Waiting is…

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We are under a Winter Storm Warning. One that had people scrambling for groceries, firewood, batteries, etc. It even canceled our SCA event, Corazon. I took my mom to the grocery for a few things and then for a bit of a drive. It was crazy. Oh, and 62F was our high temp today.

When I got home, I made bread, a plum cake and then a casserole. While it was baking, I helped Dan with the firewood. We heat with it, and we’ve been whittling down a ‘hedge’ of pine. Today, we cleared the last of it. What wasn’t chopped, split, or stacked went into the compost bin. It was so strange to see the yard clear. By the time we came in, it was 38. We now have a bunch of firewood. 🙂

Since I posted last, we’ve had a bit of snow. Nothing like my friend Kirsty, who has 7 feet in her front yard. She lives in Massachusetts.

I’ll post pictures if we really get the snow they say we will.

Same weather, different Month.

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It’s February! Wheee! Tomorrow is Groundhog’s day, and if he says another 6 weeks of winter, I may scream. Or cry. Or whimper. We did have a few glorious days where the weather got up to 65F for one day and others in the 50’s, but today we are back to snow, cold, 29F weather. Brrr! At least most of the storm yesterday was rain and it didn’t turn to snow until late last night.

That was appreciated, as we were chopping firewood. Our friend Mark stopped by and gave us a small load of wood. He said that the ‘wood fairy’ had told him were were short of wood. He was right. I was so stiff this morning, that the prospect of getting up was daunting! No choice though, as it was a Bob & Earl morning. Bob & Earl’s is a little greasy spoon cafe in Trinidad. My parents found it and fell in love with it. Now that we are their designated drivers, we take them to breakfast about three times a month. If the weather is good. Luckily, it wasn’t too bad today. On our way down, we saw a bald eagle sitting on a fence post. In fact, he was still there when we drove home.

B & E’s is sort of the Cheer’s of the cafe world. Everyone knows you. We were an hour later than usual, and when we walked in, Holly the waitress looked at us and smiled as she said, “You’re Late!”. We all laughed. As she brought us our drinks, she took our order. “Now let’s see… Jon, you want a Mexican biscuit and two links. Carolyn, waffles or an egg with bacon, and sourdough toast? Right. You (Dan) want a Mexican biscuit, no onion, but extra cheese, and you want a breakfast burrito, no cheese.” Then she walks off.

Breakfast arrived 20 minutes later. Ahhh heaven. After breakfast, we dropped my parents off, got some groceries and then headed home. I’m updating blogs while trying to resist curling up for a nap.

Other highlights… We had a couple of ice storms. Slippery, nasty things! Beautiful for pictures, but dangerous.

We took Morgan up to CSU, Ft. Collins, and she is doing well.

I’ve been making hats for the Clothing bank at our school, and helping clean up Washington school so that the community and the school district can use it more.

The district’s finance manager retired. This has thrown the district into a tizzy, but we will survive. We’ve had a bunch of meetings as of late as well. A BOCES retreat, workshops and lots of committee work.

We’ve also been doing a lot of clean up around the house and yard, getting ready for SPRING! (ie, the warmer snow season) We cut down a tree out front that was just so scraggly and stacked the wood to burn next year. We are planning a greenhouse as well.

Last but not least… We have an SCA day in 3 weeks. I’m considering a new outfit. I have the fabric, but not sure if I have the time to complete it. We shall see.

Colorado Breakdancing

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It’s been cold. Icy. Damn icy. Wednesday and Friday were horrid. On Wednesday, we took my mom to the library and grocery. Dan had to take her to the door, as I couldn’t stand up on the frozen parking lot. Everything was coated in ice. Oh, and the Subaru was sliding, even with 4wd!

Friday was no better. My meeting was canceled because I-25 was a skating rink. Dan and Morgan went to the store, and when they came back, Morgan fell, and Dan skidded all over the place. We were making jokes about Canadian Breakdancing coming to Colorado. In the end, just to walk between the woodpile and the Wendy House, we had to put down ashes.

