May hit like a Mac Truck!

Posted on by jsudar

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.29April2

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.

The next week was Hectic! Why? Well… because it was Spring Coronation! More on that in the next post.

Yet Another Milestone! (or 6)

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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.

Viking Vinter Vonderland

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We had a great time. It was held at Pueblo Mt. Park. The drive up was nice after the hectic morning of preparing the last of the food and packing up the truck. We left 40 minutes late, but we weren’t the only ones a bit late.

We took our little campstove, and while Dan heated up bread rolls in the oven, I began to roll/flatten out the rye flatbreads. We cooked about 50-60 of them. While it was a little cold, it wasn’t too bad.

The donation luncheon and challenge table was filled with luscious food. I contributed cabbage and venison soup, rye flat bread, a salad, plum cake with plum sauce, a Viking version of deviled eggs, tea, milk and sugar.

There was lots of good conversation and fun. I participated in a persona challenge. I was asked questions about Unna Farulfsdottir, and it was very interesting. I didn’t win, but it gave me a lot to think about. I also participated in the largess contest. I entered my 5 Valkyries. I got a penannular brooch in return for participating.

Finally, we headed home around 5pm. We were happy and worn out. A great day.

So Tired…

Posted on by jsudar

I fell off the Blogsphere for a while. Life got busy, hectic, crazy. Oh yeah…

The day of John Thomas’ memorial at the library, it snowed. So, there were about 55 people there. Lots of people shared memories.

Since then, I spent a lot of time sorting out possessions, trying to be organized, attended school holiday parties, did a wiring job with Dan for District O.N.E., sew new clothes for an SCA event in January, attended an SCA holiday party, and went shopping on December 19th. Oh that was a mistake. It was crazy!

Then Yule, Christmas and Yoolis. The first was the solstice. Our quiet time. Spent it doing lots of catch up stuff. Christmas Day I made green chile and we had tamales from Romeros. Yum! Daniel and Angela came over for dinner and we all ate way too much. Yoolis was the SCA holiday party. It was fun. Good conversation, food and a relaxing time.

On December 30th, I took Gir to a no kill shelter in Trinidad. Beth hadn’t been able to find a home for her. It was a sad but necessary thing.

We had a computer job on December 31st. Drove up to Castle Rock and back by 8pm. I stayed up watching stuff off of Netflix. Dan woke up at about 11:55pm, and we celebrated the New Year with a bit of whisky.

New Year’s Day started on a fast track. I started off my day with cutting out two Viking hoods, and a new Viking dress. Then we went off to pick up furniture that Ethan left at the John Mall house. He wasn’t there, so we headed to get some lunch. Just got lunch when Beth rang to say that she was almost ready to go. She’d been packing for a month, and was finally ready.

We headed over to the house and said our goodbyes. Then we finally picked up the stuff from the JM house and then did some organizational work at the house. We just got started when Daniel and Angela showed up to pick up his stuff. He and Dan moved some furniture that will go to friends. Got home in time to finish up the pinto beans, make corn bread and slice the ham. Yum…

Since then, we have moved furniture, rounded up cats (9 of 16), bagged trash, sorted out ‘stuff’, and cleaned. For the most part, it has been sort, toss, sort, keep, sort… I am amazed at all the stuff. We’ve been downsizing a lot over the last few years, but omg! We took a truck load of stuff to the ARC, the thrift store in Pueblo. I will have another load by the end of the week. Today was a rough day. We cleared three rooms. After we scraped floors, Dan bleached sprayed the walls while I wiped them down. Then we mopped the floors. All with bleach water. The worst room was the breakfast nook. However, I think we got all the cat shit off of the floor. I’m hoping that the smell is lessened.

Tomorrow, we will prep the rooms for painting. We will Spackle holes, cracks and divots.  Then we will tape off windows, and edgings. Then the paint… We’ve decided on one color for most of the rooms. From there we will highlight them with colors from the same range. We are working towards restoring the house to it’s 1936 Mission/Arts & Crafts glory.

Getting back to normal

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Or, whatever that is!

Monday we unpacked. We moved the TVLH into the garage and while I worked on sorting clothes, dishes and other bits, Dan worked on paperwork and Mark 2 of the TVLH. (yes, ideas were burning up his brain!) I did a lot of computer work as well. All those pics! Oh, and I wrote an article for the newspaper.

