Treasures

It is amazing as we open boxes, all the treasures we have not seen in two years. It is like Christmas each time.

This is my grandmother’s painting. She did china painting and painted a lot of beautiful pieces. That and sewing were the things taught to young girls back in my grandmother’s day. This is the piece we were given.

My grandmother’s china

An 1895 Print..not a copy ….found at an estate sale and loved the unusual look to it. I have never seen this picture before

And this is a true picture of the actual one in Rome, which has been venerated, and this picture has been “touched” to the one in Rome. Some cared an awfully lot to carry this picture to the Rome picture.

My grandmother’s trunk

The bell my mother summoned us to the house with. They all have different sounding bells up and down the street.

The wooden Post top of Mary and Jesus that came from an old monastery overseas. (no I did not steal it..LOL…bought it where the monastery was selling to redo thing. So beautifully carved.

And another Monastery treasure from Russia. I love this egg.  ( I did warn you that we are eclectic in our house and life. LOL)

And while still with the Russian egg, here are the hat pins from Russia that son collected with his WWII stuff that he collects.

 Son’s baby shoes and the picture of generations

And my fav. An old paper weight. Love what it says.

And that is just a few of the many treasures we are finding. It is like going to a flea market every day and seeing treasures only we don’t have to buy these. LOL As you can see…we are very eclectic and loving it.

When Dreams Unfold

As I was sitting in my room last nite and looking out into the other part of the house, I was hit with overwhelming emotion…of feeling such strong feelings of joy that is hard to explain. We have worked for several years to reach this point. No, the dream is not done and we are still working hard every day, but a huge part of the dream has unfolded.

Sometimes the journey has been really hard for me, especially the part of all the work in this house and moving stuff. I came to tears the other nite telling my other son back east how frustrated I felt that I could not help son here like I used to. I can’t do the work I used to do and so the burden is on him alone. I try and I do what I can but the truth is, I can’t do a lot and so he works himself into exhausted sleep trying to get it all done and it never seems to end right now.

The roof needs the shingles on, the storage units need combining, the book shelves need putting up on the wall, the yard needs mowing and the list goes on. And that is when my disabilities bother me. When in my all terrain scooter, I could help do things outside if nothing more than be the “go-for” person to save him some steps. Now, to make you laugh, you have seen nothing until you see a man on a ladder coming off the roof and a woman on forearm crutches holding the ladder for him so it does not fall on this small concrete porch. I am sure he feels really secure. LOL

I am disabled with limited mobility and the house on the other side of the mountain  was twice this size. I spent most of my time in my room because the hallway was so long to get to the kitchen and living room that some days it was too hard to make walking and since I try so hard to stay on my feet, it kept me limited in my scope of the house.

And last nite, as I was staring out the door, I got up and walked to the door and the full realization hit me that this part of the dream is finally here.  I no longer live just in my bedroom. Everything is right outside my door within close range. This pic is looking through my doorway. See how close the kitchen is. And the second picture shows how close my coffee pot is.

And the living room and dining room are just steps away, not down a long hallway. Again this first picture is taken standing inside my bedroom door and looking through.

And the LR is just around the corner. So, I am able to live in all this house. The emotions of that realization is huge for someone disabled. Our world becomes smaller by our disabilities if we don’t have the assistive devices we need….like my good scooter. One day I will have that scooter repaired and can be part of the community and go to the library on my own or the museum. But, for now this house is perfect for me. It is laid out in such a way that it makes it possible for me to live in all of it. That is a dream come true. It is the kind of home I always wanted as far as the lay out…and each day, it becomes more and more the best home ever.

And so last nite, I was overwhelmed with emotions of realizing that this part of the dream has been reached. I am home. We are home.  No, it is not and never will be my mountains, but it is home. The Creator, our God, knows better than us where we should be.  It took us time to get here and sometimes time is in preparing us, to allow us to lessen our grip on the material and old life and allow us to accept a more simpler way of life. And I am so ever-blessed and my heart is full.

And yesterday was a day of being more leisurely.  I got to do something I love to do…take pictures.  My birds are too smart and had to sit in carport so they would not fly away. And I got to take great pics of the clouds out here…I love the clouds…they speak volumes of heaven and sometimes, the heavenly come down and view our world.  and I love it.

Middle of The Night Ramblings

I woke up like many people my age do…aching from the joints and muscles. After doing the jaunt to the ladies room and taking meds, I was laying here thinking about our ancestors again. I never loved history as much as I do today for there is so much to learn. I love the history channel and all about the underground cities discovered here and abroad. It tells so much about our civilization and how we swing like the pendulum.

So, I lay here wondering how our ancestors made it over this rugged terrain. You know they had to have some of the aches and pains we did and sleeping on the ground or in a wagon on a mat can not have been very comfortable.  Prairie wagons or even the larger Conestoga wagons were not that big and often held mama, grandma and the little kids sleeping on make shift beds.

The Conestoga wagon was larger and coming across the prairie worked fine but they found that being so heavily loaded made it very ineffective for the mountains. We are so possession conscious that it is hard to imagine traveling with all our possessions and family and children in one of these:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wallner/trip_west.htm

If you read at the link above on Rootsweb, it tells you that the average wagon was about five feet wide by ten feet. Not very big at all.  And when you consider what all they had to pack and then still had to put the little children and older women in there, it was packed tight.

According to the Rootsweb site, packing included:

“ For most families, 1600-1800 pounds of their supplies would be food! The wagon also carried cooking and bedding equipment as well as tents, tools, farm equipment, and personal possessions. Chests were filled with clothing and dishes. Chamber pots, lanterns, mirrors, Bibles, clocks, and furniture were crammed into odd spaces in almost every wagon.

