Cabinets

A bit more progress to report on the new house. Some (maybe all) cabinets have been installed. And, they seem to be the cabinets we wanted and they seem to be configured the way we wanted them.

Master Bath

Dishwasher side of the Kitchen Island

Galley view of the Kitchen Island

We still need countertops, paint, flooring, window coverings...and lots more.

All progress is delightfully accepted.

We Have Paint

Progress on the new house is happening. It has been painted. 

We chose a light yellow color as the house in the desert. We might be closing  in mid-October. Wish us "good luck."

Across the Street

As we were driving home the other day, we were awe struck by the sky. To the west,

...was a spectacular sunset with rays of golden light streaming from the clouds, 

...and to the east was a wonderful double rainbow. 

These two pictures were taken from the same location across the street from each other. Wherever we looked we saw the beauty of nature. It's a joy to live in this wonderful place.

 

A Bit More Progress

Having a house built during times of broken supply chains, labor shortages and rising inflation, is probably ludicrous, but that's what we are doing. The house which was supposed to be finished in July, might be finished in October, but even that is a guess. In the meantime, some progress is being made. Yesterday, I received pictures of some internal details. This is good news.

This will be the kitchen island--the plumbing has been installed

One of the doors

Closet in 2nd bedroom

Closet in master bedroom

And this is the master bath shower

All progress is deeply appreciated. It means the house will get finished, we do not know when.

Being Crafty

I love to crochet...but recently I've branched out to sewing, so now I have projects all over the house instead of just one place. So far the other DrC has not complained. My recent sewing projects revolve around "up-cycling" blue jeans. I've made a dozen aprons, some pillows, and now a couple of purses. The purses are kind of cute...

The lining is "out" ...and 

...here's the finished purse. 

But I'm still crocheting teddy bears. This little one I've named Olivia

Needless to say, I'm getting ready for Christmas.

Fall is on the way....

Our aspen forest is showing the first signs of autumn...a few of the trees have yellow leaves. In the fall, aspens turn yellow and orange. Because all the aspens in a forest are clones, they all turn yellow and orange at about the same time. That's a spectacular thing to see. When it happens, I'll post it here.

The largest organism on earth is an aspen forest in Utah called Pando. It consists of 40,000 trees, and scientists estimate it weights about 13 million pounds. While our forest is not as large as Pando, it's just as special. Please consider, it's one organism, that grew from one seed and continues to grow thru a system of interconnected roots and shoots. 

Meet Alicia and Josie (a whimsical post)

It's more or less summer, so that means I'm crocheting critters. When the weather turns cold, I'll be making blankets again. My latest creations are Alicia and Josie.

Alicia is a small teddy bear... only 7 inches tall, and very lady-like. She's quiet, and well behaved and ready for a little girl to adopt her....

...and then there's Josie. She tall, and bright and is wearing a Joseph's Coat of a million colors. She's a happy bear but a bit louder than Alicia and very friendly. If you listen very carefully, Josie will talk to you. Both of these little girl bears are looking for a home, so if you know of a home that is at least one teddy bear short, let me know. 

PS...Josie found a home at Carol's house.

More Progress

Our house is beginning to look like real house. A few trim pieces have been added to the front.

The Great Room...the pony wall will become a long bar in the kitchen 

The bay windows in the master bedroom.

The main bathroom

The open kitchen

The dining area of the great room looking out to the covered patio

The Master Bath...the doorway to the right goes to the toilet room, the doorway in front goes into the huge walk-in closet...the doorway to the left goes into a very large shower.

The Great Room, with the living area on the right and the dining area on the left. I have no idea what the orange markings on the floor mean. It looks like the drywall has been taped, mudded and textured; light cans are installed in the ceiling. Progress is good, and more is needed

 

Mountain Mahogany

On June 3, I made a prediction, based on an Old Wife's Tale. On that fateful day, I saw that the asters had bloomed. 

