Sunday, July 31, 2016

Walters Brewing

Hello Everyone!  I hope that you had a good weekend.  It's 6:30 PM MST on Sunday July 31st.   Figured I would catch up on my activities for the weekend.

Candy's sister and brother in law arrived on Friday.  Friday evening Candy cooked up some baked chicken with green beans and potato's.  Both of the boys showed up, so we had a full house.   We sat out back and then had dinner.  After cleaning up everyone headed home or to their hotel.

Saturday morning we loaded up in the Avalanche and drove down to Florence CO.  They have numerous antique stores and a couple nice restaurants.  We spent most of the day walking up/down main street and checking out the various shops.

I found a couple of cool items.  The first item was a Fishing Machine.  I had never seen one like this, but a very similar idea to the Ronco Pocket Fisherman.   I got it for $8.00 dollars.  When we got home that evening I tried it out and it works great.   I need to restring it and will take it with me next time I head out.  If nothing else it will be a cool conversation piece.



The next item I picked up is also pretty cool in my opinion.  I picked up two steel sheets of un-rolled beer cans from the Walters Brewing Company in Pueblo Co.  Being that it was a Colorado brand and that it was out of business in 1974 it seemed pretty cool to me.  I figured I will frame the sheets and it can be my version of a Warhol.   Should look pretty good up on the shop.  Not sure what I will do with the second sheet.  In total their are 35 cans per sheet.


   
All in all, had a great day.  It was a lot of fun to walk through all the shops and see so much history.  How this little town in Southern Colorado can have so many full antique shops is pretty unique.

Today we drove up to the top of Pikes Peak.  We hand Candy's Sister and Husband with us.   Candy and I loaded up a cooler with some of Friday's chicken, potato salad, cookies and some other stuff we had at the house.  Made sure we had plenty of water for everyone and a couple of soda's.

We stopped at Crystal Lake and did a little walking around.  Took a couple of pictures and walked a little around the lake.  It was a pretty busy day with lots of park visitors.  Luckily the traffic wasn't bad.   We made our way up to the top and looked out over the mountains and down to the plains.   Grabbed some almonds and checked out the gift shop before making our way back down.







On the way down we found a nice picnic area with tables and stopped and had our lunch.   As we were eating the chipmunks came out and I was able to snag a couple of pictures.





I think we got home about 1:30 PM.  Our guest left and I took a quick nap.  

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

More time on the trail

This week I have been trying to make a real effort to walk to work.   I did great on Monday, walked to work and got a ride home because we had lighting and showers.  Tuesday was a no go because I had a 7 AM face to face meeting and had to be in early.  Today I managed to walk to work and back home.  This helped me to get a little more distance, bringing me up to 9.79 for the week.

Candy and Pebbles both walked half way with me on Monday and Wednesday.   We have been able to get Pebbles off the leash a little and she loves that.  We have had a bumper crop of grasshoppers so Pebble is bouncing all over trying to catch them.  It's actually pretty funny.


My wrist band on my fitbit blew craps so I started using my GPS again.   The above are the routes that I have taken the last couple of days.

This evening I put the sprinkler on the garden and let it run for about an hour.   For about two weeks we were picking a bowl of raspberries everyday.   Well the first round of raspberries are done and now the black berries are starting to ripen.  I have two plants and they are both exploding.  The picture below is a close up and you can see how big they are getting and they are just starting to turn from red to black.


We picked one this evening and oh man it was good.   Going to be having some of these on my ice cream and cereal.

Last night I made plum icee's.  We bought some plums at the flea market and they were huge and ready to eat and they were awesome.   Several of them had really started to ripen and were getting soft.   I cut the core out and threw them in the blender and then added ice and a little honey.  Oh they were good.

While I was in the yard this evening I snapped a few other pictures of some of the plants we have growing.

Tiger Lilly

Yarrow

Daisy

I had some help in the yard this evening.  Pebbles was following me around and keeping and eye out for any wildlife.   I have to say this picture of her, looks like she may have gotten into some brownies.


Monday, July 25, 2016

On the trail

I got up at 5 AM this morning.  Hung out outside on the patio and checked the news and my email.  Showered up and then cooked up an egg to go with my lettuce and tomato.  

We were out the door just before 7 AM and on the trail.  Took Donkey with us and she was happy to be out.  I took the camera with me as I was wanting to see if I could get a better picture of the shrew.   Well it was MIA today but I did see a nice buck and a little rabbit.



Stuff

On Sunday afternoon I headed over to the shop for a bit.  Originally the plan was to clean and put things back in there place.   Well I got a little side tracked.   As I was sorting through the parts pile I started to set a few items to the side for what I thought I could make a bird out of.   I had an S wrench for the body, some tines for the head, smaller S wrenches for legs and a couple of gears and old nuts and bolts.


I tried several different variations on what it could be. Well it didn't really come out as a bird, but more like a chameleon.




