January 8th, 2010 by Sha

Hi, my name’s Marsha and I’m a choco-holic. While out having coffee in town the other day I found a new chocolate bar made by a company in Boulder, Colorado called Chocolove. There were two bars to choose from at the coffee house; I went for the Chili & Cherries in Dark Chocolate and it was incredible! I’ve had chocolate bars with chili before, and love them, but this one with the addition of cherries took it to a whole new level of enjoyment. Looking at the company’s website today I see they have fourteen fabulous flavors to choose from, and guess who is going to make it a personal goal to try every single one? Yes, I have a new mission in life and I accept it whole heartedly! No rehab for me, thanks, I have no problem with being addicted to the stuff – especially when it’s this good!

December 8th, 2009 by Sha

Within a matter of hours our Indian summer has turned to winter. The huge storm moving across the United States dumped two feet of snow on south west Colorado overnight. The sun is trying to break out this morning but the weather forecast is telling us more storm is on the way. There’s already too much snow for the four wheeler to plow; it keeps getting stuck and Pete is having a heck of a time trying to clear our road. We’re definitely not going anywhere today. It’s okay though, we have plenty of supplies and the internet is working – that’s all we can ask for in this kind of weather.

October 11th, 2009 by Sha

10/13 UPDATE: We had so much fun with the first three pumpkins Saturday night that we did in fact head out to the Chimney Rock Organic Farm pumpkin patch on Sunday. The pumpkin patch was a blast; I hadn’t tromped through one in more years than I’d care to remember. We bought three large pumpkins and three small ones; pictured at left is the Haunted House pumpkin I carved Monday, Oct. 13. I’ve still got a template of a witch flying on a broom, that will probably be the one I do today. Then I think I’ll do scary pumpkin faces with the little ones we bought. Our neighbor has horses so we’re going to ask if we can borrow two hay bales to make a display with our carved pumpkins by the front door. So come back again over the next week to see more photos from our Halloween 2009 pumpkin extravaganza! 10/31 UPDATE: Well, it came and went and I did not finish the Halloween porch decorations. I got busy, and we had a small but unexpected snowfall on the 25th that made us realize we are not quite ready for winter and we’d better get on it before the real snows come.

Yesterday we celebrated fall and the harvest season with an old fashioned pumpkin carving. Pete and I wanted to do something different, so I got online and found some cool pumpkin carving templates at SpookMaster.com. Pete and I carved a black cat pumpkin (shown at left), Pete’s son Connor carved a ghost pumpkin, and his friend Caleb carved a pumpkin head of his own design (click on the image at left to see the full image of all three pumpkins). After we got done carving the pumpkins we lit them and put them on the patio, then we lit a fire in the chiminea and roasted marshmallows while we watched our spooky pumpkins glow in the darkness of night. It was so much fun that we are going to the local organic farm today to buy more pumpkins to carve! (BTW – Chimney Rock Certified Organic Farm is for sale, click here to view the property.)

July 13th, 2009 by Sha

Last Friday we took off for a couple days of camping before I headed back to Grand Junction for two more weeks of work. Pete bought a new tent for us while I was away working and had found a really pretty camping area near Big Meadow up on Wolf Creek Pass. It’s called Park Creek and is in the Rio Grande National Forest. The camp site sits along the headwaters of the Rio Grande River, which was running just behind our tent.  The weather was perfect, and the scenery was absolutely gorgeous. We spent a day relaxing at the camp site then we headed out for a scenic drive up to an old mining town called Summitville, which was just eighteen miles farther up the mountain from the camp site. It’s a ghost town, but a few of the old buildings are still standing. Summitville is at about 12,000 feet elevation, which makes for some incredible scenery. There are beautiful alpine flowers, deep green meadows, and awesome mountain vistas. The temperature was 84 degrees when we left the Park Creek camp ground and dropped to 46 degrees at Summitville, it was unbelievable. Just one more reason why the state’s tourism motto is “Colorado Wild”!

May 8th, 2009 by Sha

Pete started smoking meats last summer, using a propane grill that my mom bought for me when I purchased my first house in 1997. (Thanks, Mom, we still use that grill at least three times a week!) He’s got a system that works great and produces excellent (m)eats, but he wanted a dedicated smoker. He was so serious about it that he’d done a bunch of research and had even picked one out, so I thought it would be fun to get it for him this year. On April 10^th I found the best price on the Char-Griller Outlaw smoker at Amazon.com, with the best deal on shipping. The smoker weighs about 140 pounds, and most places wanted over $100 for shipping; Amazon charged $39. I ordered the smoker and it arrived within 5 days, heavily damaged. The box looked like it had fallen off the back of a truck and had been taped together with at least one roll of packing tape, maybe two. (Click here or on the thumbnail image to view the smoker pics.) The smoker is powder coated and the lid had such bad dents that it cracked the powder coating, which will just lead to premature rust. It was also missing a bunch of assembly parts like bolts, nuts, and even the thermometer. I’d bet that one of the parts bags fell out of the gaping holes in the box. I sent Amazon an email with photos of the damage and they said they would send out another smoker and we can return the damaged one using the pre-paid shipping label they included in their email. The tracking number I got for the replacement says it’s being shipped to Oregon, so I call Amazon to try to figure out what’s going on. They don’t know either, but assist with getting the package bound for Oregon re-routed to Colorado and is expected to be delivered on Friday, May 1^st. At this point it seemed that things were sorted out. On Tuesday, April 28^th I went to our mailbox in town and guess what’s waiting for me? A smoker! Fine, whatever, as long as it’s not damaged and we can get on with the fun part of making some yummy food. We swap damaged smoker for good smoker, damaged smoker gets put back in good smoker’s box and sent back to Amazon on Friday May 1^st. That same day, when I get back home from town, the UPS truck comes driving up our road at 3:30 pm. Now mind you, I live in B.F.C., and for the most part no delivery company will bring packages to the house which is why we have a delivery address in town. Guess what was on the truck? Smoker number three! I went outside to stop the driver before she unloaded the monstrosity and briefly told her about what had happened. We both had a good laugh, and I refused the delivery. It is the only time Amazon has made a mistake, I just wish it would have been something less heavy. But everything’s copasetic now. Pete is very happy and is already planning his summer meat smoking schedule. I can’t wait!

April 16th, 2009 by Sha

Years ago I saw a refrigerator magnet that said “cats are like potato chips, you can’t have just one”. At that point in my life I’d never had a cat, so I didn’t really understand the truth to that statement. Well now I can say without hesitation that it is absolutely true. Since moving to B.F.C. I have rescued ten felines, and kept all but two. I’m starting to think there is a kitty sign post somewhere on the property because a few weeks ago another cat showed up out of nowhere and has been hanging around the house. He’s super friendly, and he’s a big boy – I call him Big Kitty. He was shy at first but now he’s pretty comfortable here, and even came into the loft and slept in the pillow pile the other night for a few hours. I just can’t help myself, they are so sweet and cute and all they want is some love. Isn’t that what we all want?