An American Tragedy

     Every day at 5:30 am my favorite radio station plays our National Anthem; normally I look forward to this and if I have a hat on, I proudly toss it off and place my hand over my heart (even if I am driving) and belt it out!  And I am sure whenever the Pledge of Allegiance is said, my voice can be heard ringing out clearly above the rest; that was until yesterday, and ironically I had to lead both of them in one day.  Yesterday, I slowly took off my hat, and I sang, but more with a dutiful song in my heart; my daughter was with me, we must teach them respect.  And when I led the Pledge of Allegiance at my meeting in the afternoon, my voice was the same as the others; I just didn’t have it in me.

      This is a very difficult story to share because it is so very personal, but if it were to help another family or two from making the same mistakes, no decisions that we made then this is a well worth it piece.  Where do I start?  With the loss of 1/3 of our income?  Maybe I should start with a real bang and try and explain those pesky medical bills, you know the almost $30,000 worth (even though we are considered well insured)?!?  The loss of our home?  No, to be honest I want to start with my family, because that is what really matters to me…bottom line.

      Well, if you haven’t met me, my name is Judy Jeute.  Up until last week, I was probably the most proud American you could meet.  My husband Tom (who is a machinist by trade, biker by choice) makes parts that go up into space (!) and for all sorts of medical parts; all of which are proudly stamped with Made In USA.  Together we have so very proudly raised the most amazing family; we now have two sons in college, a sophomore in high school and a sixth grader!  And I truly don’t mean to brag, but everyone tells me that they are the most respectful kids you’ll ever meet.  :)

       I’m really not sure what came first, my back going bad or the loss of income, it really all seems somewhat of a blur now; but in 2008 I started feeling hip pain.  It took my organized health care company two years to find a severely ruptured and herniated thoracic disc.  In October of 2010 I had to have emergency surgery after I had to write a letter to said organized health care because my doctor was literally joking and betting my husband a "nickel“ about the size my disc would be in the MRI he incorrectly ordered.  I now have permanent and severe nerve pain, but I am blessed to be able to walk.

      The loss of income is the same old American story, I’m afraid.  The bottom fell out of the economy and then our President decided to not support our space program which directly affected any company sending parts into space (!).  But I had also been working on building our small businesses; building our dreams.  We have been living on our little ranch here on the mountain and sharing our passion for it with the rest of the world.  That is really hard to do with a broken back…but I am the type of gal to roll with the punches, so I kept our website up.  Hoping that someday I would get better, and not only that, but I am always changing my business plan to adjust to my life changes.

       The first time we almost lost our home it was because of the HAMP program.  We had a heck of a time getting on that darn program in the first place, but I did it; all the while fighting for my life practically with an organized health system that would not listen to me.  Anyway, we finally got accepted into the program, did all of our trial payments and then less than a week before our first permanent payment was due they told us that our payment would be raised more than $450.  I don’t know many families of six that have a spare $450 in a week’s notice and we started off on the bad foot, and it all went downhill from there.  We ended up paying over $10,000 to pull it out of foreclosure.

       Right away we started getting calls from our mortgage company (Wells Fargo) that they could help us with a lower payment and a new in-house modification.  Although I was suspicious, we proceeded, thinking what could it hurt?  I got really concerned in December when our Home Preservation Specialist told us not to make a payment as it would “skew” her numbers.  In January we were told we had a good deal going and were even given preliminary terms, although they were terrible; they would have us automatically upside down in our home, we had dreams so it didn’t really matter.  We were told we would hear back by the 27^th of January.

       On the 31^st I was on the phone with a really nice representative from our second mortgage, which also happens to be Wells Fargo because it was one of those fancy deals where they “roll part of our mortgage into a second” thing…  Anyway I decided to tell this nice lady my concerns; like how Tom and I had each been leaving multiple messages and not hearing back and that we had been told not to make payments and that now I was afraid we were in a position of foreclosure again.  This wonderful gal finally got through to someone who just coldly told me that indeed our home is lost.  We have been denied our modification and we are in foreclosure.

