Hello, Again

 

We never know how we touch people's lives, and in this specific case how our blogs reach and affect our our readers.  Sometimes we don't even know who reads our blogs. This week I learned just much impact this blog has. 

I last posted in March, spending more time on Instagram where I found some old blog friends who now I visit daily. Life is simple on IG. 

The Garden Spot was becoming a chore--a task that I began to dread because I felt compelled to participate in Mosaic Monday, which was good because doing so gave me a goal with a deadline. 

Then I just stopped writing. Blogging had become mundane; all my posts seemed repetitive. It was added to my list of chores; it didn't hold my interest anymore. 

But I missed my you, my blog buddies, so I check in every now and and then, taking comfort knowing  that old friends are still blogging and well. 

Then we received a phone call. I wasn't home, so when I came through the door the Head Gardener talking on the phone, telling a story about Pop, the pony. Soon he handed to me and it was Lisa. Lisa has two daughter, Marlie and Riley and I will get them confused. We met them when Riley (I think) was 16. The family was looking for a home for their pony, Pop, so we brought hime home and he has been here  for 8 years.

 Our imagination plays tricks on us, so when Lisa saw that I hadn't updated the blog since March about the time COVID was gaining speed, her natural worry was the worst-- that perhaps I had succumbed to the VIRUS. She found a phone number and we were reconnected. 

Lisa had called out of desperation to make sure that we were okay, for when she went to The Garden Spot to check in on Pop, it had been dormant for months. Nor had we  been in contact for a long time, so when the Head Gardener answered the phone and told her that we were fine, she was greatly relieved.  She had lost touch with us and Pop when I stopped blogging every week. 

I had kept telling myself that I needed to email the girls and let them know that their pony was still healthy, but I just never got around to doing it.  

Fortuantely we are healthy and happy. She and the girls came last Saturday to visit Pop, who is now 33 years old. The girls are 24 and 28. He was their childhood pony, show horse, and companion. They had come to see him when the youngest one turned 21 and Pop knew the girls then.  Their visits are really emotional because the old boy now blind in one eye and can't see out of the other one, remembers his girls each time they come to visit, even as years have passed. He heard their voices and come into his stall where they stood waiting for him and instead of looking for food, he went straight to his girls. What a joyous moment. 

Lisa told me later that she  followed the blog. It was her way of keeping up with us, knowing the that we are all fine and knowing that POP is well is a great relief, and even her mother follows the blog.

So, friends I am back. Let's get caught up. 

Actually life hasn't changed much except for the BIG Elephant in the room--the BUG. We have changed the way we do a few things. This new lifestyle, Social Distancing, really hasn't been that difficult since that's the way I've lived since I retired in 2013, going to town once a week, but we don't go out to eat anymore, and I do curbside pick-up for groceries, wear my mask, and wash my hands. 

I've lost a bit of weight, my lipid panel numbers dipped a bit, and I spent a lot of time with my miniatures. I built this cute little chicken house from scratch. While not perfect, it was my first project from plans instead of a kit. At 1:12 scale, it was a challenge to build something that small, but I went smaller when I assembled the 1:48 scale kit. Now that is small. 

While the Head Gardener planted the peas, carrots, bean, tomatoes and squash, I was teaching myself to use polymer clay to recreate tiny vegetables. I also learned how to create miniature flowers, first from kits then by using punches, like the clematis kit that I assembled that will go by the door of the chicken coop. You can see more of my miniature projects at my companion blog, Ann's Dollhouse Dreams where I do try to post once a week.

 The Head Gardener kept busy too, retrofitting this tiny pontoon for fishing. This day we took it for its maiden voyage.

Brody learned that water can be fun.

We learned how to Zoom. I've been attending my DAR chapter meetings on Zoom and the HG has been  facilitating his Colorado Bow Hunters' board meetings from home on Zoom, too

Earlier in the summer the horse shows were canceled for the granddaughters. Later in the summer the 4-H show was canceled. Part of the fairgrounds' facility had been converted to an un-used hospital. Mid summer we felt it safe to return to the show ring.

The girls are growing up. Both of the older ones are taller than me. Actually that's not saying much since I'm only 5.2. Lucy is now 12. 

Ellie takes a Hank over a jump. He's not a jumper, but it was a new event. They are game for new things. Now 14, Elinore is a cool teen-ager.

Lily ride's the neighbor's horse, Bubba, a rodeo horse. She's quite the 8 year old cowgirl.

 

We toured the prairie, the Pawnee National Grasslands park, driving out late in the day to wait for the night sky to see the comet. Got a great picture of ET, too, in the clouds.

The prairie has a certain beauty, a peacefulness and quiet with a vast horizon.

Our DAR chapter makes cards for the Veterans residing in the Cheyenne, WY VA nursing home. These cards were stitched then colored.

After Veteran's Day, we got busy and made Christmas cards for the veterans and I sent 60 to a group in MI, Card for Soldiers that ships thousands of cards to soldiers serving over seas and to local VA hospitals, too.

Wild Fires dominated the late summer. One burned out of control for weeks, the Cameron Park fire now ranks as the largest Colorado wild fire in history, burning 209,000 acres. While the fire made for beautiful sunsets, they came at a very high price.

While we were miles away from the actual threat of the fire, we experienced some effects. On the worst day as the fire threatened the lovely tourist mountain village, Estes Park home of the famed Stanley Inn and Rocky Mountain National Park, the call went out for horse trailers to help move livestock out of harm's way while we watched our skies darken. The air turned orange as the smoke smothered the sun.

2:00 PM felt like night or very powerful solar eclipse.

By now the Cameron park fire had been burning out of control for weeks.

In mid-November, Nathan came to visit for a week. Feeling the effects of being isolated from his school, spending days home alone to do his online school work, the 11 year old needed a time out, so he stayed with us for several days. I learned a lot about 6th grade as I supervised his online work. I must say that he was well disciplined and did his work, but I am not at all impressed with online school, but everyone is doing their best given the really harsh circumstance.

We took a drive up Poudre Canyon to see the damage the fire had caused. We had kept track of where the fire had gone and finally got to see the damage it left behind, including our favorite rest stop down by the river. 

Two other fires flared up that threaten to join up with the Cameron Park Fire, already a massive monster, burning mostly beetle kill forests that were already dead. Troublesome Fire began just north of the Colorado/Wyoming border. We were at a horse show near the Wyoming border the day that fire grew so fierce. I finally decided to leave early since the air was heavy with smoke and falling ash.

As if these two fires weren't bad enough, a third fire erupted south of the Cameron Park fire, still raging unconfined. This fire was west of Denver burning in the mountains above Grandby at Grand Lake. It grew massively fast, during thousands of acres over night. This fire, unlike the other two, burned hundreds of homes in a beautify mountain valley. Some of those ranches are over a hundred years old. It was tragic.

Thousands of firefighters couldn't contain or control these fires, but Mother Nature finally saw that we had had enough and came to the rescue before this fire joined the Cameron Fire on the South edge. So now image these 3 fires burning along the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, designated to become one big blaze.

Enough snow fell--about a foot--to smother the fires enough that the firefighters could finish putting them out.

I don't remember anyone dying, but the loss of property was immense. Mother Nature will heal the forests, but our beautiful Rocky Mountains will be scared forever. 

Finally, the boys are fine. Pop gets a hug from his girl and Sundance get an electronic treatment and a massage to help him with all of his lameness. 

Life is good at the Garden Spot. 

So there you have it. Thanks for stopping by. 

I'll be linking with Mosaic Monday. See you there.