Life In Westcliffe

Weird and Wonderful at the same time

2009-07-14T22:43:00.000-06:00

Some things seem to be shaping up for us so that we will be able to spend more time in Westcliffe. We’ve found a young gal, (Jessica) that will take care of things here in Denver in exchange for a place to live for a month or so.

Not a tough job but someone needs to do and I’m tired of getting left behind honestly, to man the fort. I get so use to doing nothing it’s hard to reprogram sometimes. Your wondering if I’m bragging or complaining aren’t you?!??

Anyway..

Yesterday we made a quick trip to Westcliffe, yes another turn around trip. SRC did the mowing, check the batteries and ran a few errands in town. I took a nap on the front porch swing, aren’t I the lucky one!

Anyway I like to share new photos on my blog. Things that I’ve not photographed a gazillion times already. That’s getting tough, by the way, but below is my something different.

Haven’t a clue what kind of plant it is. Not sure if it’s a noxious weed or some kind of wildflower. The only thing in my wildflower book that came close was a Texas Silverleaf and looking at in online that isn’t close. It was growing on the root cellar. Haven’t seen another on our property. Although I really didn’t look far, with napping and all.

Any ideas??

The Garden (Denver)

2009-07-10T17:52:00.000-06:00

The only thing we’ve eaten from the garden are snow pea’s and some spinage. They came out of our other garden, in the back of our lot, that went caput. In that garden were the snow pea’s, there is one beet and 3 or 4 tomatoe plants. What you see in this garden are, string beans, peppers, cucumbers, beets, and tomatoes. Most are starting to flower so maybe we’ll get something, before we have frost or it get beat down by hail again. They say a watched pot never boils, maybe that’s the problem with the garden, I look at it to much. =)

Anyway had a nice shower last night and it’s humid today. Humid and Denver usually don’t go together in the same sentence, this year has been different. I’m sure that’s going to change.

Reunited and It feels so good.

2009-07-07T18:18:00.001-06:00

I have a wonderful feel good feeling right now. With very little effort I was able to make someone’s day! There is no better feeling than that. You see I’ve lost our dogs on occasion and I know all to well that awful feeling. I also know what if feels like to get them back. This photo says it all doesn’t it? There were tears and a lot of snuggling and kissing going on between Bundy and her mom. I knew immediately when Heidi talked to Bundy he was home.

Bundy escaped her cage on the 29th of June.

SRC found her on the 5th so he should get all the credit, unfortunately he wasn’t home for the reunion! She traveled at least 5 miles till she set down in our back yard. SRC luckily had a net to catch her with as I mentioned in the previous post and luckily our dogs didn’t find her first! This was what most would call a miracle. What are the chances? I had gone to all the neighbors thinking a bird as this would not travel far from home. I was holding out posting to Craigslist because the neighbor directly behind us have been out of town and I felt certain it might be their bird. I’m so sorry Heidi had to suffer those extra two days, not knowing where her baby was. She was a a 30yo birthday present. Bundy is 3 years old and they often live for 15+ years, so I bet Heidi nor I will forget the moment we shared this morning any time soon.

I just received an email from Heidi and Bundy was resting at the vet this evening. He lost a third of his weight, so was being tube feed. Yikes. This morning he wasn’t very perky so got her home just in time. I could tell he loves his mama. Heidi did say the vet thought she’d be fine.

Don’t you love happy endings.

Oh Cockatiel

2009-07-06T09:39:00.001-06:00

Yesterday SRC found this beautiful cockatiel while whacking weeds in our back lot, had to catch him with a net. (Denver) I need to get busy and try and find it’s owner, I checked with several neighbors last night with no luck. Don’t think our traveling road show can include a bird such as this. Can you just picture us going down the road with the three bird dogs and this little guy in the cab of the truck!

Shhh, he’s sleeping! I will try and get some better photos today.

Yes I’m crazy!