Inside the wagon there were many hooks attached to the wooden hoops where the emigrants hung cast iron pots and pans, kettles, milk cans, coffee pots, weapons, clothing and anything else they could find room for. Women packed their Dutch Ovens and Reflector Ovens for baking bread on the trail. Accessories and tools for making emergency repairs to a wagon were also a necessity. These included rope, brake chains, wagon jack, extra axles and tongues, wheel parts, axes, saws, hammers, knives, and shovels. Weapons, powder, lead, and kits for casting bullets were essential. 

Each family required 5 to 50 lbs. of soap, and many candles were needed. All of these varied supplies left virtually little or no space for travelers, who usually walked the distance. Quite often the trails were littered with debris of abandoned supplies thrown out to lighten loads and make better time. The trail could be so littered with this debris, that scavengers would collect full wagon loads of flour, bacon, and even cast iron stoves. Families that could afford it took two wagons, one for the food, and one for everything else!”

I can’t imagine the anguish of throwing out treasures or even food because the weight was too heavy to go over the mountains. Out here on the LaVeta section of the mountains, they say you can look down the gorge and still see remnants of things thrown out. But, when you dream and this was a dream of a life time to come west and own land and set up your own homestead…you are willing to give up everything even if it means having nothing but the shirt on your back.

As I am reading this page on the wagon trains and traveling west, I read a comment that really struck a chord with son and I.  We both feel so tired and yet we have to continue the work so that we are secure. We have been nonstop since the house on the other side of the mountain sold and we moved here and both of us are exhausted….just bone weary exhaustion that sometimes keeps us from sleeping….from being too tired.  Well, the article said:

“It would be a long wearisome trip, traveling 10 to 12 miles each day, and the journey would take many months. Exhaustion became part of their lives. Life on the trail tended to follow routine patterns, based on the work that needed to be done.The day would begin at sunrise, as the emigrants started preparing for the long day of travel ahead of them. The cows would be milked by children. A fire would be started, and breakfast would be cooked by the women. Dishes were washed, bedding was gathered up, routine chores were performed. The wagon would be loaded, while the men gathered the livestock, and hitched up the team.”

Son and I both come from opposite ends of the house, weary as the day starts, reaching for that first cup of coffee to kick off our day and then the work begins again. In today’s time, people expect things to be easy and quickly and without much effort. This dream has been one a long time coming for us. We have worked ourselves to the bone for a couple of years now, first working non stop to get the house ready to sell, then packing and moving and now getting this house ready. Perhaps that is why I identify so much with the pioneers as we “work our dream” for this dream has not been easy…but oh so worth it.

Some days we wonder will we ever get it all done. Like the air conditioner which is finally in the window and running and oh gosh sooooooo wonderful. Son had to do all of that by himself. I could not even help him lift to put it in the window and yet the smile of accomplishment made it worth it to see. We are out here with just us and no family. My son and I are survivors..both my sons. We learned how to take care of ourselves and figure a way to do it ourselves from the time they were young. Perhaps that is why we can do this dream. Many will never leave the safety of their homes and continue to think about what their hearts dream of but never make any action. It will be one of those dreams that is never fulfilled.

One of the blessings here in this town is the guys that we got to know at the rio. They have become family to us and they know if they need help, they can ask us and if we need help, we can come to them. That happened two days ago when we needed help and they were right there for us. I think again of the wagon trains and those people who lived so closely for so long, traveling to their dream…helping each other. I am a firm believer that God takes care of our needs. He has shown me over and over. And this was no exception and I believe God brought us to that motel for a reason and the friendships there are it.

 Packing for the journey for their dream was expensive and they had to know exactly what to take. According to this site:

“Anyone traveling west on an overland trail was outfitted with heavy supplies that slowed the speed of the trip. The general rule was to carry no more than 2,500 pounds of supplies. The food and other provisions needed to sustain a family on the trail for five or six months took up most of the room in their wagon. The basic staples were:
Flour (200 lbs. per adult)
Bacon (150 lbs. per adult)
Coffee (20 lbs. per adult)
Sugar (20 lbs. per adult)
Salt (10 lbs. per adult).
Some emigrants took whiskey, brandy and medicines. In addition to their food supplies, many had their milch (milk) cow tied behind the wagon, and some fixed a chicken coop to the side of the wagon, to provide fresh milk and eggs during the journey. Along the trail, the eggs were nestled in the flour to protect them from breakage. A butter churn could also be attached to the side of the wagon. Filing the churn with fresh milk from the cow in the morning, the jolting, constant movement of the wagon gave them butter by the end of the day. Some emigrants brought cattle along, to use strictly for beef on the trail, and cows, sheep, and pigs usually trailed the wagons.”

Believe it or not, when son and I traveled, we packed food, supplies to last us a few weeks for we knew we would not be in our home before then. We had canned goods stacked in the motel room that we ate out of, bottles of water, medical supplies. I think we would have been good pioneers for we have learned the necessity of thinking ahead and being prepared “in case of”. And we carried these supplies just as carefully as we carried our tin of heirloom seeds, for they were for our survival now and the future.

And as I lay here mulling the pioneers and their strength and stamina, I think about sleep once more. Here I lay on a memory foam mattress to make my pain more bearable and yet my ancestors had the following for a bed:

“Women and children might sleep on boxes in the wagon, but most beds were made of a blanket, a piece of canvas, and an India rubber cloth or buffalo robe on the ground. In inclement weather travelers slept underneath the wagon. In good weather, they might sleep under the stars, or in tents. Tents were luxuries, but they blew away in the wind and were often discarded.” 

