Gentleman Farmer

We have some wonderful friends, Laurie and Fred, who were our next door neighbors when we had a "stick and brick". Both are retired teachers, who moved out into the country a year before we went fulltiming. Fred is now a "gentlemen farmer". They have 20+ acres of land south of Alamosa and are building up a miniature animal farm.

Fred had some miniature animals when he lived next door to us and before he retired. He also raised very different chickens each year. There were a few turkeys and geese throughout the years also.

Fred was also in a band made up of several teachers, a doctor, and businessmen. The band's name was Luck LaRue and they made several CDs. The band practiced a lot of times at Fred and Laurie's and we'd take our chairs across the lawn and sit in their driveway and listen to them practice in the garage.

It was always very entertaining to live next door to Fred and Laurie!!!

So Wednesday night Fred invited us over for dinner and we got a chance to drive around their property on 4-wheelers and see all the improvements Fred has made during the last year. He has mowed down a lot of weeds and with the winter snow melt, there is an expanse of pasture land now available. There are several new pens and corrals for his ever increasing menagerie of animals. I have never seen miniature cows or sheep before, but Fred has them. Take a look at the photos I took. Click on the button on the lower left-hand corner to start the slideshow.

The steak dinner was great but better still the time together with old friends. Hopefully Fred and Laurie will come camp with us at Big Meadows this summer. Make sure you bring your guitar, Fred, and we'll have ourselves a good, ole sing-a-long!

Remember, you are loved.

Knitted Sweater

I finished putting together the first sweater I've ever knitted. I think it came out pretty good for a first try. It is acrylic and very warm. It will serve me well up in the mountains.

Tomorrow my friend Salai and I are going to Walsenburg - an hours drive east and will spend the day at Etla's Yarn Shoppe just knitting around the table. Etla's husband runs the coffee shop next door, so we are set. Give me soft yarn and a latte and I'm good to go. Really looking forward to be knitting with other people!

I put in our paperwork to return to amazon.com to work Oct - Dec. There is a new rv park that was just built, right across the street from the amazon.com fulfillment center. So we made tentative reservations to park there for our stay. The best park about that is there will be laundry facilities on premises and also a commons area for folks to use. That will be nice for get togethers and maybe potlucks, coffee, etc. It will sure bring all of us closer together.

Weather here has been wonderful the last couple of days - in the high 70s with clear blue skies. And being at 7,500 feet elevation the night skies are blazing with stars at night; really gorgeous. We grilled salmon last night and tonight it will be barbeque chicken. Love the good weather when we can grill every night.

Remember, you are loved!