Back in the Fort...

It's snowing! Spring was so far underway in all of the places we've been visiting that it's weird to come back here and find it still so wintery.

We've been back in Fort Collins for a little over a week; Korin, Brian, Charli and Sam came to visit over Easter, so there's been lots and lots of family time. Brian went back to San Francisco on Tuesday, but Korin, Sam and Charli leave tomorrow (weather providing).

Last Tuesday Sam and I went to volunteer at Grant Family Farms (a local organic farm, website here). Sam's never done that kind of thing before, and had a great time being on her knees in the dirt with the bugs and spiders. We rediscovered some sprinklers, cleared some strawberries, and were repaid for our efforts with a loaf of fresh bread and 2 dozen eggs, including a turkey egg, some nice greenish Ameraucana chicken eggs, and a couple of bantam eggs that are perfectly Charli-sized. Sam took some time to commune with the turkeys before we left. Ask her to do her turkey impression next time you see her. We now call her the Turkey-Whisperer. I'll probably spend some more time at Grant Farms this month. They're really nice there, and I really liked all the people I met.

I was finally able to play my cello again too! Hallelujah! I think that it's been about a year since I last truly played my cello, and I think that's a little too long. 5 months for the hike, then 3 months in San Francisco, then I popped a string, then when I finally tried to replace the string, I discovered that my fingerboard had shifted in some crazy way, and had to get a new bridge. So it's finally back, and in playable condition and with all its strings. I did play Eric's cello a little at LeVin, but she wasn't quite the same as Vlad (that's my cello), it's nice to have him functioning again.

We found this crazy thing online, called a Prakticello (website here), that Brent and I are actually going to try to build. It's basically a collapsible cello that fits into a case roughly 2/3 the size of a violin case. Pretty small for a cello! Of course, it doesn't resonate, because it's got no body, but you can hook it up to an amp pretty easily if you want the sound. The plans aren't here yet, but we've ordered them from the inventor, and will keep you posted as to how the construction efforts go. There are some better pictures of a finished one here.

Other things we're scheduled to do while we're back: paint the house (weather permitting), Brent has to practice about 4 hours a day (yeesh!), I have a couple of cello lessons scheduled, meet with friends, and I'm going to bake lots of bread! Woohoo!

kim