), he added a wooden top-plate, held in place by these J-bolts.

The dark spots you see down the blocks are the moisture in the grout seeping out of the blocks. And the homes in the distance are our nearest neighbors. We love having 12 and a half acres.

Christmas Eve, 2007, the walls are done!

And here’s my muscle-man who built it all.

Our Summer Vacation, Part 2 - We Just Wanna Have Fun

2009-07-07T06:23:00.040-07:00

After our big adventure atop Mt. Rushmore, we hooked up with Paul & Vicki, friends from Pantano Christian Church Motorcycle Life Group, who happen to be work-camping for the summer just 8 or 10 miles away. They took us on a road trip through the Black Hills, with our first stop being . . .

Sturgis! Since we didn’t bring our motorcycle, everyone piled into our rental car. Sturgis was a neat little town, but Sam and I are glad we missed the big motorcycle rally in August. We aren’t fond of masses of people or crazy bikers. But I did get the t-shirt!

Up the road, we saw the Roo Ranch (sorry, Roo, we didn’t go in).

In Belle Fourche, SD, we found the “Geographic Center of the Nation”.

Then Sam learned the actual spot is 20 miles further on a gravel road, in the middle of a field. They just put the marker in town. But we came close! We ate lunch in Deadwood, drove down beautiful Spearfish Canyon, and had a great time with our friends.

Paul & Vicki’s campground, Spokane Creek Resort, is on narrow, winding Iron Mountain Road. Hairpin curves, pigtail bridges and granite tunnels framing views of Mt. Rushmore make it one of the most scenic roads in the Black Hills.

Just 16 or 17 miles from Rushmore is Crazy Horse Memorial, a fascinating place.

It’s a big chunk of mountain and is going to take forever to finish carving. Built entirely with private donations, it’s been 55 years in the making so far.

Another day we visited Reptile Gardens, one of many roadside attractions between Mt. Rushmore and Rapid City.

Loved the atrium and a chance to hold a snake!

Wherever we go, Sam finds beautiful flowers to shoot with the macro setting on our little camera.

There was an alligator show . . .

And a baby alligator, with his mouth taped safely shut.

Weren’t these guys in “The Jungle Book”?

I think this beautiful Anaconda was the biggest snake, but Sam spotted the most poisonous. Called a Taipan from Australia, the venom from one bite is powerful enough to kill 150 people! Fortunately, they were all behind glass. The people and the snakes. Click here for more reptiles! Reptile Gardens.

This giant tortoise, aptly named Methuselah, was celebrating his 128th birthday. I rather liked the other big guy in the picture.

We popped in to see the prairie dog town . . .

Where Sam waited patiently to capture a ferocious brawl between two rival rodents.

Our favorite show featured birds of prey, which swooped over our heads flying from one handler to another.

The bald eagle was especially popular.

But this guy had the most visitors – hold out a folded dollar bill and he takes it from your hand in a flash and stuffs it in the donation box.

Another favorite vacation pastime involves food. Sam found the Piece of Cake Bakery & Café in Rapid City and consumed this peanut butter concoction in honor of his friend, Johnny, whose favorite saying is “piece-a-cake”.

Not to be outdone, my birthday dessert was a chocolate buffalo, which we admired then quickly devoured.

We soon found ourselves in need of a diet.

But found that a different perspective works just as well!

A few more vacation photos coming next week . . .

Our Summer Vacation 2009

2009-07-01T21:07:00.028-07:00

A couple weeks ago we went on a week-long vacation to Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills in South Dakota. Wow, what a beautiful area of the country! A few months ago, we had the good fortune to get to know Nick & Carolyn Clifford, who live at our RV resort, Far Horizons, in the winter and Rapid City, SD during the summer. They peaked our interest in Mount Rushmore, with Nick’s stories of working as a winchman and driller on the famous faces in 1938-1940, beginning when he was 17. He even wrote a book about it! Mount Rushmore Q&A. Nick is the last surviving workman from the project.

