Category: General (Page 48 of 61)

General posts

The Lot – August 10th

August 11, 2014 / admin / 1 Comment

There is no major new theme in this post, just an update of some lot-related stories. But, first of all, a shout-out to B-I-L (Brother-in-Law) Craig who received word that his union contract was renewed. This means Craig can retire next April. Good for him! Craig and Dianne are going to go ahead and begin building a house on their lakeside lot and retire to it next spring. Great news. We are very happy their plans will work out this way.

I mentioned last time that the burn pit had been flooded out in the mountain subdivision. It was closed again this past weekend, so Pam and I spent our time clearing areas and putting the slash into “burn pit piles” or “save-for-firewood” piles. We hope to be able to use the ATV to pull the aluminum trailer close to these piles, some of which are a good distance (i.e. to far to haul by hand) from the driveway.

It’s satisfying, though, to see what some hours of hard work can do to improve the lot. We ended up with 3 large piles of burn-pit slash and a couple of firewood piles. In the event the burn pit is closed again next week – more rain is forecast – we will bring home firewood in the back of the truck. Some of the slash piles may be on the ground until next spring if things don’t dry out over the next few weeks. The burn pit gate is manned by volunteers and normally closes around October 1st, so there’s not a lot of time left to get slash hauled off the lot this year.

We saw quite a variety of wildlife this time out, including chipmonks, squirrels, a deer, a couple antelope, humming birds, a raptor (probably a hawk), Stellar’s Jays and some other birds, We have seen a few of these each trip but rarely all in the same trip. It’s definitely high Summer in the high country. Nice to know these animals are there; they give us something to remember when we come home.

Below are a couple photos of the more-or-less-done dog run. This is a temporary set-up; a more permanent version will be installed when we pick the final location for a house and adjoining dog run. However, permanent or not, the dogs seems to enjoy it just fine.

Dog run gate swings into pen. Log fills a gap.

Shade cover keeps the dogs cool on sunny days

In Pam’s last “Two Cent’s Worth” she mentioned the old recliner I had hauled up on a previous trip. Here I am taking a break while under the RV’s awning.

Jerry taking a break

(The brown bottle behind the GatorAid is Pam’s root beer, not an adult beverage.) You may ask, “What is he taking a break from?” and the answer would be:

Firewood (foreground) and a pile of burn-pit wood (background)

I had cut up a very old and large — but still pretty solid — pine tree and the aroma of the fresh-cut pine was wonderful. We were working in the area of this pine most of the day (it’s on the ground and angling from left to right downhill in the back of the above picture) and our olfactory senses thanked us.

By around 2:30 on Sunday the summer showers were moving in so we called it a day, enjoyed a late lunch, showered, and packed up for the trip home. Unlike previous work weekends, Pam and I had taken Monday off so there was no need to hustle back and get ready for work the next day.

Even operating on Plan B, the weekend went very well. While it would have been nice if the burn pit had been open (Plan A on a normal mountain work weekend), we did get a lot of area cleared, saw quite a bit of wildlife, quietly celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary, and returned home knowing we had an additional day to de-stress, get a few chores done, and not have to rush off to work. I call that a good weekend!

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

Take-aways from the anniversary weekend — the joy in my brother’s voice when he telephoned to confirm he can retire next April after 40 years with Trane Company. And, second, watching the joy of a chipmunk take a dust bath in a beam of sunlight. Both different types of joy, granted, both memorable.

The dogs are now only giving off a faint whiff of Eau de Skunk when wet (a family of seven skunks was living under the neighbor’s garage in De Beque, we had several encounters). However, Eau de Skunk is totally drowned out in the RV by a mouse-inhibiting product we’re trying. It contains Peppermint and Spearmint. Whoo-ee, that product’s odor is really strong. Hope it puts off the mice as much as it puts off humans.

Happy Trails.

Jerry’s P.S.

I have a new gallery consisting of photos I took on the Swan River Loop ATV trip I mentioned in my last post. The link is Swan River Loop. You can also access this new collection from my Galleries page.

