It’s been a busy month since I got home from my micro-vacation. Way too much going on and barely time to breathe, let alone write on the blog. Right now I am working on preparations for BATTLEMOOR!
I’ve been repairing clothes and starting some new Viking pants for Dan. These are brown linen and should be much cooler than his flannels. I’m hoping to make some Beledi Dance clothes for me. I’ve got fabric for two pairs of sarouelles. (baggy pants) I’m using Folkwear Pattern #119. I’m also making a couple of tunics for one of the Battlemoor crew.
I’ve had lots of meetings, work in the garden, and trips to Pueblo. My mom has had cataract surgery, my nephew moved out, and it’s rained!!!! We also discovered part of the reason that our garden hasn’t done as well this year. Deer. They eat down all the new shoots. sigh…
The school district is trying to get a Mill Levy Overide to provide more money for the schools as well. Tonight there is a drum clinic at Washington school. Dan is doing the sound work. I’m just going to go deaf. 🙂
We’ve been doing a lot of gardening between the two houses. It has been very hard to bring back the yard at 203. Pruning, digging, planting, digging, mowing, digging. You get the picture. I’ll post pics when I have a bit more done. We had some really windy days, and my rose trellis snapped. argh. I’ve sort of fixed it, but it needs totally redone, which won’t happen until the fall when I trim back the rose bush.
There’s been a lot of work as well. Dan has been doing a wiring job for the school district. I’ve been doing sewing. I’ve also repaired two chairs. Check it out!
Life has been busy with SCA meetings, SCA beledi dance and bobbin lace classes, School board stuff and the Huerfano RE-1 Schools Foundation. We are working on a mill levy overide to provide more money for our school district. In order to make it a bit more sustainable, we are setting up a foundation that can raise money any time for the schools. If you’d like to contribute, you can send a check to the Huerfano RE-1 Schools Foundation care of the Huerfano RE-1 School District, 201 E. 5th, Walsenburg, CO. 81089.
Today was gardening day. Or, destruction of the mess formerly known as the front yard. Yes, I had done some work previously, but the rains and lack of time means that things got away from me. The weeds were 10 inches high. So was the grass. Argh! I started working around 8am. Once I figured out the weed eater’s quirks, I began to trim around bushes and plants. I figured that it would be good to do so before Dan began to mow.
I took a break around 10am, and Dan was working on a video. Just as he started, someone began mowing. Much to our surprise, our neighbor had brought out his “bush hog” mower and was cutting our grass and weeds! It was wonderful, and considering all that we had to do, a life saver.
After lunch, Dan and I worked on making the tree out front happier. When the tree was planted, they put big rocks and gravel around it. It was Not Happy. So, we pulled all the gravel back, moved the stones and then added more dirt. It is now a much happier tree. The other one is trying to come back as well.
I worked on two side beds and a few other bits while Dan mowed most of the back yard. We are exhausted. Happy, but exhausted.
Our neighboring shire, Aarquelle, was hosting it up in Canon City. We, Villaleon, were part of it too, as we were going to sell Outland Waffles! With ice cream, fruit and plum syrup. Yes, we are crazy, but… there were these waffle irons. They make waffles with stag heads on them. And… The kingdom’s emblem is the stag… so we just had to do it. 🙂
Coronation was a three day event. We left Friday late morning, after much craziness. To avoid the craziness, all of our SCA gear will now be stored in one place. We filled the subaru with waffle irons, clothes, food supplies, etc. We stopped in Pueblo to pick up the eggs and milk, and were just heading out when we had an accident on Northern and Pueblo Blvd. A fender bender. Ours!
No one was hurt, except the car. So, we were about an hour late getting to the Abbey in Canon City. We were camping in the gym, and after setting up and changing clothes, we went out to see what was happening. 🙂 Lots of fun. I worked on a new piece to my Viking outfit. An apron. Around sunset, it started getting cold. The Animal Fights were just starting. (knights as animals fighting other knights) We went to get our coats and discovered that our air mattress had died. So, in garb, we headed to Walmart, about 2 blocks away. We knew court would be after the fights, so we didn’t worry. Silly us!
We got back as quickly as we could, but obviously not quick enough. Court had started. So, we ran to court. Just as we got there, I heard someone say, “They’re here.” Ut-oh… Sure enough, a moment later, we were called into court. King Bela and Queen Anna gave us that look… “Have you been avoiding US?” “no your majesties…” “Do you owe us Taxes?” “no…” “ask her, she does the books”…. They teased us for a few minutes and then gave us our Awards of Arms. Apparently they had been trying to give these to us since January. So, we are now Lord Lothar and Lady Unna. 🙂 Of course, I had to tease him as we crawled into bed and say that I’d never been to bed with a lord before…
The next day was crazy busy and cold in the morning. Coronation! The last court of Bela and Anna and the first of Kolgrimr and Danielle! It was great! Kolgrimr called his wife into court to crown her, and she said that she would sing for him as she walked down the aisle. Just as she opened her mouth to sing, the church bells began to ring. Oh my! I got some good pictures. One of them is going to be used by the SCA media. 🙂
The rest of the day was spent making and selling waffles, attending a grand feast and just having fun. We did our third Walmart trip, and bought syrup and waffles for breakfast the next morning.
