Month: June 2018

The high point of the week was, for me, a ride on my ATV with other members of the Grand Junction ATV club. Destination: Battlement Mesa. (Rather than make the trip to Lead King Basin solo this weekend, I changed my plans to take advantage of a group ride.)

Battlement Mesa is a huge area, around 500 square miles, and contains numerous ATV and Jeep trails. I had ridden a few trails up there but knew there were many more I had not yet visited. When the club announced a group ride in an area new to me I made plans to make the ride.

Unfortunately I left my camera in the truck and had to rely on my cell phone for photos.

One disadvantage of group riding is that you can’t stop everywhere you want to take pictures. The ones included in this post were taken at stopping points for breaks and lunch.

Trail sign post

Group stops for a break

Vista view from lunch stopping point

Club members enjoy looking over the Interstate Corridor – Rifle to Silt – from this overlook

My ATV parked under a tree at a vista view overlook

What I was not able to capture were photos of the variety and profusion of wild flowers in bloom, including my favorite mountain flower, columbine. Also missed were photos of high mountain meadows with views of Vega Lake. I’ll have to go back and photograph some of these views!

We had 11 machines on this trip and the route was just under 40 miles long. One of the members suffered a flat tire on his rig which slowed us down; the cut could not be plugged (he tried) and frequent stops had to be made to put air in the tire. The result was loss of more than an hour on the return leg so I arrived home later than I had anticipated, but had called Pam when I came into cell phone range and let her know the situation.

Overall it was a good trip and one I will make again when I have the opportunity. The route does not have much for water features (a few very small streams) but it did show off mountain vistas, meadows, wild flowers in profusion, and would be considered a moderate trail; a few times in low range to climb hills and only once in 4-wheel drive and that only for about 50 feet.  It was a good outing.

In other news, Pam made a pie from the cherries she picked off our tree; if anything the pie turned out slightly sweet even with reducing the sugar content recommended by the cookbook. I will be picking the last of the cherries later today. Pam already has enough to make another pie or two (in the freezer).

Cherries – first picking

Maintenance item: I replaced the main drive belt on my John Deere riding lawn mower; that job took a few hours. The old belt, original to the tractor which dates from the late ’90s, was badly cracked and was making noise as it would around the pulleys. Hopefully the new belt will last as long as the original. The mower deck had to come off and various guards removed and I even had to unbolt part of the steering linkage, all jobs that require me to work underneath the tractor. I knew the job had to be done before the old belt broke completely and left me stranded in the yard, but I was not looking forward to it. I’m glad to have the replacement completed.

Pam will have a few comments about the foster cats and their moms, but for me, not much else  (other than trip above) happened this week.

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

Mom and four kittens now out of the “cat room” so two less pens to clean.  Second feral mom to vet for spay this week, then release.  Remaining kitten Solette will be in-house for awhile yet. She is a spunky cutie, and I don’t really want her to go to the shelter, so will need to devise some other placement scenario.

Three feral kittens (they appear to be 3-4 months of age) made their first appearance at the back deck feeding station a few nights ago.  The beat goes on — I can never help them all.

Cherry pie is not really my thing; this pie was for Fields (cherry pie is one of his favorites.)

Happy Trails.

I stayed home this weekend, partly because rain was in the forecast and partly because there were chores to be done around the house. And, frankly, I needed a weekend off.

So I cut some firewood, mowed the lawn, went grocery shopping, bought my “full” load of gasoline (35 gallons using our fuel point discount from last month) and did a few other things around the house. This made it a pretty normal around-the-house summer weekend.

Our cherry tree is producing more cherries than it ever has; I may have to get out the ladder and do some picking! This is the end result of all those blossoms and bees earlier this year. As far as we know the fruit is good to eat. We never put any pesticides or spray on the tree. I’ll have to try a few and see how they taste.

Cherries on our tree

My main Saturday chore was cutting up that first small load of firewood I had brought down from The Lot. This load was made up of trees that had died in areas we had cleaned up in the past. With aspen being the predominant tree at Sanderling, there will always be some maintenance in cleaned areas, as a few trees die every year. New growth makes up for the lost trees pretty quickly.

First firewood of 2018

Our hollyhocks have begun to bloom. Normally the flowers are bright red but we have some that are a pastel yellow, a nice change.

