Category: General (Page 43 of 64)

I have a few small things to comment on this time around even though this time of year is generally pretty quiet for us.

We’ve had a couple snowstorms; nothing major (like the East Coast and snow in feet, not inches) but enough for me to use the blower and garden tractor to clear the drive and sidewalks. Photos featured below were taken this past Tuesday, January 19th:

January 19th snow

Driveway after removing snow

“Artsy” shot of our chain link fence

The snow was quite heavy; we received about 3 inches or so and it would’ve made a good snow fort or snow-people. More white stuff is in the forecast for this weekend but daytime temps are getting into the upper 30’s so the snow should not stick around long (except on the lawn in shady places).

I had to replace a tire on the John Deere garden tractor; it’s had a slow leak for some time and finally gave up the ghost. The tractor is a ’93 model and the tire was original; 23 years is a pretty good service life for a tire.

January 10th saw me driving to Park County to check on The Lot and the storage shed. Snow rules the high country this time of year, but I spent some time walking around Sanderling and taking a few photos.

Driveway and shed, January 10th

The Nook

On the way home I stopped in Blue River (near Breckenridge) and took this mountain scenic:

Mountains near Breckenridge

I find myself humming “Muriah” (from Paint Your Wagon) every time I see the snow blowing around the mountain tops.

From time to time small things just make me smile. A few days ago Pam and I were trying to find a term for a group of skunks; Pam came up with “a stink of skunks” which made me laugh. And, very infrequently, advertising copy catches my eye. While shopping for shampoo I had picked up a bottle of Prell, inexpensive and it does the job. However, right next to the Prell was a display of Old Spice products so I picked up a bottle and enjoyed the ad copy on the back: “The strength of a redwood and the mystic scent of mint in TIMBER is power for your hair, soul, and jet-powered chainsaw if you happen to use one.” “Directions: Wet hair, lather, rinse, and get on with your day.” The Old Spice is now sitting in our bathroom.

The Denver Broncos play the New England Patriots tomorrow in the divisional playoff game; the winner goes to the Super Bowl. I have my doubts about the Broncos getting that far but we will see! Watching Peyton Manning in the twilight of his career can be an exercise in fan frustration.

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

And we wouldn’t be talking about skunks at all, except I smelled one in the neighborhood already this week.  Apparently the nine skunks that were trapped and relocated out of this part of town last summer were not all of them. (?)  I was anticipating the Spring warmup, now I wonder. Note to self: stock up on Nature’s Miracle Skunk Odor Remover…

We did load up the dogs and drive by about seven properties in Delta, CO last Sunday.  Delta is aptly named, as it sits at the juncture of the Gunnison and Uncompahgre Rivers.  Irrigation water is plentiful there (unusual for Colorado). Pondering what we could do with a “farmette-sized” acreage in that location – how about a seasonal pumpkin patch + small Christmas tree farm? Possibilities abound.

Happy Trails.

The year 2015 has passed; this is a recap of the year for Pam and myself. Rather than a month-by-month recital, here are various topics and projects that highlighted the year.

The Kids:

Felicity, currently in Belize, spend much of the year in England house-sitting and working at her new job with a South Carolina-based internet company. Her job is to help businesses use social media to best advantage. It is a job she enjoys and can perform anywhere she can get an internet connection. Felicity will be back in Portland, Oregon for a few months beginning the end of  January.

Toby is still enjoying Notre Dame football as he is living in South Bend, Indiana. He is working a couple of jobs including refereeing summer softball leagues. We don’t hear from him often but he seems to be satisfied with life so far, other than the lack of a steady girlfriend.

The Lot:

We continued cleaning up our recreational lot located in Colorado’s Park County, right in the middle of the state. It was determined, before the snow melted, we could not afford to put in a [very deep] well on this property, which means it will always be recreational land only. A late spring cost us some weekends; we didn’t get started on any real work until June. More gravel was added to the driveway, an off-driveway parking spot was cleared, many loads of scrap wood taken to the burn pit, and several loads of firewood were taken home, cut to length, and donated to our animal rescue friend Kathy Hall. (Kathy re-married this year and is now Kathy Powers.) I was finally able to mouse-proof the RV trailer, purchased a honey wagon kit so I did not have to pull the trailer to a dump station, and we cleaned up the area Pam has taken to calling The Nook. A pole saw, purchased at auction, allowed me to prune dead and low-hanging limbs from quite a few trees; that work will continue into the future.

