Life on the High Plains

I felt like a farmer this morning. I got up at the crack of dawn, went out to feed my horses, and on the way back I stopped by my garden to pick some lettuce for my lunch. While I was in the garden I noticed the green beans were ready to be harvested. Wow!  This is my first year for green beans.  I'm quite impressed with my beans! I'm an actual agricultural producer!  (Well, sort of anyway.  I produced enough green beans for one meal.) Gardening is so much fun.  I need to move somewhere that has a longer growing season so I can enjoy my fresh veggies year round.

We celebrated Jillian's birthday on Saturday with a BYOB painting class. Amazing things happen when there are three bottles of wine, a blank canvas, an instructor, and four creative minds converge. Even Irv joined in on the fun (mainly because we needed a designated driver). Another of Irv's tasks was to open all the bottles of wine.  This was kind of difficult once he broke the studio's one and only cork screw...note to self--next time take our own cork screw. We started with two things... a palette with our chosen color theme, and a blank canvas. Step 1 was to paint the background black.  This is harder than you might think.  Getting the paint strokes just right with enough texture to show some detail is a fine art. Some of us had to use the hair dryer to get the background dry before Step 2 started. Step 2, 3, and 4 involved painting the vase, then adding stems with buds and leaves.  Being the competitive family that we are, I...

Yesterday was the day--Moving Day for Jillian and Brian! We spent Friday night moving the "little stuff", but thankfully, Jillian hired movers to move the furniture on Saturday morning. If anyone in Colorado Springs is looking for movers, these guys did a fantastic job at very reasonable rates! Brian will be glad to know the movers moved his new "lift".  It weighed a couple hundred pounds and we couldn't even budge it.   It took the guys 3.83 hours to move all of Jillian and Brian's stuff from their condo to the new house.   It took the rest of us about 47.35 hours to get the "stuff" moved.  My goodness they have a lot of stuff for a couple who has only been married two years.   Now for a brief tour of the new place.   Living Room...Brian is already telling Jillian she needs to go out and buy a bigger TV to fill that space.   Craft Room (I'm jealous!)   And Diesel's favorite new room....   ...

Mr. Beans had a major accomplishment last week.  You see, Mr. Bean inherited his Grammy's anti-thrill gene.  That means we don't seek out thrills.  We're perfectly happy with both feet on the ground.  People like us take a lot of ridiculing from the roller coaster riders in the world because we don't like roller coasters and we won't be coerced into riding a coaster just to make others happy.  (Well, actually a few years ago when Jillian's team won the judging contest at the World Show, I did let them talk me into riding that big wooden coaster at Six Flags in Arlington, Texas.  Yes, the same coaster that woman just fell off of.  I held on so tight during that ride that my hands swelled and I couldn't get my rings off for days.  Chicken...yes, that's what I am and I'm not ashamed to say so.) Anyway, back to the story about Mr. Beans.  Mr. Beans has been challenged by climbing walls for years and he never quite makes it to the top....

Today is this man's birthday.  The big double-5's.  Eligible for the senior discount at some restaurants.  Woohoo!   This guy has been the love of my life for 36+ years.  He's the best man I know--he has made all my dreams come true and never wants anything for himself.  He's going to have a kind of disappointing birthday this year because he's working nights this week.  We won't be able to take him out to dinner for a few days, in fact I'll probably see him for about 15 minutes all day--he gets home from work right as I'm leaving for work. I know the way to this man's heart is through his stomach.  He lovingly eats anything I cook for him, he makes me feel like I'm the best chef in the world.  For his birthday this year I made him a pan of lasagna.  I think this is going to make him super happy and I'm not even going to make any comments about the number of calories he's consuming if he decides to eat the whole thing by ...

Irv and I had a special mid-week "date night" on Wednesday.  It was the last member's night at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo for the summer.  We got to hang out with some of my favorite animal friends.  This guy was especially beautiful up in this pine tree with the sky peeking through. Happy Friday Skywatching !

Today is my two year anniversary.  It was July 18, 2011 that I noticed this pain in my right side.  I thought I was getting a kidney stone, and made a trip to the urgent care.  Funny that two years later I still think I'm getting a kidney stone, but now I'm so leary of doctors that I won't go see one until God gives me a second indication that it might really be a kidney stone. I'm not complaining...at least I'm not complaining too much.  I have been blessed with so much and I know people who have it much worse than I do, so I have to be grateful for everything I've been given and just try to deal with it the best I can.  When I had that procedure in May I promised myself that no matter how it came out I was going to enjoy life to the fullest and get back to the things I love like hiking, travelling, and spending time with my honey no matter how much pain I'm in.  Live life and live it to the fullest. Today, however, I'm in the third day of an IBM Co...

All week long Irv and I have been planning a hike up the Manitou Springs Incline.  We got up early this morning and made the drive to Manitou Springs only to be surrounded by hundreds of people and not a parking space to be found within three miles of the Incline.  Now, I'm not a wimp, but I'm not going to hike three miles and then attempt the one-mile Incline which goes straight up the side of a mountain. We quickly made a Plan B--North Cheyenne Canyon Park which offers many hiking trails.  We started at Helen Hunt Falls. This is a nice trail, only about 1/3rd of a mile and 200 foot climb in elevation. Of course no hike would be complete without an attempt at some "artsy" photos.  This rock wall is one of my favorites. These stone steps came out pretty good too. This is my favorite hiking buddy. At the top of the Falls we found some people who were willing to take a picture of us togeth...

Yesterday I headed up to Ft.  Morgan, Colorado with a group of co-workers to visit a customer's facility and install some software on their computers.  To get there we drove through the Limon Wind Farm which has 200 of these wind turbines spread across 55,000 acres.  It's quite impressive and I'm glad to see they are harvesting renewable forms of energy.  The windy plains of Eastern Colorado seem like a great place for this project.  I only wonder if in 20-30-40 years will they decide this wasn't a feasible project and the landscape will be ruined with old, run down, rusty wind turbines from the early 21st century when people were trying to find a replacement for coal and oil? What are your thoughts on wind energy? Happy Skywatch Friday !

We're home from a second weekend in a row away from home.  Lots of family time the last two weeks which was wonderful, but I'm tired.  Sleeping in a hotel, not eating right, and having far too many adult beverages takes it toll. I'm ready to get back to work and boot camp. Here's some highlights from our Albuquerque trip.  (I did a really poor job of taking photos on this trip so I apologize for not having pictures of everyone we spent time with.) Enchiladas smothered in green chili at Gardunos with posole and pinto beans on the side.  Yummy! Attending the Freedom Fourth fireworks with 50 thousand of my closest friends.  Mother nature provided the best light show of all.   Standing in this pizza line at the Freedom Fourth celebration so my favorite grandson wouldn't starve to death (see that pizza trailer way down there?).   Watching fireworks with some of my favorite people, but missing Jillian and Brian.   ...