I had the day off today and as such I decided to go outside and see the world a little bit. Since winter is nearly here they have shut down the irrigation ditches. The ditches on our side of town feed off of the Poudre River.
Well I was walking along and I saw a crawdad or (crayfish) in one of the pools of water that was left behind.
Can you see it?
I used to catch these guys by the bucket load when I was a kid. We never really did anything with them except to see how many we could catch. I know that you can eat them, but I just haven’t ever tried. Something about the mud and the fact I used to catch them in the sewers has totally turned me off to the idea of even trying them..lol.
So anyway I decided to jump down into the ditch and catch it. It just felt like the right thing to do.
You can tell he lost a pincher at some point as one is larger
They are pretty interesting creatures. They are fresh water crustaceans and are indicators of a non-polluted environment.
Last night Britton and I dressed up for (early) Halloween and spent the evening with friends at Belly Hallow and then proceeded over to Crabtree Brewery which is the only local brewery in Greeley. It was a great night. I went as Minnie Mouse and Britton went as “rockstar”. Bob Dylan perhaps? Or maybe Jimi Hendrix. In any case, the wig won out. His simple costume won 3rd place in the contest and won us a few gift certificates to local coffee shops in town! It was pretty cool. This year they held the Belly Hallow event at the Atlas Theater, a small venue in downtown Greeley. I thought it would be all belly dancing, but it was more of a variety show, and very creative!
Of course there was Belly Dancing
But also glowing hula hooping
…And even glowing boobs
This funny one was done to the music of the Addams Family and featured friends Marjorie and Crystal (good job ladies!)
There was some creepy cool dancing as well to fit the Halloween theme
One of the awesome songs of the night (Lullaby by The Cure)
Me as Minnie
Here’s the whole gang: Bob/Jimi, Mario and Luigi, Betty Page, Gogo/Hippie, Vampire, and the King of Siam (plus Minnie in front)
There was even a live band!
At Crabtree we had fun trading our wigs around -Julie took Britton’s wig and transformed into Foxy Brown. It was also a celebration for Kim’s birthday (Happy Birthday!)
Britton turned into Kurtney Cobain (talking with King)
We had a great night out and are grateful to have such wonderful people and fun times in our lives!
I am not a big fan of the weather turning colder, but one thing that is absolutely stunning for about 2 weeks here in Colorado are the changing colors of the trees. Many people will head up to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park solely to see the aspens turn to a bright yellow. Here in our own yard, we’ve had a pretty spectacular display in our trees as well. I managed to capture this shot of the chickens and the changing leaves of the paper birch tree without even knowing I had. I put the camera on the ground facing up and snapped. I think it turned out rather lovely.
It’s definitely one of the better pictures of the chickens, you can really see the detail
And here’s a shot of the crabapple tree in the bright sunlight
Before I lived in the old schoolhouse in Nunn, I lived in a small house in Greeley. After my parents and brother moved from Nunn, they moved back to the Greeley house. It is at the end of a T road and cars often forget to stop at the stop sign or they slide through on icy cold winter days. The house has narrowly escaped being hit by various cars throughout the years, however the yard plants and cars that have been parked out front have not fared as well and have been hit a few times.
In the matter of just an 8th month time span, two cars hit one of the old spruce pine trees that had been there since before I was born. We hoped it would survive, but soon the tree began to wither away dying from the impact.
The tree stump – you can see the impact marks on the right where a car had hit it. You can also see the “T” street
Finally the time came when it needed to come down completely. My mom hired some tree removal specialists but thought maybe there was something she could do with the stump that had been a tree that I had often played in and around with my next door neighbors as a child. She thought perhaps a student artist may be interested in carving it. I put my feelers out and posted something on both Facebook and Craigslist looking for any info on wood carver artists. A friend suggested the Chainsaw Mama, Faye Braaten who has done wood tree carving work in Loveland and the Greeley area.
My mom talked with her and about a month later, they settled on a price and time for the carving to take place. My mom picked the perfect subject for her carving: a happy dog and cat. She currently has four dogs and a few cats, so this fit her just right.
I was able to see some of the carving myself and it is very impressive! Faye does a great job and can really handle those chainsaws! Here are a few pictures and a video of the process.
Chainsaws are ready!
A Greeley Tribune Reporter came out to take pictures and write up a story!
Early in the process
The face taking shape
The face more pronounced and the body coming together
Nearly complete wood carved dog and cat
She uses a torch to darken some parts and a grinder to smooth it a little -here the cat is visible as well
My mom’s cat, Scarlett is black as was our cat Boo-boo and so she darkened it. I think it created a nice contrast against the yellow lab
Detail of the dog’s face
Close up of cat
We brought the dogs out to see as well. But the real cat wasn’t interested 🙂