The Lot and Latest ATV Ride

August 5, 2014 / admin / 2 Comments

Since I returned from my motorcycle trip on July 7th we have been up to The Lot a couple of times. Of course we continue with our clean up, but we did tackle putting in the dog run. We ran into a couple problems but, as of last weekend, the run is pretty well complete. The dogs (except Bru, who would rather stay in the RV) seem to like it just fine.

Not very exciting, but here are a few “under construction” photos:

Installing the gate

Original 8x12 run incorporated into new run

Original 8×12 run incorporated into new run

We finished the gate and added a sun shade over the 8 x 12 run before we finished; photos next time. Pam is pleased with the result and it sure makes it nicer for the dogs to be out of the RV for long stretches.

We are still having a few problems with the RV; mice are still getting in somewhere and the batteries are not charging as they should…may need to replace them.

Last weekend the nighttime temps dropped close to 40 and we had to fire up the furnace. In 2013 we winterized The Box by mid-September as nighttime temperatures were consistently dropping below freezing, so we have about 6 weeks of summer left. This year we will bring The Box home and take care of a number of small repairs, including checking out the electrical system.

A couple of other things to note: We saw our first deer on the property. A nice-looking doe came up the driveway. We happened to be eating dinner at the time and were able to watch her as she took her time checking out the dog run and finally wandering off.

Several hummingbirds have found the feeder. We like watching their antics.

It has been a wet summer. The burn pit closed due to flooding! We have a big load of stuff on the aluminum trailer to take to the pit as soon as we get word it is open. That kind of messed up our clean-up schedule so we will have to move to Plan B, just stacking stuff up ready to go on short notice.

So the clean-up continues but the major projects of the year (driveway extension, storage shed, and dog run) are completed. A few more loads of firewood for our friend Kathy Hall remain to be brought home and cut up, but that task can be done on day trips so will continue into late September and possibly October. We are very satisfied with the improvements we did this summer!

On to the second part of this post: My latest ATV trip.

I have not been out riding much this year, but took a few hours off last Sunday to visit the Swan River area (near Breckenridge) on my way home from the lot. My goal was to make the loop I had been unable to complete on my last outing.

The plan was to go up the Middle Fork of the Swan River, cut across a ridge on an established trail, then down the North Fork of the Swan and back to the truck. I had been on both drainages before so some of the scenery was familiar but the connecting ridge would be new territory.

Although the day was overcast, and occasional drops of rain fell, it was a very nice 16 mile trip. (3 hours to complete.) Wild flowers, including Colorado Blue Columbine, were blooming in profusion, and streams were running pretty full making for some nice photos.

Colorado Blue Columbine

Middle Fork, Swan River

ATV (The Griz) on Middle Fork trail

I was fortunate in that I saw several mountain goats this time, a few with young with them:

Mountain goat with young, Mt. Wise

This youngster was getting a quick meal:

Young goat getting a meal from Mom

Finally, one last water shot of the North Fork of the Swan River:

North Fork, Swan River

It was very pleasant afternoon trip, and I passed a couple side roads (marked with Forest Service signs) that I will have to explore on my next visit to the area.

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

With major projects done and mountain temps just about perfect, we find our work time at Sanderling is accomplished in short bursts, with time to rest in between. Fields hauled up an old recliner and footstool in the truck this last trip. A future photo opportunity must capture him stretched out in the recliner (outside next to the RV), looking down the driveway at his view. Driving back to the high desert after your time in the mountains, dropping down in elevation and feeling the heat increase, is almost painful. We will be spending pretty much every August weekend at Sanderling this year.

Happy trails.

Wisconsin then home

July 30, 2014 / admin / 2 Comments

I left London, Ontario on Monday, June 30th en route to Chicago where I would see my sister Kitt and her daughter and son-in-law, Stef and Eric. I arrived at their place late in the afternoon; soon after we enjoyed a good dinner, cooked by Eric, and good conversation. My thanks to Stef, Eric, and Kitt for their hospitality!

