A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words!

It's been awhile since we posted primarily because it's summer at camp which means no time, no good internet, and not much energy at the end of the day.  So here are some pictures of things we are seeing.  One thing we are experiencing is a bit of dining diversity . . . this week one day in our dining room we had Mormons, Baptists, Mennonites, and an marathon runner from Estonia training for the summer Olympics in Brazil in a few weeks . . . all at RMMC!

Betty's favorite spot

The view from Betty's spot

Summer staff at first worship service - a great group of kids!!

Volunteer youth group from FMC in Iowa City - they worked hard!!!

Jonathan, nephew David, and two staffers hiked to Devil's Playground to view the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.

We finally made it to Raspberry Mountain (Chris Way!)

"The Heavens Declare!"

 Scenes from our hike to Sheep Ridge (Towards Devils Playground)

Mountain Sunflowers at about 11,000 ft.

Hiking back down from Sheeps Ridge

Hearse for sale at a little mountain town called Guffy.  Little handwritten sign in the window says "stay out!!!"

Last Chance Antiques - indeed!

Creative little campsite during Roots Music Camp (There are flamingos in the Rockies, Sue Plank!!!)

This reminds me of "Little House on the Prairie" schoolhouse! ... Hartsell, Colorado

Self-explanatory!

Where the only tweet heard is the song of a bird, and the internet is down all day! (to the tune of "Home on the Range" Copyright by Leanin' Tree Cards) This was on a birthday card sent to Jonathan from his mother. Describes what we are experiencing !!!  We are doing this post at the library because of slow internet. 

An Eventful Week!

We had off on Memorial Day and visited our nephew's family who live in Louisville, CO. Esther and Harold, Betty's sister and husband from Indiana were visiting them so it was a great family time with great food.  Have you ever had a grilled cheese sandwich with caramelized onions and swiss cheese on swirled rye bread?  YUM!   

On Wednesday, Pleiades, the building which has been under construction for almost two years, passed the final inspection with flying colors!  (Jonathan has been working on it 7 days/week for the past 3 weeks!)  As of today (Friday) we have the Certificate of Occupancy which means we can now begin USING the building!

Pleiades - named after a star constellation meaning seven sisters. There is a staff apartment on the far right and the rest of the building will house female staff  in the summer and guests the rest of the year.  By the way, this building is a stone's throw from our apartment.

There was celebrating with the ringing of the dinner bell, root beer, and homemade ice cream at lunch!

Celebrating passing the final inspection! (Tom Unruh, Project Manager/Maintenance Manager; Ed Shirk, Board President; Sam Hershberger, volunteer; Jonathan; and Ardell Swartzentruber, Project Manger/volunteer)

Then on Thursday, we passed camp/kitchen inspection with flying colors.  This time, we celebrated with brats and marshmallows over a propane torch (anything to get out of the kitchen!).

Eight of our summer staff have already arrived and four have been training in the kitchen.  They are a delight and I love the energy of having them around.  This weekend the remaining 28 staff will arrive as well as the first big camp which is Colorado Roots Camp, a group of close to 80 people who teach and play music: bluegrass, folk, jazz, swing, Irish.  We hear during this week there is music in the air all day long as well as a concert every night. We are looking forward to enjoying the sounds!  Until next time.

There's Gold in Them Thar Hills! Or Not.

 A couple of months ago we visited Cripple Creek which was an old gold mining town, turned casino town. We had seen all the "Ramblin Gamblin" buses headed south on highway 67 toward Cripple Creek and wondered what was happening there.  It was a bit of a shock since I had visited there about 30 years ago when it was still a run down little mining town with some dusty antique shops and not much else.  Not the case now.  There are brand new casinos, hotels and the downtown is filled with casinos built into the old storefronts.  One casino, Bronco Billy's, takes up one whole block of the 4-block long Main Street!   We also saw houses with interesting architecture and colors.

Today we ventured to Victor, a town near to Cripple Creek: another little gold mining town.  It was quite a contrast to the newness we witnessed in Cripple Creek. It was a bit depressing what with all the abandoned buildings, store fronts, general dis-repair, and dilapidated gold mining equipment littering the countryside everywhere. Victor is the closest town to the largest gold mine in Colorado, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cripple_Creek_%26_Victor_Gold_Mine, yet for all the millions of dollars extracted, the local town doesn't exhibit much benefit.  The snow couldn't hide the huge human-made piles of mining spoils.

Abandoned mine (and dreams) combined with the gray weather made for a dismal landscape.  

Some creative soul is optimistic about Spring!

Main Street Mural added some color to the day.

What was once a booming town has dwindled to 400 people.

What once was.

One bright spot: We stopped at a lovely little German bakery in town that served fabulous food - Soup and a Miner's Pie! (It's behind the New Beetle) 

We also had coffee, a fruit turnover and a pastry called bee sting.  Delicious!  Plus the bakery's tagline is "we bake at 10,000 feet altitude where the calories all bake out!"  That's what I am talking about! We will definitely revisit.

