Monday, July 2, 2012

Back in My Little Mountain Home

After spending most of last week in Boulder, days making trips back and forth between the storage unit...





 ...after the first load was removed...




...almost there!


...and the apartment building and nights exhausted on the foam mattress on the floor of the very small bedroom, the only room in the apartment that can be kept cool, I'm back in Eldora in the cabin.  I arrived yesterday afternoon after having made the final trip to the storage, leaving it empty for the proprietors to find this morning.  Even though I was paid through July 14, I just wanted to get the task completed and they were anxious to start double dipping since they give no refunds!  

So now, everything is in the one-bedroom apartment.  I've opened all the boxes and unwrapped everything, made some attempt at sorting the items, taken a few things down to the "free table" in the apartment building and will try this week to take a few of the better items that I don't want around the corner to Clutter Consignment to see if they might be interested in attempting to sell them.  I have been on their e-mail list ever since I got my computer and attended their open house last year celebrating their one-year anniversary,  having no idea I'd be living around the corner a year later.  Some of the residents of the apartment building apparently have had good luck selling things through the store when they were downsizing into the small apartments.


I had found a few things as I unpacked boxes that I thought might go in the cabin and also needed to get on the computer, which I've left in the cabin because my internet service here only costs $30 a month and I haven't had the opportunity to determine what it may cost in Boulder.  If it's as expensive as I've heard, I may just have to leave the computer here...a good excuse to return at least weekly!


The foxes are aware when I return and come to be fed.  Vixen came once yesterday and Valentino has been here twice.  I had no chicken, but came prepared with a dozen eggs to augment their kibble as well as some cheese, and they seem to be accepting what I'm able to provide.  The last time I came to the cabin, a third fox was flirting around in the background.  I think it must have been one of their kits.  He (I don't know why I think it was a male) was so cute.  Almost full grown, so healthy looking with a wonderful coat and full tail.  Maybe all that protein his parents have been taking back to the den!

I, on the other hand, have been eating primarily free fresh produce, which appears in the apartment building common room every Friday morning. We've received berries, cherries...


...spinach, artichokes, asparagus, corn on the cob and melon among other things...

...these turnips were wonderful...so mild...and it had been years since I'd shelled peas...

...this was always something my mother, sister and I did as a team.  I invariably pulled my thumbnail away from the nail bed and ended up with a sore thumb afterward, but there weren't enough of these to cause injury.  

When the produce is delivered...between 8:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. each Friday, the early risers descend on the free food like locust.  If you time it right, you can be one of the locust.  If not, you get the leftovers...five blackberries, three strawberries, a couple of beets...and the only sign of the food delivery a few hours later will be a few wilted leaves in the elevators!  

This past Friday, the produce included some over-ripe pears at which most residents were turning up their noses.  I took several, peeled, cored and cooked them with a little Stevia.  They'll be great.  Already the 2nd.  Only nine more days 'til the second Wednesday and the S.S. check!

I must go back to Boulder today.  I have an appointment tomorrow afternoon south of Denver with my glaucoma specialist and didn't even bring a change of clothes with me, plus I need to drop off my rent check.  We have until the 5th to pay, but three days isn't going to make any difference to me.

Now that I have everything centrally located in the apartment I'm hoping I can turn my attention to the exercises I'm supposed to be doing for my rotator cuff strain.  I did them for two days and then they got lost in the process.  I wrote to Boulder Housing Partners last Tuesday inquiring if they had liability insurance that might help with my medical expenses and haven't had a response, so I'm not signing up for the recommended physical therapy until I know the answer.  My arm is getting stronger daily so I hope I regain full use of it, but there are still extreme positions that still cause pain, so I need to do my part. 


What else?  The last time I was at the cabin I thoroughly cleaned the wood stove and blacked the top...



...as I think I mentioned in my last posting, I did get the glass out of the doors of the hutch...




...someone had kindly left an old single-edge razor blade here at the cabin and by very carefully pushing it between the glass the the wooden insert I was able to get glass out, clean it and paint the wood underneath.  So, all done...




...I had fun "styling" the hutch.  Of course there was only half the amount of space I needed...always the case in my case!

I'd like to be painting the floor, but my current budget will not allow for the purchase of the paint and I haven't quite decided yet what color I want to paint it anyway.


I purchased this rug many weeks ago...


...this captures the colors very well.  I'm tempted to go with ebony, as high gloss as I can get floor paint!  Somehow painting the floor the background color of the rug doesn't appeal to me.  I'll have to pick up a few paint swatches and see where they lead me.


Well, I'm heading back down to the heat.  It's going to be 98F degrees in both Boulder and Denver tomorrow and here I am with no a/c in my car for that trip to the eye doctor!  The new clutch is definitely not in the budget.  It will only be 81F degrees in Eldora tomorrow and the high temps are going to be in the 70s with lows in the low 50s for the rest of the week after that.  

My neighbors were busily making homemade "No Fire" signs yesterday to supplement any official signage, concerned about the usual influx of July 4th visitors.  All I can do is keep my fingers crossed.  Every time I depart, leaving my computer behind, I'm anxious.  Here is a photo I took of the smoke from the fire that has been burning up behind the Flatirons in Boulder for the last week...

...no municipalities are having fireworks from what I've been reading.  Hope for a safe and fire-free holiday.  Teddee

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