                The sad thing is how we were denied.  They used my own hard working drive against me; the fact that I kept my website up and intend to not take this back injury lying down and want to still be a contributing member of society.  When we told them Tom had lost his overtime due to the bad economy, they saw that he gets 2.5 hours each week opening up the shop (on each and every paycheck that we sent, probably 12-14+) because he is the foreman, they took that out of the equation because it is not “reliable income”.  But what really concerns me is the dates of everything; our house was being taken back much faster than this modification process was working.  If we are lucky it looks like we have four months left in a home that we brought our youngest home to.

Which brings me back to my spectacular family; we actually only started out as five.  We officially grew to six when we adopted our oldest son’s best friend due to a tricky family situation.  His father wouldn’t fill out the paperwork to send him to college and we needed to get his cleft pallet fixed before adulthood or there is no fixing it at all.  We thank our lucky stars each and every day that he accepted us as his family; he is an amazing kid and will make us very proud parents when he graduates alongside our other son at college in 3 ½ years.

But our three boys are active; and alongside my multiple MRI’s, surgery, etc. for my back injury (that we never will find out exactly what injured it, I have severe Degenerative Disc Disease as well which may have caused it along with ranching and the good/hard life) we have had broken bones, head injuries and concussions.  All of which really add up when a family is called co-insured; with very high deductibles, co-pays, etc. but even higher premiums for both us and Tom’s employer.  It adds up to almost thirty grand of debt.

When I applied for Social Security Disability like my doctor encouraged me to do, to try and help out with some of these crazy bills they called me before they even had all of my documentation and literally laughed.  Laughed because I had been self-employed for all of those years before this happened, I was not entitled to any government income.  I went for help at our local resource center; if you have ONE child and an income under $75,000 you are considered in the high-risk category; but somehow with Tom’s income we simply didn’t match the criteria for one assistance program.  It was so very kind of that resource center to pay one of our heating bills with their own local money; a one-time deal.

I am not concerned about my family; we are a strong, well bonded unit that can withstand any storm that is tossed our way.  As I said, we have a plan and we have dreams; although as I write this I am totally shell shocked and in mourning for a home that is so full of memories and the markings of a family being raised; but the memories we will carry with us.  In a few days we will recover, strap on our boots and begin to pack up a lifetime.

My concern is for our country.  This, my proud family of six and the situation we are in, is a prime example of bank bailouts and organized health care.  But, we are one family in hundreds of thousands that this is happening to; and I for one think that is criminal.  As I said, this was a difficult story to share, but one worth getting out there if it will stop one more family from losing their home.  So where do we go from here?  Stay tuned.  I intend to talk more in the upcoming posts about the hows and whys of why I believe this was due to bank bailouts and why I believe that organized health care is a terrible idea.  I also will give some specific examples and tips as we go through the foreclosure process.  Again, if it can help another family, I am all for it.

Judy Jeute

Happy Turkey Day, a bit early

My Beautiful BBB Turkeys;

now THIS is how a turkey is supposed to look!

(If I do say so myself, lol!)

Amongst the recalls and rumors, here it is almost Thanksgiving and I don't have too much nice to say about the turkey industry, I'm very sorry.  I know that the poultry industry really started out with good concepts, but it truly has gotten out of hand.  Antibiotics were once used to treat infection; not prevent it.  Hormones are a dangerous thing no matter how you look at it.  If they are medically called for as is sometimes the case in the aid of recovery for human beings and they should be scrutinized very carefully.  But who in their right mind wants to eat that stuff???  Not me.

The more I read, the more it convinces me that I am doing the right thing by raising our own food (or even hunting) , trying to buy local whenever I can and to really notice where my food comes from if I do have to buy it from the grocery store.  There are a lot of ways to go local folks; even at 9,000 feet in elevation.  You don't necessarily have to grow the stuff yourself.

