Happy Holidays 2017

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Belated Holiday Greetings & Happy New Year!

We apologize for being absent in 2016 (and almost doing the same in 2017) – but wanted to get a note out before we enter 2018 to let you know what we’ve been up to.

Steve continues to enjoy working with Motorola Solutions, where he has recently been promoted to a senior systems technologist (much less travel this year, too). I am still freelancing, and my current novel-in-progress was named a finalist for the Tucson Festival of Books Writing Competition and a semi-finalist in the Dana Award for the Novel.

We have enjoyed many treks into the desert on our Polaris this year, snapping photos, and watching the desert critters that visit us with great frequency (roadrunners, rattlesnakes, jackrabbits, hummingbirds, coyotes, bobcats, javelina, etc.)

The biggest news: We did, in fact, move in to the “new” house on May 2, 2016 (Hard to believe we began early prep in 2008 and foundation back in 2009). Naturally, it wasn’t completely finished when we moved in — and still isn’t. But since move-in, and over the past year, we’ve puttered with a few things that needed completion: the Jack ‘N Jill bathroom, flooring, quarter round trim, bullnose tile in the entryway, another tongue-and-groove ceiling, backsplashes behind the bars, screened-in porches, and some new furniture (the first we have ever owned!). Steve did an incredible job building this house! Oh – and the kitchen drawer pulls – those came from rocks I collected on our property.

There is still much to do (including the entire master bedroom/bath suite), outside deck, landscaping, etc. But first on our agenda in 2018 is to remove the old garage, which will improve our views of the mountains!

We hope you had a wonderful 2017 and wish you the best in the coming year. We hope to hear from you soon.

Enjoy some of our finished shots. And if you want to look back at progress from 2015, visit our previous newsletter / photos.

I snapped a few pics along the way, too, if you’d like to take a peek:

Happy Holidays 2015

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2015 Front

Another year has passed. (How is it going by so quickly these days?) Nonetheless, we loved every moment and hope our electronic newsletter finds you happy and healthy.

Steve is still enjoying his job at Motorola Solutions and spent a lot of time traveling as a result of his new position/promotion. Among his worksites and training destinations: Seattle, Washington; Las Vegas, Nevada; Roswell, New Mexico; Cheyenne, Wyoming (in December!); southern Arizona – near the Mexico border.

I continue to write for various clients and still blog a bit (check out my nature/writing escapades melissacrytzerfry.com, if you’re interested). My latest fiction, which is a dual historical and contemporary story, also was a semi-finalist in the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Writing Competition for a novel in progress. We traveled to PA in August where we were able to visit both Steve’s and my family – and where I did some more fiction research in Kittanning.

In house-building news, we made the most measurable progress we have seen in years – probably since 2009 when we got the footers in and the house exterior up. Drywall is up! Walls are painted! A big portion of the flooring is complete! My office is done! We finished the courtyard! Of course, before all of that happened, Steve worked to install entryway vigas, finish plumbing, do interior framing for a built-in bookshelf, finished HVAC returns in preparation for heat pump/AC install, installed door jambs/doors, hung denim insulation (I helped!) – and probably many more things I forgot. I also spent loads of time staining doors, painting and painting some more (thank you, Regina, for coming out to help me finish – couldn’t have done it without you)! I have gotten darn good at edge lines, I must say!

With any luck, we’ll be in the house by spring, in a semi-finished state. Then we’ll continue to chip away at rooms as we can. Patience is the key, as we’ve learned.

Enjoy some progress shots of our handiwork during 2015 (click on any underlined words for links; then click on photos to enlarge):
•  Pre-Drywall Progress
•  Drywall & Mud
•  Courtyard
•  Paint/Flooring

Also check out the wildlife and landscape photos I took this year (I attended a photography class in March, and loved it!)
• Spring landscapes
• Hummingbird babies, hawks, butterflies, rattlers & more
• Wildflowers – 1
• Wildflowers – 2
• Wildflowers – 3
• Cattle, outdoors & a carnival

Wishing you a wonderful 2016!
Steve & Melissa

Happy Holidays 2014

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We hope our electronic newsletter finds you happy and healthy as we close out another year in the desert we love so much (camping and quad rides included).

