SNOW

The barn


Our house


The Van, Crown Vic and barn yard

Robert is feeling much, much better and seems
to have lots of energy!

It's a good thing because we have about 20 inches
of snow. Robert has spent the morning dealing
with that. The snow blower kept freezing up on
him so it didn't go very smoothly, but he did
get it done in time for the snow plow to fill
in the opening to the barn yard. Fortunately
Dan Walker came along with a plow on his old
Bronco and finished the cleaning up the yard.

Connie and I continue to try and get together
once a week. I'm afraid she'll get tired of
this because she does most of the driving.
Yesterday Martha, Gabby, Connie and I had
lunch at Jill's at the Julien Hotel. It
was fun. They have a new "Maitre d'."
Phillipe sports a very waxed and pointy
moustache and a thick French accent. He
is also pompous, but he scared Gabby so
that she would long around to make sure
he wasn't nearby before she would go to
the buffet. He, as we were shown to our
table, whipped her napkin off the table
and as soon as she sat town placed it
with a whosh on her lap. She looked
horrified! Later, she pointed out that
the folks at the large table nearby were
getting the same treatment. As each
newcomer arrived Phillipe was on the scene
to "napkin" them. But, all in all, we
had a good time and a good laugh at
Phillipe's expense.

Grand Opening of Re-built Fire Station

The company all left and we found ourselves alone
again. I love having my children close and visits
frequent.

Robert and I have been checking Craig's list daily
looking for a 4x4 to buy. We want to get rid of the
Saturn and the Crown Vic and primarily use the Prius
around town and the Van for travel. The 4x4 we'd
use as a second car on the rare times we both have
to go, but in different directions. And, also to
have a vehicle to drive when the snow piles up.
We were going to look at one on Thanksgiving day, but
it turned out to be in a Used Car lot and neither
of us was up for dealing with a Used Car Salesman
and certainly not on Thanksgiving day. We then
found two others to look at. The first was a
20-year-old Jeep Cherokee and we ended up buying
that. It didn't cost much and we figured Vernon
could check it out for us and repair what ever.
It is in his garage at this time and he has been
surprised at how little he can find wrong with
it. Clearly, it has been well cared for and kept
in repair. If it lasts a year it'll be a real
bargain; more than that and we're home free.

We've had more than 14 inches of snow this week
and more is coming. Actually, it started snowing
a few minutes ago.

Yesterday we walked up the road 1/2 mile or so to
have brunch with Erin and David. Robert gave Erin
much of the sand collection of his folks. She had done
a lot of mud/debris removal from the barn after the
flood. They have cleaned up the bottles have them
very nicely displayed. They have them in chronological
order, starting, I believe in 1951. We gave them another
bottle of sand that we had picked up from the
Sahara desert when we were visiting in Timbuktu
in 1998. We had a pleasant visit and good food.

We walked, with them, down to the fire station to
celebrate the ribbon cutting of the new fire station
and new fire truck. It was quite a gala event, almost
no speeches..Bret spoke a few words and then the
band played and the barn doors went up. It was
fun.

Earlier this week I discovered mouse droppings in
two kitchen drawers. I emptied the drawers and put
mouse traps in the drawers. I cut two mice, in the
same trap! Since then, I have caught no more. Today
I cleaned out the drawers and added new contact paper.
After washing all the contents of the drawers and
drying same I have put the stuff back. Some of it
was so archaic that I have put it in a box, for
historical purposes and many items I've added to the
Good Will bag. Now, I'm hoping I'll not find more
mouse evidence. At least, not for a while.

Thanksgiving day at Connie's and Greg's home.

One table with hand woven place mats

Thanksgiving day, Black Friday have come and gone.
We enjoyed thanksgiving and ignored Black Friday.
Robyn and Janis arrived on Friday, the 18th.
They had reservations at the Boulder Mountain Lodge,
the motel at the bottom of Fourmile Canyon.  The
rooms are rustic and it took a move to another unit
to get the promised WIFI.  The motel management is
a bit unusual.  R & J had assumed a full kitchen
would include a microwave; it did not.  Upon
enquiring they were  told that full-kitchens,
which they had, did not have microwaves
because they had a full stove. The kitchenettes
had microwaves  and no stove.  Despite the
lack of amenities they decided to  stick it
out because it is the closest motel to Salina. 

