May hit like a Mac Truck!

Posted on by jsudar

I swear, one minute life was okay. Next… wow! I feel like I haven’t had a minute to breathe. Oh wait… yeah.. last Tuesday between meetings.

Since last I wrote, I’ve attended 8 or 10 meetings. School board, Celtic Music Fest, District Accountability, SCA, and a few others. Some of them, more than once.

We’ve had really cold weather. In fact, nearly a foot of snow.29April2

We had plunged back into winter.

Then, a few days later, it was cool, but more like Spring. On April 30, we attended Aarquelle’s Newcomer’s event in Pueblo West. I hauled out the warm SCA clothes we’d worn to Viking Vinter Vonderland. It was a great day and the after party at THL Generica’s was grand.

It snowed on May Day. The next day it was warm enough to work in the garden at 203. I removed trash, plastic under the dirt, trimmed various plants, lifted rocks, etc. Wore myself out! But… the yard was looking better. Silly me, I did it again the next day. I even got my nephew to help.

May 8th, Mother’s Day. We had fighter practice in Trinidad. 🙂 We even had a local cop stop by. He wanted to take pics and one with him in it. We obliged.

The next week was Hectic! Why? Well… because it was Spring Coronation! More on that in the next post.

Progress!

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The breakfast nook is done. The furniture is moved in! The bathroom needs a little work. It needs a new wax seal on the toilet, a wall area patched and painted, and eventually the tile board taken out of the shower stall. It will be replaced with tile to match the rest of the shower stall. Otherwise, it is usable.

I brought over 99% of my craft stuff today too, and began to organize the studio. The baker’s rack shelf needs a little adjustment before I can use it. The wardrobe is filled, and oh my… I had forgotten I had so much fabric.

Dan did some work downstairs as well. He is beginning to set up his office space. I still need to bring my desk over, but that won’t happen until we have internet.

The next two days will be sort of ‘light duty’ as we have a meeting on Tuesday. Lots of good thoughts about the job would be appreciated. We have work up in Castle Rock on Thursday. However, I’m feeling so much better about what we are getting done. My next big task will be arranging the kitchen. Aieeee-ya!

Life has been…

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Crazy? Stressful? Awkward? Daft? Over and under booked? Yeah. All of those.

Meetings. Hello, my name is Jaye, and I have a serious case of S.T.P. Syndrome. (Same Ten/Twenty/Thirty People at a meeting.) It comes of living in a small rural community, where there just aren’t enough people around to fill out all the various positions at a meeting. I’ve had board meetings, committee meetings, Maker group meetings, SCA meetings, festival meetings, etc. I’m still the school board president, and Celtic Music Festival chair. I’ve tried to resign as secretary from the district accountability group. (DAAC) I’ve cheered when some of them have been canceled. And… I’ve had to set up a few. sigh… I think I need Meetings Anonymous… (oh wait… that’s another meeting!)

Cars. A couple of weeks ago, my parent’s Subaru started acting up. A mysterious oil leak. Turned out that the engine had a fault, that all Subaru’s of that era and engine type develop. We took it to our favourite mechanic who suggested we take it to a place in Pueblo. After an hour, that place got back to us. Their recommendation… Junk it. The cost of the repair was prohibitive, and no guarantee that it would stay fixed. The result is that we have a new to us Subaru. It’s a 2000 Forester. Runs well, and Dan has been making the minor repairs it needed.

new car

Work has been crazy. Line up a job, have it canceled. Think we have a free day, job pops up. The inconsistent income is driving me crazy. However, it has had an upside. We were able to move 99% of our stuff out of storage and into the garage. Granted, that doesn’t mean I’m any more organized. We tried to find some of the stuff we needed like clothing, some dishes, etc. Found about 45% of what we were looking for. Oh well… At least I got my desk! I have missed it!

mydesk

Meanwhile, the last of the garden was harvested. Onions and leeks. 🙂 We still have kale outside, but at the moment it lives under a plastic box. I’m using them up as fast as I can. There isn’t any more room in the freezers for a shred more of food.

Leeks and onions

I also turned 56 on November 9th. It was an alright birthday. I had lots of stuff to do, so I didn’t get to indulge myself in snuggling in a chair with a good book and being waited on hand and foot by Dan. sigh… There is always next year. I did get some nice prezzies though. A tool box, and a coloring book. 🙂

While I don’t expect things to calm down or mellow out any time soon, at least I have things to occupy my time!

Last but not least, it snowed!

Finding time!

