We had wind weather alerts Saturday evening through this morning The wind picked up during the night and it was really rocking. I was sitting in the chair near the fireplace and could see the glass of the atrium roof flexing with the big gusts. The noise was pretty impressive too. Fortunately, the animals did not seem to be concerned, so I felt we were doing ok. However during the night, our power went out several times for a considerable time. Fortunately, we have a propane generator that kicks in within a few seconds of the power going out. It was not a big issue, since most of the time we were sleeping, until the machines beeped and squeaked when the power came back on. For example, we have an airbed, and every time the power came back on, the pump system cycled. We got a phone call at 5:15 am while the power was out, but by the time I got to the phone, it had gone to callnotes. I went back to bed, waiting for another call, which did not come. My mind was considering who had called and having young adult children, one always worries that it might be a problem. But they didn’t call back, so I assumed it was not a true emergency.

However, in the light of day, we have learned that there may have been winds in excess of 100 mph in the valley. Many areas of rural Westcliffe are without power and may be without power for a few more days due to downed trees. Trees fell across homes, roofs were ripped off, lightly restrained items blew away, etc. The phone call was from the alarm central letting us know that the alarm at the store was showing a low battery alert. I guess it doesn’t take long for the battery to wear down if the power is out for an extended time.

Midmorning, we got a call from the business next door, letting us know that our exterior sign was hanging from only one support and might be hitting the building. Jay was on his way to town anyway, and was able to check it out. Fortunately the downtown area, including our store, has power.When he returned, he said that somehow the sign seemed to have worked its way out of the closed hook that supported it. The hook and the link did not seem to be broken. The sign is slightly bent from the wind action. Our friend, Greg, took a picture and sent it to us.

I have spoken to 2 friends who have been without power since around midnight, who have no idea how long they will be without power and it gets very cold here at night, friends. We are very fortunate to have our generator and electricity, and not to have had any of the Aspen trees fall across our driveway. Jay couldn’t fix the sign today, he didn’t have a tall enough ladder. Tomorrow he will get the sign reattached by standing on the tall ladder which is tied down on our trailer tonight. Life here is an adventure.

We had a big winter storm this week. Tuesday morning, the sun was shining and the wind howling with snow projected late in the day. It didn’t actually begin until after we went to bed, but there was a beautiful coating of snow on Wednesday morning. It snowed all day into the evening. I took pictures from the porch upstairs and downstairs, a kind of before and after, so you could see it. I stayed home all day, working on the computer, baking bread, etc. I love snowy days, especially when I don’t have to drive in it. The day was capped off by a lovely dinner at our friends, Tim and Marilyn, who had come back from Florida to winterize their mountain home. Tim is an excellent cook and taught us how to prepare the yellow fin tuna that Jay caught in Mexico in September. If you don’t know that story, wait.. it will be in a later post.

Today I am packing and finishing last minute business, because I am heading to Austin, TX tomorrow. It is Julia’s birthday and we will be loading her furniture into a UHaul truck on Saturday. She is taking her bedroom furniture and household belongings back up to north Texas, Lewisville, to be exact on Sunday. Now that she has a contract for the school year teaching middle school history in Irving ISD, she has moved out of  the Fallin’s home and into her own apartment. It will be a quick and busy turnaround for Julia, but we will all get to wish her happy birthday and help her with her move.

I am staying in Austin until Tuesday, so I will have time to play Grandma with the Eli and Maya. I understand there is a stack of books waiting to be read, Halloween festivities to enjoy and visits to the park to see new skills in swinging, all waiting for me. I expect to get good hugs and kisses too.

On Tuesday, I head to Houston for the International Quilt Festival. I will be traveling with my friend and our store manager, Sue. Ted and Jay will have to man the store themselves next week. We will be there for 2 days of classes and 4 days of being immersed in the world of quilts and quilting. This year, we are staying at the Hilton Americas, which is attached to the convention center. No long walks or bus rides to get to the show this year. I intend to send updates from the IQF and Houston, so keep watching.

Lots more to do before I can head to the plane tomorrow.  Later!

