AppleAttic Blog

The Pam and Jerry Fields' Blog Page

Month: June 2014

Busy Week

June 20, 2014 / / 2 Comments
Graphic by Hensley Manufacturing

Home Sweet RV (Graphic by Hensley Manufacturing)

Yes, it has been a bit longer than normal since my last post, but it has been a very busy interval.

🙂 Felicity came for a visit.

🙂 Worked on the Sanderling lot.

🙂 Attended an IT related event in Denver.

Our daughter Felicity returned from her month in Wales and stopped by for a visit. I picked her up in Denver on the 13th. (She was with us until the 19th.) Driving through Denver, not fun. Man, what traffic! I was late getting to the airport but, thanks to the magic of cell phones, I was able to call Felic and let her know what was happening. Getting out of Denver was also a real trick as Friday rush hour traffic is horrendous. Eventually we made it to a diner for a meal and eventually to the RV for the evening.

It was very good to see Felicity (been about a year) and we spent a few hours in conversation, catching up with her news about working abroad and traveling, and news from “stateside” that she had not been aware of. Felicity had a good time in Wales but due to her “working vacation” did not have as much time to go sight-seeing as she would have liked. She lost the use of her digital camera (a drop resulted in a broken screen) and had to resort to using her cell phone camera, not as good in quality but better than nothing!

Pam and the dogs joined us at Sanderling on Saturday and the rest of the weekend was spend talking, loading wood destined for the burn pit (4 loads on Saturday) and more lot clean-up on Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon we packed up and headed home. Pam and Felicity (and the dogs) had the Honda and  were planning to go home via the Boreas Pass route, but Pam found signage in Como indicating the route was still closed — surprising as the pass is normally open by Memorial Day.  After a quick (!) tour of Como they headed home by our regular route through Fairplay and over Hoosier Pass.

Pam and Felicity clearing dead wood

Pam and Felicity clearing dead wood

Felicity on Pam's Pavilion Point

Felicity on Pam’s Pavilion Point

Once the ladies had departed, I took the truck and RV over to the dump station and emptied the holding tanks, then returned to the lot to re-park the RV. Sure like that pull-through driveway! Once that was done I hooked up to our aluminum trailer, which we had filled with a load of wood to bring home to cut into firewood.

Sunday was Father’s day, and Pam surprised me with a sign:

Jerry with his Father's Day sign

Jerry with his Father’s Day sign

We’ll put the sign up over the door of the RV. It sure is appropriate and I like it.

Other photos of the weekend:

Blondie in the woods

Blondie in the woods

Blondie saw a squirrel and could not be kept away from the tree she “thought” it was in. (We could see the squirrel in another nearby tree.) Kept her occupied quite a while. That dog has a one-track mind.

Other photos:

Humming bird feeder was put out in the circle

Humming bird feeder was put out in the circle

Harbels blooming on the lot

Harebells blooming on the lot

So…we were all home by Sunday night. Monday night I was in Denver getting ready to attend an IT (Information Technology) conference / trade show on Tuesday. That went well, but it was after 10:00 PM when I arrived home (Denver to De Beque, pretty much across the majority of the state) on Tuesday night. High wind had caused a power outage in De Beque; Felicity and Pam were sitting and talking in candlelight. (Power was out for about an hour and a half.) Wednesday I was back at work. Thursday I took Felicity to Denver so she could catch her flight to Albuquerque, New Mexico (visiting friends there).  After dropping off Felic at DIA, I routed through South Park to check the RV on the way home. While I was there I put out our hummingbird feeder. I also relieved the mousetrap under the bathroom sink of a dead mouse…still dealing with them getting into the trailer!

I drove around 1,600 miles this week, quite a bit of mileage considering I didn’t leave the state!  Yes, it was a crazy week; to and from Denver three times in one week is a record for me, one I’m reluctant to repeat soon.

I plan to take off on my 2 week motorcycle trip to Ontario, Canada on June 24th.  I’ll be busy getting ready for the trip this weekend. The length of the cycle trip means no posts for a couple weeks, by the way, until after July 6th. Even then it will take me a while to go though the trip photos and get a post ready; there won’t be a new post to this blog until mid-July.

On the return side of my Canada trip I’ll spend some time visiting family in Wisconsin. It has been a couple years since my last visit and I am looking forward to seeing a number of people again. I should have quite a bit of material for my posts when I return.

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

Now that both children have been to Sanderling, they can appreciate the “grunt” work their parents are putting in to clear the property.  I couldn’t resist having Felicity do a bit of wood gathering while visiting the high country – three sets of hands greatly improves the pace of dead wood removal.

Felicity’s digital nomad existence is past the honeymoon stage (the work/vacation trip to Wales).  Now comes the real test – can she organize her time to work on-line while on the road?  I think she’s missing her “nest” of personal belongings.  Her road takes her back to Portland, OR soon (and familiar surroundings) for a period of housesitting.

