Father's Day in the Mountains

Happy Father's Day Jim!

We celebrated Father's Day with a hike in the mountains. The entire family went, even the old cat! It was a beautiful day as we drove to the trailhead. We parked our truck and began a short hike to Taylor lake. The dogs romped in the water and the cat explored new grasses to feast upon. Taylor lake is a small lake (pond) created be snow melt and rain, it sits at nearly 12,000 ft. The sky is so brillantly blue at that elevation. What a great place to bond with the family.

Happy Mother's Day to Me!!!

So, here is my new Italian boy!!

Isn't he beautiful?

1998 Ducati M900 - a.k.a. Monster
One of my very own! You can see Jim's Ducati a.k.a the Mighty One trying to sneak into the picture on the right.


GO GIRL POWER!!!


Ride Responsibly!

A Day At The Lake

Aspen - Golden Retriever 3 yrs. old
Doug - Labrador Retriever 14 mos. old

Together these two will fetch anything... even stuff I didn't throw. This stick was a product of their boredom after I stopped throwing the toy. On Sunday April 19th Jim and I took them to Lemon Reservoir north of Durango. We packed a picnic lunch, a couple of chairs and headed to the lake for a relaxing afternoon in the spring time sun. Aspen is our grand swimmer. Doug swims as well but quickly gives up when he realizes she is going to reach the toy / stick before he will. So while Aspen swims out to the object of focus, Doug waits in the shallows. He watches her and crouches like a tiger as she approaches. When she gets within 10-12 feet, he explodes through the water and attacks her. Sometimes he is successful in taking the toy from her and other times he only succeeds in knocking her under the water. This is really entertaining for us to watch and laugh at; perhaps this is why we don't have television... We have real-a-vision! Unfortunately, I didn't think about getting out the camera until late in the day. So all our pictures have a sun streak effect.

May you find entertainment in alternative forms!

Spring Has Sprung!!

Good Morning Sprouts!!

I may not be the best photographer in the world but sprouts don't exactly smile for you. Here are my wonderful basil and broccoli sprouts growing happily in my window. Every day they eagerly bend toward the warming sun, so I am constantly rotating their container to help them with their posture. This is just one container on my rolling shelf system that occupies the only south facing window in our house. It takes up a good portion of our dining area. Hence, when we have company for dinner, I just roll it into the other room. I acquired the rack off the porch of a house on one of my delivery routes. Part of the joy of delivering mail all over town is all the cool free stuff you find that other people are just throwing out.

(And the obvious fact that I get paid to walk around outside all day!)

My Patiently Waiting Containers.

Dinah, the old cat, looks out the window wondering what all the change is about and why there are so many little birds in the yard. I cleaned away years of pine needle and scrub oak debris and threw down wild grass and flower seeds (area not pictured). I thought these would help with erosion on our front sloping yard, what I didn't realize was that little birds have a radar which must go off when seeds hit the ground. I have yet to see any new sprouting but the birds are fattening up! Oh Well. Meanwhile, I have all these fantastic containers awaiting planting. I only bought 4 containers and some soil. The rest of the containers were free along with about 1/3 of the soil... again thanks to customers on my route! One customer needed to thin out her herb garden and invited me to help dig up and transplant some herbs. I received thyme, marjoram, sage, chive, parsley and rhubarb! They are all living and thriving outside. I have basil, broccoli, cilantro, squash, tomatoes and strawberries safely inside. Many more seeds will be sown today - spinach, peas, bush beans, carrots, radishes and lettuces in the canoe a.k.a. "S.S. Side Dish." Jim was kind enough to let me turn his old canoe into a shallow garden. It's had a hole in it for years and he's been threatening to patch it since we met. Instead, he drilled more holes in the bottom for drainage and we have given it a new life. My containers appear sad and empty in the diffused light on this overcast morning, but I can close my eyes and imagine the lush bounty that will soon await harvest.




More Free Stuff!!

So after searching for a quality seated garden scooter to comfortably work in my low containers I had given up and purchased a padded garden thing to kneel upon. It seemed all the new scooters are now made of plastic and resemble children's toys. What happened to building quality products? Do we live in such a "disposable" world that nothing is made to last more than a year or two? Alas, another free-bee from a customer on my route! He had this old scooter in his yard ever since last fall. It endured the rain and snow and was covered in dirt and wet leaves. It was just what I had been looking for, so I inquired on where he had gotten it. Then he offered it to me. He stated that he didn't use it and just wanted it out of his yard. I was elated at such a find and took it home that day. Aside from flat tires and dirt, it is in perfect working order. The tractor style seat spins and raises and lowers in height. It's perfect to scoot around my canoe work the soil without working my back.