Of course, we’ve had a couple of nice days up in the 50’s. Tomorrow isn’t one of them. Once more into the freezer. sigh…

Frro Frro Frrozen!

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Since Yule, we have had a lot of snow. Probably a foot all total, maybe a little more. We’ve also had really LOW temperatures. One night was -27C. Brrrr! Most nights have been -15C. On New Year’s Eve, the truck door froze, and Dan broke the handle trying to open the door.

Our pipes have been freezing every night, and today Dan ran an errand and left the tap open. He came back to find the Wendy House bathroom flooding out into the front porch area. Luckily, it was only about 25-30 gallons of water. I just laughed, and Brandy kept running up to me and barking as if to say, “Dad messed up! Dad made a mess!”

It’s also been cold enough that we’ve had both RedTom and Brandy in at night. We’ve had a furbaby detente,  with minimum growling and hissing. What made this really “fun” was that the first morning, we woke with about 8 inches between the dog and cat. Dan was the separator. This morning, Brandy had her head over Dan’s leg, so they were about 4 inches apart. Gaaah!

At least heat has not been an issue in the main part of the Wendy House. We replaced the two tin can lids with three brand new mica windows. The stove works so much better.

In the mean time, we’ve been catching up on reports for work, and a few other projects. I finished a pair of socks and on New Years Eve, we watched Longmire until the clock turned.

Plus, 2015 so far has been the year of meetings! I have 6 in the next week. Aieee! The pictures below are of the two snow storms, RedTom, and Brandy.

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Okay, it’s been like FOREVER since I last posted.

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It’s been busy. Never Ever let anyone tell you that taking care of your elderly parents is easier than babies. Nope. Not even gonna believe that. It’s been three months of adjustment and reorganizing. Between shopping, drives, housecleaning and just everyday things, my life has been HECTIC.

Plus, it’s been busy. Usually our lives slow down around the end of the Celtic Music Festival. Not this year! Our one client in Denver moved, and we’ve been doing a lot of work getting their new home tech ready. On top of that, having new admin in the school district has been interesting. We’ve gotten more done in the last few months than we have in the last few years. Oh, and Morgan goes off to College in January.

So, now for some highlights.

Sunday Drives. In trying to meld my parent’s schedule in with ours means that we try to take Sunday drives. We saw some brilliant aspen in October. November and December brought sunny but cold days with snow. We also try and have breakfast at this little diner in Trinidad, called Bob and Earl’s. It’s the kind of place you walk into and everyone knows each other. Good food too.

Along with this is the Wednesday shopping in Pueblo which has been fun and yet eaten my life!

The Spanish Peaks Community Foundation Gala.  A night to dress up and honor people in the community. It was a very nice evening and lovely to dress up!

Skunked! We were woken up out of a dead sleep around 3am. Our dog Brandy got skunked on the front porch of the Wendy House. We had to open all the doors and windows, and I sat up until nearly 6am, trying to breathe. Ugh…

So, instead of working on some of our various projects, we will be washing Brandy and her area along with bedding, curtains, etc. I hate skunks.

Halloween. Dan and I handed out candy on my parent’s front porch. We must have seen over 300 kids. It was a lot of fun, and the weather was so nice!

Outlander Yes, I’m a fan. The series was fantastic. And… All the costume work. So much of it that a group formed on Facebook with all sorts of knitting, sewing, crocheting, etc. I have knitted two shawls and a cowl. 🙂 One man put out a survivor’s guide.

School stuff Our new superintendent is great. We’ve worked out a lot of the issues that the district has had problems with in the last 6 months. We have a lot of new staff as well, and it seems to be going well. Plus, we took a big chance. We bought iPads for every student in the district. It’s been interesting. We’ve also started a clothing bank. Too many kids without coats or basics. We are running out of a class room. 🙂 I went to the CASB Winter Conference at the beginning of December as well. It was a really good conference. Lots of info, ideas and connections.

