DW Fiber Farm

This blog

2011-11-18T15:43:00.002-07:00

I am at a loss of exactly what to do. I am going to discontinue my amigo.net email address. That happens to be the name this blog is under.

I have gone in & tried to change it, but I'm told that I cannot change it as that is its "name". I think I changed my contact information.............will double check that. Anyway I don't know if I can continue to get into here once I cancel amigo or not...............

If anyone knows anything about this, please feel free to contact me at:

wcouzenssmith@gmail.com

I will keep trying to figure it out & see what I can do. Maybe I can get in here forever & the corgimom is my "login"...............??? BUT if I disappear at some point that's what happened & I will have to start all over (perish the thought).

November

2011-11-18T15:38:00.002-07:00

November is the best and worst month. It is good because it is my birthday month. It is good because my sister and my daughter were born this month.

But there are many sad things about November.

Although my daughter didn't die until December 2nd, November still holds memories of her. She was born just before Thanksgiving & died just after.

My father died two days after Thanksgiving in 2005.

My husband died today, 11/18 in 2008.

My mother died 11/3, 3 days before my birthday in 2009.

But I do praise God that He is in all of this & He brings healing & love.

November might be sad............but it is good..........a month of Thanksgiving for what I do have, for where I have been and where He is leading me.

Cabin pictures

2011-09-14T17:27:00.002-06:00

My bedroom.......................lots more pictures, but no need to post all of them.

Cabin pictures

2011-09-14T17:26:00.002-06:00

Headed upstairs.........................

cabin pictures

2011-09-14T17:25:00.002-06:00

Picture of the south side of the living room.

Cabin Pictures

2011-09-14T17:23:00.001-06:00

Here is a picture of the Pellet Stove.

Fixing things around the Farm

2011-08-29T21:08:00.004-06:00

August has been an interesting month. I had a friend ask if I needed a "hired man" around some. We had a email discussion about the possibility. My friend, Greg, has a full time job but wants to get back on the farm a little. I grew up with two of his Aunts & know the family pretty well. Greg sold Dennis most all of his farm equipment.

It has been working out well so far. I'm getting caught up. Willie is helping Greg and Greg can give Willie guidance, direction & work well. Greg has helped re-stack some hay & then load hay that I sold on the trailer. He has helped work on removing much of the metal fencing and putting portions back up. He has helped with Dennis' raised beds in his garden. When Dennis put the raised beds in, he put down the wrong kind of barrier in the rows where you walk. Grass has been awful & continually we have had to dig out the grass to use the garden. This year it was too much for me to even start to deal with. The raised beds were full of grass, thistle, & white top. The raised beds are now gone. I'm working on killing the Canadian Thistle & getting rid of the grass. We will see where things go from here as far as a garden next year.

Greg has been a tremendous help with the physical things. He is also pretty good working with Willie (when Willie works). It actually makes me feel like I have accomplished some major items this August. I'm still working on spraying for thistle. We did not do this in the past due to the sensitivity of the alpacas to various poisons. But now I really need to work on getting rid of the stuff. It is awful.

I've about sold all the first cutting from my hay. My cabin is almost done up at Hermit Lakes. So far so good!! I can smell fall in the air.

Fixing things around the house

2011-08-01T16:40:00.002-06:00

Willie has been using my Grandfather & Grandmother's bedroom set. It was probably made in say the 30's or 40's. It is a nice set & he has been using it since we moved here. Well two days ago he broke a slat that goes below the box springs. Finally last night I did some measuring, how long a piece, how thick, how wide...........then out to my barn I go to see if I have a piece anywhere close to what is needed.

I could find no piece of wood 5/8 inches thick. This morning I ask Burlin (who does the watering & all the farming for me) a little about it. He said they probably don't even make wood that thickness any more & to go with 3/4 inches. Sure enough I had quite a few pieces that thick.

So we tore apart his bed. I made him measure what was needed. Then out to the shop we went. He had to measure how long & we used the saw to cut the wood. It was a bit wider than the old pieces, but with his weight gain, wide is good for support.

Now he has 4 nice big slats below his box springs & hopefully the bed will hold up a while longer. Now for other projects that need to be done!!

Cabin

2011-07-31T16:22:00.003-06:00

The cabin is coming along very well. Here is a picture of the living room/dining room ceiling. Oh yes, I know that looking at a ceiling should be boring...........but I think it is beautiful.

Llama & Rabbits

2011-07-27T07:52:00.002-06:00

On Saturday a friend came over to pick up Wilson, the llama. He wasn't real sure what he thought about everything, but did get in the trailer a whole lot easier than any of the alpacas did. I know he will be very happy where he is going as he will have a lot of new alpaca friends & a llama friend or two.

Yesterday I worked on the rabbits & their cages. They are cleaned up & ready to move out also. I decided that if I want to do rabbits again I know where I can get some. When Dennis wanted rabbits back in 2005 I said, fine, but they are yours..........I've done rabbits & do not want to do them again. Well, then I ended up with them. I've actually switched one out since he died. But they will go to a great home also. Hopefully that will happen on Friday.

That will leave the 3 corgis & my barn cat. I think I am enjoying downsizing..............it is in many ways a relief to have less to worry about.

Alpacas

2011-07-25T13:04:00.002-06:00

Last Wednesday we took the alpacas to a place north of Flagstaff. The donor program is run by Christians. They will work with the alpacas & place them with the appropriate person or family. I am encouraged and impressed by what I saw there. It took 3 trailers to get them there and it was for sure a long trip. But it was accomplished. Very long & tiring 2 days.

I am missing them some & look for them still when I go out. I also find myself grieving again for Dennis. The alpacas were his in the sense of he is who wanted them, picked many of them & helped deliver some of the cria. He is the one that took the classes. I learned all I could on line, but he was more of the hands on.

In many ways I am sorry to see them gone, but in many other ways it is a relief to not have them any more. Very mixed feelings....................

A Cabin

2011-07-04T13:18:00.006-06:00

One of the things that Dennis had on his "to do" list was to build a cabin at Hermit lakes. So I decided last fall that this would be the thing to do. The cabin will be finished in a month. I have found a friend at church who builds cabins & he is doing a wonderful job. I'm excited about being able to go away from home for more than 8 hours without finding someone to feed animals or whatever!!! This is the outside................................so so looking forward to it.

The Farm

2011-07-04T13:14:00.002-06:00

As I stated in my previous post, the last 8 months have been something else. Due to all that has been going on and the economy I knew I needed to downsize with the alpacas. Then during shearing time I also had a broken ankle. Luckily not a serious break, but still broken & in a boot. I got hit in the jaw by one of the alpaca boys & decided that I seriously needed to make some changes. I have managed to find a place to donate the alpacas to & they will end up with people in the Navajo nation.

I have a special spot in my heart for the Navajo people due to my Aunt & Uncle being missionaries to them for many many years. So I feel good about this. They are still with me at this point, but hopefully we will be moving them in about 2 or 3 weeks. In many ways it will be a relief to have one less grouping to worry about & that ties me down. I will miss them though.

Time

2011-07-04T13:09:00.002-06:00

Seems like time flies............it has been a truly crazy 8 months. I'll work on a couple of posts to catch things up.

Family life. Willie & I have been having quite a few issues. But we have discovered that Willie is now diagnosed as bipolar and that has truly been much of the issue. He still does not feel that he is. But his symptoms are much like bipolar 1. A psych nurse counselor that I went to see a while back indicated that due to his epilepsy and all the seizures he has had in the past.........some of the problem could be damage from those. So no matter the diagnosis, if the medication helps that is what we go with.

I am working toward getting Willie counseling & hopefully vocational rehab, then perhaps a job & a group home & onward to his own apartment. It is slow going, but some progress is being made. He is better than he was a year ago. So I would ask for your continued prayers in the upcoming months.

Busy Fall

2010-11-21T20:50:00.003-07:00

What a busy month November has been. It isn't an easy month to begin with. I turned 60 this month. My mother died a year ago this month. Dennis died 2 years ago this month. My father died 5 years ago this month. Besides all the emotional stuff to deal with.............well I did get a fair amount accomplished.

The entire block that my parent's owned in Center is finally on the market. I managed to get everything cleaned up & ready to go. Mom & Dad's house has been on the market for about 3 months. I feel like I'm finally getting some progress done & a big weight off my shoulders. I still have much to do with Dennis estate............well, not the estate as such, but moreover items of his that I want to give to his children.

In the meantime, here on the farm, the second loafing shed is done. My barn has new electrical wiring. The fencing around the new sheds is done. My wood room has been cleaned up & rearranged and I have two more cords of wood ready to burn. Oh, I had a professional chimney sweep come & discovered problems with the chimney. They are now fixed. I have gotten a lot accomplished that needed to be done. I'm looking forward to December & a new year beyond that.

Felting Class

2010-11-13T14:25:00.002-07:00

On Friday the 26th of Nov. we will start at 10 am (that gives Lois time enough to come over from Ignacio that morning) and do scarves. I only have two people signed up at this time due to scheduling conflicts, so I can add one or two more if we find more interested.

On Saturday the 27th of Nov. we will start at 9:30 am to do the vases. I have 3 people signed up to do vases. We could potentially add one more to this class if someone else shows interest.

Anyone else interested? Please email me. Felting is so much fun.

Fall

2010-10-10T08:34:00.002-06:00

As I said in my previous post fall has been busy.

I've had the workers that made the loafing shed tear down another old one & put up another new one. I'm very happy with their work. So I ask them to do a lot of handyman jobs that have needed done, some for years. They are going to start on that next.

I'm having the barn rewired. There are pictures in a book about Monte Vista, of the barn supposedly taken in 1887, so it is old. The old wiring frightens me as I know the barn could burn very quickly. So another project.

The two big ones I need to work on are Dennis' items from his parents farm in Spokane. I need a list for Dennis' children and working on Mom & Dad's paperwork items. Those are both priorities. Helping Mom & then her death messed up me finishing up Dennis stuff. So I need to restart this.

The hay is put up & I 'm almost ready for winter!!

Rusty

2010-10-10T08:29:00.002-06:00

September came & September went..................busy busy.

Rusty is adjusting well. He still sleeps in his crate at night & sleeps quietly. He KNOWS that this is what is expected of him. So far he has done well in the house. He & Jamie are crated during part of the day depending on what I'm doing, etc. He is getting along very well with both girls, which is great. He knows the "plan" of the day & what we do that he is involved with.

When I go out to feed the alpacas & rabbits all the corgis usually come along. He joins in well with eating some alpaca food and eating rabbit poop. He feels the rabbit item is a special treat. So far he doesn't seem interested in the cat, where as Jamie is chasing Princess every time she sets eyes on her.

Malen is slowing down, I can see it more and more. She is still my sweetheart and I love her dearly.

