Puppy and Paint

Well, we did it. We got a dog. She is beautiful and exactly what I wanted. She is a husky/german shepherd mix...her coloring is amazing, blonde and gold fur and gold eyes...she really just looks like a husky, she has all the markings and she does not bark (thank GOD)...but I guess her unusual coloring is the german shepherd part of her. We named her Jenny, she is sweet and loving. She has not figured out the pee and poop outside thing, it is really frustrating for me...I can't handle the indoor messes. So, I am practicing dilligence and patience and taking her outside as often as possible. I need a crate, but I have to get one and I haven't done that yet.



Also, Andy just e-mailed me and said the painter can come out on Saturday. THIS Saturday, as in the day after tomorrow. Aiy yai. That means our new years day will be spent taping up windows and doors and buying paint. Woot! No worries, I'd rather get it done and out of the way. The thing I love about Andy most is that he does not procrastinate...he says he's gonna do something and he does it.



Much to do. Christmas tree goes down today, and life goes back to normal. YAY!

Christmas at The Ranch

I can't move. I'm exhausted.

Christmas was a success here at Di Long Ranch. The boys got a go-cart and a trampoline, we had family over for prime rib dinner and played a little music on the porch while the sun went down. It was fabulous. The day after Christmas I had to make two more cheesecakes (I made 8 cheesecakes to give as gifts to many of our friends) and then we had a gig at one of our favorite venues, "The Gambling Cowboy".

Half way through the show I hit a wall. I made it through the last two hours, but it was not easy. I was exhausted, but the audience was fun and that carried me through. Our friends Tom, Laura, Roger and Kathy came out to support us. We truly have some amazing friends.

Sunday Roger came out and helped Andy put together the trampoline. His son, Joey, brought his pellet gun and shot a jack rabbit on the property...whooo hooo! Go Joey! Our other friend, Tom, brought out some fancy outdoor lighting and installed them for us as a housewarming gift. They are SO GORGEOUS! They are going to match the paint perfectly as well.

Also, while Tom was here, he started bending our ear about our wedding plans. How many people? What time? What's the theme? Who is our photographer? What kind of tables and where will they go? Instantly our minds started swimming in TMI. He offered some great insight, however. The most interesting suggestion was to set up the right lighting, ALL OVER THE PROPERTY. Not only lighting the house, but lighting the driveway and the boulders on the property...it was an EXCELLENT idea. I knew dramatic lighting would improve the curb appeal of Di Long Ranch, but I never thought about lighting the rocks...THAT would be AMAZING! The good news is, lighting is cheap...and TOM LOVES TO INSTALL LIGHTING. Ding ding ding! Winner, winner!

Anyway, now that Christmas is over, and New Years is practically under our belt...we can really start diving into projects. Andy finished the fencing, and painting the house is next on our to-do list.

And So It Begins...

Tomorrow is the first day Andy and I have off together to work on projects around the property...YAY! and YIKES! There is much to do, and the first challenge is knowing where to start.

We want to get a dog, or two...but before we do that, we need to make sure the fence line is secure so the dog(s) will not be tempted to roam off of the property. 3/4 of the perimeter has deer fencing, but the remainder is just barb-wire, a dog could easily slip through it. The previous owners left a roll of deer fencing, so Andy is going to unroll that in the morning and see if he can finish off the property line.

We are also looking forward to painting the house very soon, so we are planning to cover the windows and doorways with paper so we can hopefully have the painters come out next week.

Another interesting project we are considering is building a deck, or wood-plank walkway out from the porch to the steps. There are tons of 4 x 4's left behind from the previous owner, some are 10 feet long and some are 20 feet...so we are going to bring those out and see if we can find a way to build our walkway.

Other projects for this weekend include trimming trees and a general "clean-up" of the property. That should keep us pretty busy.

I took my first walk today, down the driveway and out to the dirt road. It was glorious, exhilerating and a little overwhelming. This land has so much promise, its like a blank canvas...so many things we can do, and quite a few obstacles to overcome. The first real issue we have to tackle is the rabbits. Andy is hoping that getting a dog will solve the problem, but I am not convinced. I hope he is right. We also need to find plants that the rabbits don't like and make good use of those.

I took another picture of the sheep while I was out...

Last week we had a very good rain for several days. This picture was taken outside our front door when the sun broke through the clouds. Andy and I were out of town when the heaviest rain hit. My mom was here with the kids and they locked themselves out of the house. (hahaha) They said the wind was blowing like crazy and the rain was pouring down in buckets. When we got home we saw how the water had washed away some areas around the driveway, so this is another concern we have down the road. You can tell where the previous owner had filled eroded areas with rocks, which is a really good idea. Lord knows we have plenty of ROCK! This week the sun is shining and it is a beautiful, temperate 80 degrees in Winchester, CA. The landscape is covered with a subtle layer of "green". During my walk I could hear cows moo-ing in the distance. I can't believe this is my life. Amazing.

Wabbit Twacks

I have to laugh a little bit. One day, right before escrow closed, Andy and I were walking around the new property and he says, "wow, look at all the peppercorns on the ground!" There is no grass growing here, it is all dirt...a few sage bushes and fruit trees...but no grass and no shrubbery or flowers. Scattered all around the property there are piles of little black (perfectly round) pellets...which Andy mistook for peppercorns. I giggled outloud, "those aren't peppercorns silly, that's rabbit poop!" He looked at me in horror and disbelief..."Nooooooooooooooo!!!" We thought about it for a minute and realized, THAT'S WHY there is nothing growing on the land, not even weeds. Sure enough, the second night after we moved in, Andy's sister opened the front door to venture out to the garage and about 20 sweet little cottontail bunnies scattered in all directions. HOW CUTE, right?

WRONG!

These adorable little furballs are DESTRUCTIVE. They have eaten all of my potted plants, INCLUDING my palm trees. I can't believe it.

We have been searching the internet for solutions. Apparently they make some kind of spray that the rabbits don't like, so we will probably invest in something like that. We are also talking about getting a dog, maybe TWO very soon. I think we have also abandoned the idea of planting any grass...although I have also heard there is a grass out there that bunnies don't eat. Will have to do more investigating on that one.

On to more pleasant subjects...SHEEP!

Check it out! Last week I was driving out our dirt road to run some errands and almost hit a sheep! There is a local herder who contracts out his sheep to "mow" fields of weeds. These sheep are FAT and happy, let me tell you! My kids took a walk down to the field to take some upclose pictures, and witnessed a mama sheep giving birth. They were a little grossed out, but it was definitely an eye opening experience for them. How cool!

So, Andy and I have finally agreed on colors to paint the house. Not that we were DISAGREEING, but my ideas were to keep it simple and he wanted a little more color than I was proposing. We came to a happy agreement. The main color will be a very light peach color, and the trim will be a dark red-brown with accents of dark chocolate brown. I hadn't considered a third trim color, but when I saw the samples together it looked amazing. Let's see if I can type text samples, lol. PEACH, RED-BROWN, DARK CHOCOLATE.

In other news, yesterday we ate our first tangerine off of one of our trees, it was DELICIOUS! Also picked a pomegranite. The previous owners mapped out the different fruit trees for us, and I finally got around to looking at it the other day. WOW! We have different kinds of apples and pear trees, a cherry tree, apricot, pluot, pomegranite, tangerine, lemon and figs. I think it would be cool to also plant a pumpkin patch next year.

So much to do. Glad I finally found my uploader so I can add pictures to my posts!