Good and Bad News

This past week seemed to have more thn it’s share of bad news.

We received word that our good friend Elinor Tourtillot passed away last Tuesday, July 7th. Her husband, Henry (aka Hank) called to let us know. Ellie was 95 and had been in poor health for several years. Hank and Ellie lived in Casa Grand, Arizona, and we had visited them a few times.

Both of our children have middle names to honor these two, Elinor for Felicity and Henry for Toby. We were neighbors when we bought our first Colorado home back in 1980 or so and we have kept in touch the last 35 years. Ellie was feisty and will be missed. We have a lot of good memories of Hank and Ellie and our mountain home.

A motorcycle-riding friend of mine had an accident and had to undergo surgery to repair his wrist and pelvis. He will be in the hospital for a while, though his vital signs look good. A girl turned her truck right in front of the riders (he was one of a pair) then fled the scene. She has since been picked up on a felony warrant, and it turns out she has a history of DUI and other moving violations. The other guy, also a friend, managed to hit the median and avoid the truck so was not injured.

And last, though not in the same league as above, my generator is now in the shop awaiting diagnosis on why it is not putting out any electrical power. I am disappointed; it looks like it won’t be the bargain I thought it would be. This has an impact on our visits to The Lot since I need the generator to operate the honey wagon pump; I may have to tow the RV to the dump station, something I had hoped to avoid.

Speaking of The Lot, I made a solo trip this past weekend, going up on Saturday morning and returning Sunday afternoon. It was a short but busy and memorable trip.

I saw a badger, the first one ever in Colorado. Pam looked on-line and badgers do, in fact, range in Colorado. I didn’t get any good photos as the badger headed out as soon as he saw my truck, but I am sure of what I saw. Here is the best of the poor photos I was able to get:

Badger in South Park

I managed to get two loads of wood over to the burn pit. Here is a photo of 2015’s first load of burn pit wood:

First load of burn pit wood, 2015

I’ve been adding hooks and shelves inside the storage shed and it is starting to look a bit more organized. Work is progressing on the cistern trailer, with fenders mounted, light brackets made and lights installed, safety chains added, and a general clean-up has it looking nearly ready to go. I hope to finish it this week.

Auctions are fun…sometimes. I bid on a lot of cement retaining wall blocks and ended up with the top bid so now I have about 120+ 16-pound blocks split between the back of the truck and our aluminum trailer. The blocks will be used to build some retaining walls in places where the drive on The Lot is tending to wash down a bit. Weighing in at just abut a ton, it will be an interesting trip to get the blocks over to the lot.

My landscaping blocks

I also won a 12-volt water pump which I plan to incorporate into the cistern project. There just isn’t a place where we can park the cistern and depend on gravity flow to work well, so Plan B is now in effect: pump the water from the cistern into the trailer. More work to do before this becomes a reality. I just need more time to work on stuff!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

This will be the summer of mountain land projects, most of them requiring Jer’s expertise.  There are improvements to the driveway in the discussion phase – an additional arc to add to the circle swing and more gravel on areas where there has been some erosion.

Somewhere along the way, there will be some wood removal as well.  But probably not until closer to Labor Day.

Happy Trails.