September Birthdays:
Chayce turned 21 this month, wow. We met him and Brandon at the Cheesecake Factory for dinner, cheesebirthday cake and bag-O-gifts. That was about it for his birthday celebration. It is his own fault because he wasn’t in the mood to have a big party. It was nice to spend time together and mark this milestone. We are very proud of him and all he has accomplished in his 21 years.
Kim and the boys threw me a birthday pool party extravaganza, complete with “bag-O-gifts”, Banana Surprise and of course old man decorations. I’ve given up trying to stay young, I’m embracing my old man status. Black knee socks with shorts are coming soon.
Kim and Shelby have had a crazy start to our stay in AZ and I’m afraid I may be living here alone soon. It all started with a night-time encounter with a pack of Javelinas. (Basically a wild pig that can be a bit on the mean side if provoked.) Kim and Shelby went outside to let Shelby do her business before bed and Kim went around the corner in the front of the house and a Javelina was right there on our driveway. The rest of the herd was close by in the road in front of our house.
As if that wasn’t enough, it seams that the Rattle Snakes are in some sort of conspiracy to make Kim think she is being hunted by them. She woke up one morning and was greeted by a very angry Rattler just outside our front door, probably 6-8 feet from the door. After Kim and Shelby safely retreated to the house the snake slithered off to a bush just off our front walk and stayed their out of the sun for the day. In the evening it took off.
The other encounter of significance was the Rattler that decided he was going to come into our backyard for a drink one night. Keep in mind we are supposed to have a snake proof back yard. Given we had no tools to do something about it, we stood there and pondered our options for quite a while. I finally decided to see if using the hose and a strong sprayer would work. Sure enough I was able to use the hose to drive the snake around the back yard and out the gate to the street. I won’t share the details of what came next, but let’s just say, that snake won’t be coming back to our house again.
In total I believe Kim has seen 7 snakes both dead and alive in the month of September. It’s crazy because we talk to people who have lived here for years who rarely see rattlers and never in their yards like we have.
Oh ya, did I mention we have fournd a number of dead scorpions in our pool. Thankfully none in the house and the only ones we have seen so far are dead.
Now on the fun side of animal encounters we have seen Coyotes and we have a Mother Bobcat and her baby that visit us as well as a great horned owl.
Sitting on our fence
Kim and I went to the ASU v. Utah game and enjoyed watching one of my least favorite teams get destroyed. It has been fun watching ASU play this year. I’m hoping to get tickets to the Oregon game which is coming up soon.
The house hunting has been slow, not for lack of trying. Kim spends most of everyday looking for properties online and reviewing recommendations from our realtor followed by visits in the evenings or weekends to look at houses.
We came close and even made an offer on one house, but the buyers didn’t want to negotiate so we took a pass for now. It is still on the market and they have lowered the price a couple of times, so perhaps once they realize they are over priced we will look at it again.
On the one hand we aren’t really in a hurry, but on the other it would be nice to get settled in a place of our own. I’ve decided I’m not a big fan of renting.
Well that’s about all for this month. Have a great October.
1 comment:
It seems like you are living in a rather scary zoo. :) The great horned owl and bobcats are awesome though! I can't believe Chayce is already 21 - we really are getting old.
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