While Fields takes his motorcycle jaunt for two weeks,  I consider that period my vacation as well.  I’ve arranged to work a different schedule at the community college — from now to the end of June — to maximize my days working at home and minimize the commuting time.

The jazzy plaid pants in the photo above are actually my fleece pj bottoms.  It was a brisk morning…

Happy Trails.

 

Rare Tornado!

June 9, 2014 / / 4 Comments

This past weekend found us working at our Sanderling lot, clearing a place to put in a dog run. As I have noted before, there is a lot of dead wood on the ground and a fair number of standing dead trees that we remove when given the chance. Most of the standing and downed dead wood is aspen, not surprising given the area, but aspen does not make real good firewood unless you have a lot of it to burn.

We sort the wood into two types, firewood and burn pit wood. This time out we didn’t bring the aluminum trailer to cart the burn pit wood away but instead created piles of each wood type, planning to take it away during a future trip. Eventually the firewood will come home and be donated to our friend Kathy Hall for use in heating her “cat house” (her one-car detached garage).

I’ll get to the Saturday work in a bit, but first I’ll cover Sunday’s unusual event, a tornado.

The forecast had included a chance of thunderstorms. We had risen, had breakfast, and started to work on clearing a pocket of dead wood. Around 11:30 a few raindrops began to fall so we decided to take a break. I happened to look out over South Park and saw this:

Funnel cloud over South Park

Funnel cloud over South Park

I told Pam I thought this was a funnel, or tornado, cloud. A telephoto shot yielded a larger image:

A rare mountain tornado

A rare mountain tornado

We later learned a tornado had touched down about 5 miles south of Fairplay, one of 7 or 8 tornadoes sighted in Colorado on the 8th of June. If you search the web for “Fairplay tornado, recent” you will find YouTube videos of this particular storm.

Sanderling experienced no problems, other than rain and a very little bit of hail, and light winds as this storm passed.  We had never heard of a tornadic event in the high country, much less seen one. Plenty of tornadoes form in eastern Colorado and head into the center of the country, but tornadoes at 10,000+  feet are rare events indeed!

It is hard to top that, but on a more mundane level: Our work on Saturday, and Sunday morning before the rain, consisted of mostly grunt work moving dead wood around. We started below and to the downhill side of the drive as that is where Pam has decided the dog run will be built. Here are a few  photos that illustrate the work:

This “before” shot is near the shed but shows the typical dead wood found almost everywhere on the lower part of the lot:

Typical dead and downed aspen on the lot

Typical dead and downed aspen on the lot

After clearing you can walk around easily

After clearing you can walk around easily

This is the area where the dog run will go. The wood ended up stacked near the driveway:

Burn pit (foreground) with firewood and more brush along driveway

Burn pit wood (front) next to firewood and brush stacked along driveway

Sunday’s work yielded another before and after pair of photos:

Top of drive before clearing started

Top of drive before clearing started

Piles of wood await further handling

Piles of wood await further handling

Piling the wood this way means we can stage more loads destined for the burn pit (when it’s open, only on Saturdays), but it also means we have to handle the stuff two more times — once to load into the trailer than again to unload at the pit. This is the major project  for the rest of the year so we can work at our own pace.  (After we get the dog run installed, that is.)

Even though the weekend was truncated – we left for home early Sunday afternoon – we did meet the goals we had set for this land-clearing trip. It is heartening to see progress being made!

I’ll close with this last photo of our Honda parked near the RV and shed at the top of the circle drive. (It also includes another view of the dead wood we had moved to clear the dog run area.)  Pam is also carting mulch from under the trees to dump in the middle of the drive circle.  I think she has plans to transplant trees and plants in that spot.

Car, shed, RV, driveway, and wood removed from dog run area

Car, shed, RV, driveway, and wood removed from dog run area

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

I hear ya, Tabitha.  I was just pondering the other day how we must be freakin’ crazy to work like convicts every weekend.  Which is why this past weekend we slept in on Saturday morning before organizing our departure, drove in a leisurely fashion and arrived at the Sanderling property mid-afternoon, worked on and off until dark.  Then, on Sunday, we started on another section of woods until it started raining, at which point we were done for this trip.  During breaks there were dog walks to look for squirrels – I spooked a field mouse and I think Blondie would still be sitting patiently by the hole the mouse disappeared into if we’d left her up there.

The property is really starting to come along.  It’s gratifying to tackle a small patch of woods and completely clear it out, then stand back and appreciate the difference.   Having the RV right by the work area is a major convenience; we’re not wasting energy walking back and forth for drinks and dog checks because everything is right in one spot.  We’ve discussed bringing up an old rug and old recliner and flopping both on the driveway under the RV canopy for sit-downs – who knows, it could happen!

