Bernard Pastel by Pamela Koster

Bernard Pastel by Pamela Koster
Bernard the Magnificent

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Boy are we lazy!

It doesn't seem like over two weeks since the last post. We've been in a frenzy of activity-- building the new chicken palace, battling the weeds, and feeding a lot of hungry guests. It's the rainy season in Taos, which means we get a nice 45 minutes of rain almost every afternoon. This keeps things cool and also keeps the garden looking great.

Brantly and I continue to attend bridge lessons and struggle with the finer points of bidding. We have started to play against other human beings (as opposed to just playing all four hands ourselves), and look forward to our first game opportunities with any unsuspecting bridge-playing guests.... Of course the last game-playing we did with guests ended in a merciless thrashing-- for us. Still, we'll gladly take on any Spades, Canasta, or Pinochle players who end up on our turf (we never learn and remain optimistic that we might one day win a game).

On the bed and breakfast front, we've ordered a new set of furniture for our Mesa Vista room. While this might not sound hugely exciting, but when you have eight plus rooms to decorate, an entire suite purchase is pretty thrilling. The pieces are beautiful and made by Mountain Comfort, a furniture company based out of Colorado. We think the Mission-style furniture will look great in the room and be a nice, and comfortable, update. We're very excited about the change and think our guests will be, too.

As I mentioned earlier in the post, we've been working on our chicken coop and run. It's a delicate blend of making a comfortable space for "the girls" and keeping it aesthetically pleasing for our guests. We're hoping to plant a bunch of neat vine-type plants around the north and east sides of the run and create shade as well as beauty.

So hey, the weather is gorgeous, the flowers and plants are out of control, and the chickens are free-roaming. Come on by and see us!

Monday, July 7, 2008

First Transmission from The Cottonwood B and B!

Well, I'm off to a rocky start-- I've already managed to write my first post in Hindi-- which may have been more helpful to some than others. Now that I've got the transliteration issue cleared up, I just wanted to start off by thanking one of our recent guests, Robyn from Denver. Robyn suggested that a blog would be a good way to reach all those folks who are interested in the doings of the owners of The Cottonwood Inn (me & Brantly), what's new with our fabulous pets, and what's going on around Taos.

As some of you might know, I recently got 14 Giant Cochin Chicks and started down the road to Chicken-Mania. The Girls, as we call them collectively, arrived at the Arroyo Seco post office when they were less than a day-old. After spending the first three weeks in a large cardboard box, they finally graduated to the small coop in the back yard. They adjusted well and were on their way to establishing a pretty serious pecking order when the neighbor's dog (known to us only as 'Brownie,' the name given him by Anita, our housekeeping WonderWoman) broke into the yard and killed at least one chicken and dispersed another four. Unfortunately, Maud and Christine were among that number. We had hoped, for the first 5 days, that we might get some of our girls back, but we haven't been that lucky.

In any case, there have been serious re-adjustments inside the coop and out. Brantly and I have decided to construct a very large run for the girls in lieu of fencing the entire yard-- a job for a later date, as it is too costly and too big a job for this year. I will post new pictures as they develop (yes, a bad pun).

The weather has been cooling down the last few days, and it is actually raining out as I type. We're hoping for a nice hard rain to spruce up the parts of the yard we've had a hard time keeping watered. We're also hoping it will cool things down and settle the dust for 22nd Taos Po-Wow, which is coming up next weekend (see http://www.taospueblo.com for more information).

Brantly is making another batch of his much sought after watermelon pickles (hey, don't knock 'em 'til you try 'em). I'm still working on a breakfast menu which is complemented by pickles....

We made the mistake of playing cards with some of our guests-- Terry and Peter from OK. In keeping with tradition (viz. the trouncing we took last Christmas from our Belgian guests) Terry and Peter first did the "we haven't played Spades in YEARS!" routine before they thrashed us soundly. Hey, we're starting to get used to it. It makes me wonder what will happen to us the first time we get to play against actual human opponents at a Bridge table....

Even though our gardens are in full and spectacular bloom, there are still weeds popping up all over. Which leads me to mention a new requirement at the Cottonwood Inn-- bring your weeding tools and gloves, beverages will be provided....