Monday December 15 2008

Wendy, Melita and Ruth at Obo's

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Ruth and Big Piney Librarian Debbie

in The New Gallery Space.

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Can't believe I slept for almost 14 hours, with maybe 3 awake times in the middle of the night. When Joe woke me up to say he was going for coffee at 8:45 I looked at the clock and realized I was supposed to meet Melita and Wanda at the library at 9 a.m. to go to Big Piney and take down the Mixed Media show. Joe said he'd stay home to be here for the repairmen who were coming this morning, and also the washer was being delivered this morning. I thought about staying home, but decided I'd let Joe take care of it all this time. I've been doing almost everything since we started down this road.

So I started getting dressed really fast, but then the furnace repairmen got here. Then one of the faucets in my bathroom wouldn't work. Had to show that to Joe. Then I remembered to show him the place where the rug was wet in my bedroom. Together we figured out that condensation was dripping down out of the furnace duct in the ceiling. Then I realized that the repair men's truck was in the driveway right behind my car. Joe said he would move it but he only went half a car length and said I could get around. I had to insist that he move it back far enough for me to get out. It was 9:20 when I got to the library. Put all Kay's boxes from my car into Melita's and we were off.

It was hard to believe how quickly we got to Big Piney compared to the amount of time it always took from the ranch. We were down there in no time. Charm and Ruth soon arrived too and we had the show down and packed up lickety split. It wasn't even eleven but we decided to go to lunch anyway. Charm was heading down to Evanston to stay with some friends for a couple of days so she hit the road. The other four of us went to the new Obo's which is a quite magnificent quick stop gas station, brand new. It has a huge deli, store and fresh meat. We picked what we wanted from the deli - so much to choose from it was hard to decide. Then we started on home, stopping at Kay's to leave off her artwork, Devan's, and Sandy's. She didn't go this morning because they were working cattle and she was feeding the crew just as we got there.

Melita took us back to our cars and we unloaded our artwork. Then I went out to get my pastel snow scene framed and picked up another painting Ruth had framed. I will photograph it and show you later. After that I stopped at Rocky Mountain Home Center and finally ordered the window shades. The are double cell pleated shades. They said the shades might be ready and could be hung before Christmas, so that will be nice. Also went to the post office to get our mail.

When I got home the furnace and vent pipe were all fixed and working fine now. Gene said that there's a lot of ice and condensation up in the attic, and it probably wasn't going to go away until next spring. Also the exchange washer has been delivered. I am washing a load of laundry tonight. This washer is much noisier than the one that broke. And one reason I liked the first one was how quiet it was. But maybe that was a symptom of it's demise, I don't know. I just hope nothing's wrong with this one.

Been trying to blog yesterday and today all afternoon, and just now getting around to it. I fixed leftovers for dinner, and baked a couple of apple pies. James called from GA and said he had been talking to quite a few people about our furnace and the builder over the weekend. He had a lot of information to share. And said that I should just present the photos, bill, explanation of the situation to the builder. But we're going to wait a few weeks until James gets back to Pinedale.

So another long day. I'm not feeling so tired though after all that sleep last night. Maybe I SHOULD go to bed earlier on a regular basis.

Sunday December 14 2008

Community Choir

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Nativity Scenes

Nativity Scenes

Christmas Tree - There were Several
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Woke up early today and made waffles for breakfast. Started to work in the studio room, and got quite a bit done. I also was busy with other things too. The weather hasn't been as bad as predicted here and we got maybe another couple inches of snow. I swept off the deck again, and it's pretty easy to clear off with dry snow and not too much of it. Joe cleaned off the front porch and sidewalk.