First load of burn pit wood, 2015

Health:

Pam had bursitis in her hip; this slowed her down for several weeks  over the summer and she occasionally still feels a twinge from time to time. It’s not fun when your body doesn’t do what you want it to. I finished one year with my type-2 diabetes, diagnosed in December of 2014, and have adjusted to a diet much lower in sugars and salt than I had been accustomed to. I miss my ice-cream!

Passings:

Our good friend of almost 35 years, Elinor Tourtillott, passed away in 2015. She was in her 90s and had been in poor health for a while, but her spirit remained unbroken. She will be missed. My Aunt Gert and Uncle Emil (relatives on my mother’s side) also died in 2015. Our feline buddy, Soot, crossed over to the Rainbow Bridge just as 2015 ended.

Travels:

2015 was a quiet travel year. I took a trip to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in mid-July to attend a motorcycle rally and used the return trip to stop and visit my mother for a few days. I managed to visit Pam’s brother Craig (who retired in 2015) and his wife Dianne at their new lake-front retirement home which was still getting a few finishing touches during my visit. I have an aunt and uncle that live in the same general area and was able to stop and see them for a few hours before heading back to Colorado. The trip was a good one for both family visits and seeing new country.

Brockway Mountain overlooks Copper Harbor and Lake Superior in Michigan’s UP

We continue to take day trips around Colorado checking out potential properties that would work for us in retirement. This has resulted in learning some local history and seeing parts of the state that are still new to us, something we both enjoy. The retirement home search continues into 2016.

ATV trips:

A few were made this year: North Twin Cone Peak, Hall Valley, Lead King Basin, and Handcart Gulch being the most notable. The Handcart Gulch trip include a run up Forest Road 290, a scenic and less-traveled trail complete with old mines and some equipment that survived the scrap steel drives of WWII.

Old mine at end of FR 290

Acquisitions:

In December we bought a 2004 Toyota RAV4 as a daily driver; the 2001 Honda Accord developed transmission problems at 384,000+ miles and is no longer reliable for daily use. A new home-built utility trailer joined the fleet and was used to haul firewood + my motorcycle, and will see future use as a cistern trailer. The John Deere LX176 garden tractor was updated for snow removal chores with the addition of extra weights and chains. I put my old reel-to-reel deck back in service as part of my garage stereo system. Pam began learning to play guitar, which was her 2014 Christmas present. A new stove replaced the home’s original stove; the new stove is quite an improvement. A generator, after repair, provided power at The Lot for the RV and power tools.

Generac 4000XL generator

Summary:

2015 was pretty typical for us. We worked on our lot and around the home, dealt  with a few medical episodes, did some traveling around the state, had some good times and shed a few tears. We are looking forward to 2016; after all, the numbers 2+0+1+6 add up to 9, one of Pam’s lucky numbers! (We didn’t win the PowerBall, though.)

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

New Year Resolutions –

• broaden the retirement house search (including examination of outside-the-box ideas) while continuing to save money for the down payment,
• begin investigation of on-line employment sites (some require a monthly subscription fee) for potential part-time employment into retirement,
• start composing a draft of my own obituary (Fields says he hasn’t a clue what to include, I want to make sure the fact I ever lived in De Beque is definitely not in there).

Happy Trails.

We hope everyone made it through the Christmas season OK and that you are looking forward to a good 2016.

It is with sadness we note the passing of one of our De Beque-born house cats, Soot. He had not been feeling well Christmas week and Pam took him to be examined/observed by the vet. To make a long story short, Soot was suffering from invasive cancer that could not be remedied with surgery; the “no brainer” decision to euthanize was made during the surgical procedure. Soot will be frozen for now, to be buried later in his “native sod” this spring.

