The activity continues

Greetings from the forest

Last week was crazy fun.  Busy.  And the fun continued this week and its not over.  

Lets start with the orientation at the hospital.  It went fine but unfortunately no tour.  The CEO ran out of time so we'll reschedule.  I think its important to see the hospital so I'll be a gen
tle squeaky wheel.  The first board meeting is this coming Thursday.  The press release came out last week.  They spelled my name right!  I'm in pretty impressive company on this board.  I'm excited.

The Water Festival was last Thursday.  It was an event to educate our youth on the important resource of water and the conservation of such.  1600 children from the Las Animas County Schools attended.  As the first round of students (probably 800) were getting off the bus I turned to my friend and said, oh my they all have the same shirts on!  We were all is royal blue "water de vida" shirts.  It looked, as the children were exiting the buses and getting in single file lines, that there was an actual invasion of youngsters!  It was fun, I was tour guide for a very small school in Kim, CO.  Population in 2011 was 73.  Yes you read that right.  The third and fourth grades who came to the festival had 7 children in the classes.  Five were able to attend.  The kindergartner class is 2 kids.  One came to the festival. The kids all seemed to have fun and I'm sure went home to time their parents showers in an effort to conserve water!!

Opening Ceremony at the Water Festival (this is 1/2 the kids)

On the animal front, we visited a new groomer.  Oh My Dog took Max and Oliver down to nakedness. Max's previous hair cut made it necessary for a complete shaving.  My doodle is now sporting his poodle!!  It'll grow and they'll both be sporting new fur in a week or so.

Oh dear - my doodle has gone poodle

Why yes this is the grooming shop

No bears this week! A few deer visits, one just standing in my driveway as I was leaving the house.  He just stood there.  No zoom used on this picture.  Then there was the group of elk on my way home that same day.  It was a good few days of animals in the forest!

The electric fence is finished and the garden planted.  Doesn't look like much but the bare areas have lettuce seeds.  Crossing my fingers that the little animals go elsewhere to munch.

Last night we went to the Trinidad Triggers baseball game.  It wasn't a total shut out but the Las Vegas NM Train Robbers did a good job beating the local team.  A number of friends and sister Deb were there and it was a fun time.  One of Trinidad's residents, Fern, threw out the first pitch.  Fern just had her 100th birthday!  Deb knows her from exercise class at the Sayre Center.  Fern was obviously excited and we were all so happy for her.  Fun evening!

Fern looks fabulous for 100 years old!!!

The community picnic is Saturday.  Should be a great time and the forecast is for 83 degrees! 

Love and missing you all -
Lanae

Crazy Week Ahead

Good morning from the forest

It was a great week last week and the weekend was so fun.  Every time I went to town I saw deer or turkey -  apparently right now is turkey mating season (I'm sure it has a technical name but I don't know it).  The point is the males are really pretty with their feathers all puffed out trying to impress the ladies.

Ahhhhh! She's pretty.

Crazy that I got them both mid-jump up the hill

 

This girl is sad - she needs some pasta - ok some good  greens!

I'm going to jump right to the weekend.  Saturday I went to the Women's Group meeting - our last one before the community picnic on the 25th.  It was a busy planning meeting.

After the meeting I stopped by my friend Marilyn's house and her sister Deb (also my pal) was in town from Denver.  They had been out riding ATV's and I was whining that I didn't get to go so later in the day I met them and we went riding.  What a fun thing that is to do!!  Buzzing along with the wind in your hair, deer looking at you like - what the heck - and giggles.  There was a dare, so to speak to try a rather steep trail but I chickened out - next time Marilyn!!

The girls came over after our ride for "bear hunting" and happy hour then dinner.  We had a quick happy hour on the new deck then jumped in Debbie's car to go see if we could find a bear.  No bear but a plethora of elk.  Probably saw about 50.  The males were so stately with their antlers and it was a majestic sight.  I'm waiting for Marilyn to send me photos as I forgot (duh) my phone/camera.  What a great time we had.

Sunday my new bed arrived.  Its going to take a night or two for my back to adjust but I'm hoping the cushy smooshy mattress will do the trick!  

Sister Deb came over on Sundy and helped me with the doggie deck.  Put the vinyl down, with astro-turf on top.  There is a doggie door out to the balcony so I'm hoping once the plastic pee plant is put out there that the boys will use it if needed.  It will mean a bit of freedom for me so I'm crossing my fingers.

We (Deb and I) went to Carol's house to get eggs and got quite the education on chickens.  Amazing that she has named them all and says they all have their own personalities.  Did you know chickens take dirt baths?  She has this area full of rich dark dirt and the chickens were rolling around like little dogs in the dirt.  Apparently the dirt cleans their feathers.  Who knew. It was so fun - always like an awesome educational field trip to go get eggs at Carol's.  Not to mention fresh eggs are sooooooo good!

This is a traffic jam!

So, this was just Saturday and Sunday! lol.  Monday is training for Thursday's Water Festival that I'm volunteering for.  Tuesday is Pierian and Judge Leslie will be speaking - so excited to meet her.  Wednesday is my tour and orientation at the hospital then happy hour at friends.  Thursday is the Water Festival.  I'm pooped just typing all this.  Guarantees for the next blog to be full of info!!

Wishing you a wonderful week from the forest -

Love and Happy Monday,
Lanae

Positivity

Greetings from the forest -

I was in Arizona a week and a half ago for my quarterly chemo treatment and to see Dr. Kato.  The positive news is that Dr. Kato doesn't want to see me for 6 months.  Also no chemo for 6 months.  You know you've got a great relationship with your doctor when he says "you know better than anyone when something is amiss so call me if you need, otherwise I'll see you in 6 months".  To which I responded, boy are you going to miss me. lol. Yes, he did agree.

Thank you Diane providing such pleasant accommodations.  Your hospitality was greatly appreciated for my very short visit.

After chemo it was off to Prescott for a day of rest.  Well kind of.  I don't see Linda often enough to really rest but we had a good time.  I headed back to the forest on Sunday.  Of course the deer were out to greet me and welcome me home.  Not to mention Deb, Max and Oliver gave me a positive homecoming.

The deck looks great!  Finally done.  They ran out of boards so completion too a bit longer.  Now the weather needs to clear up (its been cloudy and chilly) so I can have happy hour on the deck to celebrate.

On May 1st it snowed again. Yikes.  But, our forest is so dry that it makes it difficult to complain about the snow.  The trees and animals desperately need the moisture.  Although the garden must wait, this is positive weather for the thirsty forest!

I received the call last week from the CEO of the hospital asking if I was still interested in being on the board.  Heck yea.  Ok, so I didn't really say "heck yea"but I did accept.  I will be going for a tour of the hospital and orientation before the next meeting.  Apparently (so I've been told) this position is quite prestigious - who knew.  Its also volunteer but I'm looking forward to serving the community and feel this is a great learning experience. Positive news.  I'll keep you posted on how this all works out.  

Max saw Bambi out the living room door the other day.  Oh my goodness.  He was very excited.  Bambi on the other hand did a quick stage left exit.  The turkey have also been around.  The one thing I find interesting is the elk.  There are 8 to 10 that hang out at the bottom of my hill.  They are not even running away like they usually do.  Guess they feel safe since hunting season is over?  

Totally random but have I mentioned that the Amtrack train goes past our community at 10ish in the morning and 6 at night?  It does.  Just mentioning that so if anyone wants to visit the forest its an easy trip from Flagstaff direct to Trinidad. 

So thats it for this girl in the forest.  I hope you all know how much I miss you.  

Love and positivity,
Lanae