Getting Ready for Snow!

Our lives here in Eldora really do revolve around the weather even though we don't farm.  NOAA is still predicting snow for tomorrow and Sunday and the front is apparently close enough now that they're willing to go out on a limb and predict a 70% chance of snow tomorrow and a 90% chance of snow tomorrow night with an accumulation of three to five inches possible.  I'm prepared...

I've been whittling away on the woodpile and think it's getting smaller...

...and the wood cord is getting bigger...

When I was a child, my sister and I used pieces of firewood to create sideboards on our red wagon so it would hold more wood.  I don't recall our parents teaching us this.  We were quite innovative.  I've adapted that idea by putting a shallow, flat piece of wood in the front of the wheelbarrow to keep the wood from falling out when I'm underway...

I've been amazed, despite the number of warm days we've had, how much ice remains under this woodpile...

Was it sawdust or straw that was used to insulate ice before refrigeration?

The only project I have planned for today is to try to repair the ding on this picture frame that I had painted ready to take to the resale shop in Rollinsville when Dixie knocked the space heater over and into it...

 

The frame has some very subtle carving on it and I didn't want to get Spackle in that.  I'll give this a light sanding and see how it looks, then if the winds remain calm, try to give the whole thing another coat of spray paint.

The winds were really strong all night and it was supposed to be 29F degrees and felt it.  They added to a night that made me feel as if I'd slept in a boiler factory housing barking dogs.  Dixie spent all afternoon in the backseat of my car with the door open.  I've positioned the overhead light switch so the light doesn't come on and run my battery down.  She got out about 6 p.m. and about half an hour later I saw her owner, who has returned from vacation, stop and pick her up, leaving the car door open, turn the car around and head back east, down the canyon, not west, toward her home.  She had her hair in an up-do and was wearing a black leather maxi coat, not her usual attire.  I walked out and closed the car door. 

At 1 a.m., having just entered sound sleep, I awoke thinking I'd dreamed I'd heard a dog barking.  But it was real.  It went on for at least 20 minutes. Finally I got up, got dressed, took the quilt down off the door and opened it to find both Jimmy and Dixie, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, on my doorstep.  Their owner has told me she never lets them out after dark.  She also has told me they have full-time access to a greenhouse through a pet door, so she must usually lock the pet door at night.  I have no idea what they were doing afield unless she had attended some event, just got home, let them out thinking she'd put them right back in and they decided to come down for a midnight snack.  I fed them some canned pet food outside and told them to go home.  I think Jimmy did, but Dixie stayed out there, barking off and on for a full hour.  I don't think she was barking to be let in as she sounded as if she was out in the yard.  Finally I heard what sounded like something being pursued across the deck and the barking receded off into the east.  During this, the winds were really gusting and a bamboo wind chime I had purchased last year and just put back out during our warm spell, was repeatedly hitting the side of the cabin with a thunk.  I didn't think to take it down when I was feeding the dogs.  

I finally slept and was awakened sometime after sunrise to the sound of my cell phone repeatedly alerting me the battery was weak.  I put up with that for about an hour, hoping it would finally die, then got up, plugged it in, started the fire, put in a really big chunk of wood and turned on the second space heater.  I swear I heard Dixie bark at least once at this point, but I dared not open the door to check.  I guess she spent the entire night out in that horrible wind and low temperature in my yard.  I turned my electric blanket on high and went back to sleep until about 8:30 a.m., awake but not rested.

As a result, all I'm going to do the remainder of the day is go to the post office to mail some checks, return a library book and stop off at Ace, get some of those rubber spacers for my coat rack and take the new hand sander back and see if they can show me why I can't get that plastic dust canister cover to stay on.

Have to rest up for tomorrow and the grand opening of the new Goodwill in Longmont!  What have you got planned for the weekend?  Teddee

Painting Almost Completed

I decided yesterday to finish painting the south end of the cabin.  I tried hand sanding the Spackled areas and could see that wasn't going to work so went to Ace and purchased a small Black & Decker hand sander.

After draping the bunk area with drop cloths...

...I started sanding...







It got the job done but there were a couple of issues.  The "clear plastic housing of the [dust] canister" as referred to in the enclosed instructions, would not stay on.  Without it, apparently all of the dust was just going out into the room.  The canister, which was supposed to be emptied every five minutes, was totally empty at the end of the job and although the dust on the furniture was not intolerable, I did have to go over everything with a duster when I was finished.   I'm going to take it back to Ace and see how they'll handle this complaint. 