2009-07-02T12:09:00.000-06:00

SRC, the nice guy that he is, gave a lawn mower that we don’t use anymore to a gal he works with, along with the condition she needed to come pick it up and stay for dinner with her four children. I’m ok with the whole thing, really, that’s mostly because I’ve in so many words I’ve told SRC, please lets not do that again to soon. lol I like kids, really I do, I like them the best when I with them somewhere I can enjoy them, where they have a good chance of surviving being with me. :) Let me try and share the somewhat exciting evening I had last night.

Lets start in the morning though, shall we. I woke fairly early yesterday morning, like 4 am. Some of you that follow me on FB can vouch for that. I did go back to sleep for an hour, but then had to get up to get to my monthly infusion which was from 8:30 to about 11:30. I took about a 10 minute nap while there. Days I get my infusions I normally kinda wasted for the rest of the day but, forget that for a moment, I stopped by home to check on the dogs and birds then went over to my mom’s to drop off some things. They (mom and my sister) were just heading out to an eye appointment for mom so I road along. Guess I got home around 3 from that appt. Glad I went, very informative on what mom is actually seeing these days, as some of you know she has macular degeneration.

Anyway got home and SRC was out power washing the porch and I wasn’t to concerned about dinner at this point. Just was going to be hot dogs, hamburgers, fries, Mac and Cheese, slaw and fruit. No problem. SRC said, “Well not even sure if E and her kids will show up, because she apologized for not showing up the day before” of course I’m like what the h—l does that mean. Ok.. no problem we’ll have leftover's if they don’t come but what time will we know if they aren’t coming? You see where this is going.

It’s getting, what is late for me, 7 pm and SRC says E just called and they’ll be here in about 15 minutes. Cool get the Mac and Cheese done, heat the oil for the fries, get stuff out of fridge, set table and start grill, oh wait SRC already did that, but it’s on low. Phone rings 7:20, they’re lost, right on. At this point I’m really to tired to care and I’ve lost my appetite, which is ok cause I can stand to lose a few.

Ok they’ve found us and the kids are bailing from the car, I swear before she had it parked, which by the way, later I noticed when they were leaving, was in the middle of the street. That’s ok it’s a dirt road and a dead end, but kinda had to chuckle for reasons I won’t mention. While the kids are bailing into the street, the dogs! oh my god the dogs! Kids running, dogs barking, things aren’t looking so good. When a dog is chasing you, and your 8 or 9, stop! You aren’t going to out run them and running makes them think, you’ve probably done something you shouldn’t have. At least that’s how it goes with our dogs. No one got hurt but scared the crap out of a bunch of kids and 3 adults.

Kids took off in all directions. SRC is busy burning hamburgers and I’m busy burning Mac and Cheese. No way was I taking my eye off the hot oil for the fries to keep an eye on these kids going in all directions. E hasn’t a clue what to do to maintain order, the kids were just so excited to be out of the car and have no bite marks. Some of the questions and comments I remember that I heard.

Do you have horses?

Where is the farm?

What is in this cup?

Is this edible? (kidding, but no one ate a bite of the mac and cheese, one I heard say.. it’s gross and no I didn’t serve the stuff that stuck to the bottom of the pan)!

Can I have an egg? Heard that no less than 59 times!

Is that poop!! Can I wash my hands?

How can I make it hatch.

Can I wash my eggs because my brother says they come from where they poop.

Oops I dropped my egg, can I have another.

What did you make for us for desert? I had told them we would have desert after we saw the baby chicks and had almost forgotten.

Will you be my mom?

These were all very well behaved children. E is doing a wonderful job as a single parent of 4 and half raising the 2 neighbor kids, they all were very polite, just were very excited to be on a farm. <giggling>

Actually was sorta fun when they left!!

Enjoy a few photos I managed to take amongst all the chaos.

I think I’ll take them to a real zoo.

