Still kicking-July 31, 2013

I wanted to touch base and let you know we are still alive and kicking. In spite of several cloudy, misty, windy days we have been busy. The heat returns starting today but we still have lots to do. We have only one more major project to do on the coach. We are still babysitting every chance we get. The garden is getting close to time for canning. Oh, joy! So life goes on and time is short. Hope you all are well and happy. I hope some free time allows us to become tourists soon. Enjoy your day and take time to smell the roses.

Good Mexican Food-July 27, 2013

It was a busy day for everybody. While the men took firewood and scrap concrete to the county dump, I cut and froze string beans. Too bad I won't get to taste my hard work! Then on a whim we went to a new Mexican restaurant in Fort Collins. It is called Hacienda Real. It was very, very good. We are glad we took a chance. The service was excellent. When we got home Hannah noticed the horses in the pasture next to us. She loves the horses and will "talk" to them for as long as someone will hold her.

I didn't realize it was too dark to take a picture. I'm sharing it in hopes you can

figure out that this is Jerry holding Hannah while she talked to the horses. It was one of

the sweetest sights I have seen in a very long time. These two people adore each other. Squint and maybe you can see them talking to the horse which ignored them both.

 

I was closer here so it is easier to see. Sweet little girl. Nice man who has turned

into a terrific grandfather.

 

It was fun to try a new place to eat. Now someone has the idea we need to try another new place tomorrow. We don't normally eat out two days in a row, but life is short, so why not?

 

Have a wonderfully blessed Sunday!



 

Veteran's Memorial-July 24, 2013

We have driven past the Weld County Veteran's Memorial in Greeley a number of times and did not have time to stop. Today we took the time. It is a very nice memorial. For each war there is a printed list of every Weld County resident who served. That had to be a job to compile.

 

 

This was dedicated to one particular soldier. Since it is the only one like this

I would assume his family paid for the bronze statue. It's very nice.

 

This was dedicated to Huey helicopter #091 which stopped at this spot in 2004

on its way to the Smithsonian Institute.

 

This bronze eagle is beautiful and it's very big. I love this statue most of all.

 

This memorial is a very nice tribute to those who served our country. I'm so glad we stopped today.

 

 

 

Storm cloud-July 21, 2013

Here I go with more cloud pictures. Again, I could not resist because we were affected by this one. It took three pictures to try to capture one single cloud. The cloud was over Adams county and produced some nasty weather. I saw the cloud and went inside to tell Jerry somebody was about to get some bad weather. Within 2 minutes the warning came on TV telling people to take cover and be aware the hail would damage cars. We watched this cloud grow and change for almost an hour.

 

Remember this is just one cloud. I needed a panorama camera.

 

The wind that came out of this cloud, though it was not over us, was shocking. It was an effort to  batten down the hatches and get ourselves back indoors. Our view south of here was obliterated by blowing dirt. The wind howled for a very long time. The garden survived but the flowers did not. Several were broken over. And sadly, the pomegranate I posted a picture of yesterday was blown off. There are still three left plus a number of blooms. We hope today is much calmer. 

Pomegranate update-July 20, 2013

While we sit here resting before we go inside to babysit we are listening to some really loud thunder from a storm near Fort Collins. Looks bad over that way. We finished slide awning number 3 today. The only one left is the smallest one so we don't dread it. I took some pictures of our pomegranate tree and our blossoming strawberries.

Remember when it was just a pretty bloom? It's about the size of a cherry tomato. We have four of these on the tree with at least two dozen more healthy blooms. The tree is not big enough yet to support many more actual pomegranates. We'll take what we can get. This is a dwarf tree so we will never have fruit as big as you find in the grocery store, but it will still be edible.

 

 

We are extremely pleased with the progress of these strawberry plants. We will only get about a dozen strawberries this year, but if protected properly from winter weather, these should be good plants next year. Guess we'll have to come back next year to enjoy the berries.

 

I hope tomorrow is a wonderfully peaceful day and you can enjoy some great relaxation. We are definitely resting tomorrow. It has been a busy week of work. 

 

Mo Better Gumbo-July 19, 2013

A decision was made tonight to eat Cajun food at Mo Better Gumbo in downtown Loveland. The wait was long and I have no idea why. As any of you who follow this blog know we have eaten tons of true Cajun food. This was not Cajun. They did not know to make etouffe with a roux. They just used a watered down soup. The red beans and rice were so hot they had no flavor except spice. Just dreadful. True Cajun food is very flavorful and Tabasco is in a bottle on the table so you can make the food as hot as you wish, or not. Service was very slow. Now we are both hungry for some of that fabulous Cajun food in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana. I asked about the bread pudding and the waitress told me it was actually cake. What??? Evidently the people of Loveland have never eaten true Cajun food because the place was very busy and people were eating like they had been fasting for a week. How sad. We do not recommend this restaurant in any way. We look forward to next weekend so we can find some place good to eat.

Other than the bad food, we had a really good day. I helped Jerry with one of the slide awnings today. So, two are totally finished. Number three is being worked on. And the last one is a smaller one. We'll get there. That will be one more item off of the to-do list.

The humidity is still very high but the temps were lower today. And no thunderstorms.

