Toby the Springer Spaniel

Toby the Springer Spaniel

One of the most enjoyable things about house sitting are the animals.  Some are pets, some are farm, all are fun.  Ok, maybe scraping the chicken poop off the roosts is not fun, but the chickens surely are!  Here in Sacramento, we are enjoying the company of Toby, a two year old Springer Spaniel.  I think the name comes from the dogs ability to spring straight up from a sitting position to even with ones nose.  Toby is the perfect example.

Sleeping in a sunny spot in the garden.

When home owners leave, pets are usually upset with the change.  Sometimes a little treat with their food makes all the difference.  So it is with Toby.  He has gotten used to us being here. He eats his food with no problem, comes when called, and has decided our bed is not the place he will get to sleep.  When we go for his daily walk, he is very good, until he spies a squirrel, a cat, a dog, or a leaf drops on him.  Then he literally, springs into action.  I think my right arm is now two inches longer than the left!  When this happens, a firm "No" followed by the "Sit" command soon has him calmed down, for the most part.

Watching for squirrels!

One of Toby's favorite pastimes is keeping the squirrels out of the backyard, as well as off the highline wires that run across it.  I've seen him sneak out until he is under the highline wire with the squirrel on it, jump and bark really loudly, eliciting a startle response in the squirrel, to the point the poor thing nearly looses it's balance!  I'm not sure Toby would know what to do with a squirrel if it fell into the yard.

Today he goes to Doggy Daycare, where he will spend the day playing with other dogs.  He has a regular two day a week schedule.  We continue it for him, since our main job is normality for him.

Not Just A House, A Home.

Toby in his living room.

We arrived safely in Sacramento after a 13 hour drive from Tucson.  Mary Anne and Charles had dinner ready for us; an eggplant dish that was delicious.  Toby the Spaniel was very glad to see us.  He slept by my chair during dinner.  We talked until way past our bedtimes.

The next two days were spent getting aquainted with the runnings of the house and garden.  Both are very beautiful, but extremely comfortable.  One evening, there was a dinner party with several family members for us to meet.  In an odd twist, Bill and Charles are related.  Bill's great Grandfather is Charles great great Grandfather.  We met on Facebook, when Bill and Mary Anne had a mutual friend, and Mary Anne commented that her husband's grandmother was a Willmon.  And the rest, as they say, is history. 

They are now in the air, on their way to Athens, via Dallas and Madrid.  A long trip, but full of adventure and new places.  Dr Suess was right!  Oh the places you will go!  But only if you allow yourself.

Mary Anne and Charles at the airport ready to fly away. 

California Here We Come

Time to put the finishing touches on our projects; followed by cleaning, laundry and packing.  It's off to California on Wednesday until the end of June.   We have a house sit in Sacramento for distant relatives we met through Facebook!  They are going to Greece while we take care of their Springer Spaniel, Toby.  I'm sure a good time will be had by all, just in different ways.

This should be a fun house sit, as we used to live in Sacramento many years ago.  Our daughter was born there, but we left before she turned two.  A lot has changed in the intervening years.  There's a renovated Crocker Art Gallery to visit.  The foothills to the west of town now have wineries.  And I'm sure the traffic has not improved a bit!

Packing will not be the same as for our overseas trips. We are driving our car, which means I can take extra shoes for gardening, heels for going out to dinner, an extra pair of sandals.  When we fly, we only take one carry on size suitcase each, a bookbag backpack for meds and electronics and I carry the laptop case. No extra room for spare shoes!

Found Another House Sit!

We have found another house sit that fits inbetween the one in France and the one in Shropshire.  It's in the Cotswolds of England.  The house is called Little Pickwick.  A house with a name, now how cool is that?  We will be taking care of a border collie, who looks alot like Mollie in Cornwall.  Plus, two cats and their garden.  The pictures look wonderful. 

Another first; we will be flying into Luton, England on EasyJet, a cheap airline, that actually advertises themselves that way.  Even with paying for our two suitcases, and the addition for paying by credit card, and paying in pounds sterling, it came to $211 for both of us.  Much cheaper, and faster, than the train to the ferry and the ferry to England.

I still need to book a rental car for our time in England, as neither homeowner has a spare for us to use, but will wait and do that closer to the time.  We are looking another house sit for September and October.  We would like to be farther south, back on the Continent, say, south of France, Spain, or Italy.  Some place where fall will be a little longer in coming, since there is not much room for cold weather clothing in our carryon size suitcases.  

Where does the Time go?

We realized yesterday that we will be home only 3+ weeks between now and mid-October.  13 days until we leave for our California house sit and then 10 days when we return in June until we leave for France.  There is a long list of things to be finished.  Painting the last of the beams outside of Amy and Dan's bathroom patio will finally end the outside painting for a few years.  Then there is the touch up painting in the Arizona room from installing tile on the window sills.  Closets to be organized.  Clothes to be gone thru and donated/thrown away.  And, what may prove to be the most difficult, our pickup sold before we have to register again.  Bill has his own list of things to accomplish; I'll stay out of that!

Now to get off the computer and get to work!  Maybe I'll have another cup of coffee, it's still early! 

House Sit Found!

After what seemed like endless searching, we finally have not one, but two house sits!  The ads were posted on the same day, along with a third one, so I applied for all three.  Quickly heard back from two, each party liked what we saw, and VIOLA!  house sits!

The first one is in Carrieres-Sur-Seine, France, with a cat named Dasha.  This is on the outskirts of Paris, so we will be taking the train into the city to play tourist.  We have already booked our tickets to fly into Paris, using our American AAdvantage Miles.  Total cost for the two of us:  $10!  

