Bury Your Poverty, Dig Up Your Wealth 2025-2026 Edition

 It's New Year's Eve 2026!!!! It's time to Bury your Poverty and Dig up your wealth! 

I "stole" this concept from a fellow model horse collector, Chris Wallbruch, and I tried it in 2013 and it was an OK year overall.

I tried it again in 2014 and while it was a rough year - this DID work for me. 

I did this in 2015 and while the end of the year was not what I expected - it was a very good year overall - I still had income after I had been let go from a job and I was very glad to not be homeless. 

2016 was just a bitch and while I had no great windfall I have always had the funds to pay what needed to be paid. 

2017 I managed to get a little more than I needed, but again no windfall. 

2018 I have had a very good year - no windfall- but all the bills paid and I actually have $10 in my savings account (This is saying something considering I have had a $0 balance for a while). 

2019 brought a lot of change in aspects of my life and while again no windfall, I have managed to pay my bills (a little late sometimes) but again I have money in savings and a money market now! 

2020 was a suck year with the Coronavirus, the East Troublesome Fire Thompson zone, Cameron Peak Fire, and so much more - but I was given a gift of money to get a new rental home, pay my bills - all on time, help with my evacuation and pay for the things that I wanted and needed and overtime at work. I have to say that I have been helped this year more than any other and I am so very grateful. 

2021 has been the most generous and not so generous year to me. I struggled still from the Coronavirus issues like the rest of the world. I busted my butt at a job that did not appreciate me, I traveled, paid my bills and in October, lost my step-dad. I then proceeded to get a job that actually makes me feel appreciated and pays me well. It feels unbelievable, but I am SO grateful! This year, my cup hath runneth over. It may not be a windfall, but it is a wage and environment that is positive and good for me and that's better than the largest lottery win. 

2022 was a life changing year. I left that job in April that I thought was so great, took the whole month of May to find something, cashed out some retirement accounts and things, before starting a new position that ended up not being great in the sense of money but was awesome in the sense of friendships and the wealth of knowledge that I gained. I bought a 4 wheel drive truck in February and kept my other truck as well. I was able to travel and to do somethings that I wanted too. I got another job in October and I am liking it and the benefits. It was a still a struggle of a year, but I am grateful for everything and feeling good about digging up my wealth in 2023. 

2023 has been a good year. I managed to get money back from a company that had been overcharging me for 15 months. I sold a lot of art work - my best year yet, and I was able to pay my bills and help my mom out. I am truly grateful for 2023 and hoping 2024 will be even better. 

2024- has been a rough year. I lost my mom, left a volunteer position that I had been at for seven years, and had a lot of set backs. I always felt on the edge of the precipice of falling into a loss of money that was not recoverable, living paycheck to paycheck like most Americans do. I came out ahead, but the cost was losing my mom. She made sure I had something, and I appreciate that, but I would rather have her. All the money in the world can't replace her. 

2025 - It's been a good year with a lot of travel and fun. I always had what I needed to get through the month and while I am slightly better than paycheck to paycheck, I wouldn't call it a windfall, but it's good. I am doing well overall, better than in previous years. 

 

It is time to bury your poverty!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this tradition, what you do is bury a dollar (or any amount above a dollar that you want) in the soil on New Year's Eve.

This can be in a houseplant if the ground is frozen or inaccessible, but I like to go outside, dig a hole, and drop my dollar in. (I put it in a plastic bag). As you bury said dollar, say out loud, "I am burying my poverty!" TIP - if you do this outside, make sure you place some sort of marker where you bury your buck so that you can find it again!

On New Year's Day, dig UP the dollar, and as you do so, say out loud, "I am unburying my wealth!"

You can't spend the money - you can either keep it or give it away to charity. Giving it away is the best so you are less likely to spend it. For me, each year I have given the $1 to a local Estes Park charity. This year I plan to bury more than $1 and give the local EP Charity more $$ when I dig it up.  