You can buy direct from the farmers, at a drastically reduced price.  You can go online and buy from someone like Door to Door Organics; which obviously brings the stuff right to your door.  Or there are a couple of great websites dedicated to the eating local movement.  Eat Local Challenge is "a group weblog focusing on the importance of locally and sustainably grown food".  But the best one to get the whole family involved in is Eat Local.  It has a great animated feel to it that the kids will love and a down to earth way of explaining why it is so important to buy locally.

So come on Rebels and GSO readers, let's send those government cronies a message and tell them we chose to eat locally and sustainably.  Let them hear your message through your purchases, tell your friends to do the same, that is where we hit them the hardest...in the wallet; quiet and peacefully.

Have a great day!
JJ~

Life's funny little bumpy roads.....

":) Being a leader, especially a leader of conscience, isn't always easy."

Yes, read that Rebels and let that sink in for just a minute.  I had to.  Dear friend and Rebel, Daisy sent that to me when I thanked her for her support about my letter to Ms. McGee a few days ago.  And it was funny because I got it on a day I had also taken on another llama big wig, the day I had to have another MRI on my back.


The day had been a hellish day anyway. I must say that sometimes it is easier to just count on yourself than to have partial support.  Tom had told me he'd take me to the appointment, which is great, but then he had to go back to work....and it was almost worse than if I'd just counted on my own strength the whole time, you know what I mean????  I had had to go and pick up my daughter sick from school and that threw a wrench into the morning....


But the big tests these days seem to be coming from my so called peers.  And what I have realized is that they don't know I am their peer; and that is where things went all wrong.  I'll give you a bit of background on the story, although it really isn't all that important to my point, but over a decade ago when I first got into llamas I mistakenly bought 2 llamas.  At that time I didn't know that there were rescue llamas that needed homes.  Llamas were on the downhill slide of the fad I guess....


One of those purchased llamas is the only one that has ever given us much trouble.  He is the only llama that I have ever had to spend vet dollars on other than maintenance because I have tried to figure out what the hell is wrong with him.  He has knocked each of my family members down, he has bitten me and all of these things are absolutely NOT normal llama behavior.


In the decade since owning this llama I have learned A LOT!!!  I have also rescued more than twenty llamas; many of them I (little old me at 120 lbs soaking wet as my husband would say) have trained to pack from being not even halter broke.  I have no formal training in llama handling besides what my wonderful mentor Bobra Goldsmith taught me before she died; which was a lot.

She taught me to simply expect good behavior from my animals; and that is a theory The Royal Ranch has always had.  When I train a llama to pack it is simply an agreement between the llama and myself....I'm going to trust you and you're going to trust me.  By the time I put the pack on them I have been building a working, trusting, loving relationship with the animal for as long as I can.  I don't stand for bad behavior and I never will; that is just the way it is.

Speaking of hunting camps..

  Take for instance our first hunt camp ever.  We had been getting advice from everyone that animals are afraid of the smell of blood and that our llamas were going to freak out unless they had been trained to be around meat, etc.  We had even been told to stuff their nostril with some sort of Mentholatum so that they wouldn't smell anything; to me this sounded like abuse. 

So Tom and I headed up the mountain with our very untrained pack train of llamas to pick up a huge bull elk for a friend.  We figured since it was a good friend of ours at least if the llamas freaked, no biggy.  We got to the camp and we did what we usually do; we packed up that elk and we put it on the llamas....that was that.  They were a bit jumpy at first but when they saw that we just expected them to behave like any old job, and we weren't going to take any crap from them, it was the end of their nervousness.  They knew they could trust us.  One of them even had to wear the antlers and the cape (which is the hyde) of the elk down the mountain!  It was sort of weird to look forward (I of course am always in the caboose position with Tom in lead) and see a llama with antlers-ha!!!


But back to my point, I am no llama schmutz.  I know what the hell I am doing when it comes to these animals.  I am the Co-Colorado Coordinator (it's an awful big state) for the Southwest Llama Rescue, and not by mistake, I was voted in.  If there is an aggressive male within a four state radius of me, chances are he is going to end up at my place for evaluation and rehab if he is capable.


