A Brief Return to Arizona: Part 1

My husband, Doug, and I have been living in northern Michigan for almost 2 years and I had not been back to AZ to visit my kids and the grands in all that time. I spent a total of 5 days and had a wonderful time. The weather could not have been much better with clear skies, cool temps and brilliant sun. We hadn't seen much sun all winter in MI and so that golden globe was greatly appreciated. 

On Friday night immediately after my 3 hour late arrival into Sky Harbor I rented a car and drove to my youngest son/family in Chandler. Mark took all of us out for dinner.

Andrew, my 11 year old grandson being goofy. LOL!!! :D

Daughter-in-law, Cindy and my 14 year old granddaughter, Taylor looking lovely.

My youngest son, Mark. Guess where Andrew got his goofiness from?

Part 2 - Renaissance Festival.

A Small Tornado has Inhabited Our Home

Meet Oliver Twist Barnes, the newest member of the Barnes household. Oliver was born on March 23, 2012, is now just over 4 months old, and as of August 9, 2012, weighed 5 lbs 13 oz.  We adopted him on July 24, 2012.

Oliver had been fostered in a good home through AC PAW, a shelter in Antrim County. I found him at PetSmart where he was being housed in the Kitty Complex. He made it known in no uncertain terms that he wanted out - NOW! Of course, I complied and here he is. He and Daisy often share this "blankie". Daisy is a good caregiver.

Daisy, Oliver, and Ayla are all napping together.  Then there is Molly, napping at the same time as the others but chose to be a couch potato.

We had planned on calling Oliver Ollie. However, every time we called Ollie Molly came running. We soon learned that we were either going to have to change Oliver's name or call him "Oliver".  We did consider calling him Mr. T (Trouble) but didn't want to give him a complex. :D  

When Oliver is up and moving he is nothing short of a bolt of greased lightning.  Oliver gets along well with all but Ayla who, after our loss of Emily, thought she was going to be an only kitty child. She hisses, growls and swats at Oliver but does nothing to try and hurt him. In turn, Oliver acts the part of a typical little brother as he teases and provokes her. 

I'm Back and Trying to Play Catch-Up

I can't believe I haven't updated this blog since November. I am going to try and give a quick, brief summary of the main things that have happened since my last post.


The fence and 3 gates for the enclosed dog area are now complete. Doug spent many hours/days working in cold wet weather to finish this project before the ground froze.  My contribution was to hold the poles straight while Doug filled the holes with concrete. 

This is the back deck. All 3 decks are now finished with railings and stairs.  The fence is finished and it looks wonderful. 

The doggy door is in so our "girls" are able to go out and/or come in whenever they need to or want to.  This is nice for all of us as we don't have to worry about hurrying home to let them out nor do we have to get up in the middle of the night to let them out.

The snows came and Doug got to use his "new-to-him" used and rebuilt by him snowblower.

The decks are all finished including railings and stairs.  Notice the beautiful orb (below) that showed up in this picture.

 Matt, our contractor, neighbor, egg man, and snow removal person is plowing his way through a 30" snowfall so that we can get out if we need to.

Ahhh!!!! Spring. At the first sign of this new and lovely season Doug built our permanent clothesline.  There is just nothing like the crisp feel and wonderful odor of clothes dried outdoors in the fresh air and sunshine.

And along with spring, increased warmth (a little), and greatly increased light our greenhouse went to work to provide us with salad greens to eat  right now and seedlings to plant in our new raised beds built by my own personal engineer/master builder . . . Doug :D

Doug also repurposed some pallets into this compost bin. He plans on building 2 more.

Here Doug is working on one of the raised beds with plans to build a total of 6 this year. More will be added next year.

In the greenhouse where it is warm and sunny I am trying to transplant seedlings into these seedling trays which Doug also built from pallets.  No, I am not trying to grow more kitties although that's not a bad idea. Kitties are like potato chips - you can't have just one. :D

Ayla didn't like the potting soil and so I was able to plant both trays.

This is the temporary tree nursery. Every year the Grand Traverse Conservation District has a seedling sale of native trees. I bought 5 each: elderberry, black walnut, ash, white oak, sugar maple.  We weren't ready to plant them in a permanent location and so I planted them in rows in a block out back.  Hopefully these babies will be alright during this cold weather.

This is the original #1 compost bin. It is a year old and should be ready to use. It is quite wet right now and I haven't been able to get in there and turn it to see what is going on.

Seven cubic yards of 6 year old, very well rotted horse manure just delivered last night.  Compost bin #2 is in the background and is about 1/3 full.

