4th of July Weekend – Long Post – Bonus Video

Well.

There is much to cover in this post which details our long 4th of July weekend at the lot. Going through my notes and photos the topics break down into 3 main areas: work on the lot (of course!), a visit from our friends Tom and Patti Hamilton, and my ATV trip (Georgia Pass) on July 7.  That is a lot of ground to cover so this is going to be a very long post!

Both of us had taken Friday, July 5th, off to make a long weekend out of  the 4th of July holiday. The initial plan for the 4 days looked like this:

Jerry to take the truck and trailer to lot early morning on July 4, open the RV, start working on various tasks. Pam to drive up the morning of July 5th bringing the dogs, more food, and other sundry items. Our guests, Patti and Tom Hamilton, arrive around 12:00 noon on the 5th for spaghetti lunch and visit.  Afternoon spent visiting. Pam to return home the next afternoon, the 6th, after she and I work on various projects. Sunday the 7th I get to ride my ATV on local trails.

Things don’t always work according to plan. I screwed up and forgot my RV  keys so when I arrived on the lot on July 4th I had no way to get into the RV. I called Pam and she suggested she come up that night (the 4th) instead of the next morning. With that arrangement made, I turned to doing other chores.

High on my list was tracing the wiring from the RV’s solar panels. I discovered why they are not charging the batteries:  The output of the panels is feeding into the refrigerator! This makes no sense to me as the refrig is 120 volt (house current) or LP (propane) powered, not powered by the voltage put out by the panels. I did not have my electrical tools along this trip but will re-route the solar panel charger output directly to the batteries on our next visit. The panels do appear to be working OK. Perhaps the people who installed the panels thought the refrig would run on 12 volts? There are a few of them that will, but ours is not one of them.

Pam had wanted to move our dog run out of the back yard and up to the lot. Pam thought the dogs would prefer to be in the run instead of being on zip lines strung between two trees while we were working on the lot. Since we put in the privacy fence in De Beque, which separates the front and back yards, the dog run had seen little use. You should have seen us getting the run out of the back yard and over the fence! This involved muscle power and a bit of assistance from one of our neighbors. We managed to get the run loaded on our utility trailer, along with 5 cut-in-half railroad ties, for the trip to the lot. Here is a shot of the loaded trailer:

Dog run, railroad ties, and ATV ready for 4th of July weekend.

A long drive on the interstate and over two mountain passes later, I unloaded the dog run at the Sanderling lot, scouted a place  in the aspen grove to set it, and towed (dragged?) it with the ATV into the general area. The final placement involved dragging the run – by hand – to its final destination. Pam later made final adjustments (digging one side into the ground a bit) and added a few logs to the perimiter to discourage digging. We even put up the shade cover on top. Blondie, Bru, and Jo were not wild about this arrangement but were OK as long as they could see Pam working in the grove.

Dogs relax in covered dog run.

I unloaded the trailer, placed the cut railroad ties in place, then hooked the now-empty trailer to the ATV and took it into the aspen grove.  I proceeded to load the trailer with wood destined for the burn pit. During the process I salvaged a few more  small trees to cut into firewood on the theory that if it was good enough for firewood it might as well be used as such, thus cutting down on the amount of wood that needed to be hauled away.

Shortly after finishing this day-full of tasks, Pam arrived with the keys, dogs, and a couple of freshly-baked pies. We opened up the RV, had dinner, and made plans for the next morning.

The next day, Friday,  was a busy day. The big morning project was to get the gate built. I unpacked the portable generator and grabbed the tools I had brought along for this purpose.  Rather than bore everyone with the details I’ll just include this photo of the finished project:

Gate is finished. White stuff on ground is small hail from a recent storm.

Note the wheels mounted to the bottom of both gates. These will provide support for the gates when they are closed, taking some of the weight off the posts. Given the relatively shallow holes the posts are cemented into, every bit of support will help!

Our friends of 25 + years, Tom and Patti Hamilton, had moved to Colorado last year (from the State of Washington) and Pam had invited them to see the RV and lot on this day, July 5th. After a delay, caused by a wrong turn, Patti and Tom arrived OK. We settled in for a spaghetti lunch (and pie for desert) and a few hours of conversation. (And, of course, a walk through the aspen grove and up to Pam’s Pavilion Point!)

Patti and Tom Hamilton relaxing in the RV.