Tuesday AM I cycled north toward Madison where I was to meet with brother-in-law Larry at a restaurant in Waunakee, a small town that is a bit north and west of Madison. The restaurant rendezvous was closed for the duration of a downtown street building project, but we met and ate at a bar/restaurant just across the street. Larry and I had a good talk for a few hours, after which I rode 40 minutes to visit, and stay the night, with friends of ours in Daleyville. (We lived in Daleyville for a few years.)

Willis and Judy Volden, the friends I would be staying with, invited me to a community concert as the evening’s entertainment. Their daughter-in-law was a clarinetist with the band. Sounded good to me! There is nothing like a community concert in the summer. This one, the last of 5 for the summer season, featured a variety of music including military service anthems, songs from Showboat, and ending with a Sousa march. Good stuff, and a reminder of when I was in band and playing in summer concerts in Greenwood. We had a delay waiting for a storm to pass, but once that happened the band was off and running. It made for a very pleasant evening.

Community concert in Wisconsin

After we returned to the Volden home Judy served a delicious dessert of award-winning cheesecake baked by the Voldens’ 11 year old granddaughter. It was really good!

The next morning I awoke to a steady light rain so held off heading to my mother’s house in central Wisconsin, my next destination. The Voldens and I spent the extra time in more conversation and enjoying an excellent breakfast served by Judy. Eventually the rain quit and I started on my way. Given the rain and the time of year, I decided to take back roads a bit of the way; the greenery and rolling hills made pleasant scenery as I rolled along.

I arrived in Greenwood by late afternoon and soon settled in for a couple of days worth of visiting and doing a few jobs for Mom. The biggest of these was cutting and splitting some fire wood, which I did mostly on the following day. Mom pulled out some CDs of trips she and Dad had taken to Alaska and Hawaii several years past and those were quite entertaining.

On July 4th I took a short ride over to Bloomer, Wisconsin to see Craig’s and Dianne’s lake shore lot. They have a very nice piece of land and have already begun improving it. Craig took me to lunch and gave me a tour of the area. As much as I like the mountains, lakes are also quite scenic and I think Craig and Dianne will have an excellent retirement along the lake. I did take a few photos during this visit:

The Paroubek lot is on a lake inlet

Craig while he was taking me for a boat ride on his lake.

Craig took this photo of me getting ready to leave:

Jerry getting ready to leave the Paroubek lot

The last few days had been filled with visiting and talking. However, on July 5th I headed home to Colorado, and that meant a couple of long, hard riding days on the road again. As on the way to the rally, I spent a return night in Lincoln, Nebraska, then back to Colorado on Sunday, July 6th. While I should have taken a day off to recuperate, I didn’t, so it was back to the office the next morning, the 7th.

It was quite a trip…5,122 miles over 13 days…and I was able to include visits with friends and family, ride with fellow motorcycle club riders, see some new sites, and revisit Niagara Falls. I did get rained on a couple times but had no physical or mechanical problems the entire trip. Biggest headache was traffic; going through Toronto at rush hour and Chicago [anytime] reminds me again of why I will never be a city person.

My next post will be about our Sanderling lot and what has transpired there in the past few work weekends.

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

The Ride Home – Niagara Falls

July 27, 2014 / admin / 1 Comment

On Sunday, June 29th, I began heading home from the motorcycle rally in Brockville, Ontario. Originally I had planned to leave on Monday and enjoy the 2nd day of the rally, but a check on my route showed I had under-estimated the travel time from Brockville to Chicago, my next planned stop. I decided to break that link up into two days and had made arrangements to spend Sunday night in London, Ontario, and make Chicago on Monday night instead.

This gave me some time to take a side trip to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. Pam and I had been through there decades ago but our stop had been very brief. I was looking forward to refreshing my memories of the place.

Here are some photos I took during my stop:

Niagara Falls from the Canadian side

Niagara Falls, American side

Just downriver is another set of falls:

Downriver on the American side

Here is a closer view of people looking at the downriver falls from observation decks:

Now that’s a “River Walk!”

