They said it would…

Posted on by

Snow that is. Yesterday started out sunny and warm. Around noon, the clouds rolled in and it began to rain. Not much at first. In fact, it was just enough to show us where all the leaks from the damage caused by the wind storms. I worked on my clothes for the SCA event next weekend and moved various buckets and cups to catch the drips.

While I was cooking dinner, the sound changed. The gentle pitter patter of rain drops turned hard. We looked out the window and sleet was falling fast. By the time we ate dinner 40 minutes later, there was an inch of slushy snow on the ground. Brrr!

I headed off to the Wendy House and the wood stove. Dan stayed inside and worked on the satellite receiver that has been eating his life. ugh. When he came to bed, we had about 5 inches.

This morning, we woke to nearly 8 inches of snow. Wow! It is a wet heavy snow, which means we will net about 1/2 an inch of water. Yes, 1/2 an inch out of all that snow. The general formula is 12 inches of snow equals 1 inch of water. Or, in other words, the 18 inches of rain that Boulder and areas north of us got last summer equals 18 FEET of snow.

I took some pictures. Brandy was a bit twitterpatted by a large raven that was nearby.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Wind Whistling

Posted on by

… through my ears, the walls and every crack it can find. We’ve had a lot of wind this year. The last really nasty gusts, 83mph, ripped our weather station off the roof. It still isn’t fixed, so now I check our local weather station. (63F and 20mph gusts right now) Our dog, Brandy, hates the wind. You’d think a coyote/Shepard mix wouldn’t mind. Wrong! So, we woke this morning to her whining and wanting IN!

WendyHouseWork10

Life is still hectic. While the last two weeks was busy with meetings and oddball schedules, the next two are travel heavy.

First off, I’m going to Denver tomorrow with my friend Jolene. We are going to IKEA to get stuff for her Pre-School class. Wednesday, after lunch with friends, Dan and I are off to Denver for a CASB Legislative Conference. It’s at the Brown Palace Hotel. Very swanky. 🙂 A pull out the high heels and leave the cowboy boots at home kind of thing. The last day of the conference is spent at the Capitol, meeting legislators.

When we get home, if the weather will allow, we will be doing more work on the Wendy House. Closets and maybe book shelves. That will open up the area and get our clothes out of the ‘dust zone’. 🙂

We’ve also been slowly whittling down our electric bill by using LED lights. Our next step may be solar and DC powered lights. We figured out how to replace the AC bulbs with DC LED lights, and not have to totally rewire. (thank you Scott!)

I’ve also got just under three weeks to get ready for Corazon. I bought a new book last night, Great Book of Celtic Patterns, by Lora S, Irish. Lots of very nice patterns to use with my Viking persona, Unna Farulfsdottir.

Wow! What is that blue stuff?

Posted on by

Oh yeah… The sky. We’ve had a couple of short rain showers, but for the most part, we’ve had lovely sunny weather. Dan says it is because I’m working on coats for Battlemoor. 🙂 All the sun has allowed us to finally mow our weeds out front. They were hip tall on me! Maybe next week we will attack the back yard. Right now, our dog plays hide and seek in the weeds.

Also over the last few weeks, Dan has worked for the school district as a contractor. Since we only have the one truck, sometimes it means we have to shuffle schedules. It’s been a long week. A really long week.

Monday: Teacher inservice breakfast meet and greet.
Tuesday: Take Mom to Dorcas and a school board meeting. Also first day of school
Wednesday: Cleaned parents house, did laundry. School district IT interviews in the evening.
Thursday: Did not feel well.
Friday: Ran errands in Pueblo and got the oil changed on the truck.
Saturday: Breakfast with parents, did yard work for parents.

Along with all of that, I’ve taken Dan to work, run my own errands, worked on SCA clothing for Battlemoor, and tried to keep up with all the “Regular” stuff.

Tomorrow, we take Morgan back to college.

I am so ready for our vacation in 9 days!!!