And I think about how hard it was back then and yet they were willing to go for their dream, willing to risk all and willing to endure the hardships. Son and I have been. We knew we could end up with nothing and renting a small apartment or house and yes, there were times when I wondered “omg what have we done” and then each morning, when we awoke anew…I knew what we had done. We had gone for our dream…and look where we are now. It is not easy now, money is tight because all has gone into this house..but we own this house…just like our ancestors owned the land they homestead. We may not have money to go do all the luxury things but we have the security of owning our home and that has made and continues to make this all worth it. And the friends who have helped us alone the way…have forever etched themselves on our hearts because of their love and generosity and are angels on earth.

Middle of the Night Ramblings

I have begun to feel like one of those underground people who never sees daylight. My poor eyes, from the blasting of the swamp cooler throwing and keeping stirred all the dust and debris that was in there and not having the water filter hooked to it, look like a mole’s eyes…all squinty and painful. Though I will have to say they are getting better and I am thankful for that.

Son picked up the water pads and line for the swamp cooler at Pueblo yesterday and that will help a lot and make it more bearable until our fabulouso air conditioner arrives. I am amazed that people steal the plumbing and pipelines out of homes when they leave them. What is it with this?  Have we lost that something called respect of self?

I think about the ranchers out here and the dust storms, especially back in the days of doing all the work on horseback. I remember seeing the movies where they had their kerchief’s tied around their faces to protect them from the blowing dirt. What  a hard life it was and still is but they are a determined bunch. They were living their dream and taking in stride all the setbacks and problems that came up.

Dreams take a lot of work. Seldom do they just land in our lap and we can rejoice. It is like trying to win the lottery to think that way. And I learned something along this dream path. Don’t ever let anyone diminish your dream. We don’t need others to validate our dream for us…we just need to believe in it. What we like or dream of may not be someone elses dream. I was asked why we wanted to live out in the middle of no where with no convenient stores, facilities, etc. To those friends, it was impossible to understand for they hated the cold, liked having stores within easy access and did not like the quiet country life. And that is ok. It is our dream and we are the ones that have to live it.

Dreams are like a fire. You can’t just set the fire in your fireplace…you have to tend to it, refuel it with more logs, clean it up some, change how brightly it burns for if you don’t…it will die. The same is true of our dreams. If we don’t keep providing the “fire” to it, it will die out in our hearts and soon we will decide it is not worth the effort. And yet, we will still wonder and yearn for it. Sometimes we let years go by before we realize that we really and truly do want this dream and we start fanning the fire on it once more.

I was so proud yesterday, for while son was making the journey to Pueblo with the long list of all that needed done, I was busy going through small boxes in my huge bathroom and cleaning out or putting in the box to give away. We do our trips to Pueblo like those ancestors did years and years ago on the buckboard wagons. They would make one trip to the “big city” to pick up supplies and try to get all their stuff in one trip. We do that to save fuel. I just can’t make those trips for they are too hard on me, so son and I make the list and he goes and runs to all the different stores and picks up what we need and comes back with a van load.

Yesterday, he went to the grocery store, the hardware store, Home Depot, and the Habitat place. He calls to check in on me as he rushes from store to store and told me that the Habitat place there was a total disappointment. We were hoping for shingles that a contractor might have had left over but son said that there were none. He also said it was a good thing for this store was charging as much as the hardware store. I thought the Habitat store was to help people. He said if you could buy it for five dollars in the hardware store, it was four dollars and ninety cents in the Habitat.

We are in this for survival and not for the aesthetic looks of things. Beauty is a wonderful thing but if it takes away from your survival, then it is just a luxury we are not willing to spend the money on. I wish someone had an answer for me on this though. We bought these blinds..and I loved them. They are the wide slat blinds. And yet in my bedroom window only, the sun has melted the blinds not once, but twice. What’s with that?  Is the window defective? Is the sun that powerful and if so, why not all the windows?

Yesterday, when we saw it happened again, we knew we had to do something different. Son was gone to Pueblo and my bedroom was heating up. And before anyone one gets any cute ideas, the steamiest thing in this room with the physical shape I am in, is the shower. Lol.  Seriously, only one other time have we seen this and it was on son’s mobile home back east. Only one window and we finally bought dark cling material to stop the sun’s rays from coming through.

The room was getting hotter which makes it harder for me to breathe and so, balancing on forearm crutches, I snatched those five foot blinds down and threw them on the floor in my bathroom and proceeded to put red neck tint (aluminum foil) up on my window.I knew it would not look “classy” on the outside, but at this point..survival is the name of the game…not pride. While in Pueblo, son bought a few sheets of the styrofoam insulation with the aluminum backing. And people will just have to get used to the idea that we use metal curtains, for those pieces will be cut and stuck flush to the window to stop this blaring afternoon sun. And with the foil backing, I don’t think the sun and the window will melt anything anymore.

I know my guardian angel must be at work for I am still in awe that the melting blind did not catch fire. This is another area that is part of my world. I believe in the angels and the spirit world. It is ok if no one else agrees with me or likes it or even believes me when I talk of the spirit clouds. We are not cookie cutters people, we are individual..hand pressed..hand made people with imperfections that make us simply delightful. I think this is what is meant in the Bible when it says “be ye as a child”.  It means look at the world with all the awe, joy, trust, love, acceptance, forgiveness..that these precious children have in them. Children don’t look at the clothes you wear or the house you live in..that look at something more important..they look at what you are..how you treat them..the smile in your eyes..the love you have in your heart. And they accept you, whether you have on brogan boots and levi’s or a tuxedo or evening gown.