Finally, a photo of me taken by another visitor:

Jerry at Niagara Falls, June 29, 2014

Here is a 7:24 video clip I took of the falls. Sound track is not good; the sound of the falling water pretty well messed up the sound track, but there are a few good clips within the video.

[cincopa AMIA427x7pOv]

I reluctantly left the falls and headed up to London, Ontario where I spend the night. It had been a good visit and pretty much wrapped up my Canadian part of the trip.

Next time: Wisconsin visit.

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

Rally Day

July 25, 2014 / admin / 2 Comments

Continuing on with my series of motorcycle rally posts, this one deals with the main ride of the rally.

Each rally has a character all its own, but each features a “main ride” for all rally attendees. This ride is often the highlight of the rally and offers a trip through the local countryside, a good lunch, and a social gathering over dinner at the end of the day.

To begin with, here is a 3:38 video clip of the group getting ready to start the ride:

[cincopa AsKAi17vrdGn]

After the ride came a surprise, to me: we ate at a Pizza Hut that also serves beer and wine. The way the locals explained this was that the Canadian government is looking for revenue and taxes and beer and wine are fairly high revenue producers. The more places licensed to sell these products, the more tax revenue the government takes in. Apparently there is a move on to make it easier to get a liquor license providing the restrictions (no off sales, no bartender) are followed. It was quite nice to have an adult beverage with the meal! Beer was on tap and in cans/bottles, wines were available in red and white varieties. Nice.

The video is a bit long but it does reflect the “herding cats” nature of trying to get a group started doing the same thing at the same time.

We rode through some very pleasant country. This area of Canada is fairly flat, but there are numerous lakes to ride around and small villages to ride through. Here we stopped at a small store for gas, candy bars, and cool drinks:

Fuel stop in rural Ontario

At other times we stopped to regroup and make sure everyone was together :

Group stops for a break

Here are some shots from around the hotel:

I met – and rode with – some very interesting people and considered the rally a good time overall. Unfortunately I had to start my trip home the next day; I would have liked to stay longer!

Next post: Niagara Falls and The Trip Home.

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

Motorcycle trip continued

July 14, 2014 / admin / 2 Comments

In my last post I got as far as the morning of Day 4 of my motorcycle trip, spent visiting Fort Henry (located near Kingston, Ontario). I’ll pick up from there.

After Ralph, Earl, and I finished our visit to Fort Henry we needed to decide what to do next. I had read about a tourist attraction called the 1000 Island Tower which offers superb views of the St. Lawrence Seaway. The tower was a short trip off our route home; we had seen it from a distance on the way to the Fort. Earl and I decided to visit the tower while Ralph headed back to Brockville to spend some time with his girl friend.

For background, the St. Lawrence Seaway is controlled by locks at both ends so the water level is very consistent. There are 997 islands in the seaway; Canada owns about 2/3 of them but America has the bigger islands. As a result, the two countries have about the same amount of real estate. Almost any tiny island has a structure on it. Bigger islands have wells and septic systems; smaller islands have holding tanks.

Tiny island has a house

Sometimes it looks like there is more house than island:

Big house, small island

These all look like summer or vacation houses as the seaway freezes over in winter making access difficult. The house above has boat garages to house the summer transport.

The 1000 Islands Tower looks like this from the ground:

1000 Islands Tower

Basically one buys a ticket to ride the internal elevator to the top observation decks. The last two floors, one with windows, the other open, are reached by spiral steps. I did shoot some video from the top but still photos tell just as good a story so I will stick with them.

Here is a shot of the bridge we traveled to get from Canadian 401 to the tower which is located on Tower Island:

Bridge to Tower Island

Stern-wheel boats provide a fun way to view the islands up close

Stern-wheeler cruises the islands

The top of the tower is a good place to spend some time looking out over the islands and water.

Islands and water view from top of the tower

After a pleasant visit, and some great ice-cream at the Tower’s restaurant, we headed back to Brockville. There we met some other rally folks and went to dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant. Good food, good talk, and a few adult beverages rounded out a good day.

