Author: admin (Page 64 of 66)

We live in a dry climate. Central Wisconsin, where both Pam and I grew up, receives around 34 inches of precipitation per year. In western Colorado the annual average is around 9 inches per year. To put it another way, Milwaukee  gets more rain by the end of April than we get all year long.

So, its dry. Interestingly, that does not mean we are without lakes and pockets of water. Where there is water there are alpine flowers.

Grand Mesa, the Flattops, and other high-altitude areas are around us. I took a motorcycle ride last Sunday to the top of Grand Mesa and took a few pictures of some of the small lakes that dot the area and photographed some of the wild flowers currently in bloom.

One of the Mesa Lakes

This photo is our current desktop image. It looks better blown up a bit! If you go back a few posts and look at the one detailing my sister Kitt’s visit, there is a shot of her (with much snow around) at the Visitor’s Center on Grand Mesa. This is the lake she would have seen from where she was standing.

The day was somewhat overcast, but otherwise nice, dry and temperate. Pam had encouraged me to take this ride. (I think she wanted me out of the house for a while.) Elevation at this point is somewhere around 10,000 feet. The high point of the road over Grand Mesa hits 10,861 feet.

Alpine lakes range in size from small puddles to large enough to support boats and canoes, although you won’t be water-skiing on them any time soon. I travel over many of these lakes in winter as they are links in various snowmobile trails. I walked down to one of the smaller lakes that had water lilies blooming on it, and got the next couple shots.

Lily pads #1.

Lily pads #2.

Views like these are not normally associates with western Colorado, but are one of the reasons Pam and I love to drive the less-traveled roads in this part of the state. The high country is dotted with these little gems.

Another less-appreciated aspect of these high areas is the diversity of flowers that grow there. Dozens, if not hundreds, of different varieties of wild flowers dot meadows that are at elevations of 9,000 to 11,000 feet. The best known is the Colorado Columbine, which is done blooming for this year, but there are asters, harebells, sunflowers, daisies, and many varieties with names I don’t know. The down side: Even here there are dandelions and thistles.

Asters in late August.

A member of the Thistle family.

Little sunflower.

While not “dense” in the number of flowers per square foot, many varieties intermingle in open areas, giving color ranges that include white, blue, red, yellow, and other striking colors.

Varieties intermingle in open areas.

It is nice to see the patches of flowers growing along the road.

Yes, we live in a dry area. However, we have learned to look for the water areas and stop to enjoy the wild flowers that bloom in the high country. The top of Grand Mesa is the closest spot that offers us these gems, and we can be there in in about 30 minutes. I had a nice outing this particular day.

Odd bits and pieces attract me when I ride, such as cloud formations. Here is one of them.

Clouds over Grand Mesa #1.

Update on the Land Hunt: We plan another trip to our target area next weekend, taking advantage of the Labor Day break. We have  planned an overnight visit that will give us more time to look at the properties we have seen and marked as “potential” from on-line listings. This trip will find us on the south side of our target area, fairly close to Cripple Creek. Maybe we will get lucky and find “the one.”

Thats it for now. Thanks for looking in!

My sister Carol (AKA: Kitt) came to visit us the week after I was in Wisconsin. In fact, Kitt rode with me on the drive back to Colorado. The plan was to have Kitt visit a few of the our favorite spots, have some time to talk, and wind down from the Wisconsin trip.

Kitt and I had always been able to talk. Perhaps it is being the oldest daughter and oldest son out of the 4 kids. At any rate, we feel comfortable in each other’s company. It helps that we share a similar sense of humor and appreciation of the absurd.

After surviving a storm near Kearney, Nebraska (we pulled off the interstate 3 times) we arrived back in Colorado 23 hours after leaving Wisconsin. First order of business: Get minimally unpacked and get some rest. Pam had not yet left for work when we arrived, so she was able to confirm that we were tired but otherwise OK.

I had taken a few days off work, so the next morning Kitt and I took off to vist one of my favorite ‘quirky’ spots: Brush Creek. A large ranch is located in the valley that Brush Creek flows through. The ranch caters to hunting parties and corporate get-aways. A few miles up a  gravel road you suddenly see these metal horses. Made out of hammered metal and 3 or 4 times life size, 4 horses are on the east side of the road, and another is on the west side. They appear to be coming out of a canyon and running toward the road. Here are a couple photos:

Kitt with Iron Horse #2.

Wild horse statues - Brush Creek.

After admiring the valley and getting a few pictures we headed home.

That afternoon we headed out to another favorite spot, Redstone. Home of the Redstone Inn and the Crystal Dreams B&B, Redstone sits on the banks of the Crystal River. We stopped at the park, walked downtown, had some lunch, strolled though an antique store, and visited the Redstone Inn. For the historically minded, we visited the coke ovens just outside of town. This coke is not a beverage; locally mined coal was “coaked” to make it burn hotter in furnaces that were used to make iron. Redstone was a coal company town, and houses were provided to the workers and their families. Some of these houses, now on the Historic Register, remain in private ownership. Now a haven for summer art festivals and music-in-the-park concerts, Redstone is hard to imagine as a company mining town. The big draw for us is the park on the edge of the river.

Here are a few photos:

Kitt at the Crystal River Park in Redstone.

We visit the Redstone Inn.

Beehive coke ovens, Redstone, Mt. Sopris in the background.

Just up from Redstone is McClure Pass, and to get there you pass Hayes Creek:

Kitt near Hayes Creek

As it was getting later in the day, we turned toward home.

