Progress on the Home Front---At Last!

After nearly two months of steady spring snow falling on top of the construction project at my home in Silverton, summer has suddenly come! The contractor and I are happy to be able to be outside in the sunshine, accomplishing our projects!Painting the upper triangle of the front of the house is a somewhat tedious task---one that has waited several years for me to do. Rick, the builder, rigged up a practically bomb-proof scaffold arrangement, coupled with my new 24-foot extension ladder...so today I finished my high-wire painting!

I rigged an extend-o-brush to reach the high peak just behind me. It worked so well I may

patent it. (Nothing like duct tape, is there?) Great view from up here and lots of hellos

from the motor-cyclists zooming by.

Rick is speeding along with the new storage shed...

It looks small compared to the old, dark woodshed but will certainly hold as much "stuff" as

I should ever need to have. (After all, I am convinced we humans fill the space we have, right?)

Suzie's "suite" is finished except for the new shades---looks quite different, doesn't it, Suz?

That's all for now---the landscape guy comes Thursday to look into sod for the bare spots and

the fence will continue to grow---come to Silverton and enjoy the long-needed changes with me!

Springtime in the Rockies

May 11th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This morning's view of the construction site in my backyard:

And....the rest of the news? It is still snowing!

Tractors in the Backyard?

It hasn't snowed for two days so today things moved along in the backyard. Rick, the builder, arrived with Lance, an American Airlines pilot who loves to move dirt with his little orange tractor, so move dirt they did! He hauled dirt from the Garden to fill in the hole where the old shed had stood and to fill in around the foundation for the new shed. It was fun to hear the sound of the tractor in the backyard---took me right back to my tractor-driving days at the ranch!

Since there isn't much room to maneuver in the alley, Rick did a certain amount of shoveling, but altogether, the two guys had the dirt work completed by early afternoon! We're moving along!!!

The Work Goes On!

The trusty builder, Rick, works on in my back yard in spite of the weather. (He's like the proverbial mailman!) He's determined that a great fence and new storage shed will rise out of the muck and mud and snow---I am grateful to him! Here's Rick, measuring and leveling and getting ready to put the facing boards, chosen from the torn down shed, on the fence to the north of my backyard.
Darn---a sideways photo. I thought I had that problem solved...view of the new pressure-treated posts, set in concrete.
Good---this one is right side up. Looks like a mess, right?
Another view toward the alley---new concrete slab/foundation for the shed wrapped in blankets under the snow right under the table saw!
A section of the new fence on the north. The posts will be stained---and have little top hats
of some sort to finish their "look."

So---that's progress for now. When it quits snowing the rest will go quickly I'm sure.

Bon Voyage!! (???)

Bon Voyage! is a lovely way to bid farewell to someone leaving on a boat trip. What are the "tripees" supposed to say?

My friend, Ruth Ann, and I are leaving April 10th for Norway. We will be spending two weeks on the MS Richard With, a mail boat which is part of the Hurtigruten fleet. We will travel north along the west coast of Norway, past the Arctic Circle, all the way to where Norway and Russia have a common border. We travel back, southbound, to Bergan, calling in at the ports that were night-time calls on the way north, during the day on the southbound route.

If you are interested in seeing just where we are at a given time, the following
link will take you to a real time map. Look for the MS Richard With and you'll
know just where we are!

www.hurtigruten.com/norway/map

Down With the Old-Up With the New

This posting is aimed mostly at my family, who is far from the action here in Silverton, but the rest of you will now see one of the Moore's nasty little secrets---just what the old woodshed that has graced the back of the house lot for over a hundred years really was like!. It seemed that it was preparing to collapse, so trying to be a pro-active home owner, I decided to hire Rick the Contractor (in Scotland the accent is placed on the middle syllable, so think con-TRACT-or. I loved that when hearing it last fall in that charming country!) to remove the shed and build a new one. Work began by removing the north end of the shed to allow access as there was still about six feet of snow along the front side of the shed. Rick soon had the shed braced up with some handy two-by-fours to prevent immediate collapse and removing "stuff" began in earnest. He had a 16x7x4 foot dumpster brought from Naturita (our closest supplier at the moment) and it is now parked in front of the Bergman's garage (courtesy of their tenants). Next came our fervent hope that many of the items left in the shed would just disappear, since one end of the shed was open to whoever wandered down our alley. You can view some of the great opportunities (well, I wanted to keep the lawn mower), but, oddly enough, nothing seemed to disappear! One lady came and hauled off about 30 buckets of coal bits, which was great.

Meanwhile, a few tiny little pansies decided it must be spring and started blooming right by the back door. You can see the snowflakes on their little petals...

One of the amazing items that was hanging high in the rafters of the shed was an umbrella I purchased at Herrod's Department store in London in 1966!!! Apparently it followed me from North Dakota to Kansas to Silverton to the woodshed! Who would have ever guessed!

Two volunteer fellas I have given food to now and then (because I think they live on the edge of financial difficulty all the time) came to volunteer to help Rick (on the right) demolish the building. They worked hard for two days, toting and carrying to the dumpster and pulling nails out of the boards that will be re-purposed into my new fence. The second day was warm and sunny so I prepared a working man's lunch and served it in the backyard. First al fresco meal of the season!

The final wall standing was the one facing the house, seen here from the inside. Note the paint job on the gas tank---when I painted it I could only reach partway---looks ratty, right? That will soon be fixed.

Getting the final wall to fall took a lot of beating and banging and ice-breaking. Here it is, in the process of falling (sorry, Maggie---video is not yet my deal!) with Rick watching it go.

Now the view toward Kendal Mt. is so strange---I feel very exposed!

Here's a bit more of the new view---shed wood stacked in front of Dodd's garage waiting to be used on the fence.

The net result? I have made the decision to have the new storage unit built in part of the footprint of the old shed, as it provides privacy and screens part of the not-so-great views, as seen in the last two photos!

So come see me, sometime in June. By then I should have all the painting done, the new fence will be in place, and reclamation of the yard should be well underway. There will be a new and improved look at 912 Greene and I will no longer wonder if the shed will make it through another winter!

Ski Weekend at Beaver Creek!!!

Do I have you concerned? Are you thinking I actually skied at Beaver Creek? Actually, I spent a long weekend with Maggie and Travis in the Vail Valley and one day I went to Beaver Creek with them. I did a bit of snow-shoeing which positioned me so that I could watch Finn do some skiing, which was great fun! He is three (well, actually he carefully explains he is three and a half!) and loves to ski! Here is the family ski photo---Finn is very tall for his age but when he stands next to his dad, well, he looks tiny, doesn't he? He loves his "shiny black ski helmet"!

Travis and Finn posed with me, holding snow shoes. The view is magnificent!

At the end of the day, there was a man with an alpine horn in the village. Finn, who loves to play on his Australian didgeridoo, was quite interested.

Finn actually blew on the horn and had a nice little sound, much to his joy!

One of the other joys of the weekend was to give Finn an early birthday gift!

Here it is---a giant dump truck for helping with yard work in Denver this spring. (Please note

his Lightning McQueen slippers!)

It was a delightful weekend with lots of time to visit and play. Good times!!!!