Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Future Home Maintenance

Yesterday, I had a dentist appointment.  As I was driving there, I was thinking about the things that I need to do this weekend.  I haven't been out to check on my property for a while.  It is getting hot and I was worried about my last surviving tree, a baby ironwood, that I bought from the electric company along with a mesquite tree (the neighbor's dog chewed the trunk and killed it) and a desert willow that succumbed to the lack of rain last Winter.  Since the dentist office was half way to my property and I knew I would probably get out of there before 4:30, I decided to stop by and see how things were doing without me.

Everything looked just as I left it.  It reminded me of a ghost town.  Everything was covered with dust and weeds.  I watered my ironwood but it looked sad.  I think half of it is dead.  The palo verde tree was flowering and the bees were quite loud as they enjoyed the flowers.  My old Jacuzzi is really gross with around 6 inches of water but the bees were using it as their drinking fountain so I didn't bother them.  Hopefully, the water will dry up soon.  If it is still there when I go back in June I will put some of those mosquito dunks in it to keep the mosquitoes from breeding in there.

Inside, I wandered around and looked at the odds and ends that I left behind.  I thought I should load up my truck but I didn't want to stay very long so I only took one bag.  I always have an overwhelming urge to clean but I had to suppress it because I know everything will be covered in dust once again by the time I come back.  While watering the ironwood, I saw that my Mexican bird of paradise was still alive so I brought 2 gallons for it.  I happened to glance up at my shed.  Do you see how the roof looks bumpy?  Now, that's not normal.


I really didn't want to get on a ladder but I knew that roof would only get worse so up I went with a hammer and nails.


 I really need to clear the area around the shed.  If I had fallen off the ladder I would have landed right on a cactus.  Cactus removal is on my to-do list.  If I had some glue I could have done a better job and glued down the edges but hopefully this will last through the monsoon season of July and August.  It's a really good thing that I didn't buy that big shed that was on clearance last year.  This is exactly the type of maintenance that I want to avoid when I am not living here.

While I was putting bleach in my covered water tank, I noticed that the pipe leading in to the mobile home was leaking.  The sun was going down and I really wanted to go home before I met any rattlesnakes hiding in the weeds so I just turned off the valve on the tank (luckily I installed a shut-off valve when I set this up).  I'm really glad that I went out there and was able to fix the roof and water tank even if they are temporary fixes.  Soon (in 3 or 4 years) I will have time and money to turn this gigantic project in to a livable space.

I did bring back a few useful items like 2 more shade cloths and 2 five gallon buckets so that I can buy the cheaper bulk garden soil and sand for my quail.  It's only $2.50 a bucket and easier to handle that the bags from the store.

Now that I went out there already I don't have to go back this weekend unless I really want to.  I should keep checking on things once a month just in case more problems come up.

2 comments:

Lizzie@her MFW Homeworld said...

I know you are going back tot he desert one day but I have a feeling you might have to just start form scratch as everything is definitely disintegrating I am afraid

Daizy said...

I know! First the garage went away, now I am fighting to keep the mobile and shed from falling to pieces. And even the greenhouse windows got broken last year when something knocked a large pole in to them. Maybe starting from scratch would be better.