I have a couple more seaway photos that I’ll include here as they would be out of place in another post.

Sailboat entering a city-owned marina in Prescott

City of Kingston, Ontario, Canada from Fort Henry

This concludes Day 4 of my trip. Next time: The rally gets under way!

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

(PS: Pam says she has no comments for this post.)

5,122 Miles

July 8, 2014 / admin / 1 Comment

Day 1: Made it from De Beque to Lincoln, Nebraska, 703 miles. Went through 1 heavy rainstorm near Gothenberg. Eastern Colorado and Nebraska are the greenest I’ve ever seen for this part of the country. Nothing to see of note.

Day 2: Lincoln to South Bend, Indiana, 604 miles. Found Toby’s house OK; it is nicer than I expected. Took Toby out to dinner, had a good talk. Breakfast the next morning at a mom-and-pop shop, good food at really good prices. Breakfast was $3.99 plus beverage. Nothing of else worth noting.

Day 3: South Bend to Brockville, Ontario, Canada, 701 miles. (Just over 2,000 miles into trip.) Crossed into Canada via Detroit. No problems with Customs. Did not know you could enter Canada by bridge or by tunnel; I took the bridge. Disappointed that Canada 401 had no views of the St. Lawrence Seaway. Had the misfortune of hitting Toronto traffic at rush hour. First and only time I arrived at destination after dark.

Day 4: Met up with a couple guys from the motorcycle club and decided to visit Fort Henry, (Near Kingston) built to protect Canada from an American invasion.

Ft. Henry history

Canadian politics in early 1800s

American politics – 1840

Here are two of my friends, Ralph (back) and Earl (with cannon) playing “Sink The Ship” in the Ft. Henry Visitor’s Center:

Earl (with canon) and Ralph at the Visitor’s Center

Here I am near one of the fort’s canon:

Jerry near one of Ft. Henry’s canon. (Photo by Ralph)

All-in-all this was a very good stop with good views, a bit of history, and some hard cider in a wine tasting room.

A couple more photos I found interesting:

Brass canon in courtyard

Upper walk in fort proper

Next time:

Continuing with Day 4 activities (1000 Islands Tower) and meeting some of the other rally participants.

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

While the Mr. was beginning his trip, I was starting my “Staycation.” The dogs, cats and I established our own schedule for meals and sleeping. It was great.

Happy Trails.

Busy Week

June 20, 2014 / admin / 2 Comments

Home Sweet RV (Graphic by Hensley Manufacturing)

Yes, it has been a bit longer than normal since my last post, but it has been a very busy interval.

🙂 Felicity came for a visit.

🙂 Worked on the Sanderling lot.

🙂 Attended an IT related event in Denver.

Our daughter Felicity returned from her month in Wales and stopped by for a visit. I picked her up in Denver on the 13th. (She was with us until the 19th.) Driving through Denver, not fun. Man, what traffic! I was late getting to the airport but, thanks to the magic of cell phones, I was able to call Felic and let her know what was happening. Getting out of Denver was also a real trick as Friday rush hour traffic is horrendous. Eventually we made it to a diner for a meal and eventually to the RV for the evening.

It was very good to see Felicity (been about a year) and we spent a few hours in conversation, catching up with her news about working abroad and traveling, and news from “stateside” that she had not been aware of. Felicity had a good time in Wales but due to her “working vacation” did not have as much time to go sight-seeing as she would have liked. She lost the use of her digital camera (a drop resulted in a broken screen) and had to resort to using her cell phone camera, not as good in quality but better than nothing!

Pam and the dogs joined us at Sanderling on Saturday and the rest of the weekend was spend talking, loading wood destined for the burn pit (4 loads on Saturday) and more lot clean-up on Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon we packed up and headed home. Pam and Felicity (and the dogs) had the Honda and were planning to go home via the Boreas Pass route, but Pam found signage in Como indicating the route was still closed — surprising as the pass is normally open by Memorial Day. After a quick (!) tour of Como they headed home by our regular route through Fairplay and over Hoosier Pass.

