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Battlemoor III, Plums and too much going on

Posted on September 14, 2012 by

August ran us over and we crashed in the Middle Ages. Aka… Battlemoor III. I barely got all of my sewing done in time to head out on a Wednesday to camp. Originally, Dan was not going to stay the whole time. He’d planned to work and then come out in the evenings. Serendipity swung her mighty fairy dust wand and Poof! Things changed. Dan got off of work a little late and didn’t have to go back on Thursday. He got his class work done and realized he might actually have a chance to take some time off. Not like we needed it or anything.

Wednesday as we sat up camp after sundown, we got to know a few of our fellow campers in Artisan’s Lane. Then we slept for the first time in ages with no real schedule for us in the morning. Ahhhhh!

We woke at dawn and started getting ready for the day. I worked on the potters wheels and the pottery tent. Dan started running errands. Then he discovered that there was no ice truck this year. So, he started running ice in from First Choice, our local grocery store. At least two trips a day. He gave free ice to the Troll gate, Chirgeons, the watch and to the parties.

I had a lot of fun working with the pottery and the fiber tent. It was the first time I’d thrown on a potter’s wheel in about 8 years. I didn’t do to bad, but I realize I will have to build up my hand strength for next year. I made a couple of hand built pieces as well. One was a small rose. It was about the only piece of mine that made it through the firing. We did do a kiln fire and realized that we need better air control next year. At least there was enough pottery to award some to the king and queen. 🙂

I got a lucet this year and learned how to make cord. 🙂 Dan bought me presents too. A torque, shears, a small knife, shoes, hair pins, a shuttle and the lucet. 🙂 I’ll post pictures below.

I think that camping with the Artisan’s Lane group was the best thing we did. I really enjoyed the company and the way it all worked. We all pitched in with cooking and cleaning up.

Once we got home, we were thrown into the craziness of ‘life’. I picked 50 pounds of plums off of my mom’s tree. Since then I have made plum jelly, syrup, jam, butter and chutney. Oh and cake and cobbler. Yummm!

We also have been to visit Morgan at least two times. Once on her 16th birthday. We took her out to eat, gave her a prezzie Dan picked up for her at Battlemoor III and gave her some money. She is really adjusting to college well. While she may be the youngest person on campus, she is on par with many of her fellow students mentally. For others, she is the adult supervision. LOL!

Wednesday, it rained almost all day long and oh was it COLD! I pulled blankets out of boxes and threw quilts on the bed. Today we got a clear glimpse of the Spanish Peaks. There was snow on the tops and the Trincheras were white! Brrrr!!!!

Last night we drove to Pueblo and had dinner at Bingo Burger. 🙂 It was Dan’s birthday treat to himself. We went to Barnes and Nobel for a while and then came home. Tomorrow we are heading out to pick her up, and then we are going to Pueblo. She and Dan need new glasses. Maybe, just maybe we will eat at Bingo Burger again. 🙂

Oh, and week after next is the Spanish Peaks Celtic Music Festival!

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Life, Family and the Celtic Music Festival

Posted on September 26, 2011 by

My life has been on hold.

My family declared me missing.

Why?

Well, because this last weekend and part of last week was the Spanish Peaks International Celtic Music Festival. This year, Dan was the stage manager. Oh boy… What this translates into is that he had to make sure things got done. Mostly to do with sound and lights. This year’s theme was “From the Appalachians to the Rockies”. This festival was also special in that our daughter Morgan got a scholarship to attend the entire festival. The caveat is that she has to write a scholarly paper about the music/culture as it migrated from Scotland and Ireland to Appalachia.

Things started winding up on Wednesday. (ie, things got busy!) Dan was hunting equipment and doing his best to be in three places at once. Thursday afternoon, we had to be in Cuchara at the Dog Bar by 1pm for a “Ceilidh at the Dog Bar”. It was a smattering of the musicians giving everyone a sample of what was to come. Funny part is that one of the bands called the Old Blind Dogs got lost. So, we were making jokes about the Blind Dogs needing a seeing eye dog (guide) to get to the Dog Bar.