My Feral Cat

2010-08-27T21:31:00.002-06:00

We had a cat adopt up last winter. After a period of time of seeing it around I finally started feeding it once a day along in the late Winter or early Spring. I figured if I fed it enough to keep it around then the mouse population would be kept down. But I knew that sooner or later I needed to have it fixed so there would not be a large cat population....................................Usually I only see her in the evening but this morning I found her in the morning. She has always been somewhat friendly letting me pet her a little & purring .........so I had wondered if she was dumped. Who knows.

Anyway today I caught her & put her in a crate & took her to the vet so there would be no little kittens around. They had a lot of problems at the vet office today, so I got a call at 8:30 wondering if there was any chance that the cat had already been spayed.................. apparently I am going to pay for a spayed cat to be respayed...........!!! They could not find any suture line anywhere, but then again, as the vet said ............ if you do a good job there will not be a noticeable scar.!!! Poor kitty. (Poor $$$ me) : )

Rusty

2010-08-26T14:37:00.003-06:00

Introducing Rusty. I know, I know, I must be crazy adding another corgi and a male at that. Dennis did not like male dogs at all. But I decided to do it. Do I need to explain why??? Well, let me say that Malen is 11 1/2 now, Jamie just turned 9. They are getting older & will not be around for a whole lot longer. I found this guy via petfinder. He was with a corgi rescue person in Santa Fe. He actually comes from Missouri & is from a puppy mill. Rusty turned 4 in April. He is also heartworm positive and has been being treated for heartworm. I wasn't suppose to get him until the middle of September..........but things panned out differently & Willie & I picked him up last Friday. We are working on house training & he is doing very well. The only issue so far is that he doesn't like being crated at night............but I don't want pee in the house during the night. So we are working on that. He makes a lot of noise at night wanting to get out. Hopefully he will continue to do well so he can join Malen & Jamie at night. He is a tri instead of a sable in coloring. He really is a sweetheart. He & Jamie are having fun together. Petfinder info said he didn't bark................I guess he didn't need to since there were so many corgis at this home. But he found his voice here. Luckily he doesn't bark near as much as Jamie and the pitch of his bark is lower, which is helpful for my ears............Jamie's bark is painful. Malen accepts him well so that is good also!!

Auction

2010-08-17T07:18:00.002-06:00

Yesterday we had the auction for all the "stuff" in my parents home and also at Center Motor, the Ford dealership that my father had for many years. It was a sad day in many ways..........but it was also such a relief for me. The "garage" has been on my shoulders mentally & physically for over 4 1/2 years. It has been a burden & not a light one at that.

But it is all done now. The house was full & bulging with stuff. I do not know how many trips to the dump my sister & her husband made, but I would guess 3 or 4. Plus the 4 of us divided up what we wanted and removed it. There was still a house full of "stuff". I do mean a house full. My pastor amongst a number of other people came & helped move everything out. He asked where in the world all the stuff came from. He couldn't believe we got that much out of the house. It inspires me to toss & clean...................after I rest & recover from Monday & the previously weeks.

6 Years

2010-08-08T21:16:00.003-06:00

I was going to post last Sunday evening, but got too busy doing other things. It is amazing to think that it has been 6 years, last Sunday since Willie & I made it to Colorado to live here. Dennis followed 3 weeks later. The years have flown...................so many changes. In the last 6 years I have lost my father, my husband and my mother. It has been a learning process and a painful process. I miss each of them very much. But I also put my trust in God as he guides and directs me daily. I pray that I stay in His will, listening to Him.

As far as other news, we are set for an auction at my parents home & at my Dad's Ford dealership on August 16th. As we (my siblings & I) have worked through all of these items this summer my stress level has fallen. I know once I make it through one more week, my stress level will have gone down a lot more. I have one rental house sold. There are people interested in my parents home and potentially one more rental. It has been hard to deal with all the stress over the past 4 1/2 years and there is still some hanging around...........but it is becoming so much better. I feel there is truly light at the end of the tunnel somewhere soon down the road!!!

Loafing Shed

2010-07-24T14:26:00.002-06:00

This is our new loafing shed. It is almost done. The wind did a major job (bad damage) on the previous one. This one is about 20 feet shorter than the other one. But it is just what I need right now.

I'm thinking about replacing another loafing shed. It is ready to fall apart. If it falls apart it will damage two trailers and the baler.............so I need to work on it next (not personally you understand).

Seeing the Surgeon

2010-07-20T18:28:00.002-06:00

Today I made the trip to Santa Fe to see the surgeon. He says the suture line looks wonderful. He took out the tiny stitches (he used very find stitching material) and covered it with steri-strips. NO CANCER everything was benign (praise God). Now I have labs to get in about 3 weeks & then an ultrasound & labs in 6 months. He feels everything should settle down well and that the left thyroid should take over just fine.

2010-07-17T18:37:00.003-06:00

I have been remiss getting anything posted. So much going on.

First a "me" update. The GYN Dr. referred me to a surgeon. I managed to get a copy of my thyroid ultrasound to discover I had 4 nodules. 3 on my right thyroid & 1 on my left thyroid. I was given some names of surgeons in Santa Fe for a consult. I had my consult early in July and was given 3 options. One was a needle biopsy of one nodule.................. surgery to remove the right side, do a biopsy of the left nodule at that time & if cancer found remove all.........or to see an endocrinologist. I picked surgery.

In the meantime we had plans to get together as a family to go through the rest of my parent's items at their house & prepare for an auction. Plus I still had my Dad's Ford dealership with parts to find a new home for.

So things got quite hectic. We got rid of parts & cleaned up that area of the dealership. My siblings & I got together portions of the week of July 5th & went through Mom & Dad's house. We worked on dividing things up & packing things into boxes. We met with the auctioneers. Then on July 14th I had my right thyroid removed in Santa Fe. My sister who is a nurse was with me as was my brother & son. We spent the night after the surgery in Santa Fe (not allowed to leave in case there were complications). The surgery went well & so far there was no cancer found. I have a follow up appointment this coming week & hopefully all the pathology will be back.

In the meantime again we are still working on my parent's house & the garage for the auction. The date is set for August 16th for both auctions. What an absolute relief it will be to have this finished. There will still be a lot to do but nothing like before.

I am feeling well. My suture line is a little sore, but not bad. The first night was the worst due to the anti nausea medication not working. But when I got the correct medication I did quite well. So I am on my way to recovery.

I must add that I am pleased that my siblings and I have been able to do such a good job of working together at my parent's home. I have a wonderful group of siblings (& their spouses), I am proud to say that they are all great.

In the meantime there are other things to do "around the farm".

Getting Old

2010-06-16T10:45:00.003-06:00

Yesterday I had an ultrasound of my thyroid because my Dr. found a nodule there. All the labs are good. I'll hear about the ultrasound either today or tomorrow.........then onward. I've done a fair amount of reading & suspect that a fine needle aspiration/biopsy is next. My friend Margaret says they just keep removing parts of my body & sooner or later it will all be gone!! : )

I said that was ok & gives me less to worry about further down the road.

So I'm hoping & praying that it will be benign & I will not have to worry about surgery this time!!

Old Friends

2010-06-14T22:29:00.002-06:00

Tonight I received a call from an old friend, Cliff. Cliff & Virgie moved to Santa Fe in about 1974 & lived close to where John & I lived on the north edge of town. They were members of our church & we had a close relationship with them. Virgie died in about 1985 or so. I've kept in touch with Cliff over the years. We had such a good visit tonight. It has been ages since we have talked on the phone. Cliff turned 93 years old in November (we celebrate our birthday's the same month too). He is doing fairly well physically & excellent mentally. He is now living in what sounds like almost assisted living, he calls it a retirement home. He talked about his faith & his new found sanctification that he had never understood before. It was a really good visit. Now I need to keep in touch with him.

Shearing

2010-06-13T13:33:00.002-06:00

Well, all my alpaca are sheared and we are working on friend's alpacas. It feels so good to have mine done. We have a new shearer who usually shears sheep. He will probably be our shearer from here on out. It is times like these when I miss Dennis even more....................

I've had work done on the barn so it will not get near as much snow in it and also will a little more weather tight............had to make it weather tight when there are at least 1/2 inch cracks between boards..............then again it was built before 1887, so a few cracks here & there are not surprising. I had a porch built off my back door on the North side. I'm not going to break up ice off the north porch in the winter any more with a pick. I was really tired of that last year.

In the meantime I cannot remember if I posted about my loafing shed being pretty much destroyed by the wind. I need to have it torn down & replaced. More to do more to do more to do.....all in time.

Otherwise things are going fairly well.......just busy.

Wind & more wind

2010-05-22T21:28:00.002-06:00

Well, we have finally had some beautiful days..........still cool at night. Then along came today. Once again the winds have gotten up around 50 mph. Willie & I were gone this afternoon & when we returned I have quite a few problems to deal with.

The smallest one is, the top off the well house that Dennis made has blown off. It is quite heavy, so it didn't blow far........but it will take both of us to get it back on the well house & tied down.

The next one is the tin roof on the barn. I'm having some people to come work on it sometime within the next week or two. I had planned on them working on it to repair the holes, but now part of it seems to be trying to fly off...........not good. I hope it stays up there until I can have it fixed.

The last & worst problem is about 1/3 of the male alpaca loafing shed has fallen in. Not good. Luckily no alpaca were in that part of the area (praise God), but they are in the area tonight. I know it is really old & now I know how much work it needs............a lot. That was totally unexpected.

I hope the winds die down tomorrow, but I think it is suppose to blow all weekend. The only positive thing is that it is warm. I think we got up to 75 this afternoon!!!

lots of things to do though, the garden, the flowers, the lawn...........the field........on and on.

Spring headed to Summer

2010-05-07T22:17:00.002-06:00

Well, perhaps the snake situation is better. I took 4 of them & drove them about 10 miles away about 3 weeks ago. Then Jamie decided that she needed to deal with them the same way she deals with mice. So she actually killed two of them. Now I just need to hope & pray that we never see a rattler as I'm sure she would go after it also.............which would not be good. No more snakes in the house that I have found. I'm extremely happy about that!!

Today I actually got the lawn mower out & mowed the back yard. Due to the snow & how it melts slower in the back yard, the north area gets green & long. So today I mowed. The front yard needs water, so Willie got the hoses out for me & tomorrow I need to get some water going.

We've had some wild wind lately, but at least it has finally warmed up & is running between 65 & 70 during the day. Summer is coming!!

Spring in the Valley

2010-04-05T22:25:00.004-06:00

Spring has for sure arrived ---------- which means the wind is blowing & blowing. It has been blowing off & on for about a week now. But it has blown without stopping for the last 36 hours. I'm really tired of the wind.