Weather has been crazy in the mountains this season.  In addition to sighting the tornado, we drove back through snow flurries on both Hoosier and Vail Passes.

Happy Trails.

P.S. No mice this trip!

Weekend Warriors

June 2, 2014 / / 2 Comments

This past weekend we went up to our Sanderling lot with the goal of getting the RV back up to the top of the circular drive. This meant moving a lot of gravel.

I went up on Friday evening to open the trailer and found another mouse had made it’s way into the trailer. Pam was not pleased. We did get one mouse in a trap I had set and will see, on the next trip, if there are  more of the little mungers foolish enough to go for the peanut butter I used as bait.

Friday night was busy; I moved the trailer down to the Sanderling cul-de-sac so I could work on the driveway, went over to the community well and picked up a load of water, and unloaded the John Deere riding lawn mower. The latter is equipped with a blade; I thought I might be able to move some gravel with it. More on that shortly.

John Deere rider with blade on way to lot

John Deere rider with blade on way to lot

Pam came up on Saturday, arriving around 12:30 or so. I had started the day by taking another load of dead wood and brush to the burn pit and was getting a second load ready to go. After a quick lunch and dropping off the 2nd load of brush we began spreading gravel. The goal was to get the drive in decent enough shape to be able to park the RV at the top of the recently extended drive.

The weather was gorgeous. Cool enough to work comfortably and beautiful partly cloudy skies. On the down side, both of us began to suffer from upset stomachs and we didn’t have the energy we normally have (little as that is at 9,600 feet!).

Pam raking gravel on driveway

Pam raking gravel on driveway

Using the John Deere proved to be only partially successful. It does not have the traction and power to move much gravel, though I did manage to level some major humps in the road and level a spot for the trailer to sit. The tractor served well to pull our dump cart up and down the drive; I used this combo to move quite a bit of gravel from the thickest areas down to the dirt part of the driveway where it was needed.

Jerry with tractor and cart

Jerry with tractor and cart

After several hours of raking and hauling on Saturday, we called it a day. Sunday we weren’t feeling any perkier, but as we were nearly done with spreading enough gravel to move the RV — we decided to put in a few more hours of labor. Here is the result of all that work:

RV (The Box) at the top of the circle drive

RV (The Box) at the top of the circle drive

We did it. The trailer can now sit, on gravel, at the top of the drive. I should have taken a photo of the view from inside the trailer – I will remember next time – but the view is excellent.

Shortly after this, much too short a time to enjoy the results of our work, we had to pack up and head for home. Pam left in the Honda with the dogs and I followed in the truck after closing things down and locking up. I did, however, spend about 45 minutes just enjoying the view and walking around the lot.

I wanted to see how much of the drive and shed we could see from Pam’s Pavilion Point. Not much, as it turns out, not really worth a photo. The shed and drive are pretty well hidden by the leafing-out aspen, although part of the drive and the top of the shed can be seen.

Top of shed from Pam's Pavilion Point

Top of shed from Pam’s Pavilion Point

After getting home there’s always so much to do; unpacking, laundry, other chores. Cramming in all the ‘normal’ tasks into either Thursdays (before I go up to the lot on Fridays) or Sunday afternoons is a real challenge, particularly if you are not feeling well.  But…we’re really pleased we can get the RV in and out on the graveled driveway extension.  One month after breaking ground on the driveway extension in the cold and blowing snow, the RV is parked where it should be on the Sanderling lot.  Whew.

The next project is putting in the dog run. We paced out a general location and size; next couple trips will have the goal of cleaning out the dead wood in that area and actually putting in the posts and getting the woven wire in place. Two gates, one at each end of the run, and the previous 8 x 10 enclosed dog pen will all be part of the installation. The run will be rectangular so the dogs can actually run in it if they wish.

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

Most of the view from the dining room window of The Box is actually featured above in one of the photos — it’s pretty much behind me in the photo where I’m raking gravel on the driveway. I didn’t really notice the glorious mountains (much) when I was raking gravel, but that is the view.

We have neighbors.  Jessie, the Latino guy who owns the 3 acre parcel next to us, allowed a bunch of relatives to use the property to party, drink, target practice, and let their dog run around on Saturday.  What a noisy bunch, disturbing the quiet of the woods.  Sigh.  The 6 acre parcel (whose flag lot driveway parallels ours for the first 200 feet) now has a new owner too.  Those owners were tent camping on Saturday night, and were very quiet.  (Probably cold, too, I wouldn’t tent camp up there.)

Spring in the high country:  frothy green on the aspen trees, the impossibly blue Colorado sky, snow covered peaks in the distance, puffy white clouds, temps at 68 degrees and plenty of sunshine.  Priceless.

Happy Trails.

© 2026 AppleAttic Blog

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