Winter 2014, Mid January. January 17, 2014

Starting this post Friday Jan. 17th.  I guess I am putting off folding all this laundry, by starting a post.

          We continued to be very financially challenged throughout the fall, which meant many gifts purchased second hand at the thrift store.  Where else would you find a  six audio cassette set of Elfquest comics dramatization for a buckfifty?

I looked through my photos and could not find a single photo of Christmas tree, dinner, etc.  Ahhh the blase-ness of the parent of late teens.  I do, however have six photos of the Cooper’s hawk that landed on the next door neighbor’s fence to survey my bird feeding station.  We were getting ready to go out thrift storing, Pat, Rachel, and I, when I saw this hawk on the fence.  I took several photos, then we left the house.  He/She was sitting just fifteenish feet away from the ramp to the van, and continued to sit there as we came up.  It finally flew away just feet from us, but I had left my camera in the house thinking it would fly away as soon as we opened the house door. Oh well.

     My  daughter Rachel has been sending letters to relatives as part of her Transitions program at school.  My Uncle Larry, in responding to her,  described having to go out and break the ice on his pond to provide open water for his visiting birds.  I have enjoyed for years watching birds at my bird bath, (an upside down plastic trash lid on four cinder blocks), so I requested and received a bird bath heater years ago for my Christmas present.  We have had several hawks over the years checking out the buffet at the bird feeder.

Wait, how can it be Aug, um Sept, no Oct, oops Nov! November 1, 2013

Bad Elizabeth, bad bad Elizabeth.  Life has been busy and stressful, and blogging has not been a priority, so here is a quick update.  Things have been very financially difficult for us these last few month, so I don’t have much in the way of home improvements to report because of not much money to use towards them.  My dad has paid our mortgage the last three month (Thank you so much, Dad), but the unusual downturn in appraisals is now heading back up, and Peter is finally getting some payments for government work (which makes no partial payments before the job is complete), and also some other contracts.

     I found this wrought iron rack at the Birds of Prey thrift store and put it up.  Someday hopefully we will have real upper cabinets, but this is a nice addition until then.

Yesterday was Halloween, so we had our usual family dinner with the Collins family coming over so Meghan can trick or treat with Rachel in a populated area, instead of the empty cornfield next to her house.  I went to hang up my goat skull on the door and found it coming apart in the storage box, so I had to cobble it back together with some superglue.  And them we had no kids come to the door because we are at the end of a dead end street.

     Here is a nice photo of a fall tree in the cemetery across the street.

     Peter and Greg have spent a lot of time this summer weeding the berm, and Peter has been watering the plantings on it, so that our plants on it should do well next summer.   7 inches of rain in a few days in September will also help.  I guess I should also say that the rains and floods did not really affect us adversely.  Coal Creek at the southern edge of Lafayette flooded a few house basements close to it, and the pedestrian path along it was quite damaged for several towns, including a lot of damage to Louisville’s golf course which it goes through.  We have not traveled into the mountains yet to have seen the damage there.  There are some impressively sized uprooted trees every now and them along the local streams, and storm deposited wrack upon barbed wire fences and trees seemingly far from the current streams.

The family goes along,  Greg is taking two classes at Front Range Community College, Rachel is in a Post secondary school called Transitions.  Pat is doing some beading in between naps and books, and Elizabeth is trying to keep everyone fed, and on clean dishes!   Here is a picture of the newest cat in the household, named Tally.

Thanks for reading, Elizabeth.

 

Wait, how can it be late June, it was just May… July 27, 2013

So spring finally came in May but not before some record low temps the first week .  Even though buds were not evident on the lilacs and fruit trees, the cold weather seemed to hinder them, and we had very few blooms.  My new fruit trees seem to be growing well, and the two wine grapes we planted  also.  We were more concerned about planting the grapes to have a fresh source of grapes leaves for dolmathes, then about any wine making from the grapes!  The lilac bushes on the berm are starting to get enough size to be seen from several feet away!

