Same weather, different Month.

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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…

Frro Frro Frrozen!

Posted on by

Since Yule, we have had a lot of snow. Probably a foot all total, maybe a little more. We’ve also had really LOW temperatures. One night was -27C. Brrrr! Most nights have been -15C. On New Year’s Eve, the truck door froze, and Dan broke the handle trying to open the door.

Our pipes have been freezing every night, and today Dan ran an errand and left the tap open. He came back to find the Wendy House bathroom flooding out into the front porch area. Luckily, it was only about 25-30 gallons of water. I just laughed, and Brandy kept running up to me and barking as if to say, “Dad messed up! Dad made a mess!”

It’s also been cold enough that we’ve had both RedTom and Brandy in at night. We’ve had a furbaby detente,  with minimum growling and hissing. What made this really “fun” was that the first morning, we woke with about 8 inches between the dog and cat. Dan was the separator. This morning, Brandy had her head over Dan’s leg, so they were about 4 inches apart. Gaaah!

At least heat has not been an issue in the main part of the Wendy House. We replaced the two tin can lids with three brand new mica windows. The stove works so much better.

In the mean time, we’ve been catching up on reports for work, and a few other projects. I finished a pair of socks and on New Years Eve, we watched Longmire until the clock turned.

Plus, 2015 so far has been the year of meetings! I have 6 in the next week. Aieee! The pictures below are of the two snow storms, RedTom, and Brandy.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Okay, it’s been like FOREVER since I last posted.

Posted on by

It’s been busy. Never Ever let anyone tell you that taking care of your elderly parents is easier than babies. Nope. Not even gonna believe that. It’s been three months of adjustment and reorganizing. Between shopping, drives, housecleaning and just everyday things, my life has been HECTIC.

Plus, it’s been busy. Usually our lives slow down around the end of the Celtic Music Festival. Not this year! Our one client in Denver moved, and we’ve been doing a lot of work getting their new home tech ready. On top of that, having new admin in the school district has been interesting. We’ve gotten more done in the last few months than we have in the last few years. Oh, and Morgan goes off to College in January.

So, now for some highlights.

Sunday Drives. In trying to meld my parent’s schedule in with ours means that we try to take Sunday drives. We saw some brilliant aspen in October. November and December brought sunny but cold days with snow. We also try and have breakfast at this little diner in Trinidad, called Bob and Earl’s. It’s the kind of place you walk into and everyone knows each other. Good food too.

Along with this is the Wednesday shopping in Pueblo which has been fun and yet eaten my life!

The Spanish Peaks Community Foundation Gala.  A night to dress up and honor people in the community. It was a very nice evening and lovely to dress up!

Skunked! We were woken up out of a dead sleep around 3am. Our dog Brandy got skunked on the front porch of the Wendy House. We had to open all the doors and windows, and I sat up until nearly 6am, trying to breathe. Ugh…

So, instead of working on some of our various projects, we will be washing Brandy and her area along with bedding, curtains, etc. I hate skunks.

Halloween. Dan and I handed out candy on my parent’s front porch. We must have seen over 300 kids. It was a lot of fun, and the weather was so nice!

Outlander Yes, I’m a fan. The series was fantastic. And… All the costume work. So much of it that a group formed on Facebook with all sorts of knitting, sewing, crocheting, etc. I have knitted two shawls and a cowl. 🙂 One man put out a survivor’s guide.

School stuff Our new superintendent is great. We’ve worked out a lot of the issues that the district has had problems with in the last 6 months. We have a lot of new staff as well, and it seems to be going well. Plus, we took a big chance. We bought iPads for every student in the district. It’s been interesting. We’ve also started a clothing bank. Too many kids without coats or basics. We are running out of a class room. 🙂 I went to the CASB Winter Conference at the beginning of December as well. It was a really good conference. Lots of info, ideas and connections.

We’ve had a Veteran’s Day celebration which honored Vets from our community, and local nursing home, and some creative literary nights. Night at the Museum was a lot of fun. The One Room Schoolhouse was great too. We also had a holiday dinner at La Plaza. More dressing up. 🙂

Weather November had some bitter cold and snow. Brrr! December has had it’s surprises as well. We are having a white Christmas as there was about 6 inches of snow on the 22nd. Oh, and it’s going to snow on Boxing Day as well. (26th) Lots of deer in the yard too, eating everything.

The Wendy House. We painted! We trimmed! We built another raised bed and oh have we gathered, chopped, split and burned firewood! We got permission to trim up two dead trees and were given two loads of wood. Wow. Morgan teased us that we love Halloween so much that we live in a pumpkin. Oh, and we got a bathtub and on demand water heater for the bathroom! 

