Well, well.... Thanksgiving is here again....

Thanksgiving has to rank right up their as one of my favorite holidays.  THIS year however it's going to be a little different.  NOT for as long as I can remember, BUT for a long time, we've cooked a Turkey, and frequently a ham too and had anyone that wanted to join us to feel free.  Mostly we've had the family and friends and friends of friends. It's always been a fun day for, well for ME. My lovely wife usually (always) feels obligated to "clean up the mess", and it ALWAYS a huge mess, before  bed time.  This year we're taking Gnarly and driving to Loveland where our wonderful (one of two wonderful) daughter in-law is fixing dinner, I'm sure with James hindrance (I mean assistance).  Mitchman is going to feed the horses for us, and his mother, Minnesota Susie is stuck doing homework... Other than that we expect we'll see pretty much the same folks we always see, maybe some new additions from he Loveland area...

The Gnarly update.  - What a nice, nice dog... he is exceptionally easy to get along with. He really tries hard to please both of us.  He still chases the cats, but not nearly as much, it's especially funny to watch him try and get them to run when he does catch one... he's sure the hissing and swatting are  the cats wanting to play with him.  He has a few little annoyances but nothing serious. He has a VERY HEAVY paw and uses it when he wants to  play. He plays VERY ROUGH, but is EXTREMELY gentle to LITTLE children and cats.  105 pounds of Newf is quite the treat to play fetch with, well it's actually more like "I'll chase the ball, then you can try and catch me" haha... We've shredded several old t-shirts playing tug-of-war...  Hmmm he's learned that he likes people food and is a very annoying beggar. Sits there and stares Newf like, with those big brown Newf eyeballs, hard to resist.

Horses are all pretty good. The crippled "Kat" that was scheduled for execution a few months ago is doing VERY well all thing considered. All the babies are going to be a bit chilly tonight -1 to -11 degrees is forecast... No worries, horses are especially designed for the cold as long as they can get out of the wind...

Watercolor painting is going OK for me, BUT Susan has painted a beautiful "Urban Landscape" based on downtown Colorado Springs at a "famous" ice cream parlor, Josh & Johns. It features Gnarly and some scraggly old man feeding Gnarly some ice-cream.... she's almost finished....

We're going to go see the most recent "Harry Potter" movie in a little while. we rarely go  to the theater as we usually watch Netflix, or nothing but we've always enjoyed the Harry Potter books and movies... Hmmm kids books my ...

Had a power failure Monday night, a couple of hours in the dark, all of our "emergency" items, except ONE(1) flashlight failed.  The generator wouldn't start, the camping lantern was corroded and unusable etc. etc.  We went to Wal-mart (since it was to dark to do anything in the house) and replaced the stuff with new LED technology... wasn't too  long ago the camping lantern was propane or white gas and had a silk mantle, hmmm... Now it's a single very bright LED and 8 "D" cell batteries. I did get the stuff to get the generator running, if  we don't have electricity, we don't even have water....  The  generator will at least keep a few lights on and run the well pump (straining) and the heaters, if we're desperate for heat we can always light the stove...

In any case I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving...

Oh. The camera is not working at the moment, BUT I'm going to appropriate a couple of the pictures Susan took for her latest and greatest watercolor....

Gnarly meets the grand kids, well three of the grand kids

Gabriel, Molly and Connel came over for a visit and got to meet Gnarly.... It all went MUCH better than I had thought it would. Susan picked 'em up, Gnarly and I met them at the gate with Gnarly wearing his leash and collar, just to make sure there was SOME control... Face it Gnarly wants  to sniff and lick see what these guys are all about.  Problem is the littlest two look him right in the eyes and have a tongue level face perfect for licking.

Well as it should be, Gnarly behaved exactly like a newf should, he LOVED the kids, even played subservient to Molly, laying on his belly and woofing little woofs....

Of course when Connel ran, Gnarly followed .  When Connel jumped out of the way, Gnarly was invariably in Molly's face... Licking...

All in all they all settled down pretty good, none of the grand children even got knocked down (bumped into) by Gnarly.... You know what they say, "Prepare for the worst, and hope for the best"... I can't express how Gnarly has more than met my hopes and expectations, he's 99% newf (the other 1%, well he just doesn't "eat anything" like most newfs. He is expanding his taste a little).

It makes me cry to think he spent two(2) years in a "bad situation", but I'm sure glad he came to be with us...

Been a little over a week since Gnarly came to live here...... Hmmmm....

.... Well it's been just a little over a week since we "rescued" Gnarly (was Marley). He likes Gnarly better.  Gnarly chases the cats, but that's kind winding down as the cats are running less and he's getting kinda tired of them.  When he catches one he wags his tail and barks, they usually let him have it with the claws if he gets too close.