This tradition is supposed to give you an unexpected windfall of money during the year.

I have had money come to me over the years I have done this and I have always had money that helped me out of tough times so I am NOT complaining.

It is a tradition I plan on keeping every year and I thank Chris for pointing me to it!! Go bury that poverty and dig up your wealth! 

Dig up your wealth!

Happy 2026!

Movies and TV 2025

 Some Great stuff came out this year! 

Dark Winds - Premiered March 9, 2025 - And I loved the first two seasons and the first episode of season 3 was great! Can't wait for more!! Dark Winds is bittersweet for me this season because my mother passed in 2024 and this was one of her favorite shows that we could talk about together. I loved this season and that "my" song was in an episode - Melissa by the Alman Brothers. I managed to screencap the closed caption of it listing it.

The theatres that were playing this in Colorado only had it for a week and I couldn't make it down to see, so was so excited when this released on streaming. LOVED it. What a great way to tell a story and see each character's kind of side.  

Started watching first episode and yeah rough. I watched the whole season and I was rough, but good. Pedro and Bella's performances are Oscar worthy and what an amazing storyline. 

There needs to be Oscars all over for this show - AMAZING! 

Never found this one in Colorado in a theater near me - so I had to wait for it to come out on streaming. It was worth the wait. An excellent flick with a lot of parts that hit home. Definitely a rewatch film.

A film from 2018 that I haven't watched until now thanks to Prime. I love Felicity Jones and this was a great film. I can't believe I waited so long to watch it. Now I am feeling the need read all of my RBG books. 

MetroLux Theatre Loveland June 13, 2025. I was excited to see this, but I have to say, I was not impressed with it. I have watched a lot of RomComs and I just didn't feel the happy ending I was expecting. I actually felt really sad at the end like I was missing something- it wasn't a good movie in my opinion. Pedro was good in it, but didn't like the other actors performances. 🙁

I started watching this one night on Amazon Prime because it stars Jane Seymour and I binged watched the first season in 2 days only to find out the other 3 seasons weren't free - GRRR - so I am going to have to buy it for myself, but I loved it. A lot of fun. Can't wait to see the other seasons. 

Another that I started watching this one night on Amazon Prime because it stars David Thewlis and I liked him as Professor Lupin in Harry Potter. This is a interesting take on the Sherlock Holmes tale. I am about halfway through season one. 

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this show. While like many movies and TV shows, a lot is for dramatic effect, the general premise of this show it awesome and so true from hospital lockdowns, etc. A++++++++++++++++++++

About have way through the first season and I am liking it. I love Robert Taylor as Gibbs' father and overall I am liking this show. 

While a modern take on Holmes and Watson, I am actually liking it very much for not being a huge fan of either actor. Love the cases and general deduction of Holmes. 

An interesting take on Dr. Watson and I am liking it very much. 

Started this - not a fan of Costner and haven't watched Yellowstone, but started watching this because of Harrison Ford and  Helen Mirren. About halfway through the first season, and I like it. 

OMG - such a good show - love the intrigue and use of the Matlock persona! Such a great show. 

I loved Nancy Drew books as a kid and saw the old TV shows so started watching this - while I do like it, it's not my favorite. 

I saw this in Loveland. It was not what I was expecting and I have to say that I didn't really like it. Or should I say I liked the first half, then not the rest. Totally not what I thought it would be from the way it was advertised. Very bummed because I was so excited for this movie.

Going to see Freakier Friday was kind of a spur of the moment thing. It was playing at the Historic Park Theatre in Estes Park. I sadly admit, I don't go to our local theatre that often because it's only 1 screen and they don't always show movies that I am interested in. HPT is the oldest single house motion picture theatre in the United States that was originally built as a movie theatre and is still operating today. And I should support it more often. I liked the 2003 Freaky Friday and thought I would go see this one too - I have to admit MOSTLY because Manny Jacinto was in it, but I do like Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan. Just like the 2003 one this one didn't disappoint. It was great and it made me miss my mom so much more because I wanted to call her and be like "HEY Mark Harmon was in this mom!" 

