Mina's Musings

    My husband, Fred loves adventure. He will engage in it whenever possible and sometimes I tag along. This year’s scouting trip was for the benefit of Mark Saucy and Bodie Garside. These two mountain bikers like to go to out-of-the-ordinary places that their bicycling magazine suggests. Mark Saucy imagines big air.       Our friend Mark Saucy, baptized his first wilderness mountain biking trip as the Kokopelli, because it was the entire Kokopelli Trail. It took the better part of a week. After this trip subsequent trips have been named Kokopelli two, three, four and this year’s scouting trip was in preparation for the Kokopelli five trip which will be in 2021. Koko five will be the lower quarter of the Colorado Trail-which runs from Denver to Durango. To do these trips there must be a support team which travels along as close to the trail as they can to provide food, water, repairs, campsites, hugs from Kidnap Carl (another story) showers etc. So for the week of August 15- 2

7 Oaks Road Declared a Disaster Area On Valentine's Day 2019, the land around our mountain property was flooded. New water courses and islands were carved by the force of too much water in one place at one time.  Here is what our electronic controller on our irrigation pump looked like after the flood. Burst compression fitting Sometime after we saw the new landscape, the INSIDE of our home flooded.  And we experienced, too much water in one place at one time.  About 8 days of sitting flooded water from this little pipe that blew off the compression fitting caused inside disaster.   Fred had wanted to pull the washing machine out of the upstairs because his insurance days showed him what can happen. And happen it did.   I was not with him when he discovered it. After the initial shock, he went into action- sweeping water out the door, ripping out drywall, removing furniture, cutting the waterlogged carpet that now weighed 500 lbs, to get it off the har

This year I learned to make nature prints. A nature print is a unique and unexpected way to imprint a botanical impression onto paper. Here is one of my favorites.   I love the darkness juxtaposed with the leaves. It looks almost photographic. Although I am new at this, the unusual process really does the work of reproducing the beauty. Can you guess how this paper took on this impression? What do you think? This print started with a piece of carefully chosen paper- paper that the artist knows will hold the natural dye coming from the leaves,     paper that will record and hold the image accurately and                       paper that has the strength to survive the process. Leaf wrap   Placing the leaves on the selected paper, I sandwich them with another piece of quality paper. Then beginning at one end of the sandwich, I roll it up around a copper tube, as tightly as I can so the leaves cannot slip out and their surface is in close contact with the

   Yesterday,  I experienced the resolute presence of God's spirit amidst 10 lovely women.    My friend Sergio Perez was overcome by the effects of  glioblastoma   at 4:25 am on Saturday March 18th.  He left as one that was well loved by his family and many many 4th grade students.  Little voices, hands and souls whom he invested in and nurtured in a manly way. His way was gentle but firm and assuring. He was interested in people -perhaps because he knew that each one of them was of great value in the Kingdom of God. He had an unusual gift of remembering names and even decades later could recall them when meeting his former students on the street.    I only got to know him better in the last year, more his family really, but his imprint upon them was indelible. Their beloved Sergio struggled against this insidious disease for 6 months before it took him. During that time the amount of cards and support monies that came in was staggering. His family covered the living ro