Carolyn and Nick graciously offered to let us stay in Nick’s childhood home in nearby Keystone. It’s a beautiful little house, built in 1895 and restored in 1996. When we arrived, Nick was still working in the gift shop at Mt. Rushmore, answering visitors’ questions and selling his book. Carolyn showed us around the house and announced a change in plans. A park ranger friend of theirs was taking family to the top of Mt. Rushmore, and agreed to take us along!

We met at 7 a.m. the next morning at the memorial. What a sight!

The forested hills include ponderosa pines not unlike our southern Arizona mountains, though South Dakota has gotten a lot more rain this year. We followed the ranger along the walkway to a secret trail(!) up the mountain.

And what a climb it was. Scrambling over rocks, trying to keep our footing while gazing upward at the faces growing bigger and bigger.

Lots of breaks to catch our breath and look down on the visitor center and amphitheater.

Then countless steps ending at the Hall of Records.

We climbed past remnants of the 16 years of drilling during the 1920’s and ‘30’s.

And finally made it to the top.

Oohs and aahs as we looked down on the faces of Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. Teddy Roosevelt is set back between the two.

The rounded hump on the right is George Washington’s head! Also a great place to rest, as Sam discovered.

Then everyone pulled out their cell phones and called friends & family! Above all, we were excited to be there, but it’s also one of the few places in the Black Hills where you can get cell signal.

Much too soon, the ranger herded us down the mountain and back to reality. But what a privilege to have been there. We will cherish the memories of that day.

More of our vacation photos coming soon!

Monsoon Season in Southern Arizona

2009-04-08T18:20:00.028-07:00

The next few months of 2007, Sam was laying block almost from dawn till dusk. On weekends I came out to help. Mornings were sunny and hot, but after lunch Sam started watching the skies. July and August are “monsoon season” in Southern Arizona. Don’t laugh – it really rains!

Big white puffy clouds built up over the mountains, turning into steel gray skies by mid-afternoon. The wind started to blow, bringing rain clouds up from the Gulf of California. In the distance, about a mile east of the PPR is Mescal Studios, also called “Old Tucson East”. Built as an old western town, there have been numerous movies, TV shows and commercials filmed there, including Young Guns (1980’s) and Tombstone (1993). A friend of ours saw Dirty Dingus Magee (1970) and said there’s a scene that looks like it was filmed right on the PPR! A few years ago, we drove over to the town, but have never taken the tour, which is only available on certain days of the week. http://www.oldtucson.com/films-producers-directors/locations/

Back at the PPR, the wall of rain came closer and closer. Sam hurried to use up the last of his mortar and lay a few more blocks. As the first few drops spattered the ground, he rushed to cover up the cement and tools and jump into the car.

Many afternoons, the rain came down so hard it made little rivers in the desert sand.

Wind shook the car, driving the rain sideways across the landscape. Monsoon storms are spectacular in Arizona. We never stayed at the PPR after dark that summer, but storms in Tucson often include lightning flashing clear across the sky.

Within a few weeks of pouring the concrete slab, we ordered a 1,600 gallon water tank – on the internet! Coordinating its delivery was challenging, but Sam always figures out the best way to get things done. The semi truck was directed to the Ranch, Etc. store out by the freeway. It’s owned by our neighbors, Mike & Ginger, and Sam met the driver there to lead him to the PPR. It was also Sam who realized we had to get the tank into the well house before the walls got too high! The green behemoth is for water storage and will eventually serve all 3 parcels of land and the homes to be built on them.

The summer rains bring out a myriad of bugs and other creatures. Every year we see hundreds of millipedes all over the ranch, including a few that were almost 8” long.

One afternoon following the rainstorm, Sam and I took a stroll down our driveway and across the ranch. This tiny creature caught our eye as it scurried along on the ground. It’s a red velvet mite, less than 1/4” long.

Kind of cute if you don’t look too close, and it’s harmless.

This red velvet ant looks similar, but is red and black and runs a lot faster. Harder to get a good picture.

Over the next few months, Sam found other interesting bugs. This one is called a “walking stick”. If you get too close, he bounces his body back and forth to look like a branch blowing in the breeze!

