Category: General (Page 40 of 64)

Little of note has passed this past week. I have been working my typical Fall chores which consists mostly of raking leaves and a bit of yard work. Among other small tasks I moved the RV trailer over to our neighbor’s yard, where we have been able to park it for the last few winters. Other than that the week has been pretty quiet.

So…here are a few off-beat topics.

Bagger kit on JD tractor

The bagger kit (grass catcher) was my birthday present back in August. Designed for a different model tractor, I adapted the used kit to my rig. It works pretty well and speeds up lawn mowing. Previously I did not use the tractor on the lawn, as the dogs tracked the resulting grass clippings into the house; with the catcher in place this is no longer an issue.

I added a new gallery to my Galleries page; the Photo Wall gallery is a collection of some of my favorite photos. The Galleries page has been modified a bit to make it look a little better; headings centered and icons re-arranged a bit for better viewing.

Along those same lines I added the Easter 2016 e-card (electronic card) to my E-Card page. While I had included this card in a previous post I had neglected to add it to the page.  I’ll continue to tweak various web pages over the winter months to freshen them up a bit.

Rebuilt banker’s lamp

This banker’s lamp had been in our garage attic for over a decade before Pam encouraged me to get it out and repair it so she could use it when working at home. A new lamp holder and bulbs were procured and installed; the lamp now sees almost daily use. This is just another example of smaller projects that are getting attention these days.

At the office, my assistant of 3 years has taken a job with Amazon; he will be moving his family to Seattle to begin his new job. While I wish him the best, this development means I will be without an an assistant for a while — any new hire will require a great deal of training. This complicates my future for the next several months or longer; I am not looking forward to it. Just me and 145 fellow employees in four locations that need 24/7 computer support.

Later today we will be going on a house hunt drive-by; Pam has identified 4 potential homes, all in the Cedaredge area, that warrant taking a first look.

By my next post the elections will be over and we will have a new president-elect. Can’t wait for this cycle to be over, but then comes the aftermath — which may be just as bad as the election itself. I think our Founding Fathers would cringe and be ashamed at how the democratic process has degenerated into the mess we have today. For the record, I have long held that gerrymandering election districts – done by both parties – is the root cause of this degradation. (Gerrymandering is the formation of voting districts that specifically advantage one political party over another.) This practice has resulted in the gridlock of the political system that we have today. If we are to fix our system – which is broken – we will need to start with de-gerrymandering our states.

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

The groomer found a lump on Blondie this week; she is scheduled for lump removal on Election Day.  I always worry when my pets require operations, as it is one of my least favorite parts of having companion animals.

Time to pull out the Christmas music and see what I can play on the ukulele.  The uke is keyed the same as a guitar, so I am trying to see what songs in the guitar books I can play on the uke.  It’s a mental exercise – the chords are fingered differently between the two instruments.  I can almost feel my mind working through the conversions.

Tenor Ukulele

Happy Trails.

I had high hopes when we scheduled a 2nd visit to the Primrose Lane property that this might be “the one.” Well, it wasn’t.

This time the listing realtor was with us and managed to get the dogs into the back yard which allowed us to get into the house. We found the place arranged more like a split level than a ranch, with half the useable space in the lower basement section.

Steps to basement

This would not be bad except Pam, even after just a single trip up and down the relatively steep stairs, could feel the pull in her hips (bursitis). In essence, the upper area (around 1,250 square feet) would be the main living area and it was a bit small and had an awkward layout.

The upper bedrooms were dark, kitchen and bathrooms needed attention, and the fireplace faced the entry door, an arrangement that makes the fireplace an after thought rather than a focal point of the room. While the place had a few nice features, such as a bathroom just off the breezeway and the huge basement level with lots of extra storage, the list price is not justified and the house would require more work than we are willing to put in at that price point.

Here are a couple more photos of the house:

Basement bonus room. (Pool table comes with house.)

Kitchen

Pam checks back yard while our realtor stands at front entrance

In spite of the flaws I kind of like the place, but the reality is the upper level is just not what we are looking for in a retirement home. On to the next place.

We viewed another home on the same trip, this one closer to the city of Montrose on Jig Road. While it was neat and clean, it was also small (1,250 square feet) with a galley kitchen and little inside storage. A pole building, large lot, and nice finishes were part of the package. Price was more appropriate as well.

Jig Road home’s kitchen

Large yard has underground sprinkler system

Shop would be Jer’s man cave

Jig Road was updated and tidy but just too small for us, cats and dogs, and all the “stuff” we have. Had the built-in two-car garage been living space, this place would have been a real contender.

