A year in review - or lousy excuses for not keeping up with my blog

I made the scarves in blue, maroon,
purple, rose and red.

I noticed I did only two entries all that year. Not too good if I want to continue writing a blog, but it has been  a good year for my family and me

So I'll try to cover some of the highlights just so you know. And I hope to do better next year. In that light, I will write New Year's Resolutions tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Knitting
In some ways, I have lost some of my knitting mojo. I still knit but not at the frantic pace I did in preview years, especially the year after I retired. . I think it is because I have had so little success with selling that I just didn't build up my inventory. Even on Etsy, I have sold only a couple of items. I do better with patterns though. I think I will dedicate the next year to knitting for charity instead.  I did make a hat for my son and husband for Christmas and I completed lace scarves for my Divas (my women's group). I will include the pattern for the scarves in the next few days on this blog.

A before and after
of my personal journal

Writing

Even if I haven't kept up on my blog, I do keep up on my personal written journal. In addition to the writing, I print out pictures on full-sheet sticker paper and stick them into my journal. I did notice of the past year that I fill the pages more and more with stickers and less writing. I don't know what that means, but I hope I can do better there too.

Travelling
In June, Ken and I took a month-long trip, but not just any trip -- probably the trip of a lifetime. We went to Europe. It was not only sight-seeing, we visited family. We went to Swedish, Denmark, and Germany, with a short stay in Iceland and England. We also spent a week in Washington D.C. to attend Sophie's wedding. She is the daughter of my best friend Sheila. I will write most about these adventures in other blog entries.

Health
In October I had the bane of the female gender -- I had a hysterectomy, and it was one of the best things I even did. I feel so much better and I can't even describe why. But since then, I have lost 20 pounds and will continue to the future.

My son Lorne
My oldest son now lives in Los Angeles and works in Hollywood as a film editor. Late year, he got a job with BuzzFeed and he loves  it. I guess this means he won't be coming home to live anytime soon. I hate it when you raise independent children and they leave you. Alas.
If you want to see some of his work, you can go to YouTube and enter BuzzFeed Unsolved and Worth It.

My Son Dane

Dane modeling the hat I made for him.
The scarf came with the coat.

With an undergrad degree in classic guitar, Dane decided to pursue his other talent in Mathematics. (Funny, just not too many job opening for classical guitarist on Craiglist.) So he went back to school and will complete his masters in accounting this spring. He got an intern job at an accounting firm during tax season, and at the end of the flurry of returns, they offered him a full time job. So he is fully employed with a good salary even before he finishes his degree. CSU (Colorado State University) told him that they had a 100% employment rate out of this program. Guess they were not kidding.

And finally my kitties

We have had Omi and Wookie for a little over a year now, and I am passionately in love with this two little creatures. Omi is the perfect cat and Wookie is the magic cat. Omi (the black kitty) is loving and affectionate. She has to be next to me almost constantly. If I sit down, she is on my lap and will even crawl up to shoulder to get closer. Wookie is a tortie, but she is entirely and completely my cat. She doesn't like anyone else to touch her and hides even from Ken. But if I am sick, she won't leave my side, purring constantly as if her purrs will cure me. And I have always gotten better, so maybe she has something there.

You are not leaving me again!

"You were gone for so long."

When we opened the door home from our three week road trip, Neko came running down the stairs mewing and crying. It was obvious that he missed us and maybe even thought we abandoned him. I had never seen him so happy when we got home. I never heard him purr louder. He wasn't alone while we were gone. We have a tenant downstairs and she spent time with him. But it wasn't the same as his daddy. He even was happy to see me. In fact, for the first time since he was a kitten, he crawled into bed with us that night. We have been home a week now, and he does not leave our sides. Maybe he has a heart after all.

Next time, you WILL take me with you.

Was that ..... Big Foot?

We should have paid
attention to the sign.

