Cards have been sent (and some received), a few presents wrapped, tree has been decorated, and we are off for a few days of vacation. I know, I know, it has been a bit since I last posted; here is a review of activities since then.
First of all, we wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and may the New Year be a good one for you. (I’ll have a recap of our 2015 in my New Years post coming up in a couple weeks.) Please click on the link below to view our 2015 Christmas E-card! (Some of you have viewed it already separately).
We decorated our small tree, which is in the bedroom to keep it safe from the cats and dogs, and finished other house decorations. Pam will be baking cookies later today (oatmeal raisin, one of the healthier cookies for folks watching sugar intake) and altogether it will be a quiet holiday for us here at home. Just as well; the weather is supposed to get nasty later today, followed by an even nastier cold spell.
Christmas Tree 2015
On the agenda – house search: We did get out to view a couple of houses yesterday, one of which is an “earth-berm” design where the back of the house is built into a hillside. This should make the house more energy efficient, but we were not impressed with the general design of the house. Located at the top of a ridge, this property enjoyed excellent mountain views, but required repairs and renovations both interior and exterior.
Front of earth-berm house
Jerry examines attached garage
Pam walks the dogs around the back side of earth-berm house
The second place we looked at, near Ouray, was more cabin-like (our usual style) with a large wrap-around porch — but– with lots of steps both outside and inside.
Jerry on Chipmunk Place cabin’s steps
Lots of steps on Chipmunk Place cabin
So, the retirement house search continues for “the one.” It is fun looking at the variety of homes in our price range, we learn something about the different areas each time we actually go out “into the field” and look at properties (as opposed to just looking at photos online).
Back home again, Pam took this picture of me with London (the white cat,) Jo the dog, and Sunny (the tabby on the floor) as I tried to relax on our glider. It seems anytime I sit down I accumulate a couple of pets!
Jerry with a few of our pets
I’ve been working on a few projects around the place to keep busy during my vacation time. One project included putting chains on the John Deere lawn tractor; we are expecting 3 – 6 inches in the next 48 hours and I use the JD to clean off our drive and sidewalks (gave it a trial run after a 2 inch snowfall this past Monday).
Another project was to add a reel-to-reel deck to my garage stereo system. I had purchased the deck at a yard sale some time ago and stored it in the garage attic. After getting a few tapes from eBay and finding a spare set of hook-up cables I finally put the deck in service.
Reel-to-reel deck now in service in my garage stereo system
You can hear the deck in operation by viewing this 1:37 movie clip:
[cincopa AAOAqLtH7OCl]
Other projects included putting rear brake pads in the Toyota RAV4; a check-up done by our favorite repair shop gave the “new” ride a clean bill of health but noted the rear pads were pretty thin and recommended replacement. So far the RAV4 is working out pretty well for us, but there are still a few service items to tackle such as changing the cabin and air filters, oil and filter, and installing the spare tire cover when it arrives. Nothing major and all routine stuff that I can do on a weekend. We loaded the dogs into the back of the RAV4 for the property trip yesterday, still a few space allocation bugs to work out there too.
That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!
Pam’s Two Cents Worth:
Spent an ideal Christmas Eve morning – in my pj’s until noon, drinking hot chocolate, listening to Christmas music. I have two books to pick up and read later today (“Lights Out” by Ted Koppel and “Goddesses Never Age” by Christiane Northrup). Great way to ease into the day.
I’ll be working on my 2016 New Year’s resolutions for the next post. (I think you can guess finding “the” retirement house will be high on that list.) I did great on my resolutions for this year – learn to play simple chords on the guitar, read more books, drink more wine.
Happy Trails and Happy Holidays.
Thanks for the ecard! Hope your Christmas went great!
Like your new music reels. Carpenters are one of my favorite. Till next year,
DEB
Jer, isn’t the reel to reel analog which has better sound than digital? That’s cool… love how you tinker and make something new and useful again.
That berm house – THE VIEW! Even I, who am not a mountain lover, cannot get that view out of my mind. But, onward and upward as the house search and adventure continues.
2016 will be a great year – may you both be Blessed beyond measure.
xx oo Becky
Becky:
Analog sound generally has better harmonics than digital, giving music a “warmer” or “fuller” sound. Some new music is being released on records for this reason. I’ve had a turntable since college and will use it to record some of my albums to the reel deck later this spring.
Thanks for the note!