So the search goes on. Another listing has popped up in the same area as the Primrose Lane home (Cedaredge) and we may drive by and see if it warrants an inside visit. We are a bit bummed out at the moment after having such high hopes that one of the listings we visited would be “the one” but it was not to be, I guess.

There is not much else going on. Fall chores, a few maintenance items (such as getting RV anti-freeze in The Box, new spark plugs in the 8N Ford tractor) and other routine stuff take up my weekend time. I’ve created a new photo gallery titled Wild Horse Mesa which includes photos from various trips into that area (near De Beque).  As  we get deeper into Fall I hope to upgrade and refresh some of my web pages.

Honda follow-up…

Problem with the Honda, reported in my last post, turned out to be bad battery cable ends. The shop replaced these ($16.00 in parts, $60.00 labor for diagnosis and replacement) and the Honda has started faithfully since. Shop tested but did not find any problems with the battery or alternator. We hope that took care of it but I carry the jumper cables in the trunk now, just in case.

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

For the most part, older homes (1970-1980 is now older, as are we!) without updates — featuring that expensive electric baseboard heat — seem to be a reoccurring theme in our house hunt. We have remarked on houses being unimaginative boxes [architecturally] as well.  Even a simple vault or cove ceiling would be a welcome feature.

It’s almost winter now, Sellers, get real on your prices.

Happy Trails.

There is quite a bit to cover this time, including our house hunt, Fall arriving, and miscellaneous happenings.

We went to view a house (more in a bit) and had problems with our Honda; when we arrived at the house to view, the car battery appeared to be dead. A friend of a friend who lives in the area, and his wife, came by to give us a jump start. On the way home the car died again and a passing motorist gave us another jump start. But wouldn’t you know…once at home the car started just fine! I have an appointment for the Honda  – at the shop that does all our automotive work- to have the electrical system checked out. I suspect the alternator, now with 396,000 plus miles on it, has worn-out brushes in it and is not charging the battery correctly. We will have the results by the next post.

The house hunt continues, this time in Cedaredge, about an hour from our home in De Beque. On paper the house at 16794 Primrose Lane has much of what we want; ranch style with two bedrooms on the main floor, a garage, 2.4 acre lot with a variety of mature trees, and an extra storage shed for my “stuff.” We decided to schedule a tour with our agent. (It was at this house that the Honda died.)

While we were waiting for our realtor to arrive, the lady of the house vacated the premises for the appointment but stopped to tell us her 4 dogs were in the house but were “very friendly” and would not be a problem. Not true, as it turned out. One of the pooches was very aggressive, ears flat and growling, and we never were able to get into the house despite Pam’s coaxing of the dogs to try and get them to relax.

There are no photos of the inside as the current renters are packing and the place is in disarray. We had really wanted to see the interior as the house includes a fireplace and a full and a half-bath on the main level. Another bed and full bath is in the basement. As a result of the dog’s attitude we walked around the outside of the house and looked into windows; built in the 80’s it is in need of a refresh. Still, what we were able to see led us to put this place on the “potential” list. We hope to get to see the inside once the renters (and their dogs + horses) have moved along.

Primrose House

Back yard

Equipment shed

A few plusses of the place are location in a very nice subdivision, no more than 10 minutes from the local grocery store, level lot, some views, quite a bit of fencing in place, and the original landscaping which included an underground sprinkler system (which probably needs repair.) It is listed over our price point but with winter coming on and the house empty the sellers might entertain a more reasonable offer.

It is obvious that any place we can afford is going to need work. The dilemma is not unique; do we spend more up-front for a place that need less work, or go to a lower price point and plan to spend more on projects? Given our age and a retirement income we are tending to go with the ‘less work’ approach, but the better quality houses are just that more expensive to where the mortgage payment is bigger than we would like. We are still waiting for the “You will know it when you see it” moment to happen, even after all the properties we have viewed.

On to other topics. This past weekend I removed the leaf mulcher from storage and began mulching Fall leaves. Windy conditions had blown quite a few leaves off the trees, enough to begin the Fall ritual of raking and mulching. As part of this Fall’s maintenance, Pam had me remove some dead limbs from our cottonwood tree; this cleaned it up a bit and it looks better. Some upper branches cannot be reached from a ladder and I may need, at some point, to rent a lift of some sort to finish the job. We do what we can with the tools at hand.

I did get my snowmobile running and listed it on Craig’s list. So far no hits but the ad has not been up very long. My search for a chipper continues, at this point, without any candidates in view.

2001 Yamaha Mountain Max 700

Last Sunday I took an ATV ride, perhaps the last of the season, on the top of Grand Mesa. We had driven past the trailheads many times but I had only ridden winter snowmobile trails up there, never any summer trails. Looking for a place closer to home to ride, I decided to give on of these trails a go.