Folklore says that summer will end in 8 weeks after the asters bloom. That meant that August 28 was the date to remember. It would mean an early fall and possibly an early winter...and that means early rain and snow. While we do not want to wish our sweet summers away, the west is in dire need of water. The early end of summer is certainly bittersweet.

On the 28th I saw the first tinge of yellow in the aspens. Today I saw another sign of fall...a splash of red on the hillside that says the mountain mahogany has changed color. Once the red of the mountain mahogany shows up, fall is not far behind.

Soon the aspens will be dressed in layers of yellow and gold. The mountains will be streaked with autumn colors and then the high country will be ready for winter.

The Cost of Freedom

The debacle that was the pull out from Afghanistan, left us mourning for 13 brave heroes who lost their lives. One of those heroes was a local man. He left behind a loving wife and a baby due in two weeks. Baby McCollum will never meet his or her daddy. Baby McCollum will never get to hold his or her daddy's hand. Baby McCollum will never experience the miracle that was his brave father.  The cost of freedom is high.

Our little town has a memorial for Rylee McCollum

A young man who died to bring us peace. May his death not be in vain. 

Stucco

A bit more progress on the new house...it has been stuccoed and according to my friend with eyes on the ground, the drywall has been taped. Good news

It looks very messy right now, but this too will pass.

Old Jeans Anyone

During the summer I've been collecting old jeans. I've been asking everyone I know if they any jeans they want to throw away if they would give them to me. Right now I have 12 pairs of jeans and they are on the "chopping block." I'm making aprons from the fabric. One pair of jeans will make 2 "average" size aprons. 

This is the first one I made. Since then I've looked at countless videos on YouTube. (BTW, YouTube is a vast "how to" knowledge base) I've discovered there are many patterns, so of course I took the best of all the patterns and developed my own. This week I plan to make a bunch of Christmas presents...here are the first three

These three will go to a Grandma, Daughter and Granddaughter, Jeans aprons are VERY sturdy and durable. The fabric is still tough, even though the jeans are no longer as pretty as they were when they were new. In addition, they are extremely washable and require no ironing, which makes them just about the perfect apron. Please, if you have any old jeans, send them to me, and I'll make you an apron. The biggest treat of all -- I can see well enough to sew! My eyes are healing.

Drywall Progress

There's good news to report...a little bit more progress is being made on our new home. 

Drywall has been hung...this will be the dining area

And this will be the living room. We still don't know when it will be finished. 

All progress is good progress.

 

A Small Milestone

For the last few weeks, my vision has been impaired due to cataract surgery. As my eyes heal, and I regain peripheral vision, depth perception, and acuity, I've been limited to painting rocks and not much else. I tried to crochet, but I could not see the stitches. Tonight I tried again, and I could see. SO, I made 1 little piggie.

He looked a little lonely, so....

...a lavender piggie showed up to keep the pink one company...

...but before I knew what was happening a third little piggie joined the party.

I can see well enough to crochet. More healing is needed, but this is a good start.

Dried In

Slow progress is being made on our new home. The house is now "dried in." This is a milestone in the housebuilding business because it means that should there be rain, the inside of the house will not get wet. Therefore, the windows are in, and the plywood roofing and the side walls are installed. (The exception to a "dried in" house is the garage door...that always comes along later in the process.) Now that the house is dried in, work can commence on the inside of the house. I hope the next batch of pictures will show interior walls and placement for cabinetry, etc. While a lot more work is needed, the house has "turned a corner" and we hope the rest should go quickly.

A small decorative feature has been added to the outide too. The good news is tempered by some bad news...escrow has been slipped to October. As of today, we do not know when escrow will be closed, but it will not be September 17 as we had been told before.

 

Mama and Bambi

I love the critters that live in the forest behind my house. Tender scenes of mama and Bambi are an added bonus. As a city kid, seeing a deer was a very special treat; now I'm a country "kid" and it's still special. The creatures great and small bless my backyard.