While not popular with the other cats – being something of a bully at times – Soot was very personable with humans and liked to spend time sitting on my lap. His longer than normal tail was carried in a crook and occasionally showed up under the bathroom door when we were in there in the mornings. He will be missed.

Soot on Jerry’s lap

We received about 8 inches of snow between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day; clearing this White Christmas kept me busy for a few hours and gave me the chance to play with my Troy-Bilt snow blower and John Deere LX186 lawn tractor; the later is fitted with a snow blade, suitcase weights, and tire chains. Otherwise the days have been quiet, frigid, and calm.

Blade and blower both come in handy for snow removal

On New Year’s Day we took down our outside decorations and put them away. Pam had removed the inside stuff during the week (CMC closes the week between Christmas and New Year, so she was home). We are pretty much done with holiday decorations. Unlike our neighbors, many of whom will have their sad outdoor decorations up until Valentines Day (or Easter),  Pam insists we maintain some discipline in promptly packing ours away.

The spare tire cover arrived for the Toyota RAV4, along with a replacement jack; both were installed as part of my effort to get the car in top-notch condition. I also bought a LeBra for the Toyota (in black, no purple front bumper after all) but have to wait until warmer weather to install it. Later this weekend I will change the oil and oil filter along with the cabin (air conditioning) filter and that will about wrap up all the routine maintenance tasks that needed to be done at present; we will be comfortable knowing all maintenance is up-to-date. A total fluids/belts run-through will occur at the mechanic sometime this spring.

New spare tire cover on the RAV4

While deleting Soot from the blog, I also added KitKat to the Cats blog page along with a short description of her, and Pam made a few changes in the commentary. Check it out!

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

With as many cats as we have around here, it seems odd to miss one.  But, being the OCD person I am, I always count the animals during the day to see where everyone is.  Some one is missing.  Soot was only five years old; I’m not used to having cancer-filled animals at that young age.  The vet and I had a conversation about how my rescue population is aging and that we will likely be repeating the Soot scenario in the coming years. It’s a bummer to contemplate.

Fields isn’t going to do his “Year In Review” until a future post, I will include my 2016 resolutions then. (I just know everybody is waiting expectantly for both!)

Happy Trails.

Cards have been sent (and some received), a few presents wrapped, tree has been decorated, and we are off for a few days of vacation. I know, I know, it has been a bit since I last posted; here is a review of activities since then.

First of all, we wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and may the New Year be a good one for you. (I’ll have a recap of our 2015 in my New Years post coming up in a couple weeks.) Please click on the link below to view our 2015 Christmas E-card! (Some of you have viewed it already separately).

Christmas Visitors

We decorated our small tree, which is in the bedroom to keep it safe from the cats and dogs, and finished other house decorations. Pam will be baking cookies later today (oatmeal raisin, one of the healthier cookies for folks watching sugar intake) and altogether it will be a quiet holiday for us here at home. Just as well; the weather is supposed to get nasty later today, followed by an even nastier cold spell.

Christmas Tree 2015

On the agenda – house search: We did get out to view a couple of houses yesterday, one of which is an “earth-berm” design where the back of the house is built into a hillside. This should make the house more energy efficient, but we were not impressed with the general design of the house. Located at the top of a ridge, this property enjoyed excellent mountain views, but required repairs and renovations both interior and exterior.

Front of earth-berm house

Jerry examines attached garage

Pam walks the dogs around the back side of earth-berm house

The second place we looked at, near Ouray, was more cabin-like (our usual style) with a large wrap-around porch — but– with lots of steps both outside and inside.

Jerry on Chipmunk Place cabin’s steps

Lots of steps on Chipmunk Place cabin

So, the retirement house search continues for “the one.” It is fun looking at the variety of homes in our price range, we learn something about the different areas each time we actually go out “into the field” and look at properties (as opposed to just looking at photos online).

Back home again, Pam took this picture of me with London (the white cat,) Jo the dog, and Sunny (the tabby on the floor) as I tried to relax on our glider. It seems anytime I sit down I accumulate a couple of pets!

