This week is Thanksgiving week, so Happy Thanksgiving to all.

It has been pretty quiet since my last post. We put 605 miles on the Honda last week, burned 18.6 gallons of gas, about normal for us. I did a Walmart run yesterday; Pam will do grocery shopping today while I do some more work on the tractor. I found another item to repair on the tractor; the exhaust manifold is leaking because of a blown gasket. Not expensive to fix, $12.00 or so for new gaskets and hardware, but it will take a couple hours to do the work. The 64 year old nuts that hold the manifold in place are rusted and corroded; removing them will be a real pain.

My mother is home and doing well. I called her yesterday to see how she is doing, and she says she is feeling better. Her plans are for a Thanksgiving get-together with my siblings and a few family friends, with my mother not doing any of the work. I hope this comes off OK.

Otherwise the week was pretty mundane. We finished the last of the yard work for this fall. All the flower beds have been layered with leaf mulch, hanging baskets have been taken down and emptied, and winter fertilizer applied to the lawn. Space heaters were brought into the house to do some spot warming in the cat room and bathroom. The doors to these are normally closed so they don’t get much circulation from the rest of the house. One more heater is parked near the computer desk. The days Pam works from home  require quite a bit of computer use – she has to search course catalogs from institutions of higher learning – so the computer and the space heater are running several hours each day. The extra warmth feels good. We generally keep the place cool with the thermostat set below 65 degrees.

Life is mostly made up of the regular and mundane. I replaced one of the light fixtures in the garage, went to the opening of a new store in Grand Junction (Tractor Supply Company, or TSC) and learned how to do photo collages in PhotoShop Elements.:

Han and Naja’s wedding photo collage

As with most of my photos, clicking on the photo will open a larger version. In most browsers, clicking on the large photo will zoom in on place where the curser is placed. This can give you some nice close-up views of  photo details.

TSC turns out to have a pretty good pet supply area with much lower prices on one of the dry dog foods Pam buys, Blue Buffalo. Price at TSC is about $7.00 per bag less than at the pet store. I suspect we will be dropping by TSC from time to time.

Pam has started to work on our Christmas card list and getting cards and materials together. Seems the card list gets a little shorter each year as some of the older generation passes on. It’s always a bittersweet task to update the list. Still, we look forward to Christmas communications each year. Most likely we will get our outside decorations up the weekend after Thanksgiving.  Although not extensive, we do drape lights on the garage, fence, and front windows. This year we plan to top a tree from the lot and put it up, fully lit, on the deck. Should be fun! If you missed it last year – I didn’t post it until very late – we did have an electronic greeting card, animated and with music, at http://www.appleattic.net/christmas.html that you may enjoy as we begin the 2012 holiday season.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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

Life has been both ordinary and hectic since my last post. Several events have occurred, some of them not so nice.

My mother, who will turn 83 next month, recently spent several days in the hospital. Her heart is not what it used to be, pumping less blood per cycle than normal, and she had developed liquid around the heart. Fortunately the condition can be treated to a large degree with drugs. She is home now and my brother Jon and sister Sienna are watching her for the next couple days. We hope the drugs do their job!

I missed a couple days of work with stomach flu. Seems I am more susceptible to this in recent years. Pam had me go to the doctor to see if I had an ulcer or other contributing condition, but the doc didn’t find anything. I’m feeling better as I write this, but have not eaten a lot for the last 4 days. Maybe today I’ll manage 3 meals.

Pam observed a birthday. (I am not at liberty to disclose which one it was.) We had planned to take the day off and go over to the lot, but the weather stopped us. Forecast is for 1 – 2 feet of snow above 8,000 foot elevation, and we expect to see some snow  (up to 1/2 inch) accumulate on grassy areas at our place. We decided to stay home instead.

Fall clean-up continued last weekend when I decided to carry out my promise to our snow-bird neighbors, Jim and Jolene, to clean their yard of leaves at least once in the fall. J & J left for their winter home in Arizona a month ago. Here are a couple photos Pam took of me using my lawn-vac to clean up their yard:

Jerry with his lawn-vac at work

Removing leaves from Jim and Jolene’s yard

I line the back of my old Scout with a large sheet of plastic, dump the shredded leaves on the plastic, and drive  to a disposal site near town. I pull the sheet of plastic out to dump the load. Not as convenient as having as a truck, but the [enclosed] Scout keeps the leaves from blowing around as I transport them. It works OK.

The majority of work is done, but there will be some more raking and hauling to be done for both yards before the snow really sets in for the winter.