Jay just told me a good story from his work today. One of our friends, John, came into the pawn shop this afternoon and asked Jay about his metal detector. Jay pointed to it on the wall and said, “It’s over there.” John said that one of his friends was out hunting, had lost his gold wedding ring and wanted to buy the metal detector to look for it. Jay told him to just take it, use it, then bring it back. A short time later, John comes walking into the store with the metal detector. Sure enough, they found the ring! Jay was amazed and told John that many people had borrowed it for a similar purpose, but rarely had anyone found their lost jewelry. John said they had been looking in the right area, but someone must have stepped on it during the search, and when the metal detector squealed, they only had to brush a little soil away and there it was. A few hours later, the hunter in question came strolling into the store in camouflage to thank Jay personally for helping them find his wedding ring. No word on how successful his hunting was however.

I have a co-worker on a volunteer committee that I am on. She is a single mom of a 13 yr old son and lives here in the valley. She missed a meeting this week, and when we spoke the next day, she told me that she and her parents and son had been out hunting for 5 days. Diane and her 75 year old mother both hunt, and on the last day of their outing, she told me that “she (Diane) got a bull.” I had never heard a deer called a bull, so I clarified that she meant bull ELK, and she said yes. I told her that she and her mom were my heroes for a) hunting without men and b) bagging a bull elk. I knew she was a reasonable woman when she told me they stayed in her parents travel trailer, instead of tent camping. But it is nice to know that here in the valley, we have strong women teaching their sons to hunt successfully. Congratulations to Diane!

I get my news about the Texas sports teams, Rangers, Cowboys and Longhorns from my Texas friends on Facebook. Even when I don’t know the scores, I can tell how they are doing by the happy, sad, excited or depressed posts. My friends, and that may include some readers here, tend to post regularly during the game, cheering their team on or complaining about the officials, etc. That was how I learned that the Rangers had made it into the World Series. Last night, Jay and I watched game 2 of the WS while we bowled, even sitting at the table after our series was over, waiting for the last 3 St. Louis outs to give the Rangers the win to tie the series.

Jay has been doing very well in bowling this season, most days. Last night he had a 216 average for the three games, while I was 7 pins below my average for the 3 games. Every once in a while, I will have a good series and get my name on the board for the week, more often I am just making my average, give or take a little. But I feel like I have found a good style and release and am practicing on being consistent with both. This year, I plan on bringing my own bowling ball and shoes with me to El Dorado for the holidays. So if and when we take a field trip to bowl, I’ll have my own equipment.

I just love college football. I like to follow the teams that are important to my friends and family. Obviously, my Sooners who are having an excellent year, Arkansas, Auburn, Nebraska, Alabama and Texas, especially if they are playing other teams that I don’t care about. I hope the Big 12 holds together and rebuilds, it has been such a strong conference.

Go Rangers! Boomer Sooner!

You may have received an email alerting you to a new post on Printz Family Blog, only to find out that it was from 2008! What is that all about, you are asking yourself. Well, it is me trying to get back to blogging, reading old posts and remembering the events since we moved to Colorado, and hitting “publish” without thinking while I was reading the blog. But I really enjoyed seeing all of the pictures of our visitors, wild life, snow and stuck cars, etc, etc. and got inspired (again).

In September, 2011, some Arkansas hunters that we have gotten to know and befriend from El Dorado, stopped in the store to visit and catch up on their annual bow hunting trip in deer season. They commented on how they enjoy my blogs and like to go look at pictures of the Sangres de Cristo mountains taken from our porch and it makes their day better. I thought that was so sweet and had not thought about how my blogs might impact others. I resolved to do a better job and resume blogging more frequently with shorter posts, so I could keep up. Then Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur came and I thought, “This is a good time to start, at the new year.” Then during my mental meanderings during Yom Kippur I thought, “This is a good time to blog, you can write about friends and family who are no longer with us and what they meant to you.” And here I am, not doing any of those things, BUT I did take the first step, breaking the barrier of the first blog in a long time.