So spring has sprung and sprouts are underway here in Colorado. Most are safe inside the warmth of the house, protected from the sporadic snows that still decorate our yard. Birds are singing and the trees are swaying... the earth is awakening.



May your spring be graced by new life!!

Where Have We Been?!

Well, the snow is starting to melt and we are coming back to reality. The question remains... Where have we been for the past few months?! March brought a visit from Stown to celebrate his 13th birthday! (Whoa! I'm the mother of a teenager!) His birthday is in February, however we celebrated with him in March. We flew him to Durango on a Wednesday night and he stayed until Sunday. Jim and I both took vacation while he was here. No work and all play made for a great time. We spent three days on the slopes together. After all the eating out and snowboarding at high altitude, Stown returned to California to rest and catch up in school.
Between work and sleep, Jim and I spend every Sunday together on the slopes. Usually, we are tearing down the mountain creating high speed havoc and on occasion stopping in the trees for a snack break. On my other day off (if I get one), I spend it volunteering with the Adaptive Sports Center teaching skiing to those with disabilities.

On Jim's other day off, he can be found with his best friend Will throwing smooth tricks and mad style across the slopes. If you ever catch a glimpse of these two flying down the mountain together, stop and stare! They weave in and out so close together that they look like the Blue Angels on snowboards. I have to admit that sometimes when they click boards and bump off each other but continue like nothing happened it makes me a bit nervous. Yet, knowing that they both have crazy skills, I know they can pull it off with flair.

Stown isn't the only birthday in February. Aspen (on the left) turned 3 and Doug (on the right) turned 1. We took them in for a birthday weigh in at the vet and Doug topped the scales at 90 lbs!! He's a big boy full of muscle. Aspen, however, got put on a diet because her lard butt was 76lbs... almost 20lbs heavier than last summer when she got fixed. I suppose getting a puppy, my job change (longer hours) and shorter days in the winter didn't help. The good news is that the days are getting longer which means more hikes, we've cut back on her food and at the 30 day check in she had lost over 3 lbs. The vet was happy with her progress.

(Not the best picture, but trying to get these two to both sit still is not easy.)

Last but not least... Pablo!

We love entertaining friends for dinner - or having entertaining friends for dinner!

Pablo is quite the character. Here he's making his famous mushrooms and sporting a very flattering apron. What a figure, Pablo!!

Well, that's the gist of why we haven't returned phone calls, emails or letters.
We can't help that when the ski season starts we disappear.
If anything was truly important, I figure people will call twice or leave a message.
We love our family and friends and those of you that love us understand.
As the season comes to close, we will be coming back to the reality of emails and phones.

But not for too long...'cause as the roads and trails dry out - motorcycles, mountain bikes and running shoes will find their way out of the shed!!

Love to all and may you find your happiness outside!!

My Christmas Surprise!

I had been a good girl. Weeks before Christmas Jim had brought home a huge box, set it in our living room and simply threw a sheet over it. He asked me not to look for it was a Christmas present. So I walked around this mystery box a dozen times a day, never once peeking under the loosely drapped sheet. Christmas arrives and I tear off the sheet like a showroom model to reveal an outdoor fire pit!! I had wanted on all summer but never found the extra money. With all the commotion of company, I never actually opened the box until January 1st. After my day of laziness and way too much coffee, I decided at 4 in the afternoon to open and assemble my fire pit in the living room. I cut the tape, flip the lid only to find boxes of Christmas lights?! Not believing my eyes, I removed a few boxes from the top... as if maybe the fire pit was hiding underneath and Jim was playing a joke on me.

Nope. From this view you can see the 37 boxes of indoor/outdoor lights that would fill the box. Apparently, an empolyee had used the empty box to repack extra lights but had failed to mark it. Well, the box was heavy... so is a fire pit. The box had been retaped... but maybe they just wanted to see the fire pit. Maybe if I plugged in all the lights and wadded them into a big glowing ball I could create an Electric Fire Pit! Ahhhhh.... Atlas disappointment set in and I pulled out the camera to document the event. I guess I didn't believe it, so why would the store?

