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.  

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!

Hooters

Hey everybody, welcome back.  I guess I should say welcome back to me really.   It has been several weeks since I put anything down.  I can't really tell you what I have been up to other than working.  Just a lot going on.

I decided I should put this down as I got some great pictures today of four owls.   I actually came across them last night while walking home.   I took some pictures with my phone, but I couldn't zoom in enough.

So this morning when I left to walk to work I took my good camera with me and the telephoto lens.   I have rarely come across owls in the wild, let alone four of them.

Working on the todo list

I have gotten some miles in just about every day while I have been off.  It has been great, didn't go more than 3 miles in a day, but still got out or hit the treadmill.

Colorado weather, On Wednesday it was 60 and on Thursday it was 20, with rain/snow.  How quickly things change.  Pebbles and I got out in the snow on Friday.   Pebbles had a blast jumping out in the weeds and snow.  Looked liked she was doing the hurtles.

I am sure you have all heard about the shootings we had on Black Friday.  It was a terrible and senseless  event.  My regards and prayers go to the families of the victims.  This is just another reason why I carry when I go out.  You just don't know what sicko crazy son of bitch you may come across.  Sorry for the families and that this is the reason Colorado Springs get's it 30 seconds of fame.

I had to move my table out of the dinning room and into the workout room.   We wanted to eat in the dining room for Thanksgiving, so needed to clean up.   The top is finished and sprayed with urethane.  Once it warms up, I will dig it back out and finish it up.  Most likely after Christmas or in the new year.  I have to paint the checker box around it and that is going to take some work.

So since the dinning room was clean, on Saturday I dug out our shell box from our last trip to Sanibel island.   Went over to Hobby lobby and  picked up a straw wreath wrapped in plastic.  I used the same on the last wreath I made and it has worked great.   for this wreath, I used up all the conch shells we had collected on our last trip.   I did a reverse patter each time I went around.  I used the hot glue gun to attache them to the wreath. It came out really nice, super sweet, very happy with this one.

Today I ran over to Home Depot and picked up a plant hanger.  I need to cut it down and paint it, then I will be able to hang this wreath in the dinning room.

This afternoon I am watching Harry Potter, not sure which one and going through email and setting my tasks for the coming week.  I have a lot going on and then travel to Austin for a company Christmas party.

Happy Thanksgiving 2015

It has been so nice to have a few extra days off.  I started on Wednesday, which was an awesome day here in Colorado Springs.  The temperature was in the 60’s.  That was on Wednesday.  On Thursday the roads were covered with ice and then it started snowing.  I think the high today is 17.

I hope that you and your family had a great Thanksgiving.  We had a blast for ours.  Nothing major, but all the food came out awesome and then we played a couple of games afterwards.  We had both the boys and their girlfriends join us for dinner.  Everyone hung out and we played a new game for me.  I think the kids had played it before.  It is called “Cards against Humanity”.   I laughed my ass off.  It was a lot of fun.  It is a game for the adults and not the younger crowd.  The boys got a long with each other so we didn’t have any of that bull to put up with.

Candy did a great job with the dinner.   We actually prepared most of what we could the night before.  The Turkey was great, not dry.  She cooked it in a cooking bag.  We had all the fixings to go with it.  I was in some serious pain last night, thought I was going to pop.  So good!

So far I have gotten some miles in starting on Wednesday.  I told myself I was going to walk/hike every day that I was off.  Today is day three and so far so good.  Two of the days have been on the treadmill because of the weather.  Feels good, I feel good and just need to keep it up.

The following are some pictures I have taken since Wednesday.

Candy turns 50

Happy Birthday Candy!  On August 5^th, Candy celebrated her 50^th Birthday.   We were up at 5:30 AM and out the door at 6:30 AM.  We loaded up and made the hour drive to Port Angeles to catch the 8:15 AM fairy departure.  It worked out well, we got there just around 7:40 AM.  We found parking then headed in to get our tickets.  We also included a bus ride and entry into The Butchart Gardens.  The fairy ride over was 90 minutes and not being seaworthy folks, the time went pretty quick as we gawked out the windows.   

When we arrived in Victoria we made our way to the bus for the 30 minute ride out to Butchart Gardens.  The Bus driver provided a little history of some of the buildings, street names, etc. 

Wow is all I can say.  The Butchart Gardens were pretty amazing.  I took so many pictures of all the landscapes, gardens, flora, it was pretty cool what this family had done.  You can find all the pictures here:

We spent about two hours walking through the gardens and then we grabbed a bus back to downtown.  We walked around and found a place to have lunch.  Then we walked about 5 blocks to a quilt shop that had a row by row.   We stopped into a few antique shops and looked around as we made our way back.  We stopped into the Empress Hotel and walked through.  Pretty amazing old hotel.

We boarded the Fairy back to Port Angeles at 7:30 PM.  It was about 10:30 PM, when we got back to the house.  All in all I think Candy had a pretty great day for her Birthday.   I know I did. 

Weekends Over

The last two days have been pretty busy for me.  I was in Boston, Wednesday through Friday.  Got home late Friday afternoon.  Made the drive back from Denver through the traffic.

I hope to be getting my vette back this coming week. I am excited, but nervous as well.  I checked on it last week before I left town and they were finishing things up.  So it should be ready this week.

I spent most of the weekend working at the shop and getting everything cleaned up so I would have room for the vette.  I had brought home some items from Kansas that my dad had given me.   I needed to do clean up on some of them.   He gave me a steamer trunk that came over on the boat with my Moms family.   It was trashed and not possible to restore.   I spent about a day, removing all the hardware and plan on making a new trunk, using the hardware.  This time it will have a flat top, so it can be stacked on as well.