The other thing was that the sandpaper wore out almost immediately...

...I guess because 1) I'd already "damaged" the sandpaper when I bent it to insert it (why don't they make these sandpaper sheets with flexible edges that don't crack?), and 2) I was using the edge to get down into the cracks of the bead board, so was putting undue pressure on it.  I managed to get the worst of the rough Spackle sanded off with four pieces of sandpaper.

Then I started painting.  Of course I knew what to expect--pinstripes--but it seemed worse in this end of the cabin...

Prep always take longer than the actual project.  I didn't get started painting until 4 p.m.  The ceiling was the worst...

After I rolled the paint on I had to take the brush and try to fill in all the crevices.  I'd think I had them filled then I'd look at them from a different angle and could still see white.  In fact, even after all my repeated efforts, I can still see areas that I'm going to have to go back over perhaps with a very stiff artist's brush...or a cotton swab dipped in paint...or a toothpick!  I'm not sure, but I know I won't be happy until all of these white areas are covered with paint.

I even got the curtains taken down and window taped off and painted...

...and the door sort of painted.  I need to open the panels and the door itself and paint the edges. (My brother-in-law carves walking sticks and these are a couple he's left here that I've put in an umbrella stand I found in one of my thrift store forays).

Anyway, it looks pretty good...

I finished about 8 p.m. and then had to drag everything that I'd moved out to the deck back into the cabin in case the wind came up in the night or it finally decided to rain...

This photo should be labeled "In Search of the Perfect Shelf."  With the goal of displaying more porcelain, I've bought three shelves, each with the groove for plate display.  Does that have a name?  I'm almost at a point now where I can decide where, if anywhere, these might go and then I can paint them. 

I had painted the mirror in the foreground preparatory to taking it to Wild Bill's in Rollinsville.  It had been in perfect condition, but I thought the black paint would be better than the original dark green for resale.  I had just got it painted and Dixie knocked over the space heater and gouged out a little place so now I've got to fill that, sand it and repaint it. 

By the way, guess who returned today?

The Boyfriend cruised by earlier, cop shades firmly in place, when I was eating brunch out on the deck, Dixie at my feet.  I ignored him. 

I felt as if I'd been run over by a truck earlier today, but I think I might have enough umph now to trek some more of this wood over to the privacy fence and cord it up before our weather changes.  NOAA is still showing 20%-30% chance of rain and or snow right through Saturday starting tonight.

What projects are you checking off your list?  Oh, and to my few and reticent followers, you are allowed to comment!  Teddee

Don't Blink

The weather is changing so quickly these days that you don't want to blink or you'll feel it's the day before.  The snow we had day before yesterday is almost gone.  Here's the picnic table Monday...

...it was hard to believe I had been sitting here Sunday, reading, eating lunch and talking on the phone and getting too hot...

Now, here it is this morning, once again totally free of snow....

There's just a little snow left in the meadow...

 The corded wood...

...and the woodpile...

are free of snow and, in fact, I brought wood in from this pile yesterday and it burned readily.

I see no more snow in the NOAA forecast.  Our highs are heading into the low 50F degrees with lows in the 30s.

I took Dixie and drove to Boulder to do some errands yesterday.  Got the settlement check from Sears into the bank and dropped off a letter from the company that handles my Medicare drug coverage at my doctor's office.  It appears they might be willing to consider covering my non-Big-Pharma thyroid medication.  At least they are giving me a chance to have her write them a letter indicating not only do I feel better when using Armour bovine thyroid which, I believe, is cheaper than Synthroid, but I also don't have to take a second drug to effect the proper conversion of T4 to T3.  I noticed yesterday in the news that the internal medicine practitioners themselves are finally taking some steps to eliminate unnecessary tests and drugs.  Do you suppose someone somewhere is finally starting to look at these issues sensibly?

