Month: January 2019

Tax and cold season has started. I missed a couple day’s work this past week due to a bad cold which, unfortunately, Pam picked up from me and is now suffering through.

For the life of me I can’t see any reason for phlegm. Or mucus. Nasty stuff!

Tax season has begun. We are starting to get various statements and tax notices (property tax) for our home and our lot. We will get a break this year on our home property tax due to a “Senior Exemption.”

Our annual property tax is around $257.00. This year our payments will be half of the normal amount:

Full-year tax bill

We don’t know how the county can afford this credit, but I had applied for it last year since I turned 66  in 2018. (Property owner has to be over 65.) While the savings of $128.00 per year will not be a windfall, it’s a psychological boost. Just think: Property taxes of $128.52 per year!

No wonder Midwest property taxes look so high to us!  This comes while Pam is house-hunting, and one of the things she checks is taxes on the various properties. Not only is our Colorado tax rate very low compared to other states, the 50% reduction is unheard of. Most of the Midwest properties Pam has viewed have tax burdens of $150.00 per month on up to several hundred dollars per month. This has to be accounted for when we calculate potential monthly payments, to determine if we can afford a specific property into retirement or not.

As a side note, property taxes on The Lot (seven acres in Park County) have gone up every year and are now approaching $100.00 per acre. Our tax bill for The Lot is considerably higher than for our home in Mesa County. This tax increase is mostly due to recent referenda passed relating to fire protection and emergency response services in Park County’s rural areas.

Income tax preparation will be a bit different this year due to Pam’s retirement in 2018. The State of Colorado offers an exemption for a portion of retirement income — plus our gross income will drop; we should be in a lower (we hope) tax bracket. We’ll have to be sharp to claim exemptions we now qualify for to minimize our tax burden. Another retirement challenge!

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

Pam’s Penny:

Temps are not below zero, at least.  Almost inevitable that when Fields has hacking coughs around our fairly-compact square footage, I will get whatever he has — no matter how much I clean door knobs, light switches, cupboard doors etc.  Murphy’s Law.

(Internet graphic.)

Happy Trails.

Our oldest dog, Blondie, is writing today’s blog. Here’s what she has to say:

Blondie, our oldest dog

Dogs that live in the Fields household have a pretty good life.

After all, our humans care for our every need. Have to get up at 3:00 a.m. to go outside? No problem — just whine until Pam wakes up and takes you out. Hungry? Breakfast in the morning, snack in the afternoon, dinner at night. Diet is a mix of dry dog food (ordered online from Chewy) and canned dog foods. Occasionally cooked green beens and sweet potatoes (fresh, of course) add some variety.

The biggest stress is deciding where to sleep. Will it be couch #1, Pam’s bed, or couch #2? Do we have to whine to “encourage” a human to move a cat so we can sleep where we want?

You see, all is not roses. Sometimes, when we’re outside, we have to bark at the door to be let back into the house (if the door concierge is slow to respond). When there is a lot of foot traffic on the sidewalk, Pam won’t let us in the front yard to bark at everything we see. Jer works, so his at-home time is limited, time he could be spending playing tug-of-war with me or petting us. Sometimes we have to howl the song of our people. <sigh>

Then there are those trips to the vet and groomer. Bru just hates them even though she looks so much better after her hair has been cut. I don’t need to get my [short] hair cut, but my nails are less saber-like after the groomer’s attention. Jo looks much sleeker after her appointments. I guess we have to tolerate medical and grooming attention.

Thinking about those summer trips to The Lot —  Jo enjoys them if she is given the freedom to run. There is enough space to let her greyhound blood let loose and she runs at top speed. Bru and I tolerate these four-hour-each-way trips.  The car offers some good sunny sleeping spots, but mostly the  benefit is getting away from those darn cats for a while.

Yep, a dog’s life in the Fields household is pretty darn good. Food, grooming, medical care, travel, a yard to run in, things to bark at, places to sleep, companionship. Now if the cats would quit sleeping in my spots…

Back to Jer to finish this post.

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

After I finished painting the quilt square, I started working on what I call my “hearts” project.  My challenge was to use only sewing items I have on hand – fabric, trims, buttons, quilt batting – to make a bunch of cloth heart ornaments for a holiday tree this coming December.  I ordered an artificial tree from Balsam Hill during their off-season sale; maybe we won’t want to cut a fresh tree every year. The artificial “heart tree” could stay up until Valentines Day, if we have a house (by this December) big enough to leave it out.