 

Buttermilk Skies

If you look carefully, you can see our buttermilk skies. The skies match the color of the trunks on the aspen trees. That's pretty ugly. The reason is simple...fires. There are hundreds of fires in the west. CA has 350 named fires, WY has over 40, and the states in between are burning too. 

The Air Quality Index (AQI) for this small corner of WY is 117, which is unhealthy for folks with asthma or COPD or other breathing problems. As you can see, the AQI can get much higher. When we survived the Camp Fire in Northern California in 2018 the AQI was off the scale at over 400. We need a change in the weather pattern to quell the fires and clean the air. The weather guessers are saying we might have that change tomorrow. I hope they are correct.

On another note, look carefully at the first picture. Do you see a tinge of yellow? The trees are on the verge of change. The asters predicted the first signs of fall on August 28...it's only the 17th...we might have an early winter?!

Critters

More crocheted critters are getting added to the menagerie. I'm getting very good at making turtles

But there is also an elephant in the house

This is a hot pink elephant, not a political elephant. As long as the weather is warm, I will make critters instead of blankets.

Uneven Antlers

We've been looking at the wildlife that lives in our forest for a couple of decades, so to see a "new" critter is a treat. The "new" critter is a deer...and yes, we've had deer since the get go, but we've not had a deer with uneven or lopsided antlers. This year we do. 

This stag has a "normal antler and short antler. There are several reasons that could cause uneven or lopsided antlers, the most common of which is an injured pedicle..or root of the antler. If the pedicle gets injured before the antlers start to grow in the spring, the antler might not grow correctly. I have no idea what happened to this stag, but I do know that he will not be able to partake in the rut this year. 

Rock Painting

It's Debbie's fault! One day she asked me "if I could do one new thing, what would it be?" And I answered "I'd love to paint rocks." SO I started to collect rocks for painting. I carefully washed them, evened out their rough edges, bought some acrylic paints and markers...and started working on a "quiet" hobby that would keep me amused and busy for my 5 weeks of not doing anything that will upset my healing eyes. 

I've discovered that rock painting is lots of fun. I've also discovered that I have zip talent. I'm not an artist. I've not been blessed with the ability to create anything that looks like a anything in nature. I've looked at at least a million Pinterest sites that show how "easy it is to paint rocks." I've seen videos of people painting beautiful butterflies and cute cats and dogs, but alas, those designs seem to morph into something unrecognizable when I try to copy them. I found I'm really good at dots. I can make random dots on a painted rock ... but not much else. It is keeping me quiet and I'm having a lot of fun experimenting with color...but I'm never going to be the Michelangelo of rock painters.

Wildflowers

As summer moves into August, the wildflowers are changing. The Indian Paintbrush and wild rose are just about gone, but the potentilla are alive and well. So are the black eye susans. The "susans' are my favorite. The goldenrod is out and of course the asters. 

If you look carefully, you will see some asters. I believe the asters are predicting summer to end at the end of August in the high country. I hope the asters are wrong.

Rite of Passage

There are many "rites of passage" such as graduating from high school and college, getting married, rearing a family. A "new" rite of passage is cataract surgery. When you get to a "certain age" (somewhere in your 70s) it's more or less expected that you will develop eye cataracts and they will need to be removed. On Wednesday, I joined that group and I had the cataract in my left eye removed. In 2 weeks, the right eye will have the same procedure. The upside is I will be able to see a lot better. The downside is I have to stay quiet for 5 weeks. I find it very difficult to remain quiet for 10 minutes let alone 5 weeks!

I need to wear an eyepatch at night, I cannot get my eye wet, I cannot life anything heavy or do anything that will put a strain on my eye, and I have a routine of special eye drops that needs to be administered 3 times a day. So far, all is going to plan. 

Turtles

It's summertime and that means I do not make blankets...they are too hot...so I make critters. I've made a few teddy bears, but now I'm working on turtles.

Some have short necks...

Some have long necks...they are more inquisitive I guess.

No matter what, they are fun to make...and don't be surprised if one ends up in your mailbox.