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.
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.
Steph armoring up
Lothar (Dan) and the local policeman
The Fighters
The fighters plus the policeman
The next week was Hectic! Why? Well… because it was Spring Coronation! More on that in the next post.
At some point last night amidst the snow, thunder and wind, a tree fell in the back yard. My  nephew went to let the dog out around midnight and discovered it. Luckily, it missed the house and the tiny Viking longhouse. Once the snow melts and the ground dries up a bit, we will be cutting it up with the chain saw.
Yesterday it was 70. Warm, sunny and lovely. Dan and my nephew moved my desk into the studio, and I continued to unpack boxes and put things away.
reassembling the desk.
Easing on the rolltop
Clunk!
All dressed up and ready to go.
They forecast snow for today. Yeah… Every time they have done that, we’ve gotten a dusting. Well, this morning we woke up to snow. About 6 inches. It snowed hard, and we now have about 14 inches of snow. Wet heavy snow. After a trip to the store and Dan fishtailing into the fence which cracked a taillight, we went over to 203 Walsen. There, we discovered there was no power. The heavy snow had broken the lines. We did a few things and came home. Maybe tomorrow…
Okay. Weather or progress. Hmmm… Progress. Yesterday, we got all the cupboard doors on the cupboards! This was in spite of the fact that some of the hardware was missing, and that we had to buy some new hardware and juggle other bits. Then I got to put dishes away!!!! Yes, I’m a little enthusiastic. However, you have to understand that other than book boxes, kitchen boxes are the most numerous.
Pantry
Pot rack
Left side cupboards
Right side cupboards
Today I continued to work on the kitchen. I pulled boxes out of the guest room and reorganized a bit. I even had empty boxes to put in the guest room! I pulled boxes from the living room as well, putting them where they belonged. I’m in the process of emptying the living room in order to paint it.
Now for the weather. We woke up this morning to about an inch of snow. Between making the bed and breakfast, the sky opened up and dumped six inches! By the time we headed over to the house it was eight. When we left the house this evening around 7pm, there was over a foot of snow!
Yesterday was cold! We got about 4-5 inches of snow, and the sun slipped in and out of the clouds all day. Yet we had a wonderful surprise. Visitors! Granted, they were rather shy and just walked around the yard, but it was great. Pics below.
A fire in the fireplace
It was cold in the house today, and we lit our first fire in the fireplace. It was a little smokey, but we figured we’d need to clean the fireplace. Dan finished fixing the stairs, so the trip to the basement is no longer an accident waiting to happen. The paint in the library dried, and I will need to do a second coat. The bathroom needs a second coat as well. Once that is done, and a few touch ups are made in the guest room, we will begin to move things into place. Book cases, books, and furniture. We will be moving tools into the furnace/tool room as well. The house is really looking good.
We had a great time. It was held at Pueblo Mt. Park. The drive up was nice after the hectic morning of preparing the last of the food and packing up the truck. We left 40 minutes late, but we weren’t the only ones a bit late.
We took our little campstove, and while Dan heated up bread rolls in the oven, I began to roll/flatten out the rye flatbreads. We cooked about 50-60 of them. While it was a little cold, it wasn’t too bad.
The donation luncheon and challenge table was filled with luscious food. I contributed cabbage and venison soup, rye flat bread, a salad, plum cake with plum sauce, a Viking version of deviled eggs, tea, milk and sugar.
There was lots of good conversation and fun. I participated in a persona challenge. I was asked questions about Unna Farulfsdottir, and it was very interesting. I didn’t win, but it gave me a lot to think about. I also participated in the largess contest. I entered my 5 Valkyries. I got a penannular brooch in return for participating.
Finally, we headed home around 5pm. We were happy and worn out. A great day.
The last few days have been busy. Between dealing with John’s death and preparing for Thanksgiving, I’m ready to curl up and just read a book!
We had a really good dinner. Fourteen of us! Lots of good food, conversation and decent weather. It did snow Thursday night and most of Friday. It made taking Morgan back to Ft. Collins a bit dodgy, but we managed. Lori and family left Saturday. Toni and family left this morning. Stefan is still here, and we are enjoying his company.
Next week will be busy with John’s funeral up at Ft. Logan cemetery, and the big CASB conference in Colorado Springs. After that, we help Beth sort out the house. Maybe by Yule, I can sit down and relax.
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.
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!
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.
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. 🙂
My tool box
The 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!
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.
Tomato cage loops and the wheel barrow.
Brandy and the back yard
Front yard
Herbs and snow
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.
Are not suppose to be white? Umm… It was cloudy and rainy yesterday morning. Around noon, it started to snow. By dinner time, we had about 3 inches.
Snow starting to fall while at the local library
Snowy garden
It has warmed up today, and a lot of it is melting. We are expecting low temps tonight, and will be covering things to hopefully prevent frost damage. On average, we are not free of frost danger until around May 15th.
