BACK TO THE MEDANO-ZAPATA

Traveled over the mountains and down to the San Luis Valley to visit good ol' Jeff at the ranch. While staying, we experienced a nice heat wave of 20 degrees and by the time we departed the car was plowing through 1.5 ft. of snow.


Chato in the back with new daughter Maybeline...aka... pooper in Neilios room


Buffalo hides curing with salt from the November round-up



The Heifers (cows) and Buffalo were kind enough to destroy the fence on a cowboy’s day off. Only 600 acres to repair!


Here is a scene through La Veta Pass on our way back to Boulder

New Address Alert

New Address for our new lives:

3217 Broadway
Boulder, CO 80304

We found a cute 2 bedroom house, with a backyard that will be great for working and studying from home. Even has a garage with a left to store all our mounds of crap that can no longer fit in the honey wagon. Pics coming soon of all the snow and the house. We are currently just house sitting for the man who has not moved out, but already left town. Lease starts Feb 1, so we have a little more time to be unsettled before we can really move it. Its a start.

School is great. I love it. I am so glad I came!


We went back down to the ranch this weekend and it was blanketed in snow. Here is a false sense of sunshine from this summer. The snowy buffalo pics are coming soon.

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View of the back yard from our old apartment window -- this is where Neil and I lived for 3 years in NC. The gazebo in the back yard visible through the wall of glass windows.














The backyard of my parents house with rain on the lake. gazebo, pizza oven, dock, patio, garden, etc. wedding here 1.4 years away....get pumped!

...around the rosey.....

It's here, the pocket full of posey and all....
The rouse-vittums are offically and totally engaged and well, almost married.
Here is the ring that we had designed for my at Goldworks in Chapel Hill. It's a Mokume-gane (japanese traslation: wood grain) ring, that is a traditiaonal japanese metal art of combinng metals and twisting them around. This is a combo of white, yellow and rose gold with some sterling silver in the mix for the etching details. The etching helps get that oxidized look. 4 little certified conflict free diamonds grace the top. Love it!

NC whirlwind

3 weeks in NC, visiting friends, spending time with the fam and remembering the home land.
Lots of cooking, drinkin and games. Get on the Mexican Train or go to the bone yard.















Back at old CCCC, where i got my sustainable ag and livestock management certificates....good old pittsboro, NC.



Cheryl and Gil pose in front of the remay-ed rows of kale at the Land Lab. Cheryl is the manager of this student farm and CSA project.

Check out the program here:
http://www.cccc.edu/programs/Sustainable_Agriculture.html



So yall thought we were kidding about the poison ivy, hu? Check out this tree....oh, wait those aren't branches at all, they are all poison ivy shoots. This is a classis example of what waits for you in NC, down by the shores of the Rocky River.

"A mozarella, canneloni, mastacholi...... Pizza Ball......!"

Fire up the oven mom.....this is the wood-fired pizza/bread oven that the family built together in 2002.
















Neil with the master plan.

Salty Dogs

SLC.
Drowsy Drivers, Pull Over....so the signs warn. 100s of miles of salt flat separtae SLC and the casino capital of the world, Nevada. Just some of the sights we glimpsed on the way to CA.

Salt cystals forming.

















the morton salt girl factory





















me, running on the salt flats


















No really, we just went for the buffet....

We made it!

Still in Utah where they fell compelled, out of some tax payer service, to plow the roads....headed to Wyoming where everyone is a cowboy, drives a 4-wheel drive truck and, "dont need no stinkin' plows."


The van hit I-80 running, neil didnt let up on the gas until we whipped into Boulder on saturday night. althought we drove through snow and kept the rear view mirror focussed on the ominous storm clouds mounting on the western horizon, we didnt even have to use the new chains we bought for the tires. we continued hold our breath as we boarded the bus to denver, and hopped the airplanes to chicago and finally rdu.......whew! i cant believe we made it and just in time. Crissy sent me a picture of the van totally covered in snow -- at least they cant get to it to impound it this time!





Crab Feast #3 in Berkeley with Steve and Lynda

Canine Comrades

two of the many dog friends we hung out with these past few months.

CHIEF: " i miss my home, i miss my stuff " a mastiff that you could saddle up and ride into the hill, too much drool for his own good and a countenence of a kitty kat.









