Uncategorized – High Country Living

Christmas 2024

December 23, 2024

by Laurie with No Comment Uncategorized

It’s Christmastime, and here at the Bratten’s “Good News Ranch” we have a couple of new traditions we are enjoying to celebrate the good news of the coming of the Christ.

First of all, we made this meaningful Christmas log decoration that holds seven plaques. These plaques each show quotes of Jesus, naming some of the reasons he came to earth. We are spending some time each evening for the seven days prior to Christmas to focus on Jesus’ words, light the candles, talk together, and rejoice in his coming.

Jesus said:

I came… to show you the Father. If you have seen me you have seen the Father. (John 14)

I came… because the Father sent me; not to be served, but to serve. (John 8:42, Matthew 20:28)

I came… to preach the good news of God’s Kingdom. (Luke 4:43)

I came… to heal the brokenhearted & deliver those who are crushed, that they may have life, and may have it abundantly. (Luke 4:18, John 10:10)

I came… to proclaim release to the captives & recovering of sight to the blind. (Luke 4:18)

I came… to call sinners to repentance; to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 5:32, Luke 19:10)

I came… to bring light into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in the darkness. (John 12:46)

Secondly, we got a nice tree this year and enjoy having it in the house to make it festive. We threw out all the old tree ornaments and made all new ones which all point to Christ, rejoicing in his coming. The tree is topped with a beautifully lighted star Tim made.

Below is a gallery of some of the ornaments.

We still have our large lighted star outdoors, high above the house on our antenna tower for all the neighbors to enjoy during the Christmas season.

We hope you all rejoice during this Christmas season in the coming of Jesus, God’s Son, who came to show us his Father.

JUST A QUICKIE

September 7, 2024

by Laurie with No Comment Uncategorized

As it may be obvious, this website hasn’t been updated in quite some time. I tend to do updates in the fall & winter, when I have new ideas or information, particularly regarding the vegetables I grow. Here’s a few highlights until I have time to do some more writing.

SQUASH: This year we created a new bed outside our garden area, with in-ground beds (not raised beds) just for the winter squash & pumpkins. It’s fenced in from deer, bunnies & ducks, and seems quite successful. Soon I’ll be harvesting those, as we had a bit of frost yesterday morning.

TOMATOES: This year I grew a few tomatoes in our newest raised bed in front of the greenhouse. This is our warmest, most protected bed, and I thought tomatoes just might do okay. They did! More on that to come…

DUCKS: Our latest flock of ducks is now 1 year old, and they’re a lot of fun. They’ve been taking turns with laying eggs & molting, and we’ve had a constant supply of eggs since January. Our one runner duck is very entertaining & adventurous. I’ll update the ducks page soon.

FREEZE-DRYING: We purchased a freeze-dryer in January of this year, and have been using it to freeze-dry eggs, our garden harvests, and many other things. I’ll do an update on that soon.

That’s it for now. It’s time to go out and do some real work.

REMINISCING

March 13, 2022

by Laurie with No Comment Uncategorized

We used to have a couple of blogs prior to this website, which were hosted on Blogger. One, “Golden Gaits Garden”, was started at our former home in Wellington (2009) when we began growing vegetables & raising ducks. It ended in 2017 when High Country Living went live. The other, “Mountain Gaitway”, began in 2014 after we purchased this property in Guffey and began planning our dream home. It primarily chronicled the building of our home & development of the property here.

In the process of “de-Googling” ourselves, we’ve removed these blogs from Google’s Blogger and have incorporated them into the blog pages of High Country Living. In the process, many of the photos were lost from those blog pages. I (Laurie) have completed the chore of finding photos that fit the descriptions in those blog pages.

It was a chore, but fun to reminisce as I read through those pages, looked through hundreds of photos on my computer, and recalled all that we’ve done here to build up this property. We’ve done a lot on this property, and even the small accomplishments were a big part of the grand scheme. Not many folks will likely ever read these pages, but for us it’s like a diary of some of our adventures together.

