Mietzke's Holden Adventure

Holden is a bit like living at a circus minus the elephants. At night you can always count on the big top performance, and you never know what tricks the animals, or the people are up to, and all around there is action and commotion. This morning I was awakened by a chipmunk scurrying across my head. I jumped, so did he and he rushed to get away from me but got caught up in the mosquito netting and I had to shake him out. It was a funny way to wake up. About ten minutes later a squirrel made its way up to the bottom of my sleeping bag where it was joined by another one and both stared at me for a while.
It was warm on the porch this morning. The sky was blue and the mountains had that early morning sunshine glow. I took my time getting up and sat on the porch for a good chunk of time taking in the beauty of the mountains which never cease to astonish me.
My friend Joy worked with me today to install a butterfly mobile in the Village Center where we gather for our evening vespers. Three of us have been working on butterflies for the last few weeks in preparation for the summer decor. The butterflies are made of thick cardboard/poster paper with cutouts filled with colored tissue paper that looks like stained glass when lit from behind. It ended up looking really beautiful and I was pleasantly surprised. Anni and Joy helped to position the cherry picker and then I pedaled my way up the forty foot ceiling and I spent several hours suspended hanging butterflies and getting positioning opinions. It is so fun to have a vision and see it materialize! It was up by vespers and people seemed to like it.
This evening felt really nice. Our house guests were around and we all sat on the porch and told stories and ate popped corn for a while. It felt comfortable and fun. Then I went down to the ice cream parlor and filled a tub with Moose Tracks and brought it back to share.
Dave and I also went for a nice walk through the woods up to the third level. I haven’t been up there since the snow melted and I was amazed by the amount of junk, both from the mining days and years of donations to Holden. Lots of metal scrap. There are a couple of people in the village who are working on trying to sort and get rid of some of that waste, and a good portion of it is recyclable.
Jordyn did not go to any of the organized programming today. She really loves her freedom. Tomorrow she is going to take a stab at helping with the little kids in the Narnia program for the morning. She is just in that awkward space between being too old and too young for the programs. Nyrie, on the other hand seems to love her time there and has been having a lot of fun with her friend Emily. The program lets out at noon so the kids are free all afternoon anyway, which is good.