Pam and Felicity clearing dead wood

Felicity on Pam’s Pavilion Point

Once the ladies had departed, I took the truck and RV over to the dump station and emptied the holding tanks, then returned to the lot to re-park the RV. Sure like that pull-through driveway! Once that was done I hooked up to our aluminum trailer, which we had filled with a load of wood to bring home to cut into firewood.

Sunday was Father’s day, and Pam surprised me with a sign:

Jerry with his Father’s Day sign

We’ll put the sign up over the door of the RV. It sure is appropriate and I like it.

Other photos of the weekend:

Blondie in the woods

Blondie saw a squirrel and could not be kept away from the tree she “thought” it was in. (We could see the squirrel in another nearby tree.) Kept her occupied quite a while. That dog has a one-track mind.

Other photos:

Humming bird feeder was put out in the circle

Harebells blooming on the lot

So…we were all home by Sunday night. Monday night I was in Denver getting ready to attend an IT (Information Technology) conference / trade show on Tuesday. That went well, but it was after 10:00 PM when I arrived home (Denver to De Beque, pretty much across the majority of the state) on Tuesday night. High wind had caused a power outage in De Beque; Felicity and Pam were sitting and talking in candlelight. (Power was out for about an hour and a half.) Wednesday I was back at work. Thursday I took Felicity to Denver so she could catch her flight to Albuquerque, New Mexico (visiting friends there). After dropping off Felic at DIA, I routed through South Park to check the RV on the way home. While I was there I put out our hummingbird feeder. I also relieved the mousetrap under the bathroom sink of a dead mouse…still dealing with them getting into the trailer!

I drove around 1,600 miles this week, quite a bit of mileage considering I didn’t leave the state! Yes, it was a crazy week; to and from Denver three times in one week is a record for me, one I’m reluctant to repeat soon.

I plan to take off on my 2 week motorcycle trip to Ontario, Canada on June 24th. I’ll be busy getting ready for the trip this weekend. The length of the cycle trip means no posts for a couple weeks, by the way, until after July 6th. Even then it will take me a while to go though the trip photos and get a post ready; there won’t be a new post to this blog until mid-July.

On the return side of my Canada trip I’ll spend some time visiting family in Wisconsin. It has been a couple years since my last visit and I am looking forward to seeing a number of people again. I should have quite a bit of material for my posts when I return.

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

Now that both children have been to Sanderling, they can appreciate the “grunt” work their parents are putting in to clear the property. I couldn’t resist having Felicity do a bit of wood gathering while visiting the high country – three sets of hands greatly improves the pace of dead wood removal.

Felicity’s digital nomad existence is past the honeymoon stage (the work/vacation trip to Wales). Now comes the real test – can she organize her time to work on-line while on the road? I think she’s missing her “nest” of personal belongings. Her road takes her back to Portland, OR soon (and familiar surroundings) for a period of housesitting.

While Fields takes his motorcycle jaunt for two weeks, I consider that period my vacation as well. I’ve arranged to work a different schedule at the community college — from now to the end of June — to maximize my days working at home and minimize the commuting time.

The jazzy plaid pants in the photo above are actually my fleece pj bottoms. It was a brisk morning…

Happy Trails.

Rare Tornado!

June 9, 2014 / admin / 4 Comments

This past weekend found us working at our Sanderling lot, clearing a place to put in a dog run. As I have noted before, there is a lot of dead wood on the ground and a fair number of standing dead trees that we remove when given the chance. Most of the standing and downed dead wood is aspen, not surprising given the area, but aspen does not make real good firewood unless you have a lot of it to burn.

We sort the wood into two types, firewood and burn pit wood. This time out we didn’t bring the aluminum trailer to cart the burn pit wood away but instead created piles of each wood type, planning to take it away during a future trip. Eventually the firewood will come home and be donated to our friend Kathy Hall for use in heating her “cat house” (her one-car detached garage).

I’ll get to the Saturday work in a bit, but first I’ll cover Sunday’s unusual event, a tornado.