On his last call to let me know he was about to head home, we decided he should pic up something for supper since I was exhausted and so was he. He brought our triple box we like from Wally World. It is chicken made three different ways..BBQ, this sweet and hot spicy chicken and chicken nuggets. I was starving by time he got in with the packages and so was sitting on the stool in the kitchen while he unloaded, nibbling straight from the box.  OH YUM!

And Jack, bless his sweet heart, is doing better. We are back making his soup again. I really have a thing about the dogfood industry and seems like Jack’s tummy can not handle what they make. He has “old man tummy” and so gets upset easily. So, his homemade soup with a dash of wine seems to do the trick. He was actually doing his prance in the pen slinging his head, daring his buddy across the field to come on over there. LOL. Here he is snuggled in his hut.

Well, the hearing with the Judge and the social workers back in good old Montrose is Thursday. I am not able to go back over this mountain so the lawyer is coming to my house and we will have a telephone conference hearing. These people act like they have a vendetta and I hope we are able to make the judge see that. They even admitted that when they heard the house sold, they went and “looked up on the real estate sites until they found our house to see what it sold for”.  Now, how many social workers take the time to do that for each case they have?   This is where that one who told me she controlled me decided that I had all this money that I did not get. And their reason for cutting my benefits was I did not ask for them to be turned back on?  Ok, I am a little dense here, but if you tell me you have turned off my program, how am I supposed to know that I am “supposed to ask you” to turn it back on?  Is this part of the “control you” thing?

Well, not even these people, who are supposed to be advocates of the disabled and elderly, can diminish my dream. I have had to hold off on the heart tests until the twenty-first and now I find out that even with the hearing, it could be six weeks before they turn the benefits back on, so I will have to transfer again. These people do not care. They are angry and I don’t get it and they want to extract the last pound of flesh from me. Only they are going to find it is not going to taste as good or feel as good as they think it will.

And so now..even with squinty mole eyes, melting blinds, and vengeful social workers…not even all that can stop me from moving forward with our dream. And one day we will be totally unpacked and can work on the other dreams we want…like I dream of seeing my other son and sweetpea, of learning sign language since I am hearing impaired, of doing my artwork again, of learning to play the drums (son says please can this wait til he has an out building for the drums..*giggling*), of finishing my novel, of planting my seeds, of having grass in my yard, and all the other dreams swirling through my head. For, in spite of those that knock me down..I got news for them…this hinny is part dupont and part goodyear and like the phoenix rising from the ashes…I bounce back.

And now, some pictures from our visit with the guys at the motel. Sure do miss them and miss breakfast with them. And most of all miss seeing my mountains up close.

And while we were there, these drove up. Oh, now that is a dream too. I love these old cars.

And last but not least, my mountains. People say about Rome, Italy…”oh Roma my Roma”….I say  ”oh mountains my mountains.”  :) So here are my mountains and below that the moon at supper time out my back door. looks almost like a face, does it not?

Statues, Lawyers and Unpacking

OK, I am officially awaiting my statue to be erected honoring me for now this little town will have better cable and internet. Amazing how much persistence pays off.  Seriously, today is the first day I have stayed on-line all day. OMG…I kept pinching myself to make sure it was real.

Today has been a day so mixed up that we felt like we had been run through a ringer. First the lawyer wakes me up to tell me he will be here between two and three this afternoon to discuss the case. Then  we threw ourselves into cleaning the kitchen and breakfast nook so that it was at least one area that was clean. Oh yes, I am a happy camper with this kitchen counter.  Does this even look like the cluttered, box filled space as last nite?

Son and I both worked to clean up and get ready for him to bring the oak cabinet, which is really a TV cabinet but we wanted it for storage and to put the pink dishes. When things are neat, then I can relax. This is a much smaller house and so we have learned …a place for everything and everything in its place.

When we moved out here, we came through the reservation and stopped at a pottery store there. This is where we found the horse hair pottery and I got each of my son’s a piece. This is the bear piece and the picture does not do it justice.

I had never heard of Horse hair pottery until we were at the reservation but it is so unique and so beautiful.  Here is a website that specializes in Horse Hair pottery

http://www.kachinahouse.com/c-5-horsehair-pottery.aspx

The site says:

” The ancient Indian tribes made this pottery to honor a favorite horse or to celebrate the birth of a horse. It is said that this pottery was first created when a long-haired maiden was removing hot pottery from her kiln and the wind blew her hair onto the hot pot and burned the hair into the pottery. The pottery is poured, fired for a period of time after which it is removed from the kiln, hair from the mane and the tail of a horse are draped on the pottery. The hair creates the dark lines and the smoke from the burning hair creates the cloudy grey areas. The pottery is then returned to the kiln where it finishes firing. When the firing is complete, the pottery is removed from the kiln, etched and spray-glazed.”

I so loved going on the reservation and so many wore their native dress and I could have sat for hours just watching the people and talking to them.

Since our goal is to live simpler, we are cleaning out as we go and carried a van load to the guys at the Rio to plunder through and get what they want and then they can use the rest in their yard sales they have. It was so nice to see them. I miss sitting out there, looking at my mountains and talking to them. The Rio Cucharas is so peaceful like our home is. Here is a couple of pictures showing snow on the mountain tops. We are down lover and it is 57 degrees at nite.