It has been great having them around this long.
This afternoon  Robyn will be sorting and re-loading
her Van to make room for the  3 boxes of LPs she has
agreed to take off of my hands.  One box  was hit
hard by the flood; some of those I have cleaned and
others I had to toss.  I have copied many of them
onto CDs.

Jeanne and Jay arrived in the area on Wednesday before
Thanksgiving and are staying with Connie in Parker.
I was  disappointed to see so little of them, but
happy for the time we  had.  On Thanksgiving day we
all descended upon Connie making 13 at the  table.
Connie's two kids were home from college, the Erie
bunch came for the day from Erie, Robert and I came
in the Van and  stayed overnight and Robyn and Janis
came for the day.  Connie had woven the lovely
place mats for the tables; we had two  table to
accommodate the 13 of us.    The food was bountiful
and delicious.  She had roasted a turkey  and a ham;
made cranberry sauce, yams, applesauce, and a huge
platter of pickles and olives.  Martha brought
several loaves of  her fantastic bread.  Connie
made pumpkin and pecan pies, Janis  brought,
by request, her cheese-potato casserole, I brought
squash, apple pie and mince pie. I'm sure there was
more, but I can't remember now. I just remember a
great abundance of wonderful  food.  Robyn brought
bubbly wine...and there was coffee, tea,  beer and
other wine...on and on as you can see.  Of course
the best part was to have all 4 of my kids, their
significant others and 3 of my grand kids all in
the same place at the same time!    

Wind and Fire

Robert has been on chemo for almost two weeks and is feeling
no ill effects. Dr. Braun, Robert's oncologist, called
yesterday to tell Robert he, the doctor, had neglected to
tell him he should get a lab test before Robert took the next
batch of pills. Dr. Braun wants to check his blood to
determine the dose is correct. Consequently, we'll go to the
VA hospital tomorrow afternoon.

This past week Connie and I met at the Butterfly Pavilion.
Neither of us had been there in some time. It has expanded
the insect area and the water creature/plants area. There
were many, many butterflies and there is an outdoor
butterfly garden which will be fun to visit in the spring
and/or summer. We spent most of an hour there and then went
to a nearby shopping area for lunch. A couple of buildings
were empty, but we found a Mexican place where we ate. The
food was adequate, but not great. Wilted, rusty lettuce was
a real turn off. But the enchilada was OK and the stuffed
pepper was yummy.

Yesterday the wind was blowing fiercely and gusting mightily
when word came there was a fire in the lower canyon. The
road was closed and the fire crews were working on it. I am
not sure how many responded, but there were more than just
our Fourmile Fire Dept. It apparently was caused by the
wind blowing a tree against the power lines and starting a
fire. Fortunately, it was contained very promptly although
it seemed like a long time. After our fire in 2010 I'm
really nervous about wind and fire. Jeanne called, having
read my Facebook post about the fire to see how I was doing
and what was happening. I said I was fine and she
responded, yeah, Fucked-up, Insecure, Nervous, Emotional,
that's FINE. I agreed that sounded about right. I love
that definition because it seems to fit the FINE of the last
year.

Ezequiel came to collect the money we owe him for building
the rock wall in back of the barn. I let him in and said
I'd call Robert. He went and sat down, painfully. He never
sits down so I said, "You're hurt. Where do you hurt?" He
admitted that he had twisted his knee and it did hurt.
After a few more questions from Robert and me, I called
Olaf, a neighbor and Physical Therapist. Olaf showed up
shortly thereafter and examined the knee. Fortunately, it
seems if Ezequiel takes care of it and takes at least three
days off, he'll eventually recover, but he'll have to be
careful for quite some time and it may take as long as six
weeks before he is free of pain and then only if he follows
Olaf's instructions. So Ezequiel left with his knee wrapped
and directions for icing his knee and a picture of a knee
brace he should buy and use and a small bottle of Ibuprofen
to fight the inflammation and the pain. Ezequiel was
impressed. He said, "I told him how I hurt it and where and
he put his finger right on the pain and knew what it was."
Ezequiel promised to take three days off. He's working up
the road from us. This is a great neighborhood. I know the
people he is working for will wait as long as it takes and
Olaf was so good about taking care of Ezequiel and wouldn't
let Ezequiel pay him...just laughed and said, no, no, no.