The second house is in Shropshire, England, where we will be staying with Ziggy Stardust, a Cob Pony, and her friends.  Ziggy has quite a lot of friends, so it will be a busy stay.  For this sit, we will be renting a car, as the home owners are taking theirs on holiday with them. 

There is a bit of time between these two, where we could fit in a sit, if we find one, or go ahead and ride the ferry to Dover, then tour around eastern England and the Midlands before arriving in Clun.  We will continue looking for another house to care for during September into October, as we can't book our flight home until after October 15, when the rates go down.

Look Up!

When I read about Gila Monsters, it said they ate bird eggs.  I thought about quail, since they nest on the ground.  WRONG!  Yesterday afternoon there was one in the front yard.  When we went out to look, he proceeded to climb the mesquite tree.  Very agile, too.  When he was about 15 feet up, he stopped in a crook of the tree and looked down at us.  Yep, this guy is going for the big eggs, no tiny quail eggs for him!  Look out you big birds, your nests are no longer safe!  Will upload a picture soon.

Tucson Botanical Gardens

Driving on Alvernon in the middle of Tucson is hardly where one would expect to find  acres of beautiful gardens.  When the original owners of the land moved there, it wasn't even close to mid-town.  They used it as a home to raise their children, as a cattle ranch, and for gardens where they grew and sold plants for the growing community.  When the wife was old, she gave it to the city with the caveat that it be a botanical garden, and so it has remained.  Now it is run by the Botanical Garden trust, who do an amazing job. 

The gardens are divided into areas.  A home garden for the desert, complete with a beautiful circle herb garden.  Huge old shade trees keep the walks bearable during the summer heat.  The desert garden is full of wonderful specimen plants that make one want to hurry home and plant, so our yards will look like this!

They have plant sales throughout the year, where local growers bring their goods in.  Sort of a one stop shopping of local plants.  We have gone to two of them and have always returned with our hands full!  Plus, we have found new places to shop for plants. Their next sale is this month.

During the winter months, when it is cooler, the greenhouse is turned into a butterfly exhibit.  Many different kinds of butterflies are hatched and fly free.  The butterflies will land on your hands, head, clothing, most anything that attracts them.  They especially seemed to like reds.  You can't stay long in the greenhouse, though, it way too hot and humid.

Shoot Out at the OK Corral!



Finding a little of the Old West in Tombstone.

 The first time I visited Tombstone, was the summer I turned 8.  Not a lot has changed in the intervening 50 years.  Well, they have added gravel to the graveyard, so it isn't bare dirt.  It is still a tourist place.   They have blocked off the OK corral, so you have to pay $10 to see inside.  You do get a show, complete with shoot out, for you money.  More bang for your buck? 

The original courtroom.

There is a grand old courthouse, which is now a nice little museum.  You can see the old cells, newpaper articles from the shoot out, as well as how several locals felt the Earps were not the heroes of the day.  Vigilantes, was one description.  Clothing, household goods, shop goods, even the bar from one of the most famous saloons;  we spent over an hour looking at all the exhibits.  We also found out that the shootout really didn't happen in the OK Corral, but in the street in front of it.

The actors for the shoot out.  Drumming up a little business before the show.

The old buildings are worth looking at, many are gift shops, some selling nice, some selling tacky.  Stepping inside the Birdcage Theatre's lobby was a thrill.  The owner pointed out all the bullet holes around the room.  The steps up to the rooms of the "ladies of the night" were on the left; those steps were really worn!  Business must have been good!

Tombstone is also home to the largest rose in the world, a Lady Banks rose, planted in the mid-1800's, to cover the center courtyard of a home.  The home is still owned by the original family,  the current owner is the High School principal.  It wasn't in bloom on this visit, so we plan to come again in April.

On the way out of town, we stopped by the infamous cemetery.  Wooded grave markers, with names, dates, sometimes the reason of death.  One even apologised for hanging the man by mistake. At least they admitted their error on his tombstone for all to see. 

Here lies Lester Moore
Four slugs from a 44
No Les, No More

Billy Clanton
Tom McLaury
Frank McLaury
Murdered on the street of Tombstone
1881

Tucson Desert Museum

West of Tucson, across the Tucson mountains, is the Desert Museum.  The museum, while having a few buildings, is literally the desert itself.  There is a pathway that wanders through enclosures of native animals, gardens of desert plants, and shade structures to give you a break from the sun.  One could easily spend most of a day seeing all the wonders of the Desert Museum.
Twice a day, there are rapture shows, where a family group of Harris' Hawks show off their hunting skills, with daring feats of swooping, flying, turing about in mid air and generally giving all us land bound animals a good thrill.  This alone is worth the price of admission.

On our first visit, we discovered that buying a year family membership, not only got the two of us in, but free admission for 3 guests.  This took care of the five of us who were there.  Now we have free admission for the rest of the year.  I think we will go back often, especially as during the next few weeks all the desert plants will be in glorious bloom!

Frustration

Our internet is so slow that I can not upload photos most days.  We live 1/4 mile from the city limits which, unfortunately, means our internet is provided by satellite, with the speed being  only a tad bit faster than dial-up.  For  the small sum of  $10,000 we can have a cable buried to our property to receive DSL.  For some reason, that does not seem to be a viable option; we are weird like that!

So, I have decided to just keep posting but without pictures, unless the satellite gods are smiling on any given day.  Or I feel like driving to the Safeway parking lot and using their free wireless internet.  Ah, the wonders of modern technology!