Last week I decided we needed to get the hay in the hay shed. The last of it was covered with an extremely long tarp that had been pulled back & over & around. So Friday I had Willie get out & help me remove the tarp & move hay. Such fun. Between Friday morning & Saturday morning we moved 70 bales of hay. Luckily I used the pickup. Unluckily the battery was dead on the pickup. Luckily I know how to use the battery charger & got it working again. Luckily also the tarp was tied down to the back of the stack of hay pretty well. We left the tarp out Friday afternoon & night. Saturday morning we moved the tarp into the garage. Someday soon, when the wind stops blowing we will get it folded up. That is a challenge in & of itself to start with. Then moving it back in will be the next challenge...........but we did it last year, so it will happen this year.

The paw prints in the snow I do believe belong to a cat. A cat ran out of the hay barn last Friday morning..............so I think we now have a cat, we just don't see much of it. I'm leaving out a little cat food every day, but not much. I still want the mice caught if at all possible.

One more snake in the house last week. It was trying to climb up the side part of the new blinds that is attached to the frame of the window. I've had some problems with the side part & the white plastic come off the glue that is stuck to the magnetic strip. So this snake is trying to climb up the glued magnetic strip!!! What fun that was pulling the snake off the glue............ at least maybe he has learned something & will not return!!

I'm off to bed, the wind is now blowing at 36 mph from the south west. It is a balmy 48 degrees outside (nice, really nice for 10:30 at night). But be aware that there is still 2 feet of snow on the north side of the house.............it's about 2 feet high, by 4 feet wide by the length of the house. I'm hoping it will melt before May!!!

Paw prints in the snow

2010-03-21T19:48:00.003-06:00

Well it was interesting when I went out on Saturday to feed the animals & start shoveling snow. There were paw prints in various places. I saw them around the barn, in the front area, near the hay stack...........but I couldn't tell what kind of prints they were. The debate was between a fox, a skunk, a cat or a dog. They were not big enough for a dog & there are no loose small dogs in the area. I haven't seen a cat around here for about a month. The skunk & fox I have seen in the last week.....................so I'm thinking a fox.

Wish I knew. I saw the fox this morning. so pretty. I know that there will be baby foxes sometime soon this Spring & hope they do ok.

My special son

2010-03-19T18:44:00.002-06:00

Well, I wanted to give a quick update on my new son. I do not like to post a lot of specifics sometimes because you just never know who is reading, etc. But I will say his name is Chinsinsi. We have been "catching up" on so many things. Plus because he was only 6 or so when I first started being his sponsor there were things that I didn't tell him about me, or perhaps I told him & he forgot. It has been a long time. Plus there were so many years that we were not in touch.

It has been a wonderful time of getting to know him & his family again. I'm continually praising God for his goodness and am so thankful for being able to be in touch with him again.

Spring Snow

2010-03-19T18:39:00.003-06:00

Well here it is almost Spring...................The snow was entirely melted off of the back yard & most of the field this morning. About 11 am the snow started, the wind blew & the snow hasn't quit. Luckily the wind has!! In some spots I have about 30 inches of snow & in other spots only about 1 inch. We'll see what we end up with by tomorrow morning. Tomorrow is my fiber meeting in the afternoon, so we'll see how many people are able to make it out.

The cap was blown off the top of the pipe coming up from my wood stove pipe this afternoon............ so I need to get that fixed tomorrow or Monday. Such fun. An well, another day another adventure.

Amazing Happenings

2010-03-13T17:21:00.003-07:00

Way back in about 1985 my first husband John, & I decided to sponsor a little boy through our churches missionary effort. He was a pastor's son in Africa through the Nazarene Missionary sponsorship program. When Dennis died in 1987 I chose to continue to sponsor this young man. He was 7 years old then. I continued through his high school experience. I cannot remember for sure the last time I heard from him, but I think the sponsorship continued until around 18 & then I received a letter later. We wrote letters back & forth all through his schooling. All communication was through the World Mission office & that was the only way to reach him.

This morning I received a major surprise. I had a facebook message asking me to accept this young man as a friend!! What a shock. He found me. I've also found where he tried to reach me via Skype. It was a "thrilling morning" to be able to respond to him via facebook & say "YES" I am your friend & I am who you are looking for. It was wonderful to hear back from him.

I have found another "son" of mine. He is married & has a son himself. He is a pastor & is also working at one of the theological colleges in Africa. I am so thrilled by all of this. Technology has truly changed the world in a very short time. God is good.

Spring & Snakes

2010-03-13T17:17:00.002-07:00

Well, all week I have been trying to catch up. Still not there-----------but I can smell Spring in the air. This week is the Sand Hill Crane Festival. I do enjoy it so much. The cranes have been flying overhead for a couple of weeks now.

On the negative side I have once again found snakes in the house...........or perhaps the same snake twice, I don't know. Luckily (praise God) they are water snakes BUT I still do NOT like finding snakes in the house. They were both about 2 feet long. The first one I threw in the mud out the back door. About 2 hours later I found the second one...........they were both up on the landing one in the bathroom & one in the hallway outside the bathroom. The second one hit the snowbank next to the mud. Perhaps he or she got the correct idea that I do NOT like snakes in the house. We'll see. I still have a hole in the wall where the water pipes froze behind the drier. I have a man coming next week to hopefully fix it. I'm wondering if that is where they came in. I hope so because if I get it fixed then they will not appear again!! We'll see.

Snow

2010-01-22T11:51:00.002-07:00

It's days like this that Dennis is foremost on my mind. FOURTEEN INCHES, yes that is 14 inches of snow since yesterday at noon. Dennis would have loved it. He loved the snow & he especially LOVED being able to move the snow.........clean up the driveway.........work on the road out front........go over to Freda's & do her yard. He would get the ATV out with the plow on it & off he would go. He loved every minute of it. Well, today he would have loved even more because he would have had to have used the TRACTOR with the BUCKET on it.

There is toooooooo much snow to even try & use the ATV. I got the battery charged up & off I went. Well, I ended up getting the ATV stuck at least 3 times. Luckily I was able to get it out each time. Personally I prefer to look at the snow from inside the house!! I like to keep the fire going & watch................but not today.

Willie & I have plowed out by hand with the snow shovels all the way to the girls shed & then both the other sheds where the boys are. In fact it was most interesting when I was shoveling to the girls. Cinnabun finally started out to meet me. She walked almost halfway to the gate through the snow plowing her own path. I guess they were most anxious for me to get there & feed them!!!

Snakes & Snow

2010-01-21T16:30:00.003-07:00

Well, I'll cover the Snakes subject first. There are a lot of water snakes around here in the Spring, Summer & Fall. Typically I pick them up & throw them across the road. Sometimes our Youth Pastor, Josh drops in & picks up a couple for his aquarium/terrarium. Well Tuesday evening we brought in a lot of wood to totally fill the wood box. About 8 pm I went to fill the fire & turned around -------- there in front of the fire was a SNAKE!! Quite a shock, especially since it was about 6 inches long & thinner than a pencil. Big head though. Yup, it looked like one of the water snakes. I was not happy about finding a snake inside the house in the dead of winter!!! I picked it up & tossed it outside. The weather took care of it by morning.

Snow, snow, snow.................we've not had a lot of snow here in the ground this winter. I think the most was about 2 inches & it melted. We did have a sideways snowstorm one night (with major wind). Who knows how much we had then since it was headed to Kansas. Today the second storm from California made it here. Started snowing at noon. Hasn't stopped. I haven't seen Monte since about 1 pm & usually I can look out the north window & see Monte day or night as it is only 4 miles away. Maybe about 3/4 an inch on the ground now.

I have alpaca friends who live over the pass to the west near Ignacio. They had 10 or so inches on Tuesday. I just called them & they have another 10 or 12 or 14 inches. Hard to say exactly how much. Wolf Creek, the pass to the west is being closed now due to the snow.

Bob, my hay man was suppose to come tomorrow & get two loads of hay........I emailed him last night & ask if he had happened to look at the weather as it was suppose to start snowing here this evening & snow through Friday. So I'm keeping in touch with him, but do not anticipate seeing him before Saturday at the earliest. I'm glad I'm in my house warm & cozy.

Happy New Year

2010-01-04T16:46:00.002-07:00

Well, here it is 2010 & I haven't posted in over 6 weeks!! I've thought about it, but everything has been crazy. So I'll do some quick updates.

My Mother's memorial service went very well. It was good to see so many relatives and be able to visit with everyone.

I had another felting workshop with Lois. It was great once again. Poor Lois didn't make it home Saturday evening as they closed Wolf Creek Pass & she had to stay an extra night. But we had fun.

On a sad note the weekend of the felting workshop Firecracker got sick. We managed to get him in the back of my Edge & to the vets. He died early Sunday morning. On the necropsy they found he had a large abscess outside his stomach and a number of small ulcers starting. So he apparently had an ulcer that abscessed through. Not a lot of hope with that. Plus he didn't show symptoms until the end. This is typical of alpaca.

In the meantime we have been trying to change out some of Willie's seizure medications due to side effects that I have been trying to ignore. The first switch did not go well at all. I'm hoping to get him up to Denver to see what we can work on next. Prayers in that aspect of life please.

Christmas was good. After Christmas my siblings & I got together to work through items at Mom & Dad's house. We didn't have near long enough, but got a good start on doing things. I had read 2 or 3 books about how to do things & how everyone turns out to be awful. BUT in our case we devised our own way of picking (thanks Jim) and had wonderful time. I could spend hours telling you how wonderful my siblings are..............but I won't take the time. We worked well together & had a great visit on top of everything. Mom & Dad raised good kids!!

Now it is on to the New Year. I'm truly going to try and post more & post more pictures.

Onward we go.

One Year

2009-11-18T21:31:00.005-07:00

It's been a year, a year since Dennis passed away. A year of learning, growing, grieving and just being. It certainly hasn't been an easy year. I have missed him terribly. I think about how he would have done this or that differently than I have done it. Or just things that he could have done around here that I cannot do. He was a big presence.

I'm thankful for friends and relatives who have been so helpful over the past year. It is interesting those who have remembered the day & mentioned it or sent a card. Those who perhaps remembered but didn't mention it..............and those who have no clue when it happened beyond the fact that it was in November.

Thank you to all my relatives & friends who care & who have helped over the past year. Praise God that He is with me & guiding me daily.

Busy busy

2009-11-05T09:34:00.003-07:00

I know, it has been a month since I have written anything. It has been a very busy month.

We had our first snow. It was beautiful, but I'm glad it melted.
Willie totaled his car a week ago. Luckily he was ok as were the people in the car that he hit (or that hit him, although he got the ticket).

Mom was growing weaker & losing a lot of weight over the past month. Last week was much worse. She passed away early Tuesday morning. My sister from Gunnison came over Monday night & we spent the night with Mom. The funeral plans are not final yet but we are looking at Thanksgiving time.

Hopefully within the next month I will be able to post on a more regular basis.

Mice again

2009-10-07T14:16:00.003-06:00

I have found the answer to the "mice" issue. A friend told me to get a live trap so they are trapped live. I wasn't much interested because then I would have to kill the mouse (strange isn't it when I'm still killing it with a trap). Then my mind cleared & I got the answer. I went to Co-op & looked at their live traps..............I found one -- Havahart ex-small traps with 2 doors!! I bought two and tried one out the first night. A FROZEN mouse!! That worked.