Yellow hollyhocks blooming near our privacy fence

During the week there was a forest fire west of us in Utah (Colorado has 7 major fires burning at the moment) and the smoke made for some interesting “red sun” sunsets:

Forest fire smoke makes a “red sun” sunset

Next week I plan to make my Lead King Basin ATV trip, a highlight for me as this has become my favorite ride in western Colorado.

On the “this is life” front, my mother’s health appears to be deteriorating. She now has 7-day a week house care (not nights, though) and cannot get up if she falls, which has happened a few times. New is a hospital bed with side rails that will help prevent her from falling out of bed at night.

A neighbor lady, Jolene, has been hospitalized and is now suffering from early signs of dementia. She is 94. Her husband, Jim (89, I think, who is not in the best of health), is struggling to cope. We do what we can, and a few other neighbors have pitched in, but it’s not easy for them to manage. Saturday I mowed their lawn and did some weed-wacking while Jim was visiting Jolene in the hospital.

A few years ago, the details of aging and geriatric care would not have resonated with us.  What a difference now, though, as we look forward to retirement.  Illness and aging around us becomes a constant reminder that our time is coming, and to enjoy the health we have.  Life is made up of bits and pieces like these, some good, some not so good.

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

On Thursday of this coming week I will note the arrival of the Summer Solstice. When I was working, the annual cycles of the Earth were very low on my priority scale. But this year I plan to totally enjoy the day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere with the longest light. Twilight around 9:00 p.m. is groovy.

Deb, I did order the Simply Soothing bug spritzer. Very satisfying to see the gnats approach me and then turn away.

Foster kittens are starting to be placed with “barn folks.” The litter of four never did warm up to humans much; they are now three months old and ready to get to work as mousers.  Feral moms are on schedule to be spayed in the next two weeks, then released back into the neighborhood.  This will leave Solette, the single kitten from the second litter, still in-house as we head into July. I am really tired of cleaning and maintaining [the current] four pens in the cat room.

Foster kitten Solette

Happy Trails.

I spent another three-day weekend at The Lot, working on clean up. I know this gets repetitive but, after all, it is what I do when I’m in the high country.

Each weekend visit I set a goal of how much area to clear. The borders are arbitrary; usually an imaginary line between a couple of trees or an outcropping. Then I get started, cutting downed and standing dead trees. This year I have not done a thorough job of piling brush to chip although I do make a few small piles here and there. After all, I need walking paths to make it easier and safer for me to carry logs to a pile.

If I go up on Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon is spent getting started. The second day I put in a long day and finish the bulk of the work. The third day I clean up in the morning, walk the property, and get ready to head home, normally just after lunch.

I’ve been getting just over a cord of wood cut each time; a cord of wood is a pile that is four feet wide, four feet tall, and eight feet long (128 cubic feet). I already have more logs cut and piled than we give away each year and have not chipped anything for the last couple of weekends. But that’s OK; Pam keeps telling me I have time to get this stuff done and not to push it so hard. (Pam worries about me running the saw and chipper when she’s not there.)

It’s time to spend the next few weekends at home taking care of maintenance chores. However, I’ve taken the week of July 4th off as vacation and hope to finish cleaning the area at Sanderling we call the Aspen Grove (where I’ve been working these last few weekends). I’ll have a load of stuff to take to the burn pit, stuff too rotten to salvage as firewood and too big to chip. Add a few stumps to the mix and there is a load big enough to haul. I picked up a burn pit pass last weekend; the burn pit opened the first weekend in June. It’s open mainly Saturday hours.

Not all my mountain time is spent working, however. I like to sit in my chair and look out over South Park, plus enjoy the views from various points on the upper part of The Lot — including Pavilion Point and Squirrel Rock. There have already been a few nice sunsets to appreciate. No campfires this year, though. The entire state of Colorado is very dry and open fires have been banned. Some forest service lands have been shut down completely: no camping, no hiking, no recreation of any kind. Signs on the road encourage people to make sure that safety chains on campers and trailers don’t drag and start roadside fires from the sparks. There have been several minor and a couple major fires already in the state.

This last weekend I was reminded that Sanderling is in an open range area. In the morning a cow was munching some of the grass that has grown up along the edges of our driveway. It didn’t seem very concerned about me or the car.

Cow on Sanderling driveway

Not that this is exciting stuff, but I do enjoy my time at The Lot. It gets harder and harder when it’s time to leave; I don’t look forward to returning to work and dealing with computer (or operator) problems as much as I used to. And, of course, it’s much cooler in the mountains than it is on the edge of the high desert in the summer!