Tuesday I did laundry, put clean dishes away, had a Celtic Music Fest and a School Board meeting. At the meeting, it was announced that we don’t have to hold an election. As there were only four candidate petitions, and only four seats open, we are automatically rolled in. 🙂 It saves the district over $10,000. Oh, and I folded more clothes than I thought possible. I swear that they multiplied in the dryer. Wrote a letter to the editor about someone’s bad behavior too!

Today we went to Pueblo and got groceries. This afternoon, I’m taking delivery of the CMF office boxes and harvesting veggies out of the garden. More zucchini to shred!

I’ve also added a few pics. I forgot my bracelets and the forks that Dan made. This evening, I plan to organize all of the crafts stuff. I want to get started on sewing EARLY rather than late. No more finishing a project the night before a war!

Battlemoor!!!!

Posted on by jsudar

Tomorrow, after we finish up some details on the tent, we will be off to Battlemoor. It’s our vacation. No Phones. No Computers. No modern world issues. Just lots of fun with people who like to dress up, wear armor and hit each other in competition to see who’s the best. 🙂 I’m looking forward to relaxing!

 

 

Stats Explosion!

Posted on by jsudar

Well, now I know how to make my stats on views go crazy. All I have to do is post a new tutorial in the SCA section. 🙂 1367 views just today. Last time I had this many was when I posted about the Viking Hat. That was 1490 views.

Meanwhile, I’ve had a quiet week. Two days of no meetings, no crazy adventures. For the most part, I’ve been sewing, picking lovely tomatoes, working on websites and had lunch at George’s. 🙂 Tomorrow we are off to Pueblo. Shopping of course. King Soopers, Gagliano’s Deli, Walmart and then Chinese for lunch. Ahhh…

Oh, and sewing during the drive. I have a tunic to finish!

Yet Another Crazy Week.

Posted on by jsudar

We thought it was going to be fairly easy. (yeah, you can start laughing now) Our friend Ethan was heading from California to Colorado to be our new STEM teacher. Well, at first he was suppose to arrive on Sunday at midnight. That didn’t happen. He left California on Sunday afternoon. Keep in mind that it is a 14+ hour drive and he was due to start work at 11:30am on Monday.

Well… at some point, he realized that he wasn’t going to cope. He and Dan talked and they decided to meet in Las Vegas, NM. Dan told me of this plan around midnight. (insert cussing) So, we went to bed and got up at 4am. We had time enough to dress, and head out the door. Awwwgh!

We got to Las Vegas at 7am. We had breakfast at Charlie’s Spic and Span Bakery. Bought tortillas, macaroons and sugar cookies. I drove Ethan’s car and Dan drove the truck while Ethan sort of slept.

We got to school with 30 minutes to spare. Dan went home and Ethan and I went to New Teacher orientation. When it was over, we headed home as Ethan was staying with us. He napped while I made a salad. Why? Well, because at 5:30, we had the Staff and Family BBQ. Ethan, Dan, Mom and I went. It was a lot of fun.

Tuesday we got up and Ethan and I went to the first Teacher Inservice day. I only had to be there for a few hours. Then I headed off to work on signatures for my petition, and a few other things. Yes, I’m running for school board again. We had a Town Hall meeting at Washington School as well. An attempt to get people to understand what the school district is up against and how everyone should work together. We had 25 people. Not bad, but it could have been better.

Wednesday, a repeat of the day before, only I cleaned up the clothing bank. Thursday I went up to Gardner and taught some of the staff how to run a WordPress site. 🙂 In a fit of craziness, I volunteered to do the district’s websites. At least start them up. Overall, it saved the district about $5000. They look pretty good too.

Friday… Mom and I went shopping while Dan figured out why his computer fried. He was trying to get the SQUARE program set up on the website for the Celtic Music Festival. He’s had a lot of frustrations. Oh, and everyone has been asking when will it be done. Aieee-ya! We went to Bargain Box and I found some neat stuff for Battlemoor!

Today… Celtic Music Fest Board meeting. We are about a month out from the festival, and everyone is a bit edgy. Frustrated. Panicked. So, tempers got a little warm. The dust is now settled, but… there is still work to do. If you like Celtic music, check it out. Better yet, Come to the festival. If you can’t come, donate towards a good cause!

Tomorrow is gardening for me and sewing work on the bespoke tunic. Dan will be battling with SQUARE, and we will both help Ethan move into his new home.