Month: October 2017

Last week I took a trip back to Wisconsin to visit my mother. I can’t say the trip was very exciting but one has to keep the family fences somewhat mended.

My mother is living at home with caregivers helping out. The caregivers make meals, do laundry, and generally help Mom with tasks she can no longer do on her own. This arrangement seems to be working well but is expensive. Mom said she will reduce her care from 24 hours to a lower level, probably days only, now that a routine has been established and she knows what she can and cannot do on her own. My sister Sienna lives in the area and also stops in frequently to keep an eye on Mom.

The trip (2,597 miles in total) was just a lot of miles on the road. Good thing the CD player was working! Weather was not bad but was cold and windy the entire trip. There were only a few hours the first day that I did not have heat on inside the car. On the way home I ran into some rain around Des Moines and there was fresh snow in the Denver foothills and eastern slope.

Mom has decided to sell some of the land she still owns. There are two river-front lots (Black River) that are within the Greenwood city limits that have been surveyed and are ready for sale. My brother Jon (whom I visited at his house in Stoddard, Wisconsin this trip) made this sign for the first lot:

Jon’s Lot for Sale sign

Proceeds from the sale of the lot(s) would go toward Mom’s care and ease the settlement of the estate when she passes. We hope the lots sell in the next few months.

Other than driving and family visits the trip did not yield much in the way of entertainment. I did make a quick stop at a museum I had passed many times during previous trips; the Heartland Museum of Military Vehicles in Lexington, Nebraska. I found the museum contains more than vehicles; the museum also has uniforms, munitions, small and large weapons (mortars and howitzers, for example) and would be of interest to anyone interested in WWI and WWII history. They also has a couple Huey helicopters that were used in Vietnam. There is a lot to see as the place is much larger than it appears from I-80. Here are a couple photos:

Part of the munitions collection

Crawler tractor pulled large weapons and supply wagons

The rest of the trip was uneventful with few slow spots due to construction or accidents. The one exception was an accident on the interstate going through Omaha; I had stop-and-go traffic for several miles until a 3-car accident was pulled from traffic lanes.

As this trip began on Monday and I arrived home Friday night there isn’t much of anything else to report. At home there are Fall chores such as raking leaves and cleaning out flower beds. Pam did buy a new lot of tulip bulbs that will be planted later today. Grocery shopping, a routine weekend task, is also on today’s To Do list.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Penny’s Worth:

In many respects, the past week was actually my vacation for the year.

Happy Trails.

Last Tuesday I drove up to The Lot and brought The Box home for the winter. Weather was perfect for Fall, sunny, high in the 60s, no wind, blue skies. However there was measurable snow on Hoosier Pass and ice was rimming some of the streams and lakes. Summer is very definitely over.

Our snow-bird neighbors, Jim and Jolene, left for their Winter home in Arizona last week. The Box sits in the spot Jim normally parks their Class A motorhome. We still need to get all the dry food items out of The Box and finish winterizing it but that will be a weekend day task. It’s getting dark so early now that when we get home around 6:00 PM there isn’t much time to do outside tasks; weekends are busy getting all the various jobs and chores done.

I will be driving to Wisconsin this upcoming week to visit my mother. Just an out and back, no side trips planned. I’ll leave on Monday and be back home on Friday or Saturday. I hope the weather cooperates!

A couple of posts back I included a photo of a badger. After I took the still shot I recorded a short (32 seconds) video clip of the little critter. Like the photo, the video was taken from inside the car at maximum zoom on my iPhone so the quality is not the greatest.

[cincopa AQJAkG-nXiib]

(Looks better if you view it full-screen.)

The new Mac computer has a different version of iMovie on it with a different interface so it is taking me some time to re-learn the program. The new Mac renders and saves video clips much faster than the old Mac which is a greatly appreciated feature.

There is not much else going on right now, probably a good thing as we transition from Summer to Fall chores. We have had a few below-freezing nights where we covered most of the outdoor plants and they seem to have survived OK. It would be nice to get several more days or weeks of Fall-like weather, at least through Halloween and perhaps beyond.

The manuals have arrived for the Oliver OC-3 crawler. To my surprise the parts manual is a factory original 1959  version; the owner’s/service manual is a good copy and I had expected the parts manual would be a copy as well. Nice surprise. The manuals contain basic and advanced information such as what oil to use, recommended spark plugs, lubrication points, and other basic maintenance stuff as well as more advanced repair procedures. They will be good guides as I move along on trying to get the Oliver to run.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

Bru (middle dog) suffered through a dental cleaning + extractions at the vet on Thursday.  This is the dog with high anxiety at the vet during a routine exam, so Bru had a pretty rotten day.  A total of eight teeth were loose in her gums.  Also a fatty lump was removed on her leg.  It’s always something.