Alas, even travelers have to stop and rest sometime. The next day we went grocery shopping, did laundry, and took care of chores around the house. Kitt travels with her Kindle, and was able to pass some quiet time sitting on our deck and reading.

By this time we had gone north, west, and east from our house, so the next logical route took us south. The final day of Kitt’s visit we (Pam took the day off to join in the fun) had planned to visit Crested Butte, an old mining town turned tourist town. The most direct route was over Grand Mesa. Still lots of snow at the top, as the elevation is 10,860+ feet. We stopped at the Visitor’s Center to take it in:

Visitor's Center in early June - Grand Mesa, Colorado

After crossing the Mesa, we continued toward our destination. Alas, we found the road over Kebler Pass, our planned route into Crested Butte,  was closed by the Forest Service for maintenance! Shucks, Darn, and stuff like that. On to plan B.

After taking some photos from the part of the road we could travel, (see below)  we backtracked into the town of Paonia, where we asked a local bicyclist to recommend a good eatery. She pointed us to the “Fork In The Road” restaurant and bakery. Good tip…we had a relaxing Italian lunch in the outdoor garden under a tree. Food (and dessert) was excellent.

Kebler Pass Road.

After we finished lunch we walked up town to see if we could find any t-shirts for Kitt to take home. Didn’t find any, to our surprise. However, I did find a “memory maker” in an antique store…a Little Lady toy cook stove. I remember Kitt and Sienna having one of these. Kitt says she still has the cupcake pan that fit in the stove, and the china set that she used to use at her tea parties. She recounted how Dad would come up, sit in the kid’s chairs around the table, and have a cupcake and drink tea from these tiny tea cups. It was one of her strong memories of Dad.  I just remember that Mom was afraid someone would get burned on the stove…the 4 top burners as well as the oven would get hot when in use. Neither of us has the place to show or store such an article, so we left the store without it but with some strong revived memories. We headed back to the car and made our way home.

The following morning Kitt was scheduled to fly  back to Chicago, so she packed her stuff and I dropped her off at the Grand Junction airport. (She later called to let me know she had arrived home OK.) I did some grocery shopping and ran a few errands, then headed for home. Pam and I planned to head over to Colorado Springs that afternoon for another look at property, looking for our Colorado Dream land. That trip will be the subject of my next post. After that, my motorcycle trip to California will be on deck.

We had a good visit and Kitt enjoyed the trips we took. I think  it was a very good 3 days!

Thats it for now. Thanks for looking in on us!

First, a shout out to our nieces Lilly and Caitlin. Both graduated from colleges in the last 2 weeks. Caitlin was the student speaker at her graduation, and we watched that event on streaming video. Caitlin (AKA: Cat) did an excellent job. Congratulations and Good Luck to both young ladies.

Lilly and Caitlin’s mom, Becky, deserves a tribute. A single Mom, Becky put her two daughters through college and upgraded her job skills at the same time. Not an easy task. Way to go, Becky!

Weekends are generally busy around our place during good weather. We get out to run the dogs, do chores around the yard, and do routine maintenance.

We started this weekend by cleaning the gutters.

Jerry cleaning out some gutters.

Jerry got out the “big” ladder and cleaned out all the leaves, seed pods, and “stuff” that had clogged the downspouts. Between the garage and house he repeated this routine 4 times.

Another project for this year is to repaint parts of the house and garage. We had painted the place shortly after we bought it in 2006, but some of the trim, in particular, was getting a bit shabby. Jerry started paining the west end trim on the garage and the walk-up ramp leading to our deck.

Jerry painting trim on garage.

Pam generally paints the trim around the windows, but Jer does the prep work, scraping and wire-brushing.

Jerry preps window trim for painting.

This is what the place looked like when we bought it:

House was dusty blue when we bought it in 2006.

This is what it looked like when we finished painting:

House painted 2007 and new gutters in 2008.

We did get other chores completed: weed-wacking, mowing, and planting some more flowers. It was a busy couple of days! Still, we had time to sit on the deck, run the dogs, and do our grocery shopping.

The lilacs are blooming, the iris are just about ready to pop, and the white lilac we planted on Mother’s Day (Pam’s gift from Jer) has new growth coming up from the base, so it looks like it will do OK.  Our tree peonies are  in bloom, or at least 2 of the 3 plants have blossoms on them. Weather is still unsettled, as we had temps well below normal (but above freezing) last week.

The next month will be very busy, starting with Jer’s trip to Wisconsin later this week, followed by a visit from Jer’s sister, Kitt. Jer next heads off to California for a motorcycle rally during the 2nd week of June, followed by another rally in Colorado – he is the co-sponsor – in Durango over the 4th of July weekend. We have been identifying potential land parcels to look at, and hope to get over to the Divide area, west of Colorado Springs, to look at some of them. We will be puppy-sitting Mr. Biggs for a week in June as well.

Last bit of good news…we have heard that Tabitha has managed to get her last foster puppy adopted. That makes 17 puppies adopted this spring! Now that’s an accomplishment.

Late-braking news…we learned late last night that Pam’s Aunt Angela passed away. Angela was 90, and had been living in her own place in Oxnard, California. We are hoping to get more information from her daughters,  Joan and Barbara, in the next couple of days.

That about wraps it for this post. Since Jer will be on the road quite a bit this week and next, the next post may be more than a week away. Thanks for looking in on us.