A find at the Men's Mall

Recently, while in Minnesota we made a pilgrimage to the Men's Mall (Mills Fleet Farm). Having written previously about my "thing" for certain socks, I found a gem...Carhart Merino Wool socks. For less then $10 these are really nice and may (real world test currently underway) wear better then the more expensive Smartwools, which is the current top of the stack sock along side the Filsons.

I admit to having a few of their items, but in our house Marlys is the "Queen of Carhart", which is amazing considering her size. But they seem to accommodate her petite-ness, whether it be jeans, dungarees, vest and hoodies.

Shallow thoughts from a simple mind.
Pat

It had to happen

It has been a rainy weekend up here and we have focused on a number of inside projects. Marlys has been in the barn most of the day spraying pine to put on the bottom of the deck/balcony. It has been something we have talked about for a couple of years. Because of the patio's location we can readily see the underside of the deck. We are going to put 1.5" slats across the bottom to somewhat hide the deck joists.

We also finished up the valences to cover the sun shades. They really turned out nice. If we put shades on the upper windows in the great room, the thought is the valences will have clouds on it.

The curly maple came off the stair railing easier then I anticipated, Hopefully tomorrow I can get the paudek cut and milled to size and maybe attached. The it will be finished with a combination of BLO/Tung/Poly. The color will become more brown over time (vs. red/orange).

Even with everything going on Marlys decided we should take our walk up the hill after lunch because the sun came out for a little while. That did not last for long. As this thunderstorm moved in when we were about half up the road. The gust front was pretty cold.

There were a few new flowers out and using the field guide Joy and Tom had sent at Xmas we were able to figure them out. Of all the flower guides we have Marlys like this one the best because it sorts the flowers by color, which makes finding and identifying them a whole lot easier.

These first ones are Trailing Daisey's. They are white on top and the petals are pink underneath. The also can be a purple-ish color.

But the ones we saw the most of today were "Loco's". These are the locoweed of cowboy stories. They come in a number of colors and they due cause certain animals to behave strangely.

The first is a Rocky Mountain Loco and the second is a Loco also, but I can't remember the name and Marlys doesn't want to look it up again right now.

So back to the "It had to happen" story.

Yesterday afternoon while sitting outside and be serenaded by the wild turkey flock in the gully to the north of the house, we decided as is pretty common to hit the tube. And as is also pretty common we went in "Au natural". Listen we are out in the middle of no where with few to no people around and the house is set back in the trees, "so whats me worry".

That little green peak behind and above the pickup is the top of the house.

Who would be coming by at this time of the afternoon (4pm).

Now we have talked about what would we do if someone showed up and there have been a couple of false starts when a truck down on the road sounded like it may be heading up to the house.

Imagine our surprise when one of the folks drove up to the house in his ELECTRIC golf cart, with his 2 and 4 year old on board. His first words were "I hope you guys aren't naked".

To which we answered, "We are". So it became a "park by the garage and we will get dressed." The kids didn't know what was happening so after a few frantic minutes, Marlys made a couple of cosmos and we had a nice visit.

Another Recent Visitor

Up the road Bart took this picture about a week ago of a local bear starting to get out and about. With the moisture lately the berrys should be plentiful, but our garbage enclosure is showing signs that the bears are trying to get a easy meal.

Pat

Official Invitation - 25th Wedding Anniversary Celebration

Please mark your calendar to come and celebrate with us this monumental event. (Yes we really have been married for 25 years!)

When: Saturday, August 8th, 2009
Where: Pat & Marlys Caulfield - Piñon Rock Place
2274 Autumn Creek Drive
Cañon City, CO

Time: 4:00 PM – Cocktails, wine & beer
5:00 PM – Cookout

Please RSVP if you’re coming by August 1st to:

marlys.caulfield@gmail.com or 719-275-1838; 303-841-3455

Directions will be provided upon request
(No gifts please)

The Flowers are coming out

This spring is has been pretty hit or miss for weather on the weekends. A little rain, a little sun and a little snow. This last weekend Friday and Sunday were perfect with Saturday the area socked in.

