Yesterday morning I had that pleasure.
Make it a great day!
Musings from Our Woods |
An often said phrase / sentiment I express is 'make it a great day'. I firmly believe that we are masters of our own ship, that most often we can choose our response to situations. Not always, but often. In choosing to make it a great day we have to be open to possibilities, we have to think beyond our own needs and we have to 'take in' the world around us. Yesterday morning I had that pleasure. Every Wednesday morning I walk the River Trail with my friend Jan. We read books, discuss them as we walk and also hold one another accountable to life's challenges. We share the hopes and fears that bring challenge to life. At this point in life we could both be easily overwhelmed and turn inward… she with cancer and me trying to be the most loving and supportive wife in Russ' challenge with Parkinson's. So how to make that into a great day? Be open to surprises. Yesterday's surprise was the gosling hatch. On a small island in the Animas River we saw a pair of geese. On our return trip we saw mama rolling her egg with her beak. She stopped when a tiny crack was on top. That made my day! I returned to the spot after work and took the photos above, the crack bigger. I will return again this morning to see if there is progress.
Make it a great day!
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We have a guest house to our guest house. It is known at The Homestead as it was the 'original' 1920's home on this development land of 200+ acres. The homestead stood on a neighbor's land and he wanted it GONE. Russ, history buff that he is, moved it here to our land. We have set it up for naps (Russ), overflow guests and grandkid 'camping'. In the winter it becomes storage. In the summer, besides the comforts of 'home', it holds fire pit cushions & side table when not in use. I bought some new cushions for the fire pit chairs this year. I was taking the tags off and remembered a funny story... Remember the wonderful house with the secret room I posted about a couple of weeks ago? My oldest brother's room was right below that secret room… exactly the same size. My brother was then and still is VERY meticulous. He is organized and thorough. He is a problem solver. He sees a need (or someone in need) and he reacts to fix or comfort.
So… one day he was cleaning his room, a weekly mission as far as I can recall. Not only brilliant, but not your typical guy, or kid for that matter. As a teen he pulled furniture away from the wall to clean behind, he dusted, he straightened, he organized. Me? Imagine the opposite end of the spectrum. My mother's motto was change your bed every Saturday Linda and keep your door closed so I don't have to see how you choose to live! Oh, but back to my brother… One day, in cleaning his room, he inadvertently tore off the UNDER PENALTY OF LAW tag from his mattress. What to do? Not sure if it said 'except by the consumer' in the 60's, but he got darn worried he would be in trouble with the law. He got my mom's seeing kit (who knew she knew how to sew?) and sewed the tag back on! Years and years later he told us that story at a family reunion; we all got a good laugh. We did it! Well actually Jay, Matt, Wayne and Home Depot did it while Russ and I watched the transformation happen. The space is wonderful. We had thought we might have a tiny 1' wide island table built for the center, but now we see that would defeat the purpose of enlarging the kitchen for Russ to have more mobility. It is a fabulous space. Light, bright and inviting. We love it! Here is how this all played out…
Russ had a terrible time getting into our old kitchen. PD and doors do not make good partners. The space was just too darn tight. 1. Let's take out 4' of wall and just cut the cupboards out. 2. Let's put new cupboards on the newly shortened wall. When we cut out that section it will be so tough to repair or match existing cupboards. 3. Let's put new cupboard doors on the other side to match new ones on shortened wall. 4. While we are cutting down the wall, let's kick it out into the living room a few feet and widen the kitchen. 5. What the heck, let's gut it and start over! There you have it, a simple plan to spending lots of money and being thrilled with the outcome. Who ever heard of Bacon Chocolate Chip cookies? I certainly hadn't until last week. A friend was telling me that her husband had tried some at work and really loved them. So we did a google search and found lots of recipes. I decided to go for gusto… my motto… eat real food (no diet or low fat) and eat as much local and organic as you can.
So local bacon, thank you Sunnyside Farms, and I decided on a recipe that used bacon fat. I mean really, I am sure it is more REAL than Crisco, right? Russ gives them the nod. I freeze cookies in packages of 6 or 8 so we don't devour them all in just a couple of days. Cookies take patience… pan after pan after pan so I don't want them gone before the pan is washed. The poet in the pantry blog has lots good recipes… check her out. Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies Author: Carrie @ poet in the pantry & Brian Vibert Recipe type: cookie Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 1 hour Total time: 1 hour 15 mins Ingredients
Instructions
Recipe by poet in the pantry at http://poetinthepantry.com/2013/10/13/bacon-chocolate-chip-cookies/ Wayne came the other day and finished the electrical work. All light switches and plugs are back in the wall with the covers on. The center light has been installed on the ceiling. We have that same light up in the guest house. I was struggling on what to put on the ceiling and decided I liked it up there, it would be perfect in the kitchen. I love the shadows it casts. The iron 'goes with' the draw pulls and cupboard knobs. It does not over power the space… and I just like it.
