December 24, 2001

Merry Christmas and best wishes for a happy and healthy new year.

Paula, one of my friends on the board of Newcomers asked if she could bring her parents over to see our home and the Santa’s, Nativity sets, and all the Christmas decor I have been gathering for over 25 years. She wants her parents to see what Colorado is really like. We do have a lovely setting with a great feeling of openness. They will all come over this evening for a Christmas Eve dinner.

My son, Scott, visited us with his friend Carla in late September and my birthday. It was wonderful to see them and it made my birthday something special.

Ken and I took a road trip to Taos in October and stayed in the Old Taos Bed and Breakfast. We had two different room assignments. The first night we stayed in their largest room. It had this incredible bed that had been built in the room. You had to climb up two stair levels to get into bed. It was like the King’s bier. We feared having to get up at night and falling down the steps as we attempted to get to the bathroom. The next couple of nights we were in a smaller room, but a very pleasant one with a gas fired kiva (a fireplace) in one corner.

While in Taos we went on a couple of hikes. During both hikes we saw tarantulas. These guys were really big. If you picked one up and put it in the palm of your hand, it would fill up the hand. (We didn’t pick them up!) One hike was a steep descent into the Rio Grande gorge. We found some ancient petroglyphs on the rocks. One picture was of a man with a woman giving birth. I know other people have seen these petroglyphs, but when you are alone on the area, it feels as if you have discovered them for the first time.

Ken bought a 1988 Suzuki Samurai this September and is converting it to an off road vehicle so he may enter events and enjoy the mountain areas available for serious “rock crawling”. In the center of Hygiene there is a shop called Spidertrax. Two young mechanical engineers moved here from New Jersey and have a very active business specializing in off-road modifications for this specific car. Serious racers have them build their vehicles for competition. They use the Internet to sell parts that they design and manufacture. Check them out at www.spidertrax.com.

We have a new center island complete with a 6-burner gas range and a gas/electric oven that allows regular baking, convection-assisted baking, pure convection and infrared broiling. What a great tool! I am in heaven cooking.

Like anything else, this project didn’t happen instantly. We ordered the Dacor range last August. It was delivered in September. The day it was delivered I had a Newcomers Board meeting at my home and simultaneously the plumbers arrived to hook up the gas line. It was chaotic for a few hours. The plumbers, working in the basement, were petrified of our dogs so I brought the dogs upstairs into a living room full of women. I tried to get Zeus to stay in our bedroom upstairs, but he was frantic and almost tore the door off, so down he came to stay with the women. The dog hair and commotion caused one woman to have an asthma attack. This was her first time volunteering to help the club. I hope she comes back.

We had a Newcomers Welcome Tea scheduled in October and Jenny, who was at the crazy meeting I just described and is quite British, asked me in her clipped accent “Will there be any construction going on in October at the tea”? I said Lord, I hope not. I alerted Ken that we must not schedule anything for that day.

The cabinet shop promised to have the center island in by Thanksgiving as we were having friends over for the holidays. The island was installed Monday before Thanksgiving. The vent hood was partially installed Tuesday and finished up Wednesday around 3:30 p.m. This was a few hours after our guests, Chuck and Nancy Hevenor, arrived. The ceiling was in shambles. I looked at the mess of white dust all over the kitchen and quickly vacuumed the kitchen area. I did not want to go into a full cleaning operation while Chuck and Nancy were here.

The next day, Thanksgiving, we had a 29-pound turkey. It was so large that it took a couple of hours longer than anticipated to bake this bird. I kept goosing up the heat as our planned 5 p.m. dinner time came and went. The bird was ready at 6:30 p.m. and some very hungry people enjoyed their Thanksgiving meal. What a wonderful Thanksgiving. Our neighbors, Mary and Sheldon, joined us and they fit in perfectly with Chuck and Nancy, their sons Adam and Pete and a friend of Adam’s.

Well after this event, it was time to find a workman to patch the ceiling and paint. We found the person for the job. He was here longer than he estimated and we felt as if he were part of the family. On Monday, December 10^th, after cleaning up, he said “I’ll be back tomorrow morning”. My expression must have been priceless as I said “but I will have ladies here cooking for a gourmet luncheon for 30 people”. He said “I’ll come early to paint the ceiling.” Of course he needs all the knickknacks off from above the cabinets and all the pictures down and the furniture moved. Ken came to the rescue and asked him to skip Tuesday and continue Wednesday. This was agreed and the work was finally completed by Friday. The ceiling looks great.

