Alive and well and living in Utah.

20160403_131649When I get emails and personal Facebook messages asking if I’m still alive, I know it’s time to write something on this little old blog.

I’ve never been a social media butterfly, never blogged frequently or spent as much time as I should on Facebook and other sites. I do appreciate the opportunities it’s given me, and I’ve met some wonderful people, but as little as I’m active on social media, sometimes I still want to give it a rest. So I’ve been busily filling my life with the mundane. You know, the family, the home, the garden, all very un-writerly things. Gasp! If you want to know what I’ve been up to, read on, but I warn you, it’s all very boring.

We started the year with a redecorating project: painting the kitchen/dining room, living room, upstairs bathroom and hall. In February this was interrupted when I went downstairs late one night and stepped into several inches of water. A toilet tank running water for three hours had filled up our septic tank, which showed its displeasure by belching back into the house. Luckily our floor downstairs slopes slightly so the water was only in the east side of the basement and didn’t get into the den. But the laundry room (it’s a BIG room) the downstairs bathroom and a bedroom were flooded. We were up till 3 AM sucking up water with shop vacs. Such fun, especially having to carry the full vacs upstairs and outside to empty them. Also lucky, no lasting damage and almost everything was salvageable. We did have to move everything out of the bedroom and take up the carpet, and decided to repaint the room while it was empty.

Lo and behold, water started to come into the same bedroom and we realized we have a crack in the foundation. Husband had to chop out a lot of newly painted drywall to find the crack and patched it on the inside, but we still have to dig down outside to patch that.

Are you having fun so far? We did. Ha ha. I hope you can hear the sarcasm.

We’ve since learned our septic system is on the way out. The poor old thing is damaged and all the snow melt is leaking into the tank, plus the leach field needs to be replaced.

We took a vacation in Mesquite, NV. We spent one day on our ATVs south of Mesquite in some incredible red rock canyons. Unfortunately I didn’t take my camera because Husband had his, and his camera batteries died, so no pictures. Another day we drove up into the mountains west of Mesquite, along one of the little country dirt roads which deteriorates the farther you drive. When we got to the warning sign – go farther at your own risk – we went farther. The road got very bad, and ended with a punctured tire. My, what an adventure.

We took another mini vacation to Kanab, UT, and stayed at the Best Friends Animal Society in one of their cabins. What an incredible place! I’ve supported Best Friends for probably 20 years and this was my first visit. The staff is amazing, the work they do with abandoned and abused animals is amazing. The countryside is wonderful. Rock formations fascinate me and I got my fill there. One day we took the ATV on the Mail Drop ride. As per usual, the trail maps were not 100% accurate and we wasted quite a bit of time trying to find the actual Mail Drop, driving miles of trails and clambering up cliffs. The two men who directed us – I’d love to meet you again and tell you what I think of you. These two guys sent us in the wrong direction and we ended up taking some really nasty trails. We did eventually find the Mail Drop. What is the Mail Drop? In the 1800s, it was easier to send mail down a cliff to the valley below and the communities there, than ride all around the mountains to deliver it. The history of the Mail Drop is interesting, if you want to take a minute to read it. This is the best account I’ve found so far.

Lately I’ve had a spurt of domesticity. It’s as if my mum is inside my head, possessing me, telling me Linny, you have a lovely home but it’d be lovelier with a dusting rag and polish applied, the floor mopped, the junk tidied away (the list goes on and on.) You’d have a beautiful garden if you tidied it up. So on and so forth. To demonstrate how far down this road of doom I’ve gone, I even took everything out of my display cabinet, cleaned them and the cabinet! This is something I usually only do when we’re expecting visitors and the dust is so thick you can’t see what it’s hiding.

And, oh yes, I have been writing. Almost finished the first draft of a young adult paranormal romance: Icari. And I’ve also started on the third and last Downside book: Fallen.

And you thought I’ve done nothing but waste time with domestic issues, didn’t you.

IMG_0173 A very small area of the Angel’s Rest pet cemetery at Best Friends. Beautiful and peaceful. Can you see the wind chimes?
IMG_0201 This is actually the ceiling inside a cave on Best Friends property.
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The Beehives on the Mail Drop ride.

 

Looking out over the Mail

Drop.

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