While we were in Crescent City in northern California, it rained. And it rained. And it rained. We camp in the back of our van so rain usually does not bother us. However, we camped in a redwood forest that night. All night long, the rain pounded the van roof making it very hard to sleep.

Now Ken is a realist. He explained the pounding this way. The branches of the redwood are designed to gather the rain and pool it on its needles until the water is so heavy that it falls. Therefore even a light rain can gather into big drops by the time it reaches the ground -- or the roof of our van. That's why it sounded like hail on our roof rather than just rain.

However, I have another theory. I think it was Big Foot. After all the Pacific Northwest is supposed to be crawling with them, right? I have watched some documentaries on Big Foot and one of the things they do it throw rocks at people who invade their territory. I think it was Big Foot pounding our roof with peddles and rocks to make us leave. Big Foot was persist enough to keep it up all night, but really, what else does he have to do?

See? Here is Big Foot sulking away from our camping
area. What more proof do you want!

Then Ken asked why there wasn't a pile of stones on the roof of our van. Well, that's very simple. The rain washed them all away. Duh. I just don't understand why Ken doesn't buy my explanation.

And this leads to one of the biggest questions of our time. What is the plural of Big Foot? Is it Big Feet? Big Foots? Or it is just Big Foot without the plural, just like we do for deer and elk? I guess we will have to wait until we capture one to ask him.

Drought? I thought this state was in a drought

Ken and I love road trips. We get some books on tape, put a mattress and blankets in the back of the van and take off. As long as I have my knitting (along with more yarn and needles than I will ever use), we could go forever.

We just got back from three weeks. We drove from our home in Colorado to northern California. And it rained. And rained. We tried to drive down the Pacific Coast Highway, but ran into a total of 13 road closures. As we were driving one of the detours away from the PCH, we encountered a slide that had to have happened only minutes before we got there. A car had just come by us, so they must have just gotten through before the slide. So we put on our lumberjack hats and move a tree from the road ourselves. A local man came by and he pulled out his saw and helped us. I told Ken that I wanted an adventure, but who could have guessed it would have been this?


We were able to continue on our way to visit our son Lorne in Los Angeles.

I hope to someday still drive the entire Pacific Coast Highway. More about our adventures coming in the next days.

Canada - The trip home

Yes, I know we have been home for over a week and I hadn't finalized my trip story. It took a while to find my cord to transfer pictures. But I still wanted to finish up my story.

On Sunday, we said good-bye to all our family from near and far with promises to keep in touch, which we actually do. With email, Facebook, and Photo Bucket, it is easier and easier to do. The Gackle family have a  reunion every three years and it looks like that will continue in the future. We've been to Portland, Billings, Colorado, and North Dakota, with the one in 2015 in California and in 2018 in Germany!

The trip home was going to take two days, with some fun along the way. We spent half of a day at the cliffs of Head-Smashed-in Buffalo Jump near Macleod, Alberta. For over 5,500 years, the Blackfoot Indians hunted  buffalo by causing a herd of buffalo to stampede over the cliff. I love museums and have a special fondness for Native American museums. (I am using "American" here to mean "North American" because this was in Canada.)

The Blackfoot then use every part of the 30 or so buffalo to live on for the next year, such as dried meat, clothing and bedding, which with Alberta winters, that could be important.

We took a hike along the drive lanes used for herding the buffalo. It is amazing that you don't see the cliff until you are right up to it. No wonder the buffalo didn't see it coming. It's called a buffalo "jump' instead of a buffalo 'fall," because it is believed that the buffalo are willing to sacrifice themselves to give the Blackfoot people warmth and food to the people. Gotta love that kind of dedication, right?

We spent the rest of the day driving on to Yellowstone. We stayed the night somewhere in southern Montana, and drove into the park the next day.

I have a long and beautiful history with Yellowstone. I worked at Old Faithful Lodge during the summers when I was in college, and I have dragged my family there many times since. So we decided we were only doing to two a couple of things there before continuing home. We had to visit my old stomping grounds at Old Faithful and wanted to see the caldera exhibit at the Canyon area.