I closed the email account of barbara@printzfamily.com due to too much spam, so if you still have that address in your email lists, you can delete it. Any mail sent there will bounce back. I asked Matt to make a new email address for the use of the blog, and it is babs@printzfamily.com. So hopefully, if you have subscribed to the blog, you will still get emails of updates just from a new address.  I am primarily using my gmail account, so please use that if you have it. There won’t be any exciting news in this post, just an exercise in getting back in the blogging groove and a commitment to myself to keep it up. See you soon!

Friday, May 13th, was Julia’s graduation cum laude from University of North Texas, School of Education. Jay and Ted flew into Austin on Thursday, the 12th, got to meet Maya and make friends again with Eli, and then we left for Denton on Friday morning. We were joined at the graduation ceremony by Matt and Molly, cousin Jennifer and her husband Tommy , and Julia’s good friend, Candace and her mom, Lisa. Lisa took some amazing photos of Julia with her telephoto lens, while we had our cell phones and a Flip camcorder. You may be able to see Lisa’s photos of Julia’s graduation on either Julia’s or my facebook pages, but here are a few of them in case you can’t. Thank you, Lisa! Wallace and Jen watched the graduation online and probably had a better view of Julia than we did, we were up high in the arena. Since they couldn’t travel to be with Julia, Wallace made his acclaimed chocolate chip cookie cake for her and sent it up with us for her after party. (It is acclaimed to be wonderful by everyone who tries it!) We held the after party at Hickory Street Lounge, owned by Candace’s parents. They were wonderful to us and everyone had a good time.

We are so proud of Julia, graduating with honors, and being such a wonderful person all of the time. She is certified to teach middle school social studies and has an ESL, English as a Second Language, certification too. She will be a wonderful teacher.

Julia is moving to Austin to live with Wallace and Jen, and on Saturday, we loaded up a rental truck to bring her furniture and “stuff” to their home. Everything was accomplished very smoothly with the good work Julia did before we got there, Jay and Ted working together efficiently to load the trailer, and me staying out of everyone’s way! We even had time to slip in a lunch visit to Uncle Julio’s in Fort Worth, one of our favorite restaurants.

Sunday, we took family photos with the assistance of cousin Jessie. Thank you, Jessie! and thanks to Wallace and Matt for their professional equipment and excellent photographic knowledge and technique. It was an almost painless experience!

After lunch, we unloaded the truck and got Julia’s “stuff” sorted out, packed away, and the furniture set up all before 5 pm.

A good day, until we had to say goodbye to Julia, who returned to Denton to complete her substitute teaching assignment. Jay and Ted stayed two more days to enjoy Eli and Maya and returned to Westcliffe on Wednesday, May 18th, coming home to snow showers. They left Colorado in snow and returned to snow, while Texas is enjoying 80 to 90 degree days.

I arrived in Austin on April 24th to await the arrival of our granddaughter. We thought she might come early, being a second child and her brother had set the precedence, and we were all waiting to meet her. But she wasn’t cooperating with us. I was able to take Eli to do activities like go to the grocery store, to library story time, to the park, etc while his parents kept midwife and medical appointments, worked or rested. Eli was very comfortable coming with me and leaving his parents behind, which was wonderful. If there were no appointments in the morning, Jen and I would find an activity to do with Eli. In the afternoons, Jen and Eli napped and I did my bookkeeping on the laptop. Wallace was able to leave work a little early, prepared our dinners, gave Eli his bath, while I cleaned the kitchen and Jen rested. We wanted her to conserve her energy for the big job ahead of her. We all had our jobs to do and quickly fell into a routine of working and waiting.

Maya arrived on May 7th, her due date, at 2:22 am at the Austin Birth Center. Everyone is well, she is beautiful, Eli is a good big brother for two years old, and Jen is regaining her strength and ability to bend over! Her name was a secret until the announcement of her arrival, which came in at 2:35 am CST. Wallace did a good job of notifying the important parties right away. She weighed in at 8lb 2oz and 20 3/4 or 21 inches, depending upon whether you accept the midwife’s or the doctor’s measurements. That puts her in the 75th percentile for weight and 90th for height. She is nursing well, and had her two week followup appointment with the pediatrician on Friday, May 20th, and had gained over a pound already.