Then it was down to Gardner for a “Taste of things to Come”. This was a ceilidh with the musicians playing teasers. The best part of this event is always Jack Yule. He and his wife Barbara are the reason we have this lovely event. His dry Scots sense of humor makes us all giggle. Lovely time! Of course, I baked two carob mayonnaise cakes for the potluck performers dinner. 🙂 The concert was great and we got home late. On the way back, a car ahead of us looked ‘wrong’. There were no tail lights. Brakes, but no tail lights. So, we followed them all the way back (27 miles) to make sure that no one hit them from behind. When we got to the junction, we pulled up beside them and told them why we had followed them. They were very grateful. Later on, I found out that she was one of the festival harp teachers, Nancy Bick Clark. She was very sweet and so happy that we’d done that. How could we not. Taking care of people is one of those things we do during the festival.

Friday… Free picnic at Uptop. We had a ceilidh which was fantastic. When we got there a piper was playing. I thought it would be our friend Jim Conley. No, it was a young man dressed in 1800’s cowboy gear with full claymore, plaid, knife and sixshooter. Wow! Later on, we found that this young man could dance a jig…with spurs on and sing. Wow!

The concert was great, but… we had to pack up all the gear and get to La Veta for a performance called Wickedly Funny Songs and Tales. We were a little late, but it went fine. Once we pulled our equipment for the second time that day, we had to head to Walsenburg for the big evening concert. “Scotland Meets Appalachia”. This was the Old Blind Dogs and David Coe. The Dogs had a new fiddler with them named Claire Mann. She was great. Dan ran the lights for this concert and it went very well. Once again, we got home Very late. (see Jaye, Dan and Morgan. see Jaye, Dan and Morgan fall asleep 5 minutes after they got home…)

Saturday was crazy in it’s own way. We spent most of it running around La Veta making sure that sound was available wherever it was needed. Our biggest afternoon event was a concert and demonstration of harp and fiddle. David Coe played fiddle and Aine Minogue played harp. We were at the Methodist church in La Veta. It was called, “They met Here: Irish Harp and Appalachian Fiddle”. I knew that they had played together once before about three years ago, but honestly worried that the mix would be like chalk and cheese. That fear lasted about 6 notes. It was a beautiful concert and discussion.

The concert that night at the Fox in Walsenburg was “From County Clare to Appalachia”, with Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill performing. I’d heard them twice on Thursday and was really looking forward to this performance. It started out with two Appalachian fiddlers, Cleek Schrey and Stephanie Coleman. Cleek does the flat foot dancing or clogging. Really cool. They play so well. Then… Oh My Gods!!! How do you describe a fiddle that starts out slow and then works to a beat so rapidly that you can barely tap your foot that fast? Take the time to look up Martin and Dennis on YouTube. Amazing. Simply Amazing. The crowd wept, shouted, clapped and acted more like a rock concert audience than a bunch of Celtic music lovers. Three or four standing ovations. After they played, the four of them played. It was magical. Simply magical. Afterwards, home, bed and ZZZ’s. Oh, and we remembered to eat dinner!

Sunday. Sunday was “How many places can we be at once day”. We split the sound system three different directions at one point. We had a Dulcimer class with Wilson and McKee. Then we had a demonstration/talk/performance on Gailic Songs by Margaret Bennett. Once again in the Methodist church. I got to run the sound for that one as Dan had to set up for the ceilidh in the park. A bit nervous, but I’ve been learning to run the sound board. Margaret is amazing. Another one worth hearing. Her voice… oh my. Once that was finished, I headed to the park where the last concert of the festival was being held in the park.