The river is up and running fast

2009-06-28T23:21:00.002-06:00

Check it out. My dare devil, little bit crazy son went rafting on the Arkansas this past Saturday. Said he had a blast and it appears so. He is in the white trunks and seated on the right side in the front , middle and back at different times, going down that scary shoot or what ever they call it he was in front and he was totally under water. NO I wasn’t taking the pictures. They paid some one to take them.

Enjoy, I can now that he’s home safely. To do this rafting thing is about 30 minute drive from Westcliffe.

The day the King of Pop died.

2009-06-25T09:18:00.002-06:00

Was I a screaming fan of Michael Jackson? No, but I was a fan. I loved his music and what he gave to the world. I will always wonder why he had the plastic surgery, that to me disfigured a very handsome man. I will always wonder why a mother knowingly would leave her child in his care, after previous allegations of child abuse had been reported.

I don’t know, if I don’t want to believe he did the things he was accused of, or if I truly believe he didn’t do it. I want to believe he didn’t do it, and in all fairness he was found not guilty, what were the parents thinking??? I'll tell ya what they were thinking, $$$ at the expense of their child. Shame on them! No one in their right mind would leave their child with him given his history. Would I have taken my child to Neverland Ranch? You bet ya! Would I have left him there, not on your life.

So world and news reporters would you kindly shut up about it!!

What I do know is.. he changed the world with his talent.

Rest in peace Michael, you are free at last.

Last nights car show

2009-06-21T21:47:00.000-06:00

The first car in the slide show is ours, the rest are just some I happen to catch as they were driving by.

JJ we only saw one Datsun and as you can see I snapped the photo but it didn’t turn out well at all, sorry, I was hoping to be your new best friend! It funny though I had my camera I didn’t even think of taking any photos until hubby spotted the Z, I then proceeded to get some other shots that were ok, not great but ok. It was fun to sit in the car and watch all these old cars cruising. There were certainly a lot more cars then I photographed. More fun sitting and watching then walking with this bum foot I have at the moment.

Dream Designs

2009-06-18T08:55:00.004-06:00

Have any of you noticed the icon on the right? It's the purple one.
Anyway that is my niece and her husbands web site. Matt is a graphic artist and one of the best I've ever seen. He can draw anything! At family gatherings he always has his sketch pad and is working on something.

Recently he was laid off due to cut back from the closing of the Rocky Mtn News. Sooo if you need anything drawn, he would be the guy to get to do it for you, I promise you won't be disappointed.

Click HERE and it will take you to his web sight.

Invitations? He's got you covered. Birth announcements? Check them out really cute.

He did my caricature a few years ago and a photo I had taken of a scene off our front porch that I used as a banner for my blog.

Show and Tell at our place

2009-06-15T12:12:00.008-06:00

Here's a cute photo of a couple of girls that are daughters of friend, of a friend.

They've been by a couple of times to visit the peeps. Always wonder what's going on in little ones heads when they see them. Also wonder if they will remember years from now their little visits.

It's stuff like that, that sometimes sticks in my head from when I was a child. I was a town girl, not a farm girl, growing up in Pa. I remember when I was small we would get the colored chicken peeps at easter time and kept them till they were nearly full grown. By the time we found new owners who welcomed the free hens the color they had been dyed with was long gone. I guess these days it's considered inhuman to dye chicken peeps and maybe it is, they looked ok to me and I loved getting them. I think my love for birds may have started with raising these colored chicks. That being said, I do understand why they would crack down on this practice, to many people would think "oh cute" little Suzie will love this and then not be responsible for their care and more often than not, it wouldn't be a good outcome for these chicks. Realistically what is the out come for them anyway. Let's not go there right now.

Anyway we're on our last batch of unhatched pheasant eggs!! Yeah! They will start hatching Wednesday or Thursday. Six or eight weeks after that we might be out of the pheasant business for good. While it's been an experience and fun to watch the little ones, they are wild birds and I for one, am ready for them to take care of their own reproduction and survival. As fragile as they are I wonder how any of them make it out in the wild.