It turns out there is quite a network of summer trails open to ATV riders. Most are old logging roads which don’t pass historic places such as old town sites or have any old structures along them, but they do go past quite a variety of alpine lakes and ponds, many man-made. I would classify the trails as pleasant. Some are snowmobile trails I had ridden in past winters; it was interesting to see them in their summer state.

There was one unusual wrinkle to these trails; many are open only to vehicles 50 inches wide or less. This rules out Jeeps and other full-size 4-wheel drive vehicles. I am used to riding through old mining areas where no restrictions apply. When I looked into this later it turns out the size restriction is, in fact, a weight restriction; the theory is that lighter vehicles cause less wear and tear on the trails, resulting in lower maintenance costs and less damage to the environment. It was nice not having to share the trails with big 4×4 rigs!

50″ restrictor gate

Green Mountain Trail #719

Autumn is upon us and summer has come to a close. Night time temps are dipping closer to freezing and it is dark in the mornings when the alarm goes off. Trips to Sanderling are done; leaf raking has begun, and I see Christmas-related ads beginning to appear. Now it is time for more relaxed weekends and hot apple cider on cool Saturday mornings. After another very busy summer, I can appreciate the more relaxed and less hectic grind.

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

Car problems, not too surprising as the Honda is old enough to be temperamental. House search problems – I must say, dogs left in the house for a viewing appointment is a new one.

Happy Trails.

As I mentioned in my last post, I was on vacation the week of October 3 – 7. During that time multiple tasks were finished, including: 1) Brought The Box home from The Lot, 2) Repaired the garage door, 3) Cut last of firewood, 4) Winterized the swamp cooler, 5) Put new filters in the furnace and vacuumed out the furnace vents, 6) Replaced an 8-foot section of our privacy fence after painting it with wood preservative, 7) Put new rear brake rotors on the Toyota, 8) Changed oil and filter in the Honda, 9) Painted the utility trailer bed and fenders after replacing some rivets in the fenders and replacing the tongue jack mount, 10) Washed the Toyota and the F-150 truck, 11) Mowed lawn, 12) Started winterizing The Box, 13) Took the window air conditioner our of the window and stored it, 14) Went into the garage attic, threw some stuff away, and swept the garage, 15) Cleaned and tested the Alladin brand kerosene heater I bought at a garage sale this summer (it works!), 16) Used our fuel point discount to buy 35 gallons of gasoline, 17) Was called into the office to work on an e-mail problem and fixed that (Web mail site would not start.) and finally 18) Worked on an old Banker’s lamp. Additionally, our friend Kathy came over and picked up the last of her firewood so that task really is done for the season.  And one morning I was able to build a fire in the fire pit and enjoy a cup of tea in front of it.

I need a vacation from my vacation.

And at that there are several projects I did not get to, including removing the leaf mulcher/shredder from storage and getting it ready to use this leaf season, starting the snowmobile and getting photos of it for the “For Sale” listing on Craig’s List and in the local paper, getting RV antifreeze in The Box’s water lines, and working on the Gilson lawn tractor that is normally my main snow plowing rig in the winter. (Needs to have the flywheel replaced.) I could use another several days off to get all this done!

The job I was least looking forward to was working on the garage door. Over the last couple of months the door was getting harder and harder to operate and the side rollers would come out of the rails. This was very frustrating plus not a little unsafe. I looked on-line to learn more about garage door maintenance and adjustment; the result of this (plus a visual inspection) was a diagnosis of worn or bad cable pulleys located at the top of the garage door frame. The pulleys attached to the door springs appeared to be OK.

The pulleys are not expensive (around $5.00 each) but have cables running over them; these are under some tension, less when the door is open, more when the door is closed. When the shop I called could not make it out on the appointed date I decided to take on the replacement myself.

Replacement pulley (stock photo.)

With the door propped open I was able to remove the old pulleys, one at a time, and replaced them with pulleys I had purchased at Home Depot. The tension on the cables was light and I was able to put the new pulleys in place without much trouble. One pulley was definitely bad; it would no longer rotate on its bearings. The other I replaced just to be on the safe side even though it seemed to be OK. While I had the ladder out I adjusted the top brackets to allow the top door panel to rest closer to the door frame, closing a gap which should help keep the garage a little warmer in the winter. (It also looks better.) I was able to move two small brackets to new locations which enabled the door locking mechanism to work for the first time. I lubricated all the pulleys and rollers; the result is a door that works better now than at any time during our occupancy of the place, now over 10 years. In fact you have to be careful closing the door so that it does not come down too fast. All in all this turned out to be a very successful repair job and I was relieved it went as well as it did.