Another visit to the VA hospital in Denver.

The snow storm changed the view from my kitchen.

We've been home for some time now and celebrated both
Robert's birthday and Connie's.

Last week, on Tuesday the 26th we had a major snow storm.
Salina had about 8 inches of wet snow. The power was out
for some time, but we didn't notice because of our Solar.
The schools were closed in Longmont, but I don't think
they were closed in Boulder.

Robert and I celebrated his birthday on Friday, the 28th which
is his birth day. I baked two cakes, one for his b-day and
one for Connie's.

On Saturday Carl and family and Connie and Greg showed up to
celebrate Connie's birthday. I made stuffed lamb and fixin's
Connie brought lasagna because she knows that is Robert's
favorite. We had a lovely celebration and ate way too much.
Connie left most of the left over lasagna for Robert and went
home with her b-day cake (I'd baked two). We had a very
pleasant evening, but I found I really can't produce a perfect
gourmet dinner. I am too easily distracted, but everyone was
kind and we had a good time. I shall not try to do a fancy
gourmet dinner for more than four again.

Again this week we have had another major snow storm. Last
week's storm produced 8 inches of snow here. This one measured
9 plus inches.

Our snow blower was not working yet. Robert has been working
on it and taken at least a wheel barrow of mud and debris
from it's innards. In the process developed red eye again.
I'm sure there is bad stuff in the barn. I wish we could
avoid going in there all together. I spend very little time
in there and my red-eye has not returned. Robert's has.

Tuesday, November 2, 2011 Robert and I spent the day at the
VA hospital in Denver. The outcome was that Robert has started
chemo therapy. He takes 12 pills all at once. He took his first
dose on Tuesday and so far feels no affects from them. He claims
they must be placebos. In any case, he'll take 12 more on the
14th and then we'll see the oncologist again on the 29th and
he'll probably take 12 more. How long this will go on we don't
yet know nor do we know whether this means we go to see the
Oncologist every four weeks. I rather expect we shall.

Home from Minneapolis

Snake Creek Campground, Missouri River in
background.

















A little more than a week ago we left to visit
Jeanne and Jay in Minneapolis. Because of some dental
problems Robert had, we left a little later than originally
planned.

We drove to Sutherland, Nebraska the first day and camped
in a random spot of small ponds, marshes, and screening
of trees such that we could not be seen from the road.
What we did not realize was that we were also screened
from a mainline railroad that ran many, many, many freight
trains all night. It was a very noisy place. Despite
that we enjoyed our seclusion, had a pleasant dinner and
did sleep most of the night.

The next day we drove to Minden, Nebraska to visit the
museum there. Minden is the home of Pioneer
Village Museum. Mr. Warp started this museum. As a boy
he watched a train go by his farm every day and was
interested in that train. The Engine of particular interest
now resides at the museum. He made his money by starting
one of the first, if not the first companies to manufacture
plastic wrap. He called it FlexoWrap and made it in all
sizes and weights. Clearly, he made a lot of money.

His museum spans several acres and the grounds include an
RV camp, a motel and a restaurant. Not very far north, a
mile or so, is a small airport, too. We have visited it
several times and by now, I feel we have seen it all. You
can't see it all in one day. He has many vintage autos
although, unlike Tebo's collection, he does not try and
keep them running, nor has he demanded they be in great
shape. Some of them are pretty rusted and/or dented.

One of the displays I enjoy the most are the "living
areas" from 1910, 1920, 1930, 40 and 50. They each
show a kitchen, living/dining room and bedroom such
that you can see the change in styles of the very
middle of the middle or lower-middle class of those
eras. I can vouch for the accuracy of the 1930s-50s.