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It’s been crazy. We got back from Battlemoor and went into full on “Celtic Music Fest” mode. We had a great time, in spite of some last minute panic attacks, late teeshirts and a few other bits. Check out the website to see pics of the festival.

We’ve been working on emptying our storage locker and moving it all to my mom’s garage. This is in between shopping trips, packing away most of the summer clothes, rain storms, meetings, my nephew visiting, dog sitting, trying to find work, working, checking out our 1/4th of an acre of land, and school district issues.

Our executive secretary lost her grandma and husband in the span of two weeks. She’s devastated, and the office is just a tad scattered. Plus, we’ve been losing teachers. They simply can’t cope with rural Colorado and the needs of our students. The ‘funny side’ to this is that Dan is getting his substitute teacher’s license and will be replacing the STEM teacher.

Tomorrow we are off to work in Castle Rock. Aieee-ya!

Getting back to normal

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Or, whatever that is!

Monday we unpacked. We moved the TVLH into the garage and while I worked on sorting clothes, dishes and other bits, Dan worked on paperwork and Mark 2 of the TVLH. (yes, ideas were burning up his brain!) I did a lot of computer work as well. All those pics! Oh, and I wrote an article for the newspaper.

Tuesday I did laundry, put clean dishes away, had a Celtic Music Fest and a School Board meeting. At the meeting, it was announced that we don’t have to hold an election. As there were only four candidate petitions, and only four seats open, we are automatically rolled in. 🙂 It saves the district over $10,000. Oh, and I folded more clothes than I thought possible. I swear that they multiplied in the dryer. Wrote a letter to the editor about someone’s bad behavior too!

Today we went to Pueblo and got groceries. This afternoon, I’m taking delivery of the CMF office boxes and harvesting veggies out of the garden. More zucchini to shred!

I’ve also added a few pics. I forgot my bracelets and the forks that Dan made. This evening, I plan to organize all of the crafts stuff. I want to get started on sewing EARLY rather than late. No more finishing a project the night before a war!

Switching Centuries

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Last week was a small bit of hell. There is an event in late winter which we had planned to attend. This is Corazon de Leon III. It’s held in La Veta and put on by our own shire. Shire Villaleon. I wanted to make some new clothes for the event, as it is a Winter event. A nice balance to Battlemoor, held at the end of August.

I bought the fabric in November, and figured that I’d have PLENTY of time to make two hats, a tunic and a new overdress. Silly me. Life in it’s own way got busy. So, on February 1st, I put my foot down. I was going to SEW! Keep in mind that my sewing studio is unheated. If you go back through my posts, you’ll notice something… Every one of them from November on has the word SNOW in the title. Can you see my problem? It was too cold most days to sit on the front porch and sew.

I also forgot to mention something. On February 19th, when we were up in Denver for the CASB Legislative conference, I slipped and broke my nose. Yes, big goose egg on my head, slight concussion and of course, the obligatory Black Eyes from hell. I managed one day at the conference before the bruises bloomed, but that was it.

It also put my behind schedule, because I just didn’t feel good enough to use a little tiny needle…

March 1st. Of course, there was snow. I managed though to plan out Dan’s hat.

March 2nd. Sewed, ripped, sewed, ripped the hat. Finally realized I needed fur. Rabbit fur. We had to order it. Fast.

March 6th. Cut out my dress and Dan’s tunic. Did a little sewing.

March 8th. It snowed, but I actually got some stuff done. Worked on the viking coat a little and did the last minute drafts for the tunic pattern. Keep in mind, that unlike most modern sewing patterns, medieval patterns are sketched and measured onto the fabric.

March 10th. Meetings. Awgh! Sewing like a crazy person. I used the machine on the major straight seams. All the flat feld seams and hems done by hand. 

March 13th. Dan’s hat is done, as is his tunic and the main portion of my apron dress.

March 14th. While with my parents in Colorado Springs, I’m sewing like crazy. Dad is suppose to be in hospital for bladder surgery, but instead we ended up in ER. They thought he had a stroke. Craziness ensues. Dad ends up spending the night in hospital, and we go home. Only good thing… I finished my hat.

March 15th. Corazon. Well, we managed to be there for about 3 hours. sigh… At least we got to see some friends and wear our new clothes for a few hours. Later that day we went up and got my Dad. No stroke, but not sure what happened. A very rough weekend.

Here are the pictures of the clothes and some of Corazon. This coming week, I’ll be doing some adjustments to the apron dress.

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Wind Whistling

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… 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.