So it really surprised me when I called the breeder of that fat, lazy llama and had to get into a battle of wits with him over the behavior of said llama and what to do about it.  Now that my spine is not quite what is used to be, I'm not really sure I'm comfortable, or really need a spoiled, over de-sensitized llama in my yard when I have spent the last decade of my life to saving llamas that really need homes.  As I mentioned this man, like Ms. McGee is in the llama world...you know, people that give a crap what other llama owners think of them.


He acted as if I was still some newbie, the same nobody that had walked into his yard 12 years ago looking at llamas for the first time and offered to come assess the llama for me.  Well, no thanks.  I've been assessing him and paying for him and having to watch out for my family's and visitor's safety from him for ten years now.  I gave him a very clear assessment of the situation, and simply asked if they were in a position to take him back now that my back is in such bad shape and he poses a real danger to me with his pushy behavior.

Well, needless to say, the llama will be staying where he is at.  The llama breeder got told exactly what I thought of his assessment.  And I kept thinking "Really?  Two people in one week?  My name is going to be $*@! in the llama world"  But I don't give a rat's patooty because that guy had it coming. (Well, I sort of did, I actually threw a baby fit when I got off the phone with him he had made me so mad, but it was just a natural reaction-ha!!!!)

And then I got that sweet quote from Daisy worth repeating again, "Being a leader, especially a leader of conscience, isn't always easy."; and it made me smile.  Thursday, I got a call from a gal on my rescue group who asked if I had a few minutes; I gotta tell you after the week I'd had with llama folks I thought I was really in for it now.  Actually she was calling to answer a question I had posted about; but more importantly she was calling to ask me if she could gift me a sweater that she had cherished for years because it had llamas on it.

She wanted me to have it because I have added such "vitality and personality" to the group.  All I thought I did was respond to the emails and try to help out a few llamas when I could-who knew?  It truly was a wonderful phone conversation; one of those where you really just enjoy getting to know the person at the other end of the line.  This amazing lady owned llamas from 1978 to 2008, and here I thought I was all that-ha!  But the point was, I know it sounds silly, but I felt like the chosen one, you know?

Then last night I answer the phone to the cutest little southern voice you can imagine and she is just thanking me up and down.  And it took me a second to figure out what the heck I had done.  Oh yeah, email again, I had sent a positive, reinforcing email to a newbie llama owner.  Amazing how far positive reinforcement goes, eh?  Whether it is with ourselves, our kids, our dogs, our llamas, whatever; I think in this post alone I have given you several examples!

These new folks have been SO kind to adopt some llamas from Nebraska; the issue is that they live in Texas.  Which as you all know is having a drought and heat problem.  The Colorado folks took in the Nebraska llamas temporarily until we could get them down south.  Well, somehow these folks got to thinking that our talking about expenses to get those llamas down there meant they were a burden (we should have switched to a more private Yahoo board in hind sight to avoid hurt feelings maybe!) and I tried to clear that up, right quick.  Anyone sticking their neck out to rescue one (and they are taking in 11!) of my wondrous creatures is no burden to me, that is for DAMN sure!

So my week had turned from on the attack to on the receiving end of so many blessings. I do believe strongly in everything I told those people I had to tell off, but I also truly believe even stronger what I told those people in loving manners.  Originally when I first started this post a day or so ago, it was called "Being kicked while you're down...", and then these crazy events just kept happening and I could no longer call it that, could I?

Farmageddon; a great movie supporting local agriculture!

As you all know, I am very dedicated to supporting my local farmers as much as possible.  But for me, living in the mountains and not really having local farmers that is a little harder to do.  It is a learning process (one that I am very much still in the process of), Colorado may not be the biggest agricultural state, but by golly it is an agricultural state by some standards; mine included.

