Archive for July, 2010

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Ode to Dad

Saturday, July 10th, 2010

My dad’s health has been declining further. He is now on oxygen and lots of pain meds. He was diagnosed with colon cancer about 3 years ago and has been going through all the chemo treatments, radiation and other experimental things. The cancer has spread to his lungs and now that he is on oxygen and in a lot of pain; he can’t do much other than rest.


Me and Dad in Better Times. What a team!

It is so hard to see him go through this. All I want is for him to be back to normal. The strong dad I’ve known my whole life. The man who owned both a lawn care company and a law business. The man who could get so angry and also be the kindest person I’ve ever known. My dad.

And I am really lucky to have a dad like this.

I mean not every dad will put curlers in his hair with you!

Not every kid gets to grow up with a dad who not only tells you that you can do anything but seems to live it. From building and remodeling houses to being the pitcher in the community softball team and even being the mayor of a town, Dad could do it all!


The Fam Circa 1985/86

He was always there when I needed him. When I  graduated from kindergarten to when I crashed my first car, when I needed help with homework and when he thought I just needed a good rassle. He was the kind of dad who punished me by having me write essays. And you never knew when he was going to jump up right behind you and SNARL just for fun.


My high school graduation

And as an adult, I just can’t imagine not having him to call and ask advice or talk philosophy or politics or money matters. You know, to just shoot the shit as he would say. It is so strange to see him this sick, listless and without an appetite. He was never sick -as a kid I don’t remember him even having a cold. He was certainly not listless -he was always building or doing something. And as for appetite? He definitely was never one to turn down good food!

I just want my dad for a few more years. We’ve been blessed that in these last three years we have been able to be here with him and appreciate our time together a little more.

Dad, if you are reading this, I just want you to know that I love you so much. I want you to get better soon. I want many more discussions and memories and meals! And if Britton and I have kids, I want you to know them. I want them to know their grandfather. But I guess sometimes life doesn’t always work out just as you want. And if that is the case, please know that I am so glad I had you in my life. I am so happy you are my dad, Dad.

After all, what kind of kid draws a picture like this if not a happy one?


My family

 

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Posted in Challenges, Colorado Daily Life, Friends and Family, Greeley, Health | 7 Comments »

Henhouse Attack

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

We had an uninvited visitor to the henhouse last night. Britton woke up when he heard a bunch of screams from the chickens at about midnight. The creature went in the henhouse and attacked the girls. It appears to have pulled out Omelette and then Greenfoot. Luckily, they escaped, but not without the loss of a lot of feathers.  Britton saw it scale the fence. He thought it was a darker color with a thin body and longish tail. We had to coax them all to get back into the coop and actually grab and put Greenfoot back in, she was so shaken up.

We locked up the coop really good and after some tossing and turning, we finally got back to sleep.

Then at about 3am, I woke up hearing the chickens fluttering around and making noise, though not as noisy as the earlier episode. I woke up Britton and he ran to the window. He said he could hear the creature scratching on the coop, but couldn’t get in. When Britton opened the window next to the coop, the Thing took off again right over the back fence to the empty field. Again, a blur.  It makes me wonder where Kitty was when all of this was happening since he is an outdoor cat.


Many of Greenfoot’s wing and back feathers

Losing feathers is actually an antipredation defense to help them get out of the grips of harm’s way. When a predator tries to grab them, the feathers tear loose and all the predator has is a handful (pawful) or mouthful of feathers, but the bird (hopefully, and in this case) survives.


Omelette is missing front feathers


Greenfoot’s wing feathers and some back feathers are completely gone

We’re not sure what it was, but it could possibly be a raccoon, weasel, skunk or maybe a fox, but it didn’t have a fluffy tail or obvious scent, so I am leaning toward weasel or mink. We laid in bed talking about possible solutions for about an hour (until 4am). We thought of making them live in a chicken run, but 1) it’s a lot of work to build one, 2) they will wreck the yard if it stays in only one place too long, 3) I wouldn’t want to be completely locked up my whole life, 4) the creature struck in the middle of the night, so it is unlikely it would come during the day.

We also talked about getting a gun of some sort to shoot it, but we were afraid we might mess up our fence or accidentally shoot Kitty or something. We don’t own a gun, but I can see how a farmer or rancher would need one! We also talked about electrifying our back fence -which might work, but is expensive. We are probably going to try and find a live-trap and see if we can’t catch this thing.

What do you think? Any ideas what it could be? Any ideas of how to get rid of it? Anyone have a trap they could loan us? Part of this was our fault. We had been spoiled with never having an incident so we got lazy and didn’t shut them in securely every night. That might be all we need to do to keep them safe, but I guess it’s kind of like people who leave their doors unlocked every night and then the one night someone breaks in you say, ‘well we should have locked it’.

At least everyone made it through ok. I left Schnoodle outside today to keep an eye on things while we’re at work. Not that a blind, deaf 13-year old dog could be of much help, but maybe it will help as a deterrent. Britton also “marked his/our territory” (peed on the fence) this morning as some of the advice to keep predators away suggests to do.

Argh. What a long, restless night -for all of us.

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Posted in Adventures, Backyard Chickens, Challenges, Colorado Daily Life, Greeley, House, Pets and Animals, Summertime | 5 Comments »

Happy 4th of July and 2 Years Blogging

Monday, July 5th, 2010

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July and Happy Anniversary to my parents!


