05 October 2019

Mother Nature is a Beast or...

Pre-evacuation on a Saturday Morning.

About a month ago, September 8 to be exact, a small fire was started by lightning in the wilderness south and west of where I live and work. It was christened the Decker Fire. Since it was in the wilderness and the terrain was very inhospitable, the forest service let it burn which is their custom. There were no structures or people to worry about and forest fires are naturally occurring ways for dead underbrush to be cleared out. For a couple of weeks the fire stayed at about 1000 acres of wilderness.
Then we had some unusual and strong October winds. The fire was still in the wilderness but getting close to the ridge of Methodist Mountain, a mountain right in Salida, with houses and businesses.   No worries, fires only burn uphill. It won’t cross the ridge.
These pics are from Wednesday when the fire did crest the ridge and start downhill. 130 residences were evacuated at 2am. Mother Nature is a beast and she doesn’t always follow the rules. Over night the fire doubled in size.

The view from the hospital parking lot outside my office on Wednesday. 


You can see the burning fires on the side of Methodist Mountain. 
Fire can move downhill after all.

Friday at work I got a Pre-evacuation phone call from the county.  I had signed up for that little service last time there was a forest fire nearby. Wait. What? I live way west of the fire. Or so I thought. 
A neighborhood meeting at my local fire station after work was packed.  Parking lot overflowing, people parked along the highway, standing room only packed.   The gist of the meeting was that the edge of the fire is two miles from a "trigger point". If the fire reaches that line, all of Howard where I live will be evacuated as a precaution. The fire line is still in unreachable territory so there has not been much they can do to stop it. Instead they are trying to build breaks west of the fire that would halt spreading. But the officials probably aren't interested in another 2am evacuation fiasco so they are also being overly cautious.  "Go home and make a plan. If you have livestock that needs to be transported, do it sooner rather than later." 


The map from last night's meeting.
The distances seem so far yet....

The fire now covers 5,921 acres. Winds today are supposed to pick up as the day heats up. Humidity is low. Perfect fire conditions.
So.
Interesting what becomes important when you walk around your house "making a plan".   What's important? What do you really need? What do you save? 
My divorce was a lesson in letting go. In 11 days I managed to empty a 3000 square foot house with a 3 car garage and condense the remains into an 8x10 storage unit. In the 2 years since I made that move there have been two things that I wish I had kept. One skirt, one blouse. No idea what happened to either one of them. Furniture went. Clothes went. Dishes, spices, tools, cleaning supplies, sports equipment- all given away. Pretty much what remained were the things that had sentimental value, the art and craft supplies, the kid stuff, my day to day necessities.
So Friday night was spent wandering the house, putting things in the car, finding the winter clothes, deciding which books have to come, which jewelry. I had already gotten my fireproof, waterproof bag of important papers out along with the cat kennel and pet food.  A Rubbermaid tub has joined those essentials and in it goes....what?  A silver pitcher. The kids' baby books. The good jewelry. The computer keyboard and mouse. Extra car and house keys. The sterling silverware and wine goblets are already in the car as is my father's large framed baby photo from when he was one. But really?
Not much I can't live without.   
The house no longer holds my kids. My friends don't live here. The dog and cat will come with.
The girls are very practical, if not particularly ethical. I told them I was on alert and their responses? 


I guess they don't realize I have already started a new life. But hey!
Maybe it's time to reimagine life again. 
Mother Nature is a beast. 
So am I. 















04 October 2019

No. 27 Jewelry making- refresh the silver soldering lessons.

No. 27- Refresh the silver soldering lessons.

First. I'm back. At least for a post. 

I've had a summer. 

My job changed, then didn't change, then changed again literally 4 days before it was supposed to end. The whole mess was exhausting and after six months of uncertainty, it turns out nothing changed after all.

And now I am on the cusp of Fall again in Colorado. It's been a lovely warm September but last night we had our first little cool front. Temps dropped at night and this morning I had my friend, the little yellow snowflake light, on my dashboard signaling a temperature below 38ยบ.

But before I got to this cool spot, I went on vacation!   My first real vacation where I went where I wanted to and didn't just take care of kids or visit family or attend a wedding or shower.

Forty five years after starting college (so to speak) in Mexico, I returned to the scene of the crime with my two room mates for a reunion. Mind you this was the 45 year reunion of the START of our college careers as I don't think anyone ever finished school at the Instituto Allende in San Miguel de Allende.

Cathy (w/ Macho), Cherrilla (w/ Mugsy) and Me (w/ Mathilda and an unfortunate hair do)

Cherrilla lives full time in San Miguel now, joining our friend Jay who wasn't a room mate but was a friend back then. Cathy lives in Virginia, I live here in Colorado but we rented a house in "el Centro de San Miguel" for the week to go visit. Cathy had not been back for 40+ years. For me it had been 7. 


We didn't get the order the same but at least we got a pic of the 3 of us.
Cherrilla, Cathy, Me.
No pets. 

Our little house had been rented through Air BnB and it was perfect. Great location with 3 floors and 2 bedrooms and a balcony overlooking the Parroquia. The bathroom had a bathtub big enough to swim in which is basically heaven for me.

Our first morning Cathy woke up early and snapped this amazing pic from our balcony. 
That's the Parroquia glowing on the right. 
I slept through the sunrise. 

And...while Cathy was flipping through Air BnB offerings, she discovered classes. She sent the link to me and it took me about 5 seconds to find the silver working class.

 The more things change, the more they stay the same. 
Forty five years later we are still learning.

 So...45 years to the month from the first time Cathy and I took silver working classes together, we returned to class. Our teacher this time was American, the class was only four hours and we learned the one thing I have been begging people to teach me: the basics of silver soldering.  I knew most of it but did not really want to practice on sterling silver without some guidelines. 

Enter our teacher, Nicole Williams, who made the class basic and fun and most importantly, gave me the confidence that yes, I can do this at home. 

Nicole explains the finer points of ring design.

We made simple wire rings- a set of 5 that stacked. 


Cutting up the solder...


Cathy places the solder carefully on her rings. 


Can you believe I was allowed to use a propane torch? 

Since we were so efficient and finished early, she taught us a couple of other tricks like twisting the wire to make a chain effect and doing a "spaghetti wire" ring where the wire was wrapped and soldered together. Let's just say we learned a technique and will hopefully be able to improve our skills with the more advanced efforts.  Our wire stacking rings were a huge success, though. 

Struggling to wrap the wire for my "spaghetti ring".

So. No. 27 is complete. Maybe I will finish the other challenges before I turn 70. Maybe not. But certainly I am thrilled to have completed this one. 

Now. All I need are supplies.