A little flavor of the west - gotta love the blue truck at the top that says "The junk posse - our only crime is lovin' junk!"  And that is an E on the end of the name of the theater . . . just sayin!

I did wonder what makes some people leave everything to look for gold . . . in a mine or a casino.  The chances are so low for 'striking it rich' and in mining, it's such hard and dirty work!  Is it dreaming for a better life? Greed? ... It seems the cost to one's soul by both is quite high.

As Kenny Rodgers' song "The Gambler" says "you gotta know when to hold'em, know when to fold'em, know when to walk away, know when to run . . ." Now I'll have that song going through my head for the next couple of days as well as the song, "Goin' down Cripple Creek."

And here's what we saw on the road on the way back home.

Yep!  A Mountain Ewe!  

It was a great day of exploring!

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Additional wildlife sightings: at camp, last week we saw tracks of a different animal at camp last week . . . the "kitty" passed within 20 feet of our apartment! Meow!

Tom (Maintenance Director) comparing paw size to hand:  a big cat!

Yep, 4-5 inches across!

Wild turkeys, Red fox, and deer too! (but no pics.)

-Jonathan & Betty

Springtime in the Rockies? Not yet!

We hear much talk about Spring back in Indiana and other parts of the country, but I (Jonathan) don't feel it here at the camp yet!

While there IS lots of sunshine and much of the snow has melted, my body doesn't feel Spring yet! There is still LOTS of snow on the sun-sheltered slopes and I hear that for a normal year, we should expect another 14+ inches of snow! And while I'm hearing more and different birds throughout the day, I've still not seen any sign of spring flowers! (No "Sound of Music alpine meadow experience yet!) The only visual clue I've noticed that Spring may be coming was on a hike last weekend where I noticed some fresh green foliage underfoot! However, yesterday we replaced the rubber on the two plows we use for clearing the roads/parking lots in preparation for an expected spring storm this weekend! So while my head knows Spring is coming/is here, the feel of daily life just doesn't quite let my body "know" that Spring is here!

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Insert from Betty:  Earlier this week, I took a short walk to try to find a little white flower called candytuft which is the first spring wildflower to bloom here around camp.  Success!  I was delighted to find a small patch of candytufts which confirmed to me that spring is on the way!

Plus we spotted three of these lovelies prancing down the driveway a couple of mornings ago.

But I was wrong about Spring!  Here's what showed up today . . .

Not even kidding!  Over 34 inches just in time for the annual spring quilters retreat with 26 women here, sewing machines buzzing, conversation flying, and a bountiful supply of food. These women are not fazed in the least by all this snow.  They have come to expect it because it happens every year.  They just wanted to get up the mountain before it hit and they all did.  Jonathan was the taxi driver, taking them back up the curvy steep, snowy road to Emmental in shifts, the last one at 11:00 p.m.

Jonathan' and his Uncle Charles and Aunt Esther.  Esther came to quilt and Charles helped with construction in Pleiades and was very helpful with snow removal.

The path to our apartment.  The post on the left has a sign that says "no motor vehicles, please." 
As if!

Our buried Toyota Rave - only the mirror is showing.

The entrance to our apartment.

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So I (Jonathan) am enjoying this Rocky Mountain Spring and all that comes with it - it feels different. It is SO different from our Indiana Spring! And I'm glad it doesn't often snow 34 inches in 36 hours! (It's hard work plowing/shoveling all that snow and I'm ready for a rest!)  Life is hard and life is good! 

Snowing, Sewing, and Sowing

We just got through a wonderfully exhausting weekend of snowing and sewing. I had been told that the quilters retreat was one of the best weekends with sewing machines humming, creative ideas swirling all around, and delicious food.  Plus I was told that it always snows during the spring quilters retreat (Jonathan will be posting all about the snow in a later blog!). I was not disappointed. All  of that happened and more. (I also learned that "layer cakes, jelly rolls, and fat quarters" have nothing to do with food!)

Cara and Audrey, our camp granddaughters!

What I did not expect was the sense of "community" I experienced.  You know the saying, "it takes a village."  Well, I saw that happen with women teaching the younger ones and each other new quilting techniques, encouraging and cheering for each other during "show and tell," and telling stories of memories of quilting with aunts and uncles, mothers, and grandmothers.  Several of the staff  who work here at camp have children who participated in the weekend and who shared their projects including 10-year old Emma who showed us the colorful squares she was sewing together for her friends at school. And there was three-year-old Cara who pranced around with a piece of Charlie Brown fabric fastened at her neck like a Superwoman cape. She had chosen some squares which one of the other quilters sewed together for her on her sewing machine and which they shared at "show and tell".  Which prompted Cara to tell her mother at bedtime that night as she was drifting off to sleep that she wanted her own sewing machine! Seeds were sown.