Here are a couple more photos taken over the weekend:

Purple mountain sunset

Iris still blooming

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

I spent the last few weekends working with the feral cat moms and the kittens. The four kitten litter has been weaned, and their mom is scheduled to be spayed next week.  The single kitten from the other litter just started weaning this week.  I really want these feral moms o-u-t, and I’m sure after two months of confinement, the feral moms feel the same way.

Happy Trails.

I spent the last two weekends, which included Memorial Day, at The Lot. These were the first overnighters of the season.

Memorial Day Weekend: While there I met a new neighbor and was not impressed. The guy (Greg) is camping out in a tent (no permits, one is required by the County) and was partly on our property. He reminds me of a burned-out druggie. Not politically correct, but he has a long beard, two dogs, and bought the lot without locating the corner survey markers. “I guess I’ll have to buy a chain saw” he says when talking about cleaning up the lot. And, oh yes, he says is on permanent disability with back problems. He wishes to build a full-time house on his 5 acres ( completed in 3 months.) No water, no toilet facilities, no tools, no shower….

I was not impressed and asked him to move his stuff, and dogs, off our property. We will see if he complies. If not I may have to take stronger action.

That encounter threw me off a bit but the weekend was otherwise good. I cut some wood, chipped some brush, got The Box filled with water and some provisions, walked the lot, took a short ATV ride, and generally enjoyed being in the high country again.

Here are a few photos taken over Memorial Day weekend:

Bringing ATV and chipper to The Lot

Cleaning around driveway

Vally on way to Webster Pass

ATV on Hall Valley trail

The second weekend, June 2-4, was a three-day event as I had taken the Monday off as vacation. (I plan to do this several times this summer.) Going up on Saturday, I saw that our new neighbor had moved some stuff off our property but not all. I again asked him to move his stuff to his own land. (He had set up a line between two trees to use to tie his dog leashes to when the dogs are out of the tent. The trees are on our land.) I am not happy about this development.

Still, it was a good working weekend. I began clearing part of The Lot we call the Aspen Grove. Lower on the lot, this section is not quite as steep as The Nook and other upper areas. (The Aspen Grove was one of the first places we worked and thinned trees when we started on this piece of property five years ago.) I cleared quite a bit of area but now have to haul the logs out and gather up the brush to be chipped. I estimate I cut about a cord and a half (two full trailer loads) of logs to convert into firewood. Considering we do about 3 cords of wood a year, this weekend’s work represents a good start on the summer’s activities.

Wild flowers are blooming, including wild iris. These always bring a smile to my face. They are mostly located in the ditches and fields leading up to The Lot, not on our property itself, as the deer would simply eat them. A shower on Sunday night was welcome as Colorado has been very dry and any moisture is appreciated. Monday all the flowers were out in full bloom, quite a colorful sight as I was driving home.

The same storm left a layer of fresh snow on the mountain tops. The views from The Lot were very attractive in the morning sun with the blue sky behind the peaks. I took the opportunity to walk the higher parts of The Lot and take in the scenery before I started the day’s planned work.

I stopped by the Indian Mountain Community Center and picked up my burn permit for the year. While we will chip quite a bit of wood, there are some stumps and larger pieces of wood, not good enough to salvage, that are too big for the chipper. This stuff will go to the burn pit for disposal. During my work I accumulated several more semi-rotten logs that fall into this category, which will probably justify a burn pit run next weekend.

Here are a few photos from the weekend of June 2 – 4:

The Box with fresh snow on mountain backdrop

Logs for firewood far and near

Telephoto mountain view across South Park

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

We knew a piece of property was for sale adjacent to our upper property line, so the “new neighbor” should not have been a surprise.  The guy is a flatlander from Kansas, and has not a clue as to how one survives at 9,000 + feet; even in the summer there are challenges.  I’m most concerned about his dogs being so close to our RV location, particularly when our dogs come up to the high country.  And, the human excrement he is no doubt leaving in all sorts of interesting places for JoJo  to find will not be an addition to our mountain experience.

There are now neighbors on pretty much all the Sanderling boundaries, with the exception of along the rock formations at the back of The Lot.  More neighbors in the area could mean additional folks who might respond in an emergency — should Fields experience one when he is operating power equipment solo at Sanderling (chain saw, chipper). Mostly, more neighbors means more noise and garbage.

Happy Trails.