Month: December 2016

2017 is fast approaching and, as has been my custom at this time of year, here is a quick review of 2016 and  our goals for the new year.

Our daughter Felicity and son Toby visited us over the Memorial Day weekend. We hadn’t been in one place for many years and it was “interesting” to visit and catch up with all of the news and events that had passed. During this visit we took a tram ride up a mountain (near Glenwood Springs), where we enjoyed an outdoor concert and views of the town and valley below.

Fields family and dogs, May 28, 2016

After the visit Toby returned to his home in South Bend, Indiana, where he works several different jobs. He recently started a position with Better World Books, a company that specializes in reselling used books of many kinds. This company is quite large and has warehouses in foreign countries. Toby also continues his refereeing jobs in the summer and works as a waiter part-time/year round.

Felicity enjoyed another year of international locations, including Malta (in the Mediterranean) plus Ireland and Switzerland, and a visit to the Galapagos Islands. She recently returned to Portland, Oregon, for the winter. Felicity is employed by an internet-based training company and can work wherever she has an internet connection.

As for Pam and myself, we continued two long-term projects. The first was to further develop our recreational property (The Lot) located in central Colorado. The work consists of removing dead and down trees, salvaging what we can for firewood and hauling the rest to a “burn pit” for disposal. While we finished a few areas this year, a late spring shortened the working season and we didn’t clear as much as I would have liked. Still we enjoy the activity; it gets us out of town and into the high country (working with Big Boy Toys) most summer weekends.

Salvaged firewood, August 2016

The second project, still in progress, is a search for a retirement home. We had decided to try to find a home that has a bit of acreage, a few trees, and relatively short commute to the nearest town with services. Various properties have been viewed in multiple markets, but we are still looking for “the one.” We didn’t think the search would take so long!

The summer was a good one for recreational activities. I rode a few ATV trails and attended a Colorado-based motorcycle rally.

My ATV at the Magnolia Mill on the Wheeler Lake Trail

Motorcycle club members at the top of Pike’s Peak. I am at upper right.

Pam took on another litter of foster cats (#26): 4 kittens and mom cat Juliana.

Mom cat Juliana (left) with one of her 4 kittens, Ernst.

Juliana and all the kittens were adopted though our local animal shelter.

Combined with all the regular around-the-house work, we kept a busy schedule, if not a particularly exciting one.

Goals for 2017 are not exotic. We plan to continue cleaning up The Lot and looking for a retirement home. (I hope to locate a brush chipper to help with the lot cleanup, another “Big Boy Toy” to add to the mix.) A trip to the Midwest to visit family may materialize, but that’s more of an idea than a plan at this point. Otherwise we’ll just keep plugging along, starting to strategize more intensively for retirement and staying active for another year.

We wish everyone a Happy New Year.

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

I look at 2016 and I see — disappointment.  Disappointment in the national election results, disappointment in various health diagnoses for ourselves and friends/relatives, disappointment in the retirement house hunt.  I evaluated my 15,000th incoming [transfer] transcript at the community college, a disappointing benchmark (more deserving of sympathy than recognition).

2017 strikes me as having the potential to be both a pivotal and volatile year, personally and nationally. I find my resolutions for the next 365 days to be: 1) our household’s financial survival during the Trumpies take-over, and 2) some attempt at mental balance and inner calm to sail through the obstacles (health, pets, family, money, work, retirement planning) that are  likely to present themselves.

(My resolution of several years ago to “drink more wine” was an easier resolution to accomplish.  Mental balance?  Inner calm?  Good luck.)

Happy Trails.

Tomorrow is Christmas (as I write this) and we’re as ready as we ever are. It seems the holiday creeps up then – wham – it’s here. Even though we were more organized this year than in most years it still seems strange that tomorrow is The Day.

It was easier to get excited when we were kids. Looking forward to school vacation, riding our sleds, building snow forts, and eating cookies and goodies from Mom’s kitchen. There were church events and a party or two; band concerts and seasonal music provided a Christmas sound track. Now that we have no kids in the house and are working right up to the day, some of the magic is no longer present.

2016 Christmas Tree

There are a few other topics I need to cover including the house hunt and a few other updates.

