Yarn Dying

The weekend before Thanksgiving I was invited to join a local artist in experimenting with yarn dying. We had a great time. She let me pick the colors and we set to work measuring lengths of wool yarn, stuffing them in zip-lock bags and adding dye to color the measured segments. It was a fun craft to learn and a great time of visiting. After the yarn was dyed, it was “cooked”, rinsed and dried. The finished product is a beautiful, soft, variegated yarn of red, yellow, blue and gray. I’ve used some of it to knit a scarf that’s on its way to a friend and the rest I will be using for a scarf for myself! (in all my yarn works I haven’t kept anything yet!)

Thanksgiving and Chocolate

My mom came in for Thanksgiving and discovered that flying in and out of Rocky Mountain Colorado can be an adventure. After mechanical difficulties and lost pilots, the airline brought her in to us a day late. We had a good time touring Lake City and the next southern metropolis of Creede. We saw lots of deer and ate lots of food on Thanksgiving Day. (Sara says she won't cook for the last two weeks we're here--my orders are to get rid of the leftovers before we hit the road on the 12th of December.)

We hunted for several hours for elk, but they had not yet descended from the high country to be spotted from the road. But on one elk-seeking trip Mom and I discovered one of the few organized attractions in the Lake City-Creede area: the 16th Annual Chocolate Festival.

So on Black Friday, when the rest of the over-developed world is flooding into shopping malls and fighting off other price-gouged parents in the checkout lines, we were strolling down the three-block main street of Creede, tasting nuggets of chocolate delicacies meant to impress the most cultivated Western palate: brandy-soaked chocolate-covered cherries, white and dark chocolate fudges, pure Bavarian hot chocolate over homemade marshmallow, orange chocolate truffles, and nineteen other sweet morsels. Everyone in Creede (and some surrounding areas) came out for the event, flocking into the streets and making the town bustle in a season when most towns in the region seem like ghost towns. Who knew?

When we weren't off hunting elk or devouring chocolate, we played a lot of cards: casino, solitaire, and a little bit of bridge (Sara and I had never played before). Thanks to the inventor of playing cards for offering humanity a challenging and social way to pass the time!

This morning I dropped Mom off at the airport and waited for the requisite delay to discover if the plane would be able to land and pick up outbound passengers. Since she hasn't called again, we can only assume that Mom is somewhere between Denver and the Lehigh Valley, on a re-arranged flight schedule. Meanwhile, folks in the Lake City Community Presbyterian Church were decorating the sanctuary for Advent and Christmas. Our worship space is now especially festive, ready for the most extravagant time of the year. And Sara and I sit again in front of the wood stove, waiting for the "ten to twenty inches of snow" that Mr. Weatherman says is supposed to drop in our area of Southwest Colorado. We've got extra wood for the night, and nowhere to drive until Tuesday. Bring on the snow!

The pictures that follow are: one of the ubiquitous deer of Lake City; sign on the south end of Creede; a mural in downtown Creede, depicting the landscape of the Western Slope; and Sara enjoying a "fondue fountain" of dark chocolate. Enjoy!
~ emrys

The Tylers & Rose Girls

Emrys & Katie Beth
Sara & Emma Grace

A Trip West- and Hair!

We’ve had a hectic week. We went to Fresno to visit with friends from Fuller and join with them as they baptized their daughter. It was a wonderful time of visiting and getting to know their families and of course spending time with Katie (2) & Emma (5 mo.). We got a good dose of little kids again- not as many in Lake City as there were running around our block in Pasadena. I had the chance to walk with Sarah as she trained for the marathon in January and also got to play a little bit of racquetball which was fun for me and amusing for Rob. We decided that my racquetball meets ballet technique is rather amusing. Hey, I can laugh at myself too!

We were bumped off of our original flight back into Gunnison on Tuesday and got to spend the night in Denver, did some shopping and in return, United Airlines hooked us up with hotel, meals and roundtrip tickets for future travels. Gotta love it! Wednesday we were in Gunnison for my CT scan, blood work and a quick run through the grocery store. The scan went well- the easiest one yet- praise God! I’ll go back to Durango in 2 weeks and see all my docs, get my port out and hopefully be on my way to being completely done with this chapter!

Much love and we wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!

~sjt

Coast to Coast

Last week took us to Pennsylvania to help Emrys’ family get his dad’s house cleaned out and ready to sell and this weekend will take us to Fresno to celebrate Emma Rose’s baptism and stand with her family as they’ve asked us to be her sponsors/Godparents. We’re excited to go and spend some time with some dear friends from Fuller for a long weekend.

