Spring...with a call of snow for Monday

Yesterday, I planted our starts for the garden and they are now incubating in our back bedroom. I am excited to see the plants pop up through the soil.



We hope to have even more food from our garden than last year!  We've planted yellow squash, zuchini, hubbard squash, eggplant, peas, beans, heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, 2 types of basil, cilantro, sweet peppers, hot peppers, beets and more.

Yesterday afternoon, the news announced that there is a forecast of snow for Sunday night!  Luckily, we have just planted these little seeds in start flats and didn't plant them directly in the soil.   Hard to believe snow is in the forecast, we've been enjoying some beautiful sunny, spring days.



Our tulips are rocking right now!  It is so cheery to see them as you arrive at our home.

Below is a picture of Maddy and Shelby playing.



Maddy has been getting out and seeing some other friends, but I do think she misses having another dog to play with when she's just hanging out at home.  Seeing the two of them play together makes us think of getting another dog!  But, one is plenty and she has loads of friends to play with so she will remain in a one dog family.

Thanks Phil!!!!

You are an awesome brother to maintain this blogsite for us and I am really EXCITED to have the ability to post pictures back on the blog!!!!!

Maddy and Shelby

Maddy has been LOVING life...she has a new best friend here at Ron and Naomi's house.  Shelby is also a labrador retriever mix, but a blonde and slightly smaller version of Maddy.



They have been playing and playing...

We made it!

After leaving Almont, CO early Friday morning we finally arrived this morning at about 5:30 a.m.  Maddy enjoyed having her head out the window for the majority of the trip.  We still don't know how she can keep her eyes wide open when we are going 70 mph! and for long periods of time!  At some point in the afternoon when we got off the freeway in Hays, Kansas to get gas, we happened to hear that when we applied pressure to the brakes that there was a  loud metal on metal sound coming from the left rear tire.  Turns out the pad was worn away.  We found a mechanic in town who said we wouldn't be able to get it fixed today, maybe on Wednesday!  We called around to find someone near a computer and J-P helped us to find some phone numbers of mechanics in towns we were headed towards.  No one was going to be open on Saturday.  So we called Sara and we got a phone number to a Firestone in Kansas City, KS who was going to be open at 7 a.m. Saturday morning.  Since that was only option we continued to drive the rest of the way across Kansas trying to use our brakes as little as possible.

We made it into Kansas City about 9:30 p.m. and found a sketchy hotel to stay in for more money than we really wanted to pay.  We ended up staying in a room that was too far away to have access to the free wireless internet and I was a bit worried about the safety of the contents of our car, but the woman at the front desk said not to worry.  Everything is on video surveillance.   So we stayed the night.

Woke up early and arrived at the Firestone shop about 6:40 a.m. and as luck would have it they were all ready open.  So we dropped the car off and they replaced all the brake pads and the two rotors in the back.  After we wandered the neighborhood for hours because dogs are not allowed in the shop and wishing that I hadn't taken off my long underwear because I thought it was springtime elsewhere in the country our car was finally ready and we were back on the road by noon.  The best part of the deal was our lunch...across the street from the shop was El Pollo Rey, a very authentic looking Guatemalan/Mexican eatery...smoke billowing out of the vent on the side of the building that emitted the aroma of smoked chicken and had been tempting us since about 7:30 in the morning.  Mat went over to see what we could get and you had two choices: 1/2 a chicken or a whole chicken.  We got the 1/2 a chicken and so they hacked off our portion.  They also gave you some warm tortillas, beans and rice. Mat brought it all back for us to eat and it was delicious!

Then we got in the car and drove until 5:30 this morning.  Which around 9:30 p.m. I could no longer stay away except for brief periods and then for a couple hours at the tail end of our trip.  Mat is amazing that he was able to stay awake and get us back here.  We are staying at Mat's parents for the week until the people we have renting our house move out.

Visit to Delta - End of February 2008

     Wednesday morning I wasn’t sure if we were going to be able to get on the road or not.  We were waiting to hear from the Tire Shop to see if our wheel had arrived.  They told us that it probably would not arrive until around 1 p.m. by UPS.  Around 9:30 a.m. we got a call letting us know the wheel was there and that we could come by anytime to have it put on the car.  Yeah! 

       We decided to take Maddy to the doggie ranch first without all of our stuff packed into the car, so she would not know what we were up to.  Mat took Maddy for a walk and I put Maddy’s food and dog bed in the car.  Then we loaded her up for the trip to Crested Butte.  We dropped her off and went back home to pack up our stuff then got on the road by about 2:30 or so.  The trip went pretty quickly to Delta as the roads were all clear.  Luckily, we didn’t end up taking any detours on our trip unlike the other travelers of the day, Sarah & Rachel.      Thursday we got to hang out with Sarah and Rachel for awhile while the parents’ were at work and then Sarah and Rachel drove Dad over to Richfield so that Spencer could check on Dad’s leg pain.  Mat and I barely finished up our taxes by the time Mom got home from work.       On Friday, we borrowed mom and dad’s hometeacher’s van and Mat drove us all to SLC for an acupuncturist appointment.  After the appointment, we went to Provoto play with the Scoville Family.  We had loads of fun at the park playing with Lily and Oscar.  They knew lots of the little kids there.  After a nice spaghetti dinner with french bread the family loaded back up in the van for the drive home.  Mom, Dad, Sarah and Rachel were able to watch a movie on the way back.  (We found it was easier to keep them out of each other’s hair and stop the fighting by providing this distraction! J)  Joking, it was just an extra luxury that was in the van.        Mat and I ate lots of delicious cinnamon rolls while we were there.  Thanks to Jonene for such a delicious recipe. Sarah, Mat and I went to Leo's and had a shake. Mat hadn't ever been to Leo's so we wanted to have him experience the pleasure of a Leo's shake. Then we headed out to the Gunnison Bend Reservoir for the 2008 Snow Goose Festival. It was a pretty windy day and cold, but we did see some. Not up close though and we didn't have our binoculars along. :(    We had a great time visiting with everyone and were sorry that we couldn’t make it to Henry’s baby blessing where we would have seen the Muir and Spencer Scoville families.        Mat and I hope to see everyone (from Utah, at least) on our next trip.  The plan right now, is to leave the Crested Butte area on the 29^thafter checking out of our place and driving to the Canyonlands area where our friend Sam is a Park Ranger.  If he is around we hope to visit with him for the night, then head to Delta on March 30^th.  Then we’ll be camping out in the yard with Maddy until Thursday or Friday.  Hopefully, the weather will be nice so that we can all hang out in the yard.  Barbara, dad’s secretary, was also really nice and offered to let us put Maddy in their dog kennel.  I am just not sure how Maddy is going to feel about hanging out in someone else’s yard.   