Maya is now 3 weeks old and is a wonderful baby. She is nursing well, gaining weight, sleeping fairly well at night, smiling and charming everyone. Eli continues to be a caring, loving brother, and is adjusting to the new family dynamics well. I am enjoying every minute of my time with Eli and Maya, and of course all of the adult Printzes, here in Austin.

The Loan A Ranger Pawn and Guns has relocated. Our ribbon cutting was April 22nd at 10 am. We had about 20 friends and customers there before 10 am to enjoy coffee, fruit and coffee cake. Most of us made a line holding the ribbon, and the Westcliffe mayor, Christie Veltrie, cut the ribbon. After a busy morning of congratulations, schmoozing, eating, etc. the day slowed down. Sue and I cleaned the old location and prepared the final items for removal. Sue actually did most of the work and she did a great job. I am including photos here of the store from that day and this week, when the store is a little more finished. We still are awaiting the exterior sign, which will hang on a bracket away from the building and will be similar to the design on the front door.

The next morning, I left for Texas. It was 29 degrees and spitting snow at the house, 90 degrees in Austin! It snowed on and off all day in Westcliffe, while I had a pleasant drive to spend the night with Jewls. The rainstorms, thunder and lightning, came when I was only about 45 miles from her apartment. The next morning I headed out to Austin, after visiting with our friends and Jewls’ surrogate family, the Fallins. I am currently in Austin, awaiting the arrival of baby girl Printz, and helping out around the house and with Eli. I can work remotely on my office management and bookkeeping duties during naptime each day. Eli is so much fun, and he is showing that he is ready to be a good big brother. Jay and Ted are holding down the store in CO, but will come to Texas in a few weeks to meet the new baby and to celebrate Jewls’ graduation from UNT. Life is GOOD.

Loan A Ranger Pawn and Loan is moving down the street. After two years in business, it became clear that we needed more space. This was not a surprise, we have been crowded in the space for a while, but I guess you could say we hit a wall and it smacked us in the face. Fortunately at the same time, a building a block and a half away became available and will fit our needs very well. We were able to buy the building on March 28th, and got right to work. We are moving from 401 Main to 206 Main, across from our local library and right in the middle of downtown and the tourist area.

The original building was built in 1947, and was advertised as a fire proof building. It has been several grocery stores, a pharmacy, a butcher shop, a department store, a western store (tack, boots, and tourist items), and most recently a ship and mail store. We weren’t fond of the pink stucco, so we have updated the exterior to look like a log building. The exterior is not quite complete, but these are the stages in progress so far. We have ordered a new sign for the store, which will feature a cowboy on a horse rearing up on his hind legs, plasma cut from sheet metal and hanging on a bracket.

This shows the transition from the original exterior with our contractor, Cecil, posing on the scaffolding, to the finished siding with one coat of stain, to the second coat of stain and half of the window trim out. We are painting the current red door and new window trim a deep green and there will be “chinking”, between each “log”, to look more like a log cabin. We have been moving merchandise to the store while other interior work has been done, building boxes around our security gates to hide them during the day, and a refurbish of 4 display cabinets that we bought for the new store. Today we were able to move 3 of the display cabinets from the original store, and some shelving. The move continues tomorrow, Sunday. On Monday, the telephone will be transferred from the 401 to 206, and after that, in the afternoon, the alarm will be transferred. Monday will also see the relocation of the two gun safes, and some other really heavy things. We will have the help of a friend who has the right kind of equipment to move the safes. This will be something to see. We used manual labor and a couple of dollies to get them in… it was hard work.

Ted has been working in the store since January. He is doing well and has been very helpful with the move, not complaining once about the hard work. I will continue to take photos to chronicle the transition and post them later. Our friend, Sue, has been invaluable in this whole process, keeping us all on track, focused, and giving good suggestions on how to arrange the store and merchandise. We are lucky to have her working with us. We have scheduled a ribbon cutting ceremony next Friday, April 22nd at 10 am. The mayor of Westcliffe who is also our friend, will be there to cut the ribbon with us.