When we did get a chance to go for a walk we saw that some of the wildflowers had started to peek out, which surprised us because we didn't think we had gotten that much moisture this spring and it was still only May.
But the Indian paint paintbrush's were out. They are my favorite because of the orange-scarlet color.

Also out were the Woody Actionella, which look like miniature daisy's.

Now if we could only get the field grass to fill in the front of the patio area.

Yes it looks green in this picture, but that's due to the parallax angle. It is still pretty spotty.

Derek and I spent Friday afternoon culling branches from the trees and bushes around the house to reduce the fire fuel. There is still a lot to be done in that area. The trees down hill from us need to have the branches taken off up to about the 5'-6' level so that if a grass fire starts it lowers (doesn't eliminate) the chances of it getting into the trees and starting a crown fire. According to the state wildfire guidelines we need to do this a good 100-200' feet downhill from the house and about 50' uphill. We also spent time raking the pine needles out from around the house and trees to remove fuel also. The slash pile behind the barn is growing and waiting for a damp day to be burnt.

Besides the flowers, the critters seem to be about, enjoying the weather also. Saturday evening I came across the wild turkey flock again down by the barn, they look to be between about 10-12 of them.

During our walk on Sunday morning we came upon another deer herd and on the drive in Monday morning a couple of elk.

You may be able to see the deer on the ridge line in this picture.

PR is now connected

We finally put in a dish to connect to the Internet. We went with Wildblue and so far I would give it a thumbs up.

Next may be a webcam.

Oatmeal Wars: Jamba Juice vs. Starbucks

I usually get downtown Denver at 6:20 each morning (via the P Bus), and one of the things I look forward to each day is the 15 minute walk (with stops) to the office. Watching the city wake up or in the case of the day after St. Patrick's day watching it close down is always interesting. Between the days when the Army is running down the 16th Street Mall...in mass, and the street folk getting out of their sleeping bags and having there first smoke of the day, you sometimes see something totally un-expected, like today, with one guy duct taping another guy, who is dressed in blue and orange (Broncos colors) crape paper, to a tree outside of the Civic Center Bus Station.

Watching these guys, as I buy a cup of coffee from a cart across the street, I had to find out what this was all about. Turns out this guy is going to be a human pinata for the Cinco de Mayo, which is today and is not un-like St. Patrick's Day, here in Colorado. Although the big celebration in Denver will be this weekend.

But the real reason for this post is the developing and in my mind already won oatmeal war between Starbucks and Jamba Juice.

On the corner where I turn off the Mall there is a Jamba Juice on one corner and a Starbucks on the other. Jamba Juice started selling oatmeal around January and I found out today that Starbucks is also selling oatmeal.

Oatmeal is not normally my first choice for breakfast, but I am trying to eat healthier in my constant challenge to lower my weight and heart risks. Up to this point it normally meant heating up a package of Quakers instant in the office microwave. While filling, it was no breakfast burrito, so Jamba's oatmeal introduction became another option.

For those of you without a Jamba Juice in the neighborhood, JJ is a chain smoothie shop. Their oatmeal is steel rolled Irish oats (I have no idea what this means) and there is a choice of three toppings; blackberry-blueberry, apple-cinnamon and banana all with brown sugar. It comes in at 290 calories. It is priced at $3.19.

Your first spoonful will tell you that this is not your momma's oatmeal. There is actual consistency to this stuff, it is the mush oatmeal normally seems to be. The toppings really do add to it, but the oatmeal itself has a great mouth feel (description taken from beer tasting).

So this morning, the young guy in JJ mentioned that the Starbucks across the street now also had oatmeal.

Seemed to be a taste test in the making.

So after putting the JJ BB oatmeal in my backpack, I went across the street to Starbucks and ordered their oatmeal.

Starbucks has whole grain rolled oats (again I don't know what this means) with the following toppings; brown sugar, dried fruit and nut medley. Sounds good. I got the brown sugar and dried fruit topping in order to have a apples to apples comparison. The Starbucks oatmeal with brown sugar and dried fruit comes in at 290 calories, interesting. It will set you back $2.65.

Now for some observed preparation differences.

At JJs the oatmeal is made on prem in a big pot. I have gotten there sometimes before it is ready and been turned away (politely). Remember this is usually around 6:30 in the morning. The oatmeal is made using soy milk.

