January (3)

Today, Monday, we move the Condo to Terry and Monte’s and moved into Mom’s house. We found a 55-gal barrel, filled it from one of the wells, and borrowed a spicket for the barrel from Dutch.

We have running (?) water? Dutch drinks the artesian water, but we can’t handle drinking it. It is quite warm, probably about 95 degrees.
I talked to Larry Turner, a partner in AZ Big Sandy, who owns the land with the wells. I have been corresponding with him for the last several months. I asked him if they had considered whether they would let us hook back up to their well. They had disconnected the water that Mom had when she was alive, because the property had changes hands and they didn’t want there to be any type of water rights with the sale. He said they had discussed it and decided it would be no problem if we would sign a letter stating that it is not permanent and could be disconnected at any time. HURRAY!

Tuesday—we have water to the house and a hose going to Dutch’s. But, for some reason, we can’t get water into the house. Hope we can figure it out, but if we can’t, at least we have it this far. Terry has been working on getting the “RV spaces” cleaned up. He moved Uncle Dan’s little trailer over to my cousin’s 5-acres. Now he is working on getting the old camper and car over there.

It has warmed up to 70 degrees and the lizards are out!

Wednesday we spent all day digging up water lines, unhooking them, and blowing them out. But it paid off and we now have running water in the house.

There is a little roadrunner that hangs out around the place and is getting pretty friendly. This is the first time we have seen a roadrunner. I hope he stays all winter.










It is great to have running water. It is warm, but still a little chilly for a shower, as I found out Thursday morning. Afterwards, Terry lit the propane hot water heater for his shower! I have been going into Wikieup to download Travis’s dictation at Dazzo’s using their wireless internet and then take it home to transcribe. Today it took me about an hour to get the finished dictation into his files and sent to him. During that time, Terry learned how to do laundry at a Laundromat (also at Dazzo’s). I think he will become quite proficient, in time.
We spent all day Friday in Kingman. We got groceries, a new toilet seat for the outhouse, pipe to repair the water line, and a toilet plunger to wash clothes. (I learned from an RV magazine how you can use a 5-gal bucket and a toilet plunger to wash clothes. I remember Mom washing diapers that way many yeas ago.)

We also met with the BLM and ADOT about letting us put a gate in where they fenced off the road we had used to get into the place for fifteen years. They fenced off the road several years ago when they said the gate had been left open too many times and cattle might get out on the State highway. Since then, they have made the highway a two-lane/divided highway and are now saying that the access is unsafe. We have discussed this problem with them for the past two years, and they still say “no.” Finally, BLM said we could use the road if ADOT would give their permission to put a gate in, which they doubted they would do. We went to ADOT and they said they would set up a meeting with all parties and let us know when the meeting will be. We will keep our fingers crossed, but aren’t counting on it happening.

Terry had put up a feeder and a hummingbird came today.