Doug built the permanent asparagus bed made using "Urbanite" - broken pieces of concrete.  There is nothing in it yet except the soil for the asparagus. I am waiting for the live starts to be delivered any day.

There is an amazing amount of work to be done outdoors. Thank goodness spring brings with it longer hours of daylight. Now if we could also get a little more warmth it would be perfect. Our highs are in the 40s with lows in the mid-20s, too cold to plant anything outdoors but at least we can get everything ready. 

A Few "Finishes"

We had a busy Friday and Saturday as many things were wrapped up.


Friday, November 4, 2011.  After weeks of trying to do this ourselves we finally decided to call in the "pros". It took Rod and Terry Morris less than two days and the greenhouse is finished - YAY!!!!

Siding will now be finished on this part of the house.

I held my breath.  WHEW!   Terry did not fall through the glass. 

The metal pole is part of a thermostatically controlled system to open the vents in the "roof" of the greenhouse. 

 Brothers, Rod and Terry Morris, the greenhouse "pros".

The Morris brothers travel the country putting up Florian greenhouses.

Just as the greenhouse was being finished and Rod and Terry were packing up their truck for a long drive back home to IN the new owner of our Airstream showed up. It just so happens that the Airstream is also going to IN behind this white truck. Adios to our home of 7 months; it served us well.

On Saturday our contractor, Matt Kroll, showed up and finished the hole in the wall which is our lovely completed laundry chute.

Down the rabbit hole?   No, just down our laundry chute.

Now tell me, have you ever seen a more attractive laundry chute? :D

With the greenhouse complete  it was time to move my Rosemary trio out to the greenhouse where they are now in residence.  These three were much smaller as they traveled with me on the front floor (passenger side, of course :) of the Jeep as I drove them from AZ to MI seven months ago.  They have weathered many changes in climate and temperature and are healthy, happy and growing like "weeds" :D.

The Greenhouse

We gave up trying to put up the greenhouse by ourselves. Rod and Terry, in the photos below, are sub contractors for Florian Greenhouse, the company that built our greenhouse, and THEY KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING!  :D   Doug spent a couple of hair-pulling weeks trying to figure this out and finally called Florian for help. It just so happened these two were in southern MI putting up a greenhouse for someone else. Fortunately they were able to come up here and do ours. They started this morning and will be finished with it tomorrow. YAY!!!!!!  :D

Rod, Terry, and their work truck arrived while it was still dark this morning.

Doug (next to the Jeep) pulled our trailer into place loaded with all the greenhouse parts.

Doug and Matt (our contractor) had gotten this far with the framing. Now it's up to Rod and Terry to finish the job.

Framing is finished - glass is going on.  Thank goodness for a beautiful, sunny day after a week of rain.

Close to being finished.


Stay tuned for the finished product. :D

Moving In

On Thursday, October 20, 2011 we received a temporary certificate of occupancy which means we can legally move in and live in the house while the remainder of the work to complete the house for a permanent certificate is being done.  Those items include completing the solid maple staircase, building the greenhouse, decks, some of the knobs on interior doors and some trim.  There is also a tiny bit of electrical and plumbing to be completed by the subs. We also need to install our closet organizers as we have lots of closet space and no shelves in any of them. We have begun the closet project which is going to take more time and more $ than we expected.  I also must go through the entire house and touch-up paint everywhere the walls need some extra work.

First fire in our Vermont Castings "Intrepid"

Garage with its new "apron" (cement pad)

Doug is preparing to add the stone work to the lower portion - below the siding.

Our new kitchen :D. Sliding door to the right will go to the greenhouse.

Lazy Susan in the corner - I wonder how it ever got that name?

There must be a way to rotate this but there is no button marked "Rotate"?  Kitchen sink with view over adjacent field.

Master bedroom: slider will open onto a future deck, bifold doors = closet,  door at right enters into bathroom.

Standing at top of stairs looking down to the Entry. The white door leads to the garage. Bifold doors are closets.

Lower level bathroom + laundry

"The Big Maple" behind our house has lost most of its leaves in preparation for the coming winter.

South - our closest neighbor has horses. Trailer belongs to contractor. Future pond will go where the trailer is.

Doug is setting up a workspace to build the greenhouse.

Greenhouse will go here.

Our yard on east side of house. Hay field is beyond the trees and adjacent to our land on the east.

Hayfield - the dogs love to play here.

More of the hayfield.

Looking at the house from the hayfield.

The Girls: Molly (black) and Daisy (brown) enjoying their time in the hay field. The trees/woods behind our house are on our land. Trees to the right mark the boundary between our land and hay field.  The owners of this field gave us permission to let the girls play here.