Not only were there quilts being made, others made fabric bags, purses, bowls, potholders, etc.

10-year old Emma measuring and cutting her fabric.

Lauren, showing the wall hanging she made with squares of fabric from her mother's clothing.
Her mother died of cancer a year ago in April.  

Sewers and Sowers

Finished Project! 

Jonathan's Aunt Esther Nafziger cut out 34 of the needed 700 six-sided pieces (about 1/2 inch across) to begin making this wall hanging!

A pieced quilt top by Jonathan's Aunt Esther Nafziger which will be quilted and then donated to the Colorado Relief Sale.

Another completed project by Myrna - this one several years in the making.

Well, the snow has stopped, the sewers have gone home, but the "sowing" continues; providing comfort, warmth, and a sense of identity and belonging.  Here is a quote that was shared today:

"Sometimes I touch the things you touched, looking for the echoes of your fingers." --Lain Thomas

Maybe what touched me today as I observed the fabric pieces of art so lovingly and thoughtfully put together was the reminder that we all want to leave something behind to be remembered by. Something that will help tell our story.  We will all be remembered by something, whether tangible or intangible. We are all "sowers" even though we may never know the impact of our lives.  This retreat was "sew" :) much more than quilting!

This colorful wall hanging, made by my friend Anita, is a reminder of our friendship.  And, yes, that is Jonathan crashing after a weekend of snowplowing and shoveling! 

Pebbles in Our Shoes

My friend, Anita, gave me a month-long subscription to emails from one of my favorite artists (Mary Anne Radmacher) who also incorporates words/poetry into her art.  This one made Jonathan and me say "hmmmmmmm, there's a blog post here!"

We are experiencing pebbles . . . both literally and figuratively.  Our apartment sits beside a pretty steep hill so when we go across our porch, down the steps, and onto the dirt lane, we are most grateful for the pebbles that are sprinkled all over the hill to give us traction.  The sun shines directly on that dirt hill in the afternoon, melting the snow nicely.  But as soon as the sun goes down, it turns into a sheet of ice.  The camp is "green" and does not use chemicals or salt to melt the ice (besides, it would just wash away during the day!).  Instead, maintenance (Jonathan) spreads pebbles/stones over the ice to give traction for walking and driving.

It is not so great, however, when those same pebbles get lodged in the treads of shoes and dragged into our apartment and into the buildings all over camp. They become a source of irritation - potentially damaging the floors - and so add extra work for the housekeeping department (Betty). As the Radmacher quote says, "context impacts every story." 

There are also figurative pebbles that are a part of our story here at RMMC. (One of them is how to balance work / rest / recreation.) We have choices about ways in which we allow these figurative pebbles to impact our story.  How long will I put up with the irritation before removing the pebble - addressing the issue? Am I allowing this pebble to irritate into a festering wound? How can I use these pebbles in good ways  - stepping stones on my path  - rather than allowing them to lodge in my shoe - and cause untold damage?

What are the pebbles in your story?

-Betty & Jonathan

Surprises (and not!) in our first month at camp.

There are some things that have surprised us here: How blue the sky is, how easy it is to be outside during the days of winter, how much we sleep during the night (8 hours!), and how nice it is to NOT have all the "stuff" to do that filled our days and nights back home! (Though much of that was good too!

It's NO surprise that "Grandma" Betty finds the youngest staff at camp and holds on tightly! ;-)

Notice the satellite dish on the left side of the Quonset?!  I was surprised that some here  had THAT much connection to the outside world!

WHAT?! We can get a library card by the mere fact that we receive mail here?! ... YES!  First time in over 20 years since I've had one!  PLUS this library is awesome!  I've borrowed an ebook from the comfort of our apartment! ("Fives and Twenty-fives" by ___ Petri)

View of Pikes Peak from the Library

Yay!  I get to do a bit of construction! This is a platform for the Energy Recovery unit: an air exchanger to bring in fresh air and recover the BTUs i since the Pleiades building was built "too tight"!  (I didn't know that was possible! ;-)

While showshoeing, came upon a pair of tracks of apparently two different animals! Our interpretation: a Mountain Lion chasing down a deer!  They tussled in this clearing, but the deer "pooped" and got away!

Driving West from Divide takes us to Hartsel.  It's in the middle of a high plain. The surprise is that this is where the South Platte River begins!  (Yes, the one that flows through Nebraska!)  

 Betty Relaxing in our Kitchen.

This is Lefty.  Lefty is a right-hand drive 4 wheel drive utility vehicle!  He goes places the big trucks can't!

Just another view of snow covered trees at camp! (note the cute chalet on the right?!

Snowshoeing in the forest with Bets. (just outside of the camp property.)