Everyday Mountain Chores

When I was at the cabin last weekend, I tried to remember to take some photos of just the everyday chores one does in this rustic environment.  If you've followed my blog for some time, much of this will not be new.  

One of the first things I did was make up a pan of sugar syrup for the hummingbirds.  It took them a couple of days to realize the feeder was full again.  I really hate the fact that I'm not there full time now to keep it filled consistently.

I took these through the screen.  This is old screen wire and I can still capture an image through it.  I've noticed that the new screens prevent this.  There only seemed to be a couple of hummingbirds feeding.  I know it's recommended that we stop feeding on Labor Day to encourage them to move on so they don't get caught in an early freak storm.

I drove to the spring to fill the water jugs on Friday afternoon late...

...I didn't want to wait until Saturday and get caught in the bicycle race traffic.  Stage 6 of the 2012 USA Pro Challenge had invaded both Boulder and Nederland and it was one reason I decided to just get out of Boulder as it appeared the race would have the town in lockdown for much of Saturday and I knew the road through Nederland would be totally blocked for whatever period of time it would take the racers to clear the town.  In addition, Nederland was having a music festival, which would have made traffic bad enough.

I put off doing dishes until Monday, the day before I left, because I was busy doing other, more fun, things.  Luckily it was a nice day, not raining, so I was able to move the entire operation out on the picnic table where I had plenty of space and could wash, rinse, drain and splash at will...

It was a lovely setting...the ox-eye daisies, which I've discovered are considered a noxious weed!, were still beautiful although I could see they were starting to fade and probably would be gone the next time I came up...

I also took the time to thoroughly clean this little electric hot plate...

(Note the animal path in the grass)

I needed all my tools, an old toothbrush, SOS pad and a cleaning rag and hot soapy water, to get this job accomplished and I thought I'd been pretty good about wiping it off every time I did dishes.  If we ever need to replace this I'm going to see if they make them so you can remove the heating elements.  It would sure make the task easier.

Also had a brief visit from Dixie, but didn't get her photo before her owner's boyfriend came in search of her.  They had promised not to let her run loose, since he was openly resentful about having to pick her up every evening during the winter.  I guess they hadn't realized I was in residence.  Anyway it was good to see her, and Jimmy came shortly thereafter and had some kibble...

I had got brown paint on this little stool when I was painting the inside of the cabin so took the time to sand the top down and spray it white...

...I've discovered that if I put the small items I'm painting inside a cardboard box I don't have to put down a tarp or drop cloth or a plastic bag to protect the surrounding area.

And I hung this little plaque, which I'd found thrifting at some point, above the south window...

It's made of plaster, so I hope I got it up there securely enough that when the cabin starts shifting in the winter winds, it stays put.

That's about it.  I did capture one dramatic western sky at sunset...

So, goodbye for now, little cabin...

I'm sorry to leave you alone.  Teddee

Back at the Cabin

This is the longest I've been away from the cabin since last July.  This time last year I was getting ready to drive back from visiting my brother in Tacoma.  During this current hiatus I've actually made some major strides toward making the apartment in Boulder livable.  The big game changers were a couple of small pieces of furniture I got half price last Saturday at a Goodwill in Lafayette, Colorado.  It's hard to convey how this little settee...

...and matching chair...

...have actually changed my life at the apartment.  Because I have no seating in the rest of the apartment except for the one straight-backed chair I blogged about in my last post, I have used these two pieces of furniture to transform my tiny balcony into a really pleasant place to sit, have my morning coffee or an afternoon cold drink, read and just people watch.  

The latter activity I learned to enjoy from my maternal grandmother who could, and did, weave wonderful stories about all of the people we would see on Saturday afternoons in the closest town to our farms where people still said they were going into town to "do their trading," a leftover phrase from earlier years in which they actually did take their eggs and cream and trade them for groceries.  

We didn't link up with my grandparents every Saturday afternoon, but when we did, my sister and I would pile into their car and listen with fascination as my grandmother pointed out one citizen or another as they went about their business or met up with and talked to other area residents and concocted interesting, usually funny and often irreverent stories about what they were saying and doing.