I am very proud to be a part of the agricultural business, I say it is in my blood.  It must have skipped a generation (my Mom is not really into the whole animal/growing thing-ha!).  See, my Grandparents were farmers in Iowa; they moved here to leave the farm life behind, I do believe.  But somehow it is just inside some of us, and I can't help myself...when I collect the eggs I am fascinated with the smooth little jewels of various colors.  And oh, my wonderful sheep that bleat for me if I am late to feed them...

And as for my packing llama string...I recently saw some pictures on Pinecam (our local gossip emag-ha!) of our ranch with Charlie Royal doing pack strings with horses...Well aren't we just going full circle?  I wish I still had that much land Charlie...But anyway, the joy that they bring me and our visitors is unparalleled; we get to teach our guests about our area, our way of life, but even better yet, how to be good stewards of the environment!

So to me, being a farmer these days is a lot more than just throwing stuff in the ground or raising organic animals.  It is about defending our rights to do so.  And teaching people about why we are doing it that way.  And why it is so important for us to raise heirloom varieties and heirloom chickens and sheep so that we don't have only one kind of corn or tomato or potato (and that there are still some nutrients in them).  No matter which way you say it; tomato or tomahto, potato or potahto, if there is no variety it would still suck.

Needless to say I was really excited to hear about this documentary:


Farmageddon - Movie Trailer from Kristin Canty on Vimeo.

Made by a Mom.  Check it out, there are screenings in towns all over the USA, or you can buy the DVD.  I have to wait for the movie....bummer!

Simplifying, cont.

 A "Tick" (looks like a chick, but actually is a turkey)!

Okay...so let's get down to the nitty gritty.  What do I really mean by "simplifying" and "healing with the ranch"  (as mentioned in my previous post)?  It doesn't at all mean just quitting things, like the recycling, and TV; oh no this place is a buzz with activity.  We have "ticks" (we have no idea what to call baby turkeys, and they look just like chicks, so ticks it is-ha!) in the garage, a beautiful lamb in the llama/sheep pen and all sorts of stuff being planted!  My goal is to reconnect with the old ways I guess you could say.


I have been doing a lot of thinking about our property, and how it could be used to it's greatest potential.  I want to use each and every animal to its highest potential as well; whether it be for egg, wool, meat or even guardian purposes.

I absolutely adored making my jams last year for Christmas and the response I got was unbelievable...so I am going to grow berries this year for my own jams!  Amazingly there are a few berries that will grow at our high altitude and we already have a lot of wild raspberries that grow around this area, so I can only hope.  I am also changing the formula of Naked~Nure, by happy accident, adding a secret ingredient that should make plants soar!  More on this in a future post.

The point is to make the very most of what I've got.  I don't feel that the economy is at all stable.  I don't feel that our government is at all stable.  It is time to use my property to raise what I need for my family and hopefully have a little leftover for my family and friends.  My goal is to barter...I really think this is the wave of the future...I already do it with many of my friends.  I trade eggs for some of my friend Tiffany's wonderful products.  I recently got some organic beef and traded some of that for my organic chicken feed....the list goes on and on...

I have always hated waste...and now I look at my property in a whole new light.  There are already many plants on it that I should have been harvesting for years...Chamomile, Currant, Rosehip, Chokecherry, even dandelion can be harvested and used....How about you, do you harvest and use any of Mother Nature's wonders?  And what are some of your plans in this unstable environment?

A song worth singing

Anesthesia Brain

Aside from Gigi my dog, Hector here has been my constant companion

since my return from the hospital!

There has been a huge mistake!  When they took out the bones and junk in my back, they also removed a large portion of my brain!  I mean I can't hardly think straight for the life of me-ha!  Yesterday, I was trying to help the kids get their lunches together as they all had various fun days including field trips, swimming parties and of course Halloween parties.  I stood in the middle of the kitchen, with this blank stare on my face when they all three gave me their sandwich orders (which I have done millions of times in my life by now, I should be able to do it in my sleep), and just thought "Huh?"