What not having pheasants will mean for us (when they have all been adopted out or taken to our friends ranch in the southeastern part of Colorado) we both can go, we meaning SRC and I, to Westcliffe and stay for a few days, not just the day trips we've been taking. We can then load up the 3 dogs and 4 hens and head south, we've even taken the adult pheasants but taking various ages of young birds and about 20 or 30 or them is out of the question.

A friend did turn the eggs for us for a couple of days a month or two ago, seems like years ago actually. I've decided days trips are not for me. I can't seem to relax and enjoy myself like I do when I know I'm staying at least over night. We rarely get the woodstove burning when we're not going to be there for less than 4 or 5 hours and it just hasn't been very warm inside to get comfy without one.

When I use the word we and it refers to work I'm generally referring to SRC, we all know he does all the work. He also is the one who gets all these side projects started.

Do we need the whole picture to get the idea?

2009-06-14T21:21:00.011-06:00

Out on a Limb (with Claudia)

2009-06-10T21:20:00.002-06:00

I have neglected this blog to the point where I'm not sure if anyone visits any more, sure hope that’s not the case! I haven't been to Westcliffe in what seems like a month, heck maybe it has been a month, actually I just viewed my blog to see exactly when my last post was, it was May 18th to be exact, yikes! Heading there tomorrow! In the mean while…

The weather here in Denver has been so nice and everything is so green, and the temps have been wonderful. The garden is just there not doing much because it hasn't been warm enough, actually I think our garden may be drowning. Ok Ok on to the real reason I’m posting.

I met,in person, a fellow blogger Claudia who is also from Denver. Yep - she lives right here in Denver. She's a writer, a bee keeper and mostly she's just a nice person and very talented. I've followed her blog for at least two years and it was cool to finally make the face to face connection. We exchanged books, honey, a peach tree, fresh eggs and rhubarb. Bet you all can guess who got what. Thanks Claudia, not sure it was an even trade for you, unless of course you can get that peach tree to grow and bear fruit.
She is doing a blog tour to promote her books and I promised I'd do it and gosh darn it I need to get it done, so here goes..
I've read one of her books "The Fey" and have started the second "Denver Cereal". The Denver Cereal is a separate story line with different characters and is 26 chapters in the printed book, with the subsequent chapters following online weekly. I think she’s up to 56 chapters to date ?? Since she lives in Denver I can relate to most of the landmarks she makes references to in both books. The Fey was a fun read, for me, it started a little slow but these days I'm a little slow, so don't let what I say scare you away.. a little less than half way through, it took off for me and now I can’t wait to read her sequel which is in the works.

I had a couple questions for Claudia after reading the book and below you'll find my questions along with her answers.
Claudia sent you a message.
--------------------
Re: The Fey
J: It funny while reading I kept thinking where and how does she formulate this story. Very captivating!
C: It’s actually a fairly funny story. I had a dream where Rebecca Hargreaves came to me and told me about her family. I couldn’t sleep or eat until I started writing. That’s how the first draft of The Fey came to be. It took me three full drafts to get the story right.
J: Have you had this story line in your head for years and do you know where it's going or do you kind of make it up as you go?
C: I let the characters tell me what to do. In my mind, they are unique individuals who have lives of their own. My job is simply to be their scribe. In fact, one of my early criticisms was that these characters deserved a better writer. ;)
J: Does writing stress you out? I know blogging started to stress me out thinking I needed to do it for my readers, which are few.
C: I love writing. It’s very much like play time for me. In writing, I get to meet the characters for the first time, learn what they are up to, laugh and cry with them. It’s great fun for me.
J: Were you or someone you know in the military? You must know something more than the normal person to make it all sound believable.
C: Over the course of my life, I’ve known quite a few people in the military. Oddly, they were all Green Berets. I’ve known men who were in Laos before the Vietnam War, men who were in Guatemala, and a few in Bosnia. While working on the Fey, I met a few women Navy S.E.A.Ls who helped create some details (like peeing from a helicopter) in The Fey.
J: I promise as soon as I get over my blogger block I will post something. It has to be soon or I'll forget details of the story. My memory is crap!
C: I'm delighted that you like the story. I would love it if you posted a review or really anything helps! Bless you for letting me know!
--------------------
NOTE: Although you can read these books online, if your like me, you prefer the old fashion method of holding the book in your hands and if that’s the case for you hop on over to Cook Street Publishing or Amazon and get a signed copy of your own. You can also join her blog tour and get a copy for doing a post.
All kinds of ways to read a couple fantastic books.