We’ve had a Veteran’s Day celebration which honored Vets from our community, and local nursing home, and some creative literary nights. Night at the Museum was a lot of fun. The One Room Schoolhouse was great too. We also had a holiday dinner at La Plaza. More dressing up. 🙂

Weather November had some bitter cold and snow. Brrr! December has had it’s surprises as well. We are having a white Christmas as there was about 6 inches of snow on the 22nd. Oh, and it’s going to snow on Boxing Day as well. (26th) Lots of deer in the yard too, eating everything.

The Wendy House. We painted! We trimmed! We built another raised bed and oh have we gathered, chopped, split and burned firewood! We got permission to trim up two dead trees and were given two loads of wood. Wow. Morgan teased us that we love Halloween so much that we live in a pumpkin. Oh, and we got a bathtub and on demand water heater for the bathroom! 

Family. My Great Uncle Richard Ridge passed away on Halloween. He was 91. My Great Aunt Ann Sudar had her 100th birthday on December 13th. That was a wonderful party with 75 friends and family present. I got to see a lot of Sudars I hadn’t seen in years.

The Great Experiment Dan and I have been looking into hydroponics and aquaponics. So, we tried a small inside experiment. There will be more on that on this blog. We learned some lessons and will be trying it again in the spring.

Thanksgiving. My sister and her family, my aunt and her family, my parents and my family all got together for Thanksgiving dinner. Eleven people for three days. Wow! It was really nice.

And now for some pictures. 🙂

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Rain, rain, rain, oh, and More Rain.

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It started yesterday. Just a wee mist of rain. My mom and I were running errands, and I swear that every time we got out of the car, it rained harder. By the time I got home around 4pm, it was cold, wet and miserable. The alley was dumping mud out onto the street like it did this summer. Our front porch leaked more and my sewing area was getting soaked. The wind did more damage to the roof than we’d realized. All the rain also meant that Dan and our friend Mark were not going to cut firewood.

So, today between taking my parents to the library and for a drive, I started moving my sewing room into the living room. I had to change how the room worked. I knew where I wanted my sewing stuff. That was the easy part. The difficulty started when I wanted to move my white cutting table in and place the tubbies of fabric. Keep in mind that all of the stuff which I’d been storing in Morgan’s room is now in the living room. Once I got to a certain point, I asked Dan for help.

Do you know what happens when you get one person with great spatial relations and an engineer in the same room trying to rearrange it? Chaos. 🙂 At one point, he tried to put a coffee table, a cedar chest, a lamp table and the rocking chair in the same 6 x 8ft space. It took a few hours, me landing on my arse at one point and a lot of furniture shuffling, but we figured it out.

As I was trying to figure out what to do with all the little knick knacks, I realized that Halloween/Samhain and my birthday were less than a month away. So, I had Dan get out the box of decorations and I decorated. 🙂 This is my favourite time of year.

Now we only have a small pile of stuff in front of the fireplace to find a new home before it gets too cold. (oh wait… it nearly is!) That and figure out what to do with the dining room table which is still living on the front porch.

Oh, there was one family member who wasn’t happy with the new arrangement. RedTom. He keeps waiting for the stuffed cat to jump him, and he just can’t get comfy.

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Bits and Bobs

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At least that’s what it feels like we’ve accomplished since we came home from Battlemoor. Lots of little jobs. Clean this area, cook dinners, work on the gardens or the Wendy House. One big improvement was storage. We ‘floored’ the loft over the kitchen and rearranged the storage. No more tubbies on the ground. Plus, we added coat hooks, hooks for the iron, etc. It makes life just a little more livable. I even had a Western Scrub Jay come check out RedTom’s food dish.

Some of the time has been spent with Morgan. Her 18th birthday was on the 10th. Wow has time passed. I made green chile and a carob mayonnaise cake. The recipe uses may instead of oil and eggs. Our friend Mark and his daughter Catherine came over for dinner and cake. It was a good evening. Thursday night we went to their house. Friday was chaos.  It was Cold! I think we got to 41F! Fire in the wood stove and heavier clothes than I’ve worn in months. Brrrr!