Rain, Glorious Rain!!!

Posted on by

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.

Weekend Entertainment.

Posted on by

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.

May Blizzards…

Posted on by

Well, nearly. We had snow yesterday and a few flakes today. I know I’ve groused a bit about all the snow, but the weather changes have really caused my parents and Dan pain. The flip flop between the weather cycles plays havoc with their arthritis. Plus, for the first time since we left England nearly 20 years ago, I’ve had pain in my hands. sigh…

The last two days of April were in the 80’s and Dan and I did some major construction work on the back yard. We are getting ready to put a green house in along with a few other bits and pieces. Yes, we are doing more work on the Wendy house. 🙂 I have a ceiling fan to go in for summer breezes and winter heat management. We are going to add a composting toilet to the Wendy house as well.

The weather this year has not been kind to the two houses or the yard either. The winter winds blew down the fence to the point where we had a choice. Trash it or move it. We chose to move it. Now that the stone work is done, it looks like it has always been there. When it warms up, I plan to hit it with some white spray paint and then decorate it. I’m thinking flowers or something sort of art deco. I’m still thinking about it.

As soon as the ground is dry-ish, we will be re-digging the trench and laying water pipes. We are planning to run water for the Wendy house and the green house which will be to the SW of the Wendy house by about ten feet if that. Once the pipes are in place, we will begin to level the ground for the first keyhole garden and green house. We spent half a day playing with various layouts. That of course was after Dan loaded up Visio. 🙂

We have been discussing reusing anything and everything we can in the yard. We have lots of building materials and there is a cabinet that I’m going to turn into a potting bench. It has drawers and shelves. We are going to use one of the old doors for one side, old curtain rods and a shelf for a bench and some corrugated roofing from the shed for a roof. Then I think I am going to apply liberal amounts of paint in loud colours. 🙂

Here are some pictures of how things have changed over the last eight years. Yes, progress has been slow, but the budget has been $0.00. The last pics are of RedTom, our cat and Brandy our dog, irises, etc.

Blizzard!

Posted on by

If I had waited just a bit, I could have written about yesterday. I woke up early thinking it was a little cold. Just a tad. Brandy was curled up deep in her blankets and when I looked outside it was snowing. Between the winds and the size of the flakes, it looked like I was in the middle of a snow globe. I went back to bed.

A few hours later, we all got up. I made breakfast and we ate it in the dining room. Out the windows, we were able to watch the wind slew the snow sideways, and the cars not cope well with the icy roads. Once breakfast was done, we moved into the guest house and fired up the wood stove. While the temperatures dropped to as low as 14, we were toasty warm. Morgan reigned from the bed while Dan used a tv tray. I had my desk, which faces the windows and let me watch the storm. That snow globe weather didn’t stop until nearly 6pm.

Rather than cook, we splurged. Yeah Taco Bell! 🙂 It’s funny when we go there, because one of the staff is a friend and she knows what I want before I speak most days. Okay, I’m not very adventurous, but at least it isn’t difficult to take the cheese out of what I want to eat. Dan and Morgan pigged out on chicken tenders while I had tacos. Then we came home, fed the wood stove and chatted, played on the computers until midnight and in general had a good time.

Today the sun is shining and the temps so far have hit 40F. That’s good, as we have to take Morgan back to college today. sigh… I’m just happy we had her for a week. She gets to take home transport this time. Her half brother Matt finished her bicycle at long last. Her commute has just dropped to 5 minutes. We head to La Junta later this afternoon. March Blizzard3

March Madness

Posted on by

I could have entitled this post Yet one more snow storm… but I didn’t. On Mach 8th, we had more snow. 14 inches all total. Brandy was not a happy dog.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Then on the 15th, Dan went to La Junta to pick up our daughter, Morgan. It is spring break for her. On Sunday, we drove to the Sand Dunes NP. We had a long drive over all, as we went all the way up to Crestone and to the Karma Thegsum Tashi Gomang  It had just started to snow when we headed up the road to the Stupa.  By the time we got up to it, it was snowing very hard, so instead of getting out and looking around, we headed back down the mountain. In less than 20 minutes, there had been over 2 inches of snowfall.