These big grasshoppers were 2” long, and I loved the colors.

Then there was this guy, digging a burrow in our sand pile. God sure taught him how to move that sand – he’s a little bulldozer!

We encountered another interesting bug that summer, but we don’t have a photo, and I’m not sure how to tell the story…

You see, we have water and electricity at the ranch, but no “facilities” unless we borrow an RV for a week or two, and the nearest public restrooms are almost 5 miles away. Awhile ago, Sam spotted someone throwing away a kitchen chair that was missing one leg, and his handy folding stool needed a new top, so he cut out a piece the right size. He then wondered what to do with the rest of the chair. One rainy afternoon at the ranch, he gathered odds & ends of small lumber and built a frame, then sanded the inside edges of the hole, hammered a tent stake into the side, and voila, we had an “outhouse”. He took it down the hill among the trees so it’s out of sight of the neighbors. We keep a shovel nearby, and every so often we dig a new hole and move the chair.

Now, the bug I mentioned was the dung beetle, and we found that this outhouse area attracted quite a few. I won’t go into detail for fear of embarrassing ourselves, but it’s an amazing little bug that’s evidently created to clean up whatever we might leave around!

Our next creature-related post will feature the reptile population of Pumpkin Patch Ranch. Sam loves to photograph whatever creatures God provides!

Block Laying 101 - July 5, 2007

2009-02-24T22:10:00.019-07:00

During late June and early July, Sam came out to the ranch several times to check on the new concrete slab. He braved the heat and dirt roads on the Gold Wing he bought about 2 years before. I love that bike!

How come Sam never has "helmet-head"? In September, 2006, we rode all the way to Seattle and back, pulling this little cargo trailer that Sam bought and restored and good friend Randy painted to match. The trailer hauled our tent and camping equipment, and we had a blast. We did learn that 3,400 miles in 2 weeks on a motorcycle does not make for a leisurely trip! If we had a month or two, we’d do it again in a heartbeat.

Anyhow, we had decided to build the well house out of concrete block, and based on Sam’s specifications I drew up a simple plan. Sam calculated how many block we would need. He called around and found good prices at Central Arizona Block, so we went by their yard near Kolb and Valencia. It was fun walking around looking at all the different kinds and colors of blocks and pavers and bricks. We were looking for standard 8x8x16 inch block, but a guy on a forklift suggested we look at a huge pile of 6x8x16 block. It was on sale because it was left over from building a school in Yuma, and would save us several hundred dollars. Sold! By then, the sun was blazing down, so we retreated to the air conditioned office to arrange for delivery the following week.

Our first choice would have been brown or tan block like our neighbors’ new house you see in the distance on the left, but that would have cost us 2 or 3 times as much. And after all, it’s only a well house, and we could paint or stucco later.

On July 5, 2007, we drove out to the ranch early and stared at the jumble of supplies and equipment, wondering what to do first. Sam asked me to begin laying the block in place around the perimeter of the slab, with 3/8 inch between each block for mortar. I liked that idea – I didn’t know what I was doing and the visual aids helped a lot. Notice that each block has a groove down the middle of one side, making one block look like two 8x8” blocks. We put the grooved side out and thought it would look kind of cool and better than standard block.

In the meantime, Sam marked the middle of every 4th or 5th block cavity, especially around the corners, and drilled holes down into in the concrete. Then we placed a length of steel rebar into each hole and set it with strong concrete epoxy. We could have placed the rebar in the concrete as it was being poured, but being novices, we weren’t sure we could handle that step with the precision needed. Turns out, had we done it then, the rebar wouldn’t have been in the middle of the block since we ended up with 6" wide block instead of 8".

Our friend Don showed up early, too. Don’s the same friend who showed Sam how to set up batter boards for the slab a few weeks earlier. Don and his wife Linda have remodeled several homes, inside and out, and have done a beautiful job. Don brought his saw and cut a groove down the middle of our nice smooth slab. This is a trick so that if the concrete cracks, it’s likely to crack along the groove where it won’t cause problems or be seen.

