That first week after vacation is always tricky, getting back into the swing of things. And while I did a good job of lining up posts during my vacation, I’ve been playing catch up this entire week. Not to mention that the fundraising campaign I’m working on with FORCE yielded 3 decent sized orders that I’ve been cranking out, seemingly non-stop. It’s all for a good cause I remind myself.
Anyhow, I didn’t have anything to update you on yesterday for a Friday shop update and Saturdays are usually good for sharing what’s going on in the family. So here’s our week told in photos…
Someone had an upset tummy and let’s just say, she made a mess of herself and needed a bath. She shivers pretty bad after a bath, yet won’t let us near her with a hair dryer, so we just wrap her up like yoda…part old/frail, part sad and pathetic looking – all hilariously cute in my book. But I’m her mama…of course I’m gonna think that!
And someone’s arthritis has really increased so we went to pick up her meds at the vet’s office…to the tune of $200 (say what?!). That’s alright; this sweet girl is worth every cent.
Mmm...treats!
Zoe is Zoe, in need of Ritalin one moment and all sorts of sweet, cuddly squishiness the next.
She is the pain in our arse and the one that makes us laugh the most. Can’t imagine our family without her.
This is the stash of books I loaned from the library and brought to the cabin last week. Every once in a while we’ll pick a book to read out-loud to one another. Some may think it corny, but it’s a bonding experience, we enjoy sharing a book together and it forces us to turn off the TV at night and spend time together.
The book we started reading to each other last week, The Bucolic Plague, is a memoir about the Beekman Boys (now a reality TV show on Planet Green) who as a Manhattan couple fall in love with the “bucolic” idea of a farm in upstate New York but soon learn that trying to run a farm on the weekends while maintaining full-time jobs in NYC nearly breaks them. It’s a great read, lighthearted but touching and tugs on my someday-want-a-hobby-farm heartstrings.
Since returning, we’re also favoring games and quiet time with music on instead of the TV on at night…trying to maintain our own bucolic bliss of being at the quiet cabin at RMNP.
And get this…we actually got some rain this week! I know many of you (my entire family in New England in fact) are bemoaning the rain as it has been coming down for far too long. But up here, we maybe get one or two full-on rainy days a YEAR. I used to hate the rain living on the East Coast, now I love its arrival because of its rarity. The rain that does show up here typically arrives in brief showers then quickly surrenders to the Colorado sun. Great for seasonal affective disorder, not so great for drought conditions.
Speaking of drought, our well ran dry 3 times right before we left for our vacation. Talk about no bueno. When the last spell lasted more than 2 days, we knew that we probably had a pump issue and sure enough we did. Our yahoo builder (and yahoo intended as “moron” not as in celebratory yahoo) did not install a shut-off system with our pump so when the well went dry, the motor kept going. And finally it burned out. And to the tune of $2K. Ouch. Lots of folks are asking why so much…well the pump itself was only about $1K but with the shut-off mechanism that we did have them install on top of the many hours of labor that it takes to remove 600+ feet of pipes to get to our very deep well…and you quickly add-on another thousand. *sigh* Home ownership is starting to weigh heavy on us.
And the rain eventually turned to more snow! We’ll take it!
Oh and speaking of home ownership…nothing like getting served legal papers by a neighbor you don’t even know! You know you’re in for no good when you get a big packet in the mail with the return address being a double last name like Hoosier and Hoosier (no, that’s not their name…sheesh, all I need is a claim of defamation now!).
We were suspicious of them when they moved in and installed 6+ foot fences around their entire property, added 4 100+ lb angry, salivating, viciously barking dogs, blocked all the windows with blinds always turned down or aluminum foil so you can’t see in at all and double padlocked the fences surrounding their house. Quite a switch from the sunny disposition of the young Hawaiian family that once lived there.
Thing about legal documents is the legal-ease contained within. You find yourself reading it over a dozen times and still don’t quite understand the claim. Good news is that we’re not being singled out, but everyone on our entire road is named and it affects passage on our road (which has no outlet so we have to pass this neighbor to get to our house). Should be interesting indeed.
On a totally different topic, I did a fridge clean-out which usually isn’t newsworthy, but because I hate food waste, I really try challenge myself to use up food in unique ways before it goes south. Here’s what I was able to accomplish in a four-hour cooking marathon:
- With the leftover bones/skin of the small roaster I cooked earlier in the week, I added a couple of bags of frozen veggie skins and cooked up a big ol’ pot of chicken broth
- With the softening watermelon/cantaloupe that was no longer interesting to eat, I chopped up in cubes and froze to add flavor and thickness/frothiness to fruit smoothies down the road
- With the wilting spinach I had in my veggie drawer, I made a quiche
- With the browning mushrooms I bought in bulk during a great sale a couple weeks back, I made another quiche and a marsala sauce to go with chicken
- With a head of cauliflower that was starting to spot, I trimmed the edges and roasted it with olive oil, sea salt and fresh ground pepper…wow, yum!
- And finally with the leftover pastrami we had that was getting a bit past due what I was comfortable eating, I added it to ground meat that I top the dog’s kibble with (they all seemed to enjoy that!)
The only thing I had to toss from the fridge was a small container of leftover chili that I just didn’t get to in time. Overall, it was looking like a lot more was going to get tossed, so I was happy to save the rest and reincarnate them into new recipes.
Oh and look at that lovely bouquet of flowers. I love fresh cut flowers, but they don’t fit into our budget so I rarely splurge on them. And though David is plenty romantic, he’s not one to bring home flowers…unless he’s begging for forgiveness trying to win me over. We had an um…”disagreement” about my business and my feelings were hurt. Marriages are not perfect (although ours is pretty darn close) and even us lovebirds have our moments. But all is good in the household and he no longer is in the dog house allowed me to share this story. Love you honey! Mean it!
Life, like this past week, ebbs and flows and it’s all a matter of balance and taking things in stride. Hope your week is in balance as well 
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A breathtaking collection with another beautiful theme! That snug-as-a-bug baby almost makes me pine forone…almost, but not quite 