I've been looking forward to this afternoon because Bonnie had invited me several weeks ago to go with her to the Community Choir Concert today. I've never been before. Well the time got away from me AGAIN and I was a little late getting ready, but it worked out fine. We got to the LDS church in time to get a good seat, and as the time neared for the program to start the church filled up with lots of people. The choir was wonderful, singing all different styles of Christmas carols, and sometimes the audience sang along. Afterwards we went into their event center where there were more than 50 nativity scenes set up and some refreshments. It doubles as a basketball court and the nativity scenes were set up along three of the walls - that's how many there were. I never knew there was such a variety - large and tiny, made of many many different materials, all styles and colors. They were so beautiful, and all brought for display by the town residents. Such treasures, I took lots of pictures but you know how I've complained about my camera, it won't take very good pictures indoors in poor light even with a flash. But I was able to make a couple of the photos work. I had a great time and THANK YOU VERY MUCH DEAR BONNIE for inviting me to go along with you. It was a wonderful experience. The cookies weren't bad either.

As soon as we got back home Joe asked if I wanted to go downtown for a sandwich and I said sure. We went to the Bottoms Up and had prime rib french dip sandwiches. I went to bed almost right away about 7 p.m. and slept pretty good except for getting cramps in my legs - maybe up with them four times.

We're still using the electric heaters that Craig and Bonnie brought over and have stayed reasonably warm. Craig described how the heaters work. There are some halogen lights that shine on to something copper inside, then a fan blows out the warm air. So they use a lot less electricity. The weather is very wintry right now. Mostly cloudy with small snowstorms coming through. It got to about -10 here last night, but someone said that it was -27 over on Forty Rod. It might have been lots colder at the ranch too. Both Bev and Deb called today to see if we were staying warm enough, and Betty too. I never did get time to blog today so will catch up tomorrow.

Remember Beverly's tree blew over on the neighbor's house - 7 or 8 men from their church came over at 7 a.m. and cut it all up and stacked it in Brent's yard. He will be making lots of trips to the dump to haul it all away. The neighbor's house wasn't hurt at all ..... so lucky.

Saturday December 13 2008

They've all been telling me how hard the wind was blowing down around Mesquite and Las Vegas. So..... we're not the only ones with bad luck. Bev and Brent's tree blew over on the neighbors house today. Apparently it will cost more than $1000 to get it off before they even see if the house has damage. I think she meant that is the deductible.

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SURPRISE!!!!!!

Or perhaps not.

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Guess what happened last night at our brand new house that we've only been in for about one month. Joe came in where I was watching late TV and said "Isn't it getting cold in here?" And real quick we discovered the furnace wasn't running. It had quit and we couldn't get it to go. I didn't quite know who to call for this, so called the gas company and left a message at 1 a.m. He soon called me back and recommended three places to call. The repairman Gary from All Tech in Pinedale called back and came over within an hour of me calling him. Very nice person. He got here at 2:30 a.m and crawled up his ladder into the attic and checked things out.

I really liked this young man, he seems sharp and he sure knew what he was doing. He found that there is no vent through the roof for the furnace. And also that any snow on the roof would obstruct any possible venting there. The open vent pipe is pointed at some kind of ordinary attic vent, but the fumes aren't venting out through that. They are venting into the attic. He could smell the fumes and said probably carbon monoxide is coming down into the house. That situation was combined with a line that was almost kinked that caused a pressure switch to turn off. Because of that the furnace is all full of carbon already and will be hard to get cleaned up. Also a union in a gas valve needs to be installed. There is also no platform under/around the furnace for a person to work from as there should be, he had to stand on the rafters to work. He says none of this is up to code. I’m surprised that the inspector didn’t find any of this.

Gene got the furnace running so we could stay warm (so we thought), and said he would try to come back Saturday or Monday and do the roof vent properly and clean out the carbon and make sure it is all up to code. He was really worried about the whole situation and us being in here with it in that condition. He took pictures with his phone of all that he found and will email them to me along with a report of all he found. He said the person who installed the furnace obviously didn’t know what they were doing. It's cost $120 so far – I don’t know what it will cost getting it all fixed and vented the way it should be. We will buy a carbon monoxide detector tomorrow.