In the morning we decided to forego our "free" tickets
to the museum and continue on our way. We were due in
Minneapolis on Saturday and it was already Friday.

Instead of going the fast way via I-80 and I-35, we
continued on US30. It is slower, but more interesting
with much less traffic and very few trucks. It makes
for a much pleasanter ride. Our high profile VAN
really rocks when those trucks go by at 75 mph!!!

We were listening to David McCullough's latest books
titled, "The Greater Journey Americans in Paris."
I had started it and knew Robert would enjoy it, but
probably not get around to reading it so I bought the
audio version. It is a delightful book and, as usual,
David McCullough puts his spin on history which I
really enjoy.

Fremont Lake Recreation Area was the place we stopped
for lunch and then on our way. By evening we were
north of Ames, IA and stopped at Wall Lake Campground.
We had stopped there before. The last time it was
free. This time it was not, but it is a pleasant
campground on a lake and with many trees shading the
campsites. The campground host showed up before I had
finished filling out the registration form. She was a
talkative person and obviously enjoys her job. She
gets to meet people from everywhere. She and her
husband get to live in a house on the grounds, instead
of the usual RV that the campground hosts must provide
for themselves. The house looked about the vintage of
the 1920s, but she said it was well kept and modern
inside. The campground is open all year so they live
there all year.

The next day we arrived at Jeanne's and Jay's about
2:30 PM. We were able to park in the alley behind
their house and plug into their garage. It was a
great camp spot. We took our meals inside, but we
slept in the VAN. Jeanne had the guest room ready and
provided robes for us so we could shower there even if
we didn't sleep there. The weather was mild so we were
very comfortable and didn't have to run the furnace
although we did use our little electric heater.

On Sunday Jeanne, Robert and I went to Ft. Snelling and
had a lovely walk. It was the closest I have ever been
to the Mississippi. At that, the Mississippi looked
more like a large creek than a mighty river that it
soon would become. I was surprised to realize how much
easier it is for me to walk in Minneapolis than in
Salina. I find myself short of breath more often now
than I used to. But, in Minneapolis I really felt
energized.

We went to the Russian Art Museum on Monday. The major
exhibit was by a Ukrainian whose name I forget, of
course. He is now living in St. Paul, but has lived in
New York City at one time. His works were all quite
large such that we needed to view them from quite a
distance. At a distance they appeared to be
photographs of scenes, but close up it was clear they
were painted. One was of a muddy road with trees in
the distance, but the focal point was the mud.
Jeanne's comment was, "I wonder how it would feel to
spend days painting mud."

Reluctantly I left on Tuesday, but it seemed the better
part of valor to move on. The old adage, "Friends and
fish begin to smell after 3 days" is one we tend to
follow. It has been clear for some time that Jeanne is
really busy. She works many more than 40 hours per
week and, of course, has a life to live besides work.
Jay has remodeled a part of the basement and made her a
very nice office with room for her home computer and
her office computer with the 2 screens for the office
computer. She is hoping to work more days at home. I
expect she can get more work done at home in her fine
office than at work in a small cubical.

Having a hard time to find campgrounds on our route
home we drove further than we planned the first day.
We ended up camping on the Missouri river at Buryanek
Recreation Area in South Dakota. We were at the Snake
Creek Campground. I have been amazed at how empty the
campgrounds are. I guess the campers have all headed
south this time of year. In any case when we found a
campground they tended to be pretty empty.

Wednesday night found us at Fort Robinson campground in
Fort Robinson, Nebraska. The campground is on the
White River, but we didn't actually see the river. We
did discover that our campsite was backed up to a
railroad so the first thing I wanted to do was check
out the railroad tracks and see if we were going to
have another one of "those" nights. It turned out the
railroad was long abandoned. There was a road that
buried part of the tracks. We wondered why the tracks
had never been removed. There was a lot of iron there.

Thursday morning we continued on our way, but with a
detour to visit the Ogalala Grasslands and the
Toadstool Park. This was just north and west of Ft.
Robinson. It also included 12 miles (round trip) of
gravel road. We did see the grasslands and we did see
a soddy at the park, but the geologic wonders of
toadstools were hard to see. Note the picture. I
photographed the soddy and the toadstools and we left.