Steve is enjoying his job at Motorola Solutions and took advantage of various training opportunities (mostly at the company’s headquarters near Chicago, where I joined him in October during our 14-year wedding anniversary. I also visited him in Vegas during training that fell on his 44th birthday).

I continue to write for various clients and still blog a bit (check out my nature/writing escapades, if you’re interested). My fiction also fared well in a few contests during 2014: semi-finalist in the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Writing Competition for a completed novel; and Top 10 Finalist in the Columbus Creative Cooperative’s Great Novel Contest 2014.

In house-building news, Steve spent a lot of time under the crawl space of the “new” build (hard to believe we started in 2009), working on electrical and HVAC/heating. He’s worked to wrap up a host of odds ‘n ends in preparation for drywall: finishing soffits and dropping ceilings; furring out the walls and ceilings; installing tubs, fixtures, fart fans and decorative vigas in bathrooms; final door entry framing; and low-voltage wiring for TVs, network, speakers, smoke detectors …  In June, he also passed the electrical and plumbing rough-in inspection, which means we have one final inspection to go.

So, the good news is that we’re inching closer and closer. We just ordered the majority of interior doors and jambs, and are anticipating drywall at the start of 2015 (then another big slow-down as we save up for the next round. Maybe we’ll be done by retirement!).

Enjoy some progress shots of Steve’s handiwork during 2014 (click on any underlined words for links; then click on photos to enlarge):

Also check out the wildlife and other encounters we’ve experienced this year (as well as some of my landscape photos):

Wishing you a wonderful 2015!

Steve & Melissa

Merry Christmas 2013

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Happy holidays family and friends!

We know, we know… it’s been awhile – too long, in fact, since we’ve sent a holiday letter. We hope you’re well and enjoying the holiday season.

Fruit from the desert plant, peniocereus greggiiFruit from the desert plant, peniocereus greggii

Fruit from the desert plant, peniocereus greggii

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We continue to love life in rural southeastern Arizona, taking quad rides into the mountains and living among loads of wildlife. Steve started a new job in radio communications with Motorola in July and loves it. I continue to freelance and make up stories (I also started a local book club). And I’m still writing my nature/writing blog, if you want to stop in for a visit.

Here at the Fry Ranch, we finally resumed work on our house project after nearly two years of inactivity (we’re going with the 10-20 year move-in-plan … snicker, snicker).

Steve also took some time to build a “ham shack” in 2012 on to the side of our existing house (for nerdy amateur radio operators). It’s served as a nice writing room for me on occasion, too, since the only other door in the current house is attached to the bathroom.

We’d love to hear from you this year, especially since we’ve been so out of touch … but in the meantime, please enjoy some photos of house progress and Steve’s handiwork:

Check out some of the wildlife fun we’ve had this year:

Have a great 2014!

Steve and Melissa

Staining, Flooring, Furring

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Valentine’s Day brought a great gift to the Fry Ranch (well, specifically to Melissa and her mom): a helper to stain the gluelam beams on the ceilings. After trying it on their own and realizing they couldn’t hold their arms up in the air through 54 grueling beams, it was time to call in reinforcements! Helper Jim made quick work of the staining in about four days!

Feb. 22 Kitchen view, stain complete

Feb. 22 Kitchen view, stain complete

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March then saw the arrival of new sub-flooring, a result of our realization that radiant floor heat would be overkill in the desert. The exterior doors, however, had been set in place to accommodate a layer of gypcrete and radiant tubing. Without the radiant floor system, we had to make up the height difference; hence the additional layer of subfloor. It’s sturdy now! By April 1, thanks to Steve’s hard work, the subfloor was complete (as well as some new load-bearing reinforcements).

April and May have been dedicated to installation of furring strips, which are 2×2 strips that will allow for plumbing and wiring. The furring strips provide a surface for drywall screws, and the snaking of plumbing and electrical in between the bays.

So – yes –we’re finally moving again! Sadly, though, monsoon season is quickly approaching. When the rainy season hits, the humidity will rise, making the swamp cooler ineffective, and stopping our progress again until cooler temps roll around in September. See you then!

See Spring 2012 photos here

Back in the Saddle

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Trenching from new house to pole 5/13

Trenching from new house to pole 5/13

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I couldn’t resist the cowboy turn of phrase (or Aerosmith tune, if that’s what sprang to your mind), but we’re back in the saddle again, folks with regard to our house building.