Top door cable pulley (upper left) and spring pulley; I replaced both top door pulleys. (Stock photo.)

Of the other jobs not much to be said; replacing the 4 foot by 8 foot privacy fence panel was the hardest due to the panel’s weight. The old panel had pickets that were curling up or broken and needed to be replaced. Changing out the entire panel was the easiest way to take care of it. Many of the other jobs – swamp cooler, window AC, furnace – are routine jobs that need to be done every year. The rear brake rotor replacement on the Toyota RAV4 was a bit messy but not difficult except for trying to loosen the bolts that have now seen 160K+  miles of use. A hammer was involved.

Much was accomplished but it didn’t feel like a vacation.

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

And now I have four days of “vacation” built around the upcoming weekend, during which I will attempt a thorough housecleaning, probably wrap the window inserts in plastic (most of our windows leak air), and locate the winter coats/boots/hats again. I have the cat heaters ready to put in the garage, and will likely need to locate yet another cat heater for the back deck (kittens are still coming to that feeder, will be a hard winter for them).

But – the weather has been glorious this week, absolutely stunning Fall temps featuring cool (but not cold) nights and temperate days.  I plan to enjoy those too.

(Stock image)

Happy Trails.

Our 2016 summer season at The Lot has come to a close. As I write this there is fresh snow on the sides of the Mamm Range within eyesight of our back deck. It won’t last long – we are in a a spell of below-average temperatures – but it is still a bit of a shock. Back in the Como area (the town nearest Sanderling but a bit lower in elevation), the weather report shows at or below freezing temperatures for the next four nights. It’s time to bring The Box home.

October 4: Bringing home The Box

I had been at The Lot over the weekend to finish the last bits of wood pickup; I took a load of stumps to the burn pit and brought home the last load of firewood for 2016. There were a few evening rain showers but the days were very enjoyable. Here is a photo taken on Saturday (through The Box’s main window) of the aspen grove:

Lookin’ out my window

The Lot has quite a few pine and aspen stumps on it; many can be pulled out by hand. A few were larger ends of old trees that had fallen and these needed to be cut before I could move them. At any rate, quite a few stumps had been accumulating and it was time to dispose of them.

In many ways the stumps are harder to handle than the normal burn pit wood as they are bulky, irregularly shaped, and heavy. It was a job to get them loaded but removing them did provide sort of a final touch to Birdhouse Ridge and other areas we had cleaned. There are still many left for future trips!

Which leads me to today (Tuesday), when I brought The Box back from the mountains.  The trip home was uneventful but I did drive through snow flurries from Fairplay to Vail Pass, a distance of 60 miles or so. Here and there some snow was sticking to the forest floor and side of the road. Normally this would be the height of the “color” season (which typically runs into mid-October) but everything appears to be advanced by a couple weeks; winter is fast approaching.

Trailer repair update: A couple of posts ago I mentioned I had worked on the utility trailer, replacing screws  in the stake bed sides with 1/4 inch bolts. This modification has worked out very well; with several trips to the burn pit and a couple loads of firewood brought home since the upgrade I have not had to do any maintenance as I had been doing when the screws were in place.

On to maintenance: Our garage door has one, possibly two, bad pulleys in the system. This has caused problems opening and closing the door and has, of late, been getting worse. I will be replacing the pulleys which is not an expensive job but involves working with the door’s springs and cables, something I have not done in the past. I hope to not have to replace the entire door so we shall see if this repair enables us to get a few more years of life out of it.

Speaking of doors…

When Pam re-arranged the third bedroom to give the foster kittens more room, she purchased this cat door on-line and had me install it in the laundry room door. The indoor cat feeding dish and cat boxes are now in this area and the cat portal keeps the dogs from entering.

Cat portal installed in laundry room door.

So far it is working well; all the cats got used to the new arrangement without any problem. (Pam stained the portal to match the door.)

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

We will have two of the kittens (Pieter and Ernst) from this summer’s rescue litter through October and possibly into November.  Mother Nature is not cooperating re: providing these little guys some action on testicle growth.  Bummer. Which is why I rearranged indoor cat facilities for longer-term house guests. The other two neutered kittens went to the shelter last week, and hopefully are adopted by now.

House hunting has slowed down.  I review new listings [in several cities], and monitor certain houses to see if price drops are forthcoming.  With the snow now showing up in the mountains, maybe some Sellers will start to get real about prices?

Happy Trails.