But back to the "furniture that changed my life."  First off, I almost didn't get the settee moved from the store.  I had to make two trips back to Lafayette, one on Sunday during which I did get the chair in the back seat, but determined the settee simply would not fit inside the car.  On the second trip, which I made on Monday morning, the attendant in pick-up and receiving, managed to get just the back of the settee into the car trunk and with the help of two bungee cords, which he provided, made it quite secure for the trip back to Boulder.  I wrestled both pieces into the apartment building, onto the elevator and down the long hall to my apartment.  The chair was not a problem, but the settee almost got the better of me.  My arm is still not healed, but as long as I keep it below my waist, my strength seems pretty good.

I'm not finished "decorating" the balcony, but have confirmed I can put in a work order and have maintenance come and hang things on the balcony walls.  Right now, I've created a couple of vignettes that have made this small space seem a little more like a room...

I put this artificial topiary, which is in a white pot, inside this rusty bucket and teamed it up with these similarly colored candlesticks, raising one by placing it on another up-turned candle holder of the same color and fronting it with a green metal fern-like votive holder that picks up the green in the topiary.  This is on top of the air conditioning unit and I hope I'm not told I can't place anything on the a/c unit.  I may just move this when maintenance comes to hang the things I want hung on the walls.

This metal owl, which I built up by placing it on a metal can..

...and what I guess must be a metal wine carrier complement each other and are on the floor next to the chair, along with a couple of brown bottles in which I put small strands of white holiday lights right after I moved into the cabin.  They are very romantic at night.


All of this goes with the fabric that's on the chair and settee now which I'm not finding that objectionable.  I will eventually sand and repaint the wood and am thinking of recovering the seats with this fabric...

All of this stuff was in my Boulder storage unit and had been piled in the living room, so it was fun to find a use for it and not have to give it away.


In addition to the lights in the brown bottles, I found these grapevine lights...

...that I had tucked away in storage.  They look cute draped over the back of the settee, but aren't practical here since you can't lean back on them.  I've determined we can have lights on the balcony railing so will probably affix them there even though there aren't enough of them to cover the entire railing.


I also made this artificial succulent arrangement...

...in a container I found in storage and put it in this plant stand that I bought from another cabin owner the first summer I was in Eldora at a moving sale.  I put this bamboo wine holder up behind it to provide some height in this corner behind the settee.  I had purchased these succulents at a wonderful store in Phoenix called Crown Imports before I moved from Arizona.  They specialize in very high-end (and high-priced!) artificial florals and these were fun to work with.  It had been years since I'd made a floral arrangement and I had no floral wire or picks and no wire cutters, but managed to produce something I like.  

I also created this little side table out of a folding base I had and a bamboo tray.  I had intended to bring the tray up here to the mountains and spray paint it black but forgot.  Perhaps the green picks up those touches of green in the candle vignette and the floral arrangement?  And I also want to work in this quixotic life preserver.  I don't know if this is a real life preserver or a prop of some sort, perhaps made for a prom or something, but it caught my eye.  Right now I have it hanging on the balcony railing, but I originally had it hanging on the back of the chair and think that's where it will end up.

Among the things I had in storage, I also found these metal leaf cut-outs and this beautiful piece of sari fabric...

 
I think I'm going to have maintenance hang the two metal art pieces along the west side of the sliding glass door, one above the other, and, because there is a metal girder that runs all along the patio roof right in front of the door, I think I'm going to get two or three expandable curtain rods and have them wedge those in between the wall and the girder and drape the fabric over those so it wafts in the breeze like orange sails.  I don't seem to get much wind inside the balcony.  There was a pretty strong wind blowing the afternoon and evening I was working on this and at least from the direction it was blowing it didn't seem as if it would blow things down or away the way the winds do here in the mountains.  

I hope these maintenance guys are good tempered!  I also want them to hang a mirror, which you can sort of see in this photo...