The other afternoon our oldest cat, Mira, was lounging in the sun and I captured this shot of her:

Oldest cat Mira capturing a few rays

Nothing like a cat sleeping in a sunny spot.

Speaking of cats, we were pleased to learn that Pam’s last foster kittens have all been adopted. Quinn, Quentin, and Quirky had gone through their spay or neuter operations and were adopted within 3 days. We do not know if they went as singles or a combination, but it is nice to know they are out of the shelter and into good homes. That result is what makes fostering worth-while.

We are glad the election is over and even happier the robo calls have stopped. Several people have commented on Colorado’s passage of a recreational marijuana bill. (Dude – we are too freakin’ old to be stoners.  Bummer.)  This poses several problems for the state, one of which is the law does not go into effect until 2014. The bill gives the state 1 year to put in place a regulatory and tax structure, and the tax part has to be voted on again before the bill becomes law. 15 percent is the proposed sales tax. There is a part of the bill that promotes the use of other  hemp-bases products, such as rope. Trivia question: Did you know that early American money was printed on hemp-based paper?

That’s what’s been going on in our part of the world since my last post, pretty much just daily life.

Thanks for looking in!

We recently flew to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to attend a wedding. The younger son of Pam’s lifelong friends, Mary and Jeff Hayes, was to be  married in an outdoor ceremony. We knew Han and had met his wife-to-be, Naja, a couple years ago during a trip to Wisconsin. While we had some concerns about the weather during this time of year we looked forward to the event.

Rather than driving we arranged to have a neighbor look after the cats and dogs for a couple days and we flew to Minneapolis via Salt Lake City. I normally like to have a window view, but managed only 1 window seat the entire trip. Here is a photo of the Salt Lake taken on the approach into Salt Lake City:

Great Salt Lake with Wasatch Mountain backdrop

The flights, both ways, were OK but crowded. No delays, no real long layovers, everything was on time. Still, one cannot help but feel like a member of the great unwashed masses. Only real problem: My suspenders always set off the security scanner alams and I have to get patted down. I refuse to remove them to go through security. Besides, it gives the TSA agents something to do.

We stayed at the Carleson Courtyard Inn & Suites, as that was the designated base of operations for the entire wedding party and guests. Nice hotel, and the off-season rates were decent. Better than usual accommodation for us, as we had a suite on the first floor which was quite comfortable and convenient.

We arrived on Friday night and found Mary, Jeff, and some of the guests gathered in the hotel’s breakfast room enjoying some adult beverages and talk. We joined right in. Pam knew many of the wedding attendees, having grown up with Mary and Jeff’s brothers and sisters through elementary and high school. I had met many of them on other occasions, including class reunions and other family functions, so didn’t feel like a stranger.

One of the common questions asked by people we had not met before was “How are you connected?” to the bride or groom. The use of the word “connected” seemed to be very appropriate. This gathering felt a lot more like a small community of friends and family coming together rather than just an event. Given the hotel’s breakfast room and menu we ended up eating together and talking to more people than we ever had at a wedding. It was very nice!

Pam had sent some e-mails to her family letting them know we would be in Minneapolis. Her sister Becky and brother Craig were able to make it up for a visit on Saturday morning. This gave us a chance to visit for a couple hours and catch up on family news. Here is a photo of the siblings:

Becky, Craig, and Pam

The wedding was scheduled for 3:00 PM on Saturday. Temperature was supposed to top out at about 40 degrees, 10 degrees below normal for the day. There was a light breeze blowing from time to time which increased the chill factor. After saying goodbye to Becky and Craig, we jumped into our rented car and took off to find the wedding venue. The directions we had were somewhat vague, but we managed to arrive (just) before the ceremony began.

The wedding was held at Gale Wood Farms, a farm donated to the State of Minnesota to run both as a park and working farm. The site chosen for the ceremony overlooked a lake, which offered us a quite nice view of the rolling lands of central Minnesota. Many guests had arrived before us. A few men were dressed in suits, myself included, and some of the ladies were in dresses, but most were bundled up in heavy coats and wearing gloves. The wind stopped, but it was still a chilly day.

Hanny and Naja’s outdoor ceremony

The Episcopalian ceremony went quickly and  the new couple were soon on their way to form the reception line. The reception was held in a (heated) barn-like structure near the site of the ceremony. The heat was appreciated, and we set out to talk with other guests until dinner was served. A few of the guests were from Mary, Jeff, and Pam’s high school class and were good friends. We struck up converations with a few of them:

Jan and Tony Hutchens (left) join up with Tim Turnbull (center) and Pam (right)

Mary and Jeff  made the rounds to all the tables while dinner was being served:

We had an evening of talk and a good meal, then it was back to the hotel. We were tired, but it had been a good day.