But, it did clear me up on one thing, the reason I am having a hard time getting back to work here on the blog.  It is not because I am in a lot of pain, or need a lot of healing time.  It's actually because I can't think of a darn thing worth saying right now, and dang if that isn't odd for me!  So today as I was typing this I of course figured I'd better do a bit of research on the subject and found a few interesting pieces.  It is interesting to note that people with brain dysfunction may have a harder time recovering from anesthesia than those without.  I'm assuming epilepsy would qualify me for that group.

The point of all of this is not to make excuses or to feel sorry for myself by any means, as a matter of fact, I'm really glad I finally figured it out because now I have something to work with.  And I do believe that this might happen with everyone to a certain extent, so why not do a few brain exercises and have a little fun "waking up" your brain after dealing with anesthesia?

Actually, it's quite interesting that Mom has left me all of her Woman's World magazines and the other night I started the crossword; I think the first one I have ever done in my life!  It was as if my brain knew it needed a bit of challenging; and this is not the first time this has happened.  Before my surgery I had a wild craving for hamburgers...and I mean I could have eaten them at every meal.  I was doing some of my pre-surgical reading and it said to bone up on iron, hmmmm.  I also Have had a mad craving for chocolate milk, not only do I need the calories right now, but I can only imagine how my body is eating up that calcium.  

Yesterday when I was getting gas I started craving a sandwich from the store and almost ended up with Tuna; YUCK!!!!  On the way home that is when I realized I must really need some tuna fish if I had almost purchased one from a gas station!  Okay, body, fish oil coming up.  So, it is the same with the anesthesia brain thing.  I will challenge my daughter to a few games, continue on my reading (book reviews to come, when I can pull them together-ha!) and crosswords, and oh yeah the biggest brain buster of all...THE BALLOT.

Please don't forget to vote this weekend if you have a mail-in like we do.  If not, go ahead and make your cheat sheet so you are all ready for your big day on Tuesday and don't hold up the lines!  This is an important one, people, get out there and vote!

Park County election results and questions

 You know I can't start a post without a picture.  Yes, I know the saying about mushrooms and BS, but that really was just coincidental; politics and BS, good one.

As you all know by now, I am somewhat of a political junkie.  Now, this comes from necessity these days, I believe.  A person can't really go about spreading their opinion if they don't really know what they are talking about, much less if they don't walk the walk, so to speak.  And when I say that, I don't mean that I think a person always needs to be the smartest gal in town to be a part of politics, but I do think that if a person is going to sit around bitching about the place that this country is in right now, well he/she darn well be informed!

Case in point; I have some learning myself I'd like you all to help me with right now.  Yesterday were the primaries here in Colorado.  I won't bore you with all of the results of the bigger elections, because those are all over the news!  What I had a little bit of a hard time finding, until early this morning, was news of our anxiously awaited Sheriff's race.  Incumbent, Fred Wegener claims victory by almost double the votes this morning.

So, my questions may be silly, but I believe the only stupid question is an unasked one, so, what if he had lost?  Since it is a primary, would he have been out of office, or would it have waited until the actual election, even if no one is running against him?  And couldn't his opponent pull a Tom Tancredo and switch parties and still run against him in the main election?  Please, please people, not only do I want to know these answers, but my kids do too, so make me look smart to the kiddos!!!

By the way; David Kintz will be representing Republicans in the election for our Coroner, as will Mark Dowaliby for a commissioners seat, which is quite interesting because at the assembly he was the under dog.  Most of our other offices were uncontested, so Debra Green (County Clerk), Dave Wissel (Assessor), Michelle Miller (Treasurer), and Jack Kirby (Surveyor) will all retain their jobs.

Working with the Commissioners

Tuesday was my big meeting with the Commissioners.  I was locked and loaded.  I even had handouts for all of the attendees, which there were ten of, including myself.  Two of my immediate neighbors had been calling almost as much as I had been, with not quite as much luck getting calls back, so I had told the Commissioner that I would be inviting them.  But, the news got out, and the group grew over the weekend, so I was getting a little nervous.  