Inside there was packing, laundry and trash. Morgan was getting ready to move out. Dan took her to do laundry and a few errands. Morgan left for Fowler, a room mate and a job on Friday night.

Yesterday, Dan worked on organizing his office (an ongoing project) and concealing the network wiring. We no longer look like we live in an IT closet!

While he did that, I cleaned Morgan’s room, moved sewing storage tubbies in and made the last loaf of Artisan’s bread. This is the first time I’ve tried it. Very nice. I’ll be playing with the recipe over the next few months.

Then it was time to tackle the Wendy House. Threw all the scatter rugs outside, and emptied the bathroom and Brandy’s area. Swept, mopped, dusted, etc. I wiped down everything in the bathroom as I replaced and reorganized it. I hosed down the rugs and Brandy’s bedding. Most of them were too doggied to throw in a washer. While I was doing that, I got bit by red ants. Ugh… It burns! It swells! It makes me feel horrid! I slathered on Benadryl and kept going. Vacuumed the bedroom and swept the main living area. It was so nice for it to be clean.

Plus, while we were waiting for things to dry, I had a thought. Brandy would be warmer if her bed wasn’t on the floor. While trying to engineer this in my head, I was cruising Off Grid Quest, a website I visit. I came across one of the pallet stories and *POOF*! An idea was born. Dan went down to our local feed store which gives away pallets, and grabbed a load. A bit of circular saw work and Brandy had a bed platform. She was a bit uncertain at first, but it looks pretty good. We might fancy it up a bit, but for now, it works. We also have pallets for future projects and/or firewood.

Today is going to be low-key. I still feel like dreck from the ant bites and all the dust I ejected from the Wendy House. Dan mowed my parents yard and is finishing up the last of the office work. I’m going to make another batch of artisan’s bread and dinner with all of the veggies from the garden.

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Cold and Quiet

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It’s so quiet at the moment, I can hear the sound of snowflakes shushing across the roof. Yes, SNOWFLAKES. Third Winters anyone?

The week was busy. With Morgan home, we did a lot of things together. Ate out, watched ALL the Harry Potter movies, played on our computers and watched Morgan sleep. Amazing how much a college student sleeps! 🙂

On Saturday, it was 75! We did lots of gardening. Mowed the lawn, pulled weeds, moved rocks, moved more rocks, picked up trash and repotted a bunch of plants. We crawled into bed smelling of aspercreme and groaning like we were 90.

Sunday, we knew it was suppose to be cold. It’s why we didn’t plant anything outside. We made bacon cinnamon rolls for breakfast. yum!

As the day wore on, it got colder and colder. Then the thunder and rain began. Soon after, the snow. Yes, snow. In May! Have I mentioned that Colorado is menopausal this year? By mid afternoon, it was really snowing.

May 10th3

Morgan packed for her trip to California. Around 5:30pm, we left for Pueblo. As we drove north, the snow slacked off, which was fine. However, the winds made up for it. We had dinner at Chili’s and then met Ashleigh and her parents at the bus stop. We chatted and made sure the girls got on the bus for California. Then the drive home. Ugh! You know how in sci-fi movies they have the star fields that move towards you? Well, that’s what it was like all the way home.

This morning, we woke up to 8 inches of snow in our yard. It’s still snowing. It’s suppose to snow tomorrow too. Can we have our warmer weather back? I know we need the moisture, but how about rain? I’d like to plant out my rhubarb and raspberry canes before July.

I have lots of pictures, but I’m going to divide them into separate posts.

Second Winters

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Yeah, sort of like second breakfasts in Lord of the Rings.

2ndwinter

Why? Well… um… You saw the pics in the Albuquerque trip post. That snow left us with 4 inches. It was all gone by Tuesday, and it even warmed up a bit. Wednesday wasn’t bad either. A little cool in the morning. Hot by noon. I even hung out some of my laundry.

