I Did It!

Un-techy me put our flickr slideshow on our blog! I still can't believe it works but I think it does! I am so surprised. It seems that computers and the technology within passes me by so quickly I am totally amazed when something actually works for me! Wow! Feels good. . .sf

PS Not so good. . . Does a very limited number of pictures. . Back to the drawing board. . If you click on the slideshow it does go to the FeVa Fotos Flickr page. . . sf

Sorry it's been a while

We've been tardy in tending to our blog; sorry.

We came down to Silver City, NM, on Tuesday and are heading back to Mancos today. We've been looking the town over some more and looked at a few of the houses on the market. Empty rooms after empty rooms are beginning to clutter my mind!

On the north side of Silver City, we did see quail and deer and the roadrunner pictured here, who was fluffing out his wings to catch the morning sun Wednesday. I think it's only the second time I've seen a roadrunner and enjoyed watching his warming for a few minutes. Local residents say they routinely have these critters in their yards, plus javelinas. The realtor says mountain lions have been reported in the town.

We've sampled various eateries, from Chinese take-out (HUGE portions!) to the Red Barn Steak House to The Drifter for breakfast and Vicky's for lunch and Diane's (shown) for both lunch and dinner yesterday. Last night was our second anniversary, so we met a couple for drinks, then stayed at Diane's to enjoy a good supper and the songs of duet that was playing there last night.

But, reality calls and we've got to get back to Mancos early enough for a couple of events this evening. On the way down, we saw elk and deer and an immature eagle that was dining on a fresh roadkill skunk. Pheew! tv

Yes, we're in ranch country!

'Twas a sunny day but with a biting cold wind when we went to the 2010 Ag Expo show at the Montezuma County Fairgrounds yesterday afternoon. Still, it's a big event; one where it's fun to see your neighbors and the booths and the kids with critters.

One neat event was the Alpaca 4-H Club's alpaca show. The kids sort of adopt animals at Kathy Butler's alpaca ranch near Dolores and show them. Alpacas are cute little critters.

There was a cutting contest in corrals outside, with teams of cowboys and cowgirls cutting out designated cows and nudging them into another section of the corral. Chilly work!

There were several teams of draft horses pulling wagons to give people rides around the fairgrounds. The lower pic is of a pair of dapple greys; the picture above shows part of a six-horse team of Belgians. I teased the driver about standing up to catch more of the cold wind; he said his butt was tired of sitting!

The top picture shows that it was pretty crowded in the main building, where all the trade exhibits were. There was also a fair amount of dust in the air, from all the feet on the dirt floor.

Good fun, but it was nice to come home and get warm! tv

Springtime in Colorado

I woke up this morning to discover we're still here!

The temp was a little better at dog-walking time (30 degrees) and a great horned owl was sounding off nearby for most of the walk. S'pose he was saying how much he'd like to taste a hot little dog?

We work at Artisans this morning, and tomorrow morning, too, due to a swap. Plus, we have a Mancos On the Move meeting this afternoon to review the Mancos Melt, start getting our act together for Spring Into Mancos and do some long-range planning for Mancos Days.

No new pics today. Haven't been taking many and the laptop, which we download into, went to the hospital for several days. Just had a new topcase installed and it was apparently faulty ... the cursor would freeze, or it became magnetic, picking up file icons and carrying them around the desktop, dropping them wherever it chose. Great way to totally disorganize your files!

Between "work" and some meetings and a couple of social events, we hope we'll get time to get to the Ag Expo, maybe Saturday afternoon. It's always fun to see the booths, chat with friends and neighbors and see the critters and the tractors ... I always still get a kick out of seeing the latest farm equipment. I guess it's the old farm boy in me; tractors today are sure a far cry from the butt-busting Case and Allis Chalmers I used to drive on Uncle Dick's farm!

By the end of yesterday, the driveway had mostly dried up and birds were picking around in the bare grass in the front yard. Still, there's lots of snow over much of the land, and it's not over yet! I recently realized I posted a picture taken on April 16 last year with about two inches of fresh snow covering everything!

Ice has formed on the Propanel roof like I've never seen in the 15 years since the house was built. We hear rumbling crashes as multi-hundred-pound slabs of ice slide off the north side; there's still a 3 1/2-foot Propanel pile obscuring the bottom half of the bathroom window. I tried yesterday to knock down what must be a 500-pound layer of ice and snow hanging off a NE-facing trough in the roof over the apartment, couldn't budge it. Hope it doesn't damage anything when it finally drops.

Light begins to tinge the east ... not adjusted to Daylight Savings Time yet! tv

Spring!?!?

The snow went down a bunch yesterday, which concurrently means the emergence of mud. It didn't snow yesterday, which was a blessing. It was clear and cold last night, but only got down into the lower 20s, which was a blessing. Maybe it will be sunny and melting today, which will be a blessing. SOOO tired of winter!

We have survived Mancos Melt and the trip around the San Juan Skyway, delivering the Arts Perspective magazines. The issue shown at www.artsperspective.com/index.php is the previous issue, but it gives you an idea of what AP is about. Now we can do our taxes, work at Artisans, attend some show receptions, birthdays, farewells and get ready for another trip south. We've decided to spend our anniversary away. It was a choice between going to Moab and going back down to Silver City ... Silver City won. We were going to de-winterize the Casita travel trailer and take it, but with night-time temperatures still falling into the teens and lower 20s, and with the Casita still buried in a snowbank and a foot of snow covering most of the landscape, it's not time to de-winterize! So, we'll zip down in the Radish (little red Subaru sedan) and look around Silver City unencumbered. Maybe we'll take Condo down in mid-summer to really check out how bad the summer heat gets in that area.

In the meantime, dawn comes again to the Mancos Valley and we need to go visit the rec. center and keep working on the weight loss and fitness program. tv

Ouray

Just wanted to add one picture of Ouray to Sandy's posting ... I think this morning's view of Ouray was the most beautiful we've seen in a year of quarterly visits!

It's A Snowy March in Colorado!

We just returned home from a two day loop around the SanJuan Skyway. It snowed. Heavily yesterday. While we were delivering Arts Perspective Magazine. Then the sun came out this morning and was absolutely glorious. Until it snowed again. But spring is coming. I know it. We did get some great snow pictures for next year FeVa Foto Holiday cards. I will post a few! sf

Dr Suess's Helper

I stopped by to catch Tom reading to the Headstart children as part of the Mancos School District's annual tribute to Dr. Suess. I was disappointed that he wasn't in costume this year but it still looked like he and the children were having a good time. sf