Last night I tried both traps. TWO MICE, one alive & the other well, perhaps frozen, at least it was dead. I took the traps out in front of the house & brought out Jamie & Malen. Jamie handled the first one just fine. She doesn't eat it, just takes care of killing it. Malen's was already dead, but she got the feel.

So redo the traps this afternoon & I'm sure I'll have two more every night until all of them are gone (and then put them out again when they repopulate & return).

I really like these traps & am very thankful that Jamie & Malen will take care of the rest of the problem for me.

Felting

2009-10-02T21:13:00.002-06:00

Last weekend we had a felting workshop. On Friday a number of us made felted hats out of alpaca fiber. On Saturday we made felted scarves out of alpaca fiber & other items. It was a great time. I have pictures but of course have not downloaded them. I will work toward that later down the road. Tomorrow we are going to the Taos Wool Festival. I missed last year because I had a sore throat & was having surgery the following Monday. BUT I'm headed there tomorow.

Fall

2009-10-02T20:55:00.003-06:00

Well, it seems like forever since I posted anything. Somehow I need to make it short & sweet to cover everything!!

The mice are about the same. The glue paper doesn't work worth anything. One fell into the 4 way sweet mix, which is usually closed but somehow it was open enough that one fell in. That same day I caught one in a trap. So I threw the one out of the sweet mix & Jamie took care of that one.

Mom is doing better mentally this week, less confused. But last week a CNA left her alone in the bathroom (a big no no) and she tired of waiting, got up & promptly fell. She broke her scapula. I was extremely upset & emailed the administrator, director of nursing & regional director that night (before I knew anything was broke). The next day she saw her Dr. & got x-rays. When we got the results I ended up spending about 30 minutes with the director, & the administrator came in during part of our discussion. The aide was suspended for 2 weeks & everything had to be reported to the state of CO. I did not make any requests as far as the aide, etc. the way it sounded to me I thought if the state allowed her to keep her certification they would keep her on. Well I found out today that they fired the aide. She called me to "apologize". I accepted her apology BUT she never did say: I left your mother alone in the bathroom & it is my fault that she fell & broke her scapula. She tried to pawn a portion of the situation off on another cna. BUT Mom is feeling better so that is the good part. It is frustrating that it happened though because there were 5 big time major indicators that Mom was high risk for a fall. Besides the fact that the cna had cared for Mom before at least twice and has listened to report every day & should have known. Anyway it was the strangest apology I've ever received.

Onward to the next problem. My roof. Now about 2 years ago I told Dennis that there were water marks on the spare bedroom ceiling & I was concerned that we had a roof leak. Later I found spots in the dining room. Dennis went into the attic & looked. He couldn't find a leak anywhere, did some talking around & decided we needed to put foam in the attic. Luckily he had not done it before he died. I had the person who repainted the house check everything out about a month ago & he felt for sure we had a leak or a number of leaks. The north side of the roof has 4 layers of shingles on it & then the tin roof. There is much too much weight AND there are places where the roof is kind of pushed in. Then my neighbor, who we bought the house from told me that the boards under the roof on the south side of the house were OSB. Well, if you put screws into OSB & tighten them, they strip the hole & will not keep the screws in. That explains why we cannot keep the metal roof tight to keep water out!!! Amazing isn't it!!! People do the strangest things. Anyway we are now in the midst of pulling up the metal roof, fixing what is below & making sure NOTHING will ever leak again.

It is cold every night & was 12 degrees last night. BURRRRRRRR. I'm not ready for winter, but it is coming, that's for sure!!!

Busy times

2009-09-08T20:28:00.002-06:00

Well, it seems like there is something going on continually.

Last Friday I was bit by a friends beagle. Actually it is her son's beagle. He had both his beagles at his mom's & they were tied up outside. I petted the female & she was so nice & friendly. I just lost my brain at that moment apparently. I went to pet the male & he was much more aggressive acting............well, I got a good dog bite on my right hand. So I ended up seeing the NP, having my hand soaked in stuff, getting 4 stitches (two on each side) very loosely put in and being put on an antibiotic. Luckily I'm improving. I am now also using my brain & setting the alarm on my cell phone to make sure I take my antibiotics.

I've set up a natural dyeing workshop for the fiber group. It's here on the 26th of the month in the afternoon. In the meantime people had been asking for a felting workshop. I've got that finalized now & it will be hat making on the 25th & scarf making the morning of the 26th. I think we will have a great time.

No 4th cria for sure. I've attempted to mate GG for next year, but do not think it took. The male is a little young. But I guess I'll know in about a year. I'm not going to mate any more of the girls though.

I'm trying to work on the file cabinet.............awful.......I hate paperwork. But I am making some progress.

The hollyhocks are finally blossoming. They are very pretty. Of course Dennis picked them out, double hollyhocks. He had planted them in front of our bedroom window. I decided this Spring that I wanted them in a different spot and want to do something different in front of our bedroom window. So I moved them & was quite surprised that they survived and are finally blossoming!! I also have 3 or 4 lemons on Dennis' lemon tree. Now that is amazing also as my thumb isn't green. Anyway they are quite green & still growing. I miss him.

My Mom appears somewhat better mentally. Sometimes it is hard to tell as she can cover up very well. I don't like to ask questions that appear to be checking on her mental status. She gets really ticked at me. So I attempt to go with the flow. In case I haven't shared it, my new philosophy with her is "validate do not irritate." That isn't always easy for me, but I'm learning.
My sister is coming tomorrow to spend a couple of days. We'll see what all we can get done! Fall is in the air, I can smell it.

Mice

2009-09-03T20:14:00.003-06:00

All Spring & Summer I have been fighting mice in the feed shed. It has been a challenge off & on. I had to buy some new mouse traps this summer, so I checked with the clerk at Big R as far as what she would recommend. So I have two different kinds. I have basically used sweet mix to entice them. BUT decided this summer I needed to expand my food for the traps. They tend to be able to get the sweet mix without setting off the trap.

So I tried cheese & I tried peanut butter. I found that apparently some mice are very lightweight, perhaps they fly. They can get all the peanut butter off without setting off the trap. Now I KNOW the trap works well as we will not mention how many times my thumb has suddenly been snapped when trying to get things set right. They work, I know they work. I've perhaps trapped & killed 10 mice this summer. I had one that got only one foot caught & I let him loose. BUT earlier this week I discovered a trap was missing. I looked & looked. I finally found it off in a corner..........it had a foot & part of a leg in it, but no mouse. SO IF you see a 3 legged mouse, please keep it.

Now yesterday I have another trap missing. I've looked everywhere in all the corners..........no where to be found. This is of course after finding all the other traps empty & no food left --- some of them still set & some of the traps have snapped with no results.

I really don't like mice all over the feed shed. They also are eating the hay ------- perhaps those are voles, who knows. I guess may be I need a cat, an outside cat. It would seem to me that the snakes would be eating the mice AND the foxes. Ah well.

Saturday

2009-08-22T21:32:00.004-06:00

I decided yesterday that Willie & I would take the afternoon off today. I have a friend in Alamosa who has started a knitting shop. She has been in at least two different stores (had a portion of them), but things were a challenge in the other stores. So she found her own area above a major store in Alamosa. Today was her grand opening of her very own store. I just decided I "had" to go & check things out. So we had lunch with a neighbor. Ran to see Mom (who was sleeping, so we saved that for later). Then headed to Alamosa. There were quite a few people checking out Kimberly's new stop. She has a lot of neat yarn & lots of knitting/spinning/crocheting/weaving books. Everything is always so tempting.

Anyway of course I "had" to buy some items. She also had two drawings & for every $5 spent your name was put in the drawing. I will not confess to what all I bought & how many times I was in the drawing. I WON the 4 pm drawing. I was absolutely thrilled. The above item was the "big" item for the win. Luckily Kimberly didn't buy the peacock color ----------- I got this knitting bag in "Hollywood Pink"!!! Plus there was a book, yarn, some brittany birch needles & some notions inside. I can really take my knitting stuff with me in style now.

I had also been having a sad day anyway. These days do not happen often, but do occur when Dennis is sorely missed more than normal. This helped brighten up my day.

Life Update

2009-08-19T13:43:00.003-06:00

Time is flying by so fast with so much going on.

My mother is still in the nursing home. I do not feel she will probably be able to return to her home and am not sure she will recover enough to make it to assisted living. She's having a lot of problems with her legs moving correctly & having enough strength. Of course it doesn't help not being able to walk that much in the nursing home. She doesn't have the strength to get up on her own & walk with the walker on her own without almost falling. So she doesn't get that much time being up practicing. Plus she is having a lot of confusion. So I do a lot of visiting & running to town to check on her.

"They" talk about global warming..............................we had our first frost August 9th. Not good. I lost some squash and some of my beans. We had another frost this week. All of this seems to be a little early for this area. It has been so cold at night that my second cutting of hay isn't doing well at all ---------- not good.

I thought I was expecting another alpaca cria. But in looking at Cookie I've decided that she isn't pregnant. I've also found out about her pregnancy last year. She had Travis. Well, I thought I bred her to Azugar & put Azugar in as Travis' Dad. Azugar was rejected by the DNA testing. I had them do other testing, etc. & it must be Hershey (still awaiting on the certificate). But the most interesting thing is I found my notes & I did breed Cookie to Azugar, twice. I then checked her against Hershey to see if she was pregnant or not (the girls typically spit & spit at the males if they are). He must have tried to mount her but didn't succeed as I put her down as spitting him off. Somehow he is the Dad!!! Anyway for this year, she must not have liked him either as that's who I bred her to last year & she sure doesn't look pregnant.

Life is so interesting.

Dennis' Flowers

2009-08-19T13:32:00.002-06:00

These are Asian Tiger Lilles. Dennis planted them a year or two ago, I cannot remember when exactly. But this is the first year they have blossomed at all. They are beautiful. I've had a number of neighbors mention how pretty they look. Summer is about over with and they are now starting to stop producing any blossoms.

Grace & Glory aka GG

2009-07-30T21:04:00.002-06:00

GG went into labor this morning. By 10:30 she had not progressed like I felt she should. I called a friend and waited another hour looking for progress............none. By 11:50 I called the vet & spoke with them. No, I said, she wasn't straining, but she was in labor & not making any progress & she was due. Well, it was either they would come out around 1:30 or me to take her in after 1. Well, I haven't wanted to learn to hook the trailer up to the pickup at all, no desire. So I found a friend who would & would also go in with us.

so about 12:55 we had the trailer hooked up and it took us about 5 minutes to catch GG. She did follow my lead much better than she ever had before. We got there about 1:15. The cria was breech, presenting with a front foot & her butt. The vet (young female) worked quite a while before getting him out. He was alive when we got there, but died before she could get him out. Either stress, too long to get him out, or perhaps a cord problem.