I didn't blog yesterday evening because I had waited until 9 p.m. for either Dixie's owner or her owner's boyfriend to come pick her up.  When I phoned her owner, the boyfriend answered and indicated Dixie's owner was not there.  I inquired whether I should drive Dixie home and he indicated in the affirmative.  When I got there...it's just up the street...he was outside and started raking me over the coals for allowing Dixie to come into my house.  I knew he'd been harboring resentment since last fall about picking her up he was always so petulant when he came.  So we got into a bit of a shouting match, with my indicating that if they'd keep their dogs inside not only would Dixie coming to my cabin not be an issue, but she'd still have four legs.  I think the thing that really got under my skin was that I realized after I got back home that Dixie's owner is actually out of the country on vacation...she had told me about her planned trip...and her boyfriend only found the fortitude to confront me about his resentment because she was gone. 

Anyway, no dogs today.  So I don't have to worry about going off and leaving Dixie sitting forlornly in the yard when I leave to go to Boulder to do laundry and, hopefully, I'll be able to start walking regularly again which I don't feel I can do with her trying to cripple along.  I woke up this morning realizing that I can always call the Sheriff and have both Dixie and Jimmy taken to the pound when they "trespass" and cause a barking nuisance on my deck if I continue being put in the wrong because these people are allowing their dogs to run free.  If we go back to our routine when Dixie's owner returns and I continue to get the attitude from the boyfriend I may be forced to point out this option.

Does your compassion for animals have unpleasant side effects?  Teddee

Change in the Weather

We had another beautiful day, but it appears from the forecast that we are heading into a major change.  The high today was forecast to be 60F degrees but I think it was higher than that....86F degrees in Denver.  Tomorrow's high is only expected to be 37F degrees and there is a 70% chance of snow.  I spent part of yesterday and part of today moving wood from that pile that I bought in February that had to be dumped in the deepest snow we'd received all winter to a stack I'm making against the privacy fence.  My neighbor lent me a wheelbarrow and it has gone much faster since.

This was where I left things yesterday afternoon.  I had to quit.  My back was really hurting...

And this is where I stopped today...

...so I'm making some progress.  I stopped today and took Dixie, who was waiting patiently...

...to Nederland.  We stopped by the post office and, I could hardly believe it, but I finally received the settlement check from Sears, dated February 21.  The stub on the check, dated February 20,  is addressed to my physical address where the claims adjuster knew I did not receive mail and it had a cover sheet, dated March 2,  indicating it should be shipped to a P.O. Box that bore no resemblance to my P.O. Box number at the Nederland Post Office.  What a botch-up from beginning to end.  And, of course, this is April 1, so this may not be the end...

Then I dropped off at the library's drop box that Elizabeth George novel Believing the Lie that I had finished by Saturday morning and we went to the spring for water.  When we got back, I had lunch and read for a bit out on the deck then had a long phone conversation with my brother in Tacoma during which we discussed the economy (Somewhere along the line in the last couple of weeks I read a neat little 147-page book by Robert Reich called Aftershock:  The Next Economy & America's Future that made the other Aftershock book make a lot more sense); the Teapot Dome Scandal (we neither one could remember exactly what that was about, but I found he was much closer than me once I did my on-line research.  I somehow had this mixed up with Tammany Hall...not); and the difference between what we enjoy reading and real literature (After a 40-year hiatus I'm tackling Lawrence Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet again. I think I'm also going to have to go on-line to get an answer to this last one as I think my immediate response..."If it's hard to read, it's literature"...probably isn't quite right on). 

I thought about transferring more wood, but after sitting out there in the heat for two hours, I couldn't keep my eyes open, so came inside and had a nap.  I think I'm still tired from Friday.

Did you have a productive yet restful Sunday?  Teddee

More Signs of Spring

It is really warming up again, thank goodness.  It was still very cold this morning.  I awoke early, about 5:30 a.m., got up and started the fire in the wood stove.  I read for a while but then got sleepy again and didn't make myself get up and put more wood in the stove.  By the time I got up the fire had gone out.  I had run out of fire starters so had to tear up a cardboard box for kindling.  I finally got a fairly decent fire going about noon and by that time it was starting to warm up.  According to NOAA we were supposed to have a high of  44F degrees today.  It's still 40F degrees at 6 p.m. so it probably got higher than that.