So if you have been to Westcliffe and visited our shop, it will be different next time you come by to visit. Hopefully, this move will be good for us, more room to display items and to move around and good for the downtown community by attracting additional customers to our quaint downtown. All of the neighboring merchants seem to be happy with our move.

After the ribbon cutting, I will travel on Saturday to Texas and Julia by car. My final destination is Austin, to be there to help Wallace, Jen and Eli before and after baby girl Printz arrives. Jay and I have been calling her Elilah, a feminine play on Eli’s name, as we are sure that it is a name, Jen and Wallace will not choose. I will stay in Austin until it is time for Julia’s graduation from UNT School of Educution on May 13th. More on both of those events in the near future.

Wednesday started out as a normal day, the guys were still fishing and I have bowling and volunteer library duties. Eli loved the bowling center, he ran around in big circles: down onto the tile floor where the tables are and then up the ramp onto the carpet where the restaurant and the lockers are, around and around. He wasn’t my lucky charm for bowling, because I was pitiful. Our team lost 3 out of 4 points – 2 games and total pins, and our opponents were missing one bowler! Sue was minding the store so Jay and I could play grandparents. Thanks, Sue! Uncle Teddy joined us for lunch at Rancher’s Roost, inside the bowling center, which was very nice.

We were concerned that Eli might “give out” before I finished shelving at the library, but we gave it a try. We brought out the stroller and Jen tried walking him up and down Main Street to see if he would fall asleep in the stroller. But before he accomplished that, it started to rain. Jen reminded me that my windows were open in the car, so I dashed down the block in the rain and rolled up the windows before it started in earnest. But earnest it was, a good hard rain with thunder. Eli did fall asleep in the stroller and Jen got some time on a library computer. But before I finished shelving (I still had half of the fiction and all of adult nonfiction to go), Eli woke up and we decided it was best to take him home.

As we drove up the driveway, almost to Barbara’s guard rail, we noticed a tree on the left side of the driveway was on fire, with flames!, and smoke rolling down the hill. We immediately assumed lightning strike and called 911 as soon as we walked in the door. We decided to go down to the end of the driveway and direct the firefighters when they arrived. We stopped and took pictures of the fire on the way down, since we knew the trucks came from town and would need at least 25 minutes to get to our house. Two firetrucks arrived, #4 and then #15. They were not big, we only had a small fire, and they came with lights flashing but no sirens. Our firefighters are all volunteer, and are very professional. Our community was recently the incident command central for the firefighters from all over the West, who battled the Medano forest fire, which was started by lightning in the Great Sand Dunes National Park. So fires started by lightning strikes are taken seriously in the West, as I am sure you have seen on national news coverage.

Eli liked watching the bright red fire trucks arrive and we followed #15 up the drive. The firefighters were very happy to hear that the tree in question was on the side of the road and not off road in the middle of the forest . They foamed the tree very well, disturbed all of the ground cover at the base of the tree, mixing the foam in and looking for hot spots, and made sure that the fire was out and the tree cool before leaving. I took video of a lot of the process from a distance, I didn’t want to be in the way. Eli was interested for a while, but it was a slow process, and moved on to his own entertainments… snack & pretend driving the car with the emergency brake on.

I checked with the head guy as they were leaving. He said they felt the tree had been hit at the top and the energy traveled down through the tree to the base. The road side flames were out by the time they arrived, but there were still flames on the hill side of the tree which we could not see. They thanked us for calling them and we thanked them for their excellent work.

Jen and I felt that if we had been at home, we would have known that there was a nearby lightning hit, but we could not see the tree, the flames or even the smoke from the house and we knew where it was. The fire could have progressed dramatically and we would not have known it for a long while until it was very dangerous. So we think it was very good luck that Eli woke when he did and that we did not dawdle but went straight home. It was an adventure that was exciting and had a good outcome, no forest fire!