It is apparently now up to me to contact the builder John Hilton and get the situation straightened out with him. For certain I don’t want Mr. Hilton to work on the furnace or his son or workmen either. I think it is imperative to have an expert doing the work, I’m going to request/insist that he pay for whatever it’s going to cost. And now we have a warranty which is probably voided by the bad installation. ?? It seems to me this is a pretty big ticket item, and with the way Gene described it, he is very worried that we could die in here. That may be dramatic, but possible under the circumstances. We've never met the builder/seller Hilton and I don’t know what kind of man he is, but I don’t want to be in a fight with him over it. I’ve had enough stuff going wrong lately and am not in the mood to deal with much more.

Gene didn’t come back or call today (Saturday). I’m sure he thinks the furnace is running and keeping the place warm. He got it running but once the furnace came up to temperature and cycled off, it wouldn’t come on again. That is probably the way it should work under the circumstances. It shouldn’t be running.

When he left apparently the way it sounded, he has commitments and his help is busy or unavailable, he didn’t say what. He said he would try to come back ASAP and make the whole thing right, but that it should be done today. In the meantime we are using the little natural gas fireplace and have the oven on with the oven door open. I don’t especially like that either. We have a small heater here. It’s supposed to get very cold - way below zero - so we're somewhat worried about the water lines. The wind is supposed to blow up to 40 mph - tomorrow I think.

I only slept about an hour last night. So am going to go relax now. I'll keep you posted.

Friday December 12 2008

Deer Outside the Windows

Joe's Bedroom

The Comforter Cover I Bought Him

is Too Warm for Sleeping.

First thing this morning Susan at Home Depot called and said they would bring up the new washer on Monday and take the broken one away. And they will also bring the fence parts that were back ordered when Curtis was here working on the fence. We will need the parts when Curtis finishes installing the gates next spring.

Joe went to the ranch to feed the cats. He had a burger for lunch at Boulder. He said there isn't much snow out there yet. Do you suppose we could have stayed there this winter?? I read on pinedaleonline that there was only 6 inches of snow at Big Sandy Openings.

Kay stopped by this afternoon to bring boxes for her artwork which we will pick up for her when we take the Mixed Media show down in Big Piney on Monday. We got to visit for a while. Her brother has been really sick with cancer.

I worked on getting every one's email addresses that I have received into my address book so that's updated now. And paid the bills online that have arrived lately. Yes.... the credit card one is pretty scary.

With the washer exploding and everything else that's been going on I forgot to mention that the car doesn't want to start on the first turn of the key as it always has since I got it. It will run o.k. after I drive it a little bit and then start up again after I've driven it a ways. Joe said it sounded like it needs a tune-up or something and to get an appointment to get it fixed. So I called yesterday and got a time for next Thursday morning - tried to get one sooner but no luck.

James and Kathy sent us some Omaha meat, so I decided we better have some company over to dinner to help us eat some of the meat. There isn't room in the freezer for any more. Maybe will do that tomorrow if people can come then. After tomorrow there is something happening every day and then I get chemo and won't feel like doing it.

This afternoon George, an old friend of Joe's came by to see him. They reminisced for an hour or so. He and Jim had been out snowmaching over in the Wyoming Range. It was nice of him to stop by. He's going back to Laramie tomorrow. I worked on the studio room for several hours again. It's a bigger job than I though to sort it all out.

I checked for that special full moon tonight, but it's too cloudy to see it. I did see it about midnight last night and it was close enough I suppose. Early there was a small rainbow halo around the moon, and later there was a huge ring around the moon. Pretty spectacular. I said "WOW!!" and showed it to the dogs.

Thursday December 11 2008

Last Look at the Ranch

Muddy Canyon The Day We Left

Today I put in a couple of photos I haven't used yet.

Sunny day, but with a cold wind. Guess we're in for some snow over the weekend. Hope the roads are good next Tuesday when we go back to Jackson for my next treatment - I do this worry wart thing worrying about it way before anything even happens.

