Making Granola

Today I decided to try my hand at making homemade granola. I combined several recipes and am hoping for the best. The smells coming from the oven are delicious and I'm hoping that is a sign of good things to come. If I'm successful I'll be happy so share my recipe with all those other hippie types out there. 

Happy Halloween

Life

A dear girlfriend of mine had a little baby boy on Thursday via emergency c-section. Little Hayden is still in critical, although stable, condition in the peds unit in Grand Junction. He seems to be quite a little fighter and is hanging on despite all the odds stacked against him initially. Having kids is quite a life changing experience and really quite an awe inspiring process whether or not you are turned on by the biology, whereby two sex cells join and then in 10 months (yes it is 10) form a human. 

Anyway, my hat is off to both Kim and Hayden for being incredibly strong individuals... and I suppose I'm asking anyone who might still read this blog to say a little prayer to whatever or whoever you believe in (I myself make the plea to Mother Nature) to keep Hayden strong and healthy in the days to come. I know that Kim, Ben, Peter, and Hayden will appreciate all the good vibrations and positive karma they can get.

Is there anybody out there???

I'm sure that no one is even following this blog anymore since it's been sooooooo long since I last posted; however, I am back from EMT class isolation. I passed, if there were any doubters out there. It was interesting and I can honestly say that I've remembered how to take standardized tests again (although I don't believe this was the point of the class). It was fun to be back in an academic setting and I hope to be able to pursue further studies in the upcoming months. I'm not sure if nursing will be in my future plans but it's nice to have the door to learning ajar. I have applied to be on the volunteer service here in CB and we'll see how quickly I can become part of the service. There is a waiting list right now believe it or not. Until then, I may work very part time in the ski area clinic when the mountain opens to keep my skills fresh. 

I'll update more in the days to come.

Over Due

Long over due pictures of the kids. 

May Flowers

If April showers bring May flowers then what do May snow storms bring?

That is my question of the day. 

Apparently in Crested Butte they bring finches. We had a huge flock of finches that hung out on my back deck all day long today. My neighbor scattered bird food so we literally had 30 or more finches perched on various parts of the deck throughout the day. It was pretty cool for Carly to be able to see some birds up close and personal. Eric was less thrilled about the amount of finch poop on our deck and BBQ. I figure it will all disappear with the next precipitation. I can't really be too bummed about a little poop given my last blog. 

Despite the snow I really enjoyed the day. In Dripping we used to get tons of rain in the spring. The creeks would often flood and one strange year the crawdaddies crawled out of the creek up into our yard and the road drainage ditches. It was bizarre. I'm not sure if that still happens in the hill country or if there are even still crawfish in Little Barton Creek. 

It is officially melting here in CB. We actually have grass on the southern side of the house and I can see over the remaining snowbanks in the yard. Now that I can see my yard, I've realized many of my trees didn't make it through the winter. My beautiful crab apple is now a shadow of what it used to be as all the lower branches were stripped off due to the immense weight of snow compressing around them. Several of my baby aspens are snapped in half and I'm still not sure what my evergreen will look like as it is still buried under feet of snow. I'm hoping to get a compost heap started this summer and maybe a good dose of nutrients will do my trees some good. Survival of the fittest I guess.

I'm anxious to have my future garden beds out from under the snow. I'm hoping to have at least one small bed planted with some greens and then put a cover crop on the rest of the area. My goal this year is to enrich the soil and build up beds for planting next spring. I'm stoked to get moving on the gardening. I think it is important for Carly and Josiah to have the experience of seeing where food really comes from and also I want to be a semi self sufficient on my piece of Earth. 

Although we have no May flowers as of yet I'm hoping for many June flowers. The Tunkey finches are leaving the nest this weekend to seek warmer weather slightly southwest of CB. We are hoping to camp at Ridgeway State Park and soak up some mid 50's weather. We are looking forward to taking the kids and doggies on their first camping adventure. Setting up camp and hiking on Saturday around the park then early breakfast and soaking at Ouray hot springs on Sunday. It should make for a nice weekend adventure. I'll try and remember the camera. 

On Poopie

Whoo Hoo! The dog poopie is poking out of the rapidly diminishing snowbanks in record amounts! I really think that it must reproduce in there, seriously! The sweet, sweet smell of dog shit is wafting through our town. I never thought I would smell that odor and be both repulsed and revitalized all in the same moment. 