Another guessing game

2009-05-18T08:46:00.000-06:00

What do you think this is?

Another shot of the same thing.

Do not be distracted by the frumpiness of myself, stay focused on the length of what is over the hook and a third of the way down. I’m about 5’8” so you do the math on how long this thing is. Then give me your best guess. A hint that might not help, this photo was taken in Westcliffe yesterday.

Mother's young and old

2009-05-10T10:16:00.000-06:00

THEN

(Dec 1985)

The above might be my favorite photo of all time with my son and I, we were both so innocent way back then, life was sweet, he was sweet and I'd give almost anything to have a that moment back for just a minute or two. It just doesn't get any better than holding your newborn? He was not more than than hours old when that photo was taken and I'm sure it hadn't sunk in yet what being a mama really meant and the challenges I would face over the years.

Our trip to the zoo on Friday was fun and it's very sweet when as a mother you can share a day such as that, with your grown child. I've had a couple unpleasant, scary mother's days in the past, so I'm always thrilled when they come and go without event. Looking back on those particular mother's days I have to admit the out comes of both could have been so much worse, so I consider myself lucky these days. I have much to be thankful for and as long as the phone doesn't ring in the middle of the night or he doesn't appear next to my bed with a "Mom don't freak out but" , I'm a happy camper.

NOW
May 2009

My other favorite photo is of my mother taken by my sister several years ago and it is likely to remain my favorite for a long time. My mother has always been a very beautiful woman and still is as she approaches her 80th birthday in September.

I will be getting together with Son and Mom later in the day. It's raining at the moment but due to clear off later in the day.

Happy Mothers day to all of you special mom's out there.

A Day at the Denver Zoo with Drew

2009-05-08T22:50:00.002-06:00

I had a wonderful day at the Denver Zoo with my son, it was an early mother's day event. The weather was perfect, sunny and warm, but not to warm. The last time I visited the zoo must have been when Drew was fairly young. I will plan a visit by myself and my camera to have some fun taking photos, he was a good sport about it, but I understand how one might get impatient tagging along with someone photographing everything. In some cases I was just as interested in the few flowers that were blooming and with more comfortable shoes, a hat and sunscreen I could easily spend a day there.

Below are just a few photos I took before my memory card was full. I thought I had deleted it last evening, obviously I hadn't. Missed getting shots of most of the larger animals.

The place was a riot of kids and the glass in most exhibits were smeared with hand prints.. not great for taking photo's through. I prefer not to shoot through the glass but the alternative in some cased wouldn't be much fun either.

Seeing these animals and birds in the wild would be nothing short of amazing! To bad I dislike flying so much, or I might just have to plan a trip to the jungles of Africa.

Silly Peeps

2009-05-08T07:21:00.004-06:00

So far we have 6 pheasant peeps, so entertaining to watch them scurry around, they go like hell for a few minutes, then it's nap time and they literally just pass out. The weather has been fantastic and things are finally getting green. Green is my new favorite color.

Our peach trees never bloomed. DARN! They got froze out before they even got started. Our garden plants are going in the ground this weekend. Snow pea plants are coming up.