The next morning, Sunday, we slept late and had breakfast in the hotel. Breakfast options included:

Fresh fruit * Hard-boiled eggs * Fresh pancakes * Biscuits and gravy * Apple, cranberry, orange  juice * Coffee * Milk * Sausage links or patties * Several flavors of yogurt * Several different pastries *  Cold Cereal * Instant oatmeal, several flavors * Dry cereal * Several flavors of tea bags for hot tea * Fried eggs * Toast * Various garnishments, including grated cheese, for your eggs or whatever *

After breakfast we packed up and checked out. Before we did this, though, I used the hotel’s office station to print our boarding passes for the return flight. The plan for the day was to visit the Mall of America, walk though a nearby IKEA store, then head for the airport. Having the boarding passes in advance would save us some time and hassle in checking in for our flight.

Neither of us had ever been to the Mall of America. The visit gets mixed reviews from us: The center “canival” section was pretty amazing, but the stores were just the same stores you see in most malls. Nothing really unique stood out.

Here are a couple photos:

Entrance to the Mall of America

Carnival in the Mall of America

After a great deal of walking we headed for the car and drove to the IKEA store to check out the “mini-houses.” The “mini-houses” are layouts of small houses, ranging from about 280 square feet to around 385 square feet. We were looking for ideas on how to furnish the inside of a small cabin and came away with several good ideas.  For the first time, we tried the lunch menu in the IKEA cafeteria.

Then it was time for us to return the rental car, check in for our flight, and begin the journey back to Colorado.  Five hours after boarding our plane in Minneapolis we were back in Grand Junction and driving home.

I guess the animals were glad to see us, the dogs more than the cats (who knows what cats think?). We had taken Monday off to do the chores we would normally do on the weekend. It was a little odd to be grocery shopping on a weekday. The foster kittens returned to the shelter on Monday, as well.  Tuesday it was back into the “normal” routine of commuting and work. Our little vacation was over.

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

It has been a week since my last post, so I thought I better write a bit to let people know we are still alive.  There are a couple topics to update.

Last Sunday we went to the lot to continue driveway clearing. While we did some work on that, we also took time to walk the lot’s steep upper region. Pam is looking for a Christmas tree, and the pine and spruce are thicker near the back of the lot. We spotted a couple of tree-topping possibilities to consider for the holiday tree.

The day was super. While we had thought we might find snow, instead we had a bright day with temperatures in the low 60’s and a bit of a breeze. Although the leaves have dropped from the aspen, it was warm enough to generate the “pine” smell that you get in Rocky Mountain forests when it’s warm enough. It’s an aroma I particularly enjoy.

Photos from this outing:

Jerry by lot sign

Pam, myself, and our 3 dogs near Squirrel Rock.

We had a great weather afternoon, far better than we expected, and lingered as long as we could before we had to head home. Next time we’ll remember to bring camp chairs, as finding a comfortable place to sit on the rocks proved to be a challenge.

We did not bring the trailer this time as my 5-to-4 wire adapter failed, leaving us with no trailer lights. I have a spare adapter in the garage, but will have to work on it’s wiring harness before I can plug it into the Subaru’s wiring system. Always something.

The foster kittens are doing better. All are suffering from an upper respiratory  condition, but they seem to be getting over it. They have a lot of energy and are eating well. Here are a couple photos of them:

Quirky (left) and Quentin (right)

Quinn

My nose is finally healed to the point where I am not covering it with bandages or Band-Aids. What a relief to shower again and not worry about soggy bandages or bleeding on the towel. (Ah, the small pleasures of life.) The nose does look better, but is still red from the last session. The worst is over but regardless, no more needles in the nose for me.

Toby has not yet found a job in Indiana (one might ask, has he even looked?). We hope he does soon, as his savings account was not large to begin with and there is not much of a cushion for him to fall back on. He does seem to enjoy being back in the Midwest, though.  Particularly  during Notre Dame football home game weekends.

As I write this we have a lawn full of soggy leaves; it’s been raining and blowing for the last day or so. Snow level is down to around 7,000 feet, and we saw the white stuff on both sides of the valley as we came  home from work. We are not ready for this. What happened to our fall? Tonight was a hot-soup-and-french-bread evening, followed later by a cup of hot tea. No TV, just listening to music and working on this post. It is a quiet evening. On that note I will close.

