Life on the High Plains

 My father left us the gift of stories of his growing up years during the Great Depression.  You don't really appreciate these stories until you're older. My grandparents, Harry and Bertha, were married in 1926.  My dad always used to say that his dad was a terrible farmer.  After getting married they started as tenant farmers at the Jack Gill Farm.  The usual split for tenant farmers was 3/5 for the farmer and 2/5 for the owner.  Sounds like a heck of a deal for the owner. My grandfather, Harry. Their second farm was The Crow's Nest about a year later.  My dad was born there in 1928, or more accurately at the neighbor's farm during a blizzard on January 2nd.  Only my dad's older sister had the luxury of being born in a hospital. My grandmother, Bertha, with my dad and older sister Bertha in 1928. In 1929 they moved to their third farm, The Adrian Farm.  Both my dad's younger brothers were born at this farm.  My dad talks about his bus r...

 Yesterday I was driving around running errands and can you see how warm it was? Yep, 63 degrees at the end of February on the high plains of Colorado.  This is 83 degrees warmer than the previous week when we got down to -20.  Love, love, love winter days like this. Then, we woke up to about six inches of snow.  Lots of states say "wait five minutes and the weather will change", but this really has to be a Colorado saying.  Today we have six inches of snow and tomorrow it's supposed to be back in the 50s.  I'm not complaining...I love that our snow usually melts on the same day that it falls. My hubby and I had a real snow day today.  My art class was cancelled and then I called and cancelled my PT appointment.  When I retired from my job I also retired from driving on the snow. Instead I baked cookies while the hubby went outside and did some snow throwing.  He even made a path to the barn.  I was going to go outside and get a photo, b...

I had my first knee post-op appointment yesterday.  My physical therapists and doctors are actually amazed at how well I'm doing.  I am also amazed at how much easier the recovery has been so far. They removed the steri-strips yesterday so I actually got a good view of my knee.  Here's a knee selfie. Here's another view from the top.  You can't really see it from these photos, but it's really bruised.  Strange thing is that it didn't turn black and blue until about a week after surgery.  Now it's just ugly brown and yellow plus it's really swollen.  They tell me this is all normal. My doctor gave me a full surgery report yesterday with every step explained in detail.  Let's just say I can't believe how they had to move my leg in so many positions to get in there properly.  Hanging off the table at a 90 degree angle then a 130 degree angle, then straight, and then in a four point position  that I had to google to see what that was.  ...

 Well, we're one cat shorter right now.  Kitten's mother flew over from Germany to take her home.  For almost three months Kitten hid under the bed or under the couch.  She wanted nothing to do with us until the day before she was flying to Germany.  Then she came out and was very friendly and social.  I attribute this to the sedative she was on because she had to go to the vet for her health certificate.  This picture makes her look all sweet, but believe me she can be quite ferocious and has even attacked the vet before.  I guess we should have kept her drugged the whole time. Of course our daughter came here during the coldest days of winter.  Too cold to go outside for anything.  It was a busy few days of getting a health certificate for the cat and a Covid PCR test for my daughter within 48 hours of her arrival back in Germany. Are you aware that the average American can't even fly to Germany right now?  Nope, they and most of ...

 Our country hit a grim milestone yesterday. 500,000 of our fellow citizens have died of Covid-19. It's a solemn day.  500,000 is more than the population of the city I live closest to. Everyone of those souls was someone's father, mother, brother, sister, child, friend, etc.  Each of them was loved and valued by someone. We could and should have done so much better. I'm not going to say it nicely...wear your damn mask.  You reTrumplicans need to stop politicizing a worldwide pandemic.  Those of you who believe this is a hoax or a conspiracy theory...smarten up and open your eyes, stop being so weak minded.  Believe in the science. This morning I went to get my hair cut and my stylist said "it's just the two of us, we don't need to wear masks if you don't want to".   I told her I was wearing my mask which prompted her to immediately put hers on (which is mandatory in Colorado right now).  She's a reTrumplican through and through and was just ...

 The U.S. seems to be in the midst of a deep freeze right now.  Colorado Springs has been below zero for a couple days and it looks like we have a couple more days to go before we get above freezing. I may have mentioned on previous posts how much I hate cold and snow.   Last night it was 60 degrees warmer in Phoenix that it was here.  I mean, really, why do we live here? Apparently I picked a good week to have knee surgery.  I wouldn't have been able to go hiking anyway.  Here I am after being dropped off at the surgery center.  Is there anything more lonely that being dropped off at a surgery center by yourself?  Dang Covid, dang anti-maskers, dang conspiracy theorists!  If y'all were just a tiny bit smarter maybe we'd be on the backside of this pandemic. So not to gross anyone out, but here's my leg after surgery.  Don't worry, they didn't bruise me up.  The blue is from the antiseptic they wash the skin with.  Only two...

We went hiking at a new open space yesterday.  It was a beautiful 70 degrees in southern Colorado and the best thing about being an old retired couple is that you can go hiking in the middle of the week. We took a look at the trail map and chose our route.  I always take a picture of the map in case we get lost out on the trails.   The one thing we didn't look at was the legend to see what each color trail meant.  We ended up going out on an intermediate trail and coming back on an advanced trail. The Mesa Trail was a steady hike up for about 500 feet and that's why it's classified as intermediate.  I don't like hiking  uphill, but it's usually a necessity when hiking in Colorado. The views were amazing.  That's the Garden of the Gods in the distance. We even met some equestrians on the path. The trail going up was a wide gravel path that maintenance vehicles could go up. I'm one who prefers a meandering path through the forest, but I'll take what...

 What do you do around the house during a pandemic when everything else is done?  You start cleaning. Yesterday I did a few cabinets and closets in the house, but today it was time to tackle the garage.  Much to my surprise Irv actually asked if I needed help.  What?  I'm the organizer and cleaner in our household.  Even Irv will admit that he's a bit of a packrat (he comes by it naturally).  Today, however, he actually parted with a few things all on his own like a old toilet seat that was replaced a couple years ago.  I was proud of him. Look how nice it looks now.   We actually found a place in town that we can haul our recyclables to, but they all have to be separated.  You can't really see it, but in the corner are five different bins for recycling because everything has to be sorted.  I told Irv I'd take on that project because I believe it's a moral responsibility to recycle whenever possible.  Yes, I am a liberal, ...