Saw this one at the Historic Park Theatre in Estes Park as well. Another film I was disappointed in this year. Mostly because it felt to rushed and bouncing all over. I am not a huge Marvel fan so had no expectations or history of the Fantastic Four. I went to see it because of Pedro and I loved his character but it just felt like they were trying to cram too much in a shorter movie before DOOMSDAY comes out. 

I saw the hype and ignored it until around August. WOW - all I can say is this is amazing animation and the music - I play it all the time and it runs through my head. Great storyline, great music - A+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++  I love this movie and it's soundtrack and the messages in it about our "patterns" and our "demons." 

So those were my fund watches for 2025. 

Books I have Read in 2025

 

I challenged myself to read more books this year. I have been so intent on social media, etc. that I decided I have to take time to disengaged and read! Read, read, READ!

I started small with two little booklets published by Rocky Mountain Conservancy about my local area. Guide to Old Fall River Road and Guide to Trail Ridge Road.

These are both great little booklets to purchase and carry with you when visiting RMNP. They have lists of stops and information on flora and fauna, history of both roads, and funds from their sales support RMNP.

These two “pocket” books are a murder mystery great read. Each is a collection of short stories about an elderly woman named Maud, but the twist is she’s the murderer! She is a saucy 88 in the first book An elderly lady is up to no good” and a spicy 89 almost ninety in an elderly lady must not be crossed. Well worth the read for mystery lovers. Will she be found out?!!

While this is a children's book it was a cute break from some of the heavier books I was reading on political and other subjects. The art is amazing and it talks about Taylor's 3 cat kiddos. Well worth a read just because it's cute and light. 

I am not always interested in reading romance novels, but I do like Ali Hazelwood's books. This one is a swimmer/diver romance and was a decent read. Not like her Love Hypothesis book (Which is my favorite), but I enjoyed it. 

This is an educational booklet put out by the Grand Canyon Trust. It talks about the connection between the Colorado River and Little Colorado River and the Native Peoples that have called the area home. The booklet contains 11 different members of tribes from Apache, Diné (Navajo), Zuni, Hopi, and Hualapai and talks about thier tribal relations to the rivers. Put out by the Grand Canyon trust. 

These two books kind of go hand in hand, thus the reason I read them together. You Can Heal Your Life talks about dealing with past trauma and how it effects our current lives, how our thoughts create our current situations, how we can't find happiness if we are only looking at all the negatives. I read this some time ago and felt I needed a re-read because of the last year.

Heal Your Body talks about different Dis-eases in our lives and how we are potentially "calling" those dis-eases too us with our thoughts. Louise Hay even talks about how she changed her life from a traumatic, abusive childhood to building Hay House Publishing. Well worth the read and trying some of the exercises. 

This little booklet is a great revenge guide on how to use sage, dry it, and also gives the story of the author’s experiences with the plant. Great little booklet to keep as a reference. 

This is a Young Reader's book, but very informative. I was impressed with it because there were things that I didn't know about that I was never taught about the Civil Rights movement. It talks about segregation, Jim Crow Laws, the Little Rock Nine, Rosa Parks, the Club from Nowhere, Malcom X, Martin Luther King, the Black Panthers and Black Lives Matter. It's 10 chapters with detailed drawings and even pages of pictures too from different times. Well worth the read. 

Another great Young Reader's book and, honestly, something that everyone needed to read before the 2024 election race. It was interesting to learn that she was the first black female CA district attorney, CA attorney general, and CA senator before becoming Biden's running mate and the first woman Vice President.

This book is from the Pedro Pascal Book Club - ahhahahah - Pedro posted on his Instagram about this book and it took some time for it to come across the pond from the UK. It's a small book, but it hits hard. It talks about how men have punished women for their voices comparing women's "sound" to monstrosity, disorder, and death. How men try to use the idea that there are two species - those that can censor themselves (supposedly men) and those who cannot (women).