GG is ok, but like me quite sad. The cria would have been solid black, a handsome boy. GG is silver or rose gray & Hershey (daddy) is medium brown. So he was a surprise being black.

One more delivery to go I believe.............well, one at the most IF she truly is pregnant.

Visitors

2009-07-16T07:18:00.002-06:00

It has been a wild & crazy 2+ weeks. My mom fell & fractured her pelvis in one spot. She is working on rehab in a nursing home. My sisters have been over. My brother has been in Europe but is back in Houston now. Sandi (Dennis' daughter) & family were here for 3 days & 4 nights. We had a great time. The above picture is Tyler & Travis feeding two of the yearling alpaca boys. They were a great help with the animals including combing the rabbits!! Hopefully things will calm down for a while now.

Cria # 3

2009-07-07T17:25:00.003-06:00

I knew Olympia would deliver today just by looking at her yesterday. She typically has easy & quick births. This one was just that way. We got another boy & he is a handsome guy for sure. He has white on all 4 legs, bur more on the right front leg. He has a crown like Olympia's but then at the very top of his head he has another white spot.

Cria #2

2009-07-04T12:28:00.002-06:00

Well, I was highly suspicious of Ghost this morning............but Ghost always delivers on a Sunday, so decided to ignore her. Sure enough immediately upon leaving she produced a very cute male cria. A neighbor driving by called the house because he saw all the alpacas sniffing this baby on the ground that was acting "very strange". He thought a baby was dying. This one has to have a 4th of July name for sure!!

Owl

2009-06-26T20:19:00.002-06:00

We've had two days of not so good weather for those of us haying. We had .33 inches yesterday. It just now started raining again. The wind started blowing about 10 minutes before it started raining, with gusts up to 30 mph or so. I was looking out a north window when I saw a large bird fly out of the field..........it was an owl. It flew toward the house & landed on our fence behind the house. I ran to get my camera only to discover it had flown away. Walking to the west end of our house & my bedroom I looked out that window & there the owl was, on the grass. I tried a picture or two & he took off flying to the post next to the gate into the alpaca field. I also had flash problems. BUT I ended up with 3 good pictures of the owl before he left the post. I don't know if he is a baby or a fully grown owl, but I've never seen one this close to the house before. A very pretty bird!!

Hershey & Cinnabun's cria

2009-06-22T18:07:00.002-06:00

Here he is, first cria of the year. A cute little guy at just under 12 pounds. He looks alot like Daddy, but also the same coloring as Mama. He arrived this afternoon all alone with no one watching. (Willie had been, but I let him leave the house at 1:30 thinking nothing was going on AND I was with Mom for PT for her). Anyway he's cute & was up immediately nursing & running around. Cinnabun is being an exceptional mama.

Leroy

2009-06-17T15:43:00.003-06:00

Today was a sad day. Today I went to the funeral of Leroy Stutesman. Leroy was 81 years old. He worked for my Dad at his Ford dealership for around 55 of those 81 years. I remember when my Dad died & the bookkeeper totaled up how many years each employee had worked at Center Motor. She had Leroy down for 53 years. But when ask, Leroy said it was more like 55. He said that he worked a year or two & then left town for a short time & then came back. Leroy had a number of different jobs over the years at Center Motor but for the past many, many years he was a car salesman. He was unlike most car salesmen that you see these days. He never pushed, never forced. He was someone who people came back to over & over again to buy new or used cars. You could trust Leroy. He was extremely helpful to me after my father's death. Leroy was special.

The service today was held at the Fire Department.........very unusual & different. But not for Leroy........he was a volunteer fireman for many years. It was very appropriate to have it there. The one word that the pastor used to describe Leroy was that he had a servant's heart. Leroy was special, he will be missed.

Anniversary

2009-06-16T08:04:00.002-06:00

Today would have been our 19th wedding anniversary. I had a number of calls from church friends yesterday saying they would be thinking of me & praying for me today. Our church secretary caught me Sunday & told me the same. It is so much appreciated. Today will not be an easy day.

Otherwise things are going well. Cinnabun, a maiden alpaca, is due today...........so far she looks happy, so I'm doubtful that she will deliver, but one never knows.

Tyler & Travis

2009-06-06T20:39:00.004-06:00

Yesterday we sheared 3 of the cria from last year. If you remember we had two that looked a lot alike in the face. After much discussion & decision making I named them after Dennis' youngest grandsons, Tyler & Travis. I let the boys pick which one they wanted to be named after them. I named their "registered names" with a little more --------- Tyler Dennis & Travis Dee (Dennis used Dee a lot as his name with computer stuff). So named after grandsons with Dennis as a part of both. The lighter one is Tyler & the darker one is Travis.

Ranger

2009-06-06T20:31:00.004-06:00

That's me on the left....................................................

An Alpaca Tale

2009-06-06T20:25:00.002-06:00

We got Ranger in the fall of 2007. His mom died shortly after he was born (he was a huacaya out of two suri alpacas) and was bottle fed. Anyway Willie & I drove to Ridgeway in our explorer to pick him up and bring him home (stupid idea, the explorer ---- but then again I wasn't going to take the trailer either!!). I bottle fed Ranger until sometime in December when I contacted the person we got him from to say he was NOT wanting to wean himself at all. She said to do it immediately. So I worked on weaning him. Within 2 weeks of weaning him I saw him trying to nurse off of his friend's Mom. Cookie (Snickerdoodle's mom) finally allowed both of the boys to nurse off her!! Then it took us a while to get them weaned as there was so much snow it was hard to get them into a different area. Anyway since weaning them Snickerdoodle & Ranger have been very best of friends. Snickerdoodle goes where ever Ranger goes. They stick together like glue.

Today we sheared them. We sheared Ranger first & then Snickerdoodle. Ranger is still pretty friendly & would walk well on a lead. He was extremely "concerned" by what was happening to his friend. I'll post 3 pictures showing how close he got to the shearing & to Snickerdoodle. This is not typical for the alpaca to do!!

Shearing

2009-06-06T06:31:00.002-06:00

Things have been busy just between shearing & getting ready to shear & other items. Due to rain we have had shearing problems. Alpaca need to dry off before shearing. We've had rain every afternoon almost. Dave & Ted, friends doing the shearing work full time, so it has been a challenge. We are almost half way through. Hopefully we will get a lot done today.

The garden is starting to grow, need to water today since there was no rain yesterday. I have pictures that I need to download & post............... I hope soon.

I'm working on a last couple of estate items, one of which has been a major item.

Keep my mother in your prayers. She isn't doing well and is having a lot of pain.

The Garden

2009-05-29T22:03:00.002-06:00

Well, I need to run out tomorrow & take pictures of a number of things. The lilacs are blooming beautifully. Dennis really wanted lilacs and planted 5 - 6 starts. His pine trees are not doing as well, but some of them survived the winter. Dennis was a Colorado master gardener, getting his certificate in 2005. So I'm attempting to restart his garden. He has 5 raised beds. So far I've planted things in 3 of them. The other two still need to be weeded or perhaps I should say the grass removed from them. I totally need to rework the walk area around them to try and get rid of all the grass. In the meantime the flower beds are going strong with everything growing including weeds. It never ends.

The alpacas need shearing & hopefully we will get a start on that tomorrow. Way behind on that. I'm going to miss the Pagosa Fiber Festival as I truly need to start the shearing. Hopefully next year will go better.

Summer

2009-05-18T13:43:00.003-06:00

Busy times. The water is on for the ditches. The heat outside has finally been turned on (thank you Lord) so perhaps summer is here. I'm trying to get gardening & flower beds worked on plus the grass...................seems like there is always something to do.

We dyed fiber in our guild meeting Saturday & everyone seemed to enjoy it a lot. Another learning experience for many.

I look around at all that needs to be done & look at how much Dennis has done each year. He had a tremendous amount of energy and got a lot accomplished during the time he lived here. I miss him.............more than words can tell.

Not much other news here, just keeping very busy.

Time Flies

2009-05-08T20:36:00.003-06:00

Lots going on. Willie & I are taking two classes. One is hoop gardening through the extension office. It starts Sunday evening. The other is Internet selling through Adams State college community outreach. So this next week is going to be busy, as that's when most of the classes are. At least they are short & hopefully sweet. I'm working on the flower beds & hoping to get a better start on them than last year. Plus I'm working on Dennis' garden. A friend found a rototiller for me at an exceptional price & so far it works really well---except when it finds a rock & that rock gets stuck in the rototiller blade. Most interesting the first time around. Plus you must understand we live on the edge of Rock Creek!! Willie made me a turquoise necklace for Mother's Day. He couldn't wait to show it to me. He did a very good job on it. Sunday we'll take my Mom out for lunch & spend most of the day with her.

Spring

2009-04-30T19:11:00.002-06:00

The trip to Kansas was very good. We had a great visit with relatives and even Malen & Jamie enjoyed themselves. We were able to stop in Trinidad on the way home & spend an hour or so with alpaca friends (he also graduated from Center High, just a few years before I did).

Now we are back to the "usual", which has become Spring workings. I'm working on the flower beds, getting weeds cleaned out & everything done as best I can. I'm truly missing Dennis more each day...........he worked so hard on his garden. I still need to start on that. That will be next. Anyway between Willie & I we have gotten a good start on the flower beds and on the garden. I actually mowed two days ago and finally started watering the yard.

It is so wonderful that Spring has finally arrived.

Rings

2009-04-23T20:08:00.008-06:00

I took Dennis & my wedding rings to a local jeweler to be worked on, so to speak. We have been working on these for about 4 weeks with ideas, etc. This is what I came up with ---- with a lot of help from the jeweler. The vertical part is Dennis' ring. With diamond chips on the top & the bottom. The horzonital part is my ring with the diamonds in the middle.

This is the back view & you can kind of see how Dennis' rings overlap on the back.

This is the side view & you can see how the ends on my ring are curled under (between the two pictures).

Once again, the final product. I absolutely love it. The jeweler did a wonderful job & I'm extremely pleased by the necklace that I can wear forever. It is beautiful.

Urns 2

2009-04-23T20:03:00.003-06:00

Well, the one on the right is Johns. It shows a man in a boat fishing. That was one thing we both really enjoyed. The one of the left is Dennis, in front of the flag I received since he was in the Navy. I'll have to post a close up of his to really show it better. It shows a cabin on a lake. Something we had planned on having built this year. The middle is Elizabeth's. It is 3 blocks on a wood base. The 3 blocks have a letter on each block, EGC for her name. The two are done in natural wood without any staining. They are really beautiful. They are also memory urns in that the top opens & there is a small area to put items in. The name is engraved on the top with the dates.