He sleeps on our bed but he's WAY TOO MUCH when we're in it.

He hasn't eaten the cat food, either before or after they eat it? He actually doesn't eat much of anything but liver snacks and dog food, potato chips...

He's VERY gentle, loves everyone he met. He does have a definite play time, about 7AM & 7PM then he's ready for bed shortly after 8PM and out like a light until morning. He is a rough player....

We've left him at home a couple of times, closed him in the bedroom and expected to come back to at least SOMETHING ripped up... nope, he's just happy to see us and ready to curl up at my feet and sleep some more....

All in all we probably couldn't have picked a better match for our family.

And he's very small as far as male newfs go

"I think I'll stay, I like it here"

AGAIN, this house goes to the dogs, or dog...

As my lovely wife pointed out a couple days ago a new (used but new to us) newf came to live with us.  He's a two year old solid black neutered male newfoundland that came with the name "Marley".  He's more than welcome to stay as he's very very nice.  HOWEVER his name has got to go.... at the very least it's kinda "feminine".

So the first order of business is to pin down a new name.  I immediately thought hmmmm Harley sounds like Marley, Susan nixed that as one of the horses is named Harley...

So we crossed several off the list - Harry (hairy), Darth, Gizmo, Buddy, and a few more...

Currently our short list is Chewie (Chubacca), Bailey, Riley - I'm leaning toward Chewie myself...

So if you have ideas, please post them  under the FB pointer to this blog, well if you're my FB friend, you can use he comment here if not, OR you can become my FB friend. If you don't have any new ideas how about telling us which of the short list you like...

He has a fabulous personality, typical newf. He weighs a little over a hundred pounds, about the same as Amanda.  He looks a lot like Amanda but with an obvious male head...

He does chase the cats so they've been hiding... When he catches them he just barks and wags his tail...

The camera has experienced a few issues.  Susan used it and somehow, who knows how she changed all the autofocus settings so all the photos she took of him playing fetch with a ball are  blurred.  It's true, a newfoundland that likes to play fetch. If he's like the others he'll outgrow it at about four(4) when he turns into a black rug.

I DID however get one OK photo that follows. That gnarly looking thing on the right is a HUGE bone he drags around.



I don't care what they call me as long as they call me for dinner!
  Newfs  aren't generally very photogenic being black and rather camera shy!

His general story is that a "service dog trainer" was looking for a newf, found him in Denver full of mats and left outside without too much contact.  While she didn't think he would be  a good "service dog" (for allergy alert & companion) for a four year old girl, she gave the $300.00 they were getting for him and turned him over to the newf rescue group. 
Well all I can say is I think he'll be happy here, actually I'm pretty darn sure he's already happy.

Well, We did come home!

The train ride back from Grand Junction was nice too... Unfortunately we got a good view of the Four Mile Canyon fire just after it started... It had only burned about four acres at that time.

Ah, so now we're home, all is pretty good.

I saw my lovely wife made a FB entry that said she put some paintings at the "Dream Pastry & Crepe" shop in Castle Rock. 

I had pointed out that she FAILED to post a picture to go along with it....

BUT, not only did she FAIL to post a picture, she FAILED to tell everyone that after THREE(3) days she sold one of the paintings for the asking price.

I was going to let her post it since I didn't want to "steal her THUNDER", but I haven't seen anything about the sale.  Ahhh perhaps she didn't want to brag too much..... hmmmm.... That's OK I can rag for her. congratulations lovely wife....

On the weather front.  It's been hotter since we returned from Grand Junction than it's been all summer. No rain in about a month, VERY HIGH fire danger, it finally did rain today.

We got TWO(2) smallish acorn squash from our garden. At least they were good. NO tomatoes, NO melons and NO peppers.

The Hollyhocks is 6 foot tall and has several dark red blooms.

The squirrels have shared he sunflower heads with the Stellar Jays.

The Cherry Tree, which did great as did the rhubarb, is starting to turn yellow and lose her leaves (I call her Virginia).  I did find out that MOST varieties of cherry require TWO trees to fruit... hmmm...

I almost forgot. We went to the "water dog" trials at Chatfield Reservoir.  We didn't stay long as we had the grandchildren and they get hot and bored rather easily.

Brown Newf retrieving the paddle

Same Newfy pulling the "stranded" boat

Grand Junction, Home to TWO of the FIVE Grand Children

part II .........

Rachel went to WalMart for me and ordered  a cake for the NO surprise birthday, well it woulda been a surprise but it "leaked" out.  In any case Rachel told 'em yellow with sunflowers. As you can see it's yellow with sunflowers, I think it's great, taste pretty darn good too...

Happy Birthday, dear Grandma, Happy Birthday to you!

