The String Academy

A very special academy opened it's doors in our town this summer. A visiting accomplished violin player who played in our Chamber Music Series just a few years ago, fell in love with our town and dreampt of starting a summer string academy here. To make a long story short, our town embraced the idea and offered scholarships, accommodations and practice venues.

This week we were proud to house seven talented musicians from around the world.

LtoR Leonel-USA, Lily Lu-China, Brennen-USA, Erin-USA, Sara-China, Max-Peru, and Fagner-Brazil
We attended their final performance last evening and it was amazing. For more information and applicant information go 

to: String Academy

Historical Tour part ll

Back in the mining boom of the late 1800's the respectable folks in this town were not too happy about a area of town referred to as "Hell's Acre". It was the south end of a street named Bluff . Coming down from the mines that were up along Henson Creek...you arrived in town on South Bluff street. This section of Bluff had nothing but bars, dance lass and houses of ill repute. If you lived on North Bluff Street, you were careful to say you lived on "North" Bluff street. All of those sinful establishments are gone now...leaving a lot of vacant lots. Except for

this place.(built in 1891)..which was one of the prostitutes cribs, and the second home on our Historical home tour.

In it's defense, it really is a sweet little cabin

The old water pump is still on the side of the house. It is a bit hard to see in this picture, because it is painted red, like the house

I am not sure if this phone is original to the house. Maybe not since the wood looks so new.

There was a small front parlor, and this tiny kitchen

complete with a wood burning stove. I am not sure if they still use it? Maybe so since the only other cooking device was a microwave.

There were two bedrooms, both the same size, and a small bathroom with a shower.The present owners seem to take great care of this place, and it was so nice that they allowed us to tour it.

Tomorrow our final and oldest house on the tour.

Historical Tour

Driving  in to our little mountain town from the south, you pass a cabin that you probably would only give a glance.

It is not one of the new show places, or one of the cute remodeled cabins, but sixty six years ago, in 1950, it was a show place. At that time it included twelve acres, a coral (which I showed on fence day),  a caretakers cabin all right on the banks of the river,

and it had all of the latest home appliances, including this town's first dishwasher.

It was owned by a Texas Oil Company, that flew their private plane in, usually full of the who's who of the state of Texas, including two Texas Governors, and then Senator, Lyndon Baines Johnson who  later became a U.S. President.

All sorts lot of entertaining was going on, including trail rides, jeep tours, trout fishing, dancing at the Crystal Lodge, and gambling.
I am not sure but the lady fourth from the left,  looks like Lady Bird Johnson to me.

Yes, I said gambling. The basement of the house had a big bar, poker tables and slot machines.
If you will look by the head of the lady on the left (which is Grace, lady of the house),you will see they also had a slot machine in the living room.

 Before we went in, my co-hart Grant who is President of the Historical Society, and our Newspaper Editor told us several interesting stories about this property. He is a gifted story teller...as you can see everyone is hanging on his every word.

Even with different owners the house hasn't changed much over the years. It has a huge living room 30'x37',
a large fireplace, and floor to ceiling windows on the south side looking out at the river. Sorry, I was helping with the tour and didn't get a picture.

The kitchen hasn't changed much either, and is quite large with knotty pine cabinets. The fluorescent lightening was the newest type of light fixture of the time.

This pink tile bathroom screamed 1950 to me

as did this chair.
Come back tomorrow and I will show the second house on the tour.

The Clothesline

Walking past this backyard down in town took me back.

No, it wasn't the outhouse (although I did live in a house with one once). It was the clothesline. I remember having to bring the dry clothes in from the line when I came home from school in the afternoons. Did you ever have that chore?

Who Is Eating The Fence?

I drive by this corral a lot. Sometimes there are a couple of horses inside.

I have often wondered if the horses are the ones that have been chewing on the fence? I don't know anything about horses. So maybe you know....do they chew on fences?

To see other fences around the world, go : HERE

Not So Good Day ll

Okay, the previous blog was about a nice drive to our friend's for dinner. I threw that in (that was a week ago) so as to not depress you. The blog preceding that talked about my husband's crazy emergency trip to the hospital two hours away.That was Thursday...well on Friday night, the very next day, he all of a sudden started shaking all over and said he couldn't get his breath. I raced him back down to our clinic, where they discovered his temperature was 104 degrees. Yikes. Our local doc got him stabilized and said he needed to go again by ambulance to the hospital in Montrose. Wait, didn't we "break" the ambulance the day before? Yep, so they pull up in an old suburban....that apparently needs new shocks. They didn't have room for me....So I went home, and waited until first light to drive over.

