Easing into the homestead
Jul. 5th, 2013 07:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lady_kishiriaI've had a whole week to start adjusting to Arizona. I was called on Tuesday to tell me I was needed at administrative separation boards starting Thursday, which meant 3 days back at Los Alamitos. Great...they went okay, but I was still pretty resentful. I stayed at the billeting, which was very quiet and comfortable and the boards went easily enough.
From there I drove home to help Steve pack up the truck and trailer and drive out to Arizona. This trip went far less painfully than we feared. Even at a sedate pace we made it to the hacienda by 2300, getting to bed at a decent hour.
I leave on Sunday morning. So far this trip:
I painted my study dark green. Steve had done two and a half walls before the paint sprayer gave up the ghost, and said it was up to me to finish. So I have. I need to touch up the white paint now and get a pseudo Persian rug. I have film to put over the windows which will make them looked like a stained glass window of flowers. With my dark brown bookshelves and rolltop desk, it should make a good Victorian adventurer's den.
Steve had a job interview, and is going to a second interview. While we were downtown, we drove to Davis-Montham Air Force Base to check out the BX. We didn't get to the commissary. In the lobby of the BX was a woman selling Celtic-themed tiles of various sizes, and it many of them were pagan. I got two tiles for us; one with a mjollnir and one with the golden boar Gullinbursti on it. I got a third with a Bridget's cross on it for our kittysitter, Dreya.
We had a wonderful July 4th with the neighbours. Bob and Julie provided the tri-tip, Jake and Sarah brought beer, Marilyn brought a German potato salad. Steve and I had corn and fireworks. We cooked up a great feast, after which Dawn made ice cream using a non-dairy creamer in the flavour "Sweet Cream". The ice cream worked out marvellously. She made it in chocolate and strawberry, with the strawberry coming out almost more like a sherbet.
I've given the saloon a good cleaning and need to get acrylic paints to touch up the Arizona flag painted on the front of the bar. We had to retire the flags flying over the saloon; they were in horrible shape. Replacements have been ordered.
Tomorrow Steve suggested us going to a pistol match, so I'm going to ask him if we can have breakfast out beforehand. There are a lot of good restaurants in the Tucson area; we won't lack for those!
It's monsoon season, which means it's only in the 80s right now, and feels cool after 113 degrees.
From there I drove home to help Steve pack up the truck and trailer and drive out to Arizona. This trip went far less painfully than we feared. Even at a sedate pace we made it to the hacienda by 2300, getting to bed at a decent hour.
I leave on Sunday morning. So far this trip:
I painted my study dark green. Steve had done two and a half walls before the paint sprayer gave up the ghost, and said it was up to me to finish. So I have. I need to touch up the white paint now and get a pseudo Persian rug. I have film to put over the windows which will make them looked like a stained glass window of flowers. With my dark brown bookshelves and rolltop desk, it should make a good Victorian adventurer's den.
Steve had a job interview, and is going to a second interview. While we were downtown, we drove to Davis-Montham Air Force Base to check out the BX. We didn't get to the commissary. In the lobby of the BX was a woman selling Celtic-themed tiles of various sizes, and it many of them were pagan. I got two tiles for us; one with a mjollnir and one with the golden boar Gullinbursti on it. I got a third with a Bridget's cross on it for our kittysitter, Dreya.
We had a wonderful July 4th with the neighbours. Bob and Julie provided the tri-tip, Jake and Sarah brought beer, Marilyn brought a German potato salad. Steve and I had corn and fireworks. We cooked up a great feast, after which Dawn made ice cream using a non-dairy creamer in the flavour "Sweet Cream". The ice cream worked out marvellously. She made it in chocolate and strawberry, with the strawberry coming out almost more like a sherbet.
I've given the saloon a good cleaning and need to get acrylic paints to touch up the Arizona flag painted on the front of the bar. We had to retire the flags flying over the saloon; they were in horrible shape. Replacements have been ordered.
Tomorrow Steve suggested us going to a pistol match, so I'm going to ask him if we can have breakfast out beforehand. There are a lot of good restaurants in the Tucson area; we won't lack for those!
It's monsoon season, which means it's only in the 80s right now, and feels cool after 113 degrees.
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no subject
Date: 2013-07-06 04:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-06 02:14 pm (UTC)Any luck getting the smoke smell out? We were looking at a place that reeked, and since I'm so damn allergic, knowing how to get rid of it would be a good thing to know.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-06 09:50 pm (UTC)mop, and clean as much as you can with a good soap ... i like murphy's oil for wood, and etc
then rinse with a bucket of water that you have squeezed a lemon into, and grated the peel into (you get lemon oil in it also that way)
Zeolite ( a odor absorbant mineral) and borax are both really good to absorb the stuff.... i have scrubbed borax into everything damp, let it dry, and then brushed it off... it is a bit harsh on wood, so follow up with a good oil soap.
the stuff they sell to clean wall paper? feels sort of like play dough? there are recipes to make it online.. it works on smoke. handle it ONLY with gloves because once it gets contaminated it gets bad. replace often and throw away.
obviously fabreze, open windows, etc help some...
oddly UV light helps , it wont clean it but it breaks down some of the volitl stuff...
no subject
Date: 2013-07-06 11:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-10 12:10 am (UTC)Zeolite (a rock like stuff) does good for that....it absorbs stuff. just remember to throw it out after...
no subject
Date: 2013-07-06 09:45 pm (UTC)uh....
so... how close to Tuscon is this anyway... maybe i can visit you IN MID WINTER... or something...
its hot here in philadelphia. 90 something but the humidity is sky high