Family. My Great Uncle Richard Ridge passed away on Halloween. He was 91. My Great Aunt Ann Sudar had her 100th birthday on December 13th. That was a wonderful party with 75 friends and family present. I got to see a lot of Sudars I hadn’t seen in years.

The Great Experiment Dan and I have been looking into hydroponics and aquaponics. So, we tried a small inside experiment. There will be more on that on this blog. We learned some lessons and will be trying it again in the spring.

Thanksgiving. My sister and her family, my aunt and her family, my parents and my family all got together for Thanksgiving dinner. Eleven people for three days. Wow! It was really nice.

And now for some pictures. 🙂

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Rain, rain, rain, oh, and More Rain.

Posted on by

It started yesterday. Just a wee mist of rain. My mom and I were running errands, and I swear that every time we got out of the car, it rained harder. By the time I got home around 4pm, it was cold, wet and miserable. The alley was dumping mud out onto the street like it did this summer. Our front porch leaked more and my sewing area was getting soaked. The wind did more damage to the roof than we’d realized. All the rain also meant that Dan and our friend Mark were not going to cut firewood.

So, today between taking my parents to the library and for a drive, I started moving my sewing room into the living room. I had to change how the room worked. I knew where I wanted my sewing stuff. That was the easy part. The difficulty started when I wanted to move my white cutting table in and place the tubbies of fabric. Keep in mind that all of the stuff which I’d been storing in Morgan’s room is now in the living room. Once I got to a certain point, I asked Dan for help.

Do you know what happens when you get one person with great spatial relations and an engineer in the same room trying to rearrange it? Chaos. 🙂 At one point, he tried to put a coffee table, a cedar chest, a lamp table and the rocking chair in the same 6 x 8ft space. It took a few hours, me landing on my arse at one point and a lot of furniture shuffling, but we figured it out.

As I was trying to figure out what to do with all the little knick knacks, I realized that Halloween/Samhain and my birthday were less than a month away. So, I had Dan get out the box of decorations and I decorated. 🙂 This is my favourite time of year.

Now we only have a small pile of stuff in front of the fireplace to find a new home before it gets too cold. (oh wait… it nearly is!) That and figure out what to do with the dining room table which is still living on the front porch.

Oh, there was one family member who wasn’t happy with the new arrangement. RedTom. He keeps waiting for the stuffed cat to jump him, and he just can’t get comfy.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Oh the Chaos…

Posted on by

Since last I had a chance to write, life has been just a little chaotic. First we had the Mountain Miners Day on September 20th. While I didn’t watch the parade or go to some of the events downtown, I was involved with a play written by Barbara Yule. It’s called “For Tomorrow We May Die”, the story of Mary Thomas. It was about a woman who survived the Ludlow Massacre. Originally it was a 3-4 person play, but turned into a one woman dramatic reading by Tanya Perkins. I made an apron and scarf for part of her costume and was the school connection as we were holding it at Washington School. It was lightly attended, but Oh My! It was beautiful.

The next week was a surgery for my dad, a school board meeting, a field trip with the school STEM class, a CASB (Colorado Association of School Boards) conference and the Celtic Music Festival. Yes, just a little jam packed. Dan drove my parents up to Colorado Springs for Dad’s surgery. I stayed home and attended the school board meeting.

On Wednesday, I went with Mark Thompson and his students to the Wings over the Rockies flight museum in Denver. That was a lot of fun.

Thursday was crazy. Once again, lots of stuff to get done. Dan was gone doing Celtic music festival stuff while I got things done around the house and prepared for the concert in Gardner. A Taste of Things to Come is always fun. The Gardner community center was packed.

Friday, 5:30am. Up, dressed and out the door to the CASB conference in Pueblo. Dan was out the door an hour later to work the festival. Lots of good info at the CASB event, and then home just in time to help at the first concert at the Fox. Full Set played. It was heavenly. Got home and got a phone call… My Dad was in hospital with an infection.

Saturday, 5:30am. Up, dressed off to Pueblo. Legislative delegate day at the CASB conference. I finished up by 2pm. Took Mom out to the hospital to see Dad. Then off to the evening concert and the 10th Anniversary concert afterwards. We got home around 1am.

Sunday. We got to sleep in until 7am! Wow! Off to La Veta for the final day of the Celtic music festival and the final performance of “For Tomorrow We May Die.” Oh was it grand. Packed house. Not a dry eye either. Oh… Oh my.