The archives of these old posts can be found at the links below:

We have certainly been blessed, and every day we are grateful for the way God has led us. First, by bringing us together back in 2008. Then, by guiding us to understand more of His truth as shown by His son, Jesus. We decided to stop listening to other people, and only listen to Jesus, in the gospels, for a year. After that year was up, our minds & hearts were clear of the things that distracted us from our Father. We have no desire to go back to the way we were. We listen to Jesus, who came to show us the Father, our Creator, and guide us to His truth.

After all that, we are in awe that He’s brought us to this beautiful, quiet oasis here in the mountains to enjoy in our retirement. In all that we do: gardening, building things, ham radio–we’d give it all up if it were to come in the way of knowing Father more fully & doing what He desires.

HAMMING IT UP

December 27, 2021

by Laurie with No Comment Ham Radio Uncategorized

To say we’ve been “hamming it up” doesn’t mean we’ve just been goofy. We’ve been hamming on the radio, adding to our collection of ham radio equipment, adding to our collection of amateur radio operator friends, adding to our collection of amateur radio knowledge & licenses, and adding to our collection of websites. All this, along with all of our other projects including increasing our solar power, has kept us busy!

HAMMING ON THE RADIO

Laurie (KØLTH) has been having fun trying different frequencies & methods, responding to other hams calling “CQ” from all over the world: US & Canada, South America, Central America & the Caribbean, Europe, Japan & even Indonesia. Most of these types of conversations (QSO’s) are quick hello’s and an exchange of name, location & a signal report. Most of the hams outside the U.S. are contesters, trying to get as many contacts as they can from as many different locations as they can. They are typically nice, but not chatty. Some are a bit more relaxed and like to talk, but they seem to be few and far between. From within the U.S. & Canada, there’s a mix of contesters and folks who like to chat (“rag chew”). It’s hit-&-miss when answering these CQ’s. I (Laurie) prefer chatting and talking a bit more than the quick hello, but finding out how far this wire antenna will send out the waves is a fun challenge as well.

It took a while for me to get up the nerve to send out a CQ, looking for anyone to respond. Finally, after getting more confidence in talking on the radio, I’ve been doing that more now, and I find that folks are much more interesting & chatty when I’m not just asking for the signal and moving on. It’s a lot of fun, and I’ve “met” a lot of interesting folks. Hams are mostly men (OM’s), and even though there is an increasing number of female hams (YL’s), there aren’t many on the radio! I’d like to help change that.

Tim (KØCKR) doesn’t do much of the distance radio (DXing), but chats with a lot of folks nearby on the local repeaters, exchanging info about ham radio: getting questions answered or offering help when needed.

RADIO EQUIPMENT
We have added a second radio to the shack inside the house, so we can scan the local repeaters on one while using the other for other radio projects. We’ve also added a 40′ radio tower for one of our antennas (and perhaps more in the future), which puts the top of the antenna about 50′ above ground. This has really helped with our reception.

For the Christmas season, Tim thought it would be fun to put a Christmas star on the antenna, high above the house. He found a lot of the materials at thrift stores and put it together. The first couple of nights we had it up, we noticed cars slowing down & even stopping in front of our house, presumably to look at the star. Tim got to thinking that since it’s powered by our solar system, it’s a “solar-powered star”–think about that…..
It’s a small thing, but we hope it will help neighbors remember that it was a star that pointed out the birth of God’s son!

We’ve also added a radio & antenna to the car, so we can listen in and call out when needed and we’re on the road. This may come in handy if there’s an emergency situation and no cell phone coverage. This radio can also be taken out and used in the workshop when Tim is building & experimenting with new antennas.

RADIO FRIENDS
We’ve become quite active in a local radio club, MARC (Mountain Amateur Radio Club). Most of these folks are in Teller County (next county to the east of us). Because of the topography & distance, these folks are closer to us than most of the hams in our own county. We’ve also gotten to know several people from the Fremont County area, and it’s been a lot of fun getting to know these people and sharing experiences.