The medics decided to take the short cut, a some what bumpy dirt road across the Ute Indian Reservation ....by the way I am not making this up. It is very dark out there so they couldn't have the interior light on...they needed to be able to see. What they didn't see was Tom's IV came out. Being on blood thinners, he bleed all over the back of the suburban. Arriving at the hospital, they thought he was a accident victim.

To make a long story short. He has pneumonia. Not a serious kind, but they kept him this time for two days.
Why don't I have a picture of him in the back of that suburban? Well I do...but he so nicely (not really) mentioned that he did not want to see his picture on my blog.

So, I thought I would show you a neat picture that I took driving him home across that same reservation, which is open range,

  late Sunday.

Montrose is 100 miles away. I made three round trips last week for a total of 600 miles of mountain driving. So if you need an experienced driver, I am your gal.

Come Over For Dinner

We have friends that live about thirty miles north of town.. They have invited us to dinner before. The first time we went , I kept thinking gee this isn't like going to a friend's for dinner...anywhere else.

Mainly because the drive there is so pretty. Tom and I headed north on a very wet day,

with the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River a constant companion on the east side, most of the way.

There are so many pretty things to see, or I think so since I like barns.

At one point you have to cross the river and head west....up to a much higher elevation.

 

We have arrived!

Ted and Laura have a very spacious deck that faces north

with a really pretty view.

It is apparent...with these yard sculptures, that the home could have a Southwest flair

which it does. Ted and Laura did most of the construction of their home and all of the decorating.

Our hosts. Thanks Ted and Laura for a wonderful evening!

The Not So Good Day

Thursday started out as usual around here. Tom was up early packing his lunch and preparing to meet the hiking club for an 8am departure,

when he told me he had an ache in his stomach. Having had several kidney stones in the past, the pains were awfully familiar. So (nice thing about a small town), I called the doctor at home, and he met us at the medical center. They did an ultra sound and decided, yes it was a kidney stone, but to be safe (other complications possible), they wanted to transfer him to a town about two hours away, by ambulance. No, they wouldn't let me drive him, as they wanted him on an I.V. So I ran home to pack a bag, then headed out alone, not knowing if the ambulance was ahead of me or behind.

Well, coming down a mountain pass, on a nasty curve I saw the ambulance on the side of the road. Oh dear, was Tom in some sort of distress? I went to the first place I could turn around....then realized that if I went back, there was no place for me to pull over. Lots of trucks and vacationers pulling trailers on the road. I decided to continue to Montrose which was our destination. On the way, another ambulance passed me going in the other direction....which I figured was to pick Tom up, and continue to the hospital. I was correct ,ambulance one had broken down....Was I just bragging about our medical center?

Well, I did beat Tom to the hospital, by at least an hour. By the smile on his face, he was happy to finally arrive. The hospital did tests, and administered meds and I.V's and happily the stone passed...and we were free to go home. Although, we must fill some prescriptions which would be an hours wait. The day is getting long by now.

How does this picture fit in you ask? Well, this is what he did while waiting for his meds. I guess I have never discussed how my husband doesn't like a dirty car...we are at a car wash....and yes the two pictures were taken the same day.Okay...there is and end to this. We finally head back up into the mountains. Me driving because he is still doped up. Remind me to never take off for the hills when there is only an hour of daylight left on a two hour drive.....and

to check the weather. About halfway we ran into a horrendous thunderstorm. It was a long long tedious trip home...never going over 40 mph. The good news is we arrived safely. Tom is fine, and that awful day was finally over!!!

Visit My Garden

We have a small garden plot down in the community garden in this tiny mountain town .

I enjoy putting on my sun hat every morning and gooing down to water. Won't you come along?

Before I go in, I stop to turn on the water .

I just went through this gate..careful to close it behind me...to keep the deer out.

There's the hose with a nice sprayer attached.

There is also a pile of rich soil you are welcome to,

and plenty of garden tools.

Stored away in a cute little shed .

All kinds of things at your disposal.

The fence goes all the way around ..

to keep mostly deer and rabbits out.

There is even a pretty view to the south. Looks like I don't need to water today. Oops I forgot to show you my garden.

My lettuce

Summer squash

Green onions

Parsley

Cilantro

Basil

and chives. Thanks for coming along.

I was going to link to good fences .,but need a tutorial on how to do that from this phone . Hopefully my computer will return soon ,