For those of you who don't live in a mountain town or at least don't live in one where, until recently, the number of pooches was very close in number to the number of humans I'll elaborate. Really, it's quite simple, dogs don't use toilets, dog owners don't pick up, the snow banks hide record amounts of dog shit that lies quietly frozen until the warming rays of the spring sun create the thaw. Only problem, the poop doesn't "run off" like the snow melt, it just lies there baking in the warm sun and the aroma is well... you get the picture. 

In honor of the seasonal phenomena one of our locals started a festival that occurs each and every spring... Poofest. You get the idea right? If not check it out in our local paper . 

Yes, spring is in the air and I couldn't be happier. 

More of the Same

Bitch, bitch, bitch... one foot last night... more to come in the days ahead. Why, why, why do I live here????
The rest of the world is already riding their bikes and I had to put my townie away today on account of skinny tires + deep snow = wet ass not to mention my sweet little hardtail is still in the garage in deep hibernation. Guess we'll have to take a desert trip this spring if we want to get the tires spinning before mid June. The good news is our house hasn't floated away yet in the spring runoff. The slow warming trend has been good to us so far.
It has been an interesting spring though. It seems the majority of the town hasn't thought to dig out their gas meters despite notices on the radio and in the paper for months now. The freeze/thaw cycle is playing havoc on the fire department as gas lines and meters are breaking daily. Come on people... it won't be funny when you come back from vacation to a house full of natural gas. Can you say kaboom!? I'm amazed, truly amazed.

Earth Hour

Our friend Sarah shared this video with me and I decided to post it here. We will be doing it... how about you?

Carly

Our friend Gabe filmed Carly at the Gas Cafe. Enjoy.

Filippo Gets Grilled

(For all you geeks out there I tried to embed this movie but it didn't work... go figure.)

Miami

I just had the coolest week in Miami with my "in-laws". Gertie had the brilliant idea that Carly and I should come down to surprise Ladio and get out of the never ending winter in Crested Butte. With the blessings of my wonderful husband I quickly booked the tickets. The surprise went amazingly well. Despite many, many people knowing about our upcoming trip we managed to keep Ladio in the dark until our arrival. Carly and I were blessed with perfect flights on the way out to Miami and arrived right on time. Gertie somehow managed to throw Ladio off the scent and at 9:30 at night said that she needed to go out on an errand for someones birthday. Luckily for us Ladio apparently does not know when any ones birthday is. Needless to say Carly saying "surprise" in her wonderfully sweet 2 year old voice pulled at Ladio's heart strings and Gertie gets lots of "extra credit" for this one. The highlight of Carly's trip had to be going to Parrot Jungle. The Tunks have a Yellow Nape Amazon parrot named Pedro who Carly absolutely fell in love with. Unfortunately for Carly, Pedro doesn't return her adoration. However, at Parrot Jungle, or the "parade" as Carly named it, she was able to hold a huge macaw, see an acrobatic orangutan, and go to a petting zoo. She is still talking about it to anyone who will listen and even those who won't. In addition to fun times with the family my best friend from A&M got to come and visit me! Tracey battled the travel day from hell to arrive in the Grove at 5 on Saturday evening. We had a blast catching up and I was blown away to see my beer drinking buddy playing with my little girl. Who knew? I think Ladio and Gertie liked her too based on our late night booze fests. Carly and I made it home on Tuesday to a house of boys ready for our arrival. It was a blast! Thank you Ghee Ghee and Ladio! See you again same time next year!!!

Snow.....

I think Crested Butte Mountain Resort says it best on their Announcements page...

"It's another Powder Day in Crested Butte, with 15 generous new inches of snow in the last 24 hours! ....In the last seven days, we've had 21 inches of fresh snow, bringing our snow totals from this season to 344 inches- that's 28 and a half feet!"

See my previous post regarding shoveling. 