Now, David Enke, who usually does a lot of the sound work for the festival had another engagement, so Dan got to run the concert. David’s equipment and Dan’s brain. 🙂 It started out with Roger Landis and David Coe. Everything was going well and then there was a change over. All the fiddlers got up on stage, joining Roger and David. Martin, Claire, Cleek, Stephanie, Arlene Patterson and then Dennis and the rest of the Old Blind Dogs. Of course everyone was trying to plug in or find a mike and all the careful layout that David and Dan had done went away. Dan was now flying/mixing by the seat of his pants. Then there was another break and all the singers from the festival got up on stage. Ed Miller, Jennie McAvoy, Robbie O’Connell, Margaret Bennett and a choir of singers who’d been learning songs for the last three days joined in. Add to that a couple of fiddlers and I think there were nearly 30 people on stage. And yes, they too were looking for mikes or pick ups. Aieee!!!! Dan was sweating! Yes, he had no idea of who was where. However, he managed. He managed beautifully! 🙂 The sound for the whole concert was great! And no, it isn’t just my opinion. Loads of people commented on how well it went and he even had someone buy him a beer. 🙂

After that concert we packed all of David’s stuff up and stowed it and then went to the after festival ceilidh. Dan got his beer, we relaxed and after an hour or so, we packed the last of our equipment up and went home. By now it was nearly 8pm. We ate dinner and were in bed by 9:15pm. Gad it had been a long weekend of 14-16 hour days. Lots of wonderful music. Tons of things to do and lots of friends to visit with or meet. It was a great festival.

Now to get back to ‘normal’. Yawn… Still exhausted.

Oh, and Chas, In answer to your question… Yes. I went to the festival. Did you?

Return from Battlemoor II

Posted on July 5, 2011 by

Yesterday, the 4th, we packed our camp up and returned to the 21st century. sigh…

Battlemoor was great! Probably should have been called BattleDUST, but we had a wonderful time. The rain on one day did help, and made the dust/powdered cow patties settle. I swear we inhaled/ingested at least a pound of that dust. Ughh! However, the Stroh Ranch is a working ranch and there are cattle!

We arrived Wednesday and set up camp in a lovely little dell. Amazingly, it was only 50 yards from the Town Hall. There was a cool tree that had fallen and it looked all the world like the Pi symbol or a henge. While we were all part of the Shire of Villaleon, we were also in three separate areas. So, there was the main camp, Persia where Arty and Nyusha lived and then ‘the Savages’,… us. 🙂 Rather appropriate as I’m a Viking and Dan is um…. Lothar de Savage. This lead to many jokes. “Oh, that isn’t Viking,… Oh. Wait… you plundered that didn’t you…” and “I’m a Viking. You going to hand that over or shall I just take it?” It was a lot of fun. We teased Lothar as his era didn’t write…. “Don’t worry dear, I’ll teach you how to write…” and other bits. “He’s a savage, be glad he’s wearing clothes… eats with a spoon… cooks his meat…”

The week was busy with a number of tourneys and classes. I learned how to tablet weave and to spin!!!! Oh, and how to write/send a letter. 🙂 That was fun. I took tons of pictures and they can be seen on my Facebook page. I really enjoyed the spear tourney. Dan of course was watching most of the tourneys. Between answering questions, making comments on fighting, patching up a few fighters and other bits and pieces, he got offered belts three times! So, while he didn’t accept a belt to be a squire, he will be getting his armor together and will be getting his heavy fighters card. He teased me at one point calling me his armor bunny. I about spewed with laughter. (an armor bunny is someone who helps their knight with armor, spotting weaknesses, etc.)

There were also courts every night and revels. (parties!) Thursday night was Hafla. Rolling Thunder played drums until probably 4am. Women belly danced, people chatted, good beer was consumed and everyone enjoyed themselves.

Friday night was Halls of Valhalla. There was a Viking ship where you could memorialize someone and then the boat was burned. We payed homage to Sir Starhelm. Once again, there was great conversations and lots of beer. I had one called Vikings Drool. It was a lovely dark stout. OMG! Oh, and there was a non-alcoholic ginger beer that was heaven, as well as a sarsaparilla to knock your socks off. I drank more of those than the beer. 🙂

Saturday was the Medieval Red, White and Blue celebration. Everyone tried to dress in red, white and blue and still stay in character. It was a riot. The drummers played again and it was about 1am before I got to bed.