Afterwards, we went to see my Dad again. He was not doing well. Confused, etc. Monday thru Thursday was a mix of hospital trips, running errands, meetings, and playing catch up with work. Oh, and lots of planning. Friday, we got to bring Dad home. It was also the day that the doctors told him no more driving. So, Dan and I are now “Driving Mr. Sudar.” Luckily, Dad took it well after an initial bit of shock.

Over the weekend, we’ve tried to get ready for winter. We chopped firewood, cleaned up the yard a bit, brought plants in and have driven Mom and Dad wherever they needed to go. Somewhere in here we got our bathtub for the Wendy House. We hope to plumb it soon.New tub2 On Sunday we took a drive up Cordova Pass to see the aspen. Ahhhh… it was beautiful.

This week has been yet another rush of work, driving and meetings, and it is only Tuesday. Ah Chaos, thy name is normality around here…

Bits and Bobs

Posted on by

At least that’s what it feels like we’ve accomplished since we came home from Battlemoor. Lots of little jobs. Clean this area, cook dinners, work on the gardens or the Wendy House. One big improvement was storage. We ‘floored’ the loft over the kitchen and rearranged the storage. No more tubbies on the ground. Plus, we added coat hooks, hooks for the iron, etc. It makes life just a little more livable. I even had a Western Scrub Jay come check out RedTom’s food dish.

Some of the time has been spent with Morgan. Her 18th birthday was on the 10th. Wow has time passed. I made green chile and a carob mayonnaise cake. The recipe uses may instead of oil and eggs. Our friend Mark and his daughter Catherine came over for dinner and cake. It was a good evening. Thursday night we went to their house. Friday was chaos.  It was Cold! I think we got to 41F! Fire in the wood stove and heavier clothes than I’ve worn in months. Brrrr!

Inside there was packing, laundry and trash. Morgan was getting ready to move out. Dan took her to do laundry and a few errands. Morgan left for Fowler, a room mate and a job on Friday night.

Yesterday, Dan worked on organizing his office (an ongoing project) and concealing the network wiring. We no longer look like we live in an IT closet!

While he did that, I cleaned Morgan’s room, moved sewing storage tubbies in and made the last loaf of Artisan’s bread. This is the first time I’ve tried it. Very nice. I’ll be playing with the recipe over the next few months.

Then it was time to tackle the Wendy House. Threw all the scatter rugs outside, and emptied the bathroom and Brandy’s area. Swept, mopped, dusted, etc. I wiped down everything in the bathroom as I replaced and reorganized it. I hosed down the rugs and Brandy’s bedding. Most of them were too doggied to throw in a washer. While I was doing that, I got bit by red ants. Ugh… It burns! It swells! It makes me feel horrid! I slathered on Benadryl and kept going. Vacuumed the bedroom and swept the main living area. It was so nice for it to be clean.

Plus, while we were waiting for things to dry, I had a thought. Brandy would be warmer if her bed wasn’t on the floor. While trying to engineer this in my head, I was cruising Off Grid Quest, a website I visit. I came across one of the pallet stories and *POOF*! An idea was born. Dan went down to our local feed store which gives away pallets, and grabbed a load. A bit of circular saw work and Brandy had a bed platform. She was a bit uncertain at first, but it looks pretty good. We might fancy it up a bit, but for now, it works. We also have pallets for future projects and/or firewood.

Today is going to be low-key. I still feel like dreck from the ant bites and all the dust I ejected from the Wendy House. Dan mowed my parents yard and is finishing up the last of the office work. I’m going to make another batch of artisan’s bread and dinner with all of the veggies from the garden.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Battlemoor V

Posted on by

Ah what a lovely war! We got there on Wednesday, much to our relief. It has been a hectic month, and we really needed a bit of down time.

Thursday it rained. It was cold. But… we had a great time watching the Oubliette Tournament. Met a fighter named Bron, who gave Dan a length of bamboo for a sword. He may start fighting. He’s thinking about it. We didn’t party, but were in bed by 8:30pm. I heard the drummers at the party for oh… 10 seconds.

Friday we relaxed, visited with friends we hadn’t seen in a year. I took a class on Russian clothing and Dan took one on glove making. We visited the Shire Villaleon party and then headed home.

Saturday. I taught a darning class, visited and we went shopping. I got a new badge. Once again, we crashed early.

Sunday, I taught my nalbinding class in the afternoon. It went really well, and then we had the Fiber Guild meeting. After that, we dropped the tent. My friend Ceddwyn came down for the day. It was so good to see her.