Sparklers were the extent of our fire works

Speaking of anniversaries, I was just reviewing some of the old posts from this blog and realized that we just passed another anniversary of blogging! Our very first post was on June 28, 2008! It’s funny reading it now, because I remember that I had no idea what hosting and writing a blog would be like, let alone all the technical aspects of it (thanks to Britton for working most of those out…). The content of the post is basic and used mainly as a test, but it still reflects many of the summer posts here we’ve written about life in Greeley -messing around in the greenhouse, spending time outside, enjoying the hot weather.

However, we had no idea what would happen between then and now. I figured we would be living in PR by now, but a few twists and turns in life and here we still are. And actually we have had some great opportunities pop up that we just couldn’t turn down. The cost benefit analysis of some of the investment and work opportunities here outweighed our immediate and strong desire to move. And while the date has been pushed out and out, we are getting more and more ready to be able to move without too much of a worry once we arrive. These last two years have been creating a great launching pad for us whereby we might not even HAVE to work in the traditional sense of wages for hours of our life.

It looks like my job will be saved and I will continue working past August 1 which is overall definitely good news in the sense that losing a job is always really stressful and it will give us more time to save money and invest. On the other hand, it also keeps us here. Britton says we have to know when to get out. Kind of like in poker -know when to hold them, fold them or walk away.

We are definitely emotionally and mentally ready, but financially I think we want to be prepared for the worst -no job, no income generated there, not understanding fully the system and also dealing with isolation away from our family and friends support network.

We have another investment in the works right now, and when it goes through I’ll blog a little more about it. Another step. That’s all you can do, just keep moving forward. Having goals (like for us moving to Puerto Rico) helps you to know which way to go, but you just have to keep moving forward.

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Posted in Blogging, Colorado Daily Life, Friends and Family, Fun, goals, Greeley, money, Philosophy, Puerto Rico | 1 Comment »

Greeley 4th of July Parade

Saturday, July 3rd, 2010

We don’t usually go to the parade because I like to sleep in on the weekends, but we figured since it was the last free event associated with the Greeley Stampede (see earlier post about the Stampede charging admission), we’d ride our bikes down and check it out. It is the Greeley 4th of July Parade, even though it was actually on the 3rd of July.


Us at the parade. (These pics holding out your hand and clicking are hard to take!)

It was pretty fun. We saw old vehicles like horse and buggies, old fire engines, even a covered wagon. We saw all the political figures (congresspeople, city council members, etc), police, and military. We heard music from marching bands and noisy trucks honking. There were over a thousand people! We even saw a bunch of longhorn cattle walk through downtown Greeley! Not something you see every day, for sure. Apparently Britton’s sister, our niece and nephew were on one of the floats, but we didn’t know it.  We even rode down 10th Ave on our bikes just before the parade began…It was like we were in the parade with everyone watching us. We should have had a sign that said Go to Lifetransplanet.com! lol…

It was cool to see so much of the city come together from all sorts of segments and organizations. But what if the Stampede charged to get into the parade? Could they? Well, the Stampede runs it, and they apparently can charge to get into a public park (at least it’s public the rest of the year).  But the philosophical question is, does it belong solely to them? Or does this parade, and the Stampede celebration as a whole, really belong to the community? Just food for thought…

Here are a few more pictures and a video of the fun.


With my bike, and look at the crowd!


Check out those horns!


An old hearse


Square dancing -it seems this would be tough to do on a moving trailer!

Britton took this video while we rode our bikes just before the parade started. Lots of peeps

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Posted in Bicycling, Colorado Daily Life, Fun, Greeley, Summertime | 5 Comments »

Spanish Tip of the Month- Body Parts (Partes del Cuerpo)

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

This month’s tip is about body parts. I thought of this because I once heard a woman explain that the only Spanish her daughter ever learned was from the Spanish version of the song “Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes”. I thought, well, at least it is somewhat useful. If you are in pain or otherwise need to point out something on your body, it could be rather helpful to know the word for it. So here are a few of the more commonly used ones:

The Body = El Cuerpo (El coo-er poe)

The Head = La Cabeza (lah cah bay saw)
The Shoulders =Los Hombros (lohs ome bros)
The Knees = Las Rodillas (lahs roe dee yas)
The Toes =Los Dedos de Pie (lohs day does day pee ay)
The Foot = El Pie (el pee ay)
The Leg = La Pierna (la pee air nah)
The Arm = El Brazo (el bra so)

The Face = La Cara
The Eyes = Los Ojos (lohs oh hoes)
The Ears = Las Orejas (lahs or ay hahs)
The Mouth =La Boca (La Boe kah)
The Nose = La Nariz (Lah Nah dees)
The Hair = El Cabello (El cah bay yo) -this refers to hair on the head, elsewhere it is ’pelo’
The Tongue = La lengua (lah laing gwa) -this can also be a word for language which has a similar root in English.

In the song it is “Cabeza, hombro, rodilla, pie” (sometimes pierna (leg) is in place of rodilla) in order for it to fit the rhythm of the song, but that literally translates to: Head, shoulder, knee, foot.

 

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Posted in Fun, Spanish | 3 Comments »

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