Sunday night was the Farewell Siege Revel. It was a time to eat and drink all the leftovers, say goodbye to people and unwind. It was another late night, but well spent.

Monday of course came Way Too Early. However, we broke camp in about 90 minutes. We said our goodbyes and headed home. Once we were home, we unpacked, showered, checked a few things on the computers and then crashed. I even got my article written for the Huerfano World Journal and pictures sent. 🙂 We napped from 4pm to nearly 10pm. We got up for a little bit of food and were back to bed by 1am. Damn we slept heavy! I have to admit that about the only thing I missed was my BED! So, we are planning on making a Viking bed for next year. Whether we make a Viking tent or a yurt is still being discussed.

Today we are putting stuff away, cleaning and washing things and trying to move. All the aches and pains have come home to roost. We didn’t get too badly sunburned, but there were lots of bites and Dan got all itchy from bucking bales of hay used at some of the battles. Yes, we clean up after ourselves so that the ranch can be a ranch.

Only a year till Battlemoor III. 🙂

May Spring Weather at Last!!!

Posted on May 7, 2011 by

Well, we did have typical Colorado May weather on May 1st. Snow! It was very cold wet snow. The early part of the week wasn’t much better. While warm during the day, the nights were still very cold. And Windy!

Thursday we went to Denver. While the sun was shining and the weather was warmer, the wind was still chilly. Yesterday was warm and today it is a balmy 73 degrees!!! Springlike May weather at last! Who knows, at this rate I may be able to plant my garden by May 15th!

This year I plan to plant pumpkins, squash, onions, beets, salad greens and lots of marigolds. I’ve been avoiding working in the garden plot because of the wild violets. I’m allergic to them. sigh… However, they have about run their course and I can pull them up without needing an oxygen mask. 🙂

We have three small trees to chop down as well in the front yard. Suckers from an elm that went wild. I’d like to put a few apple trees out front, but that will have to wait a bit. Our front porch project may start sooner than we expected. The stairwell is beginning to crack more. So, we have almost totally evacuated the two front porch rooms. Business stuff moved to the back porch and the ‘Wendy House’ aka the guest house. My sewing room also moved out there. Weird. First time in 33 years that my sewing machine hasn’t been under the same roof with me. It does give me more space, but I need to finish up the organization of it. Dan has a shelf unit to build for me.

Part of the reason for the move was that I have been talking to one of the local SCA’ers and said I’d be available for costume work. With computer work as slow as it is, I’m back to sewing for cash. I’m also grateful that our local yarn shop, Edla’s Yarns, sells some basic sewing supplies. I needed zips for a couple of outfits and luckily she had some! Otherwise it would have meant a trip to Pueblo for a $2 item. So, while Dan goes to the Fox Theater to run the lights for the El Fandango show this afternoon, I’ll be cutting and sewing. Wheee!!!

A Muse by Any other Name…

Posted on August 20, 2009 by

Would have shot me a long time ago. Why? Because I have so many stories just hanging there waiting to be finished. I don’t so much get stuck or blocked, but simply run out of time to work on a story. So, I let it sit… ferment as you might say. Then, the inevitable happens…. another story pops into my head and I start to work on it because it is screaming in my head so loud I can’t not write.

Really must figure out how to get some of these published. Publishing = money= more time to write…. hmmm…. I understand that part of it is fear. Where? How? Why? etc…. Oh, and rejection. Basic issue, is that I simply don’t know where to start on that bit.

