Catching up

2017 was not a great year for technology at Valley View. The Dekal Wireless system started out sporadic and slow, and we were not able to get any help with fixing it. We finally gave up and went to a setup using a smartphone (oh, no, we've finally started down that slippery slope!) that we could use as a hotspot to get internet for our computers. It is much better than nothing, but still a bit on the slow side. Then Tom's computer died. Unfortunately that computer had all of the software that is needed to build this web site, so everything had to wait until we got back to Ithaca and had the repaired computer back. So this is the first of two posts catching us up from the beginning of 2017.

As usual we were quite busy. Barbara has kept her sewing room buzzing, creating beautiful new cushions for the two big porch chairs, and finishing up two quilt tops. She also worked with a couple of the local kids, teaching them the basics of using a sewing machine. Tom and Binghi have both worked on tiling projects and Tom started making gates for both ends of the porch. The gates are needed because the goats like to take shelter on our porches during the rainy season, and they are not toilet trained!

Charlie Spiegel came down for two weeks and got a new metal roof installed. It looks great, and will dramatically improve the quality of the water that runs into his storage tanks. It was great to see Charlie again - it had been seven years since we were both at Valley View at the same time.

Our flowers and trees all looked great. Barbara's bellflower finally bloomed, after several years of false starts. And we have a juvenile male streamer tail hummingbird (aka Doctor Bird) visiting regularly. We're really hoping he will continue to visit as his tail feathers grow out!

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