That is when I knew I needed to be very prepared to take charge of the meeting and not let a lynch mob mentality take over the crowd.  Not only are these people mad about the trees, but years of neglect to our roads that have huge potholes (if you recall that is what prompted me to write a letter in the first place), and many residents have very bad drainage issues due to Road and Bridge problems as well.  So, I took some pictures and made my handout, attached pertinent e-mails, highlighted the most important info, etc.; mostly just to make sure to keep things on track.

 Thankfully, no one was lynched.  Obviously, it is too late for my trees, but I have stopped them for cutting anymore.  It was a mistake; at some point in time, who knows when, they are going to be coming through here to put in drainage ditches, so that if our road ever does get the potholes fixed properly, they will stay that way.  Yes, the trees were cut way too far off the road, and yes they are sorry, and yes they should have told us first, and yes they are changing it right now.  Hope that's not all because it's an election year....

Ironically, this picture is taken in front of my one remaining pine tree in the front of my house.  Look at the tiny little, lonely thing!

Catching Up

If you look closely, you will see that Fat Gary, Marcel, Iowa and Elway all decided to help with the gardening on Sunday.  Not included in the photo were Lily and Rosie who were oh so helpful in removing my rocks, not, and Hector who kept pushing me over because he was rubbing up against my legs as I was pulling weeds.  By the way, thanks Mom for the new pruning shears, they are fantastic and made my job easier this year than ever before.  Doesn't it look fantastic?!?

Lordy!  I can't believe it is already Monday and it has been so long since I have blogged, please accept my apologies!!!  I have been one busy lady.  I last left you all on Thursday, running out the door to work on the cover of my new book, Llucky Llama.  Well, I am proud to say the cover is done and it looks fantastic!  Today Vivian and I will be working on downloading the book to the printer-yeah!!!!  At some point in time I need to write about writing, this has really been a great project, and I think more people should learn about it; really.

After the work on my book, I did something that I have never done before; I went to look for a missing person.  Here in Colorado we have a missing 12 year old girl by the name of Kayleah Wilson.  She vanished from Greeley, CO two weeks ago on her way to a birthday party.  I'm not sure what is bothering me the most about this case; if it's the fact that she is so close to Bella's age, the small town thing, or what, but I can't get this one out of my head.  To be honest with you, this was more of a "psychic search" and I really wasn't sure what to expect.  I do feel that I was able to tell her energy what I wanted to, but I did not accomplish anything specific, so.... I guess the mission in itself was a failure.  For more information on the missing girl, please go to this link.

After the more than two hour drive back to Bailey, I had a meeting with the Destination Bailey group.  I am very excited about this committee.  Aside from one rude, cranky old guy, the group is made up of excited business owners like me who want to bring tourists into our cute little town.  Not just people who pass right on through on their way to someplace else, which is what happens now; Bailey is the definition of a highway town.  Destination Bailey is also very involved with the Park County Historical Society which is near and dear to our hearts for many reasons, not only do we love the history of the area, but the society loves us because we bring our llamas to their big event each year!

Friday was filled with playing with pre-schoolers.  Well, at least that is what we tried to convince them of; it was actually what our school district calls Child Find.  The day when all pre school aged children come and get their vision, hearing and any other thing the district can possibly think of to test, tested.  The cops are there to fingerprint, there is a cute little old lady to face paint, even a couple of home school groups were represented.  Me, of all people was doing vision testing.  No, I have no medical background, but at least I have two boys who have hit their heads more times than I would ever like to count and know how a pupil is supposed to react; one of the tests I was to perform-ha!!!!

Saturday, too, was a whole new experience, County Assembly, WOW!!!  You know, I have avoided talking politics on this blog, and I will continue to do so, for now.  But, I am going to come out of the closet, there is just no way around it... I am a registered Republican.  I often wonder if this will come as a surprise to my friends like Daisy and Tiffany, who are teachers and have strong political opinions.  But, I digress, back to Saturday.  Park County is allowed 125 delegates at the County Assembly, and for the first time in what anyone could remember (and there were some really old people there), we filled every one of them!  This is grass roots politics at it's very best people, that is the only way I can describe it.  