Not to mention that I have some stories only fit for certain markets. Fairy Light is a children’s story that needs illustration. Sheeple, Sweetwater, In the Arms of Fenris… Adult market, ala LKH’s books. Then there is Chase, the latest stream of words…. Spy guy/werewolf/sex all rolled into one. Oh, and set literally in my own backyard. This one is only 23 pages in, but at least reads good so far. I’m picking Dan’s brain for the technical bits. Right now, I’m in the middle of a bear attack scene. This story is called The Chase. It is about a team of marines that is going in to pick up a “vet who has lost his mind”. The vet is not off is rocker, but has a secret that the military wants. So, he runs up into the mountains he knows like the back of his hand. The marines follow, and chaos ensues. Nerys is the main female character. A Navy nurse stationed at 29 Palms. Here is an excert. She has just had to deal with a drunk ex-boyfriend who is also on this retrival team.

Nerys breathed a sigh of relief and turned down the bed to climb in. Before she had a chance, there was a knock at the door. Opening it, she found Gunnery Sgt. White and the LT standing there.

“Sorry about that,” she said.

“Ma’am, you weren’t the problem. We put him back to bed though.” said Sgt. White, making a fist pounding gesture.

Nerys smiled. “You can call me Betty. Want to come in? Or just stand on my doorstep?”

“We’ll just stand here if you don’t mind Betty,” said the LT. “If you don’t mind me asking, what the hell is between you two?”

“Nothing now, and that is his problem.”
“Oh?” the two men asked at the same time.

“We use to date, but when he decided that he liked playing mind games more than fun and games, I said enough and kicked his ass out.”

“Ma’am, umm… Betty, sorry, but this old Sargent just can’t see what attracted you to him.”

“Sargent, every sailor or marine gets drunk and does something stupid. I got real drunk one night, took home a pretty thing from the bar and when I woke up in the morning, thought I’d at least give it a try sober. However, sometimes the strays you bring home have bad habits. He has plenty, and after a while, I just couldn’t cope any longer. So I tossed his ass out. Been holdin’ a grudge ever since.” Nerys leaned back and took a deep breath. The air up here was thinner than she’d ever experienced.

Both men laughed. Sgt. White smiled and nodded with a knowing look to his face. “Well, I’ll see to it that the ‘stray’ stays out of your way.”

“Thank you Sargent, you are a gentleman.”

“Oh no ma’am,.. Betty. I’m a Marine,” he said with a big smile.

Nerys smiled. “Have to admit that if I’d known that this little flight had him on it, I probably would have found myself a weekend to enjoy at the psych ward. Didn’t know until I got on the bird.”

“No wonder you went from smiles to growling in about thirty seconds,” said Charlie. “And is it me, or is this about the weirdest mission you’ve ever been on? Eighteen people just to pick up one man?”

More later …. maybe…

Then, there is my college class. English Comp II. Seems like it might actually be a decent class. I’ve picked a rather touchy subject for my essay, but I do hope she lets me keep it. Otherwise, I’ll probably pick another thorny issue. Not into writing boooooooooring stuff. The Guardian Newspaper is so good for edgy articles. Being bored during the last class about had me ready to quit.

Well, I think I’ll pull up Chase and write more on the bear slaughtering soldiers.

Hunting the elusive LoboSavvy…

Posted on April 27, 2009 by

We are Finally getting the website online! Wheeeee!!! lobosavvy.com

grey_wolf_tracks

Dan is working hard on the engineering side of things like making the buttons and mouse overs while I get to write the text. No, we don’t want Dan’s engineering brain which is thinking more Auf Deutsche then in English to start the “sentences and paragraphs writing!” Not unless we want all the verbs at the end of the sentences. 🙂

Now what to write! Oh yeah…. the IT support company…. You have a problem, we’ll come up with a solution… Or something along those lines. We are working on being a business that supports business from the hardware and software sides. To find solutions that won’t break the bank, etc. If the company is invested in closed source software, we will let them know about open source stuff, etc. We aren’t going to be able to do this very well in Walsenburg, but hope to expand this to Pueblo and Springs.

Now to figure out what to write…. (see Jaye.. see Jaye thump head against desk…)

Meanwhile on the family front… We take my Dad up to Springs tomorrow for surgery. Nothing too invasive. Sort of a roto-rooter job on his bladder. Too much muscle can be a bad thing. We will bring him home on Wednesday.

