Category Archives: Greeley

Posts about Greeley, Colorado or the Greeley area

Christmas Surprises

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This morning we awoke to a white Christmas which is somewhat unusual in this dryland prairie area of Colorado that we live in. It added a sparkle and glitter to an otherwise very cold day (high of 18!). We slept in and enjoyed a late breakfast and made Christmas cookies to give out with the presents.

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Kitty was appreciative of being inside and the chickens mainly stayed in their coop except when they let us know they needed their water warmed up and were tired of eating snow.

White Christmas and chicken
The White Chicken on White Christmas

Later that afternoon we went over to Britton’s family’s house to open presents and then headed over to my grandma’s for ham dinner and a little more gift exchanging.

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My grandma and aunt at dinner

And as Britton promised in the last post, we have a little Christmas surprise for all of you as well.

Drumroll….

We got chopped! Here we are before:

Cassie with Long Hair
My long hair (before)

Britton before
Britton’s hair and November mustache

And after:

Britton and Cassie Haircuts
The new sleeker us –Britton shaved down and I’m without about 9 inches of hair

Me and B at Grandmas
What do you think? A good Christmas surprise?

Big changes have been happening a lot lately and we felt compelled to do our part through our appearance. It’s always fun (and a little scary) to try something new. We hope you all had some wonderful surprises and a great time with family and friends. Merry Christmas!

 

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A 16 Degree Bike Ride : Updated

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Well today I was given a challenge (not unlike most days).

Objective: Go to the bank.
Challenge:  It is 16F degrees.
Challenge: No driving.

I knew it was cold, but just wasn’t sure how cold it was until I started riding.  I put on all my snowboarding gear (gloves and helmet) and when I did this in the house, I thought…”Oh this is silly”.  When I got out on the bike, I thought “I am SO glad I put this stuff on”.


Spaceman?

I figured it was only about 3 miles there.  I do that easily in the summer all the time, no problem.

Holy cow!  My lungs hurt so bad by the first 1/2 mile or so I thought I was going to die.  I figured this may have been because I was out of shape, but…no…It has to be the cold air.  I ride miles upon miles in the summer and don’t ever have that much trouble…ever.   I made it to my destination and back, but it was pretty intense.  At one point I had the thought that my lungs were totally screwed and “if I died at least I have my wallet so they would know who I am”.

Maybe I over-reacted a bit, but it hurt…lol.  I am back home now and feel pretty good to have gotten some exercise.   I also have a new respect for the ability to drive a car and how easy it makes everything.   Without a the use of a car in society you are truly hindered.  I can still get stuff done, it just takes about 100 times more effort!

Also I had the thought.  It will NEVER EVER EVER be this cold in Rincon.

Update:  I had some other errands to do this afternoon.  It was 40 degrees out and I figured I’d give it another shot.  I went 9.5 miles, no problems.  I’d say conclusively that my lungs did not like the cold..lol.

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The House Husband

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Due to my recent medical emergency, I have been directed by my doctor to take off two months (FMLA) from work in order to rest, recover and do tests and treatments.  I am also supposed to avoid driving, if possible.  I have just started my second week and while I have gotten a lot better with more sleep and less stress, I still feel compelled to do something, anything! with my day besides watch daytime TV. So I have become a house-husband.

I have always been the tidier of the two of us and I don’t mind doing the dishes, mopping the floors, and cleaning the counters as well as taking on the “traditional” male activities of mowing the lawn and fixing stuff around the house. Yes, I know, Cassie is very lucky to have such a helpful husband! 🙂

So even though so far it’s only been a short time off, I have been able to get into some “deep cleaning” projects that we were planning on hiring a cleaning company to do when it came time to move to Puerto Rico. Things like cleaning behind the stove and the fridge. Washing the curtains. Cleaning out the cabinets. Washing the outside and inside of the windows. Some of these were LONG past due. I have also started to sort through  more of our stuff and look at what should be sold, given away or trashed.


Nastiness Hidden Behind the Wall

Nastiness Gone

Even got new drip pans

I have begun to have a routine where I read a Spanish-language instruction booklet in the morning, take a walk and start on a cleaning project or two. Cassie meets me for lunch at home when she can. If I need something Cassie can drive me there or I can walk or ride my bike to the store that is about 2 miles away.   It has been refreshingly simpler with more time to think and rest and no rush except for tasks that I choose for myself.


My new friend Perico

We are normally DINKs (Dual Income No Kids) and so our first priority is on work and second on our after work goals like our rentals and third on everything else, including housework and health. So this has been a nice shift to reshuffle priorities a little and get healthy, ready for Puerto Rico and back up to speed.


Moving out furniture.  The living room was packed!

It has also been a good experiment for what it will be like when we live in Puerto Rico. We will be in charge of the activities of our day, which is both exciting and intimidating.  Overall, I think it has taught us that we are just naturally “productive” and will feel compelled to do something with some sort of tangible result/improvement for our having been there. While lying on the beach is great, we crave that feeling of accomplishment and achievement. So, no matter what our “titles” or spheres of influence, this break has shown me that we are sure to stay busy.

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Gasland Weld County Colorado

Some of our friends had recently encouraged us to watch the documentary Gasland and so we decided to check it out. It really opened our eyes to how much oil and gas drilling and production really goes on in our community, especially in Weld County which is our county. Of course, we had seen the industry as a part of the background that you don’t really notice, but after watching the movie, we began seeing all the pads and rigs everywhere!


Local Drilling Rig a mile from our house

The most controversial part of this drilling is the hydrofracturing process also known as “fracking” where they shoot millions of gallons of our precious water and various chemicals into the ground as deep as 8000 feet or more until it creates a mini earthquake that releases the natural gas that is trapped below. The toxic water sludge that comes back and is unfit for anything is called “produced water”. The chemicals are then vented from this water mixture and results in major air emissions as well.  

This industry brings in a ton of money to our county and we just sort of assumed that everything about it was well-regulated and watched. However, what we learned from the movie was that this industry is exempted from the Clean Air and Water Acts and could be much less safe than we had ever imagined. This is especially a concern for people in rural areas who have water wells as we saw in 2009 when people in Fort Lupton were actually able to light their drinking water on fire! The movie even highlighted some of the local people.


The sheer number of drill permits in Weld County (the saturated northeast section) is astounding as of June 2012!

Then just this week we heard news that Josh Fox, the creator of Gasland was coming to the University of Northern Colorado to give a presentation about the movie, so we thought it would be really interesting to hear him speak. We learned that Greeley is one of the last oases in Weld County not to be hydrofractured but that was soon about to change as well. UNC and the school district both signed on to allow for directional drilling and fracking under their properties. About 500 people turned out and want to see fracking banned or at least better regulated. Recently Longmont has completely disallowed fracking and other areas are implementing moritoriums. But not in Weld County. Weld County is a free for all and it is concerning to us because we live right near many of the wells and pads.


Director Josh Fox at UNC


With friends and a pretty full crowd!


Josh Fox even played some banjo!

So we decided to go out near our house and see what we could find nearby. Within less than a mile this is what we found:

Houses in the Background are in our Neighborhood

Cassie at a pad site (“produced water sign” click to enlarge)


Venting / Flare


Diagram of Fracking Footprint

So while the movie Gasland definitely had an anti-fracking bent to it, it does make you wonder just how much is being done to make sure it is safe and with the health and wellbeing of the community in mind first and foremost. We would definitely support more regulation and transparency in this industry that is literally in our backyard.

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