Someone had tried to do some work on the inside of the trunk.  I found roofing paper used for the liner, but I did come across some very interesting sacks.  I have searched on the web and can't find any information on the information on the canvas.  They are pretty cool, they were used as lining.  The whole trunk was lined with this material, but this was all that was salvageable. 

I took a truck load of crap to the dumpster.  Got everything put away and swept.  Looked good when I was done and should have no problem getting another car in.  I fired up the Model A's and let them run for while.  I even finished up the shelves I have been working on for Eric.  Didn't come out, quite like I wanted but they will work.   I will get a picture tomorrow.

I also need to get a picture of the propeller I have been working on.  I had started it on Memorial day weekend with my Dad when we were visiting.  He finished it up and I brought it home over the 4th.  I have spent several hours sanding on it and have some cools ideas on how to finish it off.   I plan on placing it in my office.

Catching Up....

It’s been almost a month since my last post, sorry for keeping everyone hanging out there.  I know that you are on pins and needles to see what happens next.  You know what, I am each and every day, shit just happens and it’s not that it happened, it’s how you choose to deal with it.

I have noticed I am missing a couple of updates around Bears and Vultures.   My Last post was about the Deer and the Vulture I had come across.   The next day, Candy and I passed that way again on my way to work.  I took my good camera with me this time in hopes of getting some better pictures.   I am pretty pleased with this one.

Let's see, on June 6th we had a new visitor to our home.  I had let Pebbles out and shortly after she started barking.  I was on the computer and after a few minutes I got off my ass to see what she was barking at.  I walk out and look at her under the pine tree and looking up.  I look up and low and behold there is a Bear kicking back in the tree.   This is the first time I have seen one in a tree and most definitely the closest I have ever been to one.

Clark competed in a skate competition up in Denver.  I wasn't there but his girlfriend took some pictures.  I let him borrow my camera and was glad to see that it made it back in one piece.  I was even happier that Clark made it back in one piece as well.  I think he took 4th in this competition. 

We have about 20 or so Finches in the back yard going after the feeder.   I have to fill the socks at least once a week.   They are fun to watch.   I took a bunch of pictures one evening and after edits, I like this one the best.

Candy and I took the dogs out one day last week.  Again I took the camera and tried to capture as many different types of wild flowers that I could.  We have had some much rain that everything is growing like crazy and in bloom.

Our Raspberry bush is on it's third year and we are getting a bumper crop.  I have pulled off three colanders just as full over the last two weeks and there are plenty more.  They taste great and I have been eating them on my vanilla ice cream.

We were in Kansas visiting family for the 4th of July.  Had a great time and it was good to see my parents and my sister and her family.   I feel bad that I didn't get more pictures.  For that matter I only took two and they were of my dads airplane that he has rebuilt.  Very Impressive.

There was a free concert in the park.  Candy and I walked down and checked it out.  We had a couple of beers in the garden and them grabbed a bite to eat.   It was a lot of fun and I broke out my hat.  I had fun wearing it and it went will with my American Flag Vans.

The Circle of Life

I got up early and left the house to walk to work.  Took the long way and just about hit my daily goal by the time I arrive.  I was at 4.7/Miles.  Throw in the back and forth around the office and then the walk home I am just about at 9/Miles for the day.

As I was walking to work and almost out of the Park and to get on 8th street.  I could see this red headed bird head bopping up and down.  At first I thought it might be a pheasant or a turkey.  As I started walking through the grass it took off.  Turns out it was a red headed buzzard.  This is the first one I have seen around here.  As I approached to take its picture I caught a whiff of something decomposing.

The buzzard had been picking at a dead dear.   If it is still there tomorrow I will claim the head.  Oh don't go freaking out.  I have about 5 skulls in the backyard under a tree.  So I need to make sure I pack a couple of trash bags tonight.

This evening I was sitting in the backyard and the blue jays were going ape shit and squawking up a storm.  When we went to look a Hawk was sitting in there nest eating a baby chick.  Candy three a couple of pine cones at it and it flew off with the chick in its clutches.

What I have been up to.

We are so busy at work.  I think it is a good busy, but sometimes I wonder.  Spend cycles on things we shouldn't, but they are necessary evils so we have to.  Blessed and thankful to be busy!

The weather has been crazy around here this last week.   We have had Hail, Rain, Sleet and Snow. On the North end of town, we received up to 9 inches of penny sized hail.  Glad I missed that!  The hail caused the highway to close as they needed to bring in the snow plows to clear it.  On the news this evening they reported that we live in what is called hail alley.  It runs from Cheyenne WY to Pueblo CO, so all along the Front Range.  We get more hail storms than any other state, but not the most damaging.  So there you go!

I also see that tornado alley is also in full swing.  Tornados are touching down in OK and TX over the last few days.  Been there done that when I lived in KS.  I think I will stick with the hail.

The Lilacs are in full bloom.  We were lucky that the hail didn't destroy them.   In addition to the big bush, I have also transplanted a few starters and they are taking off.   

Robinson Lilac Bush

Robinson Lilac Bush

I Have already written about my Horse Haim Wheelbarrows.   I have finished two of them and they look great.    Looking forward to building a few more.  Well I have two wheels left, so I guess two more.

Horse Haim Wheelbarrow

Horse Haim Wheelbarrow

Candy asked to make her a shelf for the laundry room.  She wanted something Steampunk, well I came home with the picture below.   This is an old wrench, a steel gear and an oil filter cover.   This is what I had lying around, so this is what I ended up with.   She really liked it, and I do to.

Steampunk Wall Vase