I forgot to mention that before it got cluttered up, we measured the slab from corner to corner, to see how square it turned out. As you can imagine, starting with a square foundation makes a big difference in building. If the sides aren’t the right length and the corners aren’t square, you fight to get it straight all the way up through the roof. Sam was thrilled when we discovered we were within 1/4 inch of being square.

Years ago, before Don joined the Air Force (where he and Sam became friends), he worked as a brick-layer, or did he call himself a mason? Oh, Sam says he was a "mortar-forker"! He volunteered to show us (i.e., Sam) how to lay block. Have I mentioned what a good friend Don is? The first step is getting the mortar (or "mud") the right consistency. They mixed sand, concrete and water by hand. (See the rebar coming up out of the block behind Sam?)

An important step is making sure the blocks are the right distance apart. In the coming months, we learned that if you set the blocks too far apart, by the end of the row, you only have room for a sliver of mud, and you start to wonder how strong the wall will be when someone leans on it! This only happened once or twice, and only when I did the measuring. Do you notice the strange little smidge of something between the first and second blocks? We’ll talk about that in a minute.

Another important step is making sure the block is straight and level, both horizontally and vertically. When you’re laying the wall 8” at a time, you can imagine how quickly you can wind up with a wall leaning in or out or crooked all the way down. So you use a level and lay it on every conceivable surface, then tap, tap, tap the block while the mud is still wet, until you get it all straight.

This is our "smidge". When we began to stack the second layer of blocks to see how they worked, we discovered another reason these blocks were on sale. This is going to be hard to explain without a drawing, but I’m sure you’ll get it. See, the strongest way to lay block is to overlap each layer so that the middle of the block in the second layer is on top of the seam (or joint) between the blocks in the layer below. You start it in the corner, as shown in the photo above where they’re using the measuring tape. See how the closest block (going to the left) forms the corner? Well, on the next row above, the block going to the right will form the corner and overlap the block below. The problem is, these blocks are only 6” wide, remember? When you overlap them at the corner, you need 8” of overlap, because they’re 16” long. Sam and Don quickly realized their problem, but were initially stymied for the solution. Then Sam spotted some extra red pavers we brought out to use as a base for the pressure tank. They were the perfect width to fill in the 2" needed, and the same height as the grey block. The guys cut them down to 6" and voilá, a “smidge” was born. We liked the cut edge that shows the aggregate, so we put that part to the outside. It looks like we planned it as a special architectural detail, doesn’t it?

This is called a corner lead and it’s a simple, old fashioned way to build with block. Don taught us how to do it, of course. This completed corner lead is 5 blocks high in a kind of pyramid, with 5 full blocks on the bottom row, 4 on the second, 3 on the third, on up to one block on the top row. When set up right, you can run a string and lay all the blocks in the row from this. But that’s for another blog entry. Do you like my pink hardhat? Sam couldn’t resist getting it for me at Ace Hardware.

Don also taught us how to use the builders level, which is the tripod thing off to the left. It’s a great way to make sure all 4 corners are the same height. We rented a builders level 3 or 4 times, for my dad to survey the property when we first bought it, and for several other things that I can’t remember now. Finally we realized that $28 a day was adding up, and we could buy one for around $300 and would definitely need it many times as we build the house.

This is the corner lead near the door opening. The guys had to cut several gray block in half to make the straight edge all the way up for the door. After Don left, Sam and I were able to finish the rest of the corner leads by the end of the day. The completed walls will be 10 blocks high, or 80”, which is 6 ft. 8 in. A good height for a little well house, don’t you think?

Slab Prep & Pour (Part 4 of 4) - June 14, 2007

2009-02-07T16:08:00.017-07:00

Hello again, PPR fans. Our apologies for being so lax (or lazy?) in sharing our adventures out on our ranch. Life is always busy, isn’t it?

Sam left off last year with his account of our "all-nighter" in preparation for the delivery of cement for the floor of the well house. The cement truck showed up right on time on a sunny day, June 14, 2007. I waited by the road so he wouldn’t miss the driveway, and got a free ride in the truck the quarter of a mile up the hill.