A funny RomCom style book where the girl is aplying for a job as a familiar to a warlock. A fun read.

Another Ali Hazelwood book that is very typical of her writing style - two competitive scientist are forced to work together on a project and RomCom insues.

Three books in one by Ali Hazelwood. Under One Roof (enviromental engieer with big oil laywer roommates to lovers), Stuck with You (rival civil engineers fall in love) , and Below Zero (aerospace engineer with artic reseacher) - all RomCom - all the enemies to lovers - quick reads if you like the genres.

Nice book about David Bowie and some of his history getting started - all the times he failed before he made it big. I was a little bummed when they talked about his movies, the didn't mention Labyrinth though (my guilty cult favorite). 

This was a fun read, learning about the multiple times her family moved and the hardships she had growing up, and how she met her husband Carl Dean. She really is a truly amazing woman with all she does. 

So these two books have taken me sometime to read. Blue Horses is part of the @pascalispunk book club (haha) It was something he posted he was reading and I was like OH HORSES - it was not what I thought. It is a book of poetry and anyone that knows me knows I HATE POETRY. It's never made sense to me and it's very hard for me to read. I ending up reading through this book three times to try to understand and I have to say - while yes my favorite poem in the book is Blue Horses, I did find others that I connected with and for the first time, poetry made sense to me. 

The second book is How We Learn to Be Brave by Mariann Edgar Budde the Episcopal Bishop of Washington - yes she is the one that asked 45/47 to lead with an open heart after his inauguration. This has been an amazing but hard book because it brought back so many things in my life that at times I felt called out or ashamed that I wasn't doing enough. I put it down multiple times, to pick it back up and reread chapters and finally finish it. Chapter 1 is Deciding to Go, which talked about how we make a choice to leave and follow through -i felt this when I left my ex to step away and get out of a bad situation, when I chose to no longer communicate with the abusive grandmother and cut ties, and when I chose to move back to Colorado. I had to deal with a lot of emotions after that chapter. Chapter 2 is Deciding to Stay - it hit home because of my current job situation and again had a lot of emotional triggers. Chapter 3 Deciding to Start, Chapter 4 Accepting What You Do not Choose, and Chapter 5 Stepping Up to the plate all carried their own bit of emotions and understandings of events that surprised me. Especially in Chapter 5 when she wrote "Stepping up to the plate isn't something we do once, but time and again, when it feels as if the world is watching, and more important, when it's not." Chapter 6 talked about The Inevitable Letdown, like how you feel when you get from a vacation or when you Decide to Go or anything else, how the letdown seems to hamper us instead of inspire us. Chapter 7 The Hidden Virtue of Perseverance she talks about Madeline Albright and her struggles and view on perseverance as well as Harvard Chaplain Peter Gnomes who had a great quote "that faith was not what you believed but what you did for others when it seemed you could do nothing at all." What I loved was that she was not preachy in the book, but explained how each of the people she talked about, including herself were affected and effected change in their lives and I had to step out of my comfort zone to read it and understand.

WHO WERE THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN? This was filled with great information on the all African American military flying unit. This was not something I ever learned about in high school - the Tuskegee airman were never taught about how important they were to World War II, let alone to name any of them. They managed to destroy a German destroyer ship which was considered impossible for the types of planes they were flying. Two of the pilots that got the "kill on the ship" earned Distinguished Flying Cross for an impossible accomplishment. Great book.

WHAT WERE THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS? This talked about the Salem Witch Trails from 1692-1963 where 2 young girls became ill and blamed it on witches. They blamed local towns people and of the 525 people 20 innocent people - 14 women and 6 men were executed for being witches. 19 were hanged and one was "Pressed" to death (large stones laid on the chest until the person died). All because people were fearful or didn't like someone else. The specific passage in the book really connected with me about fearful people thinking punishing others will make them feel safe - kind of sounds like what's going on in the US right now. Instead of witches, it's immigrants.

