Just a Flake or Two…

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Remember that we got a dusting of snow on Thursday and Friday? Well… it snowed a lot on Saturday, and even more on Sunday. We woke up today to over a foot of snow. This is wet heavy stuff. Not the dry squeak when you walk stuff like we had on Friday. Lucky for us, we got a load of firewood on Friday. Amazing how a bit of tree can make you so happy. (and warm!)

Today we slept in a bit, and we had just gotten dressed and finished breakfast when the phone rang. It was Dad. He needed help with the snow in his driveway. So, we got in the car, slid down the alleys and paid our water bill. (the Big job for the day). Then we drove, slid, rolled to my parents house. For all of the ten blocks difference, they got less snow than we did.

Dan used my parents snow blower while Dad shoveled a bit of the walk way. Funny bit is that at one point, I looked out and Dad was playing out the electric cord for the snow blower and all I could think of is “On Belay!” (Dad was a technical mountaineer for years, doing lots of rope work)

Then Dan got the truck stuck in the middle of the street. He grabbed the chains and lo and behold… when you change your tires, Always, ALWAYS check to make sure your chains fit! Ours didn’t. The two of them had to dig the truck out and use the chains for traction on the snow than on the tires.

After the truck was free of the snowbank, we headed to the grocery for Thanksgiving dinner. I’m bringing the pies and Dan is making rolladen. Yum!

As I was taking pictures, I realized that many of the pics look exactly the same as I’m using the same spot. So, I tried to change them up a bit this time. Two of the pics are at my parent’s house, and the rest are here.

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1 Room School House and a dash of snow

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Every November, Gardner School celebrates the one room school houses that use to exist in Huerfano County. Malachite, Redwing, and Chama are just a few of the schools represented. Gardner School, which teaches PreK through 8th grade divides itself up into the 6 or 8 schools. They are populated by families instead. So, one school might have three Vigils, two Thomas’ and six Cordovas of mixed ages.

Each year there is a theme as well. This year’s theme was the Ludlow Massacre and Mine. The entire state is commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Coal mine War which started in September 1913 and had a ‘high point’ with the Ludlow Massacre in April 1913. Our local newspaper, the Huerfano Journal has been running a series of articles about the Ludlow Massacre.

The front door of the school was covered in paper to recreate the coal mine. The students were miners or ranchers and many of them dressed up. A local historian, Carolyn Newman came out and gave a presentation as Mother Jones.  At lunch time, a thanksgiving dinner was served. They had a contest to build the best supports for the mine and below are pictures of that contest. I thought it was very brave of Mr. Purnell, the principal to be the “Sheriff”, as the sheriff of that time period was not a well liked man.

At the end of the day, they got in a big circle, or as Cathy Cordova, a teacher said… “We are one big Family.” Then they called out a series of names. All of the people who died during the massacre. As each name was read, a child stood up and moved to the center. Many of the students were surprised at how young some of the victims were. It gave the students some perspective on the event.

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And as is usual for this time of year and the day an event is held at Gardner, it began to snow. We’ve had at least 8 inches fall, and the temperatures have been very cold. I was very happy to have a load of firewood delivered this morning!