Dixie and Jimmy visited and, as usual, Jimmy left and Dixie stayed.  It was warm enough she was able to sleep on the floor.  About 3 p.m. I decided I needed to get water at the spring in Caribou Canyon so I cleaned up, loaded my water jugs and Dixie into the car.  First I went to the post office.  If you've followed my blog from the beginning you know I've been fighting with Sears since before Halloween trying to get them to make things right for some failed auto repairs made at their Longmont, Colorado, auto service center.  We had finally settled on a dollar amount and I had signed the release form February 17.  I've been waiting for the check since and was most recently told it would arrive today.  I was not surprised to find it was not there.  I'll give it another couple of days then start rattling their cage again.

Returned a book to the library and picked up two more, then went on to the spring.  Saw a fox on the way.  It is so nice to be able to actually set my jugs down and allow them to fill now that all the ice has thawed from around the spring.

One day I'll follow that pipe and see how it's rigged up to the water source.

On the way back to Nederland I saw a startlingly blue Mountain Jay.  I noticed it was a complementary color to the orange willow branches toward which it was flying.

I stopped at Ace and got fire starters then dropped Dixie off at the Blue Owl Bookstore.  I think the proprietor noticed I was wearing one of the new scarves I had purchased at her store last week.  I know.  I was only going to get one, but she did give me a reduced price.  Here's the one I wore today.

I think I'm going to have to touch up my scarf model's imperfections.  They are somewhat distracting.

I stopped at the supermarket and got one of the Wednesday night special broasted chickens for $4.99.  What a deal!

When I got home I unloaded the car.  I think I can start keeping some of this water outside.  It's supposed to get down to 25F degrees tonight, but with the highs in the high 40s and 50s coming up, I'm going for it.  It will be nice not to have this taking space up inside.

After that, I picked up the little trash wood left where my first wood pile was last fall.  It's wet now, but will dry quickly once inside by the stove and will make great kindling.

Apollo came to visit while I was unloading the car.  I think he smelled the chicken and, yes, he got some and, a first, he allowed me to pet him and scratch around his ears today.  Second breakthrough of the week with him.

Have you had a breakthrough recently?  Teddee

Unintended Birthday Hiatus

Where to start?  Yesterday was my birthday and I spent part of it here:

Saturday I had launched myself out of bed at 6:30 a.m. intent on being first in line at the University of Colorado Business School where, I'd been told in a phone conversation Wednesday, they would be able to do my taxes for free including an EZ Schedule C. 

I got the wood stove going to heat my water so I could wash up. Finally about 7:30 a.m. the water was warm enough to wash in.  I cleaned  up, dressed and, using my ski pole, climbed over the deck railing and made my way to the car fighting wind gusts.  The snow had drifted deeper south of the cabin but was still preferable to that on the west and the car was totally free of snow so I got out without shoveling. 

I drove to Boulder, made my way to the campus and found a free parking place which seemed like a good omen since parking is at a premium and most of the lots are parking by permit only.  It was also cold and windy in Boulder and I had to walk what seemed a quarter of a mile to the correct building..

I found the room in which the free tax services were being offered and after showing Susan, the supervisor, my paperwork was told, despite our phone conversation earlier in the week, that they could not do my taxes because I would be filing a business loss on my Schedule C.  I suggested I claim the income and forgo the expenses and was told that no way, no how were they going to enter into that arrangement and I really needed to find a CPA and do my taxes correctly.  I took an  instant dislike to Susan.

BUT Goodwill, which was having a 50% off Saturday, is just a block south of the Business School.  So I went to McDonald's, got take-out breakfast and swung back around to Goodwill and got that parking spot right in front of the front door again. I ran into a "junqueing" acquaintance I hadn't seen since last June and he told me where H&R Block was located. I drove there and dropped off all my income tax materials and made an appointment to return Sunday at noon.  It was so cold and windy, both in Eldora and Boulder, but, in addition to this spectacular view of the Flatirons, a Boulder landmark...

...I got good news.  A very sizable sizable refund and even though it cost me $225.50, and that included a $20-off coupon the preparer was nice enough to provide, she is also reviewing my 2010 tax return at no additional cost. 

Spring had sprung while I was having my taxes done, the wind had died down and it was sunny and warm and I celebrated my refund and my birthday by going to Aspen Leaf Yogurt in the same shopping center where numerous self-serve flavors of yogurt and a smorgasbord of toppings are available for 45 cents an ounce.  I got by for $3.39

When I got back to the cabin, the weather was equally pleasant here so I smoothed a little path from the south deck to the wood pile and brought in enough wood to fill the wood box and emptied the ashes, which just isn't something you want to try to do when it's as windy as it had been.