When the driver saw all the steel rebar and mesh that Sam had carefully placed and tied in, he grinned and asked, “What are you building, a skyscraper?” That was Sam’s second confirmation that he was building it strong and right.

As the concrete poured down the chute, our good friends jumped right into the fray. Bill, in the green shirt, has poured many slabs while building houses for the poor in Mexico, so he was in charge. Jeff (in the middle), Dave and Mike, along with Sam (on the right here) were the crew.

In the middle of June in southern Arizona, concrete dries quickly. If it dries too quickly, it cracks, so they had to keep moving to get it done right.

Once the concrete was in the forms, they tamped it down so it was roughly level…

Then started smoothing it to a final finish. Sam worked one end. He's a quick study.

Bill worked the other end. With all his concrete experience, doesn't it look like he's flying?

I stayed out of the way and took pictures. I was in a daze, since I hadn’t slept in 28 hours. As the temperature climbed towards 100, Sam and I were both moving a little slowly.

Meanwhile, Dave had brought his dad’s old transit and offered to survey the boundary lines of the parcels we were hoping to sell.

Jeff held the tall stick at the other end. I placed little yellow flags along the boundary lines. These guys all have a lot of talent and experience in building houses, and we are blessed that they were willing to help us out that day. The ranch is pretty far out of town, and it was a big commitment. After the guys left, Sam made sure the slab was watered down, then he and I got some sleep.

We stayed a few more days in Dennis and Joni’s trailer, and I drove back and forth to Tucson for work. One morning I must not have been fully awake when I left at 7 a.m. I drove right over the drain hose! Sam claims I thought it was a snake and tried to kill it. It's actually the hose to drain off the sink and shower water into the desert.

During that week, Sam hosed the slab down several times a day so it wouldn’t crack while the concrete was curing. When we moved back into town, he rigged up an ingenious lawn sprinkler system with a timer and the slab stayed cool until we were sure it was cured. Isn't it pretty and smooth?

Slab Prep and Pour (Part 3 of 4) - June 13, 2007

2008-03-16T18:50:00.007-07:00

It is Wednesday morning, June 13th, and Miss Jan's birthday. I fixed her a nice breakfast, gave her a card (surprise flowers came later at the office), and sent her off to work. Once again it was me and the shovel. I was in a time crunch for getting the site prepped because my slab pour had been moved up by one day. I also had to find a new crew for the pour because the guys I had gathered for Saturday have regular jobs during the week. I called a couple of guys (retired or self employed) from my Serve-and-Be-Served group at church and soon had a new crew. I was getting ready to excavate the 10" deep footer around the edge of the slab when Kevin called and told me he could get the cement, for a better price, but only on Thursday. Double YIKES! I quickly called my new pour crew. What a blessing these guys are. Without hesitation, they all said no problem.

Now I've lost two days of prep time, a big deal with my tendency to be slow. Those who know me best will confirm my Indian name, "Dances with Tree Sloths". I called Miss Jan to tell her our plight. When she got home at 6 p.m., I still had to dig about half the footer and lay in rebar and steel mesh, all before ten o'clock the next morning. Miss Jan changed into work clothes and jumped right in beside me. I swung the pick to bust up the dirt (which was slightly softer than rock) and Miss Jan cleared it out. Soon we were working by flood light. I told Miss Jan to go to bed, as I was going to have to pull an all-nighter. She said we were in this together, and we pressed on.

Finally the digging was done. I asked Miss Jan if she wanted to use an oxy-acetelene torch and bend some rebar for the corners. Her response was, "Really? You’d let me do that?" I grabbed a concrete paver to use as a 90 degree jig (I like tight tolerances). I showed Miss Jan how to light the torch and adjust the mixture, then how to heat and bend the rebar and quench with water. I watched her do the second one. This lady is a quick study and a wonderful blessing in my life.

Knowing she could handle it, I began laying out the steel. As you can see, we put in plenty of rebar. We worked all night, and dawn began to illuminate the eastern sky. By 9:00am our crew began arriving. At 9:30, we were still tying steel mesh.