Toadstools???















A Sod house















It was still early enough so we figured we could make
it home that day and we did. We arrived in Salina
about 2:30 PM.

The VAN is now emptied of all refrigerated items and
anything that might freeze as well as all our personal
stuff. Tomorrow I'll clean it and it'll be ready for
out next trip.

The Glow of Autumn

This week has been absolutely gorgeous. Sunny and warm.
We could use some rain, but aside from that it has been
perfect.

Brandon has been here the latter part of the week and
has cleaned the area between the road and the rock wall
in front of the house. Next spring I shall plant the whole
area with sunflowers. The few I planted this year have
done beautifully without any attention from me!

Ezequiel has built a fantastic wall in back of the barn.
We need another on the side of the barn between the
barn and the street, but we are hopeful the county
road crew will do something there. It is their pile
driver that has weakened the old wall, at least that
hasn't helped.

I post the following pictures. I think the spider is
a wolf spider which is venomous, but not lethal. It
seemed huge and ran out from the garden and
startled Brandon and me. It seemed gigantic.
We were examining the destruction some critter
had done to "our" garden. Brandon had planted
close to 40 daffodil bulbs and something has been
digging them up. I knew they would eat the tulip
bulbs; they ate the ones I planted last year. I
thought that daffodil bulbs were poisonous, even
to rodents, so they wouldn't get eaten. We'll see
how many come up next year. I have put screen
over them now.

Wolf spider















This is an assortment of the Sunflowers















Garden-in-a-box















New rain gauge and sunflowers by the road















Sunflowers in the yard

Gothic, September 2011

Gothic, Colorado.....RMBL

Rustic, but a beautiful setting!












We hit the Aspen world at the perfect time.
The colors were perfect, but even as we left the leaves had
started to blow off the trees. We were there 4 days and the
weather was perfect; a bit cold at night, 24F is cold.

Robyn and Janis, Carl, Martha and Gabby plus Robert and I
were all there. The Cowleys stayed in "Pumpkin," Robyn and
Janis spent days at Gothic, but slept at Robyn's place in
Mt. Crested Butte. Robert and I slept in the Van.

Gourmet meals were served each evening; we all took turns
cooking and the clean up. Lunches and breakfasts were "on
your own."

Robert and I spent a very lazy weekend. Aside from short
walks the only thing we did was a tour of the new Lab
building that both Robyn and Janis have had a hand in. Janis
did some grant writing and Robyn helped Ian, the Director of
the Rocky Mountain Biological Labs (RMBL), convince the
Board of Directors and NSF that a new Lab was necessary and
desirable. She is, of course, also the Project Manager for
the design and building of the new Lab. It is going to be a
fabulous addition to RMBL. This winter Robyn and her
Architect friends from Idaho will be planning a new dinning
hall-conference center to be built next year. Robyn is
gradually dragging the Lab, kicking and screaming, into the
20th century...no, not the 21st. One step at a time. First
they must relinquish the strangle hold on the 19th century
rustic infrastructure.

If the infra-structure can be upgraded Gothic could be
a destination for conferences and tourist-type activities.
This would double RMBL's ability to raise money from the
site itself.

The site is really beautiful and the amount of traffic this
weekend made it clear that a cafe and/or tourist
accommodations would certainly be used.

The Anniversary of the Four Mile Fire

One year ago today we had evacuated from our burning Canyon
and were parked at Carl's and planning to live in the Van.
We were both pretty stressed. I think more stressed than
perhaps either of us had ever been.

A few days later we moved to Jo's house on Spruce and stayed
there until we could get back into our house. What a lovely
gift that was! Jo and Alf were at the Cape for a month and
allowed us to live in their house. It is a lovely home and
helped lower our stress level, not completely, but lowered
it quite a bit.

It was a surprising number of weeks after we returned home
before our brains seemed to be working normally. It was
quite a shock to feel you had acquired overnight dementia,
but our younger friends were reassuring saying they too were
having problems processing information. Thank goodness we
eventually were back to normal or at least to where we were
before the fire.

