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.

Springtime in Colorado

Posted on by jsudar

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.

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…

Visitors!

Posted on by jsudar

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.

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.

Life has been…

Posted on by jsudar

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!

Menapausal March

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Yesterday, it was warm! mid 60’s with decent winds. Today, it’s 33F, and snowing. Brrr!

The last week or so has been a game of catch up. My Aunt Debbie died on Friday the 13th. We had work up in the Castle Rock area on the 14th, and Dan worked for the county and school district during the rest of the next week. We had lots of little meetings too. Tech committee, and website committees.

We took care of Dad for a week and Mom came home on Saturday. We almost got to sleep in on Tuesday. Today, we shopping in Pueblo. We started out warm and sunny, and now we have close to 3 inches outside and it is still falling.

There are a few other things going on, but I’m not going to post about them until the dust has settled.

A snowy morning

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The sun is out at last. School is canceled. Yet we need to dig out and visit a computer client and check on my parents. What a storm. I love all the snow and took pics as Brandy barked at the birds and I shoveled a path to the main house. With all this snow, 12-13 inches, we might get an inch of moisture.

Just a bit of snow

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We woke up yesterday to just a bit of snow. More wet dirt than anything. Was it a non-issue? Had the weathermen failed? We watched over the morning. The clouds rolled in and a few more flakes fell. We were sad that our event, Corazon, had been canceled, but figured it was for the best.

Late in the afternoon, the snow began to fall heavily. It sounded like rain on the roof, but it was snow. Then the flakes became big and fat. Full of moisture. Dan stepped outside and took a few pics.

It was difficult to see as the snow was falling fast. When we went to bed, the snow was fine cold flakes, and still falling fast.

This morning, we got up to Winter Wonderland. Here are my pics from about 10am. You can see the depth of snow change in the pictures. Oh, and it is still snowing.

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…