What A Week!

Greetings! It seems like forever since we've been online. Actually, it's been MORE than a week. That's practically an eternity to someone who practically lives online.

I am actually typing this blog post in our straw house. If it made it onto the blog, it's because I was able to get online at a little tiny library in Rimrock, Arizona. I will take a photo of this pipsqueak facility and post it later. The library is in a room that's shared with a Kiwanis Club used clothing operation. There are clothes strewn everywhere! What a strange juxtaposition. However, internet access is internet access and we take what we can get. Honestly, though, in our 10+ years of finding and using little nooks and crannies that provide internet access, this is easily the strangest of them all!

We arrived here in the Verde Valley at 10:30 am a week ago today. What a wild week it has been. Truly amazing. We set up "shop" in our straw house with the vandalized broken windows and did a lot of quick work last Saturday to make a marginally acceptable place to spend the night.

Sunday was a lazy day and we left a little after one pm to go to Brad, Kate & Joshua's for a fabulous dinner. When we returned about 5 pm, more broken glass was strewn everywhere. The vandal(s) had returned Sunday afternoon and threw another rock through an already broken window! I'd estimate the glass dispersal covered about 150 square feet. They really gave that stone a heave.

The 2nd vandalism really changed our attitude about this place. We decided to sell it and get the heck outta here! Monday we took off for Cottonwood and brought home a truck load of various lumber and electrical stuff. Then we busily boarded up the remaining windows AND the gables. This make the house pitch black dark inside. Luckily, we were able to bring electricity--yes, REAL grid power--into the house so that we weren't walking around in the dark.
Late that afternoon, we picked up a trailer and prepared to head out early Tuesday AM.

We left shortly after 6:30 am and arrived at the hogans about 10 am that morning. we spent the next few hours packing up our stuff that was dropped off there in early 2006. We left a little before 1 pm and arrived back at the straw house a little after 4 pm. The total RT mileage was 390 miles. Tuesday evening we hurriedly set up the dining table and chairs and collapsed to sleep after dinner.
Wednesday morning, a prospective buyer for the house showed up at 8 am and we reached a tentative deal on price, down pymt. and terms. The buyer returned about 11 am and we finalized additional details. Then we hurriedly took off for Cottonwood again to open an escrow acct. at the title company. Lo and behold, Arizona law had changed since early 2006 and we realized we faced a HUGE, major stumbling block to the potential sale of the place. We returned to the Straw house totally dejected and depressed.

Thursday morning, we took off again at 7:30 to get to Cottonwood as early as possible to go to the Yavapai COunty offices to try to determine how we might salvage the prospective sale.

Once we received the paperwork from the county, we realized there was absolutely no way to proceed with the escrow process and subsequent sale.

We then decided once again to keep the house and "make the best of it." We spent nearly 5 hours in Cottonwood, returning in the early afternoon. We busied ourselves with various pressing chores for the remainder of the day. While running an errand we noticed that the truck had sprung a leak of coolant. We took it to Pat's repair shop and he pronounced that it was a bad water pump.
Luckily, Pat could schedule us the next morning. We delivered the truck there at 9 am and picked it up about 2 pm. For a mere $200, it is good as new again. Pat's repair shop is one of the things we miss when we are not here in Arizona. What an awesome community service he runs with his shop. Of course, his rates aren't cheap, by any means, but you simply can't find that level of service in very many other places.

Friday was a very long day of chores and tasks. We rehabilitated the broken ramada, repaired a shed roof, and built a great fire ring. We gathered all of the stuff left by the former buyer's sister-in-law. She and the buyer's wife came buy in the morning to take away most of their stuff. It brought some closure to the process we are going through here.

Meanwhile, we've cleaned and organized all three sheds and are quite happy with them.

Susun put a four pound pork roast in the crock pot we brought back from the hogans. It was so tender for dinner, you could cut it with your fork. We are eating quite well here!

We had a ceremonial first fire Friday night and each made a speech about how we need to heal the negative energy that has built up in the neighborhood since our departure. We need to bring back some very positive energy to this place and restore its balance once again. Luckily, we met two very positive-minded new neighbors and that level of positive energy will help us synergize our own energies as well. While some of the Old Timers here have taken a negative path, we refuse to walk that route. We wish them well on their journey and carry only fond memories of their once awesome positive energy.

The prospective buyer of the place is, of course, very bummed out that he won't be able to buy the place. However, on the other hand, it's time for us to put some heart back into this place and bring it back to the golden glow it once enjoyed. The past 3.5 years since we sold it have been very tough on the place. It shows and we can feel it. Little by little we feel we have already made a difference in the place. It feels much better than it did a week ago when we arrived.

We are confident that our positive energy will continue to work its magic on the house, the land, the neighborhood and even some of our crotchity neighbors. There is much to be thankful about and blessings abound. There are some awesome new opportunities for positive growth here and we are confident that we will very quickly vanquish those vestiges of negativity that we have encountered during this long and turbulent week nehind us.

Today, we finally plan to get to go hiking--a circumnavigation of that time-honored, popular walk about the Bell Rock and Cathedral Rock vortexes. There truly is healing power in the Red Rocks. We've been nurtured by it in the past and we look forward to a warm dose of their positive energy during the remainder of our visit here.

It's been trying to rain yesterday and this morning. So far, it's been a slight sprinkle that's not quite enough to settle the dust. However, everyone says it's the first "rain" in months. Maybe it's Nature's way of helping us wash away some of the energues of the past.
We'll take whatever help we can get!

We aren't certain when our next foray online will be. Clearly, it's going to be "hit & miss" as to getting online. We hope that the twitter updates have been helpful for our friends and family. Yes, they are sometimes cryptic and a tad clipped but that is unavoidable under the circumstances and especially considering Twitter's 140 character limits. It's the best we can do with what we have.

Thank you for reading. Thank you for caring. Please beam some positive energy and maybe even a few prayers our way. We need and will use all the help we can get here. THANK YOU!