Pam’s hearts project

Projects are what I do to pass the cold winter away.  That is, when I’m not the door concierge, or getting up at 3:00 a.m. for doggie potty breaks…

Happy Trails.

This weekend is Playoff Weekend for pro football. None of the teams we would routinely root for has made it this far. I watch some of the games and generally root for the underdogs but really don’t have a lot invested in the outcomes. It will be interesting to see who makes it to the Super Bowl this year.

There wasn’t much going on at the home front this past week. Some snow fell, enough for me to plow with the garden tractor, but it has since warmed up and melted all but the most stubborn patches of snow and ice where the sun hits. Shady areas are still white. There are 10% – 30% chances of flurries this upcoming week but accumulations will be (hopefully) minor. The high country has received more precipitation, welcome by skiers and good for spring water, but down here we are enjoying typically mild temperatures for this time of year — daytime highs in the low to mid 30 degree range and nights in the high teens to low twenties.

I worked on my web site and added a “Chipper” gallery with links to a couple videos. During these winter days I will be looking at updating other galleries and possibly adding a few more video clips from my library. For example, I added a link to the “Howling Dogs” clip on the Dogs page. Pam laughs at these changes, noting that most folks reading these posts are not that interested in my chipper, but – hey – it keeps me busy when I can’t get outside much.

Otherwise life is pretty routine. Pam continues to view potential retirement homes online and I have started a few projects at work. Weekends have a few minor activities – I moved the vehicles out of the garage and swept / shop-vacuumed the place – and took a 42 mile ATV ride out on Wild Horse Mesa to play in the snow for a bit. Now and then I wash the car at a U-Spray place. This is typical winter weekend stuff.  Not real exciting…

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

Pam’s Penny:

Same-o, same-o.  About a minute more daylight every day. Stay warm.

Happy Trails.

We hope everyone had a good New Year’s Day!

As has been my habit in past first-of-the-year posts, I would like to begin with a short review of 2018 before I get into recent news and events.

The biggest news of 2018 was Pam’s retirement. I can report that she does not miss the long daily commute and likes the time she has to work on projects and taking care of our pets.

The retirement house hunt continued with two trips (May and October) back to the Midwest to meet realtors and view some properties. “The One” has not appeared yet but we continue the search.

Son Toby bought a home in South Bend and was promoted to a crew supervisor position. He seems happy with this. We met with him and a few of his friends on our May trip east; his friends are a varied and friendly group. It looks like he has settled into a routine that suits him.

Daughter Felicity traveled to England and Wales in 2018. She still works for a couple of on-line companies and managed to get overseas for a bit. Travel is her thing. On return to the US she found a studio apartment in Vancouver, Washington, to use as a home base until her next adventure. She would like to get to Australia and New Zealand in 2019. We hope she can swing it.

According to Pam’s notes, we managed 20 visits to The Lot in 2018. Much was accomplished in cleaning up and salvaging firewood. We concentrated in an area we call The Aspen Grove and it is great to be able to walk this area now after the dead and down trees have been removed. Chips were spread on several of our walking paths and we hope they settle in over the winter, resulting in easy-to-walk trails next year.

I was kept busy with working at The Lot, travels back to the Midwest, and my regular job. One project, recently completed, was to redo almost all of my web site pages to move my Galleries and videos off my old hosting service onto the one that hosts this blog page.

Now onto current items.

Pam has been working  on her “barn quilt square” and it is looking pretty good:

Pam’s barn quilt square

Based on a 24″ x 24″  framed canvas foundation, the paint is acrylic.The square is hanging on our front door and can bee seen from the road. It makes for a cheery entrance.

My mother, now in a care facility, appears to be fading according to my brother Jon. Not unexpected but sad just the same. It remains unclear if she can recover enough to move back home but I suspect she will be in the care facility for some time.

I have new projects at work and plans for The Lot are being formulated; more clearing and chipping is in the works. 2019 promises to be another busy year.

As I write this it is snowing fairly hard. The forecast is for 3 – 5 inches of snow today, making this one of the heavier snow falls of the season to date. I’ll be out later shoveling the deck and ramp then firing up the John Deere and using the snow blade to clear off the driveway and sidewalks. Tomorrow it will be back to work.

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

Pam’s Penny:

Retirement.  At last.  Looking for the fun and fulfillment that eluded me in my working years.

Happy Trails.