Huzzah Bazaar!

Posted on by jsudar

Yesterday, we took a day off. No meetings, no committees, no work. We went to Pueblo West and attended an SCA event called the Huzzah Bazaar! It was a combo jumble sale, demo and class event. Fun!

I dug out the clothing basket and got our clothes out. Nice Viking dress for me and tunic and trews for Dan. We grabbed the feast gear and headed out. Of course, we were a little late leaving, but not bad. When we were a block from the event, Dan turns to me and says “It is a dress event isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Are you sure?”

Of course, by then, my brain is going ninety different directions. I’m re-reading the event announcement in my head. “Well, the way it was written, I’m sure it was.”

“Did it say it was?”

“Ummm… no.”

I’ve been in the SCA for 6 years and haven’t attended a lot of events, so there are times I wonder….  By this point, we are pulling into the library parking lot. Shire banners. No cars in sight. No costumed people in sight. I’m beginning to worry. Finally, Dan goes the wrong way in the parking lot, finds the back lot and there is a person in garb. PHEW!

We hop out and head into the library and find the HB. 🙂 It was a lovely small event. Classes, demo’s, food, and a jumble sale. (ie, old garb, fabric, etc) We took the Viking knitting class. It’s a bit of a misnomer, as it is actually wire work. This video gives a good idea of what we did.

We had lunch, I learned English Country dances while Dan chatted with a knight about fighting, and I even sold a few things. It was a great day.

Afterwards, we went round to one of couple’s house and had a great late afternoon. I think that there were 20 people in the house at one point. 🙂 We had a lovely time, and we will be visiting the Shire of Aarquelle for other events.

Here are some pics.

Enough!

Posted on by jsudar

The last two weeks have been.. Hell. Not the kind where you feel the ship sink or the train heading to run you over. No, this is more like being nibbled to death by ants or ducks. I don’t think I could even start to list all the wonky things that have gone on, but here are the highlights:

  • The president of the Celtic Music Festival resigned because of health reasons. Then the treasurer resigned. The only officer left? Me. We are meeting Saturday to see what we can do.
  • Car repairs. New tires, one tire replaced after the new tires. (curb bite) Two new CV joints. Still stuff to do.
  • Heat. Nuff said.
  • Late nights in spite of attempts to go to bed early.
  • People not thinking before they email 6-12 others with erroneous information. Argh!!!!
  • School stuff. OMG. Resignations. Interviews. More interviews. Special meetings to hire people. (4) Oh, and at last count, 20 new staff members. Keep in mind that we have just under 70 all total in the district. And… issues finding housing.
  • Our Superintendent having health issues. Emergency room to hospital to minor surgery. Gahhh!
  • Schedule changes. I don’t think we’ve gone a day without something being shuffled.
  • New bespoke sewing project. Good for the reputation and the pocket book, but have I had time to sew? NO!
  • Contract canceled, and another one just starting. The waiting is crazy. Meanwhile, the bank account dwindles. Oh, and trying to work from Mom’s house is problematic.
  • The land we wanted to buy hit access issues and neighbor issues. So, we start again.

Walsenburg also had a ‘brain fart’ yesterday. Two attempted suicides. One by train. An assault that ended up with shots being fired at police, and an arrest. Plus tire slashings, a semi rear ending a car and other bits of mindless stupidity.

One of the few good things going on is that our garden is going gang busters! I harvested the first crookneck squash and green beans. 🙂

I am hoping that the only thing on my schedule tomorrow will remain harvesting veg, cooking dinner and sewing. Keep your fingers crossed!

 

A visit to Dad

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Yesterday, we had to go up to Pueblo for building supplies for Brandy’s dog house. we are trying to do stuff to get back into a routine. While we were up there, we stopped into the hospice and visited Dad. It was difficult. He’s non-responsive, and we have no idea if he hears us or not.

I told him that all the grandchildren, great grands, and all the ‘adopted’ family sent their love. I told him it was okay to pass, and that I loved him. Then Dan and I said our goodbyes and headed home.

