Well, the long awaited day in July has come! Yesterday I received, via mail, the congratulatory news of a full scholarship for the entire 2008-2009 school year!
Long ago, back in late February, early April, I had to compose a 900 word essay. I know, you're all laughing, knowing that a 900 word essay would be a piece of cake, since you all know how much I like to talk!! Truly that was the easy part and the rest was the waiting. I was surprised to see that the majority of scholarships were given on the basis of need, but that there were only a few that were given on merit.
With God all things are possible, even when things seem improbable, and I am grateful to be awarded THE BARBER FAMILY FOUNDATION MERIT SCHOLARSHIP. With all the competition, there are certainly a lot of deserving and qualified students who were equivocally deserving of this gift, so I just feel very humbled and blessed to be the recipient of such a generous scholarship!
My thanks go to Mr. & Mrs. Barber, who created this scholarship in 1994. Their daughter Cathy, was a graduate from the school I am presently attending. Mr. Barber has been on the RRCC Foundation Board of Directors since 1996. He is an accomplished wildlife photographer and a world class glider pilot. He and his wife are strong proponents of education and wish to give RRCC students the opportunity to pursue their educational goals.
I am excited to meet this family and express my personal thanks to them! In the interim, the foundation gave all recipients the donors' addresses so that we can begin our relationship with a deserving letter of thanks!
It is easy for me, at times, to get dismayed about the economy and wrapped up in all the negative news events, but today I have been reminded that it's never to late in life, even being thirty something, to reach our dreams! Truly, America is still a great land of opportunity! With some dedication, hard work and folks like the Barber's, success is more attainable!
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Wisconsin's Most Wanted List
NO, we are not talking about cows and cheese curds. We are talking about DRAGONFLIES!!!
Say what???
You heard me.
Apparently these dragonflies have MOOOOved from Wisconsin and now they are all the BUZZZZ at the Samuels' house. Here's the story:
Leave it to Whitley to try and nurse any animal back to health. You name it, we have had it here at our Wildlife Refuge..., I mean house. Yes, we have had bats, woodpeckers, saw whet owls, a fox with a broken leg, a salmander with an amputated tail, snakes that apparently weren't slitthering fast enough for my daughter's hands, mud puppies and the like.
Yesterday's featured rescue was a Dragonfly. Of course this not just any old dragonfly; this is the Aeshnidae, aka. "Darners".
Need a Biology translation in English?
No problem; I can help!
In short, we are dealing with a dragonfly. In a taxonomic classification system, the family in which this particular dragonfly belongs to is the Aeshnidae. The order is Odonata. The taxaniomic system simply lumps and splits things together. Basically, it states how plants and animals are alike...and how they are different.
This dragonfly is about 4 inches long. It is the largest dragonfly in the US!!!! It's body shape looks like a sewing needle as the abdomen thins directly below the thorax. Hence the common name "Darner", like a darning needle.
Other indicators are that their eyes touch at the top middle of their heads, their wings are clear with the exception of a small stigma (mark) on the tops side of the wing. Males are more blue and females are more blue green. This dragonfly is closely related to the "Libelluloide" aka the "Emerald". The only difference is the "Emerald" is, you guessed it, emerald green!
After doing some research, we confirmed with certainty that we have a "Darner". No, make that a sick and injured Darner.
The Darners flight patterns occur 20% in July, 40% in Aug., and 40% in Sept. We read that in Wisconsin, this Dragonfly has been placed on their "Most Wanted" list as the numbers and information about them have depleted in recent years.
How great! Our own little field zoologist/biologist, Whitley Samuels, was going to provide the State of Wisconsin with some much needed information about "Darner" and how we are now seeing them in the Wild West Rockies of Colorado. Oh happy day!
Until today, that is.....
The "Darner" has expired!!! Flatlined, croaked, keeled over, DEAD!!!
