Windy Weather and Wonderful Woodturning

 The Wind

Leaving Ingalls, Kansas we headed for Colorado with the legendary Kansas winds blowing briskly. We had been in continuously increasing windy conditions since entering Illinois a few days ago. The intensity of the wind has been increasing exponentially the further west we traveled. Illinois had strong wind gusts, Missouri had stronger steady winds, Kansas had much stronger steady winds with intermittent bursts of 45mph that made walking around interesting and when we arrived in Colorado the wind was literally howling with 55mph gusts and driving sand along with it so much so that we had to bring the slide portion of our trailer back in to prevent damage to our slide topper cover. The many people we talked to along the way told us that the winds were a normal part of living in these areas. In addition to the winds we had other interesting driving experiences on our 285 mile trip from Pueblo, CO over the mountains to Santa Fe, NM. The weather changed from rain to snow to hail then back to rain interspersed with brief intervals of sunshine and temperature changes of 40 degrees along the way. We commented that if someone did not like the weather around here just wait a few minutes for the next change! In addition to the changing weather we also noted that the topography and lands around us changed dramatically as well. The natural beauty we continued to see elicited constant “oohs” and “ahhs” as we viewed the majestic mountain peaks, the long verdant valleys, the grand open prairies and even the bundles of tumbleweed rushing past in the wind. As we pulled into our campsite in Santa Fe overlooking the city with it’s many adobe buildings the wind had died down to a gentle breeze and we slept soundly.

The Trolley Turner

The Trolley Turner is a Harvest Hosts site that is not to be missed!  This is listed as a Harvest Host attraction as opposed to winery, farm, brewery or golf course.  Boris is the extremely talented woodturner with a great sense of humor and extremely outgoing.  His wife, Jorgette, is a hospitality queen who really knows how to make strangers (or new friends as they say) feel as though they are life-long friends.  Shortly after we arrived she invited us into their lovely home to visit with them and their close friends Susan and Paul.  We laughed together, learned about everyone's history and enjoyed some delicious snacks.

Everyday at 4:30, Boris begins his woodturning demonstration.  This was completely fascinating!  He has been turning for about 35 years and has made many of the tools that he uses.  He teaches classes and one of his main points is to teach turners that they do not have to buy every latest tool that is available.  Part of the demonstration is to actually get to participate in the making of a wooden mallet.  In our demonstration the mallet was being turned from a piece of cottonwood that a friend had given to him.  He makes this so much fun while at the same time really informative.  Our demonstration lasted over 2 hours.  He saw that we were both really interested so went into lots of detail with us.  We were the only people as the other family scheduled for Sunday could not make it through the bad weather.  

Our mallet was really fun to make and the salad bowl we purchased is beautiful.

After the demonstration was complete and we had our dinner, Jorgette called to invite us back to the house for cards and visiting.  It was just the four of us as Susan and Paul had gone home earlier.  We learned a new card game, Progressive Rummy (very fun), and again it felt like old friends spending an evening together.  

The Trolley Turner will be remembered as one of the highlight days of this trip.  Boris and Jorgette are moving to Macon, Georgia this summer.  The trolley is going with them and of course, all of Boris' tools also.  They should be back up and running by the fall.  We plan to see them again.