I’m still looking for work. Put out another resume today. Oh, and I have a few hours worth of work down at Web Coast-to-Coast. Filing for my friend Erin. :> I will probably hit the job fair stuff later in the week to see if there are any secretary jobs. argh….

The topsoil is blowin’ in the Wind!

Posted on March 9, 2009 by

And today, it is actually mild compared to what is to come later this week. Last week we had more than one day when the winds were between 30 and 44 miles per hour. Todays are a breezy 20mph with gusts up to 35mph. Tomorrow is 20-35mph winds with gusts up to 50 mph. Gads! Honestly, I think that I’m going to have to scrape all the soil off the fence and put it back in the yard at this rate. We have places in our backyard where the loose soil is just gone and all you see is the hard stuff with lots of rocks in it. Not good for gardening. sigh…

I think that what I may do is turn the front porch into a greenhouse. Plant a bunch of stuff in pots, get them going on the front porch which is sort of a big cold frame at the moment and go from there. By the time the stuff is too big to be in the pots, I’ll have the back yard ready. I hope.

Meanwhile, I am still camping in the offices of the CSU Extension office. The Chamber is still out of the building and doesn’t look to be going back in any time soon. sigh….. Very frustrating. Oh well. Plus, I’m putting my name in for other secretarial jobs that pop up. We will see. Still no apologies after all that dreck.

I got my taxes filed and am nearly caught up on other things. So, this afternoon, I am going to work on my writing! Wheeee!! I have two stories in my head that I need to get started on before they go the way of my topsoil!

Have you seen a week floating around here?

Posted on November 1, 2008 by

I’m missing one. I know that one went on, as it is over seven days since I last posted, but… where did the time go? Gads. Somewhere along the lines, I have:

Sent Matt to join El Fandango-a dance class/troupe/cultural thingy run by my cousin Gretchen
Been to parent teacher conferences with Morgan
Gone to work for at least 4 hours a day, M-F.
Totally rearranged the Workforce office and my storage area at work
Dealt with volunteers/board members/tourists
printed, collated, folded, stuffed, labeled and mailed 80+ renewal packets for the chamber
Gone to Pueblo for car parts for Divot
Cleaned out the guest house for a workspace
went through 2 years of microfilm searching for stories
seen my parents
sewn curtains, Yule prezzies and knitted
and did the whole Halloween thing last night.

Yesterday was fun. I dressed up for work. Or should that be dressed normally…??? Long black velvet dress, B&W striped socks, black shoes, pointy witch hat, pentacle and my hair going any way it wanted. I even had candy at the chamber to hand out.

After work, I had lots of errands to run. I didn’t bother to change, so I went to the bank, post office, San Isabel Electrics, Edla’s and Mountain Harmony (the local health food shop) in costume.

After I got home, I took off the hat and added my reading glasses as I was working on the computer. big surprise! We had treats waiting for the trick or treaters. Not too many at first, and then there was a rush around 7:30pm that went on for at least an hour. One little girl, probably about 3 came up to the door all dressed as a witch. I answered the door, and said Happy Halloween. She looked up… and then looked me up and down really well. Then looked at her own costume and then back at me. I smiled at her, gave her the candy and said bye! She was still giving me “the look”, with her eyes wide. Her mom, who has noticed none of this says “lets go” and starts to move the little girl down the stairs. The little girl is still giving me “the look” that says “she’s a real witch” the whole time. Steps down a step, looks back, steps, looks back all the way down the stairs. Mom still hasn’t noticed, and is nudging her down the stairs. I wave, close the door and start giggling. Dan asked me what I was giggling about and I explained. Dan started lauging and said, “No, she wasn’t expecting Aunt Jet to hand out candy.” I laughed. It’s true.

Today has been very warm. I think it was nearly 70! I ran around in a teeshirt and jeans most of the day. Beautiful Indian Summer weather.

