Joining us today from dusty Phoenix, AZ, is Penny Estelle (the one on the right). Welcome Penny Estelle, and welcome readers who are following the City Girl's Trip Down Reality Lane. Here is part 3 and the end of City Girl’s Trip Down Reality
Lane (Or Livin' The Dream).
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Jim finally moved out of the
mouse-infested trailer and in to a completely enclosed block, rectangular
structure with a camp stove and a small gas fridge. Life was better than good as far as my hubby
was concerned. He was in construction
Heaven!
Plumbing, wiring, insulation, and
framing the rooms would be our next step.
One weekend I came up and Jim had drawn lines on the cement floor showing where all the rooms, closets and appliances
would be placed. Let the arguments
begin! I tried to be reasonable, “This
is not big enough, that cannot go there, and the size of this closet is a
joke. Compromises were made and redrawn
lines and notes were final, until they needed to be changed again, and
again!
I figured
now was the time to call and find out about getting our electricity set
up. As the crow flies, our property lay
1.5 miles from the nearest point of electricity. Imagine my surprise when the local utility
company quotes a charge of over $85,000 to bring electricity to our property
line. Once I got myself up off the floor
and my vision cleared, panic quickly set in.
Between feeling faint and blowing into a paper bag, I told my husband
what I had learned.
“I kind of
figured that would be the case,” he explained calmly. “We are going to have to go with solar and
wind generators.” He continued to talk
for several minutes, but I had quite listening.
What? Solar? Generators?
I needed to blow dry my hair!
Jim set up an “off the grid”
electric system that produced enough energy to make me, I mean us, happy. At this point, our system is complete with a 900-watt solar panel, a 2500-watt
inverter, a load controller and two air-x, 400-watt windmills, enough for 24/7
power. Things were good when Big Bertha became a member of our
family. I love Big Bertha! She is a Chinese diesel generator and she
will run any and all of my everyday needs, such as blow dryers, curling irons, an
evaporative cooler and a wall AC unit.
Have I mentioned I love her?
While Jim
continued on the insides of the house I started on the horrific job of
stuccoing. I’m not sure how many
weekends I poured stucco in a 5 gallon bucket, mixed it with water and then
trawled it onto the blocks. When I say
stuccoing is one “sucky” job – it’s an understatement. By the time I was done I had no fingernails
and I had the hands of a 200-year-old lady!
Painting
was next – which was a piece of cake compared to stucco! When I finally washed out that brush for the
last time it was a feeling of euphoria! What we had was a 1000 square foot rectangle with a kitchen,
bathroom and great room. We sat down and
patted ourselves on our backs and enjoyed the moment! I let Jim bask in his accomplishment for the
night, which was the least I could do, then told him we had to start the
bedroom!
The house
finally ended up a 1600 sq ft home with one large bedroom/office and 2
bathrooms, laundry room, great room, and kitchen, but not with many, many – we’ll
use the word discussions. Compromises
were made. I got my doorless walk in
shower and Jim gets to keep the stained cement floor. I have my big laundry room, and again, Jim
gets the stained floors!
We both retired in June of 2009 and
are living here full time. We have a
1500-gallon water tank that we fill about once a week. We bought three chickens and I really enjoy
watching them play. We get an egg every
day and I have learned there is a world of difference between grocery store eggs
and eggs right out of the coop. Though I
have a black thumb, I have planted a garden and have actually grown carrots,
cucumbers, tomatoes, broccoli, and spinach.
I have learned the hard way that any garden I expect to bear fruit must
be built like Fort Knox. Mice and
rabbits are in abundance here and the packrats we have seen are the size of a
small cat. In the fall I am hoping to
buy a couple pigs and maybe a cow or two.
There will be endless projects here
and so many things to do and learn. We
have neighbors that will be life long friends.
There are miles of roads to be explored by quads or by car and I look
forward to checking out every one.
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Another fine work by Penny Estelle: Billy Cooper’s Awesome
Nightmare - The Wickware Sagas
Seventh grader, Billy
Cooper, is less that thrilled when Old Lady Wickware assigns a weekend
assignment. Each student must draw a
name or event from a box and do an oral report on the drawn subject. Billy has a full weekend and he has no time
to be working on some legend dude named William Tell. He figures he will just do a quick computer
search and be able to skate on this
assignment. All that changes when he
meets his legend face to face in the fourteenth century!
Excerpt
Billy jumped up, took two steps backward and fell hard on
his back from about four feet up, knocking the wind out of him. He was seeing
blue sky and rolling green hills. An old, two-wheeled wagon was what he had
fallen out of. The old man hurried over. “You alright, lad?”
Billy jumped to his feet before the old man could help him
up. “Who…who….who are you? Where am I?” Billy stuttered, panic shooting through
his body.
“Easy lad,” the old man said. “I was to bring you here.”
“Bring me where? Who said to bring me? Who? This is crazy! I’m
not supposed to be here!” Billy’s voice got louder.
The man pulled out a satchel of coins, smiling. “Your mother
paid me well to bring you to your aunt in Uri.”
“Uri?” Billy asked. “Dude, there’s no Uri in Arizona, I don’t
think, and my aunt lives in Cottonwood.”
“Jonathan is my name, lad, not Dude.” The old man reached
for Billy’s head. “Maybe when you fell you became…addled in your thinking.”
“I did not become…whatever. You’ve kidnapped me! I want to
go home!”
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Thank you all again for stopping by. If you want to find Penny Estelle, here are some URLs:
For those of you who follow my books, I will be promoting "Billy Cooper's Awesome Nightmare" soon. Here is a short description of the book, a Short Middle Grade Time Travel Adventure Story