 

Started to blog but discovered I was unable to log onto my computer.  More about that tomorrow.  How did you spend your weekend?  Teddee

Freezing Live Gal

I heard through the grapevine while I was in Boulder today that the Frozen Dead Guy Festival was canceled because of high winds.  I can believe it.  This place has its own micro-climate. 

Last night was probably one of the coldest we've had all winter and here it is March.  I fell asleep reading with the lights on, my favorite jazz station KUVO streaming and the winds pounding.  Woke up about 1:30 p.m. and it was around 5F degrees outside.  The wind blew all night and my forehead and nose got so cold I had to put the covers over my head.  At 6:30 a.m. the outdoor thermometer was still showing 5F degrees so I don't know what the actual low was, but it was exactly 32F degrees inside the cabin.


I took these shots of blowing snow between Nederland and Eldora late this afternoon on my return trip from Boulder.  NOAA predicted winds as high as 50 mph but I think that's conservative:
 

 Sky full of blowing snow.

You can also see blowing snow in the air above and behind this, one of the few remaining, but abandoned, commercial buildings in Eldora. It was still open for business when I was a child.

The snow had really drifted into the cabin while I was gone.

This time my leftover coffee was frozen.  The temperature in the cabin was 27F degrees when I returned, and an hour later, having had the wood stove cranking the whole time, the water in the wash basin was still frozen as well.

NOAA says a low of 20F degrees tonight, but I have only about 17F degrees showing on my outdoor thermometer at 6 p.m.  Hopefully it's going to warm up during the night.

Are you living where coping with the weather is a major part of your life?  Teddee

85 mph Winds

It has been deceptively mild so far today and right now it is almost too quiet.  It had been windy this morning, but not intolerable because the temperature is almost 40F degrees (64F degrees in Denver).  But when I pulled up the NOAA forecast at about 8:30 a.m., I stopped everything--didn't even have my coffee--and immediately set about doing my outside chores.  We are supposed to get winds as high as 70 mph later today and 85 mph tonight.  If you hadn't had access to the forecast, the western sky might have been an indication:

 
Something happening up there on the Divide.

Tomorrow the temperature is forecast to drop precipitously (NOAA always slips in that little down arrow as a clue) from a high of 20 F degrees, which is supposed to be the overnight low tonight, to a low of 9F degrees with a wind chill Thursday night of -13. 

So I bundled up and got out and filled the wood box, emptied the slop bucket, the stale dishwater, some vegetable peels and the pot (You can see I'm using binder clips to keep the lid from blowing away)...

...and this is why you need a pot de chambre:

Brrrr!

After I'd cleaned up a bit, I got my sister's hiking ski pole and made my way out to the car through the snow drifts with the water jugs, three library books I had finished and an envelope containing a letter and some clippings for my brother. 

Stopped at the post office, where I think it was actually windier than it was here and the parking lot was an ice rink.  Waited behind a man who was picking up what must have been a pair of skis and a pair of boots based on the shape of the boxes and the REI logo.  Mailed the envelope to my brother, picked up my mail, skated back out to the car, made my way to the library, returned the three books I'd read and picked up three more. 

Drove from there up Caribou Canyon to the spring, another skating rink, and filled my water jugs...

...then stopped back by the supermarket where I bought a few things including a container of light sour cream to mix with some chipotle blue cheese dip I had purchased last week that is so hot I had to mix it half and half with something in order to eat it. 

I unloaded the car, four trips using the ski pole each trip, and put the meat in the cooler in the wood house, along with a very large piece of icicle...

...even though with these temperatures I probably don't need to worry.  Some country style pork ribs I'd had stored out there for at least two weeks are like a rock.

Fed this neighborhood dog, which I am having a lot of trouble befriending.

After all these months, he still will not allow me to touch him.  I think he is having a bad tail life.


So, I've got the fire going again and am finally having my coffee with some veggie chips and diluted chipotle blue cheese dip for lunch...[Those hot peppers sure are making the coffee taste odd]...and I'm just waiting for the winds.  The western sky is getting more and more menacing:

What are you waiting for?  Teddee