There are a lot of radio “nets” where people get on the radio together and talk mostly about radio activities, but also some personal stuff. Hams are quite friendly with each other, and even when we haven’t met face-to-face, its easy to call some of these folks “friends”. We look forward to meeting more in person.

KNOWLEDGE & LICENSES
Laurie got ambitious over the summer and studied for the highest amateur radio license “Amateur Extra.” She took the exam in September and passed, so she’s now able to use more of the amateur radio frequencies. She also decided to become a VE (Volunteer Examiner), so she is now credentialed to do that. She’ll do that with the MARC group.

Tim put off taking the “Extra” exam due to so many other projects on his plate, but has studied to take that exam at the end of this week. Certainly he will whiz through that test.

In addition to what we have to study for the exams, we’ve been learning a lot and applying new skills. One is a digital mode called JS8Call. I won’t go into any detail on that here, but that mode along with many others may be used with weak signals, which some folks are limited to particularly when power is out and they are using batteries.

HAM2HAM WEBSITE
We decided it would be helpful to ourselves & others to work on some projects together & learn some new things, so we started a website to organize that effort. Ham2ham.net is where we communicate what we’re doing or would like to do in the future.

STAYING SHARP
As we grow older we don’t want our minds to turn to mush! We both believe that by learning new things and exercising our brains we will stay sharp as long as possible. We’re certainly accomplishing that with all the ham radio adventures & projects. Stay tuned for more…

DILEMMA: HIGH ALTITUDE OR HIGH ELEVATION?

December 5, 2020

by Laurie with No Comment Uncategorized

WHICH IS IT?

There are many websites and publications that discuss things like gardening or cooking at high elevation or high altitude. Often it seems like the words “elevation” or “altitude” are used arbitrarily and interchangeably. It is certainly inconsistent, even on websites focused on a scientific approach. Since I want to be grammatically correct, I looked it up to be sure.

ALTITUDE is generally used to indicate an OBJECT’s relation to sea level, such as an airplane, hot air balloon, or spaceship.

ELEVATION is generally used to describe a PLACE on earth and its relation to sea level, such as a city, mountaintop, or a home garden.

HERE’S MY DILEMMA
When I talk about the garden, or the act of gardening, am I talking about the PLACE ON EARTH where I’m located, or is the garden or a plant in it, or even the act of working in it, an OBJECT at that point?

Is the act of cooking in it relative to this place on earth, or relative to using an OBJECT such as a pot or pan?

At one time I went through this website and changed every reference to my high location from “altitude” to “elevation”, to be more accurate. Then I realized that most folks search for information about gardening or cooking by using the word, “altitude”, such as “high altitude gardening”.

In the end, I don’t really think there is a black-and-white, right or wrong answer. It really doesn’t seem to matter. The dictionary is not helpful. I’m going to use “altitude” and “elevation” interchangeably, to the best of my knowledge.

Ducklings First Time Outside & In Water

June 15, 2011

by Laurie with No Comment Ducks Uncategorized Welsh Harlequin

The ducklings went outside today, at just about a week and a half old. We wheeled them out in a wheelbarrow, and put them in a small pen we put up made with snow fence. They did quite well in the water for their first time; after all, they’re ducks! Even though we’ve read some warnings about putting them in the water so young, it was a warm day, we had the water warming up all day, and we didn’t leave them in very long. They were just fine! Here are some videos.

DUCKLINGS DAY SEVEN

June 13, 2011

by Laurie with No Comment Ducks Uncategorized Welsh Harlequin

The ducklings are doing well, on day seven. Here is a current photo, with “Whitey” front and center as usual. The big guy does always seem to be the most bold, and I don’t think it’s just because he’s the only one we can pick out. I’ve thought about giving them colored bands, just so we can keep track of who’s who, but maybe it’s just as well that we don’t single any out, since one day some will be dinner and all…

Ducklings Day Seven