Sunday, July 24, 2016

Weekends Over

On Saturday we got up and went out to the flea market.  That’s always a good time.  We walked around and checked out the booths.  Came across some cool stuff but didn’t buy anything.  One thing that did catch my eye was an old wind generator.   I took a picture and will add this to the list of things I would like to make.  Mine would be for decoration, but I think it would be pretty cool.

Then we headed over to the farmers market and walked around.  We grabbed some lettuce and a few other items.  From there it was off to Wal-mart to pick up a few other items.  It was hot out on Saturday, so when we got home I aired up the swimming pool and filled it with water.   It sure felt good to jump in off/on and cool off.  This is the third time this year I have done this and if the heat keeps up I will be doing it again.

We are in what they call here the monsoon season.  It is warm during the day and we get some rain in the late afternoon that helps cool things off.  It rained on Saturday afternoon and started early today and has been overcast.

I wanted to plant another raspberry plant this year so I ran over to Home Depot this morning and bought the saddest looking plants.   I knew it was late in the year but these looked pretty bad.  I talked them into 75% off so I they were a $1.50 each.   I bought two raspberries and one blue berry.  The  blue berry plant was much better looking.   We also picked up some Shasta daisy’s.   We brought everything home and I went to work planting.


The raspberries are looking a little better now that they are in the ground and have gotten some water.   I cut off the dead leafs and cleaned the plant up.  Hopefully they will take and produce next year.  While planting Candy grabbed a picture of me planting her daisy’s. 

This evening we were sitting out back and we had a really nice red finch on the feeder.  I have been keeping the camera on the porch so that it is close and I can capture some of the wildlife.


Saturday, July 16, 2016

Backyard Photo Shoot

On Wednesday I was sitting in the backyard with the camera.  I did a little backyard photo shoot and have included the pics below.  Enjoy!
















More Stuff

Got some catching up to do.  Been super busy at work, as always and I am not complaining.  I have really been lazy on my walking as of late.  I did walk to work and back on Monday but found excuses the rest of the week to not do so.

We have been eating raspberries like crazy around here.  Candy likes her with her cereal in the morning.  I like mine with ice cream.   I had planed several plants last year and the year before.  They all came back and we have and are having a full harvest.  I also have blueberries and black berries but they are not ready yet.  Most likely another week or two.


This raspberry plant has had all kinds of new starters coming up.   In a couple of years we are going to have a very nice garden of berries as long as they can make it through the winters.  Each year I have covered them in mulch to help to not freeze the roots.

Today was our company picnic.  We had a great turn out and some really great food.  This year it was on the far north end of the Springs and the food came from Rudy's BBQ.   We got to play some corn hole.  It is a game like horseshoes, but with corn feed bags.  I am thinking about making up a game for us.  Candy will sew up the bean bags.  We have a great spot in the backyard to play.  With my creative skills I think I can make the platforms look pretty cool.  I may do this tomorrow.  We will see.  I need to get out and walk and I have been thinking about going fishing again.

After the picnic I headed over to the shop and was looking for something to do.  Candy had shown me a video of a humming bird water fountain.   I didn't have what I need to make it, it also requires a pulp with electricity and I am pretty much tapped out outside on outlets.  One of these days I need to run a power line under ground up to the back of the yard.  This would give me a few more options on things I could do.

I did have an old ashtray stand that I had picked up.  I think my Dad gave it to me on one of our last visits.  It was in pretty rough shape, rusty and dirty.   I took the grinder with my wire brush to it.  cleaned up all the rust and then started painting it.  I used what I had at the shop.  Painted the base in a brass color and then the rest in silver.   Painted the handle red so that it would hopefully attract the Humming birds.  Well this is the finished product.  Came out pretty nice.







Sunday, July 10, 2016

Pebbles

Candy had taken this picture of Pebbles the other day.  I just had to get it in the blog.  She is such a nut.


Back Home

Greetings all, been a couple of weeks since I posted anything. So let’s see since my last post I have been I Florida, Kansas and Colorado.  I spent the week in West Palm Beach and then over to Tampa.  Then I flew over to Wichita KS, and spent the fourth of July with family.  Had a couple of days off which was nice.

Had a great time visiting with the Family and even got a little work done around the house for my parents.  Both the boys made it this year and brought their girlfriends.    We ate way to much food over the weekend and on the Holiday.  Shot off a bunch of fireworks.

One evening we all went out to dinner at Connie’s Mexico Café.  This is a favorite of most of the family. After being on the road for nine days I was glad to be back home.  

Yesterday we headed out and did some fishing.  Went back down to Brush Hollow and then over to Florence for some lunch and a little more fishing.  I didn’t catch anything but we had a great time.  Took Pebbles with us and she had a blast.  She was chasing Chipmunks and Rabbits.



Today I worked over at the shop and made up another birdhouse.  Not sure what we are going to do with it.  Used some old fence wood that I had and top that my Dad had picked up when he was out garage selling.

I did some watering and pulled weeds.  Cleaned up my mess from the project today as well as the last one I was working on.   Man it get's dirty quick from the sawing, sanding, grinding and so on.

I started laying out my next project.  I am planning on making up a large flower cart.  This should be pretty cool when done.