Jerry with a few of our pets

I’ve been working on a few projects around the place to keep busy during my vacation time. One project included putting chains on the John Deere lawn tractor; we are expecting 3 – 6 inches in the next 48 hours and I use the JD to clean off our drive and sidewalks (gave it a trial run after a 2 inch snowfall this past Monday).

Another project was to add a reel-to-reel deck to my garage stereo system. I had purchased the deck at a yard sale some time ago and stored it in the garage attic. After getting a few tapes from eBay and finding a spare set of hook-up cables I finally put the deck in service.

Reel-to-reel deck now in service in my garage stereo system

You can hear the deck in operation by viewing this 1:37 movie clip:

[cincopa AAOAqLtH7OCl]

Other projects included putting rear brake pads in the Toyota RAV4; a check-up done by our favorite repair shop gave the “new” ride a clean bill of health but noted the rear pads were pretty thin and recommended replacement. So far the RAV4 is working out pretty well for us, but there are still a few service items to tackle such as changing the cabin and air filters, oil and filter, and installing the spare tire cover when it arrives. Nothing major and all routine stuff that I can do on a weekend.  We loaded the dogs into the back of the RAV4 for the property trip yesterday, still a few space allocation bugs to work out there too.

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

Spent an ideal Christmas Eve morning – in my pj’s until noon, drinking hot chocolate, listening to Christmas music.  I have two books to pick up and read later today (“Lights Out” by Ted Koppel and “Goddesses Never Age” by Christiane Northrup).  Great way to ease into the day.

I’ll be working on my 2016 New Year’s resolutions for the next post.  (I think you can guess finding “the” retirement house will be high on that list.) I did great on my resolutions for this year – learn to play simple chords on the guitar, read more books, drink more wine.

Happy Trails and Happy Holidays.

Its been a while since I featured any of our cats but lately there have been a few photogenic moments involving a couple of them. Here they are:

Velvet playing under the sofa

Sunny showing off his ruff

And finally, our newest indoor-outdoor house cat, KitKat:

KitKat at rest

KitKat was supposed to be an outdoor cat, and was for several months, until she decided to come back into the house. Still quite anti-social, she will allow herself to be petted on rare occasions but plays with the inside cats (particularly Sunny) and seems to enjoy herself. She goes outside often and is comfortable around the dogs. We hope she ‘mellows’ a bit and becomes more social when inside the house. She is, apparently, a very strong-willed feline.

In my last post I said I would have photos of our ‘new’ used car, a 2004 Toyota RAV4. This particular car is the base level trim but has some options such as all-wheel drive, luggage rack, and alloy wheels. Color is a light tan with silver bumper covers and accents.

2004 RAV4 – front

Driver’s side

Passenger side

Rear

We have a slip-on cover coming for the spare tire and a center cap for the passenger front wheel. Otherwise the car seems to be in good shape.

We removed the back seats to gain cargo area and have already used the space to haul the three dogs at once, brought home a Christmas tree, and took packages (and hand truck to move them) to The UPS Store. The space will be very useful to us.

Cargo space with seats removed

The cockpit area is smaller than the Honda but comfortable.

Cockpit area

The 5-speed manual transmission and 4-cylinder engine got us 26mpg on the first fill; we hope to get a few mpgs better in warm weather when we tend to take longer trips.

The car has an after-market JVC brand stereo system in it; I was planning to revert back to an original CD/radio deck when I downloaded a User’s manual and found the JVC will play music from a USB thumb drive. This eliminates the need to carry CDs in the car. I copied some of my music to a USB drive and tried out this feature and it seems to work very well.

JVC deck

Another feature of this deck, which I have not yet tried, is that it can “pair” with a smartphone to enable hand-free phone operation. (Well, 14 states have banned the use of hand-held phones when driving and 46 states have banned texting while driving.) The pairing is done via BlueTooth technology. There is a microphone installed, part of the deck, that should enable voice commands to work with my iPhone 6+. I doubt if I will use this much as radio and music are the most-used features we wanted, but I occasionally do get calls while driving to and from work and the hands-free features may come in handy for those calls. For the record, the deck is a JVC model KD-X310BT. Reviews show it to be a decent entry-to-mid level unit.