 

...which is just setting on floor next to the settee right now, and a large metal leaf candle holder (not shown) on the wall behind the plant stand.

Well, while I've been trying to create this blog and waiting and waiting, as usual, for my photos to upload, I've used the weed whacker on the weeds around the cabin.  The drought seems to be over up here in the mountains...my neighbor tells me they have been getting rain almost every day...and everything has greened up very nicely, and grown like...weeds.  I could hardly find the fox bowl when I arrived yesterday...

...and, in fact, it was raining and we were without electricity for about an hour after I arrived.  

I did not see Vixen at all the last time I was here just for a few hours, but she came just a bit ago.  I heard something really crunching the kibble I'd put out and had moved up on the deck while I attacked the weeds.  When I checked, it was she...

...I gave her a couple of eggs and two small pieces of chicken that had been in the refrigerator at the apartment too long and which I had deliberately brought up here for her.  Her coat is so strange.  Very sparse and curly.  If she doesn't get a better coat before cold weather I don't see her surviving the winter.

It has grown quite dark so I think we're probably in for more rain.  I'm glad I got the weeds "whacked."  I've got to bring in some things I've been spray painting and I'll blog more about those and some other things I've done here at the cabin since I arrived as well as some decorating I did in the apartment bedroom last week.  My internet subscription here in Eldora ceases at the end of July and I may not be able to arrange for internet at the apartment for a couple of weeks, so I'll try to cram in as much as possible before I dismantle the computer and move it to the apartment on Tuesday.

More later, Teddee

Signs of Summer

My concern over a possible missing spring, as referenced in the directions accompanying the replacement spools of nylon line for my Craftsman Weedwacker, was allayed when I plugged in the battery pack this morning and the trimmer worked fine...

This really needed doing worse than I realized.  I could have baled hay...

So, I've done what passes for lawn mowing here and things do look a lot better...

I also trimmed a lot of dead out of this wild rose bush that grows at the corner of the deck...

I love what I thought were wild sweet peas, but see they are Yellow Banner Plant, Thermopsis rhombifolia, so trimmed around them.  I can't believe how quickly they've come and gone.  Everything here at this altitude has a very short lifespan to fit into the short growing season...

I made sun tea today with Celestial Seasonings Acai Mango Sweet Zinger Ice Tea...

...Isn't this a gorgeous color?  I didn't note that it was already sweetened with stevia and added more stevia when I had some for lunch.  Sweet!

When I was rummaging in the woodshed yesterday, I uncovered this wind chime I'd found at a thrift store some time last year and tucked away...

 ...It joins this bamboo chime I bought the first year I was here.  I tried dozens before I decided this one wouldn't annoy anyone.  It has a very gentle tone, but does have a tendency to get very tangled when the winds are strong.  I try to remember to just take it down during those times.

I also found my succulent wreath...artificial...that I bought at Goodwill last year for $2.99! 

 
Do you know how much each of these succulent plants costs at the thrift stores?  I was sure the person who priced this was not a craft store patron.  Some of these are taking on that strange turquoise hue some artificial greens turn when exposed to intense sunlight.  Next year, if this survives another summer, I might try to figure out a way to tone those down.  I'm not sure paint is the answer.  I'll have to experiment.  I've been looking for real hens and chicks for weeks in all of the garden centers and haven't found any.  They'll winter up here because I've seen them in plantings around some cabins.  I may have to ask for a starter plant.


It looks like summer to me, but NOAA is predicting a low of 38F degrees tonight and 35F degrees Sunday night with winds gusting between 24-26 mph.  I'll need a fire!   Teddee

Thanks Again, Walmart

Although I think Sam Walton's children have too much money and Walmart employees don't have enough, I'm hard pressed, as a Walmart customer, to find much to complain about.  

Yesterday I pulled together, for return, all the bits and pieces of a double curtain rod I had purchased several weeks ago at Walmart thinking it was exactly what I needed for the draperies I have planned for the bunk beds here in the cabin.  I'd even spotted it in April and waited until I got my May Social Security check to buy it because it wasn't inexpensive.  

