Whirling Dervish Practice.

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This week has been busy, crazy, hectic… and a few more adjectives.

Monday was almost quiet. Lots of errands.

Tuesday: Up and running and off to Denver, for a computer client. Home by midnight.

Wednesday: In the middle of a Google Hangout, Daniel called. He needed brought home from Cheyenne because Angela’s father was in hospital. Daniel wanted to get to see Frank before he died. So, I drove up to Cheyenne. Traffic was horrid both ways and in the midst of Denver rush hour traffic, we got a call from Hillary, Angela’s sister, that Frank had passed. When we got to Pueblo, we met with Angela and Daniel went home with her. I got home around 10pm.

Today was another long day. Errands in town, vacuuming my parent’s house and then off to Pueblo. Why? Well, besides getting a new windscreen for the truck, picking up some groceries and items from Target, Lowes and JoAnn’s Fabrics, I had a brand new granddaughter to see!

Raven Alexandra was born at 7:50:16 am, July 18th. (A day she shares with her Grandpa John, Nelson Mandela and John Glenn.) She weighed 8 pounds 4 ounces and is 20 inches long.

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We had dinner at Romero’s and then came home to collapse!

A Little Wet…

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Yesterday was a surprise. Started out hot and around 3pm, it began to drizzle. Then pour. Thunder, lightning and so much rain! A few drips, but we weren’t worried. It never rains long around here. High Desert Alpine Climate and all…

We went off to dinner at my parents amidst the drips. It was a good dinner as my Aunt Toni, Uncle Karl and their son Kristopher were there. We ate, talked and laughed until nearly 9pm.

We came home in the rain. When we got inside, we had to inspect the house as water was running down the yard. The dog was soaked. and so were various floors in the house. We know there are still issues with the Wendy House roof. And in time honored tradition, they leaked as the rain poured. We know and are use to the front porch leaking. It needs a whole new roof, but that takes more dosh than we have at the moment. We know that there have in the past been various leaks in the kitchen and what we call the herb room. However, for the last 3 years the only leak in the main house has been in the herb room. Until last night. Five separate leaks of different intensity in the kitchen and the one in the herb room just poured.

We got out the mop. Emptied buckets and other things that filled that had been in place during the last rain a week or so ago. I had to ‘rescue’ my sewing area as the rain came in the side window that accidentally got left open. Then we went to bed.

At 5am, it began to rain hard. I listened to the steady drips turn into torrents. When we got up at 7am, we repeated last night’s bucket and mop duties. We also marked where the roofs had leaked. Why? Well, because on Saturday and Sunday, we will be repairing the roofs.

Then it was off to say goodbye to my aunt and uncle and run a few errands.

This afternoon, as the clouds finally cleared off and I was able to open doors and air out the houses. For the record we got nearly 2 inches of rain in less than 24 hours. Not bad for a place that normally gets 15.5 inches of rain/precipitation a year.

Head space

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Yes, getting into one. Battlemoor is in about two months. August 28th to September 2nd. It is our vacation time, and as it is only 10 miles, and 10 centuries away. So, I’m trying to get my brain back in that Medieval Mood. 🙂 I’ve started by working on our garb.

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I’ve taken my best under tunic and apron dress and added embroidery. Vikings were rather good at it, so I’ve got to improve. 🙂 I’m going to be working on Dan/Lothar’s garb as well. I’ve plans for a gambeson for him too. He’s finally decided that maybe, just maybe he’d like to be a marshal. That’s the guy who referees the fights. 🙂 So, we shall see.

I’m also working on some craft items. I’m making Nalbinding needles and trying to learn how to do Nalbinding. Not as easy as you’d think!

I’m also trying to figure out how to turn our Earth pimple tent into something more Viking-esque. So far, I’m not sure if the ‘cover’ will work. Hopefully, by next year, we can afford a real Viking Tent. I’d like to go to a few more events as well.

Funny part? I find my garb more comfortable than ‘modern’ clothing. Yeah, I’m weird. However, it’s mostly natural fibers… wool, cotton, linen. And the fit… perfect. All the patterns are made to measure.  That means short, round me actually is comfortable. Oh, and I didn’t need to take the legs in or hem them to make them fit.

Ah well. More pictures as my garb and gear is spruced up.

 

Rain, Glorious Rain!!!

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Yesterday was hot. The breezes were light and it was just miserable. We saw a few smoke plumes on the East peak, but they were up so high, that we figured that the firefighters would just let them burn to treeline. One of those areas you just can’t see a human trying to walk or climb to to put out a fire. 