I had to laugh at son yesterday, for he keeps saying…I think this is the end of the yard stuff and statues and then one more box shows up. I love my little yard critters and when we get some grass in there…not the scraggle stuff we have now, it will look so nice. We found our great big pots and I am going to put some tomato plants in there for the summer as we have too much to do and I just can’t see us getting the garden started. They used fill dirt to make these levels and it is rocky dirt and not good growing dirt.

I wondered about the ancestors as they plowed to get their crops growing, pushing that plow behind the mule. Was it this rocky for them?  We hope before next planting season to have a dump truck load of top soil brought in and son wants to build raised beds to grow our vegetables in.

Anyway, the umbrella was found for the little boy and girl fountain statue, and all the other little cute critters are put out in the yard. Missing that I can remember is a concrete duck with babies. Also son got up all the chimes, the humming-bird feeder and got all the pots out. Below are pictures of all my critters. Just pretend there is nice green grass. Ha ha  We also have already growing a huge gourd plant on the side of the house at son’s end. The previous owner must have grown them and they come back wild. And I found all my angels for the yard that go in pots and on the table. I do believe in angels.

For some reason, Jack has become attached to the concrete turtle by the butterfly bush. That is where he likes to lay now and he runs straight out to it when he goes outside. I don’t know if he thinks it is real or what. It is so cute.

My frogs

My garden fairy

My hillbilly girl

St. Francis with the bunnies and bear feeder.

My big flower pots and my swan.

Son putting up the hummingbird feeder and the chimes. We now have this melodic symphony of sounds in our back yard. I love it.

My antique chimes. Found these at an estate sale.

And the most exciting thing for me today, was seeing the dining room begin to come together. Hopefully tomorrow the boxes on the dinner table and under the bar will be gone and the whole thing will be set up.

And last, but definitely not least…the lawyer came today to set up the plan for the phone conference hearing next Wednesday. This will be a first for me but he seemed to think we would have no problems. I hope so. I am ready for this to be resolved. Now that is a dream all its own.

So, it has been a full day, with lots going on and one of much accomplishment. I love watching this dream unfold. It is a lot of hard work but work done with so much love that this house just has an aura about it that is one of peace in spite of all the clutter right now. And now it is three in the morning and I am ready to sleep again. Our goal is to work inside this house today and not haul anymore over until what is here is put up.

So, I lay here listening to the fan humming, to jack snoring and to the chimes making their little melodic sounds and can almost hear the street caller shout out  ”three AM and all is well.”

Wow, I Didn’t Remember We Had This….Opening Packed boxes

The morning started off with us sitting outside to sip our coffee and eat toast. It was so funny as no matter where son went, Jack was begging for that piece of toast with jelly.

 And, after he decided he was not getting any (which he wasn’t), he and the neighbor dog across the field behind the house decided to have a conversation. Poor little dog is in a kennel cage. He runs in circles sometimes.

We knew we had to stick close to home for the Bresnan man was due between noon and five and I wanted that internet fixed. Turns out, they say it is a system problem and they are “working” on it. Then the cable guy started working on the DVR box, which the one he brought in was also defective. So, we are rescheduled for Monday. This poor man stood here for a couple of hours, waiting on the main office to call him back so that he could proceed. They are much slower on this side of the mountain. We had excellent service and care on the other side. So, the internet is still going on and off, on and off and we have no solution.

Son has started bringing boxes over so we can start putting things up. Today we hung some pictures and what a change it brought in the house. Things are going slower now and it may take us all summer to get things put up like we want but at least we do not have to rush. It was so nice to have some of our possessions and see familiar things. That really make a place feel like home. Son brought over a few of my outside statues and he said he had forgotten how heavy these concrete statues were. He called them hernia boxes. Lol

The dutch boy and girl came from a vintage shop. They are very fragile and suffered from the journey over the mountain, but I plan on fixing them. The St. Francis statue is quite big and I left the dolly handle showing to show how tall it is. And this boy and girl in rain coats has an umbrella packed in a box that goes over them. It is really part of a fountain and son hopes to get it set back up as a fountain too.

It felt like Christmas to open some of those boxes and see things I had in my bedroom on the other side of the mountain. I love dolls and collect them. I like the older and unusual ones. The Little Lulu doll is like one I had as a child. And I especially love the little things from my sweetpea from her little note to me and her pictures. I sure to miss her.

But it also felt good to put things on the walls and to have things on the chest of drawers and tops of things. Although my room is not totally set up like I want it  yet, it felt like I was in a real room instead of a white box. That is a super thing for now, for feet and legs are swollen and I will be laying here with them up in the air for a few days.

Oh, and the new hood for over the stove came. I am so excited and so is son. The only thing we are not excited about is that the one we are taking down is covered in so much grease and grime we hate to even touch it.  Tomorrow (which is actually today as it is three thirty in the morning) son will install the hood.

And I patched the first hole in the house. I am the sheet rock and mud person. I sit on a stool to do this work, but was so proud of how it came out. And a big thank you to my other son back east. I know if he were here, he would be helping get this done, but he is miles and miles away from us. So, he helps by phone and told me a new way to put the piece of sheet rock in such a large hole. There was a lot of violence in this house. You can see the kicked and punched holes all over. Here is my first patch of one of the big holes. The patched place is above the trash can and towards the curtain.

