This is what our olive oil looks like of late.
Maybe we could consider keeping the house at a temperature higher than 60?
Archive for February, 2012
On Sunday afternoon we were down in the valley admiring our new fence and playing with the dogs, and Ken noticed flames across the arroyo. He went to talk to our neighbor (who is the self-appointed safety guy for our neighborhood) to see if he knew if somebody was having a bonfire or something. From their house they could see that the flames were spewing from a Chevy Blazer… Definitely not a planned fire. Our neighbor called 911 and multiple fire departments showed up. Flames were definitely shooting 20-30 feet into the air. It was very exciting. I don’t think anybody’s sure how the fire started, but it’s a good thing it happened now when everything is soggy from the melted 8 inches of snow rather than last summer when it hadn’t precipitated for over six months.
This picture doesn’t really do it justice, but you can see that the flames are considerably higher than the fire truck. My next toy purchase may be a telephoto lens.
My tulips I planted last fall are coming up already!!!
The day after I took this picture it snowed 8 inches, but they don’t seem to have suffered any ill effects. I also planted some daffodils and they are starting to peek out as well.
I was a bit worried when I planted them that the rabbit population would make swift work of any delicious green shoots that might come up, but happily for me the rabbit population has suddenly decreased dramatically. It was a bit awkward talking to our neighbor last week, who has named and feeds one of the (former) rabbits. She was sad that “Hoppy” had disappeared… I may have been somewhat happy. Don’t tell her. I promise I didn’t get out one of the rifles and shoot it though… The coyotes were definitely down in the valley last week.
I may have mentioned that Klaus is a bit of an escape artist. Ken decreed that to solve the problem we would build the more permanent fence that he had been planning. So far the building of said fence has consumed three and a half days and it’s not entirely done. However, it does look nice, and hopefully it will contain the Klaus dog.
Day 1, I spent my Friday off sealing 60 2x3s.
All done.
Day 2, we got gravel for the fence posts, dug a great number of holes and trenches, and put up a few fenceposts.
The end of day 2
Day 3, we put up the last 8 fenceposts, and strung half of the wire. No picture, because we were starving and had pre-ordered Papa John’s.
Day 4, we put up the rest of the 6 foot wire fence and filled in the trenches. No picture, because it started to rain.
All that’s left is to build some gates, dig-proof the under-gate areas, and wire together the two layers of fence. The fence is dug down 6+ inches all the way around, so hopefully that’s enough to deter Klaus. When we (Ken) get the gates built I’ll take a picture of the final project.
If Klaus continues to dig, we will put some of the old wire fence on the ground around the perimeter, so he will have to dig a 4 foot tunnel to even get to the edge of the fence. If that doesn’t work I think it’s back to the cable.
We did end up going to Taos. They had had 11 inches of new snow in the previous two days, and it was awesome. We had a blast, despite getting a late start and me being exhausted from working out all week. Next time we decide to go skiing I’ll shift my rest day to Friday. I’ve never been so exhausted in my life.
I wore my new Garmin for part of the day, and once I figured out how to use it it was pretty cool. The straight lines are lifts. See the squiggley line sort of in the middle of this picture? That was a black run.
Here’s the altitude and speed profiles. So cool.
We’re definitely going back to Taos. As soon as we can.
Introducing The Beast, Emmy, or Ken’s new car.
It’s a 2000 BMW M5 with 87k miles on it that Ken found in Santa Fe.
We had the most ridiculously difficult time buying the car. Turns out it’s nearly impossible to get your hard earned money out of a non-local bank account. It took us nearly two weeks and it was a major cause of stress.
Happily, the seller held the car for Ken. And now it’s ours. 400 horsepower looks suspiciously like a whole bunch of plastic.
Ken couldn’t be happier.
1. We bought a car. Ken is overcome with delight about it. Pictures will be taken and further details brought forth at a later date.
2. Klaus only accidented in the house three times this week. This is improvement. As an exchange he chewed up three toilet paper rolls and a paper towel roll. Sigh.
3. It finally snowed at Taos the past few days! We’re going tomorrow. If we can stay awake it should be awesome.
4. I signed up for a triathlon in April that our pastor is also doing. Should be fun! It’s backwards: run, bike swim.