Checking in-July 17, 2013

I wanted you know we are still alive and kicking. We have finally started on our medical and dental appointments which was one reason for this extended stay. So far, so good. Jerry has been helping with the property irrigation. I try to help with the meals on weekends. There's not enough time during the week for us to eat together. Jerry is working on repairing and replacing the awnings on the slides. It really needed to be done. I crawled on the floor on all fours this morning with Hannah. I chased her for a while. Then she chased me. She was giggling the whole time. I was gasping for breath!! I think there is an age limit to crawling on the floor with a toddler. And I have reached it. After that I put her in her stroller which I call her ATV. And we walked a great portion of this lot. That is, until I found where the irrigation water was running and it overflowed my shoes. I had on Crocs so there was no harm done and the water was really warm. The two of us would love to head to the mountains but we don't seem to find spare time to do that. The weather has been very hot and extremely humid. I think it is supposed to cool down and dry out on Friday. Happy day! Then back to the 100 degree temps on Monday.

I hope you are all hanging in there, too!!

Finally, some rain-July 12, 2103

The humidity was so high this morning we felt like we were on the Gulf coast. We almost could not breathe. We got our errands run and by the time we returned home, it was even worse. Then out of the blue a rain storm moved in. Lots and lots of wind, an acceptable amount of rain, some pretty lightning and no hail. Two of our wheel covers were blown off, flipped over and filled with rain. They will dry, no problem. The temperature has dropped close to 20°. It feels wonderful. After the rain quit I saw that Derrick's garden suffered a tad.

 

It is bothersome to see one's hard work affected by desperately needed rain. But, that's life.

The rest of the garden did well. The white "tents" cover newly planted spinach.

 

We are so thankful for this storm that blew through here. We needed the moisture so badly. Everything really smells good now. We were going to a Cajun restaurant in Loveland tonight but decided to relax and enjoy the change in weather. There's always next week.

 

Hot-July 11, 2013

It was a mere 100° today with very strong winds. We went out and about early and came back to stay in a/c for the rest of the day. We are hoping for a cooler day tomorrow so we can get out and go somewhere.

Looking up-July 10, 2013

I am always looking up, not down. Therefore I see interesting clouds when others probably would never notice them. Tonight as we were coming back from Lucky Fins in Greeley with Derrick's neighbors, I saw this:

What this says to me is that someone is getting a pretty good thunderstorm. That's the lumpy

cloud underneath. The clouds on top indicate very strong winds aloft. Together they form a cumulonimbus cloud.  I suspect this is going on near Cheyenne, Wyoming. I think this is a pretty cloud above good looking fields of pinto beans and beyond that, a nice healthy field of corn.

 

 

We spent some time with Hannah this morning. She continues to make us laugh and we enjoy her so much. She's a really good little girl so babysitting is not hard at all. We love how she communicates with us. It is unique to us. Such fun. She got to crash and take a nap. We had things we had to do and could not nap. It was really hot and dry today. And very, very windy. The people in California need to stay in their houses so all that hot air will not continue to flow across the Rockies! Sorry.

 

Sprinkles today-July 6, 2013

We babysat little Hannah at 9:00 this morning. She played so hard that she crashed for an early nap at 11:00 AM. Bless her heart. We will sit with her again tonight. I have tried a new dessert to go with our pork chop dinner tonight. Have you ever had the Applewood smoked pork chops from Sam's? They are delicious and so easy to prepare. This is our third day in a row to get some sprinkles. No bad storms, just short little rains. Very nice. It keeps the temps down and is helping the dry grass. The pomegranate tree loves this climate.

This cute tree started out as a single stem about 6 inches long.

It's certainly come a long way.

 

Not all blooms become fruit. The big one near the top is already taking on the shape

of a pomegranate. The entire bloom becomes a pomegranate. Nothing falls off.

 

This has been a busy week. We are starting to think this is our new way of life. We used to be retired and slow. No more!



 

May your Sunday be restful and blessed.

Colorado Rockies game-July 4, 2013

Yesterday was a short day because we had to leave at 3:30 to get to the Rockies game on time. Traffic was unbelievable so it's good we left early. This was not our first Rockies game but it was our first to see fireworks afterward. The Rockies lost to the Dodgers 10-8 so it was closer than some games have been. The stadium was packed to capacity with 48,000 people. In the baseball world it is a tiny stadium but it is such a pretty complex. A great deal of thought and money went in to it's construction. Now for some pictures.

This was before the traffic got bad.

 

Parking lots beginning to fill. It's a long walk from the parking lot to the stadium.

 

That's a pretty big flag.

 

Play ball!

 

It took 30 minutes to move thousands of fans out of the stands and onto the field for the fireworks.

It's a good thing they did because the debris fell into those seats.

 

Needs no explanation, does it?

 

 

All of this fun caused a 1:30 AM bedtime. We are a bit long in the tooth to handle that well. We are really dragging this morning. Fortunately nobody has to work today.

 

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

 

 

 

 

 

Are you bored yet?-July 1, 2013

Oh my, where did June go, not to mention January thru May? Today we went to Fort Collins to buy a couple of birthday presents. By the time we got home they became Christmas gifts and we now have something else planned for birthdays. It was a nice day. We babysat with Hannah this afternoon. She is so full of energy and so much fun we had a great time. So did she, we are sure.

Now I must bore you with one more sunset shot. I simply cannot resist.

I will venture out on a limb and say I suspect somebody got rain out of these clouds. It may have been Cheyenne, WY. I think all of these sunsets are among God's greatest creations.

 

Tomorrow is a trip to Sam's Club for all of us. Plus we have to stop and order a new awning for our left front slide. It was torn the Saturday we went to Longmont for the wedding. There was some really rough wind here. The awning is all that was damaged fortunately. We will have a busy day tomorrow.