     The plants on the berm seem to be appreciating the moisture retention of the wood chips, although we did not put barrier cloth down below the chips, so Peter and Greg have been putting in a bunch of early morning weed control to have the berm looking this good.  We had 19 stalks of iris blooms this year, up from 2 last year.  Our donated iris have turned out to be largely white, very dark purple, and a couple of bronze and pink.  The iris were donated to us, so the colors have largely been surprises.

     Hope springing eternal, we have planted vegies again.  At this point, we have 9 tomato plants, 6 squash, mildly hot peppers, beans, basil, potatoes, lettuce mix, and kale.   Last year fruit trees were loaded, but our vegies didn’t do well. Maybe this will be the year for vegies to thrive.  Established rose bushes in the area are doing very well this June.  Ours are not really established, but are still blooming.  (See picture one, of berm.)

      The sandstone is for a project where I am paving under the clothes line to have a somewhat even and weed free “floor.”  Like all projects, it gets started and then worked on in bits and pieces.

Last fall I primed the front door, and this year I have painted two coats on the whole frame.  I am getting three planks ready to fasten to the door for a Plank door effect.   After beveling the edges,  (Thank you Al Paparella from BVUUF fellowship)_I am now painting the planks before I put them onto the door.  At some point I am going to have to take the door off the hinges to fasten on the planks, and give a good coat of paint to all.  Again, the painting gets done a little at a time, as I have to wait for days that are cool enough to paint that are also days that Rachel is at camp.

     The frame is finished, but the door needs more painting.  Bowie likes napping on the porter’s chair in the corner.

     My mother, Pat Robinson, had her 80th birthday this June.  Peter and I took her out to  P.F. Chang’s for a dinner out.

     It is now late July, and I am going to put this post up as is.  Thanks for reading, everyone, Elizabeth.

The end of April: Yet more snow and cat vs. skunk. May 1, 2013

I ended my last post saying snow was expected for Monday, April 22, so here indeed is a photo of that.

     By Thursday, the temperature was in the seventies, House sparrows are building a nest in one of my fake ivy bushes in the porch, and oh yes, the skunks are out. And we know this because….?  Bowie the white cat had a very up close and personal encounter with one, as in a large yellow splurt on his chest about 8:45 Thursday evening.  Which then necessitated Peter going to the store for tomato juice and Dawn dish soap, and Gregory and I washing Bowie in Rachel’s large roll-in shower stall.  See picture of wet cat and drying cat on Greg’s lap (human as heating pad).

     It is now Wednesday the 1st of May, and as I write this blog, who is “helping” me?   I put my nose down and sniffed him and yes, he still smells like skunk. ( I don’t let him sleep with me because he wants to sleep on my head pillow and purr loudly. Bowie never came into sleep with me while I had Bujo.)  If you look carefully, you can see Bowie’s one green eye and one blue eye.

     So, the first of May, and here is today’s snow storm.  I will have to say that our April’s storms have vastly improved our snowpack, ie water reserves, Boulder got almost 48 inches of snow in April, but still!

     Well, Duty is calling in a shrill hard voice, or maybe that’s the laundry alarm, Nevertheless, I need to go.  Thanks for reading.  Elizabeth.

April 2013: Late spring, or Snow and more snow. April 18, 2013

     I reported a late spring snow in March, well we’re getting a storm every week.  Last week’s storm was predicted to be 8 – 12 inches, so of course we only got 2 -3 inches, although accompanied by some record cold temps, barely a quarter inch of moisture by my very rough measurement of the melted water in the tub standing in the yard.  Then late Saturday night we had an hour and a half rainstorm, which gave us also over a quarter inch of rain, a much more efficient delivery.  I thought we had our next storm predicted to come Tueday afternoon, but here it is the morning of Monday the 15th, and it is again snowing all out.  The first following picture was taken about 7 am, the second about noon.

     We are not planning to do major planting this year because of the expected drought, but we did buy this one juniper, still in pot on patio, to replace one of the ones that died last year.  With the spring being so late, our trees and lilacs have still not leafed out.  I planted lettuce seeds indoors in February, thinking to put them out about the first of April, like last year, and they are still indoors, leggy and unhappy.

