Monthly Archives: April 2016

When it won’t quit snowing

They predicted it would snow in the Rockies this weekend. And it has.
It started Friday night and by Saturday morning we had a good start and the ground was covered.

Spring snow early am 04.16And then by noon we had some more.

spring snow noon 04.16There is something calming to me about a good snow storm.  Expectations get lowered on what is expected from you since you can’t (or shouldn’t) leave, you don’t have satelite (covered in too much snow or falling too heavily – I don’t care enough to clean it off to see which it is), and the world is quiet when you go out.

It is calming and almost meditative until the person you’re married to decides he needs to check the crawl space and finds there has been a small leak in the pipe coming in from the well.  Soggy boxes and old carpets start flying out (the very carpets intended to keep the stored items off the moisture of the ground that have now soaked the drips up heartily).  I can be grateful that he discovered the drip and more didn’t get damaged as the pipe gave way when he was moving things around it and what was just a drip, was now a full on break in the line.  Gone was the quiet and the water as the latter had to be turned off.

We have done our share of plumbing in the house. We, meaning Ted, with me occasionally handing items to be fluxed and soldered to him or running to the hardware for the one missing piece that hasn’t been accumulated in the 900 other trips in the project we call home.  So, of course, we are only missing one item needed to make the repair.

By this time, there is more snow.

spring snow 5pm 04.16

The truck is unearthed. Galen has shoveled the driveway once, so it isn’t too very high, but our road has yet to see a plow so the truck is most likely the only vehicle with high enough clearance to make it to the main road.

The trek to Home Depot is slow, and even though I am nearly the only non paid person in the entire store, it takes me nearly as long there to find the part as it did to drive on the single plowed lane of the two lane highway going there (if it was standard, we would have had it in our stockpiles at home).  Three employees who also don’t know where to find the exact size and style of the piece I need stop by before the actual plumbing guru shows up and gets me enough pieces to make what we need.

The handy husband fixes the pipe and by bedtime he can take a shower and wash off all the crawl space crud he has accumulated.

Darkness falls, but so does more snow.

nightime spring snow 04.16By morning, it is beautiful and yet a bit overwhelming as well.  It is a realization that had this been rain, we would be flooding.

morning of spring snow 04.17The deck chairs on the other side are filled with snow forms of guests of the crystal flake variety.

spring snow morning 04.17

The boys are out shoveling so that when we uncover the cars, we can make our way to work and what they are saying will be another beautiful week of spring weather.

Name the car in the snowBonus if you can figure out what cars are parked in our drive.

I am hoping more of what last week’s walks held in store for beauty instead of this snow.

flowering tree from lunch walkOh, and prom was postponed from last night to Tuesday.  When was the last time you heard of them changing prom!

Love Sally

 

Spring in the Rockies

Spring in Colorado.  Chicks, prom, snow, budding trees, tulips, snow, rain.

We have a new batch of chicks.  Five little Black Australorps.  Nothing can make if feel like spring like babies chirping in the house.

Black Australorp chicks

Yes, they are in the house.  The days and nights are still too extreme to subject them to the vastness of the chicken coop. Besides, it is just too cute to not watch them a bit each day while they are fluffy and the chirps are sweet.

An example of our weather: This weekend we planted some seedlings of flowers indoors so we can get them in planters in the greenhouse soon.  There is a graduation gathering at the end of May to prepare for and trying to have flowers in show form when we can actually still have frost and snow at that later date is a struggle.

Plant in the warm sunshine one afternoon, wake to a different kind of beauty this morning.

spring snow in the rockies

Sun, Snow, Sun, Rain, Snow, Sun Fifty degree changes in temperature in a twenty four hour period.  That is our spring weather in the mountains in Evergreen.

In the spring

Spring is also marked by Prom for anyone with high school upper class students.

When #1 son went to prom, he provided one week’s notice to us. We headed to the thrift and found a tux coat and cumberbun from one store, pants and blue tux shirt from another as he stated the date’s dress was the blue of a jelly bean.  I’m sure I rolled my eyes so far that I was dizzy for a spell, but low and behold, it was the exact match to her dress.  We also found a white tux shirt (backup in case) at another store along with new patent leather shoes.  Total cost of tux – less than the black bow tie we could not find and had to purchase new at the men’s store.

This year, #2 son provided a ten day notice that he was planning on attending prom.  Lucky for all of us, we still have tux from a few years ago and so this weekend was the fitting.

Devin in Tux

Dev in Tux

Dapper enough for this mom.

Happy Spring everyone,

Love Sally