On our way back to the Sand Dunes, we saw over 100 Sand Hill Cranes. It was really neat. The rest of our animal count that day was two hawks flying and about 45 prong horn antelope.

The Sand Dunes also got a dusting of snow. The moisture made the walking easier. Morgan climbed up to the second highest dune and rolled down it twice. Plus she hiked about twice the distance that Dan and I did. I walked the creek bed of Medano Creek. It wasn’t very far down the dunes yet, and there was a lot of fire debris from the forest fire two years ago. Overall, we had a really good time and came home exhausted.

The rest of the week has been spent relaxing. Morgan has had naps with her naps. 🙂 I’ve been writing and doing hand crafts. I’ve been carving Nalbinding needles. They fit in with my Viking persona in the SCA. I may be good enough to actually show it off come time for Battlemoor.

Nalbinding needles.16Oh, and just in case Colorado thought that it might give us a week off, there is more snow due on Saturday. sigh..

 

 

A Snowy Tuesday

Posted on by

It’s been a while since I felt like writing. On January 18th, after some of the most bitter temperatures in a while, I headed to Cheyenne. It had been 39 Very Long Days since I’d seen Dan. I swear that the travel fairies were with me as I literally flew up I-25. It is usually a 4.5 hour trip and I made it in just under 4 hours. 🙂 It was so good to be together again.

We had a computer client in Denver on Saturday. When we got back, we packed up all of Dan’s stuff and came home on Sunday afternoon. He will continue to look for work, but that will be done from here, instead of Cheyenne. Neither one of us liked being apart.

This last week has been hectic. Meetings, rearranging the house once more to accommodate the offices to the front porch where it is warm, and dinner with my parents. In that Dan missed Christmas dinner, he got to pick what he wanted for dinner. We had fried chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans with bacon. Mom made oatmeal cookies with butterscotch chips for dessert.

Friday we had a Spanish Peaks International Celtic Music Festival meeting. We are planning for the 9th Festival. It looks like it will be very good.

 

On Sunday we had a birthday party with a group we are a part of called Mach30. It was fun.  Monday was interesting. Dan got an offer to build some electrical parts for a local WISP. It is exciting and should actually net us some income. We had a school district meeting as well that lasted until nearly 8pm.

Today we were suppose to go visit Morgan in La Junta. It was going to be a quick trip as I had yet another school board meeting tonight. Well, we woke up to about 4 inches of snow with more falling. Right now I think we have had about 6-7 inches. The wind has settled down, but the snow is still falling. We stayed home and I canceled the meeting. My parents didn’t go to Pueblo either. They got about 25 miles up the road and turned back. About 30 minutes ago I took some pictures. We are snugged up in the Guest house keeping warm by the woodstove. 🙂

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Before I forget…

Posted on by

We did have a white Christmas. It was lovely. I spent the day with my parents, Daniel and his SO Angela and Morgan. We had a lovely dinner, but missed Dan. He of course is still in Cheyenne.

A few days later, once the snow had melted, I had a young buck in my front yard eating berries. I stood next to our truck and tried to take pictures, as our tomcat, Redtom, was stalking the deer. I startled the deer, which in turn saw the cat. They startled each other and both ran. A few minutes later, the buck came back to eat berries and Redtom kept his back to the buck with the “That was NOT a mouse!” look on his face.

New Year’s was interesting. I spent most of the time trying to calm down Brandy, our dog, who did not care for the fireworks. She was upset until at least 4am. Yawwwwn… I ate dinner with my parents and Mom sent Brandy a bag full of ham scraps and bones. It helped. 🙂

I am hoping that 2013 will be a good year.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.