Some are child height and some are adult height. I literally could make a fist and put my hand beside some of these holes and the outline of the fist is there. To tell you how many holes there are to patch, we bought a five gallon bucket of mud to use. My bathroom alone has four holes with little stuffed animals sticking out of them. The dining room area has three or four big (and I mean big like a basketball) kicked and punched holes and the living room has a couple. I could keep going but you get the picture. We had to replace the door frame into my bedroom, the master bedroom, for it had a deadbolt and the door had been kicked in at some time. A few of the hollow inner doors were kicked in and broken. For now, we just threw them away and will replace as we go along. It runs into a lot of money when you start repairing all of these cosmetic things.  The kitchen counter has places that looked like someone hit it with a hammer. We saw this new treatment you can put on formica counters to make them look like granite, etc. We are going to do that down the road.

Son and I are amazed at the peace in this house since we saged it to remove any negative energy. This is such a quiet and peaceful place and the more we get done, the nicer it is. Is it a mansion?…no. But it is ours. And it is a nice home. I have enjoyed seeing son come in excited about meeting the neighbors. It is good for him to get out and meet people and have other interests than taking care of his disabled and sick mother. I believe he has met several of the neighbors, visited at their houses and really enjoyed himself.

I love laying here and listening to the tinkle of my chimes and now the melodic bamboo sound from the bear chimes I got.  The room is very much my room now and one that I can relax in and is my sanctuary of peace. Jack has the chimes over his hut but he seems to like them now that he has determined they are safe. With the fan blowing in the room, the soothing sounds play all the time.

And of course, I must show a picture of my mountains today. We were riding out to see the guys at the Rio and quess what we saw walking up the street only a few streets from our house?  In the middle of town no less.  A DEER! I told son with our feeders outside, we are liable to wake up one morning and see one in Jack’s little penned in area. And that would be so cool. I was so mad at myself that I forgot my camera and didn’t get a picture. We rode out to see Leroy and the guys and pick up a present from my friend sassy….a crepe myrtle tree. I was so excited. It is now planted in front of the porch and one day in the near future will make shade for that porch plus lovely color.

 

I thought I had taken a picture but will have to do it on tonite’s blog. Son here is always trying to make things easier for me. Because of the heat it puts off, my oxygen machine sits around the corner in the LR. This means I have this long hose that keeps the door from shutting unless I drop it to the floor and then shut the door. Son took a piece of pvc pipe and drilled a hole at the top of the wall near the ceiling and put it in so that the hose from the machine comes through the wall instead of the door and the excess is looped behind the door where I can take it down on those days I need oxygen on during the day a lot. Now, how smart and cool is that?

And now I am getting sleepy again and think I will lay back down. It will soon be morning and another day at the Blu Moon Inn will start. Don’t you just love the name of our house. I picked it out.  I have a lot of paperwork to get together and to fax to the lawyer as the hearing is the sixteenth of this month. I am hoping justice will prevail and that those people who acted so horrendous to a disabled person are reprimanded. My lawyer is making the five and a half hour trip back there to be in the hearing. He was livid.

And I am exited cause I have a package coming today.  Someone told me they shipped me something they made and it will arrive today…so that puts a smile on my face.  While son will be hauling stuff again, I will be here looking at my sausage toes, laying on this bed with my feet up in the air.  But don’t worry…I am part goodyear and part dupont. I bounce back. Life is too short to spend it filled with worries and frustrations. It is also too short to spend it letting others hurt you….life will be filled with pain, sorry, hurt, betrayal, and ugliness…it is a fact. What you do with it..is up to you.  I choose to not let it invade my personal space anymore. And I do not let my health nor the pain I live with daily keep me from living life. Every day can be an adventure and when you are following your dreams…what an adventure it is. Some thought we were crazy to sell our house, pack up and move here but we would not change it for the world. This little sleepy town is exactly what we wanted. There is still community spirit here and yet still privacy..even being on the edge of town. And I can still see the tips of my mountains. The dream is unfolding daily. What about you?  Gone after any of your dreams yet?  Every day that slips by is one day less that you have to live it.

 

When Do You Make The Step?

Dreams come in all sizes and packages from those of the small child to the small ones of adults and the lifelong dreams we have. Today I was asked when do you know is the time to step out and go for the dream.

Going after your dream is a scary thing. We sit an imagine all the scary things that can happen especially if it is a life altering dream, like moving to Colorado was for us, or selling the house and moving over the mountain was. All the what if’s hit you in the middle of the night. What if we lose everything? What if we make the wrong move? What if we fail? What if…what if…what if.

Someone once gave me a card that said “Go for your dream, for if you don’t you will spend the rest of your life wondering what would have happened had you done so.” That card led me to get my CDL..which is a commercial truck driver’s license. That dream was something I just wanted to do and was terrified for fear I would fail.  That same card led us over the countryside and into the Rocky mountains and eventually led us to here, at the base of my mountains.

I realized with dreams, the major question is “how much are you willing to give up to have your dream?”.  Are you willing to risk losing your financial security?  your home?  your possessions? Are you willing to risk the possibility that you may have to start over or live in something that is not quite what you planned to get there?

By the time I reached my fifties, I had realized that possessions are just that…they can be replaced and the longer I live…the less I find I need. Give me my computer and my room and I am good to go. Son here is the same way..we each would have been happy in our own one room cabin in the woods.And by the time I reached my sixties, I have realized that I need less and less material things.

We start off wanting everything…the home, the car, the fancy furniture, etc and we go through life upgrading and investing more and more money and time into these things. And yet, the one thing I hear people tell me is “I remember how happy I was when we lived in that tiny bungalow starting out and life seemed so much easier.”  And it was easier in the sense that we owned less possessions and possessions are a burden and a financial strain. If we put as much time and money into relationships as we do possessions, the divorce rate would probably be nil.