I found the house of my dreams!  Take a look and you will know why I love this house.  The idea of living in Cripple Creek?  Not so much – especially in winter.  This lovely home has a beautiful front porch where one can sit and look at — the back of the casino.  Fields says we cannot buy it.  But I can think about it…

117 Prospect Avenue, Cripple Creek, CO

Attractive house in Cripple Creek

Happy Trails.

Although the temperatures have been a bit cool, this weekend has been a great Fall weekend. We have had lots of sun, a light breeze, blue skies, and the Fall colors are still present along the Colorado River and tributaries.

I did fire up the furnace for the first time this season as overnight lows dropped into the upper 20 degree range. (The outside cat water dishes froze pretty solid last night.) Even though I had vacuumed out the vents and put a new filter in the furnace, the first time or two it runs we get that “dusty” smell out of the vents. It can’t be helped, I guess.

Yesterday afternoon I took an ATV ride into Wild Horse Mesa (after completing various routine chores). Here are a couple photos from that ride:

Rock formation – Wild Horse Mesa

Colorado River Valley from Wild Horse Mesa

It was a very pleasant, if cool, afternoon to go for a ride.

All the Sanderling firewood for the season has been delivered to our local friend.  She reports she’s already heating her rescue pet building with it on these cooler nights.

Closer to home, I have begun some preliminary work on the OC-3 crawler tractor. I removed, cleaned, and rebuilt the carburetor but have not yet reinstalled it; that will be one of today’s tasks. I have a set of manuals on the way which should help me move ahead on repairs. Some general clean-up is about all I have done for far, but I did remove the spark plugs and put some penetrating oil into the cylinders. This should help the engine turn over a bit easier when I get to that point.

Pam’s retirement house hunt has turned up an interesting listing: there is a small church for sale in an out-of-the way Washington town.

Church for sale in Wilkeson, WA

Here is the link to the full listing which includes 13 photos. On acreage with a stream, the building is 1,200 square feet (rather small) and not very ornate inside. This used to be Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church out of the Seattle Archdiocese in its previous life.  Nearest large town, Puyallup (Pew-all-up), is about a 20 – 30 minute drive away. Not exactly what we had in mind, but an interesting idea to contemplate. An internet search turned up several ideas on how to divide and decorate what is basically a rectangular box into an attractive and functional living space. We have been looking for unusual architecture…

I’m planning a solo driving trip back to Wisconsin to visit my mother. This would be during the last full week of October and needs to be a quick out-and-back visit with no side trips. Lots of driving involved (yippee – Nebraska)  but any later in the year and weather starts to become a real factor. More on this in my next post.

That’s about it. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

Hey-ho, we get another ten minutes of Fall.  I’ve been scoping out pet heaters for the garage cats, quite a gang of young’uns out there this year. Time for the heated outside water bowl too, I guess.  I mentally resist this change of seasons — but — resistance is futile.

Contemplating changes in 2018, the house hunt being only one of several factors at play.  Employment issues at work appear to be pushing me toward semi-retirement earlier than I had originally planned. (I’m trying to listen to The Universe, as my departed friend Mary always advised me to do.) Watch this space.

Happy Trails.

Fall is here in a big way. We have had our first high desert frost of the season and snow flakes fell in Glenwood Springs where we both work. I-70 passes (Vail and Eisenhower) were closed due to snow last week. Mountain tops are now white with fresh snow.

Of course, it’s colder and snowier up at Sanderling. I had been to The Lot last weekend and pretty much shut down The Box, emptying the holding tanks and draining the water. All the “freezable” stuff like liquid soaps, canned goods, and lotions and potions were brought home. I have not brought The Box down from the high country yet, though, as we don’t have off-street parking for it until our snowbird neighbors head back to Arizona. They let us park The Box on their property in the same spot they normally park their Class-A motorhome. I did bring home the chipper, as I decided not to over-winter it on The Lot.

Here are some Fall color photos taken over the last couple of weeks.

Mosquito Range across South Park

Driveway at dusk with moon rise

Link Ridge hillside as seen from our driveway

A walkabout at Sanderling revealed some damage from a recent wind storm. We found a couple trees that were snapped off at the base, perhaps from a microburst:

Wind snapped this aspen off at the base

Elsewhere on The Lot we can now enjoy the results of our last chip-spreading activity. This inviting path leads up to The Nook:

Chips spread on The Nook footpath

It’s time to begin Fall chores at the high desert elevation, such as raking leaves, cutting the last of the firewood, winterizing the swamp cooler, getting the AC unit out of the bedroom window. Night arrives much earlier now; there are some chores that have to wait until weekends to get done. Wood cutting is one of them. And maybe I will have a chance to work on the OC-3 crawler.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Penny Worth:

I think we had maybe 15 minutes of Fall weather before it started feeling like Winter.

Happy Trails.