Dratted Cold Continues

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We did have a few warm weeks. However, Ground Hog’s day saw us plunge back into arctic weather. Snow and COLD. It was -22 Wednesday night. it would have been alright except for the wind rattling the trees and plunging us into wind chill cold. Speaking of wind, we had one tremendous wind storm just over a week ago. Just before it ripped the weather station off of the house, it registered 83mph.

It’s been busy since I posted last. Lots of school board meetings, stacking firewood, trips to Pueblo for all sorts of things, stacking more firewood, trips to Denver, moving more firewood, working on organizing the crafts area, taking care of my parents and their house, working on knitting and nalbinding needles, and trying to stay warm!

I have to admit that I am so glad that we have our little woodstove. It is our sanity saver even if it seems like all I do some times is move, stack, restack and move more firewood. 🙂

We are getting ready to build the closet in the Wendy House. Two weeks ago while it was still warm, we built a small cover for the plumbing and I bricked in part of the patio area next to the Wendy House. The cover worked pretty well, until two nights ago. It was too cold for any plumbing. At least we use Pex, and that is pretty sturdy.

I’m hoping to get the craft area fixed up this week if it is warm enough. I want to finish up a few projects and get going on some that have been burning my brain. 🙂 We have Corazon in about a month, and I want some things done so that we have warm gear! 🙂 I did get my socks done. I only did the first one in August, and didn’t do anything else for nearly 6 months.

Well, off to finish dinner. Italian onion soup. 🙂

Oh what a crazy month!

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This month has been crazy. Chaotic. Dizzying. Now, I thought it was a little crazy, because I spent most of the first week at the CASB Winter Conference. This is the big school board association conference held every year at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. It was a very good, although COLD conference. Average temperature was about 13F outside for most of the week.

I went up on the 4th, as I was presenting at the New Boardmember’s Boot Camp Workshop. 🙂 Five minutes of fame. LOL! Well, it started snowing on Wednesday morning and I was taking a school district vehicle. The VAN. A huge 12 passenger van, which made me feel like a five year old. I nearly needed a step ladder to climb in. Granted, it was nice to have the weight, as I was driving in snow and on ice most of the time.

This was also the first time in almost a year that Dan couldn’t come with me. As it was so cold, he stayed home to keep Brandy from turning into a Pupcicle. We had no one to feed her or dog sit her, so there was no choice but for him to stay.

Thursday was great. I went to my first session about Rural districts and then presented that afternoon. Five minutes on ‘how data is important.’ The rest of the conference was good, and I was very glad to get home on Sunday. Once I got home, we went and picked Morgan up from La Junta. Monday, I spent time with Daniel and Angela. We went shopping in Pueblo and had a great time. I should have gone to a District Accountability meeting, but I didn’t make it.

Tuesday was our board meeting. A long one, but good. Thursday was busy. Two events. A school holiday party and a school district office party. Sort of stacked together, but we managed both. 🙂 Good thing they were next door to each other.

Friday, we drove to Denver. We did a bit of shopping and on Saturday we saw our computer client. Got home late Sunday. The week started out busy. A trip to Pueblo, work for Dan, the holiday program at Gardner on Wednesday, cleaning my parents house and then up to Denver again on Thursday because our computer client was having weird issues. Friday we did shopping and then drove home late.

Saturday was Solstice. Yule. We got up at dawn and enjoyed the sun rise. Then instead of a nice breakfast, we had to check on the school wrestling tournament. Should have been a 10 minute stop. Nope. It wasn’t. At noon, I left to go help my dad stack a cord of firewood. I was done in 90 minutes, and went back to the wrestling tournament. We were there till about 7pm. Afterwards, we grabbed dinner and then collapsed in bed.

We woke up to snow this morning. Today we did odd jobs around the house and tried to relax a bit. Oh, and Dan built a faux satellite transmitter to test his ground station. The rest of the week isn’t looking much calmer.

This is the song that I woke up with on Solstice.

First Real Snow of the Season

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Tuesday night, on the way back from a candidates forum, we stepped outside into a gentle snow storm! Wet heavy flakes. We lit our first fire of the season in the wood stove and enjoyed the warmth as the world turned white.

We woke up on Wednesday morning to 4 inches of thick, wet snow. Gardner got 14 inches and lost power, so there was no school. I took some pictures. By the time we left for work, it was warm enough to not need a jacket. By the afternoon, you could barely tell it had snowed in town, although the Spanish Peaks were glorious.

We are suppose to get more snow tomorrow morning. I’m hoping it is light as we have construction work to do on Saturday.

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