Last weekend we went up to The Lot for a rare (!) non-work day. The plan was to enjoy the fall colors, do some packing in preparation of towing the RV trailer home next week, and take a trip to view some properties Pam had seen on-line. The weekend was a success in all aspects.

During the trip up on Saturday morning it rained until we hit Vail, where the rain turned to snow flurries. The trees were flocked white and enough snow had fallen to begin accumulating on the forest floor. The fall colors, though dimmed by the weather, were still great to see.

We arrived at The Box under cloudy skies but no precipitation was falling. After letting the dogs run and having lunch, we left to view the potential properties, 8 of them in all. The best of the lot was a place in the Silverheels subdivision near Fairplay. (Address: 242 Silverheels Road, Fairplay, Colorado.) The property borders a lake, rare in this part of the country. Actually there is a set-back from the lake so the lot does not go all the way to the water but for all practical purposes – other than building – it is lake front property. We tried calling our local realtor contact in the Fairplay area (from purchasing the Sanderling property four years ago) to see if we could view the inside, but could not arrange to do this on such short notice.

The house itself is small and there is no garage, but the lot is five mostly-wooded acres (narrow – runs between the road and the lake) which still gives some room for expansion. With only one small bedroom down and a spiral staircase to get upstairs it is not the best layout for us, but water views compensate for a great deal of other drawbacks. The key here would be to see if the price goes low enough to be able to keep some funds for adding on to the house and to build a garage. The place is listed at $250,000.00 and has only been on the market a few days so Pam will be watching for price reductions if it does not sell quickly.

Silverheels house

Living room view through a window

Dry Lake from Silverheels lot

The other places were either properties that were steep, had junk on them or junky neighbors, or were in very poor repair. A few were forclosures and would have required major work to get into liveable condition. The asking prices reflected this as the lowest priced property had a starting bid price of $131,000.00. (You bid on a forclosure and your offer may or may not be accepted.) Still, we looked at new possibilities and enjoyed the outing.

We returned to The Box around sunset and had dinner. I made sure the furnace was working as the temps were going to get down to the freezing level. (The dog’s outside water dish had a layer of ice on it the next morning.) After dinner and talking about the various properties we had seen, we called it a day and went to bed.

Sunday A.M. was cold but the furnace worked OK with no real problems. I built a campfire while Pam took the dogs for their morning run. Then it was time for a leisurely breakfast and hot tea. We got out and walked the lot including Birdhouse Ridge and the grassy Nook areas we had cleaned out this year. The ability to walk our woods in the fall colors without tripping over dead logs was a good reward for all the hard work we had done. The day was perfect fall weather: sunny, bright, warming into the mid-60s with a light occasional breeze.

Colors on a fall day

We also started planning our strategy for next year–what areas we want to clean and how to access them. I will have to build a trail near the far side edge of the property to access the rest of the aspen grove; the proposed path will require minimal removal of live trees and get us access to a part of the lot that has a high concentration of both standing and down dead aspen trees. Cleaning out the area will probably take more than one summer but will finish an area we began cleaning back in 2013.

I am going to look around for a medium-size brush chipper, one with a capacity that can handle wood 6 inches around. Some of these pop up on the market in the $1,000.00 – $1,500.00 dollar range and I am going to try to sell my snowmobile to raise the money to pay for it. I am just getting frustrated with the Saturday-only burn pit schedule at Sanderling and the fact that it takes over an hour each load to drive to the pit, unload the trailer, then drive back to the lot. When you add in the time it takes to load the trailer this really limits how much junk wood I can get rid of any given week. If I can chip the slash on-site and use the chips for mulch or creating hiking paths it would not only speed the clean-up but also return some of the wood to the lot. Stay tuned to see how the search for a chipper turns out.

On the way home we traveled over Boreas Pass, as we try to do at least once every year. (Pam’s mother’s ashes are scattered at the top of the pass near an old boarding house and cabin.) Due to the bad Saturday weather the previous day and the excellent Sunday weather that day, the pass was very busy with people out leaf-peeping. Can’t blame them as this route features some gorgeous fall color vistas, but a couple places were downright crowded and had miniature traffic jams made worse by drivers not experienced in driving narrow back-country roads. Several drivers were so afraid of driving near the edge of a shelf road they were not able to move over, or place their vehicles so cars going the opposite direction could pass. It would be better to drive Boreas Pass during the week, but if you have no choice then you just have to put up with it.

Between Fairplay and Como this hayfield caught my eye and I had to try this “artsy” shot of the bales:

Fresh baled hay

The return home trip, under bright autumnal blue skies, featured some stunning color views particularly on the west side of Vail Pass near the Gerald Ford Golf Course. Even though the colors portend the coming of winter, this is one of the best times to be living in Colorado.