Sunday saw waffle making, court, heavy and rapier fighting and finally, time to head home. We were so tired, that we stopped at Greenhorn to eat lunch and take a 10 minute nap. We partially unpacked and were in bed by 8:30!
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.
We spent the night on Friday! It was lovely. We hope to do this more often.
Saturday I worked on various projects upstairs while Dan continued to sort through stuff in his office. He was suppose to have a meeting, but it didn’t pan out. I’m starting to actually work on projects too! I’m switching printers with Dan so that I can use the scanner and copier to make patterns for various things.
Sunday I got a lot accomplished while Dan was off working the Tannahill Weaver concert in La Veta.
I started off the morning working on the guest room. Reorganizing the closet was first. It now is home to 8 tubbies of SCA gear, holiday tubbies, and odds and ends that I just don’t know what to do with at the moment. I put a few things up on Walsenburg Freecycle too. Then I moved tubbies to our room. Photos, family papers, etc. I organized the closet to hold things a bit better.
Tackling the desk and paperwork was next. I didn’t realize how disorganized I’d gotten during the crazy “box up everything and stuff it in storage” move a year ago. I sorted papers, threw things away and filed other papers in logical spots. I wrote up minutes, and updated a few websites as well.
Last of all, I refurbished three stools that were left her. I spray painted over nasty green paint and then tung oiled the tops. I think that they will look pretty good in the studio or library.
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!
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!
We’ve been busy on a number of levels. March 9th, we ran sound for a celtic group called Runa. Good music, and the start of getting ready for the Celtic Music Fest in September. We took a break on Saturday and went up to Pueblo West to have fun with our SCA friends. It was a well needed break.
The house is coming along. We got a lot of touch up painting done. The bathroom, hall, kitchen, and breakfast nook are all finished. I was going to do some dark blue trim on the quarter round in the kitchen and breakfast nook, but there was just no way to do it neatly. I painted the china cupboard to match the pantry and will be using the remainder of the blue paint on the floor trim.
we’ve made some great leaps forward, and are now being held up by one or two little things. Hinges for example. Many of the hinges were paint choked. I’ve hit them with citrusstrip, but… now we have to soak them in a solvent to get rid of the paint that worked its way into the hinges. Argh!
Then there are the cupboard doors. They needed wiped down with solvent, and then sanded. The solvent makes me wheeze and dizzy, so Dan wiped them down and then sanded them.
We cleared the studio and sanded off all of the paint drips as well. The amount of paint that ends up on the floor even with drop clothes is amazing. Gahhh!
While Dan worked on taxes, I washed some of the windows, and painted cupboard doors. Then I decided that I could put the china cupboard back together. It took a bit and involved a ladder, but I got it done!
Then I had the fun of unpacking boxes! I have all of the Noritaki china in the cupboard as well as some of the other bits and pieces. Some of the cupboards in the kitchen got filled as well. Herbs, tins, and other bits and bobs. I’ll get the doors on those cupboards in the next day or so.
My biggest challenge is deciding where to put things. In many ways, I have less storage than I did at the other house. This is making me look very carefully at everything I put in the kitchen. While I was cleaning, I had visitors. Two friends of ours came over. They have a propane stove, some dome lights and a sink if we want it. 🙂
Today I finished painting all of the cupboard doors. Wheee! I painted the trim on the floor of the breakfast nook, sanded up paint spots, swept, mopped and oiled the studio and breakfast nook, organized some of the paint and painting tools, and then I unpacked boxes.
Some of the boxes were kitchen stuff. It’s funny, but I don’t have the same amount of storage I did over at the other house. I will be doing some sorting to weed out things we don’t need. Granted, I’ve been doing a lot of this. The ARC thrift store,the library, and a local foods group have been getting lots of donations.
One really big box had kitchen stuff, office supplies and DVDs. I found 5 more duplicates, and then tried to sort them into a kind of order. Too tired to think! I stacked them on a rack so that they weren’t in a box. Oh my we have DVDs! I haven’t counted, but I think we have close to 130 now.
Tomorrow I hope to put cupboard doors up. We have 8 frozen hinges to work on, and hope that they work. We have three lights to put up as well. On Friday, we have a friend helping us to move the big awkward furniture. Wardrobes, and the rolling cabinet will help figure out a lot of storage.
