"Oldtimer"

Roanne, France
"Oldtimer," originally a working barge in The Netherlands transporting grain, was built in 1927 and converted to a live aboard barge in the 1990's. The barge is 16 meters and the style of barge is called a Steilsteven. We are the second owners and have owned the ship since October 2005. We are Americans from Colorado who with our Tibetan Terrier "Tulah" now live in France and "Oldtimer" is our home.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

February in Aspen - so wonderful.

We are still thrilled and excited to be in the mountains of Colorado. That is despite bone chilling -25 degrees last week and several weeks ago. It went from the -25 one week to +45 the next. Only in Colorado could that happen. Today we have snow , snow, snow. It started this morning and we already have about 6 inches of new "freshies" ( the local word for powder).
We have had visits this month from Heather and Kent a couple we met in France who live in Washington DC area and are spending the winter in Beaver Creek near Vail , Colorado as well as Tracy and Thom and their two dogs Bear and Petey. Unfortunately Tracy fell while we were skiing a double black diamond on Highlands Ski Area and tore her ACL. She was a trooper and used her good leg to traverse and side slip down to the road - as luck would have it a Ski Patroller arrived just as we got to the road. She then road down the mountain in a sled.
Life is Good - we are skiing about 4-5 days a week , hiking, swimming, running and doing all those annoying other real life things like cleaning bathrooms, doing laundry, shopping for food, getting haircuts, grooming our needy dog who is distressed by all the avalanche control (bombing) that goes on on a snowy day.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Colorado At Last !!!!!!!

We are in seventh heaven - blue skies, sunshine, great skiing, glorious mountains, clean clear air, and so much to do and so little time.

We have been lucky enough to visit with friends, have friends come visit ( Tricia and Tom), visit with family and have family come visit. Aspen is an incredible and beautiful place and that encourages visits. Lucky us.

Okay so it was -20 degrees farenheit for 2 days but that was only 2 days. We are back in the sun and there will be powder skiing this week. The snow in Colorado is so dry that it is light and fluffy. Often called Lux Flakes. Beautiful crystalized snow that sparkles.