The past week was pretty quiet and the weather for the upcoming week shows snow probable on Monday followed by a cold spell with high temps below freezing for the rest of the week. Not much will get done in those conditions other than some filing of photos, updating a few web pages, working on Christmas cards, and other indoor projects.

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

Finally succumbed to the first head & chest cold of the season, it was a doozy.

A few words about the guitar playing, see-eester; I play in private to keep my fingers (and brain) limber, no public performances (not even for Fields).  Did you think we were having hootenannys around here or something? Lately, my fingers have been cracking with the dry weather and office work, so until they heal I won’t be plucking and strumming much in any case.

Happy Trails.

Thanksgiving has passed and the Christmas season has begun. Here are a few things we have been doing for the past week.

Thanks to all who responded to my Thanksgiving E-card entitled “Pies.” It seems much of the Thanksgiving meal centers around pies; we are no exception. Here is a photo of the pumpkin pie Pam baked for us:

Thanksgiving Pie

Normally Pam bakes a rhubarb pie as well but no rhubarb was to be found locally this year. Bummer.

During the weekend that followed we put up our outside decorations. We will never win a prize but it is nice to have some Christmas lights on when we get home after work. Pam puts up a large garland complete with bows and lights while I put lights up on the garage eve and front of the house.

Garland and bows

Front of house decorations

Inside decorations will be going up in the next few days. We are going to get a small tree and hope the cats (5 in house) and the 3 dogs won’t destroy it.

We found a ‘new’ used car; a 2004 Toyota RAV4. I had gone over to Grand Junction last Saturday and located 3 potential cars; this past Monday Pam went with me for test drives. We picked this particular vehicle even though it is a bit older than we had planned mostly on the basis of removable back seats and a fairly well-documented service history. The car was a local trade and not from an auction. We will be picking it up later today (Saturday) and I will take photos of it for the next post. The car needs some cosmetic work (front bumper cover and spare tire cover) and we will address these things as we move along.

I have mentioned, in past posts, that our local grocery store has a ‘fuel points’ reward program. Each purchase contributes to the fuel point total, earning a discount on gasoline purchases. Last month we hit 1000 points, $1.00 per gallon discount, and I redeemed those points yesterday. Gasoline cost 87 cents per gallon after the discount. Purchase is limited to 35 gallons; in addition to filling the car I took my gas cans along and got the limit.

$.87 per gallon with discount

It was kind of unreal to see the gallon figure higher than the dollar amount as I was pumping the fuel. Too bad this is not the case every time we need to fill up!

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

The weeks before Christmas are, I feel, a struggle between what has to be done (going to work) and what I would rather be doing (writing out Christmas cards, decorating the house and baking). Will that change after retirement? Hope so.

I have nothing good to say about “pre-owned vehicle” shopping.  Fields has scheduled an appointment in a few weeks for the RAV4 with our foreign car shop to (thoroughly) check out the “new” silver-colored ride. Hopefully, there will be no unpleasant surprises. We already know the front bumper needs to be replaced.  I’m lobbying for a repaint job for [new] front and [existing] back bumpers – plus side trim strips – in Hilltopper purple (one of my high school colors). It would be lovely to be able to visually locate our RAV4 in a parking lot of SUVs; even if I develop memory loss, I’ll always remember Hilltopper purple.

Happy Trails.

Well, the Honda is finally dying of transmission wear. This last week a check engine light came on while Pam was driving to the doggie-daycare to pick up one of the dogs, Auburn Jo. The error code indicates the transmission is suffering from mechanical wear, probably a worn pump. When cold the transmission is reluctant to shift from 1st gear to 2nd gear and the engine revs up during the shift. The Honda is an Accord model, 2001 and recently rolled over 381,600 miles.

So, while the Honda is still drivable with care (I cleared the check engine light with my code reader), Pam no longer trusts it for daily commuting or long drives. This has kicked off a search for a used vehicle to serve as our daily driver. The Honda would be a back-up emergency ride. Right now we have switched over to using the truck for daily commutes but at 15 – 16 mpg it is expensive to run. Luckily gas prices are low this time of year.