     Last Saturday was Rachel’s Prom.  A week or two before she started talking about Prom so I said I would take her.  We bought her a nice dress up pantsuit at the ARC thrift store (where else), and her CNA/friend took her to Walmart to buy dressup undies, because girlfriends go shopping together.  Here is a photo of Rachel dressed up to go to Prom.

     And here is a picture of the two of us before we headed out.  Rachel made it through about 75 minutes, and then was bored and wanted to go home.  She is having fun telling people she went.

      And now it is Tuesday the 16th.  Here is a picture from this morning.  The snow stopped about midnight, but it is forcast to start again this evening.  The plows were able to clear the roads last night so there was school (Yeah BVSD)!

     Now it is Wednesday morning, and it is.. Surprise! Snowing!  Here is a picture of my car, which had been cleared off, then snow had fallen from the top onto the hood. Now it has new snow over the parts that had been cleared.

     And finally, Snowstorm: The Aftermath..  It’s Thursday, it’s bright with sunshine, the manchild is shoveling.

     Of course, we have another storm forcast for Monday, or so.  Sigh.  I think I’ll stop here for now, Thanks for reading.  Elizabeth.

February and March 2013 April 6, 2013

     Hi folks.  Here is Pat.  The arm brace is because she has had what the orthopedist called a catastrophic failure of her elbow replacement.  Because she leans on a walker to move around, the implant for the bone of the lower arm has worn through the bone.  The brace helps hold things together, because using the arm incorrectly can cause Pat a lot of pain.  Here is also Rachel, and they are petting Mimi, grandma’s newest cat.

     After a much drier than usual Nov, Dec, and Jan, we finally got several snowstorms in February that made that month at least above averaage.  But we are still way down for the last twelve months compared to average.  Denver, C. Springs, and some smaller towns are already issuing watering restrictions.  I saw in the paper that some official said that we would need to receive 8 feet of snow in the mountains in March to bring our snowpack up to average. 

  At the top of the picture are the sagging sections of snow as they slowly melt off the troughs of the metal roof section above the porch.

     Self portrait by Rachel.  She likes to play with Mom’s digital camera, and sometimes forgets to  point away from herself

     We have a MegaChurch in Lafayette that sponsors a dance each year for Devopmentally Disabled people.  Rachel went this year, and although she could have gone to a pre-session and chosen a donated prom dress, she has this nice vintage pantsuit we bought to wear to the Homecoming Dance this fall, and wanted to wear it again, as she is more of a pants girl than a dress girl.

I ordered some bare root fruit trees last month through an ad on craigslist.  I did that because I could get very type specific for apple trees, Honeycrisp and Winesap.  I also got a Golden Delicious because it is one of the best pollinators.  We were given fruit, or permission to pick, from several neighbors last fall, and canned several dozen jars of fruit and jam.  The trees are our way of ensuring fruit in future years.  For fun, I also ordered a 3 on 1 pear tree, but when I got home from my tree picking up trip (75 miles each way)  I found out that I had been given a 5 on 1 sweet cherry by mistake.  I planted all four of the trees on Friday the 22 of March. 

     And here is what it looked like on Saturday, March 23.  The third and fourth trees are visible through the patio door, one on the left in front of the lilac, and one on the right half way between the chair and the shed, through the railing.

     Here is my bouganvillea, yearning towards the light of spring, not quite understanding springtime in the Rockies.

     Greg has a group of friends that come to our house to play table top role playing games.  However, instead of using dice, pencil, and paper, they play with each person tracking their stats and random number generation on their laptops.  Here is a picture I took, where all the guys looked away from me as I took their picture, in typical teenagerness.

     That was pretty much our Feb. and Mar.  Thanks for checking in.  Elizabeth.

 

December 2012 / January 2013 March 23, 2013

 

     I put up the white tree in MidDecember, Mommy’s Secular tree I called it, because it was covered in ornaments which mostly had no actual reference to Christmas.  I have about 17 of  my  needlepointed, beaded ornaments, of butterflies, flowers, geometric patterns and the such.  I also have a collection of Ladies’ shoe ornaments, and sparkly balls in lime green, turquoise, and lavender.  My husband said he wanted the green tree up also, and said he would help decorate it.  I had Greg assemble it, and I put on lights and garland, and that where it stayed the rest of the season.