On my birthday, May 13, we took the first construction step in more than a year: we now have electric from the pole to the new house! You won’t see it, though, since we chose to bury the cables. So while we had our trencher extraordinaire here (Rocky), Steve decided to lay water and telephone wire conduit as well.

Check out the digging progress, the breaker panel and the approved meter box! Next step on the electrical to-do list is to wire the entire house, but we think we will first lay some subflooring and/or maybe do some gluelam beam sanding and staining. Or pour some concrete in the garage so we can finally close it off. Or do the pavers in the courtyard … Or … Or… There are so many places to begin (again), it’s hard to know where to start.

But, of course, before anything can happen inside the house – with temperatures soaring in the 100s – Steve decided we really needed some cool air out there. So yesterday, he successfully installed an evaporative cooler that amazingly is cooling the entire space (check out the photos!). The house went from 94 degrees to 78 in a matter of hours. I suppose, now, there is no excuse for me not to get out there and finish varnishing the thresholds to the sliding glass doors (or use up the extra boxes of GreatStuff spray foam that we have lying around).

We aren’t sure if the evap cooler will be ‘temporary,’ in the sense that we’ll take it out when we move in, or if we may decide to keep a swamp cooler to complement an AC unit as well. One thing is certain, though: we’ll have plenty of time to decide as we inch, inch, inch along on our progress.

Oops! Hit the leach field. 5/13

Oops! Hit the leach field. 5/13

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Final installation of evap cooler 6/11 - garage view

Final installation of evap cooler 6/11 – garage view

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Merry Christmas 2010

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Happy holidays to our family and friends! This year, we’ve taken the time to slow down and enjoy the important things: family, friends, the two furry adoptees in our lives, new hobbies and the outdoors.

Macho and Niña: We welcomed our new babies home on Feb. 13. These two high-energy furballs never fail to entertain us. Bengal cats (a mix between the wild Asian Leopard Cat and a domestic cat) are high-energy and inquisitive. They love to take showers, “cover up” their food like wild “big cats” when they’re ‘done,’ prefer the tops of the eight-foot divider walls to floors, follow us around like dogs, and have the most incredible musculature I’ve ever seen on a feline. You should see them jump! In fact, check out videos of them on the right of the home page, or visit our Macho & Niña gallery of photos. You have to look at their baby pictures to see how small they really were! Oh – and did I mention that they have gorgeous, exotic spots (rosettes)?

Steve’s Ham Shack: When Steve isn’t busy working as radio communications engineer for Pinal County, he’s generally found in his new “Ham Shack” – which is essentially the camper that is now converted into what I call his “geek laboratory.” For those who don’t know much about ham radio (like me, before Steve’s obsession), it’s known as amateur radio, using various types of radio communications – in Steve’s case (a.k.a. MacGyver) a spool of wire, PVC, and clothesline – to talk to other “hams” around the world. Steve’s greatest accomplishments: making contact with Antarctica, South Africa, Reunion Island (off the coast of Madagascar). Check out his ham activity on his website. He also has been dabbling in some website design for clients on the side.

Melissa’s Writing, Nature & Fitness Hobbies: My slow to nonexistent writing business (caused by the continued economic decline), while unfortunate and a showstopper for house-building progress, has given me the opportunity to focus on two of my passions: nature and fiction writing. I’ve decided, unequivocally, that I’d rather be sitting around creating make-believe worlds as a novelist than writing business communiqués. And I much prefer hikes in the local area with friends/morning jogs among the desert critters to a boring gym or treadmill. (I will be running an 8K “trail run” near the Superstition Mountains in February!). Check out the incredible wildflower photos part 1 and part 2 from spring hikes). And don’t miss my new blog – a combination of my love for the outdoors and my love of writing: http://melissacrytzerfry.com. You’ll get glimpses of my newfound geology knowledge as well, gleaned from the class I’m taking for fun. (P.S. I was named 2010 Big Sister of the Year for the state of Arizona, for my role in Big Brothers Big Sisters. Shelly is a freshman at Northern Arizona University this year!).

