Owls

Hubba and I were out for errands on this completely, gorgeous afternoon and saw cars pulled over and people walking with cameras.

He exclaimed, "There's something in that tree!" But all we could figure out was that there was a nest.  So we decided to drive past on our way back.

I saw there were chicks and was pretty sure they were raptors, but couldn't tell if they were eagles or owls.

So I came back later with my camera.  :-)

Can you see her?

stretching those wings

Last photo as I was starting to leave, then...

A 3rd owlet popped up

and gave us a little show.

Clearly these are Horned Owls, but I have not done enough research to know if these are Great Horned Owls or if there are other varieties of Horned Owls.

Living in Colorado continues to amaze me.

Fiber Arts Friday: Shaking the Funk

I've felt a bit of a funk lately.  The explosions at the Boston Marathon didn't help and neither did all of the snow we've received over the last two weeks.

But my Donegal Hat is finished.

Yes, I have one (1!) end to weave in and still to soak it.  It is not nearly as scratchy as I thought it would be.  So I don't expect to be knitting a liner for it.

All of the snow has turned our pasture green... and our grass... at least what survived last summer is currently green.

It's was more than 60F when I took these photos yesterday.  The sun was shining and yes, that is snow on the right.  We have snow in the forecast.

I hate the advertisements on the free apps... um, no thank you. :-/

The traditional last freeze is Mother's Day (2nd Sunday in May) and to be honest, Memorial Day (last Monday in May) can often be quite cold around here.  So it really is not unusual and I'm happy that we aren't seeing as much lake-bottom as we were a few weeks ago.

Our Cherry, and other fruit trees are nearly ready to leaf out.  Which reminds me to make sure I have enough CDs available to hang in the branches once we have fruit.

Our dogs are ridiculously cute and sweet.

I love having a puppy again.

He has two brothers and one sister who are available, if you feel the NEED for a Tibetan Mastiff.  I have photos and can put you in touch.  :-)

The house next door was a short sale, then a foreclosure and has essentially been vacant for 9 months.  It closed last Friday.  So we have new neighbors!  They are nice and excited about the dogs and alpacas.

So, I'm shaking the funk.  Life really is good.  I am happy.  But sometimes the world gets heavy.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday. :-)

Just the Facts

21 inches snowed and melted over the last 10 days.

Introducing: Timberline's Colorado Gunnison (aka Gunnar)

We've been waiting for the right boy for what seems like a very long time.

We were excited to learn that this litter would, indeed happen and made several visits with the Breeder, Timberline Tibetan Mastiffs, over the last few months to visit the puppies (Puppy Therapy and More Puppy Therapy).

Our puppy is now 9 weeks old and moved in on Thursday.

Since we have grown dogs (four now), we always make a point to do the introductions one-on-one in a neutral location.  However with all of the snow we received earlier this week, that was not possible and we made the introductions in the garage, which is dogs' territory.

They all did well and were playing together in a matter of minutes.

Since Thursday, we've been working on things like walking on a leash, coming when he's called, and going in the potty place. He's doing very well at all of these so far. :-)

He's also met a couple of the alpacas.

Timberline's Colorado Gunnison is the son of Timberline's Barni Drakyi (Barnes) and Timberline's Janey.  We will be calling him Gunnar.

Marathon Monday

Hubba ran today's Boston Marathon.

He doesn't like crowds, so we booked him a room outside of the city.

He was back at the room when the explosions happened.  So he is safe.

The other runners from Loveland are also safe.

Many people are not.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the other racers and spectators.

Spring in the Rockies

I've been feeling frustrated that I haven't gotten my seeds in the ground yet. I guess I should give myself some slack. ;-)

Brewing Kombucha at Home

Hubba loves Kombucha.  I like some Kombucha.

With Hubba's love, we've been bothered by the number of bottles going to the recycling bin.  We had tossed around the idea of making our own, but hadn't really gotten beyond talking and a small bit of reading.

Then my friend Kristi offered that she had some SCOBYs that would be ready to share, so I jumped at the chance.  First, having the starter rather than beginning from scratch and second, having Kristi's wisdom available made the whole process a little less scary.  ;-)

The donated SCOBY made it home in one piece and I set it up on a shelf in my office and covered it with a towel.  It's supposed to be kept in a warm, dark place, out of the way so it doesn't get disturbed and away from fruit, for some reason.

I left it there for nearly two weeks, checking on it occasionally.  It was exciting to see the "baby" SCOBY being formed.

I tasted it for the first time on day 12 of brewing.  It was a bit vinegary so I plan to start tasting the next batches sooner.  Also, as we approach summer and the house gets warmer, I expect the Kombucha will brew faster.

I pulled together two flavoring/recipe suggestions, made our next batch of black tea (Pekoe I brought home from India a few years ago) and brewed two 1/2 gallons.

Since I needed to reserve 2 cups of Kombucha from the first batch, that only left about 48 ounces available for flavoring.  I decided to use two pickle jars we had set aside a while back... Everything I read had me concerned about using soap and chlorinated tap water for cleaning and I'm not exactly sure how the "rinsing in vinegar" thing works yet.. at least without using large quantities of it.  The pickle jars are short enough to fit in my regular soup pot for water-bath sterilization... no soap, no vinegar and no bad bugs. :-)

The Grolsch style bottles are often recommended, but I also found resources that said both canning jars and re-using other jars is acceptable... as long as the head-space is minimized, the pressure is less likely to build up too much that the risk of "rapid seal failure" is minimized.  So far, so good.  ;-)

We had our first taste of the flavored Kombucha on Friday.  Hubba, who had been a skeptic about the whole process proclaimed with a big smile, "It tastes like Kombucha!"

A few resources I've found helpful: Delicious Obsessions, Food Renegade, Weston A Price, Cultures for Health, Fiber Fool.