I’d love to sleep in tomorrow, but I hope that we will be going to Pueblo for some grocery shopping. John is suppose to borrow Erin’s car as mine are still out of commission. sigh…

Two Ceilidhs, a funeral and a wedding.

Posted on September 30, 2008 by

The Celtic Festival was magnificent! The music, the people, the fun! Oh gods it was a blast. It was also a lot of hard work. Most days were spent working lights and for me, running up and down the stairs at the Fox theater. Dan worked with David Enke to provide co-ordinated lights and sound.

I’d be hard pressed to say who I liked the best. It was just so amazing. Friday’s concert was light in attendance, but we blame it on the presidential debates. The best part was where Jack Yule was cracking jokes. He is normally so dower in demeanor that you really do a double take when he makes a joke. The concert was intitled “From Tango to Jig”That night we listened to Alfredo Ortiz, Kevin McElroy, Jerry O’Sullivan and Aine Minogue.

On Saturday, I was up early to go out to La Veta and help at the mining museum where Joe Lang and my dad, Jon Sudar were talking about coal mining.

I no sooner got back from La Veta then it was time to get ready for Carl Holzhauer’s memorial service. It was at the Baptist church my great grandma, Nanny went to. I remember going there with her as a child. Remembered getting in trouble too, for playing on the little organ’s foot pedals. The service was really very nice. However, I do wish they had sung the hymns in something other than the key of off! After being around such beautiful music all week, it really stood out.

We went home, changed clothes and headed back for the concert. By this time, I had gotten us each a tee-shirt. Saturday was really packed. The concert was “An Irish Hooley at the Fox”. This time the artists were Liz Carroll, Shannon and Matt Heaton, Jerry O’Sullivan. Kieran Jordan performed Sean-Nos Irish step dancing while Shannon and Matt played.

Jerry and Liz cooling off a foot... each

Sunday, I was up early again and out to La Veta. We were at the Methodist church this time talking about… yeah, you guessed it,…. Coal! Dad was there again as well. Joe Lang gave a slideshow on the Roselyn Chapel where he is a docent. Lovely pics, but we ran out of time. I literally raced to the Fox Theater, as the concert was due to begin at 2:30pm. I had just enough time to learn where to aim the spotlights and the concert started. This was the “Coal Mining’s Heyday”. It started off with some of our local talent singing. (Oris, Bob, Gary and George)

16 tons, wada ya get.... deeper bass voices...

Then Ed Miller, Jennie McAvoy, Patsy Seddon, Alison Bell, Kim McKee, Ken Willson, Anne Enke, Frank Manning, Heather Yule, some of the Ceilidh Peppers performed.

Lots of songs and poems about coal mining. Joe Lang read one of his poems. It was a really good time. At the end, the audience was promised a special and unique encore.

After the houselights went up, we had a wedding!!! Kim McKee and Ken Wilson got married on stage. They had been together for years, and decided it was about time they married. Kim’s daughters were her maids of honor. The Celidh Peppers were Ken’s Band of Honor. :>

It was sweet, wonderful, tearful and funny all in one big lump. At one point, I got the giggles… why? Well, my mind played a weird association… Four weddings and a funeral is one of my favourite movies. Meanwhile in real life, I had just had two ceilidhs, a funeral and a wedding!

After the wedding, we packed up all the sound equipment and moved to the Blue Rooster in La Veta. There we ate, listened to the Ceilidh Peppers, and a lot of the other artists until nearly 11pm. Dan worked sound for those playing. It was awesome! Got home at midnight.

It was a long week full of hard work, but oh so worth it. Lots of new friends, work experience and plenty of good music.

Ceilidhs and poets and stagelights OH MY!!

Posted on September 26, 2008 by

This has been a whirlwind of a week. Each night I think that I am going to get a chance to sit down and write a post. hahahahaha !!! What a silly woman I am!