Yes, I knew it was intended for wall mounting, but with my usual spatial deficiencies, I could not visualize, until I got it out of the packaging and tried it, that ceiling mounting simply wouldn't work.  Both curtains would have been on the same plane instead of one behind the other!  

It was packaged in that really hard shell-like plastic and I absolutely had to cut the packaging into shreds in order to access it.  There were two rods, three supports and all the plugs and screws necessary for mounting.  I wouldn't have been surprised if they had refused to accept it for return even though I had my receipt, but when I drove it back to the Longmont Walmart and took it to customer service, they didn't blink an eye and gave me cash back.  

I also noted, and heard one of the Customer Service clerks comment to that effect, that they're no longer waylaying people coming back into the store with merchandise for return and marking it.  I stood around at the entrance for a bit waiting for someone to descend on me with the familiar stickers, and finally gave up and walked the curtain rod, cut up packaging and zip-lock baggie full of bits and pieces to Customer Service unchallenged.  That was a plus.

Although there were numerous items I needed, I knew I could easily have spent my entire refund, so went for the critical things....a broasted chicken to keep me and the foxes in protein and...some cover-up for my black eye.  The bruising is drifting south.  My dark glasses no longer cover it and I'm tired of trying to see inside in dark glasses and of getting those looks.  I had stopped at Walgreens and they had nothing...pancake make-up seems to be a thing of the past...but Walmart had this terrific cover-up...

I'll tell you, if they sold this in those five-gallon white spackle pails, I'd start using it on my entire body!


Here's my eye as of today with no make-up...

...here it is with my regular make-up base...

...and here it is with Glamoflauge...

I think it's a lot better.  At least it makes me feel less self-conscious even though that lump above my eyebrow doesn't seem to be getting any smaller and is still numb.


This was a really busy day.  It was warm and sunny, but too windy to paint, so I decided to put the oil cloth on the very weathered wooden picnic table and benches...

I was able to do this, tipping the table over on its head, cutting out the oil cloth and affixing it to the furniture, using the electric stapler, without pain to my injured arm, but by the time I got to the last bench, I noticed that my right arm muscles were trembling and not really obeying brain signals very well.


So I was ready to call it a day, then my neighbor, working with another resident whom I didn't know, came and took the old hide-a-bed away for the free Nederland trash pick-up tomorrow.  I suffered blog fog and forgot to take a picture of it riding away in the back of the pick-up with a bunch of other junk.  Then, he and his wife decided they were ready to take some of the free furniture they are cleaning out of these other cabins down to my apartment.  

Here is the chest of drawers, which the previous owner obviously had started to paint or prime, sitting on my neighbors' patio waiting to be loaded into the truck...

The hardware came with it, but I may eventually opt for something else.

I had loaded my car earlier in the day with stuff to take to the apartment and also needed to take my June rent down, so I led the way to the apartment building, and after my neighbors ran an errand, they returned and unloaded everything and put together the computer desk...

...I've even managed to get a television set out of this although I've been without T.V. for so long now I'm not sure I want to get back in the habit, and the apartment is right across from the Boulder Library.

Yesterday when I was in Longmont I stopped at Goodwill and was unusually sensible and disciplined in my shopping.  I saw four engraved water goblets in that color of glass I love...bronze? champagne?  They were $2 each and I thought, I can get 1.5 Cheap Chickens on Wednesdays for that, so passed them up.  Instead, I got a small bathroom waste basket and one of these shower caddies...

...you can see I just ripped the purple tag off of it, hung it over the shower head and I can't tell you what a thrill it was, after two years, to be able to hang up my bath brush...yes, it's actually a clothes brush but the bristles on the brushes usually sold for the bath are way too soft for me...and my wash cloth and to put my soap and shampoo in place.  I hope whoever patented these caddies got rich...they sure are useful.  I had seen a very snazzy chrome version at Goodwill in Boulder a couple of months ago, but didn't know if or when I'd get an apartment so didn't buy it.  Now I'm sorry I didn't nab it. 

