Wild Life

Our neighbors saw a deer a few weeks ago, and today I saw what I think was a zone tailed hawk. It was a little more brown looking than pictures of zone tailed hawks I've seen online, but it had the band across the tail and I can't find any other hawks with the same stripe. If anyone knows what else it could have been let me know, since it doesn't look like zone tailed hawks actually live in northern utah.

The Zone-tailed Hawk is a slender bodied buteo with long wings and tail. It is in appearance much like the Common Blackhawk and nests in the same habitat but is much different in habits.

The Zone-tail is 19-22 inches long and has a wingspan of 48-55 inches. The plumage is a dark black except for a gray ring around the eye, and the tail which is banded black and white alternately; tail ends with a broad black band and a narrow white tip. The undersides are black. Immatures are similar in appearance to the adults, but differs in color. The plumage overall is more brownish; the undersides are spotted white, as well as the upper sides, which are spotted more sparingly. The tail is brown striped with black.

Nests are built in deciduous and coniferous trees; often the nests are built in the highest tree around. The nests are build of sticks, loosely. The nests are reported to be reused from year to year. 1-3 white to bluish white eggs are laid, sparingly spotted with brown. The eggs are incubated primarily by the female for 35 days. The male hunts for food while the female tends the nestlings. The nestlings will fly in 6-7 weeks.

The Zone-tailed Hawk is at home near mountains, valleys or other "rugged" areas. Hunting usually takes place in open spaces such as desert grasslands or in sparse forests. The Zone-tail soars and glides in circles in search of food, which is primarily birds and lizards. It will also eat large insects and small mammals. The Zone-tail is very much in appearance and in flight similar to the Turkey Vulture, and some claim it uses this resemblance to come closer to prey and catch them unaware.

The Zone-tailed Hawk is found throughout Mexico and Central America, as well as southern and central Baja California, southern California, central and southern Arizona, much of New Mexico and southern Texas.

It's all ours

I don't have any pictures, but the house is officially ours (as of tuesday around 4:00).

We've been slowly taking loads of boxes over, and I've been washing dishes. The kitchen is set up enough that you can make a pb&h (no jelly yet) and even have dishes to eat off of.

No other furniture yet. My Mr. is working feverishly (even as I type this) to paint as much as possible before saturday when we are moving the big stuff.

Breaking in

Last night, after I had cleaned out the old house, and I decided to see if the new house was open. To my dismay it was locked. They have usually been leaving it open as of late. I tried to open the garage door but to no avail. I then went around back and looked through the windows - DARN - they had installed the screens on the windows. Anyway, I saw that one of the bay windows in the dining area was open so I took the screen off and helped myself to wander the house.

I had thought of some excuses if I were to be caught by the police because of the nosy neighbors or something. But I didn't get caught. I even tried sending them some bat-signals through the windows to show them I was there but to no avail.

I did find that the carpet layers were finished. Here are a couple of pictures of their work:





The appliances also came and I was well pleased with what he had chosen. I think that the white appliances look really good along the dark cabinets and counter tops.



The picture site is updated with all of the pictures that I took last night.

More Brick and Cabinets

On my run this afternoon, the bricklayers - let's just call them the St. Louis Billikens - were eating lunch in our bedroom. But they had finished laying the brick around the windows. All what is left to do is the brick around the posts. Of course I didn't bring my camera, but this morning, I took a picture of the bricks around the garage:



I also updated the picture page.

The work progresses

The bricklayers have come this morning. On Saturday, they said that it would take a couple of days. So that is pretty exciting. It would be nice if they would pour our sidewalk and entry so we wouldn't have to walk through the mud. I have also updated our picture site. So take a look at that for other pictures.

Vinyl, cabinets, and concrete - oh my!

Lots of stuff has happened since the last time I have updated about the house. Since we sold the house, we are getting even more and more excited. As you can see, lots has happened. I will post more pictures on the picture site, but here is a few of what has happened. Note the last picture the stucco.

And there was much rejoicing...yaaay.

I have mixed thoughts as I am writing this post. But the majority of those thoughts are good - very good. We received another offer on our house (the people who made the previous offer didn't accept out lowest counter) last night. We countered this morning and then they countered back to us. To make a long story short, we accepted the offer. They put on their offer that they would close on Jan 31 so that would help us out even more. So we actually haven't "sold" the house, but we have an accepted offer.

It was for less than what we were thinking of getting which causes me a little grief. But I do have to admit the grief is lessened quite a bit by the fact that it is going to be sold. Especially lately, as Al and I would go by the new house and see various things happen with it, we would drive away and mutter under our breath, "I hope that we will be able to move in." But that has subsided. I have been excited about this house for a long time - when the framers were working, drywall, etc. But now it has become even more of a reality. We are actually going to move into a new house! And what's more, our old house is sold (knock on wood)!

Again, I am relieved. Don't get me wrong. But I wish that we could have got more out of it.

On a side note, this is my last semester of school. I am only taking one class right now - and it is a negotiations class. We discussed how during a single issue negotiation, it is always a win/lose negotiation. A couple of the people in my class didn't understand that. I can fully understand it now. Although I think that in this negotiation, it wasn't just single issue. We did want to sell the house very quickly. So in that instance, it was a win/win issue (at least that it what I keep trying to tell myself). But I still feel that we kind of lost in the negotiations.

We did end up making quite a bit of money on the house. In that I cannot complain. When we bought the house, we knew that we were buying an "investment" property after we fixed it up and stuff. We did really well.