So, I ran some errands and settled down to work on gear for Battlemoor. 🙂 Dan and I discussed a design for a gambeson for him. He has finally decided that he will get back into fighting trim, with a goal being to become a marshal. (the referee for combat) It did help that a cracked rib that had bothered him for nearly 4 years finally stopped hurting last September. I’m working on embroidering my clothes. I also have a caftan coat to rework. 

But back to last night… After a Mach 30 hangout where we are planning an October event, I went out to the Wendy House to write. For about 45 minutes, I watched the dry lightning dance across the sky and hoped that it wouldn’t start another fire. And then the miracle… a sniff of moisture. 🙂 

The lightning storm got bad enough that I shut down my computer. Then the rain started. Heavy soaking rain! 🙂 We watched the lightning storm for over 3 hours and enjoyed the rain even though my dog was going nuts. Brandy doesn’t like thunder or lightning. 

This morning, we were treated to lovely soaked soil. 🙂 So much better than the sand box it had been yesterday. I’m hoping that the rain soaked the fire as well. It was a glorious rain.

Hot and Windy

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Right now, it’s about 93 with wind gusts up to about 15mph. The fire is down to about 5 major hot spots that we can see when we drive up to the football field. Oh, and it has eaten 13,491 acres as of this morning, and is considered 50% contained.

Today we are officially off pre-evacuation status. Phew! What it has shown Dan and I is that we need to re-evaluate how things are stored. I’m returning items to more concentrated and/or collected spots. I also plan to scan all of the umpteen million family pictures when the weather cools. This way, if they burn, oh well. I have digital copies.

Another thing I’ve been looking at are family treasures. Some I’m going to pull out and use! Others, I will do my best to figure out which of the 6 kids would want some of them. Other items, I may simply give to my sister and hope she has something to do with them in the next 30 years. 🙂

Meanwhile, amidst the fires, and hectic weekend, we got a bit more plumbing work done on the Wendy House. And…. We’ve Filled In The Ditch! Okay, 95% of the ditch. 🙂 What this means is that I now have more of a back yard and can move on to other projects. A compost bin and a keyhole garden are next up on the agenda for outside work. Oh, and finishing the last 5% of the plumbing. 🙂

Now to go work on some embroidery. Battlemoor is only two months away!

Fire

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Wednesday night around 6:30pm, a fire started on the East Spanish Peak. Life went from this:

huajatolla-3.jpgto this:EastpeakfireAnd by the evening it looked like this:Fire from Lathrop State park

The fire started on the Boy Scout Ranch were there were about 178 boy scouts from Kansas and Texas staying. They were evacuated with short notice and were taken to John Mall High School where the Red Cross had set up a shelter.

We saw the fire when we sat down for supper on Wednesday night. Friday morning, I went to the high school and checked how things were going. I ran the rest of my errands after making sure that the scouts had what the district could provide for them.

Dan set up the weather station on the roof so that the local incident control group could use it’s stats. We’ve watched the fire ebb and race with the wind. Yesterday, we thought it was going to die down, only to have the wind pick up and energize the fire. The smoke was really bad, as the East Peak Fire smoke joined with that of the West Fork Complex fire smoke. Not only was the sun orange, but so was the moon last night. Last time I saw the sun look like that was in the 1970’s when we climbed Mt. Whitney and California was burning.

Whitney sunrise

It is now Sunday and the fire has burned 12,442 acres and is about 10% contained. Fire investigators have found the source of the fire, a tree struck by lightning. People have been evacuated from just east of La Veta all the way to I-25 and from south of Walsenburg and HWY 160 to the county line. Walsenburg, La Veta, Aguilar and Trinidad are all on what is called Pre-Evacuation notice. In other words, pack your belongings that you wouldn’t want to lose and be ready to leave.

So, my life is in boxes yet again.

We have National Guard, the Army, A bunch of wildfire fighting teams and lots and lots of locals working the fire. We hear planes flying overhead to drop slurry and helicopters dropping water. We have watched the small planes check out the fire and guide the bigger planes in to do drops. Check out the Huerfano World Journal’s Facebook page for further information and lots of photographs.

And for a bit of dark humor… Everyone around here knows that the Spanish Peaks are also called the Wahatoyas… Breasts of the Mother Earth. Well, in a moment to try and relieve tension, I had one thought. Mother Nature picked one hell of a time to Burn her Bra.

Of Digging and sticking

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This weekend was full of digging, plumbing and sticky things liked grout! First off, we tiled the top of the rolling cabinet in the kitchen. It has needed a new top ever since the Formica peeled off years ago. And, I’ve had these tiles for oh… 15 years at least. Pretty ones with herb pots on them.

