Chatfield Camping & Bosque del Oso

Our Circle The Wagons campout with The Circle was a success. Nothing spectacular but a low key fun time. We all arrived Friday afternoon and after setting up camp, (see photo above) we all got together for libations and a grilled dinner.
Since I have not had the chance to use the grill that came with my trailer, I volunteered my grill as the official cooker. I must say that I wasn’t very impressed and am thinking that I may just go back to my portable Coleman grill for future trips. I do like the fact that the trailer grill taps into the onboard propane supply so I don’t have to worry about bringing…or keeping up with a separate fuel supply but overall it was a pain to set up and I don’t think it cooked very evenly.
The highlight of the weekend, as far as I was concerned, was the Saturday afternoon/evening festivities. As I mentioned in a previous post, The Bride had already volunteered our trailer for the gathering spot since it was the biggest. She also volunteered to be the dinner hostess and provide the main course…made from scratch lasagna.
To get us all in the mood for Italian food we watched the movie, The Big Night before dinner. It’s a great movie that revolves around one terrific made from scratch, authentic as it comes, Italian dinner.
After watching the movie I think our guests had pretty high expectations for dinner and they weren’t disappointed. Maybe it wasn’t as fancy as the dinner in the movie but everyone enjoyed it. 
Sunday was a lazy morning and we got together late for a group brunch before we tore down camp and headed home. This will be our last Circle The Wagons trip for a little over a month. In July we have already planned two events in the mountains. More on that later.
The Bride and I are feverishly trying to empty cabinets in preparation for the contractor to start installing granite countertops and a new backsplash in our kitchen.
I say feverishly because on Friday we’re headed to Trinidad Lake State Park, just west of Trinidad, CO and about 200 miles from here. That will be our base while we do volunteer work for the Colorado Division of Wildlife at the Bosque del Oso Wildlife Area. We will return late Sunday afternoon and finish up preparations for the contractor then.
It should take the contractor about a week to do all the work and him done or not, I head out for a Forest Service gig a week from this Sunday. Busy, busy, busy….but more on that later too.
Thanks for visiting.

Bits and Pieces

Trying to get back to normal after the celebrations of this past weekend but the cold weather is definitely throwing "cold water" on things.

I didn't report that several weeks ago I had the carpeting replaced in my RV. I replaced the original carpet which was about 17 years old. Even though carpeting in an RV doesn't get the constant use that carpet in a home gets, 17 years is more than enough to have made it pretty nasty. The transformation is fantastic....looks like a completely new RV in some ways.

Yesterday the temps were above freezing for most of the day so I went down to the RV lot and ran the engine and gasoline generator for a while. Gasoline generators are supposed to be "exercised" at least once a month to keep the carburetor from gumming up. The previous owner did not do that and the generator shows it by surging pretty badly for a minute or two after starting up. If my exercising it doesn't clean it out by spring I guess I'll have to have it cleaned out by my mechanic.

Tomorrow and for a few days after that it is supposed to turn bitterly cold again. High tomorrow will be 15 degrees. The Bride and The Emmer have said that they're going to go shopping?....It's a woman thing I guess. First off, you won't find me anywhere near a store between now and Christmas, especially during the weekend. Secondly, to add obnoxious crowds on top of bitter cold is just too much for a retired guy!

So, with the weather heading south....no that's not right, if it were heading south wouldn't you think it would be getting warmer? Let me rephrase, with the weather taking a dive...taking a plunge...that doesn't sound right either. That makes me think of diving into warm water. Maybe I should skip the literary stuff....

Seeing as how the weather will be crappy tomorrow, maybe I should make some pasta puttanesca? This is perhaps my favorite pasta dish. I think I first tasted it many years ago on a business trip to Chicago. Over the years I made it a point to have it at least once every time I was in Chicago. When I retired I decided to learn to cook it so I wouldn't have to go to Chicago to get my "fix". I found that it is very easy to make and that says a lot coming from me. Be sure you read the description of the term puttanesca in the link above!

I also hope that I'll be able to tell you the conclusion to my earlier post "A Sad Story That Makes Me Proud" in a day or two so stay tuned.

Thanks for visiting.

I Am A Dunce

I am a dunce. I am an unknowing lout. I am all of this and worse today......Gladly!

In my last post I told you that the repair crew was coming for the third time in 5 days to attempt to repair my KitchenAid built in oven. I couldn't follow the logic of their repair plan as the last 3 times this issue seemed to be the thermostat. I did say however that it would be fine with me if I was wrong and would gladly profess that I was an unknowing lout if only the oven would work the way it was supposed to.

This trip they replaced the main circuit board in the oven. This means that they have replaced every electric part in the oven, except the heating elements themselves. They couldn't stick around the three and a half hours it takes to run through the self cleaning cycle to see if the repair worked, so I started it the minute they walked out the door. I had zero expectations....that's not correct. I had every expectation that the oven would once again self destruct. Wrong! Wonderfully wrong.

For the first time since we paid a lot of money for this oven, almost one year ago, it actually worked the way it was supposed to.....and didn't leave me without an oven for at least a week. I'm totally and wonderfully happy right now but I also have a nagging fear that the fix is only temporary.

Just to be sure that this was not a fluke, a string of one, an improbable chance of fate, I think I will run it through the cycle every other day for a week. I hope I'm not disappointed. If I'm not, I'll also have the cleanest oven on the planet!

Thanks for visiting.

Slip Slidin Away...

"Slip slidin away,
Slip slidin away,
You know the nearer your destination,
The more you're slip slidin away"

From the Paul Simon song of 1977...and that's what I'm doing this week. In spite of what I posted almost two weeks ago I'm going in to work this week, for the last few times. I had agreed with my boss when we talked about my retirement that I would return to the office for one week to take care of any transitional issues.

If work had been like this for the previous 35 years I never would have retired! It's amazing how stressless work can be when you know it's really over and you're only there to answer a few questions. I've been going in at a little after 8 am (my work-a-day routine was to be in no later than 7am) and leaving at noontime if there are no pressing matters. My face hurts because I've been smiling so much.

The last few days are just "Slip Slidin Away".

On the home front, I have determined that with all this new available time, I should be able to help The Bride with the cooking. I'm not a total klutz as my "On Our Own" series of posts will verify. I decided that perhaps some technology would be helpful in this regard so I started investigating recipe software. After browsing the web some and reading some reviews on various programs I settled on The Big Oven. It was pretty inexpensive and got good reviews....Let's see if technology can "make the man".

I don't have grandiose visions in all of this and I intend to start simple. What could be simpler that a crock pot soup? If I mess it up it will be oh so easy to dump the evidence and no one will be the wiser! So my first attempt to be Chef His-Self will be Barley Beef Soup. That will fit in fine with the weather as it's supposed to turn cold again this weekend.

If all of this works out, I make someone a good husband some day.....and I may get a hall pass for a trip in the trailer right after the new year. Hmmm, New Mexico in January....

Thanks for visiting.