Celtic Music

Posted on by jsudar

When I’m not gardening, dealing with life in grand and sometimes painful chunks, I do website work. Part of our one business, LoboSavvy. Today we had a board meeting for the Spanish Peaks International Celtic Music Festival. I’m on the board and 1/2 of the Computer/Website team. Dan is the other. I do the ‘pretty stuff’, and he does all the nuts and bolts work.

We have two websites that we administer. First off, there is the Piper’s retreat. It takes a lot of lung capacity to play pipes at this altitude, but oh do they sound grand. This is the first year. They decided to give pipers a retreat as the harp retreat is so successful.

Then there is the main festival site. The SPICMF, also known as the Celtic Music Festival is in it’s 11th year. Last night we did a fund raiser for the festival. It was a performance of the play, “For Tomorrow We May Die”. It wasn’t as well attended as we’d hoped. sigh… However, there is another fund raiser in August.

This year, we are having Carlos Nunez as our top performer. It’s going to be a really good festival. We also have Daimh, (pronounced Dive) and The MacDonald Sisters. Go check out the website. Better yet, come to the festival.

SPC take 3c (1)

Brandywine

Posted on by jsudar

Our routine in the morning is one of tea and breakfast. Once Mom and Dan are awake enough, they “go feed the dog.” This is a time to let Mom smoke, feed Brandy and just sort of start the day. Mom and Brandy love one another. Brandy gets spoiled rotten, getting upwards of 5 treats.

This morning, Brandy wasn’t out waiting for breakfast and treats from Grandma. Dan checked on her and found that she had died. She was still warm. No issues, just went to sleep and never woke up. We spent the morning burying her and cleaning up the yard. And crying.

Brandy was part coyote, part German Shepard. Daniel brought her to us in October or December of 2007. I’d had a headache that day and was sleeping when he brought her in and dropped her on the bed. I tried to argue that we didn’t need a dog and that Stefan wouldn’t let us have one at the house. Daniel wouldn’t take no for an answer and called Stefan. Of course he agreed that we should have a dog.

We didn’t know she was a wild mix until we took her to the vet for shots. The vet put “mutt” on her records. She was also an escape artist. if she didn’t go over the fence, she went under it. We put her on a cable to keep her in the yard. Brandy figured out that if she ran in a circle and then straight out, she could torque and snap the cable. We went through a 50, 100 and 150 pound rated cable before we realized that we needed a linked chain. Even then she got away at times.

I also had the dog catcher meet me in Safeway and ask me not to go home alone as there was a coyote running around. He’d tried to shoot it, but missed. I told him that it was probably my dog. He shook his head and said that he knew coyotes, and that this was one. When I finished my shopping, I headed home. There was Brandy on the steps, no collar. When I explained that it was my dog, he shook his head and muttered that he almost shot my dog. From then on, Brandy wore a bright body harness.

She was a beaver dog, chewing up bones in record time. She loved treats from Grandma. Brandy was a bed hog and knew she was people. We were her pack. She was our furbaby. She will be missed.

Brandy. September, 2007 – July, 2015.

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A sheep and her dog.
Hi!
Hi!
Dan and Brandy
Dan and Brandy
March 7 Snow4
Brandy in the snow
March Blizzard5
Brandy
Snowy Tuesday9
Brandy on our bed
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Morgan, Brandy and Dan
Brandy and her new house.
Brandy and her new house.
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Brandy kissing Dan
25 May 1
Brandy

Produce!

Posted on by jsudar

We’ve been working on the garden most Saturdays. Today I harvested a lot of radishes, spinach and lettuce. I took a bunch of pictures too. Yes, more pics of the garden!

Gardens, Solstice and Father’s Day

Posted on by jsudar

On Thursday, District O.N.E. had a garden project in back of the high school. They got help from a bunch of people attending a music festival called Sonic Bloom. A big four day event up at Humming Bird Ranch, where Battlemoor is also held. Lots of sun, 30-40 workers and lots of work to do. We got some stuff accomplished, but people got distracted.

Then on Saturday, Dan and I worked on the yard. He mowed. I weeded. Together we tackled weeds, trees and a chunk of old pipe. We were really exhausted when we finished.

Today, Solstice, we got up early and headed down to Trinidad, and to Bob & Earl’s, our favourite greasy spoon, for breakfast. then we took a trip out HWY 10. Both were things that Dad loved to do. It was fitting. 🙂

Ludlow

Posted on by jsudar

101 years ago, on April 20th, a tense situation between the striking miners and mine owners exploded in an event that became known as the Ludlow Massacre. My great grandparents and their children were in the strike camps. My grandpa Sudar remembers sitting out on a flat car on the rail road tracks waiting for the whole thing to be over. It took four days. During that time, women and children along with a few miners died. This event became a pivotal moment in Union and workers rights issues. If it had not been for Ludlow, child labor laws and other labor reforms would have not happened for many many years. For more information, visit the United Mine Workers of America page on the Massacre or this article.

Each year, we go to the memorial service. This year’s event was held on Sunday, June 7th. It wasn’t a big celebration, but a good one.

Rock Work

Posted on by jsudar

We went up into the hills and brought home a load of rocks. 🙂 It was a lot of hard work, but fun. We added rocks to the side garden. Then we hauled rocks to the back yard and we built a Fairy Patio. A place to sit and read, enjoy the quiet, or just bake like a lizard. I’ll be adding plants.

More Dirt Work

Posted on by jsudar

Yes, we’ve been playing in the dirt again. We cleaned up the main garden and started planting. Squash: zucchini, delicata, yellow crookneck, butternut and pumpkin. Two kinds of green beans and then spinach, lettuce, carrots and radishes. Oh, and one tomato plant.

In the side gardens, we added new tomato plants, two bell peppers, cilantro and chives. The two tomato plants that got snowed and hailed on are still hanging on. We will see how they do. I’ve begun to thin out the lettuce in the wheel barrow and will probably transplant some of the seedlings into the bed in front of the pepper plants.

We moved Brandy’s dog house. She was unhappy with being so far away from her people, so we brought it closer. We bought a grill as well, and we had the most lovely steaks tonight.

Last but not least, the rose bush is doing well, as are the herbs.

Now I can take a small break from gardening and work on websites, and sewing. I have a skirt to make for a friend and clothes to work on for Battlemoor. 🙂

Dirt!

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I am so exhausted. We’ve been trying to figure out how to dig enough garden for what we want to plant, and the thought of all the shovel work had daunted us. Then in conversation with Brian Rosino, he offered the use of a rototiller. Wheeee!

We picked it up this morning and started on the right half of the back yard. My mom’s yard is huge. After the first go round, we picked up weeds, raked and then took a break. After lunch we trimmed a tree and I took out three sucker trees in the yard. Those got chopped up and or saved out for trellis bits. Dan mowed the front yard while I did a lot of this. Then he mowed the back. While he did a second round of tilling, I raked up and moved the weeds to the area that will be our compost bins site.

Brandy of course thought we were nuts and took a nap in protest of all our work. We think we have about 500 sq ft of garden. 🙂 If the rains will cooperate, we will be planting squash, (3 kinds), pumpkins, radishes and whatever is left of the seeds from the side garden planting.

Around 4pm, we returned the rototiller. We finished up the last of the work in the back yard and then collapsed. Tomorrow is going to be a very stiff day. Even now my hands are aching from all of the weed pulling. Ugh!