I Spy with my eye, something beginning with Y…

Yet another Snow Storm. I woke up to 2 inches on the cold surfaces and lots of mud where it had melted. Ugh. Over the day it has snowed, snowed lighter, harder and been sunny for seconds. At one point I couldn’t see the house.

Yesterday, on Earth Day, the clouds were so low that we could see nothing beyond about 50 yards. It was strange. I wanted to go out and play in the yard, but that wasn’t possible. I looked at seed catalogues  instead.

We are planning to do a keyhole garden for this summer. I want to plant radishes, lettuces, carrots and squash.

Well, must put more wood on the fire.

 

It’s the snow storm that never ends…

Well once again, Mother Nature played chicken with us and we lost. After horrid winds on Sunday, warmth up to about 70 yesterday, we woke to clouds and damp this morning. I thought it would be rain. Smelled like rain. Looked like rain. Hoped it would be rain.

So, I went off to the County Commissioners meeting to hear the proclamation of Ludlow Centennial Year. This Saturday, April 20th is the 99th anniversary of that horrid day. So, the state has decided to have a year long event. Our three commissioners signed the proclamation and handed it to our local UMW representative. In June there is usually a memorial service out at Ludlow. I’ve written about this event before. Here and here. I will be writing more about it as the year goes on.

Once that was done, I did my usual Wednesday thing. Vacuumed my mom’s house and did laundry. I was just getting ready to leave when I realized that it was SNOWING! Oh My was it snowing. Big Fat Flakes. Instead of heading to the Laundromat to dry my clothes, I picked up Dan. We headed out to George’s and had lunch. We celebrated our 9th anniversary with pie. 🙂

Afterwards we stopped by my parents as they had just returned from Colorado Springs and Pueblo. They brought us fried cinnamon rolls. Yum! We went to the grocery, then to the Laundromat and dried clothes.

Now we are home and curled up next to the wood stove keeping warm and working on our computers. Oh, and watching snow fall on top of the 5-6 inches we have from this storm already.

So Proud!

My aunt, Toni Sudar-Laumbach has been given a very prestigious award.  🙂 The following is the press release.

Toni

LAS CRUCES – Toni Sudar Laumbach, daughter of the late John and Pauline Sudar and 1965 graduate of Walsenburg High School, has been named the 2013 recipient of the Edgar Lee Hewett Award by the Historical Society of New Mexico.

The award, given annually for outstanding service to the people of New Mexico, will be presented to Laumbach during the HSNM Awards Banquet on April 20 at the Las Cruces Convention Center. Laumbach is one of the original staff members of the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces, N.M., and the facility’s chief curator.

During Laumbach’s 17 years at the museum, she has conceived, designed and implemented most of the exhibitions and public programs for the museum, as well as seeking out, acquiring, cataloging and preserving the museum’s collections of over 10,000 items of historical and cultural significance.

“Toni has been the face of the museum in its many public and scholarly venues,” said Museum Director Mark Santiago. “It has been largely through Toni’s ideas and hard work that the Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum has grown from a relatively modest operation with only one exhibit gallery and no public educational programming, into a full-fledged tourist destination.”

Laumbach’s abilities have been shaped by a long career in museums that gave her many unique insights on the development of cultural institutions. As an undergraduate at the University of New Mexico, she worked for Museum Director Dr. J.J. Brody and studied under the renowned archaeologist, Dr. Florence Hawley Ellis. As an undergraduate, she rose through the ranks at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at UNM, serving as both registrar and collections manager.

In 1972, Laumbach became the curator of the New Mexico State University Museum, where she helped organize and catalog their collection. In that role, she also taught NMSU’s first museology classes and organized students in the preparation of the museum’s first exhibits.

Following other dreams, Laumbach enjoyed a successful career as a registered nurse, working in many capacities, both technical and administrative, in the Las Cruces area. However, her true love was museums.

With the development of the concepts for the Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum beginning to take shape in the late 1980s, Laumbach approached those in charge of the project and joined the team in 1996, shortly before the museum building was completed. Aside from being the museum’s first registrar and chief curator, she has performed a variety of other tasks, including serving as the interim director in 2005-06.

In addition to her many museum achievements, Laumbach also has continued to pursue a career in archaeology, where she has demonstrated extensive knowledge of prehistoric and historic pueblo ceramics. Most recently, she curated the museum’s exiting new exhibit, “The Cañada Alamosa Project: 4,000 Years of Agricultural History.”

“The contributions of Toni Laumbach in preserving the historical legacy of New Mexico make her a fitting choice to receive the award named for that pioneer historian and archaeologist, Dr. Edgar Lee Hewett,” said Santiago.

In the Yuri’s Night Kitchen

A long time ago, in a Universe not so far away….

Wait. Hold on. Let me start over. 🙂

On April 12th, 1961, Yuri Gagarin was the first man to fly in space. 🙂 His flight along with Sputnik in 1957 started off the scientific avalanche that became the Space Race. Twenty years later, on April 12th, 1981, Space Shuttle Columbia STS-1 launched. Twenty years after that, in 2001, a group of people thought it would be a great thing to hold a party commemorating the two important milestones in Space History. Thus was Yuri’s Night born.

Now, the week of April 12th is host to world wide parties. Mach 30, a group that Dan and I belong to held a Yuri’s Night Party yesterday afternoon. We had various maker spaces and students from our local high school here. Hurray for John Mall High School! You can read all about it here.  Or, you can watch the video and see what you’ve missed.

Colorado, the Menopausal State

Last Tuesday, we went from warm to freezing snow storm. Probably 2 inches of the stuff. Then it got warm. 70’s. We had a couple of cool nights, but nothing dire. I even packed away most of the winter clothes. And before you laugh and tell me it’s all my fault for packing away the clothes, keep in mind it has been Hot! Warm! Sunny! In fact, today it has been as high as 74F. (9% humidity and 20-25mph gusts)

However, wait… hold on… Tonight the temps are due to drop to the mid 30’s and we are suppose to have snow again by 5am.  (humidity 45%) If we are lucky, we might have as much as 4 to 8 inches of snow accompanied by 50 mph winds. Yes, a blizzard. Akkkk!

So, I am hauling wood into the house. The stove is ready to lite and we will be going over to my parents to chop wood. Such fun. I am wondering if this year will be like the one we had in 1993, where May 1st was greeted with 5 inches of snow. Brr….

Tomorrow’s school board meeting will be fun. Ugh.

Maybe by June the weather will be nice.