We have decided a small wagon may be the way to go (dog transport, hauling stuff to Sanderling and back, etc.). The main contenders are a 2005 or newer Honda CR-V or a 2006 or newer Toyota RAV4. Both manufacturers made substantial updates in those model years and the vehicles are more reliable than the older generations. (We checked with our local mechanic for this opinion.)

2005 Honda CR-V (Web photo)

2006 Toyota RAV4 (Web photo)

We bought the Honda Accord back in 2004 and it has been so nice not to have a car payment for many years. It is with some reluctance that we are shopping; I had hoped to get another year of service out of the Accord and build up our house down payment fund. The fund will have to take a hit, or at least not grow, as we don’t want to carry a car loan very long. We do hope we get as long a service life out of a new vehicle as we have out of the Honda.

Neither of these small wagons are available (used) locally, or not at this moment anyway, as small used wagons that can handle driving in snow are quite popular out here. We will probably have to go to either Denver or Salt Lake City to look at a few cars. (The distance – a four hour drive one direction – is about the same either way.) Denver has an advantage in that Pam’s credit union, located in Boulder on the Front Range, is already tied into a financing network that includes the Denver metro used car dealerships so financing would be easier. However, it appears the Salt Lake City area has an edge in pricing.

Since we do have transportation (the Ford F-150) we can take a few weeks to find and buy a vehicle. Merry Christmas to us. More on this as we start to get serious about a particular vehicle in the upcoming days and weeks.

Our sympathies to those in the Midwest who were hammered with last week’s snow storm. The storm came out of Colorado but we didn’t get much out of it here on the western side of the state; Denver got hit and southern parts of the state picked up quite a bit. The high country picked up enough snow to enable several ski areas to open earlier than planned although travel was somewhat dicey until the road crews were able to get out in force. I-70 west of Denver was closed several times over the last few days due to bad conditions. Our snow melted in less than 24 hours and, although night time temps have dropped into the teens, daytime  temps have been in the upper 30s and low 40s, enough to make driving pretty routine.

Routine –  it has been a pretty routine week. Leaf season is about over although our Cottonwood tree stubbornly clings to some remaining leaves. I was out-and-about yesterday working on the lawn and I see  I will need to do some work again this morning, but this may be the last of it until next spring.

To all who read this, have a Happy Thanksgiving!

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

On my list of things I hate to do, car shopping falls somewhere above dental work and somewhere below going into labor. Used car salesmen – ugh. And the thing about malfunctioning cars – they always act up when I’m driving and have the potential to get stuck in traffic.  What.is.that?

I purchased a guitar book of Christmas songs.  Sadly, my 15-chord repertoire lacks somewhat when playing songs written in minors. (Really – five fingers needed for Bm7 or F#m7? Not going to happen.) However, I can play rock and roll-based songs pretty well (Little Saint Nick, Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, Santa Baby). I struggle along.

Happy Trails.

Most of the fall chores have been completed but our cottonwood tree still has about 1/3 of its leaves yet to fall. Another weekend or two and the leaf season should be over.

Our focus has shifted to looking at a retirement house. Last weekend we made two different trips; one to the Divide, Colorado area which is more eastern slope, also known as the Front Range, and a second [overnight] trip to the Durango, Colorado area, which is in the southwest [four corners] part of the state.  We viewed a variety of houses but none said “buy me” to us.

The first house in Divide was in an older subdivision and had views of Pike’s Peak. However, the layout was funky and the place had a lot of steps. Electrical was also an issue; extension cords painted to match the wall color ran up to the overhead fans [not code], for example. Despite some updates in the kitchen and main bath, we were not impressed.

Other places in the Divide area were drive-by stops and we did not get into the houses. One looks to have potential, but what would we do with a horse paddock area? On the up side, we did meet a realtor who seems to be personable and we may work with him in future.

