Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Stressful Situations = Simple Solutions

I tried to blog from my iPad.  didn't know how to make it work.

Back to our arrival in the mountains, where several things immediately went bad.
The hot tub was not hot and was losing water.
+
The water system intake valve was clogged.
+
The quartz tube for the water purification system broke.
No cord for the laptop.
=
Stress and extra work for a while.  My mountain man immediately got started on solutions.  A hot tub part returns to Amarillo for repairs.  The water intake valve was cleaned and the entire water system purified.  We usually do this every Spring anyway, so it is done for this year.  The quartz tube was replaced with the emergency tube.  All is well.

So, back to our retreat!
 Here it comes...
 Here it is...
 and here we are!
 On a snowy day, we plan the next remodel for our kitchen.  One of our favorite, loyal readers seems to have inspired the forward momentum on this idea.
I do love my chalk paint on old furniture.
It now matches another earlier project.
A new quilt project.
Actually, this is a very old project, started by an aunt, probably before I was born.  Shhh, please... it is a gift for my cousin.  More about it in a later post.
  
How do you spend snow days?
  "As soon as that mountain disappears, we can burn the brush."  Burning in the mountains is tricky, but a snowy day with no wind is perfect for it.
 Bubble bath?  
Bubble wrap?
Sea salt?
Or snow on the deck railing?
 About three hours later, the brush was ashes.
 A really big snow storm is brewing.
 But our concern is the one in Amarillo.
 So, this is the reason for the early return.

Friday, February 8, 2013

Challenging Arrival

Our arrival in the mountains today
brought several challenges.
One is the fact that I left the power cord for this laptop
in Amarillo and the battery is weak.
Posts this time may wait until our return.

Before our trip here,
we put together a liter of home made vanilla.

After reading about it on another blog,
I decided to try my hand at making vanilla.
After the wine, this is a breeze!
Ordering the vanilla beans from Olive Nation
was so easy and not as expensive as I feared.
We had the vodka already.
It is 80 proof and triple distilled,
whatever that means.

The beans are very aromatic and
not very pretty, but really interesting.
They must be sliced for the flavor to permeate.
I recommend a really sharp knife.
 Slicing from about 1 inch below the top, 
and all the way down. 
We removed a little vodka from the bottle,
added the beans,
 then refilled the bottle.
Into a cool dark place for about six weeks.
The only thing left to do is invert about once a week. 

Now, back to the mountain arrival...
We found the hot tub low on water
and the heater broken.
No hot tub this trip.  :(
There is an issue with our water, as well.
It looks like a work weekend ahead.
But, the mountains are beautiful
 and the clouds are rolling in
while the fire is warm and inviting.