The forecast had included a chance of thunderstorms. We had risen, had breakfast, and started to work on clearing a pocket of dead wood. Around 11:30 a few raindrops began to fall so we decided to take a break. I happened to look out over South Park and saw this:

Funnel cloud over South Park

I told Pam I thought this was a funnel, or tornado, cloud. A telephoto shot yielded a larger image:

A rare mountain tornado

We later learned a tornado had touched down about 5 miles south of Fairplay, one of 7 or 8 tornadoes sighted in Colorado on the 8th of June. If you search the web for “Fairplay tornado, recent” you will find YouTube videos of this particular storm.

Sanderling experienced no problems, other than rain and a very little bit of hail, and light winds as this storm passed. We had never heard of a tornadic event in the high country, much less seen one. Plenty of tornadoes form in eastern Colorado and head into the center of the country, but tornadoes at 10,000+ feet are rare events indeed!

It is hard to top that, but on a more mundane level: Our work on Saturday, and Sunday morning before the rain, consisted of mostly grunt work moving dead wood around. We started below and to the downhill side of the drive as that is where Pam has decided the dog run will be built. Here are a few photos that illustrate the work:

This “before” shot is near the shed but shows the typical dead wood found almost everywhere on the lower part of the lot:

Typical dead and downed aspen on the lot

After clearing you can walk around easily

This is the area where the dog run will go. The wood ended up stacked near the driveway:

Burn pit (foreground) with firewood and more brush along driveway

Burn pit wood (front) next to firewood and brush stacked along driveway

Sunday’s work yielded another before and after pair of photos:

Top of drive before clearing started

Piles of wood await further handling

Piling the wood this way means we can stage more loads destined for the burn pit (when it’s open, only on Saturdays), but it also means we have to handle the stuff two more times — once to load into the trailer than again to unload at the pit. This is the major project for the rest of the year so we can work at our own pace. (After we get the dog run installed, that is.)

Even though the weekend was truncated – we left for home early Sunday afternoon – we did meet the goals we had set for this land-clearing trip. It is heartening to see progress being made!

I’ll close with this last photo of our Honda parked near the RV and shed at the top of the circle drive. (It also includes another view of the dead wood we had moved to clear the dog run area.) Pam is also carting mulch from under the trees to dump in the middle of the drive circle. I think she has plans to transplant trees and plants in that spot.

Car, shed, RV, driveway, and wood removed from dog run area

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

I hear ya, Tabitha. I was just pondering the other day how we must be freakin’ crazy to work like convicts every weekend. Which is why this past weekend we slept in on Saturday morning before organizing our departure, drove in a leisurely fashion and arrived at the Sanderling property mid-afternoon, worked on and off until dark. Then, on Sunday, we started on another section of woods until it started raining, at which point we were done for this trip. During breaks there were dog walks to look for squirrels – I spooked a field mouse and I think Blondie would still be sitting patiently by the hole the mouse disappeared into if we’d left her up there.

The property is really starting to come along. It’s gratifying to tackle a small patch of woods and completely clear it out, then stand back and appreciate the difference. Having the RV right by the work area is a major convenience; we’re not wasting energy walking back and forth for drinks and dog checks because everything is right in one spot. We’ve discussed bringing up an old rug and old recliner and flopping both on the driveway under the RV canopy for sit-downs – who knows, it could happen!

Weather has been crazy in the mountains this season. In addition to sighting the tornado, we drove back through snow flurries on both Hoosier and Vail Passes.

Happy Trails.

P.S. No mice this trip!

Weekend Warriors

June 2, 2014 / admin / 2 Comments

This past weekend we went up to our Sanderling lot with the goal of getting the RV back up to the top of the circular drive. This meant moving a lot of gravel.

I went up on Friday evening to open the trailer and found another mouse had made it’s way into the trailer. Pam was not pleased. We did get one mouse in a trap I had set and will see, on the next trip, if there are more of the little mungers foolish enough to go for the peanut butter I used as bait.