Urns

2009-04-23T19:59:00.002-06:00

After much indecision---- thought & prayer I decided to get an urn for Dennis. As I thought more and more about it, I decided I should also get one for my daugher, Elizabeth & my first husband John. I know, it all sounds strange, carrying ashes around for 20+ years, but that is what I have been doing. For now though, they all finally have a "home". Sooner or later Dennis' ashes will go to Washington. I'm not sure about the others. I found some beautiful urns that I felt were very appropriate for each one of them. I hope they can be seen when I download the picture.

Spring finally

2009-04-23T19:57:00.003-06:00

Well, I've been busy, just lots of little things going on. We had probably over 15 people at the fiber art guild this past Saturday. Wonderful time. In the meantime I've received the urns that I ordered & the rings that I have been working on getting put together have been done beautifully.
I will post all of that next. Tomorrow we are off to Kansas for a family reunion ----- my father's side of the family. Willie & I are going. It will be a fun time. But I wanted to post these before we take off.

Easter Sunday

2009-04-13T08:28:00.003-06:00

Well, this was Easter Sunday morning here in the sunny San Luis Valley!! We decided not to go to the sunrise (?) service. Today, Monday, it is suppose to get up to 60 degrees, we'll see.

Working Hard

2009-04-09T14:02:00.004-06:00

Doug, Warren & Willie working hard. I'm not sure who won this game of Acquire. But Willie sure enjoyed his time with Doug and enjoyed playing with both of them.

Friends

2009-04-09T13:54:00.003-06:00

More friends from CA arrived this week. Warren & his son Doug appeared Tuesday evening. They left today just before noon. We had a great visit with them, although it was a little short!! There were promises made that next time they would stay longer!! Warren helped me with the rabbit cages & they are extremely clean now............I actually feel like shearing the rabbits. I worked on one rabbit, but needed more scissors that were sharp rather than the ones I was using. Hopefully if it warms up AND the wind stops blowing I'll be able to finish shearing.

Warren also helped with the wood shed & items I needed done there and did a number of other handyman items. Doug enjoyed being around Willie and they helped with the hay & the alpaca feeding & watering. Doug is running around in his summer shorts & I'm still in my flannel blue jeans!! : )

I took my rings back in to the jeweler yesterday and we discussed options. He's going to work on something that he thinks will look good following my ideas & suggestions. We'll see what happens. It will take about 3 weeks to get it done.

Pictures of how hard the guys worked coming up next.

2009-04-04T17:38:00.002-06:00

I realize these are not the best pictures, but I tried!!!

Rings

2009-04-04T17:34:00.002-06:00

I've been working on getting something special done with my engagement/wedding rings & Dennis' ring. I'm not about half way through my plan. I took them in to a jeweler & discussed options. Dennis' ring had two rows of diamond chips (3 chips in each row) & the rows were at an angle across the ring. My ring had a diamond with 3 diamond chips on each side going out at an angle. After much thought & discussion the jeweler cut the area between the rows on Dennis' ring & inserted my ring. I plan on having more work done soon to make it much more of a necklace that I can wear. I'll put pictures in the next blog so you can see the ring thus far. I do think it looks extremely nice now & will be very pretty when finally done with it.

Busy times

2009-04-04T17:28:00.003-06:00

Seems like forever since I've posted. I was at the Art Walk in Alamosa a week ago. That was a fun time & I've always enjoyed the Art Walk. All the spinners, weavers, knitters, & crocheters get together to do demos, etc. We managed to find 2 other weavers who potentially will join one of our groups and a lot of other interested people.

Then on Monday the 30th we had company show up from CA. We had a fun week. It was Willie's 26th birthday & we went to antique stores in Del Norte. We went to a movie & did a lot of visiting. It was fun. It's always fun to see friends you haven't seen for a while.

In the meantime I'm working on knitting a pair of socks, finishing a sweater that I started ages ago, plus the lace scarf that I started ages & ages ago (that means before the sweater). More company will be arriving this coming week & it will also be a busy week!!

Blue is deaf

2009-03-22T15:30:00.002-06:00

Yesterday was the Valley Fiber Art Guild meeting/get together here. A number of the ladies wanted to go out & see the cria that are learning to live away from mama. When we got into the corral 5 of the cria ran over to check everyone out. I got out some alfafa to feed them. Suddenly I noticed that Blue (the blue eyed white guy) wan't with them. So I went over to the loafing shed to check out why. He had his head way down in the hay manger that I have for them. I stood to his side & said, "Blue". No response. So I started yelling his name & clapping my hands. He just kept eating.

Dennis & I had debated ever since he was born if he was deaf or not. I had decided he had partial hearing at least. But they pick up so many clues from each other, looking & observing. I've heard from friends that it is really hard to tell. Well, now we know that he is. I reached over & touched him & he jumped & took off. He seemed disoriented for a while probably because no friends were with him. Then he came over & ate with everyone else.

Now Sadie, who is a blue eyed white also & the mother of Freckles ------- I still don't know if she is deaf or not. I've not been able to catch her in a position alone where I could test her.

But for sure Blue is. I'm thankful that he isn't like our friend Janet, who has a BEW (blue eyed white) female who hums continually & loudly. Blue does hum.

Today is windy, windy although the sun is out & shinning. I'm tired, not sleeping well last night. Have a class at church today. Had a great day yesterday with all the fiber art people!!!

God is good.

Spring in the air

2009-03-20T08:47:00.003-06:00

Yup, Spring is getting closer. We have garter snakes around the area most all Spring, Summer & early Fall. They like to get on the cement or lay next to the foundation on the house & soak up a lot of sun. Yesterday for the first time this year there was a snake next to the house. Jamie & Malen sniff them out, kind of. It is funny to watch. If the snake lies very still neither corgi will notice it. BUT one movement & the fun starts. This time I think Malen discovered the snake. I was surprised as I thought it was still a little cold out in the mornings, but yesterday must have heated up enough.

It has been 4 months now since Dennis died. Jamie still waits and watches by the door for him in the evenings. Jamie used to stay under the computer here in the kitchen when I work on the computer. No more, most of the time she is in the small computer room off the kitchen where Dennis had his computer. Funny thing though, he was never on his computer that much. But she waits there. Perhaps she can still smell his scent. It seems I miss him more and more as time goes on. There is so much to do & I can see him being so excited about Spring. I'm overwhelmed by the taxes as he did all the farm stuff. Lots to learn this year.

The cria are doing ok away from Mom. They are not real happy & I hear a fair amount of humming when I am in the area. BUT they know who I am & that I bring food. They come running now. I'm going to try and work with a couple of them on halter training. We'll see how it goes.

God is good.

Cria weaning

2009-03-18T20:09:00.002-06:00

Today became the day to separate the cria from their mom's. I ask our neighbors to help because I wanted to take them two at a time. I've learned from times past that it is better to have the cria out of sight of their moms. So we had to take them all the way across one field, through the front yard, across the driveway yard area & into the barn corral. Such fun. Willie & I ended up with two that decided to lay down & refused to move. But we got all 6 of them over to the new area. I need to start working for sure with the females & haltering, etc. Perhaps returning them to the rest of the females in a month will be a lot easier!! So far all the moms seem to be doing well & not that upset. Hopefully the cria will do well also.

I've finished my mom's taxes & they are ready to mail off. I now need to start mine. Dennis' estate is becoming more understandable & I know where I am headed on that. So it's uphill now. Of course there is still the rabbits that need to be sheared!! AND the weather is beautiful right now.

God is good.

A Surprise

2009-03-16T23:29:00.004-06:00

You just never know what is going to happen. I was headed out to feed the female alpaca this morning. The corgis of course go along to "help". As I was about half way through the field I suddenly realized that a non-alpaca was in the loafing shed. The alpaca were away in the side field anyway. It was a CALF. What a surprise. The neighbors were walking behind the loafing shed when I was walking toward it. A year or more ago Dennis moved the water trough into their property, but the lowest barbed wire line was broken. No one had fixed it & we hadn't had a problem. Today there was a problem.

I managed to distract Malen with a "treat" but Jamie refused to be distracted. She had to help HERD that calf. And help she did. The calf ran back under the fence where she belonged!!

It was a beautiful Spring day today...............I think we got above 60 degrees!!!

God is good.

Snow

2009-03-13T13:57:00.003-06:00

Well, we woke up this morning with a light snow............never really did anything. The radio claims we should have 1 - 2 inches.............doubtful on the valley floor at least. Even Wolf Creek pass only had a trace overnight. But it is good to see the moisture.

I have finally moved the yearling males to another field & blocked them in it. The plan is to move all the cria over into the barnyard when I can get some help. It really takes two people to three people to move a cria..............they are not happy & put on their brakes. They have no idea what is happening to them. So I like to take two at a time, which means 4 people to get it done. Wish it were easier & I could move them into a closer field, but we are just not set up that way. Anyway they do need to be weaned.

The cattle next door should start having calves any time now. There was one that delivered two weeks ago Sunday & I was told that he was 2 weeks early. They had another one since then that didn't make it (perhaps fell on it's head?? who knows). I love calving season when I'm able to watch the calves born. Most of the time I only see one or two............but it is most interesting to watch. That's why I have binoculars in all the north & west windows............that's where the cattle are to the north & west!!

I think I'm going to lose one rabbit. She hasn't been acting right at all. Now she isn't eating nor drinking ALTHOUGH she did take treats out of my hand this morning. They all still need to be sheared but I don't want them to die due to it being too cold. Plus I have to get started on my taxes & mom's too.

I'm sleeping some better & have started walking on the treadmill that Dennis got last year (another of his shearing experiences where he "finds" things he thinks we need & barters for them). One year he came home with a male alpaca to geld and sell, a spinning wheel, and an agreement for mating one of their males with two of our females at a lower rate!! You would just never know what he would come up with. I've not been motivated to do much lately. I know it is partly depression and missing Dennis. Life is very different without him.

I have made some decisions about some rather not so significant things. First of all our wedding rings. I went in & spoke with a jeweler this week about what I could do with them. I will post a picture in a couple of weeks when he has done what we decided would look good. I had been wearing them on a chain around my neck under my clothing. I've also thought about the spot where he died. A lot of people put crosses & flowers (like at the site of automobile accidents). I thought about planting a tree or something like that. But the area doesn't really lend itself to that. I spoke with Sandi (Dennis' daughter) about my thoughts & she made some very good suggestions. I'm working on that for further down the road.........but I'll just keep everyone in suspense until then.

God is good.

Winter or Spring

2009-03-07T15:52:00.002-07:00

Well, yesterday we had sunshine, snow & rain. This morning we woke up to about .3 inches of snow. The wind blew so much the last two days it was awful. My neighbor's loafing type shed had the entire roof blow off. When we went over to help pick up the pieces we were able to take some of the tin roofing, but there was one piece that was pretty well still together with major 2 x 4's nailed to the tin roofing. It was too heavy to even try and pick up. It was beautiful this morning, but the wind is up again this afternoon. I was suppose to go to an AB4C meeting (alpaca breeders) but chose not to go due to the weather over Wolf Creek Pass. I would have had to go alone & they were predicting 12 more inches on the pass today (although seldom is the weather bureau correct down here).

