We are making our way down this home stretch toward having our first album in our open hands. The album art is coming together so perfectly, it amazes us. How did we find such a gifted and lovely graphic artist in our very own town? We can't wait to share what he's created.

For the past several weeks, Jon has been holed up in our home studio, trying to mix the album himself. His weekends and evenings were filled with downloading plugins and adjusting levels and a whole lot more that I don't understand. I was so impressed with how he was able to mix the songs, having never done something like this before. But he literally didn't rest at all for weeks.

Then, out of the blue, we heard from one of the local studios saying that they had had a cancellation and were offering discounts for their services during the last few days in January. So on a whim, we called them to talk about where our songs sit at this point. The material was all there, but now we needed to set it all up the best way possible to get our message across -- to let these songs become their full selves. We didn't think we had a chance in hell to have enough money to hire the engineer though, so it was more of an experiment for us than anything. A shot in the dark. But lo and behold, when he heard what our budget was, he was willing to work with us, or at least meet with us that day. So we spent our lunch breaks at the studio and played a song for the engineer. He liked it. He was on board. He understands our music and what we're trying to do with it, and he believes we can succeed. We're guessing that we'll be totally done by early February, and then it's off to the presses . . .

We're looking into booking an album release party soon after we have the album completed. There's an old-fashioned tavern up in the mountains that seems like the right place to hold us and these songs for the first time.

It's been raining all day here in this sun-worn town, and it's been making me think about all that's getting ready to bloom in the Spring. It's going to be a good year.