A Year of Change

Ok, our wine wasn’t delivered yesterday after all as the trucking company couldn’t fit it in the schedule. We’re told it’ll be here this morning which is fine as we weren’t really ready for it anyhow.

Here’s a comment from Aunt Robi,

Robi says:

Today is the 1st of July meaning lots of new laws go into effect today around the country. Here in Colorado we have new guns laws (stupid) and others which are just another over reach by useless politicians. More importantly we have some new laws around the Fugate household.

First up is a whole new set of rules (chores) for the boys. Starting today they have a few new items on their daily schedule.

Starting the day off, they will now be making their beds. They have been doing this but not on a regular basis. Up next, one of them (we’ll be alternating) will be emptying the dishwasher and the other will load it after dinner. Each kiddo now has to take a shower each and every day. (you have no idea how long boys will go between showers if you let them) They must do their daily school work which is less than 30 minutes a day to keep sharp during the summer. Their rooms must be kept clean, they’re responsible for bringing down their dirty laundry and putting away their clean clothes. Throw in an immediate reading session for cursing and the occasional dog poop pick up and there you have it. All in all not really that much work and they boys have done all of this every now and then but starting today, we’re aiming for consistency.

We’re out of town Wednesday until Saturday and before then we have lots going on like 5 pallets of wine arriving today. Everyone will chip in in some way to help. We have James (who used to take care of my dad) coming over with a friend or two to carry it as I don’t want to jack my knee up. It’ll then all sit here until the weekend when we start boxing it up for Fed Ex next Monday.

The oldest woke up around 4am with an ear ache, that swimmers ear is still bothering him. Looks like with us gone this week, swimming is about done for the year anyhow. The neighbor kids are going away for a month on a camping/driving trip. We’re actually glad they’re gone as the older kid is pretty freakin weird. Meanwhile the youngest slept with me while Mom went in with the oldest, and the youngest, in usual fashion, was twisting and turning all night long. He’s getting too big to sleep with us but last night both boys were scared from something or another.

Time to run and move some furniture around and turn the house into a warehouse for the next month or so. Ah the joys of being self employed. Hope everyone is doing well, keep your chin up and hang in there, take care and God Bless.

We hit the road sometime after 11am and headed for the border, the Colorado Wyoming border that is, not Taco Bell. We finally pulled into the ranch around 3pm after several stops on the way up. First up was some shooting where the oldest couldn’t get enough. He’s a pretty good shot hitting a can of green beans 3 times in a row when we were wrapping up. We then drove down by the old homestead cabin which by some miracle is still standing. Then it was off to the picnic to meet the new owners of the neighbors ranch. First though the youngest wanted to drive so he sat on my lap and drove the car for the 2 mile stretch up the dirt road to the highway. You might remember I had let the oldest drive the truck by himself last fall when we were hunting which spurred the youngest guys drive. His logic was “you let Jagger”. Hard to argue with that and besides, he was on my lap with me working the gas and brake. Oh by the way, tons of antelope up there right now, fun to see.

We pulled up and things were hopping. We had to pull around a stagecoach being pulled by 2 huge clydesdales as it was giving rides to people, about half kids and half adults. The old west seems to bring out the kid, even in adults! Our boys must have ridden 3 or 4 times around the ranch sitting on top of the stagecoach like John Wayne in their cowboy hats and boots. The oldest was wearing Grandpa’s old Lucchese boots. He was surely the only 11 year old wearing $500 cowboy boots! Hard to believe he’s a size 9 1/2 these days. The new owner is a real nice guy and so is his ranch manager. They told us anytime we wanted to come up and use the lodge (which they just totally remodeled) we’re more than welcome. They made us walk up and take a tour, real nice. Super nice guys and they’ll be good for the area. They already own a 6000 acre spread in Rand about 45 minutes back towards Denver. Seems they want to use this as a high end hunting destination and I think the misses said they’re going to build a spa. I guess the owners dad made a ton of money (like billions) in the defence industry for the government in Florida. He has an 11 year old son and I think another younger boy as well but is single and engaged. We also met some other nice people and reconnected with others we’ve known for years.

Mark, the previous owner and our neighbor for years, was having a good old time. He put on some weight and was having a few whiskeys, funny what a few million dollars will do to a guy. He and Peggy (his wife) have already bought a place in Alaska near Wrangell and  one of their sons is up there getting it ready. By contract Mark has to stay through hunting season until December to show the new owners the ropes. Colorado has just become to liberal for him so at the end of the year, off he’ll go to Alaska.

About 7pm we decided to head out as it takes us 3 hours or so to get home. Right on schedule about 10pm we pulled into the driveway and I left everything in the car except the guns. We all had a quick tick check (don’t want lyme disease) and then hit the showers before falling asleep.

