Mind in the gutter

When we moved out west we really just didn't know what to expect. Our first year in the Antelope Valley we were met with blistering heat and clear blue skies day after day after day. Then it rained. Then it snowed. They called it a fluke. Then we moved.

Tehachapi is known as the Land of Four Seasons. Initially I found this to be a strange thing to boast, but now realize it's a great selling point. We happily moved to the land of promise in anticipation of familiar skies.

When we moved into the house, the ground was baked and cracked as if it had never seen a drop of moisture. We thought irrigation would be the big issue when it came to landscaping. Oh, how wrong we were.

Our first bout of rain we realized just how badly we needed to work on drainage. We also realized the house did not, in fact, have any gutters. In the southeast, the only reason people do not have gutters on their homes is because they just got ripped off by a hurricane. I suppose we just figured that rainfall came so seldom to the area that having gutters was seen as an extravagant expense.

Well, after a week of rain and snow, we found ourselves practically swimming across the lawn. Obviously, this needed to be fixed. A phone call and an estimate later, we now have beautiful new gutters. Ok, ok, I know gutters don't fix a drainage problem, but it's a start. Call it a kick in the seat of our overly drenched pants.

Who knew this place came with a swimming pool!?