At Starbucks the oatmeal was in a pouch, dumped into a cardboard bowl (similar to JJ) to which water is added from the coffee maker, so it is ready when you are. Where and how it is made must be proprietary information, because the barista(?) did not have that information.

The topping come in separate little packages that you add to the oatmeal when you stir it up, which you need to do so that the oatmeal on top gets access to the coffee maker water.

This is not a bad oatmeal. The mouth feel is closer to your momma's oatmeal.

In my opinon, from my simple mind I need to give Jamba Juice the nod. It has a great taste, consistency and the fresh made difference is nice.

Sharing the Shop

It was suppose to be a rainy weekend in the mountains, which we were hoping for having planted bushes around the house, but alas only fog (at this altitude actually clouds).

Planting bushes where there is little to no water is interesting in that they came from the state with two bags of polymers, one that you dunk the roots in before inserting it into the hole and another that is poured into the hole before covering. Prior to this both polymers are mixed in a water bucket so that they absorb a great deal of the water which will then be released over time to get the plant going. They will also hold any natural water for a longer time around the roots. We hope it works.

Since it was a gloomy weekend and we had already planned to work on the new sun shade valences, Marlys and I spent both days in the barn/shop.

Usually I am in there myself and Marlys swings by when she has something she wants me to cut, this weekend she was there both days, adding the artiste touch to the valences.

The day though started with the fitting of the valences into the window openings. This didn't take long, but I literally signed my work in blood.

A moment for a safety lesson. I have been getting a little use to being around the power tools lately. I had even had the passing thought that I should slowdown sometimes when using the gear. Saturday morning with the miter saw sitting on the rear rack of the ATV (highly mobile workbench) so I could saw the valences to fit, I got the end of a finger into the blade as it was slowing to a stop. Took a chunk out of the finger nail and the nail bed. It bleed like a head wound and over the course of the next hour I ended up putting a couple of layers of band-aids, a mechanics glove, then blue painters tape around the end of the glove in order to stop leaving Freddy Krugger finger prints everywhere. Meaning all over the valences, which now required more sanding.

As Randy Orten says on the WWE advertisements, "You don't have to like me, but you do have to respect me." Don't get cocky around power tools and make sure the blade has stopped before removing the cutoff.

Those of you who know Marlys will understand this next item, in that I needed to prep the shop before she could make her entry. Prep meaning get it warmed up. I like it to be in the 55-60 range so that I can do things without getting hot. Marlys though wants it just south of a sauna (70 degrees), or she will need to be dressed like a polar explorer.

I also learned that having ESPN playing all day doesn't work in mixed company, for extended periods of time. Now if it had been football draft weekend it might have been different, because Marlys has been know to have that on the TV all day in the past.

But this was basketball, and I have to admit it got old after a while ( no offense meant to you B-ball fans).

The valence decorating that Marlys had in mind was to stencil, then paint bear tracks and a silhouette on to the boards. During her experimentation with all the techniques we could come up with it has decided that it was not only going to be too slow, but wouldn't turn out very good.

The next though was a landscape similar to the ACPOA sign she had recently repainted. Marlys drew a few on a piece of scrap and had me rout them out with a couple of different bits, but the painting in of the grove was still problematic. Wood burning became the weapon of choice.

Marlys drew out the landscapes and i routed them with the $21 trim router from Harbor Freight (one of those noted HF gems). The wood burning turned out to take about 2-3 hours per valence so she brought them back to Parker as homework. After a couple of slight changes they turned out real nice. You cant see them real well here, but you get the idea.

BTW I am attaching them using pocket screws and they will just be lacquered (I have become a real fan of lacquer because it drys so fast).

So what was I doing while Marlys was doing her thing? Making another Adirondack ski chair for the patio. I used templates copied from the existing chairs because they are so darn comfortable, so this should be classified as a prototype. I made it using scrap 3/4" plywood. We will need to see how it holds up.

Its the one on the right.

We are now out of old skis and boards and two more chairs need to be built. If you have any to donate drop them off or let me know and we will pick them up.

Sharing this quasi-sacred space initially made me nervous, but I kind of like having Marlys there to share in what she calls putzing around.