Talk about overkill! Bill, having many years of experience with concrete, was tapped to be project lead. I asked if he thought we were ready, and he just looked around in silence, then said...."You learned this from Wayne, didn't you?" Bill, myself and many others helped Wayne build a guest house last year, and Wayne and I share a preference for overbuilding rather than just doing the minimum. With Bill's comment, I knew Miss Jan and I had done a good job! Site prep was finished with fifteen minutes to spare. The concrete truck showed up right on time at 10:00am.

Slab Prep and Pour (Part 2 of 4) - June 12, 2007

2008-03-16T18:43:00.001-07:00

On Tuesday morning, I began excavating for the four inch deep, 13'4" by 17'4" slab. Mid-morning, I called the cement company to schedule the delivery of five yards of cement on Saturday morning. Imagine my surprise when they said they were closed on Saturday. YIKES! I had called a week earlier and was told they deliver on Saturdays. I now learned they're open three Saturdays a month and closed one - June 16th, formerly my slab pour day.

Then I remembered that our neighbors Kevin and Amber just poured a slab for their new house. I called Kevin and found out he's a plant manager for the local Cemex company. He said they were closed on Saturday, but he could probably get me a Friday pour. With that problem solved, I got back to shoveling. We were approaching the summer solstice, so the days are really long, affording me the maximum amount of shovel time.

Slab Prep and Pour (Part 1 of 4) - June 11, 2007

2008-03-16T18:25:00.007-07:00

With the hottest part of summer approaching, we were anxious to pour a concrete slab and start lifting heavy blocks. Nothing is quite as satisfying as spending your days in the sun flirting with heat stroke.

Miss Jan and I borrowed a camper from our friends Dennis and Joni, who live south of the PPR on the other side of the interstate. They even hauled it over and helped us set it up. On Monday, our friend Don came out to set up batter boards and give me pointers on pouring a good slab.

I soon realized that the batter boards surrounded a large pile of dirt which could only be moved with a wheel barrow and shovel. Fortunately it was early June and all danger of frost bite was gone. My major challenge was keeping sunscreen on my skin while I pumped every drop of liquid consumed out through my pores. When Miss Jan arrived after work, she helped me set up form boards. We worked well into the night to make them secure and square.

Wiring the well June 3rd 2007

2008-01-06T17:07:00.000-07:00

I took a temporary job that our friend Ross offered me doing some field work for a mining operation. Ross is a Mining Engineer and needed someone in Winnemucca, Nevada. The job lasted eight weeks. For those of you who do not know where Winnemucca is, it is just east of the middle of no where. After wrapping up that job and working a couple months with another friend, Mike, doing concrete curbing and grinding, it was time to put in more time at the PPR. Working part-time affords me time for projects on the Ranch. Our next big project is building a well house to hold our water storage tank and the presssure tanks that will supply water to each of the three houses when the PPR is sectioned off into three parcels. Before starting the well house, we needed to get the well wired up to electric. I began by making a trip to Benson Lumber to gather materials. Having never done this before, I had lots of questions. With all the materials on hand, Jan and I headed out to the PPR. We started by digging trenches and installing conduit. Next we pulled wire from the meter box to the well control box. Just for the purpose of testing the well, we did not hook up the pressure tank at this time. We left the 1 1/4" PVC pipe open so we could flush the well lines with the first water. I had Jan double-check my connections and we were ready to throw the breaker and see if we did it right. With a quick flip of the wrist followed by a rapid removal of the hand from the circuit breaker (electricity makes me a little jumpy), we heard silence. For about ten seconds we stared anxiously at the end of the pipe. It seemed like an eternity and I had apprehensively begun to reach for the breaker to turn it off when all of the sudden we heard a sound. The check valve we had installed in the pipe began to make a low vibrating buzzing sound. Pressure was building in the line. We stood out of the way, not knowing how forceful the water would exit. With the passing of a few more seconds, we knew. We looked on excitedly as a stream of crystal clear water exited from the pipe and landed on the dry earth about two feet away. As the water flushed the lines, it felt cold and inviting on this hot summer day. Next we had to hook up the pressure tank and flush it by filling and draining it five times according to the manufacturers instructions. With the flush complete, we hooked up our garden hose and prepared to taste our water for the very first time. We flushed the hose for several seconds and I told Miss Jan to see what she thought. She drank several swallows and said it tasted great! She then passed the hose to me and I tasted the water. I had to agree it tasted great! With another little project complete we bowed our heads and prayed, thanking God for giving us a little piece of this earth to call our own and for the cool clear water we just enjoyed.

