October 1, 2000

Many things have been happening here in the West. Our weather has been so consistently hot and sunny (63 consecutive days of temperatures in the 90’s or 100’s) that when we had a high of 30 degrees last week, it felt darn cold. I have never worn shorts as much as I have this summer. What beautiful sunrises and sunsets. It’s great to sit out on the deck in the evening with a glass of wine and watch the sun go down and feel life doesn’t get any better than this.

The last week of July Ken and I drove up to Cheyenne, Wyoming for the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo, the “Daddy of ‘Em’ All”. There is always something happening from bronco riding to bull riding, steer roping (in which I cheer on for the little steer), trick horse riding and wagon races to mention a few things. There is lots of fried food and fat grams! You really have to work at finding something healthier. We stayed on for the evening entertainment. Tanya Tucker and Sammy Kershaw were the performers and were good, but the amplification was so loud it was either plug up the ears with a ball of paper towel or go deaf. Seating left something to be desired. I think you have to be on a “special list” or know somebody.

We took a hike in early August up to Bluebird Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. Bluebird used to be a source of water for Longmont until 15 years ago when the Park service purchased it. There is no trace of a dam today because the Park service removed it so very amazingly by helicopter so as not to disturb the wildlife and environment. Quite an amazing feat. The end of the climb was extremely steep and you had to climb up a snow bank which was a challenge.

Early August we watched from our dinner table looking west to the foothills as a fire caused by lightening spread across the hillside endangering a community of lovely homes (probably 1 million plus). Ken had his radio tuned in and we could hear the firemen reporting on the blaze, their request for a sheriff to help them with concerned home owners, and a request for a special piece of machinery to remove large boulders which prevented them from bringing a fire engine up a public dirt road to reach the fire. It seems someone (a local resident) had blocked the road with large boulders to prevent anyone from using the public road and thereby hindering firemen’s access to the fire. It would be justification to find the idiot who did this and issue he/she a heavy duty fine. Ken spent half the night standing by with a Hygiene fire department tanker. However, it was never called for use. They were bringing in experienced fire fighters.

A week or so later another fire again caused by lightening started in the same area but a little to the south. It has been so hot and dry there have been bans on campfires, or fires of any kind, since the forests are vulnerable to the slightest spark.

Ken has been involved lately with equipment training and is operating one of the fire trucks. Just a couple of days ago, there was a fire drill at the local Hygiene Elementary School. Remember those days when as kids we would look forward to getting out of class for a fire drill! He had to block the intersection of 17^th and Hygiene Rd. with the fire truck and redirect traffic. Some folks were not too pleased to have to travel an extra mile or so, but that’s the way it goes sometimes and the drill was successful and 425 children did very well.

GREAT PLACE OF INTEREST - OCEAN JOURNEY in Denver. (So who has to live by the seaside to experience the ocean?) The ocean journey originates in the Rocky Mountains (Grand Lake area) and follows the travel of this water source to the ocean. They have recreated several areas along this journey to the cool mountainous recreation of the Rocky Mounts with comparable temperature to the desert area in Arizona, its hot dry climate, animals, insects, and to everyone’s delight, especially the children, recreation of a flash flood. One really neat area is a tank of marine life and you actually walk through this tank with fish above you and on both sides. This is truly done beautifully. It took a great deal of manpower and thought to create this wonderful experience - a place well worth visiting.

The town of Mead is to the northeast of us about 10 miles. It is on this quaint main street that you will find the “Café”restaurant. Mead is even smaller than Hygiene’s main road. There are oil cloths on the tables with little candles for atmosphere. The food is very good. The chef, Don, is really great. Not only does he chef, but as it was a slow night, he delivered our food to us asking for comments, and just chatting. Our waitress upon taking our order pulled up a chair, sat down at the table with us and said “Our you ready to order din din”? This place is like going back into time 50 years or more and has real down home atmosphere. The night we were there it was like a Norman Rockwell scene, complete with a youngster selling popcorn for the Boy Scouts. We didn’t buy popcorn, because we would have had to driven to Mead to pick it up, but Ken did give him a $5 donation. The young man was ecstatic and was jumping all around the entry to the restaurant.

