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<\/a>Path to Pavilion Point<\/p><\/div>\n
Peak colors have gone for this year. Pam chose the best weekend to see the aspen, at their finest fall colors, a week ago. While there are still many patches of color it’s\u00a0easy to see the spots where leaves have fallen and left the trees bare.\u00a0The lot is covered with this year’s leaf crop.\u00a0 Patches of color will remain for a while yet\u00a0—\u00a0a couple of weeks\u00a0—\u00a0but the majority of aspen have turned. Ski\u00a0areas will be open in a little more than 6 weeks; snow is imminent in the high country. (Around 6 inches is forecast for this week \u00a0in\u00a0the\u00a0northern Colorado Rockies around Steamboat Springs.) Here are a couple fall color photos taken last weekend near Vail:<\/p>\n
<\/a>A range of “color” this year<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Entire hillsides are now in full autumn mode<\/p><\/div>\n
We bought the lot on September 14 of 2012. Going through photos taken over the course of the summer, starting with extending the driveway in\u00a0April, it is obvious we did a lot of work and cleaned a lot of area. \u00a0We forget, sometimes, how the lot looked two years ago when we bought it.\u00a0 No driveway, no shed, no truck, no RV, no dog run….<\/p>\n
<\/a>Lot entrance in 2012<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Driveway entrance\u00a0fall of 2014<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Driveway corner in 2012. Note evergreen\u00a0tree on left.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Driveway curve, fall 2014. Note evergreen\u00a0tree at left.<\/p><\/div>\n
Here are a couple\u00a0driveway extension\u00a0before and after photos.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Wilderness road marks future driveway in 2013. Note old pine stump ahead of Pam on hillside<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Driveway loop, fall 2014. Note old pine stump on hillside for reference.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Jerry putting in driveway extension following wilderness road. Photo by Pam.<\/p><\/div>\n
Along the way we cleaned out a lot of dead wood. Here is one example of the area we cleaned behind\u00a0the storage shed:<\/p>\n
<\/a>Area before clean-up<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>After clean-up, summer 2014.<\/p><\/div>\n
We cleaned out the dog run area and the slope of Birdhouse Ridge, places in line-of-sight from The Box. The drive extension made\u00a0working in\u00a0these areas a lot easier and we removed load after load of dead wood and salvaged quite a bit of firewood as well. While clean-up will continue for years, having the line-of-sight areas cleaned up\u00a0completes a major milestone in our plans for the lot. It is now a joy to be able to walk these areas without having to navigate over\/around dead trees and stumps.\u00a0We knew, going in, that cleaning the lot would be a major challenge and would take a lot of work, but the results have been more than we expected; the more we clean the lot the better we like our purchase.<\/p>\n
Two more projects completed this year were getting the shed in place and putting in\u00a0the dog run. Pam also put a lot of work into the circle transplanting trees, hauling mulch, gathering and arranging rocks, and bringing up daisy starts from De Beque. (We will have to wait for spring to see if the daisy plants “take” to the high country.)<\/p>\n