I’m going to run over and wash the car again as your car gets dirty driving up there on all the dirt roads. Today I need to move the rest of the wine in the house downstairs so more can take its place tomorrow. I also want to get to the gym. Everyone is sleeping so time to get my day started. The misses will post a few pictures when she gets up. The youngest and the new owner are both named Ty so they hit it off. Too funny.

Take care and God Bless.

The boys and I were picking up a book the other day in a Christian store and we came across a dvd of season 1 of Duck Dynasty. It was $20 but 5 hours long and we just love these guys. We brought it home and have all been watching it on and off for the past few days. For those of you who don’t know who they are, they’re a self proclaimed red neck family from Louisiana whose dad started making duck calls in the early 70’s. He came up with a revolutionary new call and struck it big. Now you have the whole family including his four sons, crazy Uncle Si and the dad Phil and all their wives and kids in this show. All the men sport what seems to be, never shaven beards, long hair and wear camo all the time. They’re a real Christian family (that’s why the Christian store had their dvd’s and books) and are just good clean family fun. If you haven’t seen them, you have to check them out.

Anyhow, today we’re off to the hills for the day. I think we’re going to skip lunch in Saratoga and go back in a few weeks so we don’t have to rush out of here. The misses remembered she needs to make or bake something as everyone brings something to the picnic and we don’t want to show up empty handed.

Yesterday the youngest had a play date and the oldest came with me on a few errands. Amy from the freight forwarder in Chicago called and my load of wine was “wheels up” (meaning it’s in the air) out of London. We use British Air Cargo usually and it goes from Italy to London first. Hopefully it’ll be here in my driveway Monday morning.

The misses has been particularly attractive of late due to her strong, commanding, in charge attitude at work. Since she started, she’s been feeling her way through things and being new, sometimes didn’t have the confidence she should but now has it going on. This was evident the other day when she met with Dr. Rodgers and was very direct and laid it all out for her, the good and the bad with everything to do with her business. You see the misses who was originally hired just for the skin care line re-launch, has really been 100% in charge of everything to do with her entire practice. Doctors sometimes (usually) are not the best business people and once the misses realized no one was really running the ship, she took charge and now has things moving in the right direction. I just thought I’d mention this as it’s something you can’t easily see or know but has been a big thing around here behind the scenes for the past few months. There’s nothing more attractive than a beautiful woman who is also confident and strong which pretty much sums up our girl!

Guess I’ll go you know where, that’s right, the gym. We had some rain last night which is always welcome but it’s still hot. We should make it home around 10pm tonight if we’re lucky and traffic is light. Hope everyone is well, take care and God Bless.

The misses nixed the Steamboat sleep over as the youngest has a play date today and she says it’s just too much hassle to pack for one overnight trip. So this morning I’ll go to therapy (haven’t been in over 10 days) and then drive up to Vail for my meetings that were arranged when I thought we were driving through there on the way to Steamboat.

The misses was gone most of the day in meetings while the boys and I went to lunch, the barber, a book store and another stop to pick up some magazines for one of our rifles before the ban on high capacity magazines goes into effect July 1st. Thankfully two democrats are facing recall elections and the signatures have already been verified meaning they’ll soon face the people and probably (hopefully) get booted out of office. This will then swing the balance of power back to the republicans in out great state. In a weird way, the Pres pushing his anti gun agenda looks like it’ll be good for Colorado as we would have never had these recall elections without them passing useless laws that the majority of Coloradans don’t want. Anyhow I had to pick some up just in case as any magazines anyone owns before July 1st are grandfathered in meaning you can keep them.

Mom made scallops and lamb chops for dinner which was really good and the boys built there new Lone Ranger lego set which we bought yesterday. The boys had saved up their allowance and decided to pool their money. We can’t wait for the movie July 3rd!

Looks like we have 250 cases of wine arriving Monday which is about a pallet more than I thought. Usually I get around 175 or 200 so the house will be packed. Not sure where we’ll put it all. The following weekend meaning the 6th and 7th when we get back from Aspen, will be spent boxing up 100 cases or so to Fed Ex across the country, what fun! (that’s sarcastic)

Tomorrow we’re off to Wyoming for lunch and then the ranch picnic at 5pm before heading home around 7 or so meaning we’ll get here about 10pm. Oh well, it’s easy to drive 300 miles or more in a day in Colorado.

That’s it, time to run, hope all’s well, take care and God Bless.

It seems like a Sunday as the youngest was at a swim meet until 9:30pm making yesterday seem like Saturday. Mom took him over at 2 in the afternoon for warm ups and it all started at 4 or a bit after. There were five teams from different pools as this was the annual relay meet. He raced about 4:45 and then at 9! The rest of the time was spent playing with his friends. There had to be 250 or 300 people there, the misses said the fire department wouldn’t like it one bit. Meanwhile the oldest went down to Uncle T and Aunt B’s to hang out.

