June 1, 2007
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Busy, busy, busy…
Am stealing a few minutes away from the multiple tasks that I should be working on. My time and internet access are *very* limited right now so I better type fast! lol
- Internet access out here has been a joke. Our air card that we brought for backup has developed a very cranky disposition and refused to work as it should making even shipping off of it very difficult. Much less supporting a household of internet addicts. We have a couple of other internet options in the works but because we live in a “rural” area it’s going to take about 10 to 15 days to get them up and running. In the meantime we steal what handful of minutes we can to check e-mails etc.
- Turns out our new back yard is a snake pit. Only slight exaggeration on my part. John caught a four foot long racer and had Steve out there trying to herd up FOUR more.
All of us have seen snakes since we’ve been here. Thus far they have only been of the harmless, non poisonous type just a whole lot of them. John killed the one he caught yesterday so now I have a four foot long snake skin “curing” in the sun on our patio. 
To those of you who know me and my deathly fear of snakes you know that this has NOT been a good discovery at all. Right now I’m terrified to go walking in my own back yard, or venture more than a couple of feet past the back door. We are hoping when we purchase a lawn mower and get the back yard mowed it’ll be a less friendly place for them than the current tall grass.- Snakes are not the only bothersome things in abundance here. We have a plague of ticks. Just walking from the house to the truck on concrete I got one. Jessi weeding the flower bed has gotten seven and Steve and John a handful more. We are going to have to resort to some sort of chemical spray or something just to kill them off enough to be able to go outside. I keep inspecting little Noelle in fear that one is going to get on her even though I haven’t had her outside very much.
- Jessi and I stayed up until three thirty AM this morning painting the downstairs living room a nice sage/smoky/green color. Although we are probably more than a little crazy to do it at this time I wanted to get it done before the rest of our furniture arrives from NM so we don’t have to move it twice. I am in *love* with this color. It’s just gorgeous. Of course, compared to the hideous canary yellow that was there before ANYTHING would be an improvement. We finished painting the guest bedroom downstairs as well. We also picked out paint colors for the upstairs living room/dining room and one of the guest bedrooms. Not sure when we are going to have the time to paint them though.
- Our garage/shop fiasco continues. In spite of the Mayor’s assurances that we had nothing to worry about and that the zoning committee was appointed by him and would do what he asked, and the various other things our request for a “variance” was denied. As far a we are concerned the town is financially liable for everything that has been done until this point. We had the plans approved by the building inspector, he came out and inspected the footings and signed off on them…We have done nothing wrong. Steve got a copy of the actual code today and found a really bad mistake in how the code we are in violation of is written. Although they *meant* for it to say “All out buildings must be built in the back yard blah blah blah” what it ACTUALLY says is that “All out buildings must be build in the front yard as defined by the beginning of the property line at the front of the house all the way to the first corner of the front of the house.” Meaning, every single out building in this town that is BEHIND the houses is technically in violation of the code as it is written. Steve is going to meet with the Mayor and the towns lawyers tomorrow. Please pray that the town will do the right thing and either reimburse us for the thousands of dollars we are out of pocket thus far on this project or allow us to finish the building.
- The “U Pack” moving truck just got here a little while ago so it’s time for me to go help unload and start the nightmare of trying to get this house even semi organized. Will try to post some pictures when we get decent internet again. Noelle is just as cute as ever. We are calling her our “Porta Baby” cuz she’s proving to be so very portable. She goes everywhere we go and hangs out in the most unusual places while we work. Last night for example she was left hanging out on a pillow in the middle of the living room floor while we painted, and later I found her tucked into the corner of the couch like a little puppy while Steve was working. When John is holding her she can be found viewing the world from a second story deck rail or jiggling down the road while he takes her for a walk. Her days and nights are still rather mixed up from the road trip but seem to be slowly improving.