By 3pm, the clouds had rolled in and the rain started. I dragged the clothes in and hauled in firewood. It kept raining. By 5pm, we had snain. Yes, snowy rain. By 7pm, it was snow. We woke up to 4 inches of new snow and about 21F temps. Brrr!

Of course, by Thursday afternoon, most of the snow had melted, and the mud was awesome!

Today of course we had a high of about 73! Next few days are suppose to be in the high 60’s with rain. 70’s again by Tuesday. This weather is just crazy!

Today I did some sewing, and learned how to pick and place parts on circuit boards. Apparently from what Dan says, I’m pretty fast. Did 9 boards in the time he could have done 3 or 4. 🙂 Tomorrow we are doing my parent’s yard work, shopping in Pueblo and then working on the Wendy House closet! Whee! Pics when we are done.

A Trip to Albuquerque

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Yes, we ran away from home. Not because we had to go somewhere, like a conference, or a job, but because we wanted to go somewhere. April 12th is the anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s flight into space. People celebrate Yuri’s Night, with space oriented parties across the world. Friends of ours at Quelab, a maker space in Albuquerque were having a party. So, we realized a few truths… We had the money, time and desire to go. So, we did! It also gave us a chance to wear summer clothes, as the temps were suppose to be in the mid 70’s.

We left Friday afternoon and arrived in Albuquerque around 7pm. The drive had been easy, and as per our habit, I read aloud from our book of choice while Dan drove. Right now we are reading one of the Emberverse Series, The Scourge of God. It makes the time pass when we aren’t watching the scenery, and we get to share a good book.

Our hotel was in the Old Town area. A little noisy, but not bad. We called Greg, and asked him for a restaurant recommendation. We wanted something organic, local, etc. He said the Flying Star Cafe was a good choice. As it was a five minute drive, we went. Heaven! Droolable! And oh, the desserts! Plus, they have this drink, Red Stuff. Cranberry juice, red zinger tea and mint. Divine!

Saturday, we got up and went hunting for breakfast. This time, we went to the Grove Cafe & Market. Once again, great food, atmosphere and a delight. We waddled off to Old Town to do some shopping. After getting a little lost, we found the parking lot and headed out. What we didn’t realize was that it was also Albuquerque’s 308th birthday. There were booths, music, dancers and lots of people. This was a treat. We window shopped, took pictures and had fun. I got two Talavera bowls and two skeins of handspun Churro wool.

We headed off to Quelab around 1:30pm, met with Greg, toured Quelab and met some of the makers. Around dinnertime, we headed for another suggested eatery. The Two Fools Tavern. Suggested because Dan was wearing his Celtic Music Festival teeshirt. Once again, the food and beer was excellent.

The Yuri’s Night party started at 7pm. Low key, but nice. We got to meet more of the Quelab Makers, and Dan showed off the ground sphere receiver he made. We were there until about 9pm. On our way back to the hotel, we passed the Flying Star. Well, almost passed it. We stopped in and had dessert. Yum!

Sunday, we got up, packed and were headed home by about 9am. It was 75 degrees. We stopped in Las Vegas, NM, for lunch at Charlie’s Spic & Span Bakery. More good food, as well as fresh tortillas (6 dozen)and bakery treats for my parents. It was 66 degrees in Las Vegas.

By the time we stopped in Raton for gas, it was about 53 degrees. Do you see a trend? Well, it was raining on top of Raton Pass. Snowing by the time we were just north of Trinidad. Really snowing hard by the time we got home.

We ran a few errands, stopped by my parents to help them with their taxes and then headed home for the night. It was 40 degrees inside the Wendy House when I lit the fire in the wood stove. BRRRR!

After dinner, it started snowing harder. We woke up this morning to about 8 inches of snow. Ice beneath. So, today I’m staying next to the wood stove and playing on the computer. It was a great weekend away. I know the slide show is a bit long, but there were so many good pictures!

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