Month: January 2015

Little has gone on or “happened” this past week so this post is just going to be a collection of comments and short updates.

The weather is a little warmer but still in the 20s at night, making the mornings frosty. Only 1 day in the coming week has a small (20 percent) possibility of snow so the mild conditions look to continue for several days.

7-day forecast

Our local grocery store, City Market, has a loyalty card program that earns us “fuel points” on our purchases. We redeemed some this last week (points are good for a month) and paid $1.20 per gallon for regular after our $.70 cent discount. I took my extra fuel cans along and pumped 33.4 gallons total, saving us a bit over $23.00. Fuel prices will go up again, but we sure enjoy the current low prices. The 33 gallons will last us about two weeks as we are not running the truck or many of my toys.

Sanderling Update: We filled out the well permit application and mailed it off to the state, including our docket permit, warranty deed, and check for $100.00. It will be 6 – 8 weeks before we hear back.

I had dental work done this past week, a root canal and fitting for a crown. It will be 3 weeks before the crown is in and I finish this particular episode. I am not a big fan of dentists, but have two more teeth to work on before I can get an “all is well” so I’ll be back for more work later this year.

A CD player was added to our rehabbed stereo system so we can now move away from playing CDs on the computer. Player came from a Habitat for Humanity store in Grand Junction. I was also looking for a good cassette deck – we still have a couple dozen tapes in our collection – but did not find any so I am bidding on one from eBay. I hope to win it this week.

Daughter Felicity is currently in Malta (an island in the Mediterranean between Italy and Africa) but will begin a house-sit in England shortly. After that she takes the train to France for another house-sit.  Felic returns to the States in May to interview for an extended (5 month) house-sit back in the USA in the Portland, Oregon, area for next winter. Then she’s looking at cruising to Alaska.  That girl does get around.

The Honda turned over 352,000 miles. I had replaced the thermostat a few weeks ago and the check engine light no longer comes on, a good thing. One of these days  that car is just going to drop dead, but until then we keep on truckin’ with it.

My glucose levels are now averaging around 107. 70 – 130 is considered “normal” by the American Diabetes Association. Considering I started with a daily high of 338 in early December I am satisfied with the results so far. I did find that, for me, anything below about 90 results in trembling hands…not good…so I am getting closer to establishing the lower end of the levels that seem best for me.

14 day average glucose level

Pam is over a winter cold and is progressing on her guitar. We dug out a few of my early chord and song books; it is handy to have the chord charts handy when trying to learn a new song. It’s surprising how many books of this type we had kept over the years. Pam also finds lyrics and chords to almost any song we can think of on the internet.

We don’t have much going on right now so I may skip next week’s post unless something of note crops up.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

January – it has always been the month to “get through,” ever since childhood.  The high desert doesn’t feature the gray snow and ice buildup found in the Midwest, and I no longer walk the mile to school (and mile back) wearing pants under my skirt.  Still, a long and somewhat boring month.

Jer is missing his mountains; yesterday I located him on the driveway chopping firewood into kindling.

For some reason I am missing beaches, even with only a week’s exposure to the Florida panhandle last October.  I browse through real estate listings from that area to keep me dreaming.

Ft. Taylor Beach

Happy Trails.

Last weekend we had snow, but this past week has been warm – 47 degrees yesterday and forecast of 45 for today – so it feels more like spring than mid-winter.

The front yard is free of snow, as are the roads and sidewalks. A few small patches remain in very shaded areas, but that is also very “thaw-ish” in nature.

I was able to take the ATV out for a ride yesterday. The roads are muddy (mostly dirt, after all) but I had no problems getting around even on the off-road trails. Below is a photo of me at one stop along the way:

ATV ride, January 17

In other news, we had taken our two foster kittens to the Rifle Animal Shelter where they had their spay/neuter operations. Good news is all were adopted in less than a week. (A neighbor had picked up a stray kitten, Pam included it in the group, and it was adopted too.) We are always glad when the animals spend very little time in shelters.

Sanderling Project Update: Our docket receipt came back from the water court so now I can go ahead and submit the well drilling application to the state. It generally takes the state about 6 – 8 weeks to process these applications so we don’t expect to hear from them for some time.

For several months we had been seeing, and hearing, a red-headed woodpecker working away on a neighbor’s tree. I decided to get a few minutes of video of this activity: (Run time = 2:40.)

[cincopa AQKALNshyvig]

My glucose levels have dropped into the 120 range with a 14-day average of 126. My doctor had aimed at an average of 150 so I am doing well in that regard. The American Diabetes Association indicates a level of 70 – 130 before a meal is the target people like me should aim for, so I am doing well by that standard. My average levels should fall a few more points in the following weeks as my most recent tests (3 or 4) have all yielded sub-120 numbers. Progress, I guess.

Life goes on. Tax preparation is coming up in a few weeks, withholding statements should be out soon. Pam still has KitKat, the third foster kitten, in the cat room until it’s time to find a barn home for her in the (actual) Spring. With the modulated weather, the dogs spend more time outside and the 3 indoor-outdoor cats (Sunny, Soot, and Antonio) are also frequently outside  to stretch their legs and soak up some sunlight.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

Aren’t we a regular bunch of bird watchers!  We like birds, here and in the high country.  We listen to the woodpeckers in the winter, watch the [nesting] birds in our cottonwood tree in the spring and summer, enjoy the hummingbirds and bluebirds in the high country.  I positively identified a robin flying around the neighborhood this week – kinda early for them. All good.

Happy Trails.