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

Is it possible to feel at home with acreage, but not necessarily the house on the acreage? I kinda feel that way about the Silverheels property we saw last weekend.  The house is too small with a bad flow, work needed there.  No garage for Fields and his outside storage needs.  Quite the winding driveway down to the house location as well.  But that lovely aspen and evergreen lot that leads out to the lake is quite special.

A new retirement home location I will be examining into the winter is the Woodland Park area.  Woodland Park, a mountain town outside of Colorado Springs, is charming in a cowboy kind of way and we have always remarked on this.  Woodland Park hosts the regional hospital and most of the service providers in that neck of the woods.  Traveling there from De Beque and back in one day to do drive-bys – difficult. With The Box coming home from the high country (snow predicted next week at 9,000 feet), our “base” for exploring that part of Colorado will not be available. A challenge.

Happy Trails.

I have a few loose ends, left over from the last few posts, that I need to address and update.

House Hunt:

The “Grandma house” I noted in a recent post has, we assume, been sold as it is off the market. Not that we were seriously considering making an offer but it did have a certain attraction and we hope the new owners clean up the place and make it tidy.

We never did hear anything more concerning the Chu Chu Lane house that we made the offer on, but it also appears to be off the market as it no longer shows up in the realtor listings.

The Lot:

The load of firewood I brought home has been cut and stacked along our driveway and we are waiting for our friend Kathy to come and pick it up. Until then the fresh-cut wood smell is nice to have around.

Most recent firewood

Foster cats:

Two of the four kittens have had their neuter operations and we are waiting for the others to get mature enough to handle the operation. Pam has re-arranged the cat room to give the kittens more play room, which they certainly seem to enjoy. Mom Juliana is also still with us, successfully spayed — the three altered cats are waiting for room at the shelter to open up. (The remaining two male kittens have testicles that did not descend, so we wait to see if Mother Nature will assist in that regard.)

Wheeler Lake:

I have created a Gallery for the Wheeler Lake ATV trip; take a look! The gallery includes a 5:04 video that features overdubbing. I knew the wind was going to make for an unusable audio track so I am trying out a Yetti Blue microphone to do the overdub. This is my first attempt and I find the lack of background noise a bit odd but at least the sound track is quite audible.

New Stuff:

This weekend will be quite busy, with a trip planned to The Lot to pack up The Box in preparation of bringing it home the first week of October. (I have scheduled some time off for this task.) The “color” in high country aspen leaves should be at max this weekend and we hope to enjoy viewing the fall colors. Forecast high for the area is 52 with nighttime temps getting to the freezing point. Its time to shut down for this year.

Weekend plans include driving by some potential retirement properties near the towns of Fairplay, Lake George, Florissant and Divide. We have not driven through this area much since we found Sanderling four years ago – it’s a four-hour distance from De Beque. However, a property search turned up several “potentials” that might be of interest. Per our regular routine, we will drive by the properties and if a property looks interesting enough we will contact a realtor for an in-house tour. No reason we can’t also enjoy the fall colors along the way!

In other news, I attended the Sheriff’s Office annual Appreciation Dinner last Saturday, an event which kept us home for the weekend. Attendance is as much political as social but I did win a $25.00 gift card from Target.

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

I’m looking forward to seeing the fall colors at Sanderling; I missed them last year with my bursitis acting up then.  Blondie will need her doggie coat with temps near freezing – b-r-r-r. I also am interested in seeing what the housing search turns up.  My main complaint of house hunting in the Montrose area is plenty of irrigation water but no trees around the houses. The irrigation is used to keep the pastures green.  Not exactly what we are looking for.  Prices are super high in the Montrose market as well.  I have been quite disappointed.

Happy Trails.

Fall is arriving in the high country. The last two weekends have seen the start of fall colors at The Lot and one morning there was frost on the truck. Our work season is rapidly coming to a close.

The weekend of September 3 – 4 Pam and I were doing our clean-up work when Pam spotted this critter making its slow way along the ground under some pine trees. We don’t know what kind of caterpillar this is but it was quite active. (Note: Research shows this caterpillar to be in the cecropia moth family.)

Pine floor caterpillar

Here and there fall colors are beginning to appear. While we are still a couple weeks away from “peak colors” the change is unmistakable.

“Color” starting to show

While we were working we received a visit from another of The Lot’s creatures; this chipmunk paid us a visit.

A “Chippie” stops to figure us out

By the end of the weekend we had pretty good-sized piles of wood for the burn pit and firewood to bring home.