VIVI LA LOO AKA THE MISSY MOOPS: I know what you are thinking, "what is keith richards doing with andy warhol's head in a dog's body?" but, the longer you are around her, the harder it is to leave her. Just make sure you keep your mouth shut around the fastest toungue this side of the wild west. I even went into dog shops to help purchase sweaters for this quaking crested hairless creature.

Cancerian Dungie - Delight

Move over Sag, the crabs are here. Our frist Dungeness crab expereince; pure butter heaven.

Happy Turkey Day!

The herbal gurggle is on vacation. Happy thanksgiving. See you after DEC 18!!!!!

On the road again...got back our hub caps...

Neil holding the much revered Acorus calamus


Back in Boulder after a long day of travel, cars, planes, buses, etc. atleast we got to top off a long day with some sushi and welcoming crissy back to her hosue in boulder.

We are curretnly "hippy dippying it out", as dawn and nate would say. In other words, we have taken over the yard and have everything we own strewn about the street. Got a ticket while we were gone that said they were going to "impound our inoperable abandoned vehicle" on october 30th (today), so i guess we got back in the nick-a. the parking guys have already cruised by 4 times, although they avert their eyes from my many glares each time. We head toward Northern California today and are just glad to be back on the road and with our car's newly rotated tires, hub caps back on, we are ready to roll. See you soon!

up, up and away.

We sold Sally's Saab to some people from Maine who decided to fly down and pick up their new car. Who knew there is a grass airstrip 10 minutes from Neil's house in West Ossipee? Wanna go for a ride?

Sesna 185: all aboard.















Move over God, Amy's the co-pilot now.


















Can you hear me now?



















The old Vittum House from the air.















in the clouds.


Such a comfy landing on the grass runway. hardly any effort to take off and suddenly we were just up in the air, in the clouds and flying over the sandwich range.

Robinhood Cove

3 Traps, 5 Lobster, and 10 Harbor Seals later, we had a great day on the water.
Freezing cold, white caps on the tidal waters and windier than hell, but we persevered and spent 4 days in Maine with Susan, Jody and our new cousin, Ahna. This is Georgetown in all its glory.

Hauling up the traps: hard work, but worth it.






















Catch of the day....Lobster with butter, lobster pizza, lobster stew, lobster.....


















She's been in the US for 4 months, but Ahna can already speak a lot of english and is learning all the important things about living on a tidal cove, like how to gather dinner.

Anha and Neil gathing mussels infront of the house.



















Ahna braiding my hair.
















Relaxing on the front porch of Susan and Jody's house with Sophie.

Bean Town

I searched the streets high and low for NKOTB, but even the funky bunch eluded me.
All i found was this cute lady on her new front porch across from Tuffs: go jumbos!

What about now?

Do you all think we are mycology dorks yet?
Cant help it. Here are some really cute pics of a mushroom club (totally not dorky) walk that we went on a couple weeks ago in the pouring rain. We collected 100+ species that day in just a couple hours.


Exhibit A




















Sauteeing up some Trumpet Chantrells from a dliciuous and nutritious snack.

NGs Sweep NH

NGs to the rescue. A little time with some ladies you have known half your life is always a good thing. Jordan, Susan and Brian flew in last Friday and stayed until Monday night. Its so fun having new people up to NH -- i get to see New England again through their eyes, it makes me remember the first time i ever came to Tamworth and how shocked i was to see how tiny this little village is and how far everyone has to drive everyday to accomplish necessties like working and grocery shopping.

Paddle Boat on Lake Choquarua, with Mount Choquarua in the back.
















On the Train to Crawford Notch.



















Leaf Peeping through the Notch.



















One of the cutest things i have found in a long time:
a baby snapping turtle.

















The boys in a birch-bark canoe.
















Brian and Neil tasting delights from The Creamery.

Bald Knob

"Baby steps up the hill...." Family Hike up Bald Knob...only the strong survived. Beautiful view of Lake Winnepasaukee...."dr. marvin? dr LEO MARRRRVINNN!"

Amadou

No, not, Amadou Diallo, Amadou the mushroom fabric!
We just returned from West Paris, Maine from the home of one Brenda Lynn Gould and John Haney. Brenda was a student at SWSBM in 2002 and made the trip to AZ this year to teach about medicinal mushrooms. She lives so close to Neil we made a pilgramage to her farm and to search the "back 40" for all kinds of fun fungi.



















Here I am carving out the True Tinder Polypore for its fuzzy felt like material that comes from mushrooms!


















The True Tinder Polypore. Little hooves stuck to trees.





















West Paris Expanse