So, how do you know when to step out on faith?  I think that is the crux of the problem. We say we have faith but we are afraid to step out and faith is doing it not being able to see what will be down that road. We have faith in God even though  we can not prove His existence because we believe and when you believe your dream so strongly….you will step out and make the step.

Son and I decided to move to Colorado and it took us 8 months to get the money up to pay for the move and for his flight out to find a house to rent and a job. We had picked where we thought we wanted to be only to discover when he got here that it was not as it seemed. He called me and said he did not have that gut feeling about the little town and what should he do. I said “pray son and I will pray and in the morning, let God lead you.”  And that is what we did and he got up the next morning and said “I think God wants me to go here” and that is what he did. When He got to the town, in one day he found a house and a job.  I have learned that when things fall into place…it is the Lord leading. When we beat our heads against a brick wall to get what we want…it is us leading.

We wanted the house to sell so desperately and the marked crashed. Nothing we did sold that house and two years went by and we both began to wonder was moving to this area what we were supposed to do. And it took us reaching the point of realizing all things happen in “God’s time” not ours and we said “ok God…you lead and we will follow”.  And the rest is history.

The house showed one day and in three weeks it was sold, and we were on our way. We came to a motel that had old friends that took us in and treated us like family and watched over us while we found a house and the right house just opened up and we now own our home and are fixing all the cosmetic things and living here at the base of my beloved mountains. Everything seemed to fall into place with ease….and I knew who was leading then.

Don’t throw your dreams away because you think you can never do them. You may have to adjust them a little, like we did with this house but you can find a way. Get out and do those things…step out on faith. Plan and work for that dream for it is the most delicious wonderful feeling in the world to feel your dream unfolding for you…whether it is something as simple as taking up painting, writing a book,going back to school,  traveling to a certain place…whatever. Dreams and hope are what keep us going and as long as we have “hope”…we can have dreams.

 

Step out on faith and know that your guardian angel is watching over you and have faith in what you want to do…and just do it.

There Are Dreams And There Are Dreams

Son staggers to the bedroom door, his eyes half-open and says “do you think exhaustion causes weird dreams?”   I told him I definitely did. He said he dreamed that I made him put up these hideous yellow colored awnings on the windows and then stick all these tacky broken purple and pink flamingos in the yard and that he was arguing with me the whole time saying ….”it’s fugly mama. it’s fugly.”   LOL   As he walked off, I casually said  ”BTW, son, the flamingos are in the shed”. HA HA HA.

Dreams come in all sizes and we dream from the time we are little. As kids we dream of what we will get for Christmas, of that special doll or bike or whatever. As adults, our dreams take on what we desire in our hearts for our lives. This house was a dream. Yes, we have some working against us on our dreams…the social service people from where we moved..and that is ok. Justice I believe will prevail at the hearing on June 16th.  But we had and still have other dreams that go along with this.

This can below holds a dream. I carried this can as if it were treasure over the mountain. Made sure it was not in the heat, kept protected and rode in the van.

Does not look like much inside, does it?

The can contains packets of seeds…Heirloom seeds. Each pack contains a different variety and it is our dream to plant our garden with these. It is time here to start planting. We don’t usually start until after the end of May.

Heirloom seeds are not touched by genetic altering like plants we get today. Every tried to grow plants from the seeds of the plants we buy today and get those deformed little plants that do nothing?  That is why.  With Heirloom seeds, they will reproduce from the seeds and create plants like the first ones you plant. We harvest the seeds just like we harvest the crop.

Many people do seed swaps because finding these seeds is so hard. We bought ours this time from someone who specializes in heirloom seeds and we were lucky to get them for they are hard to get and she lets you know that after a certain time, the seeds are no longer available.  I want heirloom flowers too. I used to have many back east where we lived but when we moved here, my seeds got lost.

 I have other dreams too…both son and I do.  We both dream that all the work and moving will be done soon and we can relax. I also dream of simple things like finishing my other blog, learning on the Rosetta Stone program, setting up my art easel, planting my flowers and seeds….we all have dreams. What are yours? It is dreams that keep us going.

Now, to show you how creative we can be.  I can not stand the unfixed holes in the sheet rock. I imagine all sorts of bugs and critters crawling through.  *shudder*…So one day, son comes in and asks me why he sees dinosaurs sticking out of the wall and other critters. I told him that it is my new decorating theme. LOL

Well, even dreams need help sometimes, don’t you think?  Lol

Poor Jack…he is indignant.  ha

Middle of The NIght Ramblings

I woke up a little while ago and did the usual bathroom jaunt and was laying here trying to get settled down again. It was about three fifty in the morning and so I was not exactly ready to get up. When suddenly I heard a noise that sounded like a metallic sound and Jack jumped up and ran to the door wanting out of the bedroom. I keep a child’s gate there to keep him in the room with me at night. I sat up and listened again and then eased out of bed and peeked out my bedroom door. Jack went immediately to the back door and was doing his intense looking, so I eased across the living room and down the hallway and woke son up, telling him I heard something and Jack was guarding at the door. And believe me when I tell you that “easing across the livingroom”  on Canadian crutches is quite a feat.

We got back to the sliding glass door, which has one of those protection bars waist-high, and quietly opened the door and let jack out. Son went around checking the house and as I sat on the stool at the door watching, a car was easing down the road up from ours with only the parking lights on. It would move a little and then stop, move a little and then stop. And we had a good view of it. Son figured it was the cops checking.

After we had checked everything, and the house locked back up and son went back to bed, I came back into my bedroom and laid here thinking. The pioneers cross my mind a lot in this area of land, from the people here who are weathered, rugged ranchers to the land itself. And I thought about how scary it must have been living in a covered wagon with only the canvas between you and the outside and any critters or unlawful people.  Now, I am here to tell you that is not much protection.