Load of firewood

The following weekend (September 10 – 11) I went up alone to complete the work we had begun. Several loads of junk wood went to the burn pit and a good-size load of firewood was loaded into the trailer and brought home. Next week I have a company event which will keep us home for the weekend and after that there will be only 1 more trip to The Lot before I bring The Box home for the winter.

I did work in an ATV trip on Sunday before I came home. The Wheeler Lake trail turned out to be a real challenge for me; round trip was about 12 miles but the trail had several challenging rock formations to get over or through. Notwithstanding these obstacles and the rugged conditions there were waterfalls and mining history in the area and I enjoyed the trip. It took longer than I had anticipated, though, and I was later getting home than I had planned.

Here are a few photos from the trail which begins at Montgomery Reservoir:

Montgomery Reservoir

Magnolia Mill

Falls near Magnolia Mill

The trail was a result of mining in the area; this shaft near Wheeler Lake is unusual in that it has not been sealed as the state has mandated sealing old mine shafts for safety reasons.

Old mine shaft near Wheeler Lake

There were other signs of past activity; this old cement mixer was used to help build a dam located up the trail from Magnolia Mill.

Old cement mixer used to help build a dam near Magnolia Mill

At the end of the trail is Wheeler Lake at an elevation of 12,200 feet. The Continental Divide is in the background and a nice waterfall drops into the lake from the left (west) side of the bowl.

Jerry at Wheeler Lake

Waterfall from Continental Divide feeds into Wheeler Lake

A very nice trip but it was challenging and tiring as well. A good internet page that has more trail details can be found at Trail Damage and You-Tube videos can be found by searching for  Wheeler Lake, Colorado.

I have some video that I’ve not yet had a chance to work on; the wind was blowing pretty hard so the audio will, probably, not be useful. We shall see!

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

Pam’s $.02

Pam says she does not have a lot to say this time but she is looking forward to viewing the fall colors on The Lot the next time we go there.

There are just a few notes to pass along this time; some are house hunt-related, some are Lot-related, some are just general.

Last Wednesday (late afternoon) we drove by several houses that Pam had seen on-line. All were in the Cedaredge area on the other side of Grand Mesa, a pleasant high country ride of about 1.5 hours distance each way for us. Some properties had excellent views but were off-the-side-of-a-side-road, not exactly what we were looking for, but since we were in the area….

One of the sites was an old small house on .6 acre. The plusses are water flowing through the lot and trees and some mesa views. Drawback is the house, old and small, but priced below $100K…it raised our interest.

Stream on Grandma House lot

Small Grandma House

Shed could be used for equipment storage

We think much could be done with the lot; just cleaning it up and mowing would do wonders for the appearance. Cactus in the front yard would have to go, though. If it was on larger acreage this might be a strong possibility; we could tear down the old house and build, or add onto the existing house…there are possibilities.

Another house had a circular drive, garage, shop, decks and views, but is listed as a 2 bed, 2 bath at $300K…over our budget limit but the place is octagon with beamed ceilings which gives it some character.

Front of Octagon House

Side of Octagon House

As we drove by the other Cedaredge locations, we decided we would not consider them for one reason or another, sometimes multiple reasons! One place had great views and a garage but it was off the end of a county road and shared a driveway with a neighbor. Another house also shared a drive with a neighbor, this neighbor obviously trying to start his own personal dump. Keeping in mind we are looking for a retirement home, one criteria is access to the nearest town on a year-round basis. Some places on the side of Grand Mesa look like access (particularly winter access) could be a dicey proposition. Anyway, the search continues.

Our hope is that as winter approaches the prices on real estate in general will drop to the point where a reasonable offer from us might be considered. Along those lines, the price on the rural Montrose home we had made an offer on and which was rejected earlier this month, Chu Chu Lane, had a price reduction from $309,900 to $299,900.00 so the price is heading in the right direction.

The rest of the news is pretty general. I cut the last load of firewood we had brought home and Pam and I piled it up along our driveway. Kathy Powers will come by with her pick-up and take the wood to her place. This load was unusual in that it was mostly pine with a few pieces of aspen, the reverse of our normal loads of firewood.

Jerry cutting load of firewood

Much of the load was small enough to cut with the chop saw; the rest was cut with my old Craftsman chain saw.

I had to re-do some parts of the home-made trailer. Originally I had put the stake bed sides together with screws, but these seemed to work loose and / or break when traveling over the very rough and washboard gravel road between our Lot and the burn pit. I replaced the screws with 1/4 inch bolts and will see how that works out with future loads.