Sunburn and headache

2009-05-01T09:25:00.001-06:00

Yesterday we did a day trip to Westcliffe. We are one step closer to having the flooring done! Picked up carpet here in Denver at 8:30 am and made it down there right around noon. The carpet is for the upstairs bedrooms and hallway. It took us awhile before we made up our minds for sure. Hopefully it will help muffle noise a bit. With wood everywhere, nothing to absorb sound. Visitors can tell you, you can’t burp or worse without everyone hearing it. lol

It was 55º inside when we got there, didn’t start a fire, so I spent most of the time there outside, that’s where the sunburn came from, it was also rather windy so may have been a bit of wind burn. Headache probably was a result of both, no I’m not freaking out that it’s swine flu.

The only photo’s I took this trip were of our silly dogs.

Dude is the one with the nose, Tess is looking on, and Toby is behind me.

A couple flowering spring weeds had poked their heads up, nothing spectacular to photograph. Even with the recent moisture it is dry as a bone, guess that’s why it’s called high desert!

A day later..

Four of the pheasant chicks have hatched they are the cutest and yes I'll post photos again this year, if I can get a cute one. I think we have somewhere around 35 eggs in the incubator at the moment. One of our pheasants got loose here in the neighborhood in Denver. Saw her last night in a tree, guess she’s sticking around, doubt she’ll find a mate in the city limits.

The Easter bunnies kid

2009-04-24T15:43:00.001-06:00

Web cam in Westcliffe

2009-04-24T07:56:00.000-06:00

Click here to view live web cam.

When we’re not in Westcliffe I always check this site to see what the weather is doing. Maybe someday we’ll have our own.

New meaning to red head

2009-04-23T07:28:00.000-06:00

Baby chick will be here soon.

Does anyone remember the hats women use to wear made of feathers from ring neck pheasants?

Earth Day 2009

2009-04-22T21:25:00.000-06:00

When I met SRC so many years ago I was impressed by the life style that his father lived, he wasted very little, made use of everything it seemed. I was most impressed that they cooked on a wood burning stove, which also was a heat source for the home. His step mother still used a wringer washer! He led a very simple life and left a very small foot print on this old earth. Living in the east back in the mid seventies solar energy was not something most people had even heard of or much less think possible. The sun doesn’t shine like it does here in the west. Growing up it didn’t occur to me either that the sun could work for us in ways that most are now just becoming aware of. My interest started earlier than most.

I found house plans for a passive solar house in a Family Circle magazine back in 1979 or 80, the spec home had been built in up state NY or Connecticut don’t remember for sure. They used plastic milk jugs filled with water on the southern facing walls to act as insulation and to store heat which could then be circulated. At the rate I drank milk and still do, we would have had all the jugs we’d have needed in a jiffy and that’s when the lights went on for me, why not kill a couple birds with one stone, so I ordered the house plans, which we still have, yes I’ve hauled them around for 30 plus years. It was my hope back then that SRC’s father would agree that it was a great idea, and then would sell us a small section of land on his existing 90+ acre farm. Hum wonder sometimes what life would have been like had he allowed us to do that?

We now own that farm. Last year SRC went back to the farm and planted apple trees. I stayed here in Denver to take care of things, cause that’s what I do. I think he planted close to 100 trees and lost only three. Those 3 have been replaced by the tree farm where we purchased in Pa and were shipped to Westcliffe by mistake a couple weeks ago. Last trip we got the delivery and so we then hauled them to Denver so we could plant them where they would get watered on a regular basis.

Tuscarora Mountain in the background

I think SRC’s dad had he lived long enough to see it to completion, would have been proud and fascinated with the whole off grid living thing we’ve incorporated into our life in Westcliffe. He may also like the fact that we planted the apple trees on the old homestead, then again maybe not. He was a good steward of this piece of land and his son is following in his footsteps, and I can hope that our son will do the same. What could be more important than taking care of this planet we all call home. We’re here for such a short time however we all need to choose to take better care of what we do, pay attention.