Patti and Tom live on the edge of Colorado’s Black Forest and were within about 2 miles of the massive fire that devastated the area just a few weeks ago. We had time to catch up on this event, our kids, work, a few social issues, and general conversation. Before we knew it several hours had passed. Patti and Tom headed home late in the day. We had enjoyed their visit and promised to visit them later this year.

Shortly after Patti and Tom started their drive home, clouds began to roll in and deliver some much-needed moisture to the Sanderling area. The rain pretty much ended the day’s activities, but Pam and I enjoyed just sitting together and looking out the window at the storm. Later the storm broke long enough for us to get out for a walk and to take a few “stormy sunset” photos. After that it was time for a good night’s sleep.

“Stormy Sunset”

Saturday we awoke to a rain-fresh morning. Agenda items for the day included more lot clean-up and firewood collection. I took the first load of scrap wood to the burn pit, unloaded it, headed back for a 2nd load and took that over to the pit. On the way back I received a call from Cindy, our neighbor (who feeds animals at the De Beque house while we’re gone), informing us the a pregnant mom cat Pam had trapped out of our garage (Isadora, nickname Izzy) was having her kittens. (Izzy had a total of 5 kittens.)

Izzy’s 5 kittens show a range of colors and markings.

Pam had planned to return home this day anyway because of the impending birth of kittens  (it was why she drove the second vehicle in the first place), but we wanted to finish several chores before she left.  One of these chores including loading the utility trailer with logs to be cut into firewood for Kathy Hall. (You might remember from previous posts that Kathy operates a cat rescue operation and uses wood to heat her rescue building in the winter.) Most of this wood had been collected earlier, but I did cut some standing dead aspen to make a full load. Other chores included finding a place for the spare set of RV keys to be left on the lot, removing the sun cover from the dog run, and getting stuff ready to go back with Pam.

Pam is ready to load firewood.

Then it was washing up, loading and sorting, and getting the dogs ready for the trip home. It had been a very busy few days that saw us getting much work done on the lot and having a very nice chat with Patti and Tom, our first mountain visitors.

After Pam left I took 2 trips over to the hand pump to replenish our fresh water supply. As on the previous day, late afternoon rain developed which put a halt to any other outside work, but it was pleasant to have a late dinner and listen to the rain drumming on the roof of the RV. We have no TV or radio in the RV, but I did have my Walkman and listened to music while the rain was falling. Later, after the rain  let up, I went for a walk, then called it a day.

That about wraps up the first two topics; work on the lot and the visit with Patti and Tom. The next day, Sunday the 7th, was my day to ride the ATV.

My book of ATV trails showed a major trail going over Georgia Pass. This pass is one valley east of Boreas Pass and is another route into Breckenridge. It was never a railroad line, just a wagon road that served mines in the Breckenridge area, and is now a forest service road. Several side trips take off from the main road, making this a good area to spend some time on an ATV. The added benefit is  this area is close to the lot, maybe 20 – 25 miles away, quite handy.

It was a great ride. I saw a couple bull moose and some mountain goats. I rode through areas that had been mined in the past but have since begun to revert back to a more natural state. I rode through  heavily wooded areas (the aroma of warm pine was in the air) and past marshy meadow areas that must have held huge beaver ponds at some time past. I spent some hours above timberline enjoying hugh vistas of mountain tops. One disappointment: The maps I had were not up-to-date and a loop trail I had planned to take was now closed to motor vehicle travel, forcing me to take dead-end side trails instead. On the other hand, one of these trails led me to the the mountain goats, so I guess things worked out overall.

Here is a gallery of photos from this Georgia Pass trip.

Top of Georgia Pass. Mt Guyot is in the background.

Road passes through an old mining district.

Two bull moose spotted in a marshy meadow.

Summit views from Mt. Wise.

And, possibly the highlight of the day, these mountain goats:

Mountain goats #1.

Mountain goats #2.

Mountain goats #3,

I carried the camcorder with me this time. Here is a compilation of video clips I took during the course of my ride: (Running time is 8 minutes and 13 seconds.)

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

Pam’s two cents worth:

I did suggest we leave a duplicate set of keys on the Sanderling lot back in June, but Jer felt this would not be necessary.  Sigh.  It’s not entirely satisfying to be right when you’re the one who has to make the four hour drive [on three hours notice] to deliver the keys, however.  Still, it’s not every guy who would tote a dog pen that far and over such obstacles (interstate and mountain passes) for dogs he’s not entirely crazy about anyway.  I guess I’ll cut him some slack about forgetting the keys.

Izzy’s litter is foster litter #23 (since 2004)