One thing you must keep in mind, is that our county is almost entirely Mountain Hillbilly, I mean, Republican so everyone who is anyone in the county was there.  The Sheriff, the commissioners, the clerk and recorder, etc. all the way down to the coroner race is all Republican pretty much.  That other party may have a name or two on the ballot, if they're lucky, LOL!  No, seriously, it was overwhelming the emotion that was in the room, and to have an impact on voting at such an early stage really made me feel like I was making a difference, and I was.  It was also a great way to meet my candidates in a different setting, many of whom I already know, but have not seen "campaign".

So, needless to say I needed a day to decompress and spend time with my family and animals.  The chickens have gotten into my compost bin and torn the darn thing apart and cleaned out every speck of food that was ever in it, which has prompted me to get to work on Spring projects; Thank you chickens!  The weather was beautiful yesterday so I raked out the perennial garden and lo and behold there was some green underneath!!!  Of course with us working outside in the beautiful weather we had neighbors popping by so I spread the word of the meeting I have with the Commissioner about the cut down trees for tomorrow.

I went to bed with a smile on my face because my son, Thomas had told me that he and his friends had been talking about my trip to Greeley.  He said he wasn't quite sure what to say, just that I was hoping that I could help, and that one of his friends had called me a hippie, and he said "yeah, Mom, you're like a modern hippie", which I took as a huge compliment.  It got me to thinking about these last few days, and how they all may seem kind of contradictory.  A searching psychic and Author one day, a volunteer the next, Gun Totin' Republican on Saturday and wrapping up my weekend composting and saving the planet with my family, now that's what I would call one hell of a week!  But, it's who I am, and what I believe in, so that's what I'll do.  Oh, and did I forget to mention I'm raising heck about the trees tomorrow?  (I remembered, I'm just making sure you caught that one-ha!)

Small Town Politics, Big Time Turnout

Well, once again I am putting off a post that I have started, I guess that is why they have a "drafts" area, right?  Tom and I went to the Caucus last night, and to be honest with you I am absolutely fried.  Yes, that sounds very melodramatic, but the brain is a goner.  Last night I learned more about politics than I have in the past few years combined; and I'm thinking the picture was the same no matter where your Caucus was.
First and foremost, I am proud to say that the ages of the participants in the room ranged from just newly eighteen to well over eighty, and this is a first for Park County.  Another amazing thing was that we had to literally draw names out of a hat to whittle down the number of people that wanted to become delegates to the county assembly to represent our district; usually we have a hard time filling those positions.  Thankfully I had thrown my name in as an alternate from the get go, which means I will get to go to the assembly no matter what, it will just depend on attendance whether I get to vote or not.  Actually, I am the only one who signed up as an alternate, because with this being my first year to go, I just wanted to be a fly on the wall so to speak.  But, it will be a great way for me to meet all of my candidates!
One of the things I learned was the depth of concern among my neighbors as to the direction that our country is taking.  The passion and the commitment that these "mountain hillbillies" as I lovingly call us, have for our country was truly touching.  Interestingly enough, one of the folks in my district is a man who will be running against our incumbent Sheriff, which is turning into a much more interesting "race" than I thought it would be.  It was quite interesting to see the wheels in action of a political machine at such an early stage in what could be a very pivotal election for our country whether we are voting in a new President or not.
I was hugely reminded of what a difference one person really can make.  Politics do start out in a tiny little community center in a tiny little town that is not even on a map.  People really do show up at seven o'clock on the dot to talk about what is going on in their county, state and national governments because it really matters!

Oops I told you I was tired, I forgot to wish you all a Happy St. Patrick's Day!  I just finished downloading the pictures from last night's dinner onto yesterday's post.  The Corned Beef and Cabbage was great and there was plenty left over for Tom to take to work today.  Although the kids love to eat it here at home, they will not take it to school, too stinky!  Hope you have a great one!