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

This is one of those “catch up” posts covering a variety of topics.

We received our driveway permit. It contains some terms we don’t understand, but we hope the contractor we called will be able to decipher them. We would like to get started on the drive, but for the rest of this year the construction may consist of just leveling out a path we can drive on. We have a year to get the driveway completed.

I had my follow-up visit with the dermatologist. The nose is healing OK, but there are a couple of rough spots. I go back again to have the nose numbed and have the edges of the rough spots “sanded” and “blended”  so my nose looks better. Is the cure worse than the disease?

Pam hurt her foot while helping me move the trailer. Three toes on the right foot now have some pretty colorful bruises as a result of the back edge of the trailer hitting her foot. No broken bones or toe nails, as far as Pam can tell. The swelling is going down (Pam put on a regular shoe this morning) but the foot still aches and has some healing to do.

Toby made it to South Bend, Indiana, on the 4th. He met his landlord and received his keys. Toby was unpacking when Pam called to see how he was doing. The reply is he is OK but very tired. After unpacking it was going to be nap time then get some groceries. We hope Toby does OK in his new location/job search/life.

I received a few tractor parts and will try to get the brakes on the right side of the tractor fixed this weekend. If I have time I will pull the left side and see how bad the brakes are on that side.  I expected to have to buy some parts in addition to the new brake shoes and seals, but a few items have surprised me. For example, Ford used special bolts to hold the brakes and axle onto the tractor. Six per side, $10.50 per bolt. The right side had 2 of these bolts broken, and at some point someone had substituted a couple standard bolts for a few of the special ones. I want to fix it correctly so I’ve obtained a few of the Ford bolts. I hope I don’t need many more!

Fall chores have begun. I drained and covered the swamp cooler and started checking out my snowplow rig, which is a garden tractor with a blade mounted up front. Forecast calls for a low of 29 and a slight chance of snow this weekend. Guess I better pull out the snowmobile and see if it will start. 🙂

I have added counters to our home page and this blog page. The home page counter is at the bottom of the screen, and the blog page counters are on the right side of this page. I was just curious as to how many times people look at either page, and Pam thought counters might be a Good Idea, so I added them in.

For all you pet lovers out there who have ever had to take your animal(s) to the vet, here is a cartoon you might enjoy. Click on it to bring it up full-size.

Carpool Syndrome

Days are getting shorter, leaves beginning to fall on our lawn, and Christmas(!) decorations are already on the shelves. September went by quickly, it seems. (Sunrise, sunset. Sunrise, sunset. Quickly go the days…) As usual we are busy with work, chores around the house, animal care, and projects that keep us active. I guess we would not have it any other way.

And, for Elli, who is always looking for “pet” photos, a few recent shots of some of our menagerie:

Velvet (“Vel”) plays cute on the sideboard

London on his favorite kitchen table chair.

Blondie doing her “circus dog” sit.

Bru and Jo sharing the couch.

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

Monday was quite a day.

Pam and I had taken the day off so we could apply for our driveway permit. This required us to stop in Fairplay at the Park County offices. After that it was back to the lot to continue our driveway clearing work. That was the plan, anyway. The day kinda went like this:

(Stopped in Fairplay, looking at address on form. County employee comes past us.) “Sir, can you tell me where the Planing Office is?”

“Big red building on the south side of 285.”

(Find the building by driving around and spotting a red roof. Go into the office. Sign in. No one at desk.)

Man comes out of the back of the office, looks at me. “Driveway permit.” said I. “I’ll try to find Rebecca” says he. A few minutes later, no Rebecca. “Follow me,”  says he. “I’ll get you started.”

Turns out this guy, named John, is a county planner. One does not normally meet with county planners, but he took pity on us. I handed him all the papers. (We had downloaded and filled out the application form at home.) John looked though them, added a couple comments, stamped them with an “Approved” stamp, and we were 1/2 done. Next we had to go upstairs to the Environmental Health Office and speak to Sarah.

Before I get to that encounter, John had some interesting information about our lot. Looking at a topographical map he determined the lowest part of our lot is at about 9,680 feet, and the high part is at about 9, 860 feet. The map lines represent 20 foot changes, so the numbers could be slightly higher or lower, but are close enough for us. We also found the back lot line follows a north-south alignment, which means the spot where we want to put a cabin faces more south than west. These elevation figures are a bit higher than we expected, and help explain why we have to stop and catch our breath frequently.