And so, today we led a funeral march to the beat of an old Folgers can with our beloved Darner, entombed in ZIPLOC container to our very own Pet Cemetary. The colorful Darner now joins the remains of a red headed woodpecker, a robin (both of which crashed into our 25 ft. window) and a hamster. (sniff sniff)
And so the Darner will continue to be on Wisconsin's Most wanted list, and off the list Whitley most wanted....., to rescue an animal from the wild.
However, all is not vain; she tried her best while adding some information to her zoological repetoire' to boot!
Saturday, July 12, 2008
County Roof Inspector Gives us a SURPRISE!!!
The county roof inspector popped in for a "mid-roof inspection" and John passed with flying colors!
He and the inspector chatted for a bit and he told John it wasn't necessary to do the other side since it had south west exposure and did not dam up.
But how were the two sides going to meet at the ridge vent if one side was thicker/higher???
Well, you simply cut the difference off the ridge vent on the lower side! Apparently this is totally acceptable with the county! So....John only has to do one side and the job is officially done after 4 LOOONNNNNG, HOT days!
Another bonus is, we loaded up the other half off the materials, returned them to Home Depot and put $500 back in to savings! PTL!!!
He and the inspector chatted for a bit and he told John it wasn't necessary to do the other side since it had south west exposure and did not dam up.
But how were the two sides going to meet at the ridge vent if one side was thicker/higher???
Well, you simply cut the difference off the ridge vent on the lower side! Apparently this is totally acceptable with the county! So....John only has to do one side and the job is officially done after 4 LOOONNNNNG, HOT days!
Another bonus is, we loaded up the other half off the materials, returned them to Home Depot and put $500 back in to savings! PTL!!!
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Swedish Doors
My grandmother and her parents immigrated to the US from Sweden....just ask anyone how well we "burn" instead of "tan".
I may not be thrilled with my complection, but I do love learning about the Swedish culture and heritage. Everyone knows that I have worn clogs since the 70's, love wool nordic sweaters and enjoy Grandma's Swedish Meatballs! However, as I've gotten older I have taken a liking to collecting antique pieces that are Swedish as well. I have a dala horse, a tine' and a svelt pick. One thing I would love to have is an old trunk or armoire. I love the old crackeled paint and a technique they use called rosemaling (flowers and swirls). These old pieces can be purchased for 6-15 thousand dollars!! It obviously doesn't seem like one of these pieces will ever be in my possession......SOOOOO, about two years ago, I started studying the rosemaling and painting techniques. Perhaps I could create my own antique rendition!
My old laundry room bi-fold doors have many cracks in them and we have glued them back together several times. Several months ago, a large piece splintered and broke off from the door. Hmmmm, finally some "character" to those old doors. Since John has plans of remodeling that area NEXT year, and the doors most like would go to a landfill, I decided to see if I couldn't breathe some Swedish life into the things.
For the last three days I have worked away, transforming my old laundry doors into Nordic pieces of art. I am very happy with the result, even though I may get to enjoy them for a year or so more. Who know, I may even cut them down into wall art or a headboard!!!
So what do you think? Swedish success or UMPHFTA!!!
3rd Time's a Charm
We can only hope this saying is true as this is the third time John has had to work on our roof since we switched from asphalt to steel shingles. For some reason, this roofing system has not ventilated as well and causes ice dams to form up above in the area between the two ladders. A year ago, it migrated so far in that it made it into the house and caused a lot of water damage; hence why we remodeled the upstairs.
This time, he is putting on what they call a "cold roof"'. This is where he took off the steel roof, peeled off all the asphalt shingles. Next he placed firring strips (1x4's) and then put wafer board over that on the entire roof. Then, more 30# roofing felt over that. Still yet another layer is an asphalt membrane that goes around the outer perimeter. Finally, he will put the steel roof back on!
We were thankful for nice weather and safety today. We did not make as much progress as we hoped, but are slowly making progress. This is officially the first day of John's summer vacation and he has the next two weeks off (some vacation, huh?). He anticipates the roof to take a week of that time. Fortunately, he will have an additional 4 weeks off at home as I recover from surgery, so he should be good as new when he goes back to work!