Snow: We woke up to new snow this morning, guess the weatherman was wrong this time. Forecast was for rain with snow above 7,000 feet and we are at 5,000 feet. We just hope the roads are cleared up a bit before tomorrow’s commute. We didn’t get a lot, less than 2 inches, but there are still flakes in the air and 30 – 40 percent chance of more to come in the next couple of days.

Cats: A couple of our inside cats are more likely to sit in my lap than others. Cirrus and Soot are used to being lap cats and like to settle in while I watch TV. Here is Soot on my lap during one such event:

Soot the cat on Jerry’s lap

The cats know when Pam is going to get their dinner ready:

Cats congregating for dinner

Dinner sure tastes good

Other Things:  All the holiday lights are down and packed away until next year. It is kind of sad to say this final goodbye to Christmas 2014.

Football playoffs are on and both our favorite college teams, Oregon and Wisconsin, had good seasons. The final college game between Oregon and Ohio State — for the national championship — should be a good one. On the professional football side, the Broncos may or may not move on…game is later today and we’ll be watching.

Pam is progressing on her guitar…even played a whole song yesterday!  As part of the renewed effort to have music in the house, I picked up a pair of small “book shelf” speakers (Klipsch B-10) and connected them to the stereo system. The system has been non-functional for quite a while, as the cats liked to claw up the speakers when they were sitting on the floor (rest of system is on our armoire) so I had to move the previous speakers to the garage. The new speakers fit into the armoire’s top shelf and are safe from the cats. While not the same sound as my old Bose 301s, the sound is not bad and it’s nice to have the house system functional again. (The system includes a turntable – vinyl is coming back!) Next I’ll pick up an adapter and put the TV on the stereo system; the TV’s built in speakers leave something to be desired in terms of sound quality.

We started the process of getting a well permit for the Sanderling property. In Colorado all water belongs to the state; this means we first have to get permission from the state to legally pump water out of the ground. It turns out the lot is in Water District 1 so we had to send a form to the Water Court, along with $5.00, to get a “docket receipt” that enables us to use water from a well for household purposes. We sent this in a few days ago and probably won’t hear back for a while, but the first step has been taken.

Next step, to be taken after we get the water court docket receipt, is to file a well permit application ($100.00) with the state. A permit will let us drill a well, and the docket receipt will let us pump water from it. Two forms, two different agencies, two different fees, just to get a well drilled.

The well will cost around $10,000.00 and will be, we expect, about 300 feet deep. I spoke to a Fairplay well drilling company and we’ll start looking at potential well sites in March or April. More on this endeavor in a couple months.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

Woo hoo, aren’t y’all thrilled to hear of my progress playing the guitar?  The song in question has two chords, both chords use three fingers, and are close to each other on the neck of the guitar.  Callouses have started to form on the fingers of my left hand.  My right thumb started bleeding when the skin cracked; guess I’ll need to get with the program and use that dang guitar pick for strumming.

Happy Trails.

Happy New Year to all looking in on this blog. A new year has begun; let us all hope it turns out to be a good one. Sadly, world peace is probably too much to hope for.

It’s been a quiet change-of-year for the most part. The high desert has some snow on the ground but temps are supposed to get into the lower 40s this next week so what snow we have will probably melt, at least in those places that get sunlight. Average high for this time of year is about 37 degrees.

Christmas decorations are mostly down and packed away. I have a few lights on the garage and lilac bushes to take down yet; after that Christmas is really over. Pam goes back to work after a 12 day break and she is not looking forward to it.

The foster kittens are doing well, growing and having a good time in the cat room when Pam lets them out of their pen. Our larger cats generally leave the kittens alone, although Sunny likes to sleep on top of the kitten cage. This month spay/neuter surgeries will be scheduled, then two of the three should be ready for a local shelter and adoption.

I’ve updated a few of my Galleries as well as the text of a few pages; this keeps me busy on days (like today) when there is little to do, or that I want to do, outside. My thanks to Larry and Tabitha for their frequent comments on these posts.

2015 House Project: We are looking into “panelized” home kits. These are neither pre-fab or modular homes but are made out of insulated panels. Generally provided as a shell, it is up to the home owner to provide doors, windows, interior finishes, roofing, electrical wiring, and plumbing. The advantage is lower material cost, fast build times, and all interior walls, steps, and decking are included in the purchase price.

One of the kits we are looking at is this ranch-style house plan:

Potential ranch kit

Link to floor plan and more details is at http://valubuild.com/manufactured-home-models-ranches/ranch-rap-28×56.html

Going forward, we have decided to have a well drilled at Sanderling before we make any other construction commitments; we hope to see adequate water flow but, if not, our plans will have to change accordingly. Nothing is going to happen for a few months yet, but I did download the well permit and will be filling it out and getting it back to the state in the new year.

E-mail contact with the Solargon company (a Colorado-based modular home manufacturer I had mentioned in a previous post) was disappointing.  Not as much value-for-money as we were expecting, less included in the housebuilding kit than we had thought, expensive and inconvenient shipping arrangements needed, and rather pricey overall.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

In the new year, I plan to drink more wine (white), read more books, practice the guitar, renew my passport — and maybe [help] build a house?  (Regarding the guitar, I will continue to practice chords in private, as Jer  says, “You need to tune that guitar!” when the issue is my fingering, not the guitar. I’m not very good at guitar chords – one week into it – and some of the sounds are “buzzing and plunking” discordant.)

I recently joined Facebook (I know, what took me so long).  Mainly I want to view the family photos I have been informed I’ve been missing.  And it’s true, there are quite a few family photos on Facebook.  Also a lot of other junk, however…

Happy Trails.