Pine Nuts

Way back about a gazillion years ago when I was young and cute I lived in Northern New Mexico.  I remember one fall driving north to pick pinon nuts.  I don't remember where we went, but I know it was quite a drive and it was north.

I remember parking the car along a road and going out to the trees.  And under the trees I picked up buckets of pine nuts that had fallen.  Then when I got home, I recall going through the nuts to pull out the "non-nut" items such as rabbit or deer fawn poop.  (Now don't laugh... they're all similar in size, shape and color!)  Then I roasted them and had a wonderful time cracking the hard shells with my teeth and eating those wonderful pinon nuts.  MMMmmmm... brings back some good memories.

Considering the fact that we have 35 acres of pinon trees, I thought of how wonderful it would be to gather the pine nuts and roast them again.  So the girls and I went up to the property on Saturday.  I grabbed my walking stick and started scouting around for some trees that could render their fruit to me.  After browsing around I quickly found some pinon nuts strewn under the tree as well as some pine cones that had fallen, but that hadn't opened yet.  So I grabbed a plastic cup in which to hold my harvest and went about looking for more.


After about an hour of stooping and scrounging I had to laugh at my lack of accomplishment.  My fingers were covered in pitch.  My back hurt from bending and crouching.  The girls were impatient as they thought we were going for a hike but I never even left the top of the property.  And all I had to show for my efforts barely covered the bottom of the cup.

It's a good thing that Safeway carries pine nuts.

Oh, and another thing, remember those "non-nut" items?  Poetic justice probably had a hand in the fact that a person who didn't treat me very nicely got one of those little nuggets in his bowl of pine nuts.  Completely unintentional -- but I still grin when I think of him spitting and sputtering.

SCRT

Les is still in California for at least another week.  To keep me amused, and also for my upcoming birthday, my dear friends Jim and Joelle invited me to a play here in town -- their treat.

It's nice that this little town is big on theater.  They have SCRT -- Southern Colorado Repertory Theater.  There are professional actors who put on some of the plays.  And tonight's play was done by various people from town.

My friend Steve Ortega was in tonight's play... as was my friend Lori Nava.  I knew a few other people on tonight's stage.  After living here in this little town for only 1-1/2 years I'm still amazed at how many people I know and how many people I can truly call, "my friend."  In California, most were simply acquaintances.  To find a true friend was really rare.

Before the play we had dinner.  Our friends Ken and Angela as well as Carol Ortega all sat at the same table.  At another table were even more friends.  I love it here.

The play was about Trinidad and its stories.  The first act was about 45 minutes and told of some of the people who have made Trinidad the place it is today.  While I know there is wonderful history of this place, truth be told -- the play was a little dull.  So at intermission Joelle expressed her desire to leave.  I wasn't opposed to the idea, but we wanted to see a little of the 2nd act.

We stood in the balcony and watched the stage below.  The actors were busy telling their tales.  After a few minutes I was horrified to hear my alarm go off on my phone.  Loudly!  Oh My God!!!  I turned the sound off before the play, but I completely forgot about the alarm to remind me to bring the plants in.  I turned and fled the balcony while the producer gave me the stink eye.

Oh well... just another day in the life of a complete moron.

Dreams

Last night I had a dream.  It was about a guy we know who is a carpenter and a general "go-to" guy for any building or repairs that need to be done.  In my dream, I was shocked and surprised to see that he was starting the foundation to our new home! 

But as I watched as he was pouring concrete I saw that he was doing it wrong.  I asked him if he remembered that the slab was supposed to be insulated.  He said no.. and I asked him if he had seen the plans.  He said, "No."

Later that day (yeah, the building went up really quickly in my dream) I saw the house as the frame was half-way up.  But he had put it in the wrong place.  And the southern orientation was all wrong.  It's supposed to be a passive solar house and he got it all wrong.  I asked him if he looked at the plans?  Nope.

I have absolutely no idea what this dream meant -- if anything.  I only know that I am so anxious about getting my home done.  We have another year and a half to go.  A long time... but so much better than the 3 years I resigned my time-table to in early 2010.  And I also know that I'm going to have to really keep an eye on the people building the house.  I know I'm a bit of a control freak, but this will be my last home and I want it done right.

The girls and I went up to the property again this morning.  It was snowing.  The dogs just love the snow.  They run at full speed and then dive face first into a pile of snow.  They chase each other through the trees running as fast as they can go.  They have so much fun with each other.  What good girls!

More Weather

Last Tuesday our temperature went up to 79 degrees.  By Wednesday morning, it was snowing.  We got maybe 8" of snow that day.  Because the day before was so much warmer, only 3-4" inches "stuck."  But it was nice to see the snow again.

Last Wednesday the temps didn't get out of the 30's.  But every day since the days have been getting warmer and warmer.  Night time temps have still gone down to the 20's and 30's -- but today at 2:00 in the afternoon, my thermometer reads 81.4 degrees. 

And we're expecting snow again tomorrow.  I love this place!

Yesterday was Halloween.  As usual, Trinidad closed its downtown streets so that the kids can have a fun and safe place to trick-or-treat.  All of the merchants hand out candy.  My friend, Carol, owns the Eagle Totem Gallery on Main Street.  She and my friend, Joelle, passed out candy.  Carol dressed up as an owl and Joelle was a clown in a clown dress made out of men's ties.  They looked so cute!

Lucy has really been coming along really well.  She is coming out of her "pre-Byington" shell and her personality is beginning to shine.  I took her with me yesterday when I walked downtown to see all of the trick-or-treaters.  She was an angel.  People and dogs alike came up to her to say hello.  She had no problem with any of them... except the guy in a giant, blow-up sumo wrestler costume.  She didn't quite know what to think of that big, round person.

And today she did something really funny.  I think back to Schultz and the times I would give him a rawhide bone.  He'd take the rawhide bone out to the yard and he'd bury it.  Then, he'd wait until I got the carpets cleaned and he'd go out and dig it up.  By then, it was nice and soft and dirty and he'd plop down in my office or in the middle of the living room and he'd eat it.

I just gave each of the girls a rawhide bone this morning.  Mindy ate most of hers, and she buried a little bit of it outside.  But Lucy...  I was on the phone with a client and was wondering what she was doing under my desk.  Later I saw her rawhide bone -- "buried" under the wires and cables for all of my equipment.  How funny is that??