Now we have survived our first flash flood with a barn
filled with 18 inches of mud. The mud has been cleaned out
and I parked the Prius in the barn for the first time since
July 13th! That was a good feeling.

Life has pretty much returned to normal.

Robert has had a terrible cold going on four weeks now. It
has really slowed him down although he says he thinks he is
finally getting better. We see his oncologist next week.

Last week I went to a reception for Nancy Pelosi and Jared
Polis. It was held in a beautiful south Boulder home which
had a glass wall in the living room with gorgeous views of
Boulder and the front range. I had an opportunity to speak
with Nancy, briefly and to have my picture taken with Jared
and Nancy. I'm hoping to get a copy of the picture
eventually.

This past weekend my Granddaughter, Rochelle
Doney-Ritterson has been here. Carl, Martha and Gabby
came for supper on Sunday and Connie came for lunch
and the afternoon on Monday. Connie and Greg had
spent the earlier part of the weekend in Vail celebrating
their 28th wedding anniversary! Rochelle and I went to
the "Hometown Fair" in Boulder on Sunday morning.
Rochelle commented that it was really a Fair for families.
Neither of us found much of interest to us.

We had lunch at Pei Wei and I brought Hot and Spicy Soup
home for Robert to add to the lunch I had left for him. He
loves Hot and Spicy soup so was happy for the addition.

Connie, Rochelle and I went to NCAR after lunch on Monday
and toured the science exhibits there. I was surprised
there were no art exhibits as there used to be.

I had planned on touring a candy factory in Denver, but of
course it was closed for Labor Day. We killed time until we
could have an early supper at the Gondolier and then Connie
and Rochelle headed off for the airport and I headed home.

It was fun to have Rochelle here for a few days. It is
delightful to find your grand-kid isn't a kid, but a very
successful and thoughtful adult!

Home Again

We're home again and it is really hot! I had hoped it
would be cooler when we got home.

In any case we left here on Sunday, August 14th about 12 PM
and picked up Route 40 in Golden. We hadn't been over
Berthoud Pass in quite a while nor had we seen Steamboat
Springs in a while. It is a good route, pretty country.
Steamboat continues to grow and as elsewhere has many new
mansions!

Robert spent the day sneezing and coughing. We assumed he
was coming down with a cold. Poor timing, but perhaps it
would be an easy one.

We stopped early and camped just off US40 just west of Sulphur
Springs in a Colorado Wildlife Area. We were both happy to
stop, had supper and went to bed early.

We drove 114 miles the first day, a little better the
second. We went 265 miles the second day; Robert still
sneezing. I've never known anyone to sneeze so much!
We camped north of Vernal, Utah in Kane Hollow in the
Ashley National Forest, off of FR 020. We had a lovely
campsite and all to ourselves. However, there were 3 or 4
small house trailers parked in the hollow, but no sign of
their occupants. I assumed they use them as weekend
retreats even though the camping limit is two weeks. The
area is large and this small section pretty remote so they
could probably stay the summer with no trouble. We walked
around exploring the area and looking to see what we could
see. Later, we hoped to see some wildlife coming to one of
the ponds in the hollow. The ONLY wild life we saw was one
lone steer.

The next day we stopped in Evansville, Wyo to visit Ft.
Bridger. Robert had been there years ago and been quite
impressed. It is now a State Park and we were not
impressed. Perhaps because it was so hot we were less than
impressed. I'm not sure what turned us off for sure, but I
think it was that we encountered the "ugly American" in the
first building we entered. She was very load and very pushy
and seemed very ignorant. She announced, as we entered the
building, that "this young man is staying with us and he's
from Turkey." That was Okay, but everywhere we went they
were right there and the more we saw of the situation the
more sympathy had for the poor young man from Turkey. What
on earth was he going to do for a year living with these
people. I have no idea what school he was planning to
attend, but I certainly hope there will be some bright
lights in the school.