Electric and telephone service come to the PPR January 2007

2008-01-06T15:34:00.000-07:00

With the big dig and drilling the well behind us, it is now time to wrap up the electric and phone line installation. Our electric service is provided by Sulpher Springs Valley Electric Co-op and I asked them about ten-thousand questions and they answered every one of them. I really enjoyed working with them. The crew came out and began assembling and dropping conduit into the trenches. They installed two switches at this time too. When the crew prepared to set the transfor-mers, we found that we did not prep the areas correctly. The electric crew had another job that had a start date coming up soon and they said we had to prep the transformer pad areas properly and they would be back after the next job was through. They were gone a little over a week and when they came back Jan and I had prepared three pristine transformer pads. Also

during this time, Qwest had their contractors come out and lay in the conduit for the telephone lines as we back filled over the electric conduit. Our neighbor Brian, who partnered with us for the electric install, brought down his tractor to fill in the trenches when everything was finished. This was a large time-consuming task, but we are sure there will be other tasks that make this one pale by comparison.

Goodbye to Sylvie December 31st 2007

2007-12-31T18:49:00.001-07:00

Miss Jan and I had to say goodbye to our very special kitty today. Our cat Sylvie was hit by a car this afternoon. When Miss Jan came home from work, Sylvie called out from under our steps to let her know she was hurt. Miss Jan took her to the vet and when they x-rayed her, they found that her pelvis had been crushed. I drove in from the PPR. When I arrived at the vets, Miss Jan and I said our goodbyes to Sylvie and then the Doctor made her go to sleep. Her loss makes a big hole in our little family, and in our hearts. Private funeral services will be held at the PPR on January 1st 2008.

(Click on picture below to see animated GIF)

20,000 leagues under the desert

2007-11-27T19:37:00.000-07:00

January, 2007, Sam camped out on the PPR. While waiting for the electric company to install the conduit wire and transformers, we called Titan Drilling and asked John to come and drill our well. We had consulted with John about water prior to buying the land, and kept in touch with him throughout the year. With our drilling permit in hand, John brought his rig out, and he and his assistant spent 2 days drilling and installing the casing and pipe. They struck water at 280 feet, but continued to a final depth of 350 feet to ensure our well would supply water during the occasional dry spell. The final step was the installation of a pump on the 3rd day, making this the quickest and most costly project at the PPR so far. It has also been one of our greatest pleasures. Our water is pure, plentiful and tastes great! In the desert or anywhere, that's something to thank God for!

Drilling the well (no sound)

Water at the PPR (no sound)

The Big Dig

2007-08-21T19:32:00.000-07:00

In late November 2006, the company Sam worked for closed its doors. After much discussion and prayer, we decided that instead of looking for a full-time job, Sam would use his time and skills to put in the utilities on the ranch. He phoned and emailed, networked and web-surfed, and quickly learned what would be involved. In early December he spent a day calculating where to put the electric lines and meter pedestal. Our good neighbors, Brian & Gina, offered to share the costs. At 6 a.m. on December 28, Sam and our good friend, Al, met the backhoe delivery truck at the PPR.

Al volunteered months before to do the digging, and had no idea what he was in for! It began to snow at 6 a.m. and didn't stop till 4 p.m. Even with freezing temperatures and poor visibility, Al and Sam dug 600 feet that first day, 52" deep by 24" wide.

