There isn’t a lot of news this time but I’ll cover what there is. Main items – my mother is home and we continue to work on The Lot.

Last weekend Pam and I went to The Lot and put in a few hours of work. Our agenda was not full; all we really wanted to get done was spread chips from my last chipping session and bring home a load of firewood. These tasks were finished and I managed to work in another chipping session, chipping a pile of brush I had stacked a couple weeks ago. Those chips were also spread on a walking path.

This weekend we will be home as I have an office function to attend; our annual appreciation dinner is scheduled for this Saturday, the 16th.

My mother is back in her own home after her medical episode, but with 24-hour care. Mom seems to be happy to be home but objects to the 24 hour coverage she is getting. (Given her medical history I think the coverage is a good thing.) At any rate, my brother Jon and sister Sienna oversaw some modifications to the home, such as installing a shower in the main level bathroom and putting a bed where the dining table used to be on the main floor. These changes will make it easier for Mom to live on a single level rather than having to go up and down steps to get to a bathroom, shower, or bed. We’ll see how this works out long-term.

Good news from friends and family in Florida; everybody we know came through with no major hurricane damage although Jeff Hayes (Pam’s classmate and friend) lost power for a week. With temperatures getting back into the 90 degree range and high humidity, the loss of air conditioning made sleeping very difficult. We breathed a sigh of relief after receiving word from my niece, Jennifer, who lives near Florida’s west coast (Gulf side) and learned they had not even lost electrical power. They had some damage due to storm winds but nothing as serious as in southern parts of the state. We hope it is a long time before anther storm of this magnitude hits Florida – but – the water in the Atlantic is very warm this year.

The mountains in Southwestern Colorado received a dusting of snow the other night. Is it that time of year again? Fall colors are becoming more prevalent with the peak coming in about two weeks. Although the timing is normal for the change of seasons, it seems this summer was much too short for Fall to be upon us already!

One event that brought a chuckle, even though it was a serious accident: A load of hogs overturned on Interstate 70 near Glenwood Springs (where both of us work). Considering we are dealing with a 90+ day bridge closure into the city, it’s amusing to see a road closure of another sort. Here’s a photo from the local paper:

Accident on I-70 left hogs walking around

I’ve begun creating a Gallery page for the Oliver OC-3 tractor. Not much there yet as I’ve not had time to do any work on it, but I have assembled a few photos and old ads that I found on the internet.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

Snow. Ugh. Flurries are in the forecast for next weekend’s color viewing at Sanderling. Time to start wrapping up operations in the high country, bringing home pantry items that might freeze, emptying tanks on the RV.

I wonder if the local cat population knows something about the weather that we don’t? I almost always have some wild kittens at my Fall/Winter feeders from Summer litters.  This year somewhere between 8-10 feral kittens are already hanging out in the garage at night, near the food and water center. I will try to feed as many of them as survive through the Winter plus provide warmth and shelter.  But, if they all stick around, I will need the help of the local shelter to have them spayed and neutered.  When the kittens are older next Spring, I can try to find barn or ranch homes for them.  That type of outdoor life is not an easy one for cats, and there is a high mortality rate.  But the mean streets of De Beque provide death traps as well — such as when cats climb into machinery and are injured, or are hit by cars. Feral cats have been a constant in De Beque, ever since we moved here 11 years ago.

Happy Trails.