Sleeping with the president

On Saturday morning, we headed to Prescott for a meeting of the Blackhawk Homeowners Association. It was a big day. Arizona Land and Ranches was to turn over control of the HOA to a newly elected board consisting of three landowners. Gerald had thrown his hat into the ring.

The first part of the meeting, we got to ask questions about the current state of affairs. There are something like 153 parcels in phase three of Ruger Ranch. Arizona Land and Ranches currently owns 13 of them. Six were never put on the market. The HOA has a balance of $166,000, which consists of all the dues collected since the first parcel was sold in September, 2004.

Then the results of the election were read and the three new board members announced. Gerald was one of them. So was our friend Kathleen Stowe, who represented the only full-time household in phase three. We were disappointed that our friend Tom, who lives at the ranch part-time, was not elected, but if he could not be the third board member, we were glad Greg Carr was. We had met Greg a time or two on the road, either coming or going and liked him and his wife Deborah. Greg works for the Pinal County Sheriff's department as an instructor in the mounted division.

The new board members met with the outgoing board from Arizona Land and Ranches then held a brief meeting before we adjourned. At some point, Kathleen came by and told me that I could now legitimately say I was sleeping with the president. I told her I was going to tell everyone I knew. After the meeting, Gerald and I had lunch with Kathleen and Linda at Murphy's to celebrate.

When we got to the land, the solar hot water tank had been installed. It had ended up requiring two additional trips by the Heliocol people, but it was done and had passed inspection.









J.C. was hard at work trying to finish up the rough-in plumbing, so we could call for an inspection of the rough-in plumbing and electric. That would allow us to proceed with insulation, and drywall, so we could set cabinets and things like that.

We'd also be able to hook up a sink and a toilet, which would be one of those "big moments" in the life of our project. With the solar hot water system, we'd even have hot and cold running water. What luxury!