Fortunately, we live in a small town and despite the fact that Jim didn't have the receipt they gladly exchanged it. It took a few days to order a new fire pit and the lady at the counter couldn't believe her eyes when Jim opened the box for her. However, they were grateful for our honesty; as the cost of the lights were more than double the cost of the fire pit! As for now, the new fire pit is still in the box in the living room and the marshmellows are in the cupboard, but I did open the lid to double check the contents!

Let your light shine... be it fueled by wood or electricity!

Out with the Old & In with the New... but only if it's reused, recycled or handcrafted!!

Our brunch served in locally handmade ceramic mugs, hand-me-down plates and forks, a french press that was the "display" model and cloth napkins from the thrift store.

New Year's day brought forth an empty house here on Hollyhock Trail. Stown had left on 29th of December and Jim's parents left this morning before the sun had rose. Jim and I went back to bed after saying our goodbyes and slept in for the first time in a long time. Exhausted from the holiday hustle and bustle, we decided to hang out in our robes all day, sip coffee and catch up on doing nothing. I made homemade pecan sticky buns and french pressed coffee... although in the spirit of laziness we didn't eat until the early afternoon! Tonight we will be carrying on an old German tradition of consuming sauerkraut on New Year's Day to bring good fortune for the next 365 days.

Meanwhile with a new year before me, I have decided to do a few things different this year. I have been preparing for these for a while and are now going to put them into action. The first is buying as FEW new items as possible. I am already a frequent flyer at our thrift stores; be it donating items or shopping for others. Yet, this year I am going to try not to buy any new products for gifts or household usage. The reuse, recycle or handmade theory seems to be even more important as our economy is pressuring us with words like "recession" and "depression". I have already boxed up my old magazine subscriptions and am mailing them to a friend whom does not subscribe. For the few dollars it costs to mail them, we both enjoy the reading and save space in a landfill or recycle bin.

Since we brought back all my stuff from storage in October, I have been trying to purge the clutter. I have gotten rid of shoes, clothes, dishes and countless other cluttering useless (to me) goods. In an effort to reduce and simplify our household, I scrutinize things like never before. Earlier this year I pulled the pull on Jim's microwave, wrapped it in tape and dated it. Vowing that if so many months went by and we didn't use it it was going away. Well, it's gone and so is the cabinet it sat on (which was a black hole for canned goods). I replaced it with a shelf and a couple of baskets I picked up for under $10 and have a more organized pantry area that takes up less floor space in our small home. I also deleted 16 pages of emails that had collected over the past year. Do you know how nice it is to open your email and only see things from that day?

Container gardening is another under taking for the new year. I am looking forward to growing and consuming our own food since I have finally settled down. However, we have such poor soil and are planning to build a new home in 5-7 years that putting in all the work and hours into an "in ground" garden doesn't seem profitable to me. So I have started my research by ordering some used books and being on the look out for any old pots or boxes that might be suitable for vegetables. Our altitude makes for a short growing season but we have a single south facing window to hopefully start some seeds indoors. Unfortunately, it is in our dining room so i fear our table may become a nursery for a while this spring. Anyone with any advice please contact me... I know I can't learn it all from books.

Books can be very enlightening though! A year ago a friend of ours gave us a book called "Your Money or Your Life" while we were on vacation. We got home, it got unpacked and shoved on a shelf. I found it this fall and started reading it. Enthralled with the advice it offered on budgeting and being accountable for your spending I dog eared pages and decided to follow much of the advice drawn out within the pages. Despite, the outdated costs of goods because of the books age, I knew I could benifit from the over all process and planned on starting my new financial accountablity the 1st of January 2009. Then the dog ate the book. I went online and ordered a new updated and revised copy. While the figures had been adjusted to reflect a more modern economy, some of the lists had been edited out (guess I'll have to order the old edition now too). However, the principles were the same... Be accountable and know where your money goes! I created an basic spread sheet and Jim entered it into the Excel program for me. We have agreed to save receipts and track our spending. Let's see if this helps more money go into savings and our debt disappear faster!

I will post pictures from our holiday adventures soon and recap our exciting 2008 high lights another day as it seems like too much work for now. Today was about doing nothing. So that's what I've done... nothing.

Peace, Love and Happiness to all in the year to come.