The house I mentioned in my last post (Kutzu Ridge) appears to be a non-starter. I spoke to the realtor who has the listing and he advised me the home needs a new boiler. The boiler provides radiant heat as well as domestic hot water and would be about a $15,000.00 repair. Even then there may be unknown damage to the radiant heating coils built into the floor. The house had been vacated but not winterized and everything froze up. The realtor also had a few details on the lot, which slopes down sharply from the house, and problems with the water district that supplies the area with water. An embezzlement case has caused water rates to go sky-high, typically $200.00 per month as the water service tries to rebuild their finances. Even empty houses are charged $150.00 per month even if no water is consumed. Not a good situation when this would be a 2nd mortgage for us until retirement in a couple years; the extra monthly expenses would be hard to absorb. Given the needed repairs and higher utilities I think this house is out of the running, although I really liked the interior and it turns out there are two bedrooms and a bath on the main floor, features high on our priority list.  Pam will check back from time to time to see if the price drops significantly over the next few months.

Speaking of which, Pam continues to monitor the realty listings but nothing of interest is on the horizon. One strange listing came out of Ouray, CO. A house is on the market that has a problem: a 40-ton boulder rolled off a nearby slope and bashed through one wall of the house, broke though the floor, and is currently sitting in the basement with the top of the rock still above the first floor. House is being sold “as is” (wall is still open to the elements) for  $286,000.00. Might be a great fixer-upper–  but — not for us!

Closer to home, we had snow on Thursday night, 2 – 3 inches of heavy, wet stuff. Pam took this photo of me out on the John Deere garden tractor clearing some of the sidewalk areas on Friday morning:

Clearing recent snowfall.

Note the driveway has already been cleared. Temperatures were not bad so the cleanup was not to onerous. I will say that the cut-down cable chains that I made for the tractor’s rear tires last fall worked very well, far better than the conventional chains I had used the past few years. With this addition (and the extra suitcase weights that were my Christmas present last year) the little tractor does a respectable job of snow plowing.

That does it for this post. We hope all who read this have a Merry Christmas!

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

Ignore that diabetes, we’re having a pie for Christmas Day (strawberry/rhubarb)!

Happy Trails.

While we are not getting whacked with the very cold weather and snow that is hitting the Midwest, where the bulk of my family lives, we are experiencing another cold snap. Night time temperatures are (once again) in the single digits. Typically we get below-zero conditions in December, although this year is considered to be warmer than normal (but it is still cold). The wind has blown a few days, giving a wind chill of well below zero. I fired up the Aladdin heater again to help warm the garage a bit.

Aladdin heater in garage

The Aladdin keeps the garage warm enough to keep the cat water from freezing; this is my “did it work” criteria, so I guess it did work. The next few nights are forecast to be quite cold so the heater will get a couple more workouts this week. If the lows are in the twin-digits the garage generally gets warm enough during the day to stay above freezing at night so the heater isn’t required.

We have moved our oldest outside cat, Mr. Bibbs, into the house for these cold nights. Mr. Bibbs is about 12 years old and does not appear to be in robust health even though he moves around, eats, and will jump into my lap when I am sitting outside in warmer weather. Right now he is in the cat room where he sits on the heated pad Pam provides for him and moves only to eat and use the cat box. A year ago in December we lost our cat Soot to cancer; I would hate to think losing a cat every year at Christmas would become a tradition. Hopefully the indoor respite will add a few years to Mr. Bibbs’ life. He is my favorite cat.

Mr. Bibbs in cat room

In other news,  we have seen a potential retirement home listing that may be a possibility. It is in Florissant, an area we have considered before, but it is a long way from De Beque. Address is 816 Kutsu Ridge Road, Florissant, Co. We may try to arrange a realtor-guided visit over the holiday break, depending on weather conditions. Watch this space.

I’ve added a few photos taken in 2016 to The Lot gallery. Here is a link to that gallery; the new photos are at the bottom of the page.

Daughter Felicity is back in the USA; she is staying with a friend until January 1st when she can move into a room she will be renting (in a house with three other young women). Her new base will be in Vancouver, Washington (across the Columbia River from Portland, OR). While Felicity still intends to travel a great deal, it will be a benefit for her to have a place to return to between international trips. Felicity’s ongoing travel blog can be found on-line at this address: http://www.blog.felicityfields.com and is worth a read — take a look!

