Arizona build'n: July 2008

About Me

Location: Arizona, United States

Welcome to my site. I will be Chronicling the construction of our new home. Here is a brief history of my experiance in this area. I moved every few years as a child. As an adult I stayed in one house for 25 years, but helped remodel it four times. From a minor bath redo to adding an entire second story to the house. Now my husband and I have moved to AZ to care for my elderly parents and are undertaking to be the owner/builders of a custom home. Some people don't like change but I guess I'm not one of them. Or perhaps it is just limited change I like. To my husband's current dismay I helped build a 4000 square foot house in Romania in 2001. We took it from slab to fully furnished in 11 days. I therefore have meager patience for the pace of building here in Arizona.

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Beautiful Hummingbirds

In mid June we went birding in far southern Arizona-Portal and Miller Canyon, and up on Mt. Lemmon. We saw several hummingbirds which were new to us. The list of what we've seen here in Arizona so far is: Anna's, Broad-billed, Broadtailed, Violet-crowned, Black-chinned, Costa's, White-eared, Allen's, Rufous, Blue-throated, and the Magnificent. We still have a few more to see, maybe at the end of the summer when the southern migration is going on we'll see another. The photos below are actually four different types. Can you tell the differences?

We Await the Monsoons

It has been a while since the last word from me. We had a gorgeous spring here in Arizona. Despite my last photos, an Arizona spring is actually YELLOW. From the trees, mesquite and palo verdes, to the mid-size bushes, creosote and brittlebush, to the smallest wildflowers, everything is yellow. As the spring drew to a close, the wildlife came out, well the reptiles anyway. Here you see a diamondback rattlesnake and a Gila Monster. And then there was the scorpian in our closet last night. Ah, the joys of desert living!!!!