     I stopped in the middle of putting up garland to do laundry or something, and when I came back  3 of 4 household cats were “helping” with the garland.  I guess this is one of the last pictures of our yellow cat Bujo.  He became ill in January and had to be put down.  I miss him very much,  He was the cat who slept with me.  We still have my mom’s three cats, but they are more hers, although Bowie, the white cat, does his best to hang out with everyone.

The big white gift in the foreground of the first photo  is a wooden horse stable that Rachel and I found at the thrift store for Meghan. Included were two large Breyer horses, three small, lots of accessories, horse tack, and some other horses, all for about 5% of retail.  I was happy, she was happy.  I am even giving her some of my childhood Breyers, a few at a time.

We had my brother, Nate, over after Christmas, for a Birthday supper.  At his request, I made a cous-cous like we had learned to cook in Tunisia.  Here is a rare picture of me.  I really like our new stove.  (That I found on craigslist.)

     Somewhere around my birthday, in January, I had a “day off'” to attend an all day scrapbooking event.  Instead of working on scrapbooks, I took my next needlepoint canvas, and spent eight hours or so counting out and marking the graph on it.  I can now say that eight hours is several hours too many graphing for my poor eyes.

     And in regards to birthdays, here is Gregory on his 19th, with his meal choice of chicken curry.

My dad gave me a two part Christmas gift, part was money for new glasses, which I needed, and the other was some more shelving for my laundry room.    Thanks for reading.  Elizabeth and family

November 2012 February 22, 2013

I was somehow inspired to write several posts in June, but our nice spring moved into a long hot summer, and extra time dropped  away.  

The House and Yard:

Much of my spring planting suffered because of our long hot summer. Two of my spartan junipers seem to have totally died, and I lost most of two others, leaving  just a small growth out of the roots.  I won’t dig up any roots until next summer, to give the plants a chance to grow if they are still  alive.

Here are two deadish junipers on the left,  the mini remains of one on the right, and two survivors.  Picture from late October.  After June, the majority of yard “improvements” consisted of six total dump loads of free wood chips.

I did get a couple of decorative items mounted on the porch.  I found a neat demi-lune metalwork basket in the motif we used on the front porch railings. here it is mounted to the right of the front door.  In between the very high temperatures of the summer, and the cool  fall, I just barely found time to give the front door an initial coat of primer in its blue paint.  Rachel made the wreath from a coat hanger.

—————-

And that is where I had left this, and it is now February 2013.  So, Let me try to finish Last November , and then I can work on the end of the year in another post.

Here is Peter standing by the flower arrangement that Janis and Jim Sartucci sent us for Thanksgiving.

Here is Rachel with Princess on her lap. Rachel used this photo for her Facebook page.  For those friends and family who indulge in Facebook, please feel free to send her a friend request.

Here is Thanksgiving dinner, with Princess the dog, Janis Gott, Peter’s apprentice, Greg, Courtland, Li and Ray Collins, Meghan, Peter, and Rachel.

So that pretty much was our November, Thanks for reading.  Elizabeth.

 

Four days of 100+ Temps / Flagstaff fire June 26, 2012

     Today is the possibly fifth day of 100+  degree F temperatures in the Denver area.  Yesterday we tied the all time high record of 105 degrees, last set in 1878.  While I can imagine the Nevada branch of the family pointing and giggling since they regularly get temps much higher than this, I will in our defense whimper that we have no air conditioning.  Mom and I went to Home Depot to look for a portable evaporative cooler, but the closest Home Depot doesn’t even carry them!  Evidently some executive, probably living in an area with high humidity, thinks the space in older “smaller” HDs is better spent on other items.  I looked on line, but no evap.  coolers are in stock at any local stores.  I have been drying loads and loads of laundry on drying racks in front of a big fan for the cooling effect, and since I am caught up on laundry today, I have been wetting and rewetting the same sheet and drying it for the cooling.   We’ve looked on Craigslist, but people know they have a valuble item, and are priced accordingly.  We may wait until November, and then try to buy one.

