Dahlianut just pick a peoplehouse that faces the correct direction, open all doors & windows & let the 'wind' dust for you. :)
or get a very fluffly cat & allow it on counters & such so it can dust.. (i have a half persian who thinks she owns the house, i let her think it bc she dusts so well with her fluffy tail.)
This message was edited Dec 26, 2009 8:46 PM
Offical Muffler Sulking Section etc part 3
Mud/puddle room? Oh honey, you ain't ever gonna need one of those in Deming.
Chocolate goes in the fridge. Rootcellar would be a nice place to sleep in the summer!
Some dusting needs to happen, 'cause it piles up and interferes with window opening and closing. Really. I wasn't joking about the putty scraper.
My flat surfaces seem to be better at collecting paper, mags, books and junk mail. My herbs are hanging from the ceiling, and seeds dry on the plant. The only open flat surface in this house seems to be some parts of the floor, what's not occupied by dogs, dog beds, and more magazines.
Jay you and I are so much alike... Invite people over after dark, use mood lighting, create ambiance... I have the dust issue too, and have learned to live with it... As I look up in the ceiling, I notices a few webs.. Uggg got to deep clean when I take down the tree tomorrow... I try to keep up on the webs, but a few slip past. Its a fact of living where I do...
I agree a fence is needed, and yep a solid one is not the answer.. The wind might just knock it over.. LOL a guy from Ca built a nice redwood solid fence.... well it lasted until the first really windy storm. With winds up to 70 mph for a day, that fence started loosing slats and was not so pretty... He was understandably upset, but decided that he did not want to fix it every time the wind blew so he took it down, put chain link up with slats in the chain link...
That is an intresting RR, the color is lighter than I have seen... If Ronald is eating snakes, he is a keeper. Cept the black and white snakes that look like a paint horse, those are good ones and you want them around, just not in the house...
And after 20 years of being in the desert, when it rains, one grabs a rag and washes the truck during the rain storm so when it dries, it is not spotty... LOLOL
Feeders have become the bottom of the barrel cut down with heavy rocks in the middle. I remember one that was suspended I do wish I could find the link... like a pig waterer I did think that was the way to go.
You friends are so luvly! I'm SO a snowbird. Today I pondered about saving a BIG spider without getting bit. TA DA! Spider saved; dahlianut saved. I'm such a newbie ^_^
Dnut, MsJ and I will teach you how to tie your hat on, tie your hay down, chase your tarps down, and the most likely place to find your feeders, porch chairs, and camper shell. LOL You are fixin' to come into a whole new relationship with water... akin to out and out worship. For one, leave yer umbreller in Alberta. By the time it rains on you down here, you'll turn your face into it and consider it a moisturizing facial. And 5 minutes after the rain is over, you're dry.
MsJ, I expect you could hang a feeder from 4 posts like they do the barrels for aspiring bronc riders.
Oh Dahlia please do be careful.. Although there are some good ones out there you may want to save, there are some that can cause you hurt, or worse. There are white ones called Vinagroons, that travel in pairs and if they bite you taste vinagar...
Please gander at the following web page, it is one I have book marked...
http://www.brownreclusespider.org/poisonous-spiders/poisonous-spider.htm
I allow the common daddy long legs to live in the house until there are more than 3... then it is clean out time...
Jay, wonder if the chickens can get the rhythm down??
Dahila, we shall help convert you to the wonders of living in the desert... I love wind chimes and have many on my front porch... when the winds blow I put cotton in my ears.. I have learned to know which can hang outside and which should Never see the outside... hence they end up in the other county... LOLOL
all spiders deserve to be squashed. I decided this after the kids I babysit found out the spiders we were letting live were Brown recluses.... not we squash everything.
I put all spiders that I find on my house plants, or outside. I don't squash them. They do very well at catching moths that eat sheep's wool so I need them. We don't have brown recluses here, and we definitely don't have the vinegar twins either. Scary boo. I am not moving there, even if I do want to live somewhere warmer...
