Life on the High Plains

 On Saturday we headed out to explore the Stratton Open Space here in Colorado Springs.  It's an area we haven't really been to before that has several hiking trails. Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day so we weren't the only ones who wanted to get outside to enjoy it.  The parking lot was full so we had to park about a mile away from the trailhead and then walk back. Eventually we found our way back and onto the trail.  The first part of the trail meandered through the pine trees and then we came out into an open area with no shade. I will be the first to tell you that living in Colorado makes a person quite wimpy when it comes to warmer temperatures.  We didn't make it onto the trail until about 10:30 a.m. and the temperature was 80 degrees.  This may not sound warm to you, but when you've been much cooler than that for the last several months, it was a shock to the system. Out in the direct sun in that heat almost did me in.  I think the other ...

 I have a distant cousin on my dad's side who has been doing a lot of work on our family history.  I was lucky to connect with him at the Norgaard family reunion in South Dakota a couple years ago.  He has started an email chain so the cousins can learn more about each other and as part of that he has been sharing family photos and stories.  He has even written a book about the Norgaard clan. Not everyone gets to know exactly where they came from in Europe.  This is the Norgaard farm in Aalborg, Denmark. I actually had the opportunity to visit this farm.  My parents visited us in Germany in the early 1990s and Jillian and I accompanied them to Denmark on a family history trip. In Aalborg we found the local church and my dad had photos of this farm.  The pastor knew exactly where it was and actually drove us to the location.  On a side note, the pastor looked our family up in the church's history books and looked shocked when he discovered our fami...

Recently I've been organizing photos on my computer so this week's Skywatch post is a throwback to 2009 when we visited Australia. Let me just say, if I had to choose another nationality Australian would be a definite top candidate.  The people were so friendly.  I still can't believe I got to go into the Sydney Opera House.  It's one of the most recognizable and beautiful structures in the world. It was surreal being there. We also suited up for the walk over the Sydney Harbor Bridge.  No photos were allowed because you're not allowed to carry anything with you in fear that it may fall below.  At one point I thought I was going to have to carry Irv, but that's a story for another day. It's so beautiful, isn't it?  Hard to imagine that we were on the very top of that arch.  I loved it. Beautiful downtown Sydney. Just look at that seafood!  I think we may need another trip down under just to get a tray of seafood like that!  This is my daughte...

You would think that Colorado is big on recycling, right?  After all we're a community of people who love the outdoors and value the environment, right?  We are more of  a blue state rather than a red state (thank God) so you would think recycling is just second nature. Here in our county recycling is not very easy.  We've gone through multiple trash companies who started off picking up recycling every week only to abruptly quit.  We've hauled it to various collection sites only to have them stop operations or start charging a fee.  For a while we hauled it to our county collection site, but they decided to only accept paper. Recently though we discovered that a little town to the south of us accepts recyclable items for free. It's staffed by the nicest group of volunteers and they've made it very easy to drop off your items in the designated bins. Of course, we're still hauling it there, but I feel like we're doing a little good for the environment.  ...

On Sunday I made the drive up north to another county's fairgrounds for the first in person 4-H horse judging contest since 2019 (not including the 2020 national competition in January 2020 before all hell broke loose in this world). It was both a beautiful day and a day filled with grief.   A friend and fellow coach from Boulder County passed away on Saturday after being ill for several months.  She was a long time Colorado 4-H volunteer who was the heart and soul of the state's horse judging program.  She was not only a great coach, but she was a lovely person, my mentor, and someone I was proud to call friend.  Her and I spent many days together while she announced a contest and I tabulated.  My world is not the same knowing that I can't reach out to her for advice anymore.  I've tried to be like my friend by continuing my volunteer role with 4-H for many years after my youngest aged out of the program.  I still have about 20 years to go to cat...

 Last week we packed up and headed to Oklahoma to visit my brothers and sister-in-law. Both cats really begged to come along, but you know Irv, he always says no. Tulsa has recently opened up some of visiting rules for residents of care facilities.  I had been waiting for this day to come for a very long time.  It had been over a year since I had seen my brothers.  I made him some new masks that will hopefully stay over his mouth and nose better (if he doesn't put them on upside down anyway). My masks have progressed tremendously over the last year.  This most recent version covers from the under the eyes to the chin, has a nose wire, and most importantly it has three layers.  Two layers of cloth with a thick interfacing layer on the inside.  The interfacing layer acts as a filter.  After all, what good is a mask that doesn't keep particles from reaching your nose and mouth?  If you've received one of these masks from me and are wondering why...

 I started a new painting a couple months ago.  I tend to paint landscapes from various national parks, primarily Yellowstone, so this time I thought I'd paint something a little closer to home and actually do a Colorado painting. This is the Garden of the Gods from my favorite view point in the park.  You have to hike the Palmer Trail to get up here.  I thought it might be fun to show you how a painting progresses. Step one is the sketch and the underpainting.  I take my photo and mark a grid on it then I pencil in a matching grid on the canvas (you can barely see the lines above).  Then using that grid I use raw umber paint to sketch the outline of the main features. After the under painting dries I added color to the big areas of the painting mainly the grass and sky. Then I started adding color to those big red rocks.  This can be a little tricky.  You might think it's just various shades of red, but the sky reflects off those rocks so there i...