A few small projects received my attention this week. The first was construction of a dog ramp, followed by scanning of old color negatives. The results of each can be seen below!
The dogs are getting older, and are beginning to have problems negotiating the back steps when Pam takes them out, particularly Blondie, the oldest of the three (15.5 years old). Pam recently asked me to build a ramp that might ease doggie access in the south porch area. While not done yet – it’s been too cold to paint and I need to add another hand rail – the ramp is now serviceable.
Getting the dogs to use the ramp is another thing. Blondie, Bru, and JoJo have had four years of going up and down the steps and are reluctant to embrace a new technique. They will go down the ramp, but the idea of walking back up seems foreign to them, much to Pam’s frustration. She hopes they eventually take to this new, and easier, approach to getting in and out the back door.
The weather has been on another roller coaster swing, with record highs on Monday, followed by single-digit lows on Wednesday, accompanied by -15 degree wind chills. More moderate conditions are in the forecast, getting into the 60s by Sunday.
There was an annoying problem with our internet service — our cable modem developed intermittent outages. Faced with an almost two-week delay before a Mediacom tech could make it out to our rural location, I drove over to Mason City’s Mediacom office and swapped modems. This trip combined a visit to Mediacom, a Walmart stop, and a haircut at Great Clips so several tasks were completed during the outing. The new modem, an Arris brand, appears to be working as it should. I’m now looking into buying my own modem to eliminate the $14.00 per month rental fee Mediacom charges us.
I spent some time during the cold snap scanning a few more old color negatives. The photos included here are from a 1978 trip over the old Moffat Road trail, which used to be the main rail line over the mountains into western Colorado. The Moffat Tunnel, shown on the sign as double-dashed lines and still in use today, made the line over the mountains obsolete.
The Honda 450 was our main transportation while our Datsun pickup needed repairs. I wore the green helmet and Pam’s white Bell helmet is hanging on a hook below the luggage rack.
I have always had a soft spot for waterfalls and many are featured in these shots. Here is Pam along one of the many streams we stopped to view.
The trip included a tunnel, named Needle’s Eye, which was later “daylighted” by the forest service as it kept shucking rocks onto the roadway. It is now an open cut, but at the time we visited it was still intact. Note the snow still present, although it is late June when this photo was taken.
The high point on the trip is Rollins Pass, where the railroad had a station complete with a snow shed, barracks for workers, and a restaurant for summer visitors. The – now – ghost town of Arrowhead was just down the west side of the pass. The line continued into Winter Park and met the mainline at Dotsero. We made the trip to the top of the pass a few times over the next several years.
We took many such trips in our “early days” in Colorado, including to Mt. Evans, Pike’s Peak, the Great Sand Dunes, and visits to mountain mining towns. I will have more archive photos and descriptions of these trips in future posts. I am responding to a comment by daughter Felicity to the effect that we never talked about our early days to our children, so these reminiscence may help fill in that omission.
That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!
Pam’s Penny
A question I’ve been asking myself for some time: Do we really need another construction and painting project (plus clutter) on the south steps – just for aging dogs to access the dog enclosure? Ugh. To avoid this, I’ve been physically carrying Blondie down the four porch steps all winter. Holding a 27-pound [wiggling] dog under one arm while using the handrail with the other arm kinda/sorta worked — until — Blondie accidentally edged off the landing at the top of the steps last week and took “a header” to the bottom. Luckily nothing was broken, but the old girl did whack her face pretty hard.
So, time for a ramp. Reluctantly. Teaching old dogs new tricks is not going to be easy; treats may be involved. (Cheeto, the neighborhood cat, already finds the ramp an attractive sunbathing location. A problem – keeping Cheeto off the ramp when I’m trying to send the dogs down.) These animals…frequently frustrating.
Happy Trails.