I took a drawing course at the Art Warehouse and rather enjoyed it. It helped me to look at things differently. At the same time I was enrolled in a painting course in Loveland. Having a course Thursday night and leaving early Friday morning for another course for several weeks was a bit tiring, but enjoyable nevertheless.

In late September we had a Welcome Tea for Newcomers. One of my friends who has come to our home for other Newcomer events asked me if I would consider being on the annual Longmont Garden Tour. I asked, “Do you really think people would want to see my gardens?” Shirley replied, “Oh yes!” She will submit our name to the tour committee and we’ll see if we can get on the agenda for 2003. The tour benefits the Longmont Symphony and the Symphony Guild arranges the garden tours. Shirley thought that the Symphony would perform under a tent in our yard and we could provide refreshments. That would be neat! I told my neighbor Mary said she thought she would bring her burro over to give buggy rides on the farm roads. Wouldn’t that be fun? I’ll keep you posted as to what happens.

We did get a chance to see hear the Longmont Symphony. They are quite good. Not world-class, but fine musicians none-the-less.

Another annual event is the Christmas Home Tour sponsored by a local church. Professional decorators decorate houses and the items are listed and for sale. The proceeds benefit the church. In one house we visited the woman must have had 500 antique dolls. The room over the garage contained the oldest and was called the museum. In addition, there was a collection of chickens and various arrangements of eggs in the kitchen with a full size egg incubator. She had several small antique salesman-model stoves. There was so much stuff you couldn’t help but think that this would be a nightmare to dust. It was hard to believe that all this collection was left out year round.

Ken was recently named to the board of the Hygiene Fire District. This involves quite a bit of work and there is plenty to learn about state and local government. The board members have always been long time residents, mostly farmers. However, the district is rapidly becoming a high-priced residential area and the volunteer fire department must change to keep up. Several of the old farmers on the board are retiring after many years of service. Ken hopes to help with the needed transition into the “modern” world. One critical aspect is taxes for new fire department equipment and operating expenses. The board expects to make Ken president in a few months.

The City of Boulder Open Space has purchased the 70 acres that adjoins our land from troublesome Sarah Al Jammaz. The necessary paperwork regarding our water rights and access to our drain on that 70 acres is nearly completed but “it ain’t over till the fat lady sings”. What a couple of years! First we watched them excavate for a large pond. Then Boulder County shut the operation down because it was not an agricultural pond. The first pond was filled and a second pond dug; this time with engineering supervision. Now this to is filled with earth. During these past two and one half years Sarah has been applying for water rights to allow her to have a pond. Her application will now be abandoned. She has spent about half a million dollars on digging and lawyers. Now all the land is restored to its natural contours and will soon be as it was when we first moved here.

With a lot of help from our neighbors we appear to have won. The rebuilt drain under that 70-acre plot is keeping our pond full. We have an agreement allowing us to maintain the drain. When the deal is completed we will have a victory celebration. It sure will be nice not to have to pay monthly legal fees defending our water rights.

December 9^th we had a meeting of the Rocky Mountain Ragtime Festival board at our home. Scott Kirby, the driving force of the festival and a leading promoter of Ragtime and American music (encompassing all the Americas) attended this meeting. He and Ken have a common love of maps and the vast open spaces of the American West. After they had talked a while I asked Scott if it would be possible to have a small concert in our home. He went over to the piano, ran up and down the keyboard and said, “Yes, we can do a concert here”. He went on to say our piano is excellent. This is a determining factor in holding a home concert and many pianos do not perform to his standards. Scott plans to give a concert here benefiting the RMR Festival on March 11^th. I will invite people who have a genuine interest in this music and can be expected to attend the summer RMR Festival in Boulder.

Later I received an email from an RMRF Board member asking for my address, phone, email, etc for business cards for the Board of Directors on the Rocky Mountain Ragtime Festival. I’m finally going to have my own business card. I worked for Gerber for 30 years and never had a business card. Hey girl, you finally made it!

Stay well and happy,

Love, Diane and Ken