HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Happy Thankgiving to everyone. As you can see, even our regularly visiting fox is thankful for the bit of sawdust we put on the hill behind the house. Nice place for a nap.

Iris is spending her Thanksgiving in Florida with daughters, granddaughters and family there. I think everyone is excited to spend a little time together especially Grandma and granddaughter, Kiley who seems to be pretty attached to "My Grandma Iris".

Mike is staying in Colorado and will be sharing Thanksgiving with friends and neighbors, Sharon and Larry just around the hill. When holidays can't be shared with family, it's so wonderful to have great friends who are willing to share their holiday and family with us.

Speaking of Sharon and Larry, they will be traveling with us in January to our home in Ecuador for seven weeks. We will be doing a little work on the house, a little sightseeing, eating lots of fresh fruits and veggies and basically spending a bunch of quiet "down" time. Larry is contemplating retirement so he's looking forward to experiencing just what that might feel like. We're hoping to take a trip down to Machu Pichu, Peru while we're there this time.

We are very thankful to have friends here in Colorado who are excited to watch over our home and little community as well as our dog while we are down south. Of course, Mike will be posting and update with a picture or two upon our return. Until then, below is a small slideshow of our home and property in Ecuador just outside the city of Cuenca.

Still keeping busy...

November 6th, 2009

OK, this is my first serious winter project for this year. We really needed bedside tables in our newly painted bedroom. One of our members gave us a couple of base cabinets without tops so I created rustic tops complete with built-in lamps. The tops are recycled boards from an old cabin porch that was replaced last summer with lamps constructed from driftwood out of the creek. Even the lamp parts were recycled from old lamps. We did buy new lampshades though.

Mike recently bought a very nice used wood lathe that he's very excited to learn how to use during the winter. I'm sure he'll be sending pictures of those projects too.

We just returned from an overnight stay at the AmeriStar Hotel and Casino in Blackhawk. Our friends, Mo and Gary got free rooms and asked us to join them so we enjoyed a mini vacation. We had prime rib for lunch, endless crab buffet for dinner and breakfast buffet the next morning; yes, Mike ate way too much; friend, Gary said "Mike really likes fried food". It will be back to healthy rice and beans now.

We did play a few slots...I'm quite certain it's required under the circumstances. It's wonderful, they have many penny machines. No big wins however we did come back with a little more than we left with and had a wonderful time to boot.

Iris has started free classes highlighting her new Health and Wellness hypnosis series. We have each spent many hours getting them written, recorded, edited and burned to CD's. We sure enjoy working on some projects together as a team. She's giving classes once a week at our friends, Katherine and Ted's beautiful home just around the hill from us. Her first class was well attended and she's really looking forward to the next one.

That's it for now. We'll see ya' next time.

Just a touch of what's to come...

Well, Hello everyone. September 21...the last day of summer and we got about 4 inches of snow. The squash, tomatoe and basil plants are history. Well, we do have some basil and tomatoes in the the greenhouse / hot tub room. The white stuff took us a little by surprise however, after doing its' job killing garden plants and turning many aspens immediately brown, it melted and since we have had pretty darn nice weather. We are hoping for a beautiful indian summer...you know, until about January.

We've had a busy few weeks since our little community's "season" officially came to an end. We have some new friends, Mo and Gary, who live down the canyon a few miles on a beautiful piece of property with amazing views of the surrounding areas. We've gone to lunch and dinner with them a few times. Yesterday we traveled to Blackhawk for a wonderful lunch of steak, lobster and shrimp at one of the casinos.

We also took a great weekend ride with some other friends to Kanosha Pass last week to see the colors of the aspen trees. The colors weren't near as spectacular as usual due to the snow and early cold temps, however the scenery was still amazing and the picnic we had was wonderful. Sharon makes some darn good fried chicken.

Mike's hoping to cut a couple more loads of firewood before winter officially drops. We are looking forward to January when we have been blessed with permission to travel to our home in Ecuador to check on the house there, get our medical needs taken care of and just spend a little time doing absolutely nothing. We are so excited that our friends, Sharon and Larry are going to travel down with us. Our very good friend from Boise, Mr. Edd is has consented to come to Colorado to watch over our home and little mountain community while we're gone. Thank you Mr. Edd.

We are so blessed to live in such a wonderful place and have so many wonderful friends.

Local Artist / Woodworker

Hi all,
Just a quick post to share info about our friend and neighbor, Ted. He does some very amazing work with local dead woods. Some were killed by fire, some from beetle kill while others just passed on from other natural causes. Anyway, he gives them a new "lease on life" in many beautiful ways. He is a true artist when it comes to breathing new life back into unique pieces that he gathers from near and far. Ted's motto is to let..."the spirit in the wood live on". Just click on the slideshow below. Be amazed and...Enjoy



Here's Ted's Website:
DeadWoodRenaissance.com

JUly 19, 2009 Summer is Here

Well, spring has finally ended and summer begun. We had rain virtually everyday through May, June and most of July. The Colorado Rockies are greener than they have been for years...or so all the locals tell us. The wildflowers have been absolutely amazing. The wild grasses are waist high everywhere. Of course the deer and elk are in excellent shape since our winter was a mild one. Members of our little community have been greatly enjoying hiking, relaxing and fishing in our small lake. July 4th was a wonderful time with lots of families with kids here. There was a grand fishing derby, golf contest, raft race and mummy wrapping contest. There were other activities too numerous to name here.

And of course the evening was finished up with Smores cooked over the charcoal at the BBQ /Horseshoe pit area. I'm quite certain that everyone who spent the weekend here had a wonderful time. It great to be surrounded by such happy folks after such a quiet winter.

The wildlife continues to amaze us. Last week we were blessed by a visit from a bobcat over at the horse barn. Our fox still visits regularly; we had a cow elk in the front yard a few weeks ago.

Yes, he's right there on the hillside above the roof. I think you should be able to click on the picture and get a fuul size version. Sorry, I was carrying the cheap camera that day.

Recently we had our very first trespassers. We have a couple of rather large cows...no, the domestic kind, show up. They seem to be very happy just munching grass and partaking of the clean, fresh water.

We're still searching for the owners. Everyone just says "Yum" when they see them. Can't believe someone hasn't missed them yet.

We became Grandparents again yesterday. Our new Grandaughter, Kaylin Ann, was born to daughter, Lissa in Florida. The new little one was born about five weeks early,however, we are told that Mom and Baby are doing well. Yes, we're pretty proud.

Well, enough for today...my finger is wearing out. See you next time.

May 18, 2009 - Just a Little More Firewood

Yes, I like to get an early start. There has been one certain downed tree on the property for three or four years...a good sized tree that no one seemed to relish attempting to cut up. So, Mike, being the stubborn person he is...took that as a challenge. He spent days fine tuning the chainsaw and finally hitched up his back brace and made his attempt. Low and behold, it worked. What wonderful firewood. So far we have plenty of wood for the lodge this season and a great start on firewood for the Caretakers next winter and there is still half of the tree to go.

This is what's left of the top of the tree. We are happy that Mike still has some exercise to look forward to so he can maintain his health and good looks.

The weather has been amazing. Spring has really arrived. Everything is turning so green. Mike has been putting in planting beds and building hanging planters for the greenhouse that Iris has been been filling as fast as he constructs.

The lake is full, the fish are jumping and we have a one pair of geese hanging out and a one pair of ducks. There has also been a large crane sharing out beautiful little paradise. Mike will post pictures as soon as he unloads the camera.