Friday night was busy; I moved the trailer down to the Sanderling cul-de-sac so I could work on the driveway, went over to the community well and picked up a load of water, and unloaded the John Deere riding lawn mower. The latter is equipped with a blade; I thought I might be able to move some gravel with it. More on that shortly.

John Deere rider with blade on way to lot

Pam came up on Saturday, arriving around 12:30 or so. I had started the day by taking another load of dead wood and brush to the burn pit and was getting a second load ready to go. After a quick lunch and dropping off the 2nd load of brush we began spreading gravel. The goal was to get the drive in decent enough shape to be able to park the RV at the top of the recently extended drive.

The weather was gorgeous. Cool enough to work comfortably and beautiful partly cloudy skies. On the down side, both of us began to suffer from upset stomachs and we didn’t have the energy we normally have (little as that is at 9,600 feet!).

Pam raking gravel on driveway

Using the John Deere proved to be only partially successful. It does not have the traction and power to move much gravel, though I did manage to level some major humps in the road and level a spot for the trailer to sit. The tractor served well to pull our dump cart up and down the drive; I used this combo to move quite a bit of gravel from the thickest areas down to the dirt part of the driveway where it was needed.

Jerry with tractor and cart

After several hours of raking and hauling on Saturday, we called it a day. Sunday we weren’t feeling any perkier, but as we were nearly done with spreading enough gravel to move the RV — we decided to put in a few more hours of labor. Here is the result of all that work:

RV (The Box) at the top of the circle drive

We did it. The trailer can now sit, on gravel, at the top of the drive. I should have taken a photo of the view from inside the trailer – I will remember next time – but the view is excellent.

Shortly after this, much too short a time to enjoy the results of our work, we had to pack up and head for home. Pam left in the Honda with the dogs and I followed in the truck after closing things down and locking up. I did, however, spend about 45 minutes just enjoying the view and walking around the lot.

I wanted to see how much of the drive and shed we could see from Pam’s Pavilion Point. Not much, as it turns out, not really worth a photo. The shed and drive are pretty well hidden by the leafing-out aspen, although part of the drive and the top of the shed can be seen.

Top of shed from Pam’s Pavilion Point

After getting home there’s always so much to do; unpacking, laundry, other chores. Cramming in all the ‘normal’ tasks into either Thursdays (before I go up to the lot on Fridays) or Sunday afternoons is a real challenge, particularly if you are not feeling well. But…we’re really pleased we can get the RV in and out on the graveled driveway extension. One month after breaking ground on the driveway extension in the cold and blowing snow, the RV is parked where it should be on the Sanderling lot. Whew.

The next project is putting in the dog run. We paced out a general location and size; next couple trips will have the goal of cleaning out the dead wood in that area and actually putting in the posts and getting the woven wire in place. Two gates, one at each end of the run, and the previous 8 x 10 enclosed dog pen will all be part of the installation. The run will be rectangular so the dogs can actually run in it if they wish.

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

Most of the view from the dining room window of The Box is actually featured above in one of the photos — it’s pretty much behind me in the photo where I’m raking gravel on the driveway. I didn’t really notice the glorious mountains (much) when I was raking gravel, but that is the view.

We have neighbors. Jessie, the Latino guy who owns the 3 acre parcel next to us, allowed a bunch of relatives to use the property to party, drink, target practice, and let their dog run around on Saturday. What a noisy bunch, disturbing the quiet of the woods. Sigh. The 6 acre parcel (whose flag lot driveway parallels ours for the first 200 feet) now has a new owner too. Those owners were tent camping on Saturday night, and were very quiet. (Probably cold, too, I wouldn’t tent camp up there.)

Spring in the high country: frothy green on the aspen trees, the impossibly blue Colorado sky, snow covered peaks in the distance, puffy white clouds, temps at 68 degrees and plenty of sunshine. Priceless.

Happy Trails.

Category: General (Page 48 of 61)

The Lot – August 10th

The Lot and Latest ATV Ride

Wisconsin then home

The Ride Home – Niagara Falls

Rally Day

Motorcycle trip continued

5,122 Miles

Busy Week

Rare Tornado!

Weekend Warriors

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