ArizonaRanch

  Some Radio Work for the Ranch by admin on Jun.17, 2009, under Communications We have found that there is a weak cell signal (at least on Verizon and our Nextel phone) at the LittleHouse.  If we go down to Markham Pass at the end of our lane, we can get a pretty good signal (2 – 4 bars) and make calls with ease.  Then if we leave the cellphone on, and hurry back to the LittleHouse site, we don’t have any bars, but can still make calls with acceptable quality. The problem is, if we turn on the cellphone at the LittleHouse, the signal is so weak, that the cellphone never acknowledges that it is there.  I’m thinking that installing an antenna up in the clear near the house has a good chance of providing reliable service there.  So the first step of that project was to build an antenna mast near the house.  And just to complicate things, I decided that it needed to support a rudimentary Ham Radio antenna, as well.  Here is what we came up with.  You can visit my

  Memorial Day 2009 by admin on Jun.04, 2009, under Seasons We were pretty lucky with weather for this trip.  However, just as we were arriving at Anvil Rock, it started raining.  By the time we got to Markham Pass, the road had turned to butter again.  But we made it through ok. The rest of the week was pretty nice.  It typically clouded up by noon, and kept it cool in the afternoon.  On Friday, we got about a full hour of steady rain.  When it finished, we went outside and enjoyed the nature after the rain.   Peak off to the west from the meadow Some more photos after the rain…   Clearing on south mountain   Stick Bushes got leaves… Usually they are bare…   Stick Bushes A couple of oriels started hanging around the cabin all week.  Here is a pretty good picture of one, but it’s through the screen door, so there is some obstruction. I think it's a Scott's Oriel.   oriel And here is my attempt at blowing the photo up…   oriel zoomed Remy had a great time

  More Electrical Work – Memorial Day 2009 by admin on Jun.04, 2009, under Electrical We came up for a week over Memorial Day to do more electrical work. We started by installing the bathroom vent fan. Here is the fan installed in the ceiling…     Bathroom Fan mounted in ceiling Later in the week, we got the missing piece that allowed us to install the duct works…   Bathroom Fan with Duct to north wall installed Here are the outlets under the small loft area. The 3-way wiring was all done in the left-most receptacle, then we simply paralleled two more lights to the first…   Ceiling lights below small loft And here is a close-up picture of the 3-way wiring inside the first receptacle…   3-way wiring     And here are more ceiling lights and fan receptacles.   Ceiling Lights and Fan receptacles   Three Way switch wiring   Breaker Box wiring   Front Panel on Breaker Box   Circuit Numbers