Life Transplanet

Last night Britton and I went to meet the Boyles Family at their farm in east Greeley. It was really nice meeting Claire, Matt and their adorable kids, Simon and Madzie.  We got a little tour of the farm that grows small fruits and veggies, chickens, pigs and turkeys, but also very beautiful flowers. Since it is the end of the season and frost will shortly be upon us, Claire invited us to cut some flowers and take them home in a huge 5 gallon bucket.  So we did! And when we got home I knew I wanted to make bouquets out of them.

Britton took this picture of the flower field (zinnias) with his cell phone

Here’s our dog, Schnoodle next to the bucket-o-flowers

Then I arranged them while Britton and Schnoodle relaxed!

Then I put them all around the house -our bedroom

Our Basement

Our Kitchen

Our hallway, living room and even our bathroom!

I made this one out of an abalone shell and some of the flower heads that fell off in transit.

Thanks Claire and family for so much beauty and bounty!

The Greeley Oktoberfest this year falls on September 25th and 26th. We went down there last night and had a pretty good time eating brats, beer, talking with friends and listening to a pretty cool band called Ben Pu and Crew. We are thinking about going down there again tonight, but we have a BBQ first. Here are a few pics of the fun.

I wore my hair in German milk-maid style and even added freckles!

Men are so aloof. After I put my makeup on Britton asked if I always had those freckles! lol

I love these things!

The band -Ben Pu and Crew

Well, it looks like the budget cuts have indeed cost me my job, but the good news is that I will be able to stay on here at the county doing emergency preparedness (EP) work, specifically working on H1N1 stuff. I have already been trained in that and have been doing translations (English to Spanish) ever since I started here, so it won’t be a major change. I will still be able to work on some of my existing projects and programs as well. However, from what I hear, the money for EP will dry up by July 31, 2010, so Britton and I decided that that would make a good end time to move to Puerto Rico. We would probably need a month or so to get everything all ready for the move and so we are planning an ETA (estimated time of arrival) of September 2010.

Britton says I’m like the girl on the edge; ready to make the jump, but still worried

None of this is written in stone, but at least it gives us a working plan. Before we go, we have a few goals that we want to accomplish that we believe are feasible in that time frame:

1) Pay off one of our properties. Britton is very much about security in risk (and I am too, to an extent) and doesn’t want to see all that we have worked toward thus far just lost. This way, he figures, if we have to come back with our tails between our legs we’ll always have a house that we can live in for free.

2) Save up enough for the transition to be able to buy furniture, a vehicle and other necessities. We are not too sure how much this needs to be as we’ve never moved so far away. For those of you who have made a life changing move, what do you recommend? How much do used cars cost in PR? We heard they are about $2,000 more than in the mainland.

3) Find a place to live in Puerto Rico. We would like to go down there again some time this winter with the clear intention of finding a place, putting in an offer and closing (not sure if that would be one or two trips).

4) Find jobs. This is really open for interpretation. This could mean working remote, working on virtual projects (the internet), running a guesthouse and farm and/or one or both of us finding part-time or full-time work there. We are open to all possibilities. We do know that it will entail us remotely managing our properties in Colorado since we are not planning on selling them (nor do I think we should in this market).

We don’t know what will happen in the future, but who does, really? We can’t be afraid to live. It is exciting and fun, and darling, do not fear what you don’t really know.

A few weeks ago Celina, our newest blog friend, invited us over for a bbq with her and her husband. They recently moved from Virginia to Greeley. Celina is originally from Taiwan and her husband is from Germany so we had quite an International style bbq with spring rolls, grilled fish and German beer. We brought our contribution of deviled eggs from our girls out back. We were so impressed with the spring rolls that Britton and I decided to try and make some ourselves.

First we bought some rice paper, vegetable filling and fish sauce at the grocery store. Then we followed the directions to soften the rice paper and roll them up. The first few were a bit tricky for Britton, but he got it. He had rolled up a few homemade vegetable sushi rolls before, so had some experience.

They turned out great, although not quite as expertly rolled as Celina’s.  Here are a few pictures of how to make spring rolls. We sauteed some peppers and the rest was just cabbage, lettuce, sprouts, and mushrooms. We put shrimp in some of them. We served them with rice and mahi mahi (dorado).

Place Rice paper in warm water to soften

Fill with your favorite veggies (we also added shrimp) and any sauces you may want

Roll it up

Mix up some dipping sauce with chiles and fish sauce

Chill, Serve and Enjoy! Buen Provecho!

The society we humans have created is an interesting one. We have our set of rules and those rules were put in place by our fellow citizens. When you know the people in charge you have some influence on them in some way or another. I think Cassie and I have lived in the Greeley area long enough  to realize that sometimes (in fact, oftentimes) it’s not what you know, but who you know.

It’s true with the Chicken issue because we know how the local law system works and who is in charge of it. We approached the Greeley city council about our ticket and the problem just….went away. I don’t think a lot of people know how it works and are frustrated constantly (hint: always go to the top first, the worker bees at the bottom represent the bureaucracy and often have their hands tied and can’t really help you unless told to by those at the top).

We had another example happen tonight. We have a rental in Evans and some friends of ours live there. Everything has worked out great and has really been a pleasure. Well tonight I got a call from them and apparently the water had been shut off (we pay water). I was kind of shocked but I remembered that we had a letter from the utility company a few months ago that said they had a SNAFU with their new water billing system. We had followed the instructions they sent to us but apparently it didn’t work.

Of course it was after hours (about 6pm) and nobody who could do anything was at work. We thought we were going to have to wait until 8am tomorrow to do anything about it. I tried calling everyone I could think of. I even called the lady at home who works in the billing department that sent us the letter. Her husband informed me she was at a meeting. I was about to give up.

Then I remembered the guy who did a house inspection for us was on the city council in Evans. I thought it was a long shot, but worth a try. I called him and he was very receptive to my issue. Apparently the utility company messed his bill up too! He called the city manager and the water was back on in less than an hour. Amazing. I am truly thankful for his assistance in the matter (thanks Tom Hamblen!). You don’t realize how important water is until you try to turn the faucet on and nothing comes out!

If you know who to call and who can make a difference it can sure help. I think our elected officials helping out the people is exactly what they should be doing. It’s nice to see on a local level that it still works like that (sometimes). Of course they also have an opportunity to help out those that aren’t doing what is best for the people. It can really go both ways. Either way, squeaky wheel gets the grease.  So don’t be afraid to squeak a little to the right people!