The older I get, the more connected I feel with the preservation of the earth, and the less I’m concerned about consumerism. Well.. actually I’ve never been much of a consumerist. I’m pretty sure I could pack, in my car, most of the material things I’ve collected over the years that are important to me, well maybe our van, so I could include the chickens and dogs. :) Family and friends can follow in their vehicles packed with their own stuff. No really we all will need to let go of all this stuff eventually, so why buy so much to begin with? I forgot for a wee second that we need to buy to keep the economy stimulated!

It gives me pleasure to see these “awareness days” becoming so popular, also to see how far SRC and I have personally come. Education, Education, Education is my Earth Day moto. Awareness is catching on slowly but surely.

I have recently had questions on exactly where we live. Our home base is still in Denver, our hope is to eventually spend more time in Westcliffe, less in Denver, with occasional trips back east.

Another first for me

2009-04-13T09:18:00.000-06:00

On our way back to Denver yesterday on Route 115 between Penrose and Colorado Springs we saw a flock of wild turkey. We see them quite often along the road in that area. What I’ve never seen before is when they are mating and the males are all puffed up. I found a photo on Wikipedia that looks similar to what a saw for a nano second. SRC said it would be to dangerous to pull off the road at that location and it was raining but darn had I been driving I would have turned around for sure, they were on the opposite side of the 4 lane.

How old am I and have never seen this before, what are the chances I’ll ever seen it again? Not likely! No big deal for him, he’s seen it before, me I was kind of upset. Not kicking and screaming upset but upset and I agree causing an accident not a good idea but I believe we could have done it safely.

I prefer to post my own photos, but in this case not having my own I found a similar, my photo had we stopped, would have had more snow and the sun wasn’t out also may have been a different breed entirely, seems like the tail feathers were darker. This photo was taken in the east somewhere by Joe or Tom, he said on the site it’s ok for public use.

Below a couple of photos on Hardscrapple, whizzing by with my arm out the window, no didn’t stop for any of these shots either.

Easter Day Eggs (posted from Windows Live Writer)

2009-04-12T21:43:00.000-06:00

Yucca plant in the background. I always thought white eggs were white, doesn’t appear so next to the snow.

Easter Morning in Westcliffe

2009-04-12T21:32:00.000-06:00

Weekend Vistors

2009-04-11T21:04:00.000-06:00

Our friends, Rudy, Atty and Pret-ty left a couple hours ago and hopefully have made it safely back to Denver by now.

First stop was Bishops Castle. I’ve posted about BC before, back in the day when I didn’t tag stuff, one might easily have found other photo’s and posts about it, feel free to scroll archives if you interested. At some point all our visitors get to experience the castle. I’m sad to say my father never saw it before he died. Most that visit would agree it’s a work of art, one man’s vision becoming reality.

I’ve watched the progress of BC over the last 6 years, trying to remember how many times I’ve been there, guessing with this visit it’s over a half a dozen times. I’ve seen some changes although progress seems to be slowing down. The stone, wrought iron and expanded metal work continues, and so does the vandalism. Why can’t people show a little respect?

I’d like to know and be able to share an accurate accounting of when the first stone was placed and by who. It seems like I can’t seem to keep the facts straight. I’ve heard many accountings on various things that have taken place however I can’t confirm any are true. Supposedly this structure is a one man show, or possibly it was started by Jim’s father and then was continued by Jim with the help of his sons.

This visit, there was a sign stating Jim as the sole builder and that his father had no part in it, nor did his son or sons. What I know or have been told seems to change like the weather around here. You can google and find information regarding the history, just not sure the authenticity of any of it.

That white haired woman in the photo below is me freezing my tail off, it was cold and windy.

While on the subject of weather, today we had snow, rain and sun.

Compliments of Atty, not pictured below, we were well fed with Indonesian dishes.

Atty if your reading this all the good photo’s of you are on your camera.. Still can’t find the file I copied from your sim card.