MAINTENANCE .....

The more I stay home, the more I think about full-timing.  I'm beginning to see the advantages, not only of seeing this beautiful country, but of a more maintenance-free existence.  Yes, there's maintenance on a motorhome, but nothing like the work required to keep up a huge house and two acres.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my house, but keeping things looking halfway nice requires a big hit to the pocketbook and a LOT of work!!

My back fence neighbor has some huge trees ... thank goodness they are on HIS side of the fence ... but they overhang MY side so far they almost touch the ground.  They also dump tons of limbs/leaves on MY side, that my horse rolls in, resulting in hours spent combing the trash from his tail. After he trimmed his side only, I went over and asked if I could trim MY side ... and he of course said fine (less work for him).  Little did he know that I planned on chopping the heck out of them!!!  The thought of accidentally spraying them with a little too much Roundup crossed my mind, but they do provide a lot of shade from the afternoon summer sun.  My gardner owes me a favor (over some horse business) so I asked him to trim them up.

And trim them he did!!!  Once the main cutting was done, he climbed on top of the fence and cut some more!!

I was a little worried the fence would fall, but he walked the entire length and trimmed up about six feet!!  Not only does it look GREAT, but I doubt I'll have to cut it again for three or four years!!

Now on to cleaning all the puppy prints off my hardwood floors ... on hands and knees ... before waxing.  I KNOW there is an elf that comes out every night and laughingly spreads dirt and dust bunnies all over my house.  I just can't figure out how else it could get dirty so fast.  After all, there's just ME ... and I leave my shoes by the door!!!  In the RV it takes about six minutes and there's no furniture to move!!  I'm definitely on a mission to reduce the STUFF in my house, making it easier to clean!!

In the meantime, my new Nikkor lens came in ... the replacement for the one I ruined in Costa Rica.  The good news is that this one was on sale and as a bonus, I got TWO free filters, worth over $100.  That kind of a deal usually means they have a newer "better" model coming to a store near you SOON.  In all, this lens cost me $500 LESS than it's predecessor, which suits me just fine.  The Golden Spike group has a rally coming up in Fullerton/Anaheim California where I plan on putting it to good use!!