Last weekend Longmont had its first Open Studios where local artists open their studios to the public. Ken and I first visited Rick Stoner, who does beautiful work in both pastels and oils. He has a little studio about the old Firehouse in Longmont. It was evident that he spends much of his time in this studio. We next visited Scott Fraser, (works in Oils) who has a painting in the Denver Art Museum and more recently one of his works has been placed in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. His work is very meticulous and more vivid than life. I believe he considers his work contemporary art. He is very successful, his work being in so much demand that he has commissions for future work far into the future. In conversation he told us he keeps 9 – 5 working hours. We must have chatted with him for 10-15 minutes. We next visited Mario Echeverria who works in oils and creates murals; he does mosaics and was working on a mosaic for a new^t bridge in Loveland. He work is reminiscent of Salvador Dali. He had a portrait of his brother. In this painting, his brother is surrounded by angels. I asked him about this and he advised his brother considers himself a saint, a monk who lived in the 15^th century. However, Mario advised he does not consider his brother a saint because he used to beat him up when they were children. Aren’t people interesting?

Zeus, our German Shepard, has had problems with his ears for years and just recently we had him anesthetized to find out what was really wrong with his ear. It was a severe yeast infection (funny they did not recommend Monistat-7). They cleaned it out real well and while he was under cleaned his teeth of tarter and clipped his toe nails. We brought him home that afternoon and he was one restless boy, crying and frequently wanting out to go to the bathroom. The anesthesia really has quite an effect on him. Treatment is to squirt an ointment into his ear and then rub it in. Lots of luck! He is very energetic and does not want anyone to touch his ears. Hopefully Ken will be successful enough so that we will not have to result in an oral medicine. The medicine works but can have side effects on the liver, it can cause diaherria, to mention a few.

News from Saraland. She has bought the 5 million dollar property off highway 66 for her son and is looking to buy up surrounding farmland and as many water rights as possible. This was confirmed by neighbors and the Postmaster at the Hygiene Post Office. The water issue has not been solved yet and we continue to pay attorney fees.

Cooking School of the Rocky Mountains has wonderful semester of programs lined up and I have signed up for 5 classes. What a difficult decision. There were a number of courses I found of interest and had to limit myself. Every time I attend a class I learn something. It all leads to more enjoyable cooking and the results – eating. What a joy!

August began the first of several workshops in art that I have signed up for. D J Donovan Johnson does beautiful floral work and modern untraditional painting in acrylics and watercolors. She is also a really nice person. Next week is a two-day workshop in color mixing. This workshop is running Monday and Tuesday with classes at the Loveland Academy of Fine Art being held on Fridays. Patti Andre teaches this class. She is very helpful and is not afraid to pass along her knowledge. Everyone in class just loves her.

Two weeks ago I brought in a savoy cabbage, tomatoes, eggplant and a gourd from my garden to class and painted a still life. My cabbage has been immortalized in oil. It is probably one of the best works I have done so far. Last week I brought in more items from the garden and milkweed pod and did another still life. It is so exciting and I am learning and improving. Yahoo!

Ken had a “big birthday” September 10^th. He turned 60. We did things he wanted to do that day and one of them was driving to the National Grassland in Eastern Colorado to Pawnee Buttes. The settlers push out the Pawnee Indians in 1856 or thereabouts. At this time many folks back east came out to seek their riches in the gold rush era. A bit later the farmers came west and between both of these events ousted the indians. Being in this environment you could feel the presence of the Indian and visualize them on their horses on the bluffs and grasslands. It was very hot the day we visited. There are several large cattle ranches and cow droppings everywhere because it is open range and as a result, lots of flies. They wanted to share in our picnic lunch, but we fought them off and they did not get much. We drove back home and had a birthday meal and celebration fit for a 60^th birthday celebration.

There must have been a hatching of yellow butterflies, or a possible migration of them because there were hundreds all over my purple asters. You would walk by the plants and the butterflies would be all around you. Kind of reminiscent of when you are snorkeling and hundreds of little yellow fish are all around you and you feel as if you could reach out and touch them. What a beautiful experience.

One last item. Another bird of prey story. You remember the story about the great horned owl and my having to cover my head if I went out to the hot tub in the evening. Well, I have been using the hot tube about 5 – 5:30 p.m. in daylight hours and have not felt the need to wear a bicycle helmet or ski hat to cover my hair. Just a few days ago while in the hot tub and bird flew over my head and landed on the wheelbarrow which is located between the walk out basement and the hot tub. It then flew to my 100 ft. long perennial flower garden and sat on the stone wall looking at me. It was a little larger than a meadowlark and a mourning dove. I thought it was a hawk, but I have seen large hawks around here and this was a smaller variety. When he took off in flight, my suspicions were confirmed by the markings on his wings. I am a subject for birds of prey. It must be my hair. Am I not even safe in the daylight hours? I must say that in daylight, the bird as it approaches can see I am larger than their usual prey most likely will not try to pick me up and carry me off.

Well, I feel I have rambled on enough. Until next time…..

Love, Diane and Ken