We’re now officially a week into the new year and it’s our sincere hope that 2018 is off to a good start for all of our friends and family.  Granted, we need to exclude football from the equation, since most people reading this are fans of either the Seattle Seahawks or the Denver Broncos, and we all know that both teams are officially done for the season.  Sandi has family in Minnesota rooting for the Vikings and I have a friend who adores the Patriots, so they haven’t experienced the heartache that comes with losing (yet!).  Any team but New England!!!  Oh, and I suppose we should exclude the weather, too.  For those living in the areas hit by sub-zero temperatures and snow this past week; try to stay warm and safe!

For the record, we’re absolutely stumped, weather-wise.  Aside from a very slight dusting this morning, we haven’t had any snow since just before Christmas.  It’s been cold, but nothing like much of the country is experiencing.  The mountains off to the north and west continue to get whiter, and the ski reports on the news seem pretty favorable, but we seem to be in some sort of ‘mild zone’.  It’s okay, we’ll take the reprieve this year, since living in an RV is challenging enough without adding severe weather to the mix.

Speaking of New Year’s and the mountains….  The local news channels ran daily stories about a local, annual tradition that sort of caught our interest.  Like most beyond a certain age, we’re generally in bed and asleep well before midnight on New Year’s Eve, but this year, we made an exception.  There is a local hiking / mountaineering club called AdAmAn (add a man) that hikes to the top of Pikes Peak, every year to set off fireworks at the stroke of midnight.  The tradition began with five friends in 1922 and has continued every year since, adding just one member for each climb.  Part of the extra media attention was due to the milestone addition of their 100th member.  Pikes Peak is a 14,115 foot high mountain that lies directly between our place and Colorado Springs.  It’s a local landmark from the east, and according to one website, more than half a million people travel to the top every year to enjoy the spectacular views.  When we started this adventure, we didn’t realize that we have a clear, unobstructed view of the ‘backside’ of the peak from the top of our property, just about ten miles away.

For us, this was a fantastic, unexpected bonus since we’ve actually been to the top and it’s so iconic.  So, just before midnight, we drove (yes, drove….  it was COLD!) the hundred yards or so to the top of our hill and sure enough, we were treated to a really wonderful fireworks show.  None of my pictures turned out since it was just too dark, but here’s a photo I found:

We had company for part of New Year’s Day.  Casey got to fire the new revolver she got for Christmas, and I imposed on Robert to help me hang the rest of the upper, kitchen cabinets.  We always do a prime rib for dinner, but this time, we tried something a little different.  Our roasting pan is in a box; somewhere in the barn, so instead of digging through that mountain of boxes, we put it on the smoker.  I’d do it just a little differently next time, but it turned out really good.  We’ll definitely do it again!

We have been making some pretty significant progress this week, and my aim is to share a few Before and After (finished) photos in my next post.  We have three rooms nearly done and another is getting pretty close, so I believe I can feature them in my next post, which I hope to have out tomorrow or Tuesday (two posts in two days).  Until then, let me remind you what we started with:

The main level half-bath:

The pump room in the basement:

And finally, the laundry room in the basement, both as we found it, and after we removed the “pedestal” and the sheetrock from the long, back wall:

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I’m excited to share our progress, but if I’m going to have those ‘finished’ photos, I need to get to work.  We took yesterday off to make a Lowe’s run, so today, it’s back to our to-do list.