My neighbors headed on back to Eldora and I stayed and had a shower then drove back.  Vixen was waiting for me...relaxing in the in the yard.  She ate and took off, and I just looked out the west window and saw this wonderful sky...

red sky at night sailor's delight...so had to get a quick shot.  When I opened the door, Valentino was waiting for chicken, so he's been fed too.  All's right with the world and I am exhausted and heading for bed.  Teddee

Plain Vanilla

I took a carload of stuff to the apartment in Boulder yesterday morning.  Luckily, because this building I'm moving into caters to the elderly (who, me?) and truly disabled, they have some grocery carts that remain on site and I was able to roll one of these to my car, load it up, push it into the elevator and all the way to my unit and unload it...

...which made it so much easier with this injured arm.  It took three trips from the car to the apartment, after which I took the long awaited hot shower, drove home, took a pain pill and took to my bed.


This morning I awoke to this...

It's melting and blowing off fairly rapidly.  It's about 40F degrees, but we're going to have lows in the 30F degrees off and on through Sunday so we might get even more snow.  NOAA predicts a high of 59F degrees on Monday, Memorial Day, however.


Yesterday I took some photos of what my brother called my "plain vanilla" apartment after I described it to him in a phone conversation.  And it is, but I've rented so much of my life that the white walls and beige carpet don't bother me.  They are just neutrals against which to display your owns tastes. 


So, here is the kitchen...

I was told these are new appliances and they appear to be.  The tote bag on the pass-through contains some plates I had yet to determine what to do with here in the cabin so they and some matching mugs are going to a new home.  Not too happy about the exposed concrete block and trying to think how I'll hang anything from that.


This is the bathroom...

 

I managed to get the shower curtain up with my left arm...

 

There's plenty of storage.  Thank goodness they had not replaced the sink with a pedestal sink and there is open shelf storage in the bathroom...

 

 

...and this entire little room which, knowing me, I'll have packed to the gills...

 

 The above photo refuses to center.  Wonder why?

This is the bedroom.  Small, but with a decent-sized closet, especially when you have had no closet for two years...

 

This cord hanging from the switch at the left is an emergency call button.  There's another one in the bathroom exactly where I'd expect the light switch to be.  I wonder how many times I'm going to mistakenly flip these before I get accustomed to them?

Here's the dining/living room.  More than adequate lighting and I don't abhor ceiling lights like some people do... 

And my most favorite part...

...the view from the tiny balcony.

So, that's it.  Here's my eye update...

...Day Three. The actual point of impact above my eyebrow is more obvious now.  I don't know if my eye looks better or worse.  I know my body feels worse today than it did yesterday.  I think it must be like over-exercising.  You are always sorer two days later than you are the very next day.  I'm going on the assumption it's not that I'm continuing trying to move piecemeal.  I figure if I avoid doing anything that hurts, I'll be OK, and so far, the things that hurt are rolling over and getting out of bed, trying to rearrange the bed clothes at night, getting dressed, inserting and turning the car key in the ignition and shifting gears.  I seem to be able to lift if I don't go over waist high, but reaching, or reaching and lifting, with my right arm are totally out of the question. I was having trouble getting my camera up at the right level to take photos and even keyboarding is a little difficult.

Well, it's still spitting snow, but most of the snow has melted off.  There is still a little on the deck.  I've fed the fox.  I missed her last evening so that's one thing off my mind.  I'm trying not to think about not being here daily to feed her, but hope I've seen her through a rough patch and that she'll go back to hunting when I can't be here on a regular basis.  I took the hummingbird feeder down on the west side of the cabin yesterday evening and don't think I had a bear visitation last night, but it was raining heavily, then snowing, so if it had any sense it just didn't venture out.

I've loaded several tote bags full of small numbers of books and magazines (heavy) into the car and will add a few more things, then make another run to Boulder today.  More later, Teddee