Saw the attorney yesterday. I need to get a lot of paperwork together for him. But I don't think it will be too hard. It was a relief to finally get started on some of this. Hopefully everything with th estate will be done fairly soon (although he wants to go through probate due to the trust being a CA trust here in CO).

Today I saw a coyote in the field behind the house. It's been a while since I've seen one up fairly close. He turned & ran to the East quickly. Then about 5 minutes later I saw him back & he just slowly trotted across the field going west ----- into the neighbor's field with the cows.

I dislike tonight with turning the clock forward..............I dislike getting up in the dark. I did it for many years working in the hospital in Santa Fe..........but I sure don't like the first couple of weeks with the time change.

God is good.

Almost Spring

2009-03-05T07:10:00.003-07:00

The snow is almost totally gone, just some on the north side of the buildings. We really need more snow before Spring truly arrives. This week has been quite warm for this time of the year. We've been in the 50's most every day. But the wind has blown a lot. Monday was beautiful with no wind. Last night it blew all night.

In the meantime the neighbor's cows are having calves. I should say that one arrived Sunday & I saw him out in the field after we got home from church. He was jumping & running. I found out later that the neighbors were gone & didn't know the cow had delivered. The calf was 2 weeks early. They had another one born on Tuesday, but something went wrong & he didn't make it. In a week and a half I should be able to see a lot more being born. People laugh & snicker when they come visit because we have binoculars in the north & west windows..................specifically to see calves being born!!

I found a dead mouse in the feed shed on Tuesday also. We always keep a few traps in there & I haven't caught a mouse since before Dennis died. The next experience of course was resetting the trap. Now I've done it before but disliked doing that -------- it was Dennis' job. So I managed to get one reset. Since there was one dead mouse I thought I should set the other two, but had problems with both of them. One I think is broken & the other, who knows, it's a little different. Anyway no more mice yet!!

The wind gusts are now up to 44 mph. Sure wish I'd watched the news last night to see what the weather said............It would be nice to know the wind is ending soon.

God is good. I hope everyone has a good day today.

Getting Life together

2009-02-28T09:04:00.003-07:00

I feel so much better when things start coming together & become organized. I realize that you would not think that organization existed, looking at the "clutter" around my house, but it really is true.

Things are starting to come together somewhat. I've got my list ready for the attorney so we can start working on the estate. He has been gone, so I don't see him until about a week. But I've made progress. I just hope it is in the right direction. I've made progress in other aspects of the estate with insurance & retirement issues, which is a relief to get things accomplished.

BUT there are the other items. I need to separate the cria from their mama's. Now I will say this is a major undertaking. I have to remove them from the large field & move them to another area by the barn. Three years ago when I discovered our first mama had not weaned her cria, Dennis & I made a separation in the field & feeding shed such that all the females were together but three were on each side of the fence (separating cria from mama of course). Things went very well until day 5. On day 5 the cria had her head down & looked depressed. She would not eat & would not drink anything. I then discovered she was having diarrhea. I had to call the vet with my diagnosis (she was truly ticked off by the situation & upset) & ask for a couple of meds. Then I went ahead & put them back together. Whenever I'd see the cria nursing, I'd run out of the house, jump over the fence & yell & separate them. It was such fun. Last year we decided to go with the other method ---- out of sight, out of mind. It worked well. But I need to do them 2 at a time & that will take a minimum of 4 people to keep them moving and get them where they need to be.

THEN there are the rabbits. Now I told Dennis that I did not want any more rabbits. IF HE chose to get rabbits, then HE had to take care of them. So here I am with 5 rabbits that desperately need their cages cleaned & to be sheared. I say sheared because I don't dare pluck them. It is still getting down to 6 degrees at night. They are in the barn, which sounds wonderful. BUT the barn was built in 1887 (or at least existed in a photo back then)........so there are cracks --- if that is what you call a 1/4 to 1/2 inch open area between many of the boards. Now the rabbits have done fine all winter even with it being that cold & no heat, but I really think it needs to warm up a little more before shearing them. I hate cleaning rabbit cages AND I need to cut more boards for them to stand on also. I did find appropriate boards & I do know how to use one saw that Dennis has. So those are two of my now larger items that are creating mental problems for me.

Oh, I cannot forget the taxes. I've not touched them yet. I used to get everything together for the tax person out in CA. BUT once we moved here, I only did a small portion. I let Dennis do all the farm stuff...................so I guess I get to learn something new this year!!

On another positive side (unlike the last 3 paragraphs), well, positive & negative ----- it has been warmer during the day the last 3 days. So warm most all the snow is gone. I love the warmth & anticipation of Spring---------BUT we need more snow. It is still February (I know tomorrow is March).........we need moisture for the crops this year.

God is good & things are pulling together. Onward we go.

Learning Something New

2009-02-23T12:37:00.003-07:00

Last year during the Fiber/Folk Art Festival here in Monte there were a number of people selling beads. Now I'm truly not into beads nor making items out of beads. BUT then I saw some very pretty knitting stitch markers for sale -- made from beads. I could not figure out how to justify buying them though. The lady across from our alpacas also had a sale going on with a bowl full of beads.

I finally picked out her prettiest 20 beads that I just fell in love with. I have been waiting until just the right time to make my stitch markers. (Actually waiting until the person who indicated they would help actually appeared). Finally last week, the light dawned that Cheryl, a friend who does a lot of beading could help me. Today I went into the local bead shop where Cheryl works a day or two a week & showed her what I wanted (I actually planned on her doing ALL the work ------ I don't NEED another hobby!).

Well, my stitch markers are all done, took about 1 1/2 hours which included picking out smaller beads to add to what I had & some spacers etc. etc. Of course Cheryl forced me to learn how to do it also (it was fun, that's for sure & I did enjoy myself).

VFA mtg

2009-02-22T14:32:00.002-07:00

Yesterday was our Valley Fiber Art Guild meeting. Dennis & I started this 3 years ago in January for people who could not meet with the other fiber group that meets on Wed. evenings. We had a wild day yesterday.

About 5 - 6 years ago we had a group of Amish families buy various farms south of Monte. I'm not real sure how many there are in the area now, but a number. Dennis & I have met a few of those in the community. Every year we buy apples, pears, & peaches from them (they are taken about 4 hours away to get the fruit & then resell it) Billie, who comes to VFA on a very regular basis, is close to a number of the Amish families. Yesterday she brought two ladies & I think about 7 of their children. We had so much fun. One lady used my carder for some lamb wool she had. Emmy Lou showed & taught 3 of them how to use drop spindles. They observed carding, spinning, plying, knitting, & who knows what else!! One young boy learned how to weave on the triangular loom (a small one). Emmy Lou started teaching the youngest girl how to knit, I think she is maybe 4 or 5 at the most. Willie took all the children out on a tour to see the alpaca & the rabbits.

Besides the visitors, we had 7 regular people. I'm so glad for all the extra room in the sun room as we easily expanded & everyone had a great day. Salai & Tawney plied the fiber they had spun & finally had two ply yarn. They were thrilled!!!

This is a day Dennis would have enjoyed very much. He would have been in the middle of the children showing & teaching & having a ball. God is good & He is here.

Toe Nails

2009-02-19T11:00:00.002-07:00

No, not my toe nails ---------- my corgi girls toe nails. Dennis has always used the dremmel to shorten their nails. It isn't a challenge with Jamie that much. She wil freely come & allow you do to it. But toward the end she's getting aggitated. PLUS when finished she has to bark at the dremmel to let it know who is boss. She then gets some peanut butter. Malen has to be bribed out of her hiding place to allow you to work on her. Once started she is usually ok & gets her treat at the end.

BUT I have never done this before. This was Dennis' job & all I did was get the corgis & provide the treats. I have never even held the dremmel before!! But today was the day. It has been 3 months & 1 day since Dennis died. Their nails had not been trimmed in at least 3 months & 4 days & you could certainly hear those little toe nails clicking on the lineolum.

Overall everything went well. Jamie got nervous at the end & told the dremmel "what for". Malen had to be bribed, but we (with a little help from Willie) got it done. I have now learned something new.

Animals

2009-02-17T21:04:00.003-07:00

Today was a day for wild animals.

The corgi girls HAD to go out at 3 am. I don't know why, but Jamie has it in her head that she needs a trip outside once during the night. Soon there was a lot of barking/howling. The coyotes were out too & having their say. I finally got the girls inside & tried to get another 2 1/2 hours of sleep.

Then while feeding the alpaca boys & rabbits this morning I could smell the skunk. Back when I was a "city girl", I thought the only time you smelled a skunk was when they sprayed. But now that I'm a "country girl" I know different. Skunks always have an odor around them, about 20 or 30 ft. around them. You can smell them as they walk anywhere semi-near where you are. After I fed the boys & headed back toward the front yard I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye. There was the skunk waddling/running in the field across the road. He/she was headed toward Freda's shed or haystack. (Good I thought)

Today was a "Mom" day and I had things to do in Center. I picked up Mom to take her to a Dr. appt. in Salida. Before we made it to Saguache we had a herd of antelope cross the road in front of us. Then on the other side of Saguache there was a herd of deer beside the road.

As we returned to Center I saw an Eagle at the top of a tall tree about 5 miles north of town. He was so very pretty. I love being able to see the wild animals in God's nature. It was a good day for wild animals.

Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork

2009-02-16T10:36:00.004-07:00

Sometimes it is so hard to do paperwork when there are so many other things going on. Now the attorney is gone, he is in Africa climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. Ah well, that means a little more time before getting paperwork together. It's amazing how much paperwork there is especially running around my house!

Otherwise, no new snow which is good. Everyone seems to be doing well. All the rabbits NEED desperately to be sheared, but I think it is a little cold for that. There is no heat in the barn (& the barn was built in 1887 or something like that). There are large spaces between the boards in the barn, so although it is warmer than outside, it isn't truly warm at all.

I haven't seen the fox again, although I did see a skunk run across the driveway area a week ago. Luckily neither of the corgis have seen the skunk nor trapped a skunk like they did last year. Onward into the paperwork!

Catch up

2009-02-05T18:32:00.003-07:00

Seems like time flies, perhaps I'm just growing older!!

The Work & Witness team made it back & had a very good trip from what I understand so far. I have been busy trying to do paperwork for the attorney. I have to pull information from our file cabinet, which is interesting. I finally gave Dennis one drawer when we moved here for him to do filing with. Well, that drawer is interesting. I think I have almost found most everything I need. But I am missing some items from 2006, so that could be a challenge.

But the weather has been so nice for a while now. No snow, we are in the mud season now. But we maybe might have snow this weekend. Hard to say for sure (you cannot trust weather reports for here at all). Still cold at night, 0 degrees C. but it seems to get up to around 30 or so in the daytime, which is what accounts for the mud.