Lighting is very frustrating for me; it is SO expensive! This fit the manageable pricing scale, so that helped too. Living here in the west has been a huge education for this New England girl when I consider the basics of water and fuel. Water? We don't have too much! We live at 7600' and I always say we grow rocks and dirt. No lush lawns here. No glorious gardens…UNLESS you irrigate. We do not. We do have a lovely meadow and we begin the season with green, but as the summer becomes parched, so too does the meadow. I do have 2 small gardens and have planted hearty, drought resistant plants. Outside watering goes to the few pots of flowers. A phenomenon here in the west you don't see in most parts of the country is 'Watermen'. People drive to the Watermen in their truck (or with an attached trailer) with a huge plastic tank filling the truck. This has a large screw cap at the top and folks drive under the water hose, fill their tank and drive home to syphon this into their cistern or just hook a hose to their house water system. I believe it costs .25/gallon. On NPR this morning there was an article about Lake Mead. Folks around here are already worried about summer drought. There were two wildfires nearby last week; the fire season has started. Much of western water comes from Lake Mead…. here is an excerpt from NPR: "The historic four-year drought in California has been grabbing the headlines lately, but there's a much bigger problem facing the West: the now 14-year drought gripping the Colorado River basin. One of the most stunning places to see its impact is at the nation's largest reservoir, Lake Mead, near Las Vegas. At about 40 percent of capacity, it's the lowest it's been since it was built in the 1930s. Just to see the rings around it is scary. That "ring" is the infamous bathtub ring around the rim of the reservoir. The levels have dropped 140 feet over the past 15 years, exposing a white stain on the gravelly brown mountains above the water. The level is forecast to fall an additional 10 feet by this summer."
The east coast had a tough winter, we will have a tough summer. Is there a 'perfect climate? And fuel? What does that look like out here? When you look at a map of the US and see the amount of fuel being consumed, it isn't here. It is on the east coast and the west coast. We just produce it. We have 3 gas wells in our neighborhood. The gas companies 'own' all that is underground, so as long as they abide by the rules of the spacing of these wells, they can put them anywhere, even in your front yard! Since moving here 14 years ago they have halved the spacing of well locations due to high demand, so instead of 1 well every 80 acres it is 1 every 40 acres. Now they have a new plan. Rather than put a new well in a high producing area, they will horizontal drill from an existing well. In our neighborhood that means drilling from an existing well pad 2000 feet sideways and 1000 feet down angling to a new underground reservoir. The southwest is the mecca of gas drilling. We have a staggering 40,000 wells here in the 4 Corners! It feels wonderful to be back in the house. We were blessed to have the guest house to be living in while we were in remodel mode. It is such a comfortable place and we easily lived there for the 6 weeks. But being back in our own space, feeling so new and large and comfortable is great. We had a little celebration dinner. Over the last several days, Jay has laid the tile, grouted and cleaned up. We still have a few punch list items to do as well as electrical (note plug hanging out of wall) things to finish up. But that didn't stop us from having a celebration dinner. Mushroom risotto was on the menu along with that special Furtsch wine I mentioned the other day. Ah, for the simple pleasure of a 'HOME cooked meal'!
Is this cute or what? My sister Nan posted this for National Siblings day. Left to right… Nan, Pete, Linda, Ron (front), Andy (back) and Lisa. We were obviously headed to or coming home from church. We 6 used to troop down Highland Street to church, a straggling line of kids. I was in sixth grade in this photo… got my lovely white ankle socks on. NO nylons until you were in seventh grade and then ONLY for very special occasions! Nan and I probably had similar dresses on… the kind with VERY scratchy petticoats; annoying, uncomfortable and a reason to hate dresses. Lisa was always so much more grown-up. I remember that green dress she is wearing with the red binding on the bottom… I coveted that dress!
I did a mad dash to Farmington after work yesterday and got to the tile store before they closed. The salesman met me at the door with the tile loaded on a hand truck… service! Here is the beginning of the day….
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