It has been a little while since I have updated. Basically two week(ends) of trips to account for. Last weekend was Memorial Day weekend, a nice 3 day weekend. We had a great visitor for the weekend, my daughter Katherine came up from Phoenix to hang at Rebel Ranch and check out all the things we have done. It really was good times.
Sheralee and I drove up Friday after work and arrived about 8pm. We got to see some deer, Sheralee’s first sightings I believe. First a group of three (pictured) and then another group of three closer to our property.
And no, since some of you will say it….these are not the eatin’ kind. As long as Costco still operates, these guys are safe with us. ha. Saturday morning we got up and FINALLY, just ask Sheralee, took the top off the Jeep. I think we have had it almost two years and this is the first time off.
We went and picked up Katherine a little bit later in the morning, ‘cool wind in our hair’…that kind of thing. Like a terrible father….I didn’t really get any pictures of the three of us. I seem to take pictures of deer and Jeeps, but can’t seem to remember to grab one of us enjoying our time on the ranch. doh! I did get this dark grainy shot at night Sunday. hahahaha
Next time for sure! On Sunday we jumped in the jeep and drove North to the end of Ranch Rd. on Westwood Ranch. It was some good times, and I do believe we found the ‘end’ of the road. Just more desert/trees everywhere. ha.
Katherine decided to head back to the valley Monday morning. After dropping her off and watching her go, we headed back up to the property to get a little work in. We are in the process of changing our driveway, and one of starting points was first laying out the driveway, but then removing an old fallen tree and a Juniper.
The last picture is right as we were heading out. It is going to be a great driveway, and eventually divide our living property with our pasture area.
That brings us to this weekend. Yup, we escaped the 110 degree heat of Vegas, for the 100 degree heat of N. Arizona…whoa. It was warm up there. We did a couple of really cool things, in our minds. First, since it was going to be summer shower days again, Sheralee had a great idea to move our outdoor shower to a new location, which complete makes sense. In the future we will have a guest cabin just north of our home, and that is were the outdoor Loo is, so why not situate the new shower (spa) near there, and that is what she did.
Once we settled on a new location, she attacked the limb clearing with gusto. She created a new path and new shower basin. The basin is the same as before, a pallet with some fake green grass, but it is surrounded by large rocks and then a whole is dug underneath, filled with smaller rocks, for drainage.
You can see from the pictures above, she then had to hall of that white rock, and pavers, up to our new shower location. It really started to take shape.
Not that easy to see with the tree shadows, but our pallet is in there, with our fake grass, the white rock and pavers, and our ‘spa’ chair. Trust me, that outdoor shower is the best thing ever…especially on these hot summer days. Nothing is better than a real shower after working all day in the dirt.
The week prior we decided, “why not use the water we have in our tank?”. I mean we had close to 700 gallons sitting there, and more rain to come this year, why not use it instead of lose it….so that is what we did. I had PEX coming from the current tank, after re-doing the valve and insulation…http://rebelranch.us/first-really-nice-weekend-21316. I added a hose spigot to the cut end so we could connect a hose and draw water from our tank.
We pumped that water up to our 65 gallon tank that we use to shower with. Worked awesome and so nice to have all that water! The 50′ hose goes from our tank to our shower for a nice warm/cool shower. ahhhhhhh
Sunday morning, Sheralee fortified our shower, adding in a wall of trees for future use, amongst company. ha. While she worked away at that, I finally tackled a project that I have had to do for a while. Finish the bathroom vent conduit to the outside.
The vent has been installed and working for a while, but the air goes nowhere. So, it was time to add the ducting to the outside.
Now we have a functional bathroom vent. woohoo! It works great! We will be heading up again this coming weekend, if nothing more just to take an awesome shower. ahhhhhhhhh
Until next time.