After thanking John for his time, we headed upstairs to see Sarah.

“Can I help you?” “We need a driveway permit.  John sent us.” (Handed Sarah the paperwork. She starts checking everything. We sit down at a near by table to wait. Papers rustle.) “Well, I can schedule the initial inspection for tomorrow. Do you have the address posted on the lot yet? (We had read about this in the paperwork, need information.) “We plan to get that done today. Where can we get the sign as specified in the paperwork?” “Northwest Fire, south of town on 285, will make it while you wait for $10.00. I just need to verify the physical address you gave me.” Pam, aside to me: “If  it isn’t 179 Sanderling Court we are screwed, as that is the address on all the paperwork, including the warranty deed.”  Back to table. Guy with a Park County shirt comes out of the back office. His name is Bob, and he will be doing the initial inspection of our driveway. We strike up a conversation.

Long story short, Bob will take a look at our proposed driveway, make recommendations as to culverts and their placement, determine the grades do not exceed County standards, and issue the actual permit. We had a lively time talking about culverts, swales, set backs, and other  items of interest, complete with hand-drawn diagrams on the back of sheets of paper. Bob looked at our plat map and we pointed out some of the features we were concerned with, such as saving a large pine and large spruce tree that are in the vicinity of the proposed drive. The conversation was very informative, and we left thinking there is hope the County will work with us during the permitting process. Sarah has verified the address. We gave her a check for $50.00. The paperwork is all in order. Bob can proceed with his inspection on the morrow.

We still had to get the address sign. After thanking both Sarah and Bob, off we went to Northwest Fire. A rather large and bald gentleman greeted us: “What can I do for your?” “Address sign.” we reply. “3 digits or 4?” “3.” “I’ll fix you right up!” Out comes the green sign board, a template, and a box of white numbers. $10.00 later we had our sign and some information on local fire districts. “Here’s your sign!” (Not kidding.)

I had not planned to put up an address sign today so had not brought over any screws to mount a sign to our 4×4 treated post. Off to TrueValue to get a couple screws suitable for this task. (I did have a screwdriver with me.)

By now it is after 1:30 PM. With our in-town work done we headed for the lot.

First order of business: Lunch. We had brought our sandwiches from home, so we sat in the car and ate quickly. Second order: Put up post and address sign. I began digging the post hole. Pam started to load brush on the trailer. I finished the hole, mounted the sign to the post, then set the post in place using QuickCrete I mixed up in a bucket.

Just about the time I finished Pam had the load of brush ready to go. I tied it down with straps and headed for the burn pit. Pam stayed behind to drag the rest of the tree tops down to the road.

It took me about 45 minutes to drive to the pit, unload the brush, then get back to the lot. While there is still more brush to haul, it was getting late in the afternoon. We decided to forego hauling the last of the brush and instead began loading the trees I had cut on Saturday into the trailer. (As before, we would take these home and cut them into firewood for Kathy Hall.) This left us enough time to walk up to the saddle where the cabin will sit, enjoy the view, and talk about how quickly the driveway inspection was scheduled. We really would like to be able to get started on construction so we could drive onto the lot. This dragging and hauling for up to 190 feet is old news, and we need to shorten the route to be able to continue removing dead and downed wood as well as clearing the upper end of the driveway.  I have a plan.

The next time over we will bring the ATV. I will use it to tow the trailer up the cleared driveway path to the area we are working, then tow the trailer back down to the road, unload, then go back for another load. If we ‘stage’ enough stuff, we can take the ATV every-other trip. The non-ATV trips will see us hauling to the burn pit and bringing home firewood. There can’t be many trips left this year; fresh new snow has fallen above timberline!

Why not use the tractor instead of the ATV, you might ask? I worked on the tractor brakes on Sunday, beginning with the right side. Once I had cleaned out the considerable grease and dirt and removed the old brake shoes I found some broken bolts and a broken rod. Repair parts will have to be ordered. I need to pull the left side to see if it need additional parts, and I won’t have a chance to do that for a week or better. The ATV gets the towing job.

It was an interesting day, and rewarding as well. While we did not get all the brush hauled, we did get our address sign up and our driveway permit started. We met with some of the locals, picked up some handy information, and feel more confident about moving ahead with access onto the lot.  It was a good day!

No post is complete without a few photos, so here are a couple from this outing:

Jerry digging hole for address post

Pam surveying the cabin location

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