ArizonaRanch

  Painting the LittleHouse by admin on Apr.21, 2009, under Trim & Paint So finally we got back up to the Ranch on mid April, 2009 to finish the painting of the LittleHouse. Here is how it went…   LittleHouse Paint Job On our previous trip, we had used a sprayer to paint the trim a light green color.  On this trip, we decided to do minimal masking and just roll on the earthtone brown paint for the flat parts.  We thought that would be easier than doing an extensive mask job to spray the brown color.  I still think we were right. So after masking just the edges of the trim that were next to the hardiboard panels, we cut in the brown around the edges, then used a roller to apply the remainder of the paint.  It still took about 6 hours to mask everything, and about 8 hours to do all of the painting.   Cutting in the corners with a brush When it was all done, this is what the south (front) side of the LittleHouse looked like. ...

  Plumbing Repairs (Again!) by admin on Apr.21, 2009, under WashHouse, Water System Last fall, we had made a trip up to the ranch, expecting to get one more in before any hard freezes.  So we neglected to drain the pipes in the shed before we left.  When I returned in November, I discovered that the shower would no longer turn all the way off.  Since I didn’t have the replacement valve, I just drained the system, added RV antifreeze to the John, and waited until spring to arrive. When we made the trip in March, I intended to pull the valve and get specifics to buy a new valve.  But then we discovered that we had let the water tank get too low to feed the shed anymore, so we put off the repairs for the next trip. Finally, after Al the Waterman filled our tank in April, we were ready to do repairs this trip.  Here is how we replaced the shower valve.   Step 1 - Remove the handle After removing the allen screw holding the handle...

  April 2009 at the Ranch by admin on Apr.21, 2009, under Seasons We made it back to the Ranch over April 17th through the 20th.  The main goal of this trip was to finish painting the house, but while we were doing some repairs, we spotted a roadrunner walking across the drive.  Since the camera was handy, we snapped this photo.  It’s kind of far away and zoomed in, but you can see him near the center of the picture on the road.   RoadRunner, the coyote's after you... The weather on this trip was really nice.  It started off on Friday with a high in the high 50’s, then dropped into the low 30’s overnight.  After that, it warmed up about 10 degrees for the highs and maybe 5 degrees for the lows each day.  For the first night, we used the heater in the bedroom, but after that, we didn’t need it.