"Cowboy" Al became one with that backhoe, and admitted he even dozed off a couple of times while operating it! He was a real trooper. Sam and I were in charge of the measuring stick, caution tape, rebar & rebar caps, and marking the route with a transit and white paint. Wayne & Lorrie came out to help on the weekends. A tire repair and changing the teeth on the backhoe bucket took a day or two, but 9 days later we had 1,800 feet of trenches ready for electric and phone lines. Sam and I camped out in Don & Linda's motorhome for most of January to keep an eye on the open trenches. I learned that my commute to work is just under an hour, mostly on the freeway, and it's beautiful at sunrise!

Eight feet of snow!

2007-07-28T14:54:00.000-07:00

Over almost two years of owning our little ranch, we have found that the weather is quite different than Tucson. The biggest factor is the elevation. Tucson is roughly 2600 feet above sea level. The ranch is just a smidge over 4100 feet. The evenings cool down quite a bit, even in the summer. And it snows in the winter time!

Mid-March 2006 brought quite a severe late season blizzard to the area. We had heard of the snow on the evening weather, but had no idea of the magnitude. The day after the blizzard, we thought the roads might be clear, so we ventured out after church to see if the storm had left devastation in its path like the snows up north. To our delight, we found that the PPR had not been damaged. We were shocked though to see that the snow was nearly eight feet. You heard it right, EIGHT FEET! Having never seen so much snow, we had to measure it and take pictures for posterity. As you marvel at the snow fall, just bear in mind that if you plan on travelling to the PPR during the winter months, you definitely want snow chains in the trunk and a cold weather survival kit.

You can imagine our embarassment when we learned that snow is not measured in linear feet. Oh well......it did snow.

Big Sister’s request

2007-07-23T19:48:00.000-07:00

My (Sam’s) big sister requested sunsets and flowers, so here they are. After purchasing the land and camping a few times, we really did nothing more until late 2006.
Many times during this period we walked the land, took pictures and thought about where to build our home. We are amazed at the number of plants and cactus that we never notice until the rains come and trigger a bounty of blooms in colors you wouldn’t expect in this land of muted browns and greens. We don’t know what most of them are, but we enjoy them just the same.

Another wonderful by-product of the monsoon season are the incredible sunsets and sunrises. I always take the time to enjoy them.

I believe in God and I view each sunset as a work of art, painted especially for us by our creator. This thought always calms me and helps me remember what's important in life.

A little work before the purchase

2007-07-18T15:55:00.000-07:00

Because we live in the desert where there is a whole bunch of rock and very hard earth, we decided to invest a little money to have a perc test done before we signed the papers. On September 3rd 2005 we hired a backhoe operator and a septic engineer to do a percolation test. This test ensures that you can effectively install a septic system and have the leach field drain properly. Little did we know the test has to be done near where you are building the house. We quickly decided on a proposed building site and the test began. All went well. We also called a well driller out to the property and asked his opinion as to whether or not there was water. Having drilled many wells in the area, he confidently said "pick where you want your well and I will get you water". These were just a couple of peace-of-mind items that we wanted to check on before we signed on the dotted line.

Our first morning as land owners

2007-07-18T15:41:00.000-07:00

Jan and I closed on our land September 16th 2005. After the closing, we headed out to our new "ranch" for a night of camping. The land we found is 12.4 acres and is about 40 miles east of Tucson. We noticed after our first sunset that evening that Tucson has so many lights, it looks like the sun never really goes down to the west, but remains a faint glow below the horizon. Fortunately this does not spoil what seems like trillions of stars above in the night sky. After a good night's rest, we awoke to a magnificent sunrise and Jan walked around the land and took a few photos. Here is one looking northeast across our ranch. This will give you a little idea why we chose this land.

A little bit about us

2007-07-18T15:25:00.000-07:00

Hello to all who stop in to see our blog. We are Sam and Jan Ingram.

The story related to this blog actually started sometime in the middle of 2005 when we started looking for a piece of land to buy. We drove many miles and rocky roads and looked at many parcels before we finally found one we liked and could afford. We hope you enjoy our blog as we share our endeavor to build our dream home.