Thanks are going well here in Lake City. Emrys continues leadership of the church and Sara continues filling her time with the things she enjoys doing. Next Wednesday Sara will have her post-treatment CT scan and blood work done. Please keep this in your prayers as you remember the CT scan is not the most pleasant experience since they have to inject a contrast.

Hope everyone’s falls are going well and you’ve had a chance to take a moment to enjoy the beauty of the season!
~sj&e

Your Support for the ACS

The tally is in! I think it's about as final as it's going to get, so I shall present it as such. The American Cancer Society of Durango, Colorado has reported that you all have given a total of:

$3,975

to ACS in honour of Sara. This is in addition to those of you who have supported Sarah Rose and her efforts. Thank you! We appreciate your willingness to produce something good in the face of something horrible like Sara's cancer. Thank you all.

If you have not yet donated to ACS and would like to do so, please go to www.cancer.org and click on "Donate" on the topmost navigation bar or to help Sarah Rose with her goals and support her as she heads off to walk/run a marathon in January, click on the link to the right. The ACS and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society are committed to continual efforts to cure, treat, or manage all the cancer that plague humanity.

Finally, we praise God once more for faithfulness in healing Sara and for inspiring so many folks to give in honour of Sara.
Peace,
emrys

American Basin

I wore sunscreen and sunglasses this time--it was much more fun for that. However, we didn't count on all the snow!







(One of the many unnamed but gorgeous peaks around American Basin.)














Aaron (a friend from Sonlight Camp) and I hiked into American Basin, a watershed up in the mountains southwest of Lake City. We were attempting to summit Handies Peak, one of the five "14-ers" (mountains higher than 14,000 feet elevation, of which there are 54 in Colorado) in the Lake City area. Alas, we didn't make the summit. We should have started earlier: we were about 1,000 feet from the summit at our turn-around time. Sigh.




(The view back down American Basin from about 12,000 feet.)








Our upward progess was made slow by the abundance of snow--much more snow than on the trail to Uncompahgre last week. But the foamy white made the scenery quite beautiful, as you can see in these photos. In one of them, you can see the flat-topped Uncompahgre Peak peeking out with its reddish face from behind a closer mountain.

(See the wide top of Uncompahgre, hazy in the the distance?)









In another, you can see Sloan Lake, a nearly-frozen pond at 12,000 feet, basking below a jagged ridge of unnamed peaks.








(Sloan Lake, almost as white as the snow around it.)






One of these photos looks back on our track down from the base of the peak. What is hard to discern in the photo is the slope. We decided it would be faster to slide down the northwest face of Handies rather than take the circuitous trail back into the basin. We tried to glissade (a first attempt at the skill for me), but the snow was too deep and powdery. So we ran down the 50-degree incline through the two-foot-deep snow. We watched little dislodged chunks of hardened snow go scurrying down the slope ahead of us, followed by a mist of sandy ice kicked up by our knees. It was much faster than taking the trail around!








(I had to crane my neck upwards to get this shot!)












Though we didn't make the summit, it was another beautiful morning in some of the most beautiful scenery in God's world.
~emrys

14,000 Feet

Did you know that you can sunburn your eyes? I didn't; at least not until last Monday, when a friend from Lake City and I scaled Uncompahgre Peak. The mountain is the sixth highest in Colorado, soaring 14,309 feet above the level of the sea. The snow was patchy--nothing really to contend with--but enough angel dust had fallen on the surrounding mountain ranges to make their crowns picturesque against the azure sky. However, at 14,309 feet above sea level, we were about 12,000 feet closer to the sun than where I grew up. And there's significantly less air (and no cloud) to buffer the rays of that burning orb at such an altitude.

It's October, and we're in the Rocky Mountains. I'm wearing three layers of clothing and heavy boots. Who thinks about sunscreen while sporting such apparel? I should have. When I came back from the hike, my face and neck were lobster-red, and I even had horizontal bands of red on my eyeballs the width of a tight squint. Sigh. Tomorrow, when another friend and I hike Handies Peak (a mere 14, 048 feet), I will slather my peeling face and neck with a sunscreen that would make NASA proud, and I'll wear a hat and sunglasses. More pictures and less pain to follow.

~ emrys

The Day to Day in Lake City

Well, it’s trying to snow again but true to the forecast the snow is only sticking at or around 9,000 feet. We’re at 8,700 and I can see snow sticking on the hills outside the windows. But here its just slush!

We are doing well and enjoying small town fall. Many of the trees are still holding their color in spite of the colder temperatures. We remain busy with church stuff, house stuff, visiting folks and just enjoying the day.

Life moves at a realistically slow pace here which is wonderful. While I will have a full day, full of crochet, reading, baking & cooking, walking and a little bit of work, none of it is rushed or hurried. It’s a great thing.

The View from the Kitchen