Betty Pfaff and her daughter Kelly drove up from Kemmerer today so we could go to lunch together. She brought me an amaryllis plant to watch bloom through the winter. Charm was also invited to go along and we went to the Chinese restaurant. We had a really nice visit first at the house, and then at lunch. I was so disappointed - took the camera and forgot to have a picture taken of all of us. Then I spaced out taking one of them back here at home too. Been doing that a lot lately. I gave Betty a gift of a small painting. She has always been so generous with me, gifting and giving. So another one has a good home.

If you're keeping track, Joe did go to coffee again. This afternoon I went into the second hand store to see if they had a small side table, but there was nothing like that today. I thought I might find an interesting chair too, but most of the chairs were very ugly or too much in need of repair. I got a few cute serving dishes and an unusual basket. How come it's so much fun to shop for other people's junk? Then I went to the grocery store. I was also going out to the framers but spent too much time in the second hand. So maybe will go out there tomorrow. Still have a little bit of groceries to put away. Then I'm about ready for bed again.

Dining Area

A bench also came with the dining set,

so it will easily seat six.

The bench is in the entryway.

There is also a small bar off the kitchen

counter with two stools.

The sign at our turnoff onto Broken Hills Dr.

Maybe need to click on it to see it bigger.

Arrowhead is down about a block on the right.

Another very quiet day. Joe went to have coffee again this morning - he's going to get used to being in town and socializing. I'm sure the dogs like getting to go out. It was sunny, a little warmer but very windy again. I made several phone calls today that I should have done long ago. Did get started on the messy room and got the new file system set up - loading up the new file cabinet. Joe wanted to go to the Chinese restaurant tonight and so I didn't have to cook.

Tuesday December 9 2008

Pocket Creek - 15" x 22" pastel

Wow what a spectacular morning. We got about 3" or so of new snow yesterday and I thought it would settle down or begin to go off, but it didn't. Started off very foggy. There was frost on all the willows and trees creating a fairly land. It was 4 degrees for a low this morning and only got to about 24 during the day with a fair breeze and beautifully sunny.

We went over to Melita's this morning for the small painting group. The drive over was just spectacular as you go out over the Twin Bridges and along Pine Creek. There were deer along the road. But.... left my camera (and the grocery list) at home. I spaced it out and left it sitting right by the back door. I sure wanted to share the scenes with you and my words don't do it justice.

We had a great time together and Melita' fixed us one of her gourmet lunches - Caesar salad (one of the all time best salads/dressing I've ever had) and comforting carrot soup, with the most delicious herb buns. Dessert was a waffle basket with fresh fruit and vanilla ice cream. Also to die for.

The photo today is the pastel I began at the painting group last week and finished it up today. It's a scene about halfway from the ranch to Boulder. And I like this one, as well as had fun doing it. It was planned to have a herd of Angus cattle in the foreground, but when I got to where they should go in, I got scared that I'd mess it up so didn't put the cows in.

After the meeting I got my protime test at the clinic and tested good this time. I was going to get groceries and to the window shade place too, but it was late enough I just came home.

Nancy and Dick left for the winter this morning and Lois and Bud are going next Monday. We will miss them and wish them safe journies. Lois gave me her season Pinedale Fine Arts Council tickets for the performances that are coming to town in the next several months. What a wonderful gift! I had thought that for sure I'd be attending them, so this will ensure that I go.

Last night I got hungry for cake and made a marble cake with cream cheese frosting. I had never tried this before but had some applesauce to use and put it in the batter in place of some of the oil, and it sure turned out extra tasty and light. Joe took the dogs with him went to coffee again both yesterday and today, so don't know what he decided about the bad coffee.

Not all full Moons are the same. This Friday's is the biggest and brightest full Moon of the year.
FULL STORY at
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/09dec_fullmoon.htm?list953085