Nothing Makes You Feel as Good as Puppies

Mothers are the most patient creatures in the world, regardless of species.

If puppies don’t make you smile, you just ain’t right.

On the way back from Austin, I passed by my neighbor Donny’s place. Since he was outside, I dropped in to say, “Hey!”

He has a new bunch of bloodhound puppies. Nothing can raise your spirits like puppies.

Villa Park Update

The panoramic feature of the iPhone makes for some interesting distortions. I would love it if Villa Park B were really curved.

Rain, rain, go away

Come again some other day

The rain has finally let up enough to allow work to resume on Villa Park B. The problem was the trenches for the new foundation. They filled with water, and we had to wait for it to drain.

There was also a concern that the ground would be soft enough to cause the entire unit, which is supported on temporary footings and walls, to fall. It didn’t.

• Every day construction is delayed costs me tons of money.
• Taxes continue to accrue.
• The mortgage has to be paid.
• Financing costs for the renovation mount.

All that while neither unit is bringing in any income. I can’t rent the main house while the back unit is in such a precarious stage of renovation. #FirstWorldProblems.

At least, we’re making a little progress now.

 

Greenness

The field where we planted the house and garage is very green from all the rain. Photo by: Suna

I can now say officially this is the wettest March since I’ve been keeping records here at the Hermits’ Rest ranch. We got almost seven inches of rain this month. That’s pretty close to the amount of rain we got during all of 2012.

The upside to all the rain is how green everything is this Spring—the grass, the trees, the weeds. The peach trees I planted last fall look like they’re going to bear fruit this year. I don’t know if it will be edible, at least not by humans.

The downside is that the ground is very soft, and I can’t convince Ruben to park his truck and his trailer on the driveway. You can see his trailer in the photo.

It’s Not a Parking Lot

Now if I can just convince Ruben to park on the driveway instead of in the middle of the yard. Photo by: Suna

Well dark clouds are rollin’ in

Man, I’m standin’ out in the rain

—Larry Davis and Joseph Scott

Well, there’s more rain in the forecast…actually in the front yard. This will play billy hell with construction.

Rain

The sun is visible through the clouds above the ranch house Photo by: Sue Ann

I wanna know

Have you ever seen the rain?

—John Fogerty

I think I can say the drought is breaking, if it hasn’t already broken. So far, we’ve had the wettest January and March since I’ve been keeping records at the Hermits’ Rest.

You can see the effects in the greening of the weeds around the house. They are growing in where construction has disturbed the ground for the last couple of years.

Speaking of construction, I’ve also laid some PVC pipe to carry rainwater away from the house. After a failed attempt to use chains I could buy locally, I ordered some decorative rain chains from Amazon. Let’s see how they work.

Ranch House Update

We have air conditioning vents and drywall! Notice the concrete-based product around the fireplace.

It’s been a busy week at the Hermits’ Rest. Ruben’s crews have been working hard on the ranch house.

Felix and his guys ran the HVAC vents (plana? plenums?). Once the house is ready, we’ll have AC. Luckily, the weather has been fairly temperate and the insulation is keeping the house comfortable.

I’m not sure who the drywall installers were, but I’m not nearly as happy with them. I found were they would cut a 2’x3’ section out of a virgin sheet of material and trash the rest of it. That when there was already a 3’x4’ piece on the scrap pile.

Because they didn’t have to pay for the material, they had no incentive to conserve it and no penalty for waste—or so they thought. I’ve told Ruben I’m going to withhold $500 from what we agreed on because of the amount of waste. He said he’d beat them up about it.

That’s a lesson for anyone dealing with contractors. Make sure you have penalties for waste, as well as for timeliness and quality, in your contract.

The Snicker Test

I can’t tell if this is brilliant marketing or if it fails the snicker test. Both?

What was I thinking?

What was I blind?

When I bought this outfit I must have been

Temporarily out of my mind

—Christine Lavin

My work friend, Jonathan Edwards, says every company needs a 14-year-old boy on staff to test their product and marketing ideas. If the boy can’t make an innuendo, it’s not a bad idea. (Yes, the double-negative is intentional.)

I stopped at Buc-cee’s to refuel on the way to look at an apartment community today and found this product. My first reaction was, “WTF! What were they thinking?” I even heard Four Bitchin’ Babes start singing in my head.

My second thought was that Jonathan is right.