     At the doggie ranch, Maddy had a great time all day playing with everyone, but in the evenings when she was put in her own room, she barked a bit.  She definitely likes to be with people and wherever the activity is going on.  Luckily, they had a bark collar that emitted a citronella spray.  So…she’d stop barking and start whining.  And then they plugged in a high pitched noise maker that only she heard and she was fine.  She is welcome to come back to the doggie ranch, but without those items on hand I don’t know if we should have her sleep over in someone else’s yard for them to have to listen to her. 

     We are really looking forward to seeing out house in Asheville again and getting our garden ready to go for the summer.  It has been a nice winter out here in Colorado and it has been awesome getting to be able to hop in the car to head out and visit the parents a few times.  

lunar eclipses, skiing and life...

When we were walking to change our laundry out we saw the lunar eclipse on Wednesday night.  It was pretty cool to see and we are glad we caught it, since it was the last one until 2010.  I am glad we walked out the door when we did...I had read about it during work and was planning to check it out, but as soon as I got home it slipped my mind.

This past weekend, some friends of ours from Boulder came to visit.  While Mat was at work, we went cross-country skiing out along Slate Creek. It was wonderful. I put up a couple of pictures on flickr. Somehow, I no longer have the flickr picture roll in here to be able to pull up and put pictures in my blog. :(

On Thursday night, I hopped on the bus for my ride home after work and got about halfway home when I realized that I left my house keys in the drawer at work. This made me very anxious as Mat does not get home until about 12 midnight on his telemetry days and it was only 6:30 p.m. Luckily, the resort that we live at has an emergency phone and the man at the other end didn't mind that I only wanted a door unlocked. I was afraid I was going to be sitting out on our front porch all evening looking at Maddy through the window!

Friday, I went snowboarding up at CBMR and it was a beautiful day to go riding. Not too cold or windy. Yeah! Then I bent the wheel on the car going to Madera's interview at the Oh Be Dogful Ranch (pet boarding). So we weren't able to check the place out and see if Maddy is a social dog.

Tomorrow I get to spend the morning tracking down a wheel to replace the one I destroyed. Then on Tuesday, Mat will probably take Maddy up to her interview. Hopefully, she'll pass it, since we are planning on keeping her there during our trip to Utah. The place sounds like doggie heaven. They say that she can go in or out as she pleases and play with other dogs all day long and then at night she gets her own room! Luxury...she's probably not going to want to come home when we get back!

We are hoping to head to Utah on Wednesday if all goes well with my quest for a new wheel for the car!

Snowy Winter

We hear that this is the biggest winter that Crested Butte has had in about 15-20 years.  Somehow we got lucky when we picked this as our destination spot for the winter of 2008!  The few weeks we have been here have been an adjustment to our way of life.  No longer can we just open the door for Maddy to spend some time outside.  We get to go with her every time and usually she's on a leash, unless we are headed out cross-country skiing.

As I've mentioned before we are fortunate in having a nice trail to ski for miles just out our door, so we don't even have to get in the car.  That is a very appealing feature for me so I don't have to pack up the skis and gear and then drive for a bit...it's just nice to put it on at the house and head out the door.  Maddy loves this ski as well, she is the happiest when she's rolling around in frozen blood and urine that she finds along the trail.  I have no idea what the blood is from, but the urine is probably other dogs' and elk urine.  (The things that keep a dog happy!)

I am getting settled into my job.  It is a nice ski town job...I stand at the front desk of a really nice hotel and wait for people to check in and check out or to call about maintenance issues or for laundry detergent, etc. 

I must be getting older because I have no idea how I survived working as a lift operator for 6 months!  Standing outside ALL day long.   I now have a cushy job, where I am only standing outside when I wait for the bus.  This area has a sweet bus system that is free, so I have been taking advantage of it as much as possible. The other morning while waiting for the bus at 6:30 a.m. I saw a small mountain lion cross the street just a few feet away from me and then he crossed it back.  That morning I was just thinking it was a bobcat or a baby lynx (not really), mostly a bobcat, but it had a really long tail.  I probably would have been way more freaked out if I'd realized that morning it was a small mountain lion, because that would have meant a mom mountain lion probably was near.   I have not seen it since, although I would like to.

Mat has been working hard with his job.  We are really looking forward to having a few days off together this week and getting out skiing and snowboarding.