We watched his first race and then he wanted Mom to go home and get his Pokemon cards to play with. We both went home and when we drove back, there was no parking within 6 blocks! I smartly decided to drop the misses and head back home to clean the house as it needed it. My knee has been swollen more than usual the past few days as I’ve just been doing too much. I think I’ll take Annette’s advice below…..

Annette says:

Good morning, the kiddos were up quite late…again. They decided to have a sleep over in the youngest’s very clean room. The boys had been downstairs alone when they heard banging on the back door and a dog barking in the distance. They flew up the stairs to make sure that Lacey was in(she was). I made my way downstairs to look through the window to the backyard.  The kids crept downstairs to peek around the corner with inquiring eyes. I turned to tell them that I couldn’t see anything outside, and they described the banging that they heard.  The descriptions were no sooner out of there mouths when they turned with fear and bolted back up the stairs. Their apologies were lingering in the air when I started turning off the lights.  I got a case of the creeps myself…World War Z (zombie movie) flashed in my memory and I soon ran up the stairs myself. They finally wound down and fell asleep around midnight.

The boys rooms haven’t been this clean in years.  I cannot believe how many trash bags of crap we filled up and dragged out of the house. I’ll post a picture. The boys repeatedly thanked me and told me what a good job I did. I told them that daddy helped. Oh, they are such good little boys.

The Mr. has more wine to deliver and pick up today, and we have to prep the downstairs for 200 plus cases to be delivered on Monday. UGG!

The boys have swim relays tonight…It’s a really fun event, but the oldest’s ear is still very painful for him, so I think we may have to skip the meet.  They haven’t been in the pool in  over a week anyway. I am not happy about that!

The kids have been asking to try their hand at fencing.  Groupon has a deal for a fencing camp…5 days of fencing, 9a.m. to 3p.m. I have to check it out before we sign them up, but I think it would be a great week for them and the Mr. and I could get a lot done.

Here is the Mr…I need a second cup of coffee.

I didn’t hear anything last night or I would have been up and down the stairs pronto, no need to interrupt my sleep for a little wind or a raccoon. The basement is half way clean but still has a way to go, I’ll try to get it wrapped up today.

It’s hot and dry outside. I have a friend with 150,000 acres down in southern Colorado who is trying to move up north to the Steamboat area (as the northern part of the state has more water) but he can’t find enough land. It’s bone dry down there and he had to sell off all his cattle as there’s no grass. Beef prices will for sure be going up! Time to stock up on some more food.

I picked up the old mexican saddle of my dads yesterday and even after half a dozen coats of oil, it’s still pretty dry. It is all cleaned up though and all I care about it having it, is for sentimental value. The Fugate brand is carved into the saddle horn. I can’t tell how old it is but it’s from somewhere between the 1920’s and 1950’s, according to my friend who’s a saddle maker and historian that cleaned her up for me. The youngest, with a little help from his brother, hauled it straight upstairs into his room without Mom and I knowing as he wanted it in there. So there it’ll sit for a little while, I think he uses it as a chair!

The misses has done an incredible job upstairs in both boys rooms. We have accumulated so much junk over the past 12 years in this house and some of it just needs to go. As she said, there’s still lots to do but we’re off to a good start.

We might go to Steamboat Friday and spend the night (to get out of the heat)  and then take the short drive over to the ranch. The oldest wants to take his new 22 lever action rifle from his birthday as he hasn’t had a chance to shoot it yet. The youngest too wants to take his 22 to join in the fun. I think we’re having lunch at Brush Creek Ranch on Saturday in Saratoga Wyoming before heading to the annual pig roast at Trophy Mountain Ranch that evening. You might remember, last time we were there they had 7 or 8 people over 100 years old!

The misses needs the computer now for work so time to run. Have a great day, take care and God Bless.

It’s started, Spring cleaning, a moving sale, or whatever you want to call it. No, we aren’t moving but we’re cleaning out as if we’re going to. You see it finally just became too much.

I don’t know what the trigger was but Mom started in the oldest guys room where his closet was literally 3 feet deep with clothes and other stuff. The big hope was nothing was dead or moving under the massive pile.

My day started with me loading wine at 6:30. The misses helped and should not have as it set her neck and head off. After I arrived at the distributor I had to unload it and then load up some other wine, drive home, unload some of it, load some other, drive across town, unload it and then head downtown to unload some more. Finally I headed home, did some legal/tax work for my accountant and rushed off to Fed Ex. At 3:30 I was done and headed upstairs to see how the misses was doing. Although there was a huge pile of trash outside by the garage, it didn’t look like she made much headway. So I jumped in with the youngest and after telling him how I liked to re-arrange my room when I was a kid, he was all in.

