Category Archives: Our Land and Home

The Eyrie

August 24, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Lughnasa Labor Day Moon

Shadow Mountain homestead still under construction. Jon added the shelving unit on Saturday that will hold my tea, teaware, coffee and water heating appliances. That will make the winter a more civilized moment up here in what Kate calls Charlie’s Eyrie. A second story loft at 8,800 feet. An eyrie.

We added a new gas stove to our kitchen yesterday. Kate’s adventure with thumb surgery will find me happily back at the grocery store and cooking. But, I really don’t like electric stoves. The kitchen will get a complete makeover, but the stove we needed now.

That generator, the project that will not die, will get leveled and stabilized and wired on September 1st. Alpha Electric will install a ceiling fan in our bedroom on the same day. The gas will get attached, an inspector will come, then we’ll be ready for what happened a couple of weeks ago. In the same process we’ll get an estimate on redoing Kate’s bathroom with a walk-in shower. Safer over time. Skylights need repair, too.

The house, even after all this, will still be missing its soul, our art. The walls are bare, waiting a good feel for where we want paintings, sculpture, travel mementos, photographs. Until the art is hung, the house will not feel fully like home.

That will leave the external sprinkler system, probably next spring, whatever kind of cover Jon can create for the gap between the house and the garage (too much snow and uneven icy, ground in winter) and garden/bee works. Jon has an idea for the house/garage gap that may include a greenhouse, which would solve the garden works.

My original vision was fully moved in in two years. I still think that’s about the right length of time. We may make 18 months.

This process is, by turns, frustrating and exhilarating. The frustration is dealing with trades people and their shifting schedules, plus the difficulty of accurately assessing their work, both what needs doing and how well it’s been done. The exhilaration is finishing projects, bringing the whole closer to our vision of home. Time and money.

Family, Jefferson County, Mountains, Our Land and Home, Shadow Mountain

A Green Rocky Mountain August

August 16, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Lughnasa Labor Day Moon

Rain continues to come to the mountains. When Kate and I went out early this morning to Evergreen for our business meeting, there was dew on the grass, tips of the spruce needles and faint wisps of vapor rising from the valley floor. The intensity of green reminded both of us of the Midwest, of northern Minnesota. Usually, Shadow Mountain and its neighbors would be taken over by browns and dull greens. Not this year.

Our lives continue, with each small journey through the mountains, to become more and more embedded here, memories filling us up with Colorado. Not in place of Minnesota, no, but adding to those memories. And calling these new ones memories of home.

We visited IKEA and ordered the last of the bookshelves, 5 more. Cybergremlins have attacked our credit card online, not hackers, but ones making it difficult in certain instances to get websites to accept our valid account. As a result, we had to get in the car, drive down the mountain, go south on Hwy 470 along the Front Range, get off at Yosemite Street and proceed to the large blue monument to Swedish efficiency on IKEA way in Centennial. There, we made the exact same order I had to tried to make online, used the same credit card and had a successful experience.

The whole trip reminded us of the real benefits of buying online. The physical moving is left up to the product, not the purchaser. Of course, while wandering the intentionally maze-like corridors of the IKEA store, we did find that wonderful children’s storage and table combination and a probable small table for our breakfast area. That wouldn’t have happened online. On balance I would rather have stayed home and discovered both another way.

Family, GeekWorld, Our Land and Home

More Real Life

August 12, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Lughnasa Recovery Moon

Grandson Gabe is up here watching you-tube videos on his I-pod. I’m shelving more books, trying to get an accurate estimate of how many more of the tall shelves I’ll need. Maybe only 4.

(Ruth yesterday after Buffalo Bill. She’s 9.)

Eric and the other 3 men of Alpha Electric came out this morning, inserted steel piping into the holes underneath the generator and carried it like a sedan chair, placing it near the stub of gas pipe Herb and John installed last Monday. Alpha Electric has a lot of work right now, just finishing up the El Rancho remodel off I-70 in Evergreen and about to take up the 40,000 sq foot horse barn cum enclosed practice area. That one is very close to us.

Both Kate and I are enjoying the time with the kids, longer periods where we can interact with them more. Ruth is in Denver today, having a chipped tooth repaired. The chipper, Gabe via a thrown remote, will pay for the repair out of his own money jar. Family life has its complications, but that’s part of what makes it so interesting.

(Grandma after Buffalo Bill)

Friend Tom Crane observed in a recent e-mail that the third phase shifts priorities from intellect driven achievement to matters of the heart, especially focused on those close to us. True that.

Health, Our Land and Home, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant.

One Month Out

August 8, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Lughnasa Recovery Moon

Now a full month out from surgery. Cancer made less threatening with clear margins, no cancer cells in the tissue around the prostate after its removal. Now kegels, those exercises vaunted in Cosmo in the 70’s, an upcoming PSA in September and healing wounds where the robot arms reached inside me are the physical remnants. The kegels strengthen muscles necessary for continence. And they’ve worked.

I thought I’d be back at it now: translating Ovid, writing Superior Wolf, investigating the mountains and the west, but I’m not. The catheter came out only three weeks ago. That required the kegels and a brief use of adult diapers, maybe a week and a half all told. Jon’s been putting the bookshelves together and shelving books has taken time.