Monday. Sad day. We packed up and were home by noon. 🙁 We are 99% unpacked. I have a slight mound of laundry to do, but that’s about it. We are exhausted. I’ve posted pictures, and will do so here in a series of posts. There are 93 of them.

First up, Artisans Lane. Blacksmith’s shop, Medieval kitchen, a woodworking shop, classes and our tent. Oh, and Lothar de Sauvage. (aka Dan)

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Where did the time go?

Posted on by

I swear that every time I think I have a moment to write, “POOF!” it’s gone. And of course, now that means I get to play catch up. Where to begin? Umm… Oh yeah… House guests. They were with us for a month. It meant that life was a little crowded. I guess I’ll list some highlights.

July:

Painted the north wall of the Wendy House. Plus, we did a few additions to the plumbing, cut down trees and added a bunch of stuff to the compost bins. We did a lot of yard work in the back as well. Trees trimmed, firewood stacked, stairs fixed, etc. I hope to have more pictures soon.

Wendy House work1I got a new desk. I’ve been wanting something with drawers, and we found a gem. A roll top desk.New Desk4

I did a lot of sewing as well. First off, I made Dan a Utility Kilt. 🙂 Then I made a bespoke tunic for a tournament prize for Battlemoor. I did a lot of embroidery work on the Viking style tunic. I finished an under tunic as well, all hand sewn. I’m still working on two apron dresses.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We had a LOT of rain as well. Some of it was so hard that it flooded the streets, and washed out alleys. On July 15th, we got over 2 inches of rain in less than an hour. Along with all the rain, we’ve had fog, mosquitos and lots of weeds! I think that we’ve hacked, chopped, mowed and composted enough for three bins.

August:

Dan and I have been working on a wiring job for the school district. Lots of ladder work for him, and running around for me.

Our company found a house and we cleaned house. 🙂 This was in preparation for Morgan finally arriving home. The Fuck up Fairy had done a number on that process, and were growing tired of delays. Daniel is also moving into an apartment in Pueblo, which means that the house will soon be back to it’s less crowded state.

On Sunday, we helped at a benefit concert for the Spanish Peaks Celtic Music Festival. Dan helped with sound and I helped where ever Barbara Yule needed me. The concert musician was Carlos Nunez. The music was wonderful. The venue was full, and everyone was happy. After the concert, we drove to Fowler to pick up Morgan. We saw 26 owls, a fox, a badger, frogs, and rabbits. Unfortunately, we hit two of the owls in spite of trying to avoid them. Morgan is very glad to be home, and we are happy too.

Last, but not least, we’ve been enjoying our new superintendent, Michael Moore. He is such a change from our last one. He likes getting things done and we are moving forward as a school district for the first time in ages! I attended the staff in-service day and it was wonderful. Laughter, good ideas, lots of sharing and in general, a feeling of hope and progress.

 

 

“Air you can Wear!”

Posted on by

It was indeed. Last Thursday, (June 26th) we headed to Indianapolis, Indiana. Why? Well, we had a conference to attend. Mach 30’s Apogee. Club Cyberia, the maker space there was hosting it. As we 1) didn’t have money for airplane tickets and 2) had WAY too much stuff to put on a plane, we drove.

1014 miles, give or take a few, one way. We stopped in Fulton Missouri for the night and then drove the rest of the way on Friday. We met up with the Mach 30 bunch. J. Simmons, Maureen, Greg, Jeremy, and some of the Club Cyberia makers. Dinner and conversation until we were exhausted. It was also So Humid! One lady on the news said it was “the air you can wear” and she was so right!

Saturday morning, Mach 30 had meetings and I sewed on my contract tunic. (For a Battlemoor tournament) I also visited an estate sale and got two really cool baskets for $10. IMG_0056That evening, we had an awards ceremony and Dan got Volunteer of the Year. He was so surprised. 🙂 Then we watched 2001.

Sunday, I stayed in the room, as I had an asthma attack. Dan was gone most of the day and we ate at Texas Roadhouse with everyone.

Monday, more of the same. This time it was Olive Garden for dinner.

Tuesday, we headed home. We stopped in St. Louis and we saw the Arch. Went all the way to the top of it no less. 🙂 It was so cool! We spent the night in Hays Kansas.

Wednesday, we got home and went right into work. Dan had an appointment and I had school board stuff to do.

This weekend we are recovering from our trip. Relaxing, cleaning up and hopefully, we will get some work done on the Wendy House. We also have temporary house guests. They’ll be with us until they find a house.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.