Same trip included a stop at The Lot to check on the shed and take a general look around. It was a very nice day in the high country and an enjoyable quick visit.

Pam at The Lot

South Park from The Lot

Our second trip was an overnighter to Durango. Pam had been keeping tabs on several properties around Vallicito Lake to visit. This had been an on-again, off-again trip due to the weather forecast including snow over Red Mountain Pass. At the last minute it was a “go” and we braved the weather.

Pam had contacted a Vallecito Lake area realtor and we hooked up with her at her office. The realtor, Marilyn, drove us around the area in her 4-door Jeep.  (Dogs stayed at home, the neighbor watched them overnight.)

The houses ranged from very small to quite large, with price ranges to match. Our ‘wish list’ includes 2 – 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and a lot with a view or water of some type. A garage is highly desirable.

Only one of the 5 properties we visited had everything we wanted, but the house was a manufactured home and Pam would prefer a stick-built home. The price was over our target but at least we know houses that meet our general criteria exist at Vallecito Lake.

Here are “view” photos taken from some of the properties we visited:

Middle Mountain Road

Tucker Lane (Pond with fish in it.)

Grimes Creek

Vista Estates

By the time we finished four hours had passed, and the snow had started falling, so we drove through the dark and flurries back to our hotel in Durango.

The next morning we looked at weather cams for Red Mountain Pass and decided to head for home after breakfast instead of spending more time around Durango. This proved to be a good plan as the trip back was very slow due to road conditions (and getting stuck behind a large semi-truck). The leg between Silverton and Ouray – 24 miles – took an hour in and of itself. Here are some views of  the trip home over Red Mountain.

Hwy 550 in winter – few guard rails

Twilight Peak near Durango

Road conditions on Hwy 550

House-hunting is a humbling experience. Colorado real estate is expensive particularly when we’re trying to plan on living within a retirement income. Many of the places we looked at would need renovation or upgrades, not to mention a garage. (Garages are something of a luxury in homes designed primarily as 2nd houses for summer vacations.) The search will continue (it’s only just begun, really), but we may have to amass a larger down payment to make a retirement mortgage affordable.  We enjoy getting out and looking at places, though, and have plans to make more real estate hunting trips during the winter.

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

Who knew there was so much shag carpet and so many avocado appliances still left out there?  I mentioned this to one of my younger co-workers at the community college, and she said, “What are avocado appliances?”  Call me older than dirt to remember not only avocado, but also harvest gold and almond appliance colors. Having been there for the original issue, I’m certain I do not want these colors in my future kitchen.

Happy Trails.

Avocado appliances (Web photo.)

Down time: Well, only in comparison to our normal schedule. Our weekends are still busy, but the jobs are not individually very big.

Take the skunk fence, as Pam calls it. This was an additional section of fence that I installed to help close off the back yard. The job took a few hours, including applying the wood preservative.

Jer applying wood preservative to the fence

The task was complicated a bit by the addition of a gate-with-hinges at the left-hand end of the section so we can access the areas behind the garage. The job took most of a morning.

Then there was getting the RV’s water system winterized. (This requires an RV specific antifreeze, not auto antifreeze.) That was the last RV-related chore; the RV is pretty well set for the winter. The solar panel is set up and keeping the batteries charged so I should not have to pull the batteries for winter storage.

I cut up the rest of the fire pit wood, put the snow blade on the John Deere lawn tractor, did a lot of leaf raking and mulching, cleaned out and organized the steel storage shed for the winter, and put new seals in the bathroom shower faucets. Each job in itself was not large, but in total it kept me busy every weekend.

I’ve also been keeping our snow-bird neighbor’s yard raked in return for letting us park the RV behind a fenced enclosure. This is a big job that takes some time every weekend. Pam took this photo of me working in that yard; you can see The Box in the background.

lots of leaves

Pam helps with most of these jobs plus has her own additional chores around the house. Her weekends are as busy as mine. She is researching Colorado retirement houses for us to look at; tomorrow we will be heading out to look at a few properties.

