The whole region is excitedly waiting and praying for snow as Thanksgiving approaches. But for the homeless snow is the very last thing they can handle.It's the difficulty in getting dry when you get wet. The difficulty in getting warm, when you are cold. All of the normal dynamics change ~ when you are homeless.
The thermometer said that it wasn't that cold, in the upper 30's, lower 40's, when I woke up this morning but I think the thermometer is broken. It felt like it was in the lower 20's and I was in awful pain.Every joint in my body has seized up and my spine hurts so much the pain is taking my breath away.
This is somewhat surreal. All we ever wanted was the home and barn we paid for, not years of torture homeless, being dragged through court cases, and still... considered statistics and not human beings.
Fridays seem to come far too quickly these days. I no sooner blink, and it's Friday - again. By 9 am it was 50 degree's and very pretty outside.. but the cold that had gone to the bone for 8 hours made it impossible for me to "thaw out.'
I, like all homeless people I'm sure, have started to really get homesick for a kitchen of my own, a place for family and friends, for holiday cheer instead of fighting cold and miserable conditions. For my life..
Ski Apache To Open On Thanksgiving
The weather turned simply gorgeous by noon, going into the high 50's, sunny with crystal clear skies, and it gave me the opportunity to get blankets washed while I worked. Clean anything is a real luxury even if it only stays clean for one night. Dust, dirt, dried mud, horse hair are ever present. I wish I could say that I will be in my home for Christmas..It's an absolute go. Ski Apache will open next week on Thanksgiving Day. The skiing and snowboarding will come despite La Niña weather forecasts for below-par winter snows.
"I think it's been positive," Justin Rowland, Ski Apache's director of operations, said Thursday from one of the ski mountain's snow courses. "We have reservations coming in for Thanksgiving. We're going to have a lot of folks in town for Thanksgiving time. I think the town and ourselves are going to be pleasantly busy."
Rowland dispelled rumors that Ski Apache would be open only on weekends or holidays.
"We're going to be operational per normal. You'll see us seven days a week, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m."
With just seven inches of snow from the heavens atop the mountain so far this season, snowmaking equipment has been going much of November.
"Man-made snow wise, we're shaping up pretty good," Rowland said Thursday. "We got some cold temperatures earlier in the month so we're able to hammer out chairs three and five, our beginner area. And we're working diligently right now on Deep Freeze, to have it open for Thanksgiving so we've got some expanded skiing for skiers."
A lot of Deep Freeze's course is covered, in many places with 18 to 24 inches of produced snow.
"You're talking maybe a third of the mountain that will be open from the top of Capitan through Deep Freeze," Rowland said. "Deep Freeze is a fairly popular run for the beginner and beginner/intermediate crowd so it should be a lot of fun."
An array of new snowmaking equipment, installed in 2009, has greatly enhanced Ski Apache.
"The snowcats, when we have a fleet of those up here and once the snow's in piles, the snowcats push it around, flatten it out and till it out so you can ski it."
The additional equipment gives Ski Apache the ability to make snow along the popular run to the peak. It also can cover the entire lower half of the mountain for a total of about 250 acres.
"Once we get this beginner area and Capitan hashed out, we'll start working our way to the top of the mountain," Rowland said.
Snowmaking has taken place almost every night this month.
"We've had a couple of nights that have been too warm," Rowland said. "And some really windy nights where it was cold but we chose not to make snow because that wind isn't really going to help. It blows it all the way to Las Cruces."
What would be "a lot fun," Rowland said, would be some natural snow.
"We're ready to go and get that ready. If you can get a nice foot to two feet of snow out there, we'll get the groomers out there, get it knocked down, a base packed in so that when you're skiing you're not going all the way through that brand new snow to the ground. But it does take some preparation. I know that a lot of skiers and the snowboarders, after we get a snowstorm, sort of expect that some of this upper mountain terrain that wasn't open is going to be open the next day. Depending on the snow, sometimes it is but sometimes it's not. Sometimes it takes another day or two of prep for it to be safe for the skiers and snowboarders to traverse on."
With any luck, Rowland said it will be chairs three, four and five for the opener.
"If you haven't skied or snowboarded, try one or the other, now is the perfect time to come up. We'll have these beginner areas open and you'll have it to yourself and you can learn and get your foot in the door early in the season so you can have a strong foundation for the rest of the season."
Ski Apache is a big employment engine for the area. At full operation, 350 to 375 team members are working.
But Robert Huckins is going to make sure that never happens..
There has to be someone related to Robert & Sylve Huckins must have some means to reach them, if it be Michael Huckins, Dr.Kenneth Ogilvie ( Diana Huckins? Dominic Huckins? Malcolm Huckins? ) or Patricia Ogilvie-Huckins and get them to return ALL of the money they stole from us so that I can buy a home and get our lives back. I am begging anyone in this family for help.I don't believe I have EVER witnessed any none violent crime that can be as devastating as stealing someone's home. I am walking in Dorothy McKeevers footsteps, day by day, month by month, year by year.
Liam Griffin, I sat in your law office with two witnesses as you gave me your promise, your guarantee, that our money would be returned before harm came to us.
Patricia Ogilvie-Huckins you were present the day I signed contract with your son. You walked out of the kitchen with Sylve Huckins and your son introduced me to you. He told you that I was the British horse trainer he had told you about, the one he was going to build the home and barn for. Why didn't you say something? There may be a rational and reasonable explanation but I have spent over 3 years, homeless, not understanding it. I understand it even less knowing that though I was a total stranger, both Dorothy McKeever and Sally Canning you KNEW, and you knew what your son had done to them and others.
Dr. Kenneth Ogilvie, I contacted you and simply asked for a reference, not knowing that Robert Huckins was your cousin. Robert Huckins had just stolen over $30,000 from the domestic violence shelter, HEAL, yet everyone was trying to hide it. There was a history of stealing large amounts of money. $65,000 PLUS from Nancy Canning. $89,000 PLUS from Dorothy McKeever, $45,000 from Francis McKinney. The list just goes on and on and on.
Because of Robert Huckins I ended up paying $140,000 to be homeless.. sat in the cold, emotionally, physically and financially broke. In the middle of a recession, with no way to recover the stolen funds.
Today Robert Huckins has his own home...
He also has OUR home.....
He also has a lot of people's money...
And his freedom.
Women are not banks or loan institutions. Women should not be the source of a retirement fund for people who don't want to do an honest day's work for an honest day's pay. Holding women hostage while playing with the judicial system, a horrendous game of cat and mouse extending YEARS, with the victims whose very homes, families and stability are in jeopardy is cruelty, as cruel as a physical beating. It is financial and emotional RAPE. Homelessness is not justice. It is a slow, painful death.
Please, I beg with everything I have within me, please convince Robert Huckins to stop this torture and return the building fund he stole from us so we too, can have a home.
Relevant pages:
http://roberthuckinsvictim.
http://roberthuckinsvictim.
In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery?~Saint Augustine