So, picked up the cake and called "Famous Dave's BBQ" (Rachel Suggested and it was good) to get food for a dozen, to go.... Got there right on time to pick it up, expected it to be ready and waiting and figured Becca, Brent and the other three grand kids would be there when we (Cordelia went with me) got back.

Went to the Famous Dave's bar, just like they told me. The bartender looks at me like I'm outta my mind, says "I'll get my manager, I don't HAVE an order for you"... While I was waiting for the manager I pulled out my cell phone and re-dialed the number I had called.... "Hello, Famous Dave's BBQ, FT COLLINS"... oooohhh nooo... Well I placed an order to feed twelve that I was suppose to pick up at 3:15. Well the problem is I'm at the Famous Dave's in Grand Junction, 300 miles away... DUH!!  "Oh no problem sir, we'll use it all". So I ask him to read me the order so I can place it in Grand Junction... OK so everyone got a laugh at my expense...  At least Cordelia and I had a strawberry shortcake while we waited... hmmm hmmm good.

Well after dinner and cake, between eating too much cake and drinking too much of Becca's $6.00 bottle of cheap spiced rum, I felt kinda bad, went in, laid down and promptly "fell asleep" (read - passed out) till morning... cake, rum and don't forget the "run Forest, run" to the front of the train.... mild case of shin splints....

Woke up to a major slumber party, kids and Becca in the living room....

We were SUPPOSE to get up and go to the Colorado National Monument for morning photos (it's the light). too bad, so sad perhaps tomorrow. 

We did however make the butterfly pavilion, ONE that's right ONE butterfly but hundreds of fabulous flowers.... and a fruiting cherry tree, beautiful. 

Water Lillie's

Exotic Red Orchid

My favorite - Cherries, probably Sour Cherries

More later.....

The train ride to the first annual NO surprise birthday party

Hmmm Am I the ONLY one I can surprise? must be... Last time  we drove  to Grand Junction we saw the Amtrak going into the tunnels through Glenwood Canyon.... Hmmm I smell an adventure, sure enough the train stops at Denver and Grand junction on it's way from Chicago to San Francisco (EmeryVille)... $184.00 round trip for BOTH of us...

I made the tickets for the weekend of Susie's birthday. Conspired with Rachel to "surprise" her. 

Left Friday morning in the dark to drive to the Denver Union Station, got there and learned the train was two(2) hours late for down trees in Iowa (some storm).  No problem off to breakfast we go, followed by a trip to the corner three story ancient book store, the "Tattered Cover". Susie bought books...

We boarded the train, found our coach seats and promptly moved to the "lounge" car.  It was a GREAT eight(8) hour ride.... never did go back to our "reserved" seats... Met lots of people, 1 couple flew from London to Denver, the train from Denver to Salt Lake City where they are going to rent a car and drive to the western national monuments.... sounds like fun to me... The other couple, also from England, brought their two teenage kids and were going all the way to San Fransisco to drive down the California coast... I reminded me of our family vacation to Europe.... OH YEAH, they don't hate Americans like the MSM would have you believe... They say that's just the elitist politicians, which I already knew...

Two(2) shots from the lounge car, the second in one of 28 tunnels before Winter Park, one is 6.2 miles long and takes 12 minutes to traverse.

So we're going to stop at Winterpark/Frazier for five(5) minutes.  "If the whistle blows two(2) short, make sure you get on because it's LEAVING".... Hmmm...

Me being the type that likes  LOTS of pictures for "documentation" decided I was going to the front of the train engine and taking a picture back along the length of the train...

my, oh my.... who would have guessed it would be THAT far away? Certainly not me....

So there are two(2) engines, a baggage car, three sleepers, a diner, the lounge and finally our car, the 510 coach followed by two more coach cars.... You can't leave from the diner or the lounge car so I went back to our car, got out on the platform  and thought WOW that's a long way, better RUN....

when I got there I was in a full blown asthma attack (which I haven't had in over five(5) years) standing there wondering how the heck I was going to get back.... DANG, dang.....

Got the shot Hmmm, at what cost. The 510 car was PAST the people on the platform.

NOW all I gotta  do is get back before it leaves.  On the return run, I notice the door on the first sleeper, no one guarding it, I'll try that... So no sooner did the door close, toot... tooot... and it's away... I walk through the train to the lounge car and there's my lovely wife sitting there patiently waiting. guess she knew I'd make it.  Unfortunately the next 3 hours of asthma made it questionable as to the worth....

 I did take quite a few photos, but the following out of the back of the train was of particular interest to me. I actually DIDN'T notice the rock standing in the pond when I took the photo, I found it later.

We are on the last leg of the journey to Grand Junction, I'm just taking photos out of the back of the train and happen to get the rock balanced in the middle of the pond. Watercolor reference photo...

More to come........