The high desert had a snow/slush morning the other day and there was some accumulating snow on the grass at our work location (Glenwood Springs). The snow has since melted but night time temps have dropped below 20 degrees and the furnace has been running regularly the last few nights. Winter is fast approaching and we are attempting to get all outside tasks done before the snow arrives in earnest. Other than more raking/mulching – a task that will continue for a few more weeks – I think we’re done. There are other small jobs to do that are not weather dependent (such as cleaning the garage and collecting my scrap metal to take to the recycle center), but these tasks can be done evenings and weekends at my leisure.

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

A parcel arrived with items for my upcoming birthday.  My childhood/high school/adult friend Mary so thoughtfully sent along something to help me get through the long winter nights ahead.

Pam’s birthday book front cover

Back cover

Cat hair is certainly not in short supply around here.  Reminds me of “Trump Your Cat.”

Happy Trails.

It’s that time of the year again when we begin our fall chores.

I put new filters in the furnace, vacuumed out the floor vents (dog and cat hair accumulates in them over the summer), winterized the swamp cooler, removed a window air conditioning unit, put the fans away and took a couple of oil-filled heaters out of storage, started raking and mulching leaves.

Pam began winterizing a few of our windows (that are no longer double paned = plastic inserts) and helped with raking leaves and emptying the RV. (The RV has been moved to its winter location, which is behind a fence in our snow-bird neighbor’s yard. They winter in Arizona.) Pam has done a lot of work on the flower beds, cutting them back and getting them ready for mulching and winter weather. The iris bulbs for the new raised bed outgrew an existing bed; Pam had to dig them up and thin them out before planting them in their new (however temporary) home. This project required a lot of work!

New corner flowerbed already mulched for winter

There is still much to do; I need to finish winterizing the RV and there will be several more days of raking and mulching leaves. What we don’t use on our flower beds gets hauled off to a compost area the town has set up.

Other fall projects are on the docket; I varnished the stake bed sides for the trailer and I have a section of fence to install behind the garage (keeps out skunks – 9 trapped on our end of town this summer). Some firewood for the fire pit, which we keep on the back deck, has been cut but a small pile remains to be processed. After that I will need to put the snow blade on the John Deere garden tractor and make sure it is ready to run when needed. We saw snow on the top of the Mamm Range as we drove home from work yesterday. Winter is coming!

Varnishing the stake bed trailer sides

I upgraded the tires on my Generac generator; this project required me to make an axle. The problem with the old tires (kludged on by the previous owner) was they would not traverse gravel very well. Installation of the new tires, which are pneumatic instead of solid rubber and much larger, make the generator far easier to roll — I am confident the new tires will handle gravel and uneven terrain of The Lot. This will be important, as I plan to move the generator often this coming summer when cutting firewood with the electric saw.

Old wheel (left) and new wheel (right) on generator

All-in-all our weekends are busy with fall chores and winter preparation. The last big project, as mentioned, will be the installation of that skunk fence. After that there will be more raking and mulching as needed. But the bulk of my fall prep will be over, at least until it is time to put up Christmas lights…. 🙂

Our daughter, Felicity, is in England at the moment doing a house-sit. She hooked up with the local ladies singing group, the Crystal Chords, a UK group similar to the US Sweet Adeline chorus that Felicity joined several years ago. The Crystal Chords recently won first place in their division at a regional contest, quite an accomplishment, and Felicity was able to be part of that effort. Here is a photo of Felicity, taken on their return bus trip from the competition, holding the group’s trophy:

Felicity with the Crystal Chord’s trophy

Felicity sent us these You Tube links to videos of the Crystal Chords singing in concert at a local guild hall in Yorkshire.

Happy + Contest Package (All the Way & Let’s Do It) – https://youtu.be/lCfZMoFM-nw

Let’s Do It – https://youtu.be/n11E4HozIsw

Go the Distance – https://youtu.be/ZgvT54hln18

The videos are a bit fuzzy but the sound is pretty good so take a look/listen.

I’m keeping busy and I’m looking forward to a break once the chores have been completed. (Don’t know if that will ever happen; there always seems to be another project on the horizon!)

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

Busy. Yes.

Happy Trails.