All you have to do is put a glass over them and slide a piece of stiff paper under them. Your hands don't even come near them. Spiders are simple...
Snakes are a little tougher... and I have no idea how Gila monsters are.
But do learn to tell the difference between a bullsnake and a rattler. If you've got a bull snake in residence, it will keep rattlers away, as well as eat various rodents. A very good friend to have in the barnyard. But they look similar, and many people kill before identifying the snake, which is shortsighted. A snake can only strike about 1/3 of its length, so if you stand a few feet away, you're safe and can take the time to THINK, identify, and decide friend or foe.
Your average rattler is a lazy sod, and won't stalk after you. It's as scared as you are, and if you just back off, it's all sound and posturing. Most of them are small enough to chop up with a shovel, but if you want a pistol, a .22 will do, and if your aim is even close I've heard the snake actually will strike at the bullet and blow its own head off. Or you can get .22 rat shot.
I'm a spider fan cuz all my spiders in Cowtown eat badguy bugs and are not poisonous to peoples. Thanks MissJ. I believe that I saved a wolf spider. He/she was in the ground til my golf ball landed on his/her house. Then the quandry began but was resolved by jiggling said golf ball til said spider scampered behind a rock so said golf ball could be scooped out with no squishing of said spider.
Luv The Spider Whisperer
spiders are simple.. till they jump at you while your trying to put the glass over it!
I have heard that about the snake strikeing the bullet because of the heat, but I dont take chances.. I have the snake shot loaded. I know that the snake that is black and white is a good one, I shoed it out of the house and said it could live OUTSIDE..,. it does keep the rodents away...
If they go away from me, and are not shaking the rattle, they are spared and allowed to live in the desert.
LOL dahila... Yes must save the ball, she might have wanted to take it back and try to hatch it... Do be careful picking up rocks in the spring summer or fall.. Scorpians love to live under them. If you find a rock you wish to take home, kick it over to see the underside and then pick it up..
ps if said spider had gone for my juglar, said spider would have been smashed by the big golf club
Luv The Spider Whisperer
:)
Yes MissJ. One of my notes to self for this trip: Walk away from the scorpions. I'm good with rattlers. There were rattlers where I grew up in the NE. I like them. They let you know when they're ticked off.
LOL oh a Dahilia the best way to hold your ball cap on is really tight on your head and your pony tail thru the back.. That way if the wind does catch it, your tail helps it stay close...
so thats why you put your tail thru the cap.. i always wondered why...
Does the spider jump farther than you do, Grey?
Yeah, snakes outside... that's a good rule of thumb. =0)
Fortunately, all the rattlers I've met have been away from the house, on hikes and rides, so I just go around or in the other direction. After all, they serve a function out there in the desert, I'm just a guest. I had a huge old bullsnake at my old house that occasionally scared the willies out of me, 'cause they'll curl and hiss and buzz very similar to a rattler, and one never expects them. And this last summer there was a good sized bullsnake here at our new place, about 3 feet long. Glad to see ya, fella. =0)
Tis the only way to wear it MissJ.
Yep Grey that is why... Had many a hat set to fly off only to get stopped short by the tail... LOL
I too like to walk wide around them, my only fear is that BIlly will come home with one...
Like you say J rattlers give good warning to walk away. I hope I have a bull snake in my SW garden.
Don't your ears scorch in the sun? I don't wear ball caps 'cause my ears burn so bad, and there's skin cancer in my family, so I do the full blown portable porch, aka cowgrrl hat... straw in summer, felt in winter, cloth when I figure it might get squished or if it's breezy, which seems to be most of the time anymore...
Sun Screen big time for me on the ears. I worry more about ears in the time of the cold and the dark. Frost bit the poor things and once bit twice shy.
Heck, Dnut, when you get your SW garden, go kidnap a nice big bullsnake. I would.
