a weekend in the canyons

Last Saturday we took a quick trip up the Monument trail in the Colorado National Monument.

Collared Lizard sitting still for a photo shoot.

A whole family of sheep came down the hillside as we were walking up. Here a baby with his baby sitter look out on the world.

the projects continue

The past few weeks have been taken up with finishing up our not-so-little projects. The big items on our list is the bathroom remodel and putting electricity out to the green house.

We took the old bathtub and shower out. The colors behind the tub are for comparisons. The square above the colors is now a window.

Fran does anything in the house that requires skill and talent. Here she is starting the tile work. Notice the new window!

While Fran tiled, I painted the corner. You can see the green behind Fran. This used to be a shower but will now be a storage area. the shower will be part and parcel with the tub. Notice the skill and finesse in putting tile on the wall.

The last wall was just the perfect chair height. Fran is sitting in the tub, "buttering" each tile before sticking them on the wall. My part in all this was to cut the tile to her specifications.

Hopefully soon the tile will have grout, the faucet and control knobs will be connected and the construction materials will be out of our bathroom...more pictures to follow. Hopefully soon.

Who went this way before me?

Yesterday I wandered in Ironton for a few hours. I was following an old trail through the trees where there was a coating of new white snow on top of an old dirty snow layer. This clean white on top of old and dirty provided great contrast for this set of mountain lion tracks. It was very clear that this large feline had gone this way not too long ago. At this point there is only one way to go, so I followed the tracks for awhile, hoping that I wasn't going to surprise anyone.

more projects

This week saw the completion of a simple picture project and the actual start of "the" big project with some bathroom demolition. The clock wall has now become the national park wall. The clocks were all of inferior quality and over the past few months they have all stopped working for various reasons...none due to the lack of power. Montrose was the first to slow down (really no surprises there). China and San Francisco then started losing time and finally stopped altogether. The biggest surprise was that Washington DC just kept on ticking, never lost a beat and always told the correct time. ...so, we decided to change looks.

WPA posters of: Yellowstone, Arches, Rocky Mountain and Zion National Parks. All favorites of ours!

Mom making the last adjustments to Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain. The caption invites all to spend the night at the Boulderfield Cabin where there are no modern conveniences, no trees to get in the view and freezing temperatures every night of the year
Our bathroom with some major changes. The old tub and shower are out. The new tub will be deeper and will have its own shower. In the space of the old shower will be storage for bathroom stuff, like towels and such.
More pictures to come as the projects move along.

the sewing room

This weekend we finished up the sewing room.

The room once sported a large (7 feet long) mantle like thing with a florescent light...very modern looking. So we tore it down changed the wiring a little, added some track lighting and then went wild with every form of storage you can attach to a wall. We have shelves, thread holders, a magnetic white board, peg board and a bulletin board like surface. We then added color and patterns to "cuten" up everything.

It looks pretty good even if I say so my self. Next project...new faucets on all the old sinks. When will these winter projects end? I want to get outside.

A close up by the sewing machine

The big view showing the sewing console, colorful bulletin boards and the magnetic white board.

Another view, same thing different aspect.

Silly me

So, I thought the 2010 Olympics (we are in the 2nd decade of the 21st century) would have an impressive online presence. Not so much. So, 2 weeks ago I called my ISP (bresnan) and asked about their TV contract. ( I was about to go out and even buy a TV!) Can you believe the woman who answered my questions really didn't want to help me. She wasn't very customer centric. Did you know that NBC won't let you stream if you don't already have a TV contract with someone? Again, my bad. I ended up with no TV coverage as the games started. I didn't realize the stranglehold NBC had on Olympic coverage.

We were about to throw in the towel, but with an olympian effort, we found that our old rabbit ears TV can catch the local NBC signal. I feel so connected now. Who needs computers and Wi Fi and istuff.

The imac, cold and dark. Good for email, itunes and online shopping...but not the olympics if you are a bresnan customer.

Watching woman's luge from the Whistler sliding center.
Gotta go and watch now!

The last month...

I haven't felt the need to update because the 3 people who read our blog already know what we have been up to.

Of course the highlight of January was the birth of our first grand child, Wesley.

We are back home now and looking forward to the end of winter.