Monday and Tuesday were filled with music, story telling and lots of children. Monday was Peakview K-8, where the Ceilidh Peppers played, and Joe Lang and I told stories as well as dancing and drama. A long day. Joe is a sweet Scot. About 78, and full of wonderful tales. Speaks Lowlans… a dialect of Scottish, and sometimes I had to remind him of an English word. Tuesday was La Veta and Gardner Schools. K-8 as well. Lovely time.

We went to the Fox Theater to see about the lights. Barbara had finally decided that she needed help with the lights and took Dan’s offer. Barbara is a dear sweet woman, but has a hell of a time delegating. She tries to do too much and then gets overwhelmed. As the driving force of the Celtic Festival, it really is more than any 10 people ought to handle and she tries to do 90% of it.

Well, there was some sort of mix-up, because instead of a lighting run, there was some sort of Christian church gospel night going on. Dan was already working on the lights, and one of the gospel guys who said he knew lighting was “helping” Dan. The idiot KICKED the big spotlight and broke the bulb. Grrrrr!!!! What you need to understand is that the Fox Theater is OLD. Most of it’s equipment if not “original” is new circa 1930’s. Some of it might be as new as 1970, but… the spot hails from the 40’s or 50’s and did not take kindly to being kicked.

Meanwhile, while Dan tried not to give into the urge to kill the guy, we went backstage to work on the lights so that they could have their gospel hour… As we got the lights up, they started to perform. Now this might not have been too bad had we been on the right hand side of the stage. However, we were on the left and trapped. 2 hours of Gospel later,… they finally quit!! (hallelujah ???) Dan had recognized one of the guys as a scumbag he knew from Nashville and therefore wanted to kill him twice over. The guy didn’t recognize Dan, and actually gave us three of their CD’s. We donated them to Rev. Tinsley, the minister hosting the music program. We were so grateful to get out of there!

Wednesday, we had to be up and about early. I to work by 8am to make up lost hours and Dan to the Fox Theater for lighting work. So, while I worked at the Chamber, Dan played ladder monkey. After I got home and just started sipping a cup of tea, Barbara called. So, off we went to the theater. There was a rehearsal going on, and Barbara was getting frazzled. Dan and I dealt with the four men rehearshing while Barbara went off somewhere. Hopefully to rest. We got the whole thing straightned out and headed off home.

Thursday started up easy and then the phone rang. Any Guesses? Yup…. Barbara. So, Dan dropped me off at the Chamber and headed to the Theater. I’ve been doing a lot of work on the Chambers’ website and the various files. I went down to the Theater after work and Dan was just wrapping up the lighting when I got there. I got to meet John Carlson (?) the gentleman who helps the library with movies. A very nice man. We chatted and then headed over to Mike’s Coffee Bar.

Mike Hurley is my boss, and runs the coffee bar. We went over there to pick up tickets for the three shows in town as payment for all our work. Funny thing is that every time we go in there, the shop is dead quiet. The minute we start to talk to Mike, it gets busy. The guys joke that I need to come in at least once a day. While we were there, Heather Yule and her hubby Davy came in. (Barbara’s daughter) We chatted with them for a bit which was lovely. Then it was off to the Business Finance Round table. Wheee…

That was a spaghetti dinner and speakers talking about where to find info on financing your business. It could have been better. Dan asked a question that the one guy really didn’t have an answer for and flubbed it. sheesh ! We left around 7:15, because we had to be at the Ceilidh up in Gardner.

The Ceilidh was the opening salvo of the Celtic Festival. A preview of all the acts to come. Plus, I think it is the one time that Jack Yule relaxes that dour Scots demeanor. He was cutting up and smiling!!! The various acts were wonderful. Dan and I really enjoyed ourselves. Got home at 12:30am!

Today, I’m working the chamber office till 3pm, then after a few errands, it’s off to the theater to learn how to run the spotlight. Whee….. Tonight’s concert is “From Tango to Jig”. A Paraguayan harper, Alfredo Ortiz starts out followed by Jerry Sullivan on Uilleann pipe, Aine Minogue and Kevin McElroy on harp and mandolin and banjo. Should be very good.