Other Notable 2010 Events:

·     Steve’s 40th birthday bash (and subsequent declining vision and thinning hair). View at own risk.

·     Apache Lake boat ride with friends & neighbors Mark and Roxanne (scroll to bottom)

·     Aravaipa Canyon hike with friends & neighbors Kathy, Don, Mark, Roxanne

·     Melissa’s return to PA – saw best buds Deb, Tuesday, Sandy – as well Mom/Dad/Sis/Nephew, Thiel buddies, Mount Union pals, and the old high school crew at a mini-20-year-reunion. (Gulp… 20 years?).

·     House progress – See our month-by-month photo progress that includes installation of downspouts and scuppers, trenching for drain pipes, installation of water collection tanks, our new drainage ditch and planting shelves. (See great sunset photo below).

If you haven’t stopped by our website before (or if it’s been awhile), feel free to browse the PHOTO, VIDEO, CONSTRUCTION TIMELINE links at the top of  the page for more images and video.

Critters Galore

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Even though we have put house-building projects on hold as the heat continues to soar, the Fry Ranch has been active. Not only are the kids getting bigger (see our recent Macho & Niña photos. They’ll be a year old on Nov. 19!), but we’ve had loads of wild visitors (see our Latest video and recent Fauna photos on the home page).

This time of the year is fun, because the javelina seem to be out in full force – especially the babies, which we captured in photos and on video when they came to the French doors. The only not-so-fun part was the morning I was jogging and came right up on a mama, two babies and a ‘bucking,’ crazy male. Fortunately they all ran away from me.

We also believe that a pair of Harris’s hawks are now full-time residents, as we see them nearly daily. This would be the first time we’ve seen them here (red-tail hawks are their predators, and we have plenty of them). Coming home one evening, the Harris family perched right on the horse stable posts and watched us intently. We didn’t get the camera out of the bag in time, but I did photograph them one other morning after my jog.

Every night, around 7 p.m., we can also hear our new barn owls screeching and talking up a storm up near the gate. Plus we had a resident jackrabbit that hung out around the house every night for the month of August. And, finally …  we got very close to a bald eagle while boating on Apache Lake with friends Mark and Roxanne. Spectacular! Again – take a look at our Fauna photos!

Aside from that, it’s the usual: the summer exodus of long-nosed, nectar-eating bats that clean out my hummingbird feeder every single night (and leave poop on all the porches on the new house), lots of coyotes, a mule deer here and there … and some spotted cats IN the house. Typical desert living!

Steve’s 40th B-Day Bash

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It’s not every day you turn 40, so we celebrated Steve’s birthday in style (well … not sure if beer bongs, sloppy joes and tractor rides equate to style). But we had all of that going on, and a little more with approximately 50 in attendance (including a guest who passed out on the oh-so-soft roof of the new house. Glad we put that spiral staircase in!)

One big surprise was the arrival of Steve’s brother, Michael, from New Jersey. He and brother James managed to keep it a secret until the very end. Steve was fortunate to have had his entire wedding party present: James, Karl, Kory and Tom.

Enjoy the photos of Steve’s “old man” gifts (including adult diapers, enemas, bed pans – complements of Roxanne), and good times with friends.

Rain-Ready & Reaching Out

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The summer heat is here, but with the unexpected “cool front” over the weekend (93 degrees) – Steve was able to place some of our water collection tanks. Should be ready to harvest some water for monsoon season, which officially begins June 15. It will be nice to have the tanks filled and waiting for the first two planting shelves I’m going to work on in the fall (along the back wall).

But, back to Steve. Most of his time, these days, has been spent in his new “ham shack” – i.e. the camper. He’s now an amateur radio dude, making connections all across the U.S. with his radio. He’s most proud of the way he MacGyver’ed  $10 worth of PVC and wire together to build his antenna. And he’s giving himself a special pat on the back that those materials allowed him to reach the USS Missouri in Hawaii. He’s also made contact with hams in Michigan, Florida, Texas and Maryland.

So, if you’re ever out for a visit and wonder what the heck is jutting 20 feet off the roof of the house, now you know! It’s just Steve’s new hobby.

Take a peek at photos of the water collection tank install, and the four new videos on the home page, featuring our showering “dog” Macho, and our pouncing girl, Niña.