Better yet, the roof willl be good as new too! As they say, 3rd time's a charm!! Yes, we can only hope!
This time, he is putting on what they call a "cold roof"'. This is where he took off the steel roof, peeled off all the asphalt shingles. Next he placed firring strips (1x4's) and then put wafer board over that on the entire roof. Then, more 30# roofing felt over that. Still yet another layer is an asphalt membrane that goes around the outer perimeter. Finally, he will put the steel roof back on!
We were thankful for nice weather and safety today. We did not make as much progress as we hoped, but are slowly making progress. This is officially the first day of John's summer vacation and he has the next two weeks off (some vacation, huh?). He anticipates the roof to take a week of that time. Fortunately, he will have an additional 4 weeks off at home as I recover from surgery, so he should be good as new when he goes back to work!
Better yet, the roof willl be good as new too! As they say, 3rd time's a charm!! Yes, we can only hope!
Sunday, July 6, 2008
The DOG DAYS of Summer
I'm sure you all have experienced days like these. Days that are long and hot and the fish aren't even biting. Well, I had one of those days today and decided to see what I could do here at home without burning $100 bucks worth of gas to go somewhere, only to spend more money.
Here's what I did:
This is an old picture (taken at night) of what my kitchen looked like at about 2 pm today.
Here's my kitchen at 4:30 pm. I took out a nearly full gallon of paint to touch up the scuffs and holes around the the rest of the house. It had been three years since I had done such. Realizing that the paint would probably go bad before the next time I "touched up" I decided to paint my kitchen with the "left-overs". My kitchen was a faux finish that I did nearly 11 years ago, but it looked tired, dull and had some grease splatters and other foreign globs of stuff here and there on the walls. I decided to paint it the same color of the rest of the house and modify some curtains and VIOLA! I now have a bright SUNNY, SUMMERY space!
After that, I still had some energy, or maybe too much Starbucks/Pepsi caffeine in my system so I decided to torment Goosebumps and get some pictures of her. After I was satisfied with the shot I was looking for, I decided to edit the photo on the computer and come up with some fresh new wall-art.
How appropriate; sunny kitchens and canine photos
Here's what I did:
This is an old picture (taken at night) of what my kitchen looked like at about 2 pm today.
Here's my kitchen at 4:30 pm. I took out a nearly full gallon of paint to touch up the scuffs and holes around the the rest of the house. It had been three years since I had done such. Realizing that the paint would probably go bad before the next time I "touched up" I decided to paint my kitchen with the "left-overs". My kitchen was a faux finish that I did nearly 11 years ago, but it looked tired, dull and had some grease splatters and other foreign globs of stuff here and there on the walls. I decided to paint it the same color of the rest of the house and modify some curtains and VIOLA! I now have a bright SUNNY, SUMMERY space!
After that, I still had some energy, or maybe too much Starbucks/Pepsi caffeine in my system so I decided to torment Goosebumps and get some pictures of her. After I was satisfied with the shot I was looking for, I decided to edit the photo on the computer and come up with some fresh new wall-art.
How appropriate; sunny kitchens and canine photos for the DOG DAYS OF SUMMER!
THE LAKE, in the Summer
Today I visited the lakehouse. We have spent many Christmas eves, celebrations, hiking and ice skating here. There is a golf course nestled in the trees in the background. The lakehouse is the hub of our community.
It's hard to believe that we stand and skate on this very spot in the winter months. Today, there are birds flitting in the air and ducks gliding about the rippled, glassy surface of the lake. Off in the distance folks have hung up their ice skate and snow shoes and drug out the canoes and paddle boats. Yes, this is the lakehouse. I wonder why in the winter months, people do not call the icehouse??? Sort of like how you park in a driveway and drive on a parkway. Funny how our language is. Maybe we could settle the confusion and just call this gathering place a cabin!
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