I glued the tiles down on Friday morning. Then I went up to Pueblo to get what I thought was the last of the supplies needed. Wrong! sigh.. The tiles I bought were too narrow for the space, so it was back to option B. Glass blobs, or whatever it is you call those little round bits of glass people put in vases and use as game markers. I have this huge bag of them.

Saturday, we grouted the tiles and then while I dug the trench for the water pipe, Dan worked on drilling holes in the Wendy House wall. As he drilled there was a high pitched squeal. He pulled the drill out and there was an old pepsi bottle. He couldn’t move it, so he pulled the board out. The reason he couldn’t move it was because there was a bunch of coal in between the walls! We ended up with two small buckets of coal. 🙂

Then he fought with the tin on the wall. Nearly burned out his drill and then found out that his little saws-all worked the best. After that, we collapsed.

This morning, I made steak and eggs for breakfast. While Dan did school work, I cleaned up the digging work and placed the water pipe into the ditch. Of course, the minute I did that, it started to rain! At least I know the drainage works in the ditch!

I ended up using window caulking around the little glass blobs as there wasn’t enough grout. Fussy. Next time I’m filling the channel with grout and THEN putting the glass blobs in place. It looks okay though.

After dinner, we got all the plumbing we could done because we were short a coupling and a 45 degree elbow. We plan to finish up the plumbing on Tuesday.

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Weekend Entertainment.

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Oh my! At least it was entertaining for my Dad and anyone watching.

A better title might have been “working on the chain gang”. We started on my Dad’s yard at 9:30am on Saturday. Dan cut up wood with the chain saw and I carried it to the truck. About a quarter of a cord. Then, while he mowed the front, I picked up about 30 gallons of twigs and sticks. While he mowed the back, I weeded in the front and trimmed up a rosebush that hadn’t been pruned in probably 15 years. The lawn mower had a sense of humor and ran out of gas when Dan had a 10 yard strip left to mow. We finished at 12:55.

When we got back to the house, we had to unload the truck. We had the wood to stack, Spearmint for the front and an Italian plum tree sucker we hope will transplant.  I pulled weeds and did gardening out front with Morgan while Dan washed dishes.  Then it was time to collapse. We finally recovered around 7pm.

Then I made pizza. Yes, homemade pizza. Morgan nearly burned her mouth again, trying to eat it when it was too hot. 🙂

Sunday… we did not sleep in. Instead, we got up and I made bacon and fried potatoes. After breakfast, I had a board meeting with Mach 30. Once that was done, Dan and I started to repair the roof of the Wendy House. He tarred and I sifted dirt for the cover layer. I also did a bit of weeding in the alley while he was on the roof. We will be touching up things for the next few days as everything soaks in. There were a ton of nail hole leaks. Oh, and the drips. It was 90 yesterday. Brandy of course walked right under some of them. She’ll just have to wait until the tar wears off. She’s speckled.

We pulled off some of the old tar paper siding on the west side of he Wendy house to see what was under there. Wood! We will need to replace some of it and then put siding on. I told Dan it WILL be before winter! I can see daylight through the cracks. However, the paper being gone will help in doing the plumbing.

Next up, Dan inspected the lower chimney on the main house. OMG! Nearly 3 feet of damage. Loose bricks, crumbling mortar, etc. He took it down to a safe level and capped it. I am very glad that we do not use that chimney. Funny part is that use to be the furnace chimney and supposedly safe. And… Grandpa Sudar wouldn’t use the fireplace chimney as he thought it was damaged. Nope. Other way around. We are lucky the house didn’t burn down.

While Dan threw bricks off the roof, I cleaned up part of the back patio and did more garden work in the front. I planted the yarrow in the yard and watered the transplanted mint and plum tree. The mint looks like it will survive. I’m not so sure about the tree.

Exhausted doesn’t even cover how we felt. We cleaned up, ate dinner and were in bed early. It was a lot of work, and while it may not seem that much was done, we were very busy.

And now for…

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Something completely different. Yesterday we woke to fog, mist and later on rain. All day long was a study in mist and moisture. The plants loved it. My asthma hated it and it was one of those stay warm kinda days.

Dan took us to Wonderful House for dinner. On the drive to Trinidad, we got to watch the fog roll in, the clouds hang low and the rain fall. Lovely. It was like being in England again.

Today, we woke to blue skies and sunshine. Mother Nature, you are one crazy woman at the moment! Hope you stay calm for the next 24 hours. I have to drive up to Cheyenne to pick up Daniel. His sweetie’s sister is getting married on Saturday.