I'm almost ready to pick the first lemon off the tree. They were green on one side, so I'm waiting for the entire lemon to turn yellow. I'm doing so much cleaning as I go along, which is needed. In the meantime I'm keeping my eyes open for things that I cannot seem to find besides the 2006 stuff. Dennis had been in a men's Bible study that was studying the book, Heaven. I know it was here. I know for sure it was here..............I cannot find that book. I had planned on reading it sometime in the near future. So as I clean I "look" and am trying to organize a little better.

God is good............and maybe we'll have a true summer this year!!

Day by Day

2009-01-30T10:04:00.002-07:00

It seems like this week has been a little overwhelming. Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork & not that much time. I'm working on getting someone to do the haying this year. Good discussion & we are on the same page but it was suggested I talk to some friends about how to work the deal.

Then there is Mom, who is concerned about her taxes & wants me to hurry up & help her with her stuff. Luckily I have the main checkbook. I filed everything in her file box & I have the key. So hopefully I'll be able to find most everything I need to fill in her blanks & send it off to the accountant.

Then there is Dennis stuff & I'm way behind on that. I need to see the lawyer soon & get stuff started. Then there is my stuff & the farm stuff (all this stuff is paperwork). Dennis has always done the farm stuff...........I didn't want to get involved, let him work on it. Well, now I have no choice.

I was thinking this morning how it all seems like a really bad dream. The shock of finding him is with me all the time. The loss of him is so much and so many of his ideas & plans. But it isn't a bad dream it is real & I need to get myself in gear to get paperwork done.

Through it all I know God is in it & is helping and guiding................
God is good.

Work & Witness

2009-01-24T20:17:00.002-07:00

We had a sending service for the Work & Witness team tonight. It was a good service, just sad since Dennis was planning on going on this trip. He so enjoyed the last one a year ago in January. But it was good to pray for the team. They are leaving early tomorrow & will be gone close to 2 weeks. I have picked two special women to pray for during this trip--women that I felt God had put on my heart to be in pray for. Please be in prayer for this group of men & women from our church.

The Fox

2009-01-23T11:58:00.004-07:00

I've seen "the fox" north of the house out in the field a number of times. He/she walks from the west toward the east early in the morning. Sometimes she seems to get close to the north loafing shed. I've seen footprints of "something" that walks mostly on top of the snow that we've had. They appear to be fox size or maybe skunk size or cat size (oh yes, I've smelled the skunk around before too).

This morning when I went out to feed, it was a little later than usual, probably 9:45 or so. By the time I made it to the yearling boys to the east of the barn it was probably about 10. As I was taking their hay out I heard a strange noise, kind of like a crow with a hoarse "caw" or a dog with a funny bark. I didn't pay a whole lot of attention until I looked at Azugar the older male alpaca. He was giving his "alarm" call that he does on a regular basis (I think he does it for practice, no one else has ever given the "alarm" call). Anyway I looked toward the old railroad car & discovered something was walking close by. I froze as it was about 25 ft. away. Sure enough, it was the fox. She was so pretty, bright red with a fluffy tail. She stopped & sat by the railroad car. I suddenly wondered where Jamie was as she typically follows me out to feed the boys..........luckily Jamie had stayed in the barn. I went over & shut the barn door to make sure she didn't come out. When I turned around the fox was gone. Perhaps I should take my camera along when I feed these days.

Lemon Tree

2009-01-20T12:45:00.001-07:00

Dennis saw this lemon tree in Safeway early last May. He just "had" to have it. And I guess why not since we have a sun room........otherwise it would not survive in the Valley very long & for sure not produce fruit. So we bought it. All the blossoms dropped off & the lemons also. But by October it had blossomed again & this time some of the lemons stayed. I believe there are around 11 lemons on the tree and it has been blossoming again. Just in the last two weeks have the lemons turned yellow............everyone would look at the tree & say, oh a lime tree. Well, here is the proof that it is a lemon tree & I think by the end of the week we will have a lemon to add to something, tea?

Pizza Hut

2009-01-19T18:55:00.002-07:00

Tomorrow is our neighbor's birthday. I think she'll be 83 or so. Anyway I try and remember Freda's birthday every year. So I called her & ask if she'd like to go out to eat today or tomorrow. She decided today & we decided on Pizza Hut. So at 5:30 we took off for Pizza Hut. We placed our order, received our drinks & waited & waited & waited & waited. There was no one else sitting in the restaurant except one young girl across the room, whom the waitress kept going over & talking with (she was also texting periodically). A number of people came in & picked up orders that had been called in. I finished my salad, Willie finished his soda, I finished my hot tea & we waited. Finally the girl came over & apologized. She forgot to enter our order (that's why the breadsticks had not arrived either). She said our meals would be on the house (now I like that kind of birthday celebration). She said it would take just 7 minutes, then hurried back to ask us our order again. She also took my hot tea cup & Willie's glass to refill. Then she disappeared to clean the restrooms (easy enough to tell with the cleaning stuff). The young girl across the room finally brought my hot water over & I asked her for Willie's soda. Then we waited about 5 more minutes for our food. Our waitress finished with the bathrooms (hopefully washed her hands) & brought our food over. Then the young girl left. The waitress fill the salad bowls at the salad bar & brought other stuff for the salad bar & then left.

When we were finished eating I was a little concerned. I "presumed" that she had told the cashier, but had no clue. Then the cashier came over & asked about our meal, if it was ok & that it was on the house. He apologized for the waitress & then said that she was the manager!!! He apparently gave her a hard time, as he said "she left". Anyway we had a very nice birthday meal!!!

Snow, snow & more snow

2009-01-11T15:25:00.004-07:00

Friday night the wind blew & blew & blew & it snowed & snowed & snowed. By yesterday morning we had drifts up to about 25 inches high or in the low windswept area of about 2 inches high. Such fun. I really thought that nothing more could go wrong with my ATV snowplow. I'd had the tire fixed twice, the last time included putting in a tube. But I was wrong. One of the long screws holding the snow plow together came apart..........the bolt & washer decided to come out. The entire plow blade & holder moved to the right when I hit the snow bank. I didn't really realize "what" was wrong, just knew I had a major problem & called a neighbor. Then we had to call another neighbor since the two of us coudn't get things just right. But I managed to find everything needed to fix it and heaped blessings on my neighbors for fixing it for me. I finally got the entire area plowed AND the area next to the hay stack (so when Bob, my hay man comes he can get in). So now in areas I have snow stacked about 3 1/2 ft. deep. I hope we don't get too much more snow as I will have to learn to drive the tractor & use the bucket next. All the alpaca seem happy which is good. I just wish it were warmer....................20 for a high is just a little cool. I'm looking forward to Spring.

Dennis Tribute - GFC

2009-01-07T12:13:00.002-07:00

Here is the link to Pastor Bruce's tribute to Dennis that will take you directly to the page rather than skimming through.

http://glendorafriendschurch.blogspot.com/2008/11/tribute-to-dennis-smith.html

Dennis Smith, a special, wonderful husband

2009-01-06T18:39:00.005-07:00

I'm actually putting the blog this way for a special reason. There have been a number of people from Aerospace in CA, who worked with Dennis before we moved to Monte Vista, CO. The friends have posted on our Pastor (Bruce) from CA's blog.
It is here: http://glendorafriendschurch.blogspot.com/

You have to go back about 2 pages to read the tribute to Dennis.

There were some tributes given during the service and many given to me verbally in person. After finding that some are posting on Pastor Bruce's blog I thought perhaps I would add a special posting here & now for anyone else who would like to post anything.

Willie & I are doing well. I have my moments that seem to be more frequent starting this month. But I'm sure it is because company has come & gone (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's etc.). Dennis is missed tremendously. When I think of all the changes Dennis made here on our property in the 4 short years we have been her, and all that he was working on and especially all the plans he had..................I miss him. Grieving is a long process and takes time and energy. But I praise God that HE is with me and know that the peace that I feel is from Him.

The New Year is here

2009-01-01T16:32:00.002-07:00

We had a call about 4 pm last night from a widowed gentleman who goes to our church (he's only 88 yrs. old). Ed ask if Willie & I would like to go out with himself & 2 other widowers. I said sure. Ed is leaving Sunday to go to Jordan and home school some missionary children for 6 months (should be interesting for all). So we had dinner with Ed, Dick (also widowed), the pastor (whose wife is away), Gary (whose wife is away), and Dick's daughter. It was a good time and I'm glad we were remembered and offered the opportunity to go out.

Yes Pastor Bruce, we thought of you & GFC last night and the fun game party you were having. I think this year it would have been too much for me...........but I enjoyed reading your blog about it.

Today I invited a number of my high school classmates over. Out of the 45 of us I think there are close to 15 of us that live here in the valley. We were only able to get 5 of us together (lack of notice and decision to do it). But we had a good time together talking about years ago & also everything that has gone on since we graduated 40 1/2 years ago. It was good.

Happy New Year to each of you.

Christmas 2

2008-12-29T19:01:00.004-07:00

We had our family Christmas here yesterday. Everyone was here except my brother in law & niece. It was a wonderful time and we all enjoyed ourselves visiting and just being with each other. I found that yesterday was the worst day yet for missing Dennis. I cooked the entire meal except one pie. I know exactly what Dennis would have been doing if he had been here with me. He enjoyed cooking and helping me cook. He would have been totally involved with all of it. PLUS we would have had a least one more potato dish (sweet potatoes) and some type of jello salad. Neither of which I did. Everyone felt the loss of not having Dennis with us for the day. We have had Christmas here at our home for the past two years. So although we all felt sadness, we all did enjoy being with each other & being together. As Willie & I talked today, you just never know what tomorrow may bring. It is so important to be with those you love and are close to whenever you can. Do not miss an opportunity because everything can change extremely quickly..........you just don't know..................

Snow, Snow, Snow

2008-12-26T16:51:00.004-07:00

We had a lot of wind last night & snow. Perhaps not that much snow (only an inch on the snow board) ---------but the wind took all the snow it could find & blew it into all the plowing I did yesterday. I did the driveway/yard and the alpaca field yesterday afternoon. I had to redo about 1/2 of the yard/driveway this morning. The snow plow came by about 9 am & pushed the snow from the middle of the road to the side INCLUDING in front of the mailbox................so I had to plow out in front of the mailbox to help the mailman. I am no longer able to plow around the garage area to the east as there are too many big drifts. I do not think I can get into the alpaca field again either...............too many drifts. They seem to be getting around ok & perhaps we will need to do some more hand shoveling...........time will tell. Wolf Creek Pass got over 24 inches overnight. Of course the ski area is open but the pass is closed so who knows who can make it up to ski as it appeared that both ends were closed. La Veta pass is closed also. Tomorrow is supposed to be better & I certainly hope it is.

At least my home area is clear tomorrow for the fiber ladies when they show.