In all honesty, it seems as if his soul is left. That his body has just not gotten the message that it’s time to go. The nurses are amazed that he has lasted this long, but then again, he’s always been a tough old man. I hope it isn’t long.

 

Sunday Breakfast

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We drove up to Pueblo on Sunday and had breakfast at the B Street Cafe. it’s a little hole in the wall place with great food. Afterwards, I took pictures of the Pueblo Union Depot across the street. It was a lovely Spring Day.

A Pause, A Breathe, and Waiting

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We finished moving into my mom’s house. 90% of our stuff is in storage. The rest is in nooks and crannies in my mom’s house. Brandy is learning to live in the back yard, and we are getting use to living with mom. It’s a good thing that my mom is a good friend as well as my parent. As time passes, we will adjust. We are doing our best to leave a lot of the hurt behind us and work on the positive things.

One of the last things I did was dig up my garden. We brought it over to my mom’s and spent a day digging and transplanting. I shared the rest of the irises I didn’t plant with three friends.

This last week we have caught up on sleep, email, meetings and life in general. I cleaned house and did laundry. It hasn’t been easy, but we are taking those deep breaths. We are pausing and trying to smell the breeze that carries the hint of spring.

Today we went shopping in Pueblo for the first time in weeks. After we did our shopping, we ate lunch at Romero’s. Then we went to visit Dad. Over the last week or so, he declined rapidly. They moved him into hospice on Tuesday night. In some ways, it was a relief not to visit him at the mental unit. The hospice is very nice. It had a good feel to it and the staff was pleasant. A friend of our had been in hospice and that place had not been nice. It looked alright, but had an ick to it. This place did not. (phew!)

We went in to see Dad and then let Mom have time alone with him. We chatted with the nurse, and she talked about how he was doing. She said he was restless, which to them means that it won’t be long. This matches with what my mom felt. We were originally going to visit on Friday, but she had this feeling that it had to be today. I’m glad we went up. He didn’t wake when we were there, or when we talked to him. Mom has his wedding ring now. We said our goodbyes and headed home. We may go up on Friday.

Mom has made all the arrangements with the local funeral home where our cousin works. In her own way, she’s getting her ‘ducks in a row’. Dan and I are doing our best to keep things running smoothly. And it is the little things that help so much. A dear friend sent us a lovely package full of treats. 🙂 It even had twiglets in it! Others have sent good wishes, hugs and energies for an easy transition for Dad.

Where to start?

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When last I was here, my aunt had just passed and my mom had returned home. Then all hell broke loose.

On Monday, Bryan came by to let me know that he’d bought the house from Stefan. He wanted to let us know that he planned to move in and that we’d have to stuff everything in storage and/or the Wendy House and live there. We tried to explain that this just wasn’t viable. We wasted our breath. Shock. Horror. Disbelief. A week later, we were told we had to totally leave the property. Leave the Wendy House…

While we were reeling from this, my Dad had a major ‘sundowners’ moment. Yelling, screaming, threatening people, etc. We called the police and the EMT’s. When all the dust settled, Dad was in hospital in Pueblo. In the mental unit. Meanwhile, we moved in with my mom, as she was very upset and didn’t want to be alone.

We have been up to see Dad. He’s been diagnosed with moderate to severe dementia and psychosis. From what the doctor and nurses said, he’s been bipolar all of his life, but could deal with it. The dementia robbed him of the control to cope. When my sister and I talked, we could see it looking back. My dad has always ‘escaped to the mountains’, and we figured he just didn’t like living in the city. Now we see it was his way of coping. Now we are working on Medicaid paperwork and other bits. It has been a crazy time.

And… in the mean time, we’ve been packing. It’s very hard to leave our home of 10 years. Hard to leave behind all the work we did on the Wendy House. We are doing our best to keep positive. It’s just tough.  Brandy isn’t doing too badly. She has a new yard to explore and we hope to build her a dog house soon.

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

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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. 🙂

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Oh the Chaos…

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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…

700 pounds of garbage.