As we drove through Hayden Valley, we came upon the buffalo herd. This little guy was shading himself in the ditch. All I had to do is stick my camera out the window to take his picture.  I then warned him not to go north to Head Smashed In in Alberta.

So we made it home. We dropped Dane off in Fort Collins and Lorne off in Denver, and we got home to Littleton and collapsed into sleep. I already missed being with my boys, but it was wonderful to spend time with them.

Canada - Day Six - Family Time

Us! Lorne, Ken, Dane, and me

It was really nice to not have to be in a car today. The Gackle Family Reunion is in full swing with volleyball, pictures, talking, talking, music, talent show, auction and basic sharing. We have people from the US, Canada and Germany.

The three Gackle US Sisters, Rachel Pribbeno, Leah Huber,
and Eltina Wright

Rachel's Family L to R:
 Cayla, Ashley, Paul and Kathy Ortiz,
Ken, Rachel,  me, Dane and Lorne

L to R: Courtney and Myron Hall,
Matthew Benedict, Janet Hall, Leah,
Tom, Gwen, Ian  Benedict, Eltina

There are many more pictures of the other families, but I realize that these are really only important to the people in the family and I won't post all of them here.  

We will be heading out on Sunday and making the trek back to Colorado. We are seriously thinking of driving through Yellowstone on our way back. I worked at Old Faithful Lodge for two summers during my college years, so I can always do back. 

Canada - Day Five - Dinosaurs and Hutterites

Cayla and Ashley Ortiz with their cousins Dane and Lorne

At the first day of the Gackle family reunion. This is Ken's mother's paternal side of the family, so I am a Gackle by marriage.  Since the Gackle are mainly German, a Swede like me really stands out. 

We had a tour of a Hutterite Colony this morning. It is a religious community much like the Amish. They served us lunch and then gave a tour of their farm. However, my family sneaked out before going into one of the barns to head for the Royal Tyrrell Museum.

If you like dinosaurs, the best museum in the world has to be the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller. All it has is dinosaurs -- nothing else. I think it is a rule of nature that if you are the mother of boys, you have to deal with dinosaurs in your life. With the dinosaur cartoons, toys, bones puzzles, and books, I think half of the stuff in our basement from the boys' childhood is about dinosaurs. There is a large dig near the museum and this is the place where the Albertosaurus was discovered (see the facts that I have obtained over the lifetime of my sons?)

The next few days will be very low key, with lots of visiting and storytelling with the multi-generations of Gackles here. We have ages from about 5 to 94, so there is quite a range. On Saturday, I am not planning to anything but knit and visit.

Canada - Day Four – Athabasca Ice Fields

Now I remember why I don’t like camping. I’m too old to try to sleep on a hard ground with little rocks pressing into my spine. I think I know how the Princess and Pea felt! I think I got some sleep, only because I remembered a dream about being a paralegal, which I haven’t been for about 15 years. Explain that one. So we packed up as fast as possible headed to the Athabasca Ice Field Center. Now remember, none of had too much sleep, so when we got to the visitor’s center, we were very ‘punchy.’

And to all my Colorado friends – here is the temperature update.

This was where the icefield
was in 2000.

After breakfast, we took a hike up toward the ice fields. There are markers along the way showing where the fields were in recent years.  A very good argument for global warming!

On our way to the Athabasca Falls, we saw this grizzly bear, although I guess they call them brown bears. We call the bears here in Colorado brown or black bears, so it can be confusing. I understand that you can tell the difference between the two types of bears by the hump, or no hump, on the back. I also heard that grizzlies don’t climb trees, so you can tell the difference by climbing a tree. If the bear follows you up the tree and eats you, it’s a brown bear. If it just shakes the tree until you fall out and then eats you, it’s a grizzly. I hope that clears up any questions. After getting this picture, I got back into the car.