There was, too, the steady flow of Ken of Boiler Medic and the boiler installation, Herb and John the plumbers running line for the new stove and the generator. Arranging with Eric for the generator move, then Herb back for the gas connection, then Eric back to install the automatic transfer switch and connect the generator, test it.

There is, as well, a niggling feeling that post-cancer me and pre-cancer me are no longer quite the same person. I’ve not had that sudden revelation of life’s purpose found, or a mission uncovered; but, I feel somehow different. It might be that my day-to-day won’t return to the old pattern, that some new mix will emerge.

One specific instance is a more co-ordinated reading program, using Nina Killham’s bibliotherapy recommendations, certain projects like re-imaging faith and neglected areas of reading like poetry and classical novels as guides. Then, too, there is the type of writing I’ve avoided, long form, essay like pieces on matters like reimagining faith, politics in our time, water, identity and self-hood.

I’m waiting for sign along the ancientrail of recovery from a dread disease. There is planning, goal setting and then there’s discovery. Right now I’m more focused on discovery.

Cooking, Latin, Our Land and Home, Tea, Translating Metamorphoses, Writing

Around the Bulge

August 2, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Lughnasa Recovery Moon

Yesterday and today I opened my Latin texts, continuing to translate the story of Medea in Book 7. Yesterday my eyes crossed and my brain froze. Too hard. Today, though, much better. I did 4 verses plus in an hour, then ran out of motivation. My goal is to get back to at least 5 verses a day or more, which was my pace b.c.

Soon, sometime soon, Superior Wolf will return, this were creature loose in the Arrowhead of northern Minnesota. He’s proven as elusive to me as the author as he will to the people who hunt him and his kind. Different versions of this novel, always fragmentary, are in my files from before this millennium.

The gas lines tomorrow. And my new crown. Oh, boy. The final IKEA delivery for now comes on Tuesday. Jon will be up sometime with the base for my art table. I hope he has time to assemble and join the two additional tall bookcases and the cabinet section for my tea and coffee accessories before he returns to work. The mini-fridge is in the garage.

Life has begun to ease around the bulge of April, May, June and July. We ate at an indifferent Italian restaurant last night before the theater (see below). No medical conversation. Memories though of our honeymoon, the Italian food against which we compare every Italian place. And they almost never match up. The Italians have something special with their food and their coffee. And their art. And history.

I told Kate last night over dinner that it felt like my summer had finally started.

Our Land and Home

Virtuous Cycle

July 30, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Summer Recovery Moon

That most elusive of craftspersons here on the Front Range, the plumber, promises a rare sighting at our home this morning. Perhaps that generator will finally, finally get installed. Herb the plumber comes recommended by Ken the boiler guy. Ken is reliable and professional, so I expect the same will be true of Herb. The amount of home turnover and new construction up here has made it difficult to secure work on small projects like ours.

We have begun a virtuous cycle here with the loft moving forward, the boiler in, Herb coming this morning, Melanie cleaning. There’s still a ways to go, but we’ve only been here 7 months. Feels good to make progress.

The weather has contributed, too, with the daily drenching rains cutting back to the occasional, like last night, gentle rain. More sunshine boosts my mood.

Colorado, Family, Great Work, Memories, Our Land and Home

Stained Fingers

July 28, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Summer Recovery Moon

Jon and I went to Paxton Lumber Company yesterday, checking out exotic and not-so-exotic woods for material to extend the surface of the shorter shelving units. A couple of the ones I really liked were $20 and $19 a board foot, padauk and wenge. At those prices one board, thick, was in the $300 range. After looking at ash, white pine, and douglas fir, all of which I liked but were too close to the birch veneer on the bookshelves, we settled on black walnut.

Not only will the black walnut contrast with the birch veneer, black walnut trees were common in my hometown of Alexandria, Indiana. I have fond memories of stepping on the green acrid smelling husks of walnuts as they fell from those trees. We teased out the walnuts tucked inside and took them home, fingers stained with a greenish-yellow paste that had a bitter lemony taste. A part of my childhood. Also, black walnut trees were part of the old forest which dominated the landscape of the midwest prior to westward expansion. So those boards of the midwest will rest on birch veneer, redolent of the boreal forest in Minnesota. But the bookcases they constitute reside here on Shadow Mountain among lodgepole and ponderosa pines.

We ate lunch at Park Burger in the Hilltop neighborhood of Denver, a wealthy area with tear-down lots filled now with house reminiscent of Kenwood in Minneapolis. I had a Scarpone burger with pancetta, provolone and giardiniera. It was delicious.

Jon’s skills as a woodworker were evident as we selected the particular walnut boards. We matched their color, thickness and rejected some with too deep fissures or splits. He knows the woods and their characteristics. He also knows the places where exacting cuts can be made, straight. One place has a table saw as large as a small room.

Once again the joy of returning home from Denver’s 94 degrees to Shadow Mountain’s 77 with 23% humidity. The nights have been warm of late, making sleeping more difficult and pushing those ceiling fan purchases higher up on our priority list.

