Saturday, August 28, 2010

Busy, busy, busy





We took a quick trip to Silver City again Monday - Wednesday. Looked at several houses there, especially one that we had looked at and liked when we were down there in July ... it still felt good, so we'll see if we can get it.

My life continues to be preoccupied with the SW Open School Minds in Motion fundraising campaign. Did another booth at Mancos Farmers' Market; three more events to go, one of which I'll miss. Then our season finale on September 9, which we're busy planning for now. We've done well ... over a thousand contacts, renewed interest in SWOS, new students and about $7,000 in hand so far. I think we will make the $10,000 goal for this year and then we'll see what happens beyond that. I'll leave the board in a couple of months, so that's a nice note to go out on.

Last night was the last - and best - of the Grand Summer Nights events in downtown Mancos. Beautiful weather, beautiful music and lots for people to do and see. There are more than 60 artists shown in the downtown area now! We had people there ranging from Durango to McElmo Canyon ... just a pleasant, laid-back evening ... with lots of sales!

In a few minutes we need to get ready to go to the Wine and Art show in Cortez ... a FeVa Fotos booth instead of a SWOS MIM booth for a change. A dark cloud looming in that direction does not bode well. And then toward the end of the week we'll be doing our maybe last distribution of Arts Perspective Magazine around the San Juan Skyway. TV

Sunday, August 15, 2010

We're back!







We've been out peddling FeVa Fotos again. This time to archeologists and their ilk at the 2010 Pecos Conference, which was held in Silverton, CO. This is the first time (I think) that the conference has been held that far north.

Silverton is about 9,000 feet in elevation and the mornings were ... refreshing. There was ice on the windshield both mornings. We were glad we were snug in our little Casita (among the elephant herd of RVs) and not camping on the sports field like many of the participants!

We were a little cramped at our single table in the vendors tent and the weather was beautiful (it had been raining for days in Silverton!), so we opened the tent side and created an "annex." We didn't sell any of the prints there, but it gave a more open feeling to our presentation. We didn't sell a lot of cards, but I enjoyed seeing old friends from Chaco and around the southwest and it's always fun to be able to talk with customers about our pictures.

The setting couldn't have been lovelier! We were just south of the Silverton Visitors Center, the two-story Victorian building on the left of the third picture up, in an area surrounded by the San Juan Mountains and looking down the Animas River canyon toward Durango, through which two trains went each day (one is parked in the background of the picture showing the tents and the visitors center).

We had good evening meals, at Natalia's near the train station on Silver Street on Thursday night (top picture) - good ABUNDANT Mexican food - and the Pickle Barrel on Greene Street (the main drag) on Friday night. Really good prime rib and steak at the Pickle Barrel and the entrees are $2 off before 6 p.m., which we were lucky to take advantage of.

There are some little issues with the Casita that need to be looked at, but it still only took a little over two hours each way, going slowly over the passes.

Now it's back to reality time ... gotta end this and get ready to go to Escalante Days in Dolores to staff the SW Open School Minds in Motion booth this morning and then help Sandy get ready for company the next three days. Busy, busy, busy! TV

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Weekend of Summer Fun







What a beautiful,fun weekend it was! Photo safari in the mountains Friday morning, Artist reception at the Cortez Cultural Center Friday night, Farmer's Market Saturday morning, Picker's Reunion performance at Joe Moore Lake Saturday evening and stopped by the Bauer House yard sale on our way home from Durango this morning. They do it right at the Bauer House- it was a yard sale with live music! They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, so since my blogs are never as wordy as Tom's, I will compensate with a few of my favorite photos! sf

Sunday, August 1, 2010

After the fair ...





This last week has been pretty much taken up by the Montezuma County Fair. After the ranch rodeo last Sunday, I did some "streetwalking" on Monday and Tuesday, going mostly to banks for donations to our Minds in Motion campaign (with mixed success).

Wednesday we set up our booth at the fair and Saturday evening we took it down. Having an indoor venue was a welcome change ... we could put things up on the tables and not worry about the wind blowing them off!

I really didn't get much time to see what else was happening at the fair. I was impressed that rocketry is now a 4-H project field. The judging ring was about 30 yards away from our booth, so we were often regaled with the comments the sheep and goats and cows were making about the competition (the bunnies were nice and quiet!). I caught this one girl wrestling her sheep into the proper stance and then a goat looking kinda disgusted at being decked out in hula trappings.

They were long days, but fruitful. Fortunately, I had the help of other team members in staffing the booth, which allowed me to come in a little late on Friday morning and get home early that night, leaving others to enjoy the concert. Saturday morning we had to split our forces, because we had both the booth at the fair and one at the Cortez Farmers' Market, both good venues. We haven't taken in a lot of cash (about $1,100 so far), but we've made more than 700 contacts as we've "talked SWOS" in the different communities we serve. Those contacts are already paying off in terms of new parents/students contacting the SWOS office to register for this coming school year, our 25th. We've also made contact with a lot of former SWOS students and graduates. And, you can never underestimate the value of being able to talk SWOS face-to-face with elected officials, business owners and others in the community.

Tomorrow and Tuesday we'll have interviews on two of the local radio stations, so that will get us more exposure. I will also follow up on some of the promised donations from businesses and see whether those are coming in. We've got farmers' markets in Dolores and Mancos this week and then we have to turn in a donation request to Empire Electric Cooperative, preparatory to our making a presentation to their board on August 20. THAT will be an opportunity for a larger donation and for us to really tell the SWOS story.

In the meantime, Sandy has been at Artisans and everyone's sales there have been booming during the month of July. She also bore the brunt of hosting a family of five Hungarian Servas travelers Thursday night. The mother and father had visited me 16 years ago, so it was interesting to catch up with them. tv