We also saw a wolf! I love wolves – in fact I am wearing a wolf t-shirt at this moment. As we were driving, a wolf ran across the road about 20 feet in front of us. It was a little gray, almost white and it had a tracking collar. He was so fast, I couldn’t grab my camera, but I was just thrilled to see a wolf in the wild.

Our last stop before heading to our family reunion in Olds was Athabasca Falls. Now, I used to live in Yellowstone where the Upper and Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River are located, and I didn’t think anything could beat it. However, this falls could come close. You can’t believe how loud it is. The Athabasca Ice Field is so big that it feeds the Pacific, Atlantic and Artic Oceans. It is the headwaters of the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest. These falls take water to the Artic, so the water may think it is cold not, just wait!

So we are leaving the Park to head to the reunion—about four hours of driving.  Finished knitting the brown hat for Lorne, so I need to arrange the boys to model them for me for pictures. More later.

The boys are complaining that not everything has to be a Kodak moment.

Canada - Day Three - Banff and Athabasca Ice Fields

We left Lethbridge this morning and headed right for Banff National Park. We first came to the City of Banff and looked around the town. That’s when we found the Banff Springs Hotel.  It looks like something out of a Harry Potter movie. I mean, really, doesn’t this look like Hogswort on a sunny day? 

Actually Lorne and Dane wanted to change the name of it to Pigpimple instead. Loses something in the translation.

Dane talked the porter into letting us go up the 8^th floor so we could take pictures.  We could see for miles and miles and everywhere was mountains, mountains, and more mountains. 

Qiviuk Yarn - my Canadian Souvenir

While at the Shops at Banff Springs, I found a shop that sells clothing and accessories made from Qiviuk. Qiviuk is a yarn that is made from the wool of the musk ox, which is only found in the Artic. It is supposed to be 8 times warmer than wool. That usually wouldn’t be a selling point for me because I am too warm just wearing cotton! But they also had little balls of the yarn, so I have to buy one as my Canadian souvenir. That’s about all I can afford for this trip.  It’s a beautiful dark plum color and I am envisioning a ruffled scarf.

Just below the Banff Springs is Bow Falls.  We explored the edges and sides while it rained on us off and on.  Being in front of the falls, it was hard to tell at times if it was the rain or the falls getting us wet. Since it kept things cool, it really didn’t matter.

We left the town of Banff to enter the National Park and what an impressive place! Being from Colorado, we are used to mountains, but these mountains are absolutely spectacular!  The ice age really tore up these mountains.  The tops are jagged and sharp and they are about as abrupt as the Tetons. This place is truly a treasure.

 One of the things I really like was the wildlife overpasses. These are exclusively for the herds of elk, deer and caribou, as well as the predator such as bears, cougars and wolves. We thought about waiting around to see who would use it, but alas time was not on our side. 

It was getting hot by the afternoon – it got all the way up to 74° -- so we cooled off by taking paddling canoes around Lake Louise. Ken and I took one canoe and Lorne and Dane took another. 

We played keep away but the boys then the boys took off on their own, just like they do all the time. (sigh!)  

This was our night for camping, so we travelled further north to the Athabasca ice fields.  (Trying saying that name with a lisp!) We set up camp in the cold northern Canadian Rockies (actually, it was still in the 60’s) and put up our tent. Although it was close to 9:30, it was still sunny and bright. Gotta love those midnight suns! 

So Dane pulled out his guitar and we serenaded our fellow campers – or at least ourselves. No one around us complained which is a good sign. Amazing what a little Credence Clearwater and Beatles can do to add an atmosphere to camp life. 

So Papa sang base and Mama sang tenor (okay, alto), while Lorne and Dane filled in the middle. Lorne also does a mean Jerry Lee Lewis. We added a little Stand by Me and the Lion Sings Tonight. Then we thought we shouldn't tempt fate by singing to a mountain lion who may not like our weem-a-whacks at 10:30 at night.

Obviously there is no internet up here at the top of the world, so I’ll have to post these all at once when we get to the reunion tomorrow.