    The house has good insulation, but it is still 88 inside by 7 or 8 pm, and even with lots of windows open and fans going it is only 78 or 79 inside by 6:30 am.  We are supposed to have a gradual cooling trend going down to the mid 90s by this weekend.  Peter and Greg stay in the basement all day where it stays 75 or so for Greg, and Peter’s office may reach 78 or 80 because of his computers and office equipment.  We more hardy female types stay upstairs.

    

 I went outside around 1pm Tuesday to take a picture of the dry yard and Rachel wanted to come too.  It may not reach the 100 degree mark today, at least here in Lafayette.  There are dark clouds visible behind Rachel, and while our chances of rain are almost nil, they are shading us from the sun, so the outside thermometer reads only 94.

 

 

   

       Here is Rachel by my Colorado bougainvillea.  My plant, which lives inside during the winter, of course,  had a big flush of bloom in March/April.  Then it started dropping leaves in May, and I also pruned it back some.  It is now putting forth new growth, and will be lush soon

     Pat is almost two weeks past her first cataract surgery, and one week past the second.  She hasd almost 20/20 vision in her first corrected eye last Friday at her office visit.

   I went out around 2:30 to do errands and west of me was a plume of smoke.  This is a new fire, The Flagstaff fire (which is a misnomer, because it is one mountain south of Flagstaff), which may have been started by a lightning strike from the storm/dark clouds from the picture of Rachel and house above.  The whole Table Mesa area, where Pat used to live has already been placed under pre-evacuation orders.   NCAR (remember the Woody Allen movie Sleeper?)  The National Center for Atmospheric Research has done a voluntary evacuation.

     I took this photo at about 5:00 pm from the bottom of my driveway, and it shows the plume of smoke from the flagstaff fire.   This fire is about 12 miles from us.  The High Park fire west of Fort Collins was about 38 miles at its closest.

 We’ll try to let you know how things are going, soon.

Thanks for reading.  Elizabeth.

 

Of squash and wood chips and fruit bearing trees. June 20, 2012

     We have this big berm on the east side of the yard that last year was a weed factory.  This year I called a tree service that had a listing on craigslist for free wood chips.  So far, we have had 6 dump loads of varied wood chips that Peter and Gregory have spread over the berm. Thanks Cutting Edge Tree Care of Erie, Colorado!  Every couple of loads I call to say thanks, and please could we have some more?  Maybe 2 or 3 more loads will be enough for this year.

     The guys are trying to put the chips around the iris, lilacs,roses, volunteer larkspur and hollyhocks, and the squash I planted.  Since we have a lot of berm to cover, I figured large sprawling pumpkin and butternut squash would do well there.  I planted 16 starts, 8 of each.  One hill has died, and some hills are forging ahead, and the rest are “establishing”.

Eighteen inches across and flowering.

 

     Ok, another wordpress annoyance, the caption worked fine on the first photo, and didn’t two minutes later on the second, that should say,”Barely bigger than when planted, by white flags.

 

    Here’s another mystery:  I bought four squash from Lafayette Florist at the same time.  I picked two zuchinni from the same tray.  The left most is roaring away, and the second plant in the right corner of the same bed is 1/3 the size.  The two yellow squash are also small still.

 

     It’s the 20th of June, and the cherries are ripe on the Meteor tree we planted last year.  We’re hoping to stew some lightly and serve over ice cream for Pat’s birthday dinner tonight

     Mom and Mimi.   Mom had the cataract removed from her left eye last Thursday, and gets the right eye done Thursday the 21st, tomorrow.  She is already not wearing her glasses, and she looks younger.  Happy Birthday Mom!

     We found that the lot had volunteer plum trees so we have been encouraging them.  One of them is loaded with plums this spring.  Critters got the ten of so plums from last year, so we have netted the tree in hopes of getting some ripe plums for our own use.  Then we need to really prune back this tree to be more upright.

     Thanks for reading!  Elizabeth et al.