Son Toby has picked up a new part-time job working for a used book company, Better World Books. This will supplement the income he gets from his restaurant job and refereeing softball games in summer leagues. Unlike the other two jobs, this one will give him a base income that he can count on.  Toby seems to be happy in his life and working three part-time jobs, perfectly OK with us.

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

The cards are out, the tree is up, the holiday songs are ringing through the house.  Only four more workdays to go until the community college closes down between Christmas and New Year. If the weather would just warm up a bit, life wouldn’t be half bad, even though this is the shortest daylight period of the year.  I do worry about the feral cats outside during these cold snaps; I provide Dogloos for shelter and bedding, food, and heated water bowls.

Happy Trails.

Although we have had  a spell of colder weather (lows in single digits) and snow, today is bright and sunny with a forecast high in the low 40s. The morning frost is already gone from the driveway and sidewalks and we appreciate the temporary respite from winter.

Yesterday was also mild but not as warm, but that did not stop me from raking the yard one last time and getting rid of a few drifting leaves. A couple spots were still snow-covered; I just raked around these areas. Imagine…raking the yard in December! The Christmas music on the CD player is a reminder, though, that Christmas is only a few weeks away.

We’ve been receiving Christmas cards in the mail and, for once, all of our cards are done. This is early for us: in many years our cards have been New Year’s cards instead!  We hope everyone is enjoying preparations for the holidays.

During the last cold snap I fired up my garage-sale Aladdin kerosene heater. The goal was to keep the inside of the garage above freezing and the heater provided enough heat to accomplish this. We won’t use it often, only when the temps are single-digits or below zero, but it will make the cars easier to start and give some comfort to the cats who consider the garage their home. It was nice to walk into the garage, otherwise unheated, and have the the car start without any issues.

Our Christmas tree, a gift from daughter Felicity, arrived last Friday (direct from Oregon!) and we are in the process of decorating it. Right now it has lights and a star topper; Pam will work on adding ornaments this coming week. The tree is very fragrant, has an excellent shape, and fits the spot in the master bedroom very well. (The location keeps the tree safe from our 3 dogs and 6 cats.) Going to sleep with the pine scent is a delight in itself.

Pam says I can’t have a post with no pictures in it, but I haven’t taken any new photos for the last week or so. Here is a photo taken when we lived in Whitewater of a squirrel at a feeder we had set up:

Getting dinner.

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

I spent the morning packaging gifts for shipping.  I don’t think I’ve been this organized in years.  Of course, the gifts to be shipped are smaller (in size and quantity) each year, and the holiday card list reduces in size too.

Happy Trails.

With winter weather in place and not much happening on the house hunt scene, our activity has been limited to putting up outside Christmas decorations. The days after Thanksgiving featured above-average temperatures which made this task easier.

We made a few minor upgrades to our lights this year. We don’t go overboard but over the years some of the outside decorations had deteriorated and were discarded. A few new lights took their place, including the battery-powered stars you can see hanging from our front-yard Locust tree:

A few [new] stars in the Locust tree

Snowflakes adorn one of our front windows

The stars and snowflakes join some of our traditional decorations which include lights, wreaths, and  illuminated bells and tree:

Our daughter Felicity has arranged for us to get a fresh Oregon Christmas tree; when it arrives we will begin decorating inside the house.  Harkens back to our Oregon days and visiting the lovely tree farms in the Pacific Northwest.

We did have one other event of note; we delivered our last two foster cats, Pieter and Ernst, to the Rifle Animal Shelter, where they are awaiting adoption. It seems a bit strange not to have kittens in the house (Pieter and Ernst were here six months due to a continuing medical issue), but the kittens are now certainly ready to be adopted into homes of their own. May they adopt quickly.

A few other notes: We had our first measurable snow, 2 – 3 inches, enough that I used the John Deere lawn tractor/blade combo to clear our driveway and sidewalks. More snow, and frigid weather, is in the forecast for the upcoming week. The cold is harder to bear than the snow but – it is December – such weather is normal. I’ve started carrying the jumper cables in the car just in case, and have the cable chains and tensioners ready to go as well. I hope to not have to use jumpers/chains/tensioners, but with an hour-long commute each way it is best to be prepared.

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

Preparing holiday cards — the list gets smaller each year.  Busy time at work — the end of the semester at the community college.

Hate, hate, hate the colder-than-a-welldigger’s-behind weather.

Happy Trails.