This weekend I stayed home and did chores. Firewood cutting, trailer work, lawn mowing, changing oil in the Honda, and I volunteered to mow a neighbor’s lawn after his rider blew an engine. Jim (the neighbor) is using a walker to get around now and can’t operate a push mower so his yard was looking a bit shaggy. Jim’s son-in-law has a line on a replacement engine and Jim’s rider should be repaired by the next time his lawn needs to be cut. Jim and his wife Jolene are good neighbors and I don’t mind doing the extra work for them.  Someday I’ll be old and using a walker and might need someone to help me.

Pam is really busy at work; the start of the fall semester ia always a busy time but this year seems to be busier than normal. I’ve finished my major projects at work for the year so now can concentrate on lower-priority tasks that need to be done but are more routine.

We have seen some aspen colors changing in the high country and some of the taller peaks have had a dusting of snow; fall appears to be arriving a bit early this year and winter won’t be far behind. We hope to get another couple loads of firewood home and a few more loads of slash taken to the burn pit before having to bring The Box home for the winter. The next few weeks at Sanderling will be quite busy.

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

What we are learning about Colorado Western Slope real estate (not in resort areas) is educational.  If the property in question is in the $100,000 range, it is either 1) an older home (pre-WW II)  “fixer” with limited acreage, or 2) a mobile home with perhaps one acre +.  The $200,000 range gives the buyer the hope of some upgrades and some acreage; the home is generally still 30+ years old but mechanical and/or aesthetic improvements should have been made.  In the $300,000 range, there are mixed messages.  At $300,000+, homes should have a master bedroom with en suite bathroom, at least three bedrooms and two bathrooms, kitchen and bathroom updates, a garage, and the yard should be immaculate (no junk anywhere).  However, realtors are convincing sellers that 1-3 acres of property attached to the home puts that listing in the $300,000 range, regardless of the amenities one is expecting inside or the tidiness of the home and yard.  Not so much for buyers.  And that’s where our problem arises.

See?  We have been learning something along the way during the last nine months after all.

Happy Trails.

It’s hard to believe it has been a couple weeks since my last post. It seems like I need to catch up —again!

There is not much going on with the retirement house hunt.  Since our last offer was rejected we have not really looked at any more properties, but Pam is putting together a new list of “possibles” – we will drive past and take a look. If any are promising we’ll contact our realtor and schedule an in-depth tour.

Our weekends have been very busy; the last two have been spent at The Lot continuing with our clean-up of Birdhouse Ridge. That task is very nearly completed; I have some firewood stacked up and ready to bring home, everything else is done. It is so nice to be able to walk around the Ridge without fear of tripping over fallen trees and all the standing stuff is nice and green. It takes a lot of work and that helps us enjoy the finished product even more.

Not content to sit around…we opened up a path to a new area to be cleaned out over the next few years. Access to this spot is adjacent to the area we call The Nook, uphill and to the right as you look out the RV trailer. We can see this area from where The Box sits so picking it as the next clean-up area is in keeping within our “line of sight” priorities. Slash was staged at this location one weekend; I then drove up solo last weekend and hauled out 4 loads of non-salvagable wood to the burn pit, then loaded up a trailer full of wood to be cut into firewood. It was a busy weekend!

I bought a new generator so I was able to run the Honey Wagon equipment and empty The Box’s holding tanks. Other chores including replenishing the RV fresh water supply (hand-pumping 28 gallons of water) and sharpening my chain saw chain. There are always housekeeping chores to get done and having the new generator let me do some delayed chores. We should now be good through the rest of the summer. Pam had relocated a few pine saplings (needed to be moved when clearing the path to the new clean-up area) so I watered the tree transplants as well. Last but not least, hummingbird nectar for the feeder.

Below are some photos (and one video) taken over the last couple weeks. The video was shot from the top of The Box…Pam’s idea…to show what Sanderling looks like in a 360 degree sweep. The clip has some lens flare – not the best quality – but I hope you take a moment to let it play.
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New Ryobi 5,500 watt generator

“Before” photo of area near The Nook

Slash destined for wood pit – first weekend

Trailer load#1 (of 4) for the day – second weekend

“After” photo of brush (almost) gone to burn pit

A sunset over South Park

So…it has been a busy couple of weeks, a state of affairs that will continue for the rest of the summer. Don’t be surprised if I don’t have a new post for another couple of weeks.

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

Next month we celebrate four years since we purchased Sanderling.  It’s always amazing to me how much dead wood and slash is taken out of each area we identify – loads and loads and loads hauled off the forest floor and to the burn pit. (Even more if Fields has to cut down standing dead trees.)  The task seems almost endless, so it is a real pleasure to clear an area like Birdhouse Ridge and enjoy walking freely over that path, without impediment. No small accomplishment.

Happy Trails.