The next hour or so we spent just cleaning out under his bed. We then vacuumed and moved his dresser to the opposite wall and slid his bed to the other corner. There’s a big pile at the top of the stairs of stuff to go and other stuff to put back but that’ll take some time to work through. Meanwhile you can actually see the wood floor in the oldest guys closet, something we haven’t seen literally in years!

Today after I head to the distributor and load some more wine and then go unload some more wine, I’m going to start in the basement and work my way towards the misses upstairs. I don’t know how long it’ll take to get to her, probably a few weeks, but we’re determined once and for all, to clean up and get rid of all the useless clutter before we officially become hoarders!

It’s 4;34 now and on top of all this, I need to get to the gym before I have to head out to the distributor at 7am.

To cap it all of, a plane load of samples, some 200 cases, leaves Italy either Thursday or Friday, meaning Monday at the latest, they’ll be dropped off in my driveway for the semi annual pick, pack, and ship to states all over the U.S.  Throw in some 100 degree heat and there you have it, a fun week.

So time to get moving, hope everyone is doing well. If you’re looking for something to do, come on over and lend a hand, we could use it! Take care and God Bless.

Yesterday I ran to the Wild West Show in the morning while the boys recouped from the sleep over where they were all up past midnight. Later in the day we were going to go swimming and take along one of the oldest guys baseball teammates but his ear was still bothering him so we opted for the movies instead.

At 2 we loaded 3 boys and the misses and I in the car and we all headed over to see World War Z, the new zombie movie with Brad Pitt. We grabbed our snacks and were in our seats right on time. It didn’t take long for the youngest to cover his eyes because he was scared. The misses looked to the right and the two other boys were also literally shaking in their seats. It didn’t take more than a minute more for us to realize we chose the wrong movie so we all got up and walked out of the theater. Luckily right across the hall was the new Superman movie, Man of Steel, which was just about to start. So we all walked in, sat down and enjoyed the movie.

We made it home around 5:30 and the boys played while we cooked up a little dinner before taking the oldest guys friend home. After that we all sat around before heading to bed around 9pm. The kids didn’t eat much dinner as they ate almost everything the theater had to offer. We should have seen this coming but we didn’t. About 30 minutes later the youngest was sleeping in our bed when he sat up in still a state of sleep and threw up all over the bed! Mom was in with the oldest and came running but it was too late, puke was everywhere! He got up and headed for the bathroom where he projectile vomited some more. Meanwhile Mom and I were stripping the bed and pillow cases, and bathroom rugs and beginning the big clean up. I filled a spray bottle of half vinegar and half water and began wiping down everything. It took an hour or so to get it all cleaned up and by that time he was in a deep sleep. Mom slept with the oldest and I took the little guy and we finally made it to sleep around 11pm.

This morning I’m off to the distributor after I dry the truck bed as while all this was going on last night, we had a really good rain storm. First I have to load up 24 cases of wine to take to them that will head up to Aspen tomorrow. So time to get moving, hope all’s well and if you go to the movies, whatever you do, do not sample everything they have on the same day!

Playing 2 games in a row is just plain hard for 11 year olds, especially in 90 degree heat. Hell, it was hard on the parents just to sit and cheer for that long! We left at 10am and made it home just before 5pm. We then did a quick change and grabbed the bbq essentials and headed for the park and picnic in Golden. The kids had a blast even though they couldn’t go tubing in Clear Creek as the water was running too fast. Some older people did but the Park Ranger said he wouldn’t let his kids in, especially without helmets and life jackets. That was good enough for Mom to squash it and every other Mom followed her lead. The oldest and his coach and another player did stand in a spot 3 feet deep or so and lay down backwards submerging their whole bodies in the 32 degree water, he said, “man that was cold!”

We arrived home a bit after 8pm and the boys played in and outside before the youngest had Ben spend the night. Who knows how late they stayed up but they started watching a movie at 10pm!

Today will be a pool day after I run to the Wild West Show to pick up an old mexican saddle that I have been having restored for about a year. My dad had it as long as I can remember, I can’t wait to see it.

The misses got bit by some bug and has a real itchy bite. Mosquitos are coming out and it’s been hot and humid as afternoon showers are starting to arrive. It’s so much nicer in the mountains this time of year. Next Saturday we’ll be up in Wyoming with friends for lunch and then at the annual pig roast at the ranch and then the 4 days later, back up in Aspen for the big dinner/auction. Jag and I were talking the other day about Mt Rushmore and after he Googled it and found out it’s only 350 miles from Denver, we decided we’d try to take a trip up there this summer. So lots going on, time for me to hit the showers and get moving.

Have a great day and take care.