Family, Our Land and Home

Focused

July 27, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Summer Recovery Moon

The early morning sun through a high eastern window here in the loft falls on books stacked high on the new bookshelves. They’re awaiting space as more shelving opens up. My focus, until labor day, is getting the loft organized so I can get back to work. I’m pretty sure it will all come together by then.

Yesterday, a Sunday, was a slow day. Into Evergreen for our money meeting at a cafe overlooking Evergreen lake. The lake is a focal point and source of pride though it would be unremarkable in Minnesota. A jewelry store owner told me there are tiger muskies in it. It’s fed by Bear Creek, so the water would be cold and fresh. Could be.

No matter where you go around here there are bicyclists climbing steep mountain roads, families getting out of their cars to hike on mountain trails, and, as in Evergreen yesterday, lot of runners. This place moves. It’s very encouraging for exercise.

Looking forward to Paxton Lumber today and picking out tabletop and countertop woods. Jon and I are going out for lunch afterwards.

Faith and Spirituality, Feelings, Friends, Our Land and Home

Again, Gratitude

July 26, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Summer Recovery Moon

It no longer feels like I’m walking into a stiff headwind, head down and seeing only my feet. Now the sky is sunny, a gentle breeze blows at my back. Again, gratitude to all who held my hand during the last three months. I needed that.

Wow. And to Jon, who put together four more bookshelf units, connected three to the others already installed. I’ve got some shelving to do. We also ordered the last three units, one with shelves and doors for tea and coffee making. On Monday Jon and I will go to Paxton Lumber and pick out some exotic wood for the top to my work table and to use for making the short bookshelves tops wider.

After the final bookshelves are put together and connected, Jon will assemble the wire shelving. That will eliminate the pony wall of bankers boxes currently separating my workout space from the rest of the loft. When that’s done, the only major tasks left will be utilizing the art crates as functional island dividers, buying a small refrigerator and reconfiguring the workout space with the pull-up bar over the rubber mats.

Feelings, Health, Our Land and Home

Tomorrow Wall Down

July 25, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Summer Recovery Moon

The tomorrow wall has come down. As Kate observed yesterday, “I could tell you were feeling more positive. You wanted to move things around, get a new rug, hang art. Talk about color.” Yes. More color. More art. Get back to home making, not things medical.

We have a new boiler. I’m continent less than a week after the catheter came out and about two and three-quarters months ahead of expectations. We ordered a 9×12 braided rug for the reading area in front of the fireplace. I have a new plumber, recommended by Ken, the Boiler Medic. Things have begun to happen.

Jon’s coming out today to do more bookshelf and handyman work. Jon’s skills make a big difference for both Kate and me. We’re lucky to have him.

Yesterday morning I moved empty bookshelves that we’re no longer going to use, four of them. I horsed the horizontal file cabinet more toward the center of the loft. That leaves a new expanse of wall where more tall birch veneer bookshelves can go.

Functional islands is the organizing scheme. Books and other storage against the wall, including a cabinet and shelf space for the tea-making, tea, and tea-ware, a slot for a small refrigerator and my exercise TV.

At the south end of the loft, positioned with a view of Black Mountain, is the reading area which includes a large rug and a Swedish recliner. Next, moving north, and away from the reading area, almost to the middle of the room away from the west wall, is the computer, desk and dictionary stand which holds my O.L.D., Oxford Latin Dictionary. I imagine the horizontal file cabinet will be part of this island, too.

In the same location, but out from the east wall and extending to the middle of the room will be a large table with three cabinets beneath it. It will be on wheels. The drafting table goes in this area, too. Here I can spread out books when doing research or work on other projects. I hope to get into some art making using this space. Collage work for right now.

Out from the north wall, on the same (eastern) side as the large table, is the treadmill, rubber mats, weights and weight bench. On the eastern wall in front of the treadmill is the TV I use as an incentive to exercise. There will be, too, a pull-up bar mounted to the ceiling.

On the same (western) side as the computer/desk island, will be wire shelving for my many bankers boxes filled with novel manuscripts, research, files related to other projects like art, religion, politics.

We plan to use the large wooden crates built to move our two large Jeremiah Miller paintings (brother-in-law) as dividers among the islands, cutting the larger crate in half to create three dividers. Jon has an idea for using piano hinges that will allow the crates to be used as art storage. They will have feet so they can stand on their own.

Once the bookshelves are all assembled, the wire shelving up, the large table finished and the tea-making/refrigerator area is in place I can get down to the serious work of giving my library its final shape. That’s a task, an important and fun task, that cannot be done with electronic books, at least not yet.

I’m hoping that all this work, if not the organizing of books and files and bankers boxes, will be done by Labor Day with the whole loft area ready for fall and winter.

This loft is a love letter from Kate since she chose this house because of the loft area for me and the enclosed two-car garage area for her. Finishing up both of our spaces—we have to re-assemble Kate’s long arm quilter and she needs to get a better organizing scheme—and the kitchen, the living room and the garage, lies ahead, but not too far ahead. Feels good.