I feel safe in this house…safer than I have felt in any house we have ever lived in. The one back on the other side of the mountain took me a year to develop a feeling of safety,  but I have felt this here from day one, even when we had to park the van to keep the door from opening on the side until we could get secure locks. I am not so sure I would ever feel safe in a covered wagon. That is too much like living in a tent, and we all know how safe that is.

Someone recently had a house fire and many possessions lost and a friend of mine made the statement that it brought a realization that we kept too many possessions. When we moved over the mountain, it took us two u-haul size trucks to bring our possessions. After we got it all here and in storage, son and I both said…you know, we need to get rid of a bunch of this. This is one reason we are bringing things in slowly so we can clean out and not be cluttered.

And my mind once again turns to those courageous settlers who came this way before any of us did. I can not imagine picking out the most treasured things and keeping the pile small enough that it would go on the covered wagon and not overload it. And many people, had to throw out some of these possessions…a special rocking chair, a chest, etc…when they hit  really rugged terrain.

We have son’s great-grandmother’s rocking chair..it is just a plain old wooden rocker..small that I refinished and it means a lot to him because Mimi (the same name my sweetpea calls me)  sat in it. Nothing fancy to it, just a small bare bones wooden rocker that was getting brittle and dry  and falling apart was thrown in the trash when my parents moved into assisted living. Son asked his granny about it and she told him it was an old rocker that Mimi had at one time but was falling apart and not worth saving. We took it home, re-glued it and I refinished it with a lustrous sheen and while it is so small that it looks like someone about eight pounds dripping wet might could sit in it, it is a treasure to son. So, I can picture it tucked away in a covered wagon coming west. Right now it sits in storage or I would show a picture.

Do we place so much emphasis on possessions that we forget the most important things, like family and love and sharing our lives? Son and I opted to live a more simple life with less stress and yes less possessions and the peace and serenity we feel is beyond words. This house that the Lord bestowed on us is a gift that no words can explain. It is not a fancy house, it needs and needed a lot of cosmetic work and each part of that work cements this house with love. It is a small house and one that I can maneuver around easily. And yet it is set up so that two generations can live here and each have their own “space” and privacy. Amazing.

Oh, unpacking I did find one thing. I found my tin with all my heirloom seeds. I carried those across this mountain with the same feeling of the ancestors who carried rootings and seeds to bring to the “new land” to set up their homesteads. And those seeds will make our garden. Heirloom seeds have not been genetically altered and will reseed and produce good plants. They are my treasure and you harvest the seeds just as surely as you harvest the crops. I will show a picture when I get up.

And now, I will try to snooze a little more before the coffee pot goes off in a couple of hours. I am laying here listening to the hum of my fan and the soft snoring of jack in his hut. And I am watching the glistening reflections on my ceiling from my feathered chimes and my beautiful stained glass chandelier. And I am thinking…like the street callers of old…”five AM and all is well!!”

The Little Things Mean So Much

It has still been a lot of grunge work but things are coming together. The Baseboard is all in and looks so nice and son went and picked up the area rugs and so now we are deciding where to put them. We have a red one  that looks very Indian, one that is vintage looking and one that looks sort of french.

We had three places we wanted these rugs…living room, dining room and my bedroom. Finally we decided to put the red one in the living room. While the furniture is not really in place as we only have brought over two chairs…here is the rug in the living room. Soon the tv will be over the fireplace and that will make it much nicer too.

And I decided since I have this awesome stained glass chandelier in my bedroom, that the vintage looking  rug will go in there.  Sometimes dreams are exhausting but fun too.

Jack thinks we put the rug down just for him.

and this is what drives me bonkers…..mess  mess mess

 Command Central, as we call it, is set up and boy am I happy. This is where I spend a lot of my time and so son has it fixed to where it is very easy for me to use, plus I can flip the little desk thing down to eat on.

And oh yum, chicken corn chowder…my fav.  I love my little eating spot now.

Not only do I have my command central and eating place back, I have all my electronic gizmos that make life easier like remote control lights, etc.  I am a happy camper.

  Son is thrilled that he now has his computer desk back in his office room and can set up all his computer stuff.  He is such a computer geek but I am lucky for when I need repairs…who do I call?  ghost busters!!!…ooops I mean my son. LOL

 So, home is starting to look a little more like home with the addition of furniture. Soon we will have the dining room table in and can bring the little breakfast nook table over. It is coming together and soon all the stuff in storage will be here too.

And now for some fun pictures.  I love that fact that if you let it, every day can be an adventure and you will see something new and fun….for free.  This is down in town more and you know how some people have yard ornaments, well this man has deluxe yard ornaments.  I have wanted a picture of them for a while.

I look back and realize how far we have come. It has been 11 weeks and yet it feels like months. Son and I both are whipped, exhausted and pushing to get done and when we get too tired or frustrated at something…like the privacy fence we want so badly…we remind ourselves…but the house is ours..it is ours.

This dream is not over…it just the beginning of a new way of life…of living simpler without burdens weighing us down…of realizing that possessions are just that…possessions.  The little things mean so much. Son and I were talking about how much we enjoyed sitting down for breakfast and talking..something we never did before as he had night hours and it just did not work out.  Little things…carpet on the floor, baseboard on the walls, a chicken wire fence so jack can go out without a leash, the quietness and peace in this house, being able to get my own coffee because it is so close…the little things.  Sometimes we strive so hard for ALL that we lose the most important and often don’t realize it until it is too late.