I knew a woman once with a 3-year old who allowed a rattler to live near the house. I can assure you if it had been me, that snake would have been so dead... well, one never knows when a rattler is going to show up, so best snakeproof the boy...
I grew up in Wickenburg, and there wasn't a kid in town that didn't know about rattlers, mine shafts, and firearms. You didn't mess with any of 'em... if they didn't kill you, your parents would!
Never had my ears scorch, but the back of my shoulders and neck in early spring. I tend to loose cowgirl hats, unless I stuff paper under the brim liner to make it really tight and then I have the ring on my forhead when I take it off. I do have a fancy hat that I have worn in the show ring, but if the wind is blowing to bad, hats become optional.... Billy claimed my straw hat as his, he has a big head... LOLOL
I have a big brimmed hat for summer gardening. For cloudy days or cooler days, if I wear a ball cap, I put half my hair through the hole in the back, and half underneath. Then I make the ponytail. That way, even if it blows off (while sailing for example, speaking from experience) the bit that goes across the back is *inside* the ponytail so it can't come off at all at all at all. yay.
Do you have a stampede string? A leather sweat band? If you leave it in the truck on a hot day, it may shrink up some. But yeah, in a good stiff wind those straw hats come right off. That's why I've been wearing this cloth hat so much; it flexes better in the wind, and the string can keep it on.
I remember when my Bubba killed a rattler out on his ranch and cut the rattler off. He handed it to me and I swear it moved. Scared the begebbies out of me, and I still have the rattler to this day.
I have ran over rattlers. backed up and ran over them again... I just dont want them too close to the house.
Dont the string cut into your neck if that hat was to blow off?
Nope, no poisonous anythings near the house, no blackwidow spiders, no rattlers, no brown recluses, no scorpions. The desert's theirs, my property is mine. Especially around the house and barnyard.
Same goes for dogs messing with my stock. Mine, you're dead.
I have the string such that it's far enough front that I put the knot behind my head most of the time. Also, I have a braided leather string... those horsehair strings are pretty, but scratchy as all get out.
The other day I was out in a big wind in my cloth hat, and to keep it from blowing off I pulled the front string down under my chin, folding the hat over my ears, and the hanging part got snugged up behind my head. No matter which way I turned, that hat stayed put, and it kept the worst of the cold wind out of my ears. But that would only work with a soft hat. I've got an old felt hat I could do that with, but my newer felt is still to stiff...
I have been known to use the old fashioned method with my straw hats....a hat pin...belonged to my great grandmother, who was a milliner. Works like a charm!
I have never seen a hatpin in a cowgrrrrl hat...
only turkey feathers...
I'll have to go lookin' for a pic of me in my hat....
This wasn't the one I was looking for (I have a chartreuse hat with a wider brim) but it'll do. Not very cowgrrrrly. Works well with a hat pin though. :-)
Ah, a very hat pin-ie sort of hat, indeed. A Sunday go to meetin' sort of hat.
I have long been fascinated by hatpins... so many of them were so beautiful, and sooo deadly... I confess, I always enjoyed the part of the story where the bad guy gets stabbed with the hat pin... though it was many, many years before I actually SAW one. Hat pins not being a cowgrllly sort of thing... lariats and quirts were how "we" traditionally handled the bad guys, close quarters.
I have a hat pin-ie sort of garden hat, but alas, no hat pin. And not much hair, either. My braid is long gone.
Yes yes, a pin-ie sort of hat. Indeed. Although it certainly hasn't gone to any Sunday meetings. Nor shall it. It does go to wine tastings and food festivals and garden shows and such. It is a well traveled hat. That picture was taken when we visited the gardens at Biltmore on our trip to NC 2 summers ago. it was lovely to have a good hat there.
Always good to carry a weapon in one's hat though. Yes, the dreaded hat pin!
I....I....I...uhhh...long for a chartreuse hat with a wide floppy brim...might even manage a hat pin, but better with a string...