Stats Explosion!

Posted on by jsudar

Well, now I know how to make my stats on views go crazy. All I have to do is post a new tutorial in the SCA section. 🙂 1367 views just today. Last time I had this many was when I posted about the Viking Hat. That was 1490 views.

Meanwhile, I’ve had a quiet week. Two days of no meetings, no crazy adventures. For the most part, I’ve been sewing, picking lovely tomatoes, working on websites and had lunch at George’s. 🙂 Tomorrow we are off to Pueblo. Shopping of course. King Soopers, Gagliano’s Deli, Walmart and then Chinese for lunch. Ahhh…

Oh, and sewing during the drive. I have a tunic to finish!

Yet Another Crazy Week.

Posted on by jsudar

We thought it was going to be fairly easy. (yeah, you can start laughing now) Our friend Ethan was heading from California to Colorado to be our new STEM teacher. Well, at first he was suppose to arrive on Sunday at midnight. That didn’t happen. He left California on Sunday afternoon. Keep in mind that it is a 14+ hour drive and he was due to start work at 11:30am on Monday.

Well… at some point, he realized that he wasn’t going to cope. He and Dan talked and they decided to meet in Las Vegas, NM. Dan told me of this plan around midnight. (insert cussing) So, we went to bed and got up at 4am. We had time enough to dress, and head out the door. Awwwgh!

We got to Las Vegas at 7am. We had breakfast at Charlie’s Spic and Span Bakery. Bought tortillas, macaroons and sugar cookies. I drove Ethan’s car and Dan drove the truck while Ethan sort of slept.

We got to school with 30 minutes to spare. Dan went home and Ethan and I went to New Teacher orientation. When it was over, we headed home as Ethan was staying with us. He napped while I made a salad. Why? Well, because at 5:30, we had the Staff and Family BBQ. Ethan, Dan, Mom and I went. It was a lot of fun.

Tuesday we got up and Ethan and I went to the first Teacher Inservice day. I only had to be there for a few hours. Then I headed off to work on signatures for my petition, and a few other things. Yes, I’m running for school board again. We had a Town Hall meeting at Washington School as well. An attempt to get people to understand what the school district is up against and how everyone should work together. We had 25 people. Not bad, but it could have been better.

Wednesday, a repeat of the day before, only I cleaned up the clothing bank. Thursday I went up to Gardner and taught some of the staff how to run a WordPress site. 🙂 In a fit of craziness, I volunteered to do the district’s websites. At least start them up. Overall, it saved the district about $5000. They look pretty good too.

Friday… Mom and I went shopping while Dan figured out why his computer fried. He was trying to get the SQUARE program set up on the website for the Celtic Music Festival. He’s had a lot of frustrations. Oh, and everyone has been asking when will it be done. Aieee-ya! We went to Bargain Box and I found some neat stuff for Battlemoor!

Today… Celtic Music Fest Board meeting. We are about a month out from the festival, and everyone is a bit edgy. Frustrated. Panicked. So, tempers got a little warm. The dust is now settled, but… there is still work to do. If you like Celtic music, check it out. Better yet, Come to the festival. If you can’t come, donate towards a good cause!

Tomorrow is gardening for me and sewing work on the bespoke tunic. Dan will be battling with SQUARE, and we will both help Ethan move into his new home.

Enough!

Posted on by jsudar

The last two weeks have been.. Hell. Not the kind where you feel the ship sink or the train heading to run you over. No, this is more like being nibbled to death by ants or ducks. I don’t think I could even start to list all the wonky things that have gone on, but here are the highlights:

  • The president of the Celtic Music Festival resigned because of health reasons. Then the treasurer resigned. The only officer left? Me. We are meeting Saturday to see what we can do.
  • Car repairs. New tires, one tire replaced after the new tires. (curb bite) Two new CV joints. Still stuff to do.
  • Heat. Nuff said.
  • Late nights in spite of attempts to go to bed early.
  • People not thinking before they email 6-12 others with erroneous information. Argh!!!!
  • School stuff. OMG. Resignations. Interviews. More interviews. Special meetings to hire people. (4) Oh, and at last count, 20 new staff members. Keep in mind that we have just under 70 all total in the district. And… issues finding housing.
  • Our Superintendent having health issues. Emergency room to hospital to minor surgery. Gahhh!
  • Schedule changes. I don’t think we’ve gone a day without something being shuffled.
  • New bespoke sewing project. Good for the reputation and the pocket book, but have I had time to sew? NO!
  • Contract canceled, and another one just starting. The waiting is crazy. Meanwhile, the bank account dwindles. Oh, and trying to work from Mom’s house is problematic.
  • The land we wanted to buy hit access issues and neighbor issues. So, we start again.

Walsenburg also had a ‘brain fart’ yesterday. Two attempted suicides. One by train. An assault that ended up with shots being fired at police, and an arrest. Plus tire slashings, a semi rear ending a car and other bits of mindless stupidity.

One of the few good things going on is that our garden is going gang busters! I harvested the first crookneck squash and green beans. 🙂

I am hoping that the only thing on my schedule tomorrow will remain harvesting veg, cooking dinner and sewing. Keep your fingers crossed!

 

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. 🙂

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!

Weather…

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We have had crazy weather. Sun, sleet, rain, hail, and now snow. We woke up to 2 inches of it. Luckily it wasn’t cold enough to damage the herbs and other plants.

It was a weird start to a very busy week. Lots of meetings. We also have to pick up Morgan on Friday. I think we will collapse on Saturday.

Gardening!

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We have slowly been making over bits of the yard into garden. Some of the work has been transplanting stuff from the other house. Other bits are new. I used the rocks we had gathered a few months ago to make boundaries for various beds. We have seen growth in the rhubarb, roses and irises. Most of the herbs and potted plants survived as well. I have had to replant parsley, lavender and basil. We bought tomatoes and a beautiful yellow daisy for mom. As we’ve cleaned up the yard, we found tulips hiding in the deep grass and under grapevines. We still have more lawn to mow and then plant the squash and green beans in the areas Brandy can’t reach.

Time to begin a new chapter

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In that crazy thing called life. Eight weeks ago, life went to hell in a handbasket. Every time something happened, I thought… “It can’t get any crazier, complicated, worse.” Well, it did. It’s been two weeks since Dad died. We had all the family here that weekend. Aunt Toni and her son Kris, Lori and Bill, Jill and Daniel. It was hectic, sad, wonderful and productive.

While so much of the family was here, we went through a lot of Dad’s stuff. We sorted out clothes, backpacks, drawers full of stuff and even set some aside to look at later. We also moved Dan and I into the bedroom that had been my parents computer room. A door to slam at last. 🙂 First pics are with Daniel and Mom and how the room looked. The next three are how it changed. It was a lot of work. Thank goodness for Bill, Lori and Daniel’s help!

The last of the company left on Monday, and Tuesday we were heading up to take a bunch of stuff to the ARC and then buy some groceries. Just as we were getting ready to leave, the phone rang. It was Tara! She and Celestial had driven all the way from Kentucky to see GiGi (my mom, Great Grandma). So, we had a whirlwind 3 day visit. It was wonderful.

They left on Thursday, and it was time to try and get back into the swing of things. Meetings, work and gardening. More on that later.