Shaka

For those of you who have been asking here is Shaka. He's now officially 6 months old and just wonderful. It's funny to see him running around like a big dog these days instead of a gangly little puppy. His favorite things to do are to climb to the top of the 6 foot plus high snow banks along the side of the road and walk up there and to wrestle with Diesel. Poor Dies, Shaka acts like the mature gentleman is his own personal chew toy and Diesel's neck is almost always wet with Shaka spit. Diesel is a good sport though and they are really the best of friends. Shaka is also turning into a bit of a retriever. I was beginning to wonder if he would ever show much interest in fetching outside but in the past month he has started to live up to his breed standard. He love chasing snowballs and will bound through the snow to find a thrown chunk of snow. He's a bit less interested in tennis balls but is coming around and I keep working with him and try and make it fun. He's got so much energy that I like to wear him out when we go on our walks and ball fetching is a sure bet so keep your fingers crossed. Size wise, I'm not sure that he's going to be as big as predicted. He's about 50 pounds now and still has some filling out to do but I doubt that he will reach the 85 pound mark. So that's the update on Shaka... my perfect golden "retriever". 

Yoga Blues

I signed up for a extended studies yoga class through Western State College. I decided that I had to due to the fact that:

1. I decided I really wanted to make an effort to commit to yoga in '08. 
   
2. The instructor is an amazing woman who's guru is B.K.S. Iyengar.
3. The course if offered at the Crested Butte Community School, right across the street from my house. 
   

My first class was last night. Holy Crap!

I've always been flexible. Really flexible, more flexible than at least 90% of the population (based on my totally nonscientific observations). Flexibility it seems in my musculature, not my pelvis and spine which apparently do not move. I've never been so sore in my life. 

My instructor, who I love, is a nazi. Imagine a very petite woman in her early 50's walking around with a smile on her face yelling, "PULL YOUR FEMURS BACK!!!! HOW CAN I TEACH YOU YOGA IF YOU CANNOT EVEN PULL YOUR FEMURS BACK!" that was heard numerous times last night as well as "NO! BEND FROM YOUR PELVIS NOT YOUR BACK... NOT YOUR BACK.... NOT YOUR BACK... NOT YOUR BACK... FLAT BACK.... BEND YOUR PELVIS". 

Now, I credit myself with fairly good body awareness but I couldn't seem to pull my femurs back far enough to satisfy her and as far a bending from my pelvis well, I've got a long way to go.

That's right I can bend down at any given moment and touch my hands flat to the floor I can even do the splits but I cannot bend from my pelvis... go figure. 

I've officially got the yoga blues guess I'll go practice my asanas and see if I feel better. 

Shoveling

It's official, this is the biggest winter I've ever known. It is snowing now; not too much just an inch every 3 hours or so but we are supposed to be getting a couple feet (or more) beginning Sunday night and continuing through Monday. I'm honestly not sure how I feel about all the snow. It's exciting certainly but the shoveling is hysterical, really. We have fairly wide paths from the road to our front door and from the back door to the garage; however, the snow banks on either side of these said paths are now at least 7 feet tall. Needless to say, all the shoveling that we do must be dumped on top of these banks. Eric has a distinct advantage having about a foot of height on me and being a former lacrosse player,he has the whole scoop and throw method down.  I've considered letting him do all the shoveling but my conscience gets the best of me and I find myself out there, right along side said vertically unchallenged person, trying to heave the snow up, up, up and over the banks while keeping a smiling face as 50% of my shovel full comes sliding back down on my feet. The best part though is the first floor windows. Yep, the windows need to be shoveled out on a regular basis this year too. Fun stuff that. Eric and I end up standing in snow up to our waists shoveling snow away from all our windows which isn't bad except for the windows that have significant shed roofs over them. Those are great. Up to your waist in snow and attempting to shovel snow up and over a bank that is a least 10 feet tall. Seriously, from my back deck one of the piles of snow is about a foot and a half away from the bottom of the deck. 

So, the snow is great. It's beautiful, it's white, it's cold, it's heavy and it's massive in quantity. I'm not sure where we will put it all when the 2 feet we are expecting comes on Sunday. So please come out and visit us; bring some good snow boots, I happen to have a few extra shovels. 

And my garage roof needs to be shoveled again and that's where the fun really starts. I won't spoil the surprise come and see for yourself. Wish me strong back and shoulders I'm going out to shovel......

Getting Started

Here it is the official first blog from Team Tunkey. Your blogger is the person next to the Man in the Yellow Hat. So why am I doing this? I'm not really sure. Seems most of my friends now have blogs and I certainly enjoy catching the bits of their life that they are making available so I suppose I wanted to do the same. I can't promise great things as I'm getting started but it should be fun and somewhat amusing.