WHAT IS THE WOMEN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT? This was a great little book that started from 1776 when Abigail Adams kept asking her husband not to REMEMBER THE LADIES to Hilary Clinton's run for president (the book was printed before Kamala Harris became the first US female Vice President). One interesting part was that between 1942 and 1945 factories and businesses had GOVERNMENT FUNDED Day care. 3,000 centers served over 600,000 children - yet it's amazing that the government says it can't do this now. It was successful as women worked in the factories while the men fought fascists in World War II. There were a lot of things I was never taught in history class- like Victoria Woodhull was the first woman ever to run for president. And the fact that the United States as of 2017 is ranked 101 of 191 countries in female representation in national government. 

WHAT IS BLACK LIVES MATTER? I hate to say that I have only followed the BLM movement since the death of George Floyd. This was a great little book to learn some of the history behind the movement's formation which began after the death of Trayvon Martin in February 2012. Three women - Alicia, Patrice, and Opal started the movement after meeting each other and after the murderer of Trayvon was found not guilty. Mr. Floyd's death skyrocketed the BLM movement in 2020 making it more well known.

Just as with my art, when I am stressed my reading takes a nose dive too. It took me a long time to pick up a book again, so I chose some youth books from my collection because they are shorter, and require less time for me to read. 

Tales of Beedle the Bard - While not a Rowling fan of her personally, I do still love the HP books. I hadn't read the tales before and I do like the fairy tale quality of them. I also like that it talks about Truth - it is a beautiful and terrible thing, and therefore should be treated with great caution. The truth hurts and some people can't handle the truth because it means they have to change their perception of the world. The Hopping Pot is about helping your neighbors in their times of need. The Fountain of Fair Fortune talks about helping others along the way and finding what your truly desire. The Warlock's Harry Heart talks about trying to be invulnerable to love, loss, etc. and how if we try to be this way we turn ugly and ruin the good in our lives. Babbitty Rabbitty and her cackling stump is about fear and coveting something at the same time and how, if we fall into the trap of hating others and being ignorant, we only make fools of ourselves. The Three Brothers - well death comes for us all, so live our best life not fighting, not holding on to lost loves, but living our life to the fullest and when death comes to find us, greeting it as an old friend. 

Rey's Survival Guide - is a cute book told from the Star Wars Character Rey's point of view, like a journal or diary about Jakku, the desert, survival, the people, etc. It covers a lot of characters that we don't get details about in the movie with great drawings and fun facts. 

Star Wars Forces of Destiny: Tales of Hope and Courage. It's a great book with six stories in it told from the point of view of Maz Kanata. The tales talk about different SW characters - Leia's story is about her saving Chewbacca and her leadership and resourcefulness. The next Story is about Sabine Wren (I have to admit I would rather have had it about Bo-Katan, but oh well.) It was a story about Sabine getting one of her friends to join the rebellion. Sabine and Ketsu do a mission after a long time apart and it talks about friendships withstanding the test of time. Then there's Ahsoka and she's late to receive her Padawan beads because she rescues a family from a droid that's short-circuiting. Yoda described her as humble and brave putting others before herself. Padme's story includes Ahsoka and how friendship can help you through the hardest time, for this story it was Padme's dignitaries dinner being ruined by an assassination attempt that Ahsoka helped to stop. It's about asking for help and having true friends show you they will. Jyn Erso's story was about remembering who you are in the face of adversity - that who you are is defined by your actions and helping others. And finally Rey - she saves BB-8 a second time and uses the Force (not knowing she is) but using it to help the droid, then feeds the monster that was trying to eat it. She used her power to help protect the weak and defenseless. 

I didnt read as many things as I was hoping too in 2025, here's to a better 2026.