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Yes, 700 pounds of building rubbled hauled to the dump. When we took the sheds down oh… 4 years ago, we piled stuff off to one side with great plans to recycle and reuse the corrugated roofing and other timbers. You can stop giggling. The pile has been great housing for Red Tom, and killed weeds. However, we realized that our expectations were a little off. There was just too much work to be done to reuse it. So, we cut it up and with the help of Daniel, hauled it to the dump. Our little pickup was so full, I swear the front tires were barely on the ground.

This was the start to our crazy busy weekend. Once we finished at the dump, we headed to the grocery store. Our original intent was to grab a few needed items like toilet paper and dish soap and then head home. Well… we decided to have a celebratory picnic. We grabbed chicken, potato salad, drinks, and dessert. Then we headed up old La Veta pass. We sat in a huge meadow, watched the ants and birds and listened to the wind blow through the trees. It was a much needed bit of solace. On the way home, we grabbed sandstone for our garden.

After we unloaded the truck, we started to look around and figure out what was next. Dan decided to mow the back yard. He got 4 ft done when our mower died. Yes, our brand new mower. So, we loaded it in the truck, and headed to Pueblo. We dropped it off at Lowes and then grabbed flooring for the Wendy House. When we got home, we cut the law with the weed wacker.

Sunday, I cleared the living room space while Dan went over to mow my parents lawn. When he came home, we tried to put a shelf up. This originally was a wooden fireplace mantle. Forty minutes later, we realized it would not fit where we wanted it and moved it to the East wall.

Then it was time for the flooring. We are covering old cement that has cracks, oil stains and is a bit of a mess. A variety of interruptions made a hash of the day, our tempers and stamina. By 9pm, we were exhausted, but… we had 90% of the work done. To our frustration, we realized that the area of the old ramp was still spongy inspite of everything we’d done. The solution of course is to put another layer of flooring down. sigh… However, for the moment, we have a level floor. We built part of the plinth that matches the height of the one under the wardrobes. This has been needed because of the uneven nature of the foundation on the north and east walls.

By the time we flopped into bed, I think every muscle I have ached. We loaded and unloaded huge weights of material six times. Our poor pickup! Then we shuffled, moved and built until we couldn’t see straight. In spite of all of the delays, we got a lot accomplished.

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Cold and Quiet

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It’s so quiet at the moment, I can hear the sound of snowflakes shushing across the roof. Yes, SNOWFLAKES. Third Winters anyone?

The week was busy. With Morgan home, we did a lot of things together. Ate out, watched ALL the Harry Potter movies, played on our computers and watched Morgan sleep. Amazing how much a college student sleeps! 🙂

On Saturday, it was 75! We did lots of gardening. Mowed the lawn, pulled weeds, moved rocks, moved more rocks, picked up trash and repotted a bunch of plants. We crawled into bed smelling of aspercreme and groaning like we were 90.

Sunday, we knew it was suppose to be cold. It’s why we didn’t plant anything outside. We made bacon cinnamon rolls for breakfast. yum!

As the day wore on, it got colder and colder. Then the thunder and rain began. Soon after, the snow. Yes, snow. In May! Have I mentioned that Colorado is menopausal this year? By mid afternoon, it was really snowing.

May 10th3

Morgan packed for her trip to California. Around 5:30pm, we left for Pueblo. As we drove north, the snow slacked off, which was fine. However, the winds made up for it. We had dinner at Chili’s and then met Ashleigh and her parents at the bus stop. We chatted and made sure the girls got on the bus for California. Then the drive home. Ugh! You know how in sci-fi movies they have the star fields that move towards you? Well, that’s what it was like all the way home.

This morning, we woke up to 8 inches of snow in our yard. It’s still snowing. It’s suppose to snow tomorrow too. Can we have our warmer weather back? I know we need the moisture, but how about rain? I’d like to plant out my rhubarb and raspberry canes before July.

I have lots of pictures, but I’m going to divide them into separate posts.