We headed on our way north out of Evansville when Robert
exclaimed that he wanted to go back to a campground he had
seen and stay there for the rest of the day and night. He was
not feeling well at all. We did that. The campground had
electricity and WIFI. I knew he felt bad when he showed no
interest in WIFI. He slept more and seemed to feel better
after supper.

The next day we proceeded on to Bear Lake which straddles
Utah and Idaho. We drove around the lake and had planned to
spend a day there, but the lake was so high all the
campgrounds, picnic areas, etc were under water. We went up
the St. Charles Creek Canyon which is just west of the lake.
We found a lovely Forest Service Camp site in Porcupine
Campground. It was almost empty giving us our choice of
sites. We found a lovely shady site where we could sit in
our lawn chairs and enjoy the scene. Gradually, the
campground filled up, but there were still a couple of empty
sites at dark.

North Fork Campground in the Sawtooth National Rec Area
was our next stop. Robert still sick; we didn't do much except
sleep at this stop. We left about 11 AM and continued on to a
lovely and my favorite campsite along the Salmon River. We could
hear the river gurgling a long even from inside the camper
and sitting in our chairs by the river we could wave at the
rafters ad they went by. The campground was sparsely
populated and very quiet, except for the river. I was sorry
to leave this lovely spot the next day. But, there are so
many lovely spots I was sure we'd be in another one soon.

The next site was on US93 and called Twin Creeks; our site
was right along one of the creeks although a little ways
from and above the creek. It became evident as we hiked to
the creek that the forest was dying. Dead trees everywhere.
It was impossible to hike along the creek because of the
fallen timber. This was a Forest Service campground, but
the Forest Service just lets the fallen trees stay where
they fall. I hoped we would make it out of the forest
without another tree falling.

It became clear the next day that Robert was not getting
better, had no energy and camping just wasn't fun. We
decided to pack it in and head for home. We arrived home
yesterday at about 6PM.

Today he saw Dr. Haimes and was told that he has a virus
and was given an Rx for eye drops (his left eye is a mess)
and he might take an OTC antihistamine and just live
through it.

Family Came to Visit

So...the S&Poors has downgraded the US credit rating even though
the debt limit was raised. The fact that revenue was not raised
caused this downgrade. It makes sense to me. The corporations
are making huge profits and are able to avoid paying taxes to the
US through multiple loopholes and the wealthy are getting richer
by the minute and enjoying the fact that the Bush-era tax cuts
seem to be there forever, at least as long as Obama is President,
I'm afraid.

I am so disappointed in him. He doesn't seem to be willing to
take a stand. Compromise is great, but BOTH sides are supposed
to be involved in that. It's not supposed to be quite so
one-sided!

On the home front, the barn clean-up continues. Great head-way
has been made, but if you hadn't seen it earlier you'd wonder how
it could still be so bad despite all the work that has gone into
cleaning it. I've lost track of the number of loads that have
gone to the dumpster.

Vernon spent most of one day here with his bobcat. He'd haul out
a pile of dirt and debris and spread it on the barn yard
pavement. Robert and Sam would sort out the debris and throw it
in the trailer to go to the dumpster. Vernon would scrape up the
dirt and move it to an area between the road and the creek. When
all the debris was removed and only dirt was left it was sorted
down to one huge pile instead of two huge piles!

This weekend Alyssum was visiting, briefly. Robyn came over from
Crested Butte; Connie, Greg and Meara from Parker and Carl from
Erie. Martha and Gabby were in Albuquerque visiting Martha's
folks. We had a lovely dinner and visit on Saturday.

On Sunday, Robyn and Alyssum were still here. Summer, Alyssum's
friend who has just moved to Boulder, came for dinner. Alyssum
made a delicious summer squash au gratin. Even Robert thought it
was delicious and he doesn't care for summer squash...I want that
recipe!

Alyssum wanted to see the Spanish mantilla that is a companion to
the antique conch shell that turned up in one of my boxes in the
barn. The conch shell was used as a fog horn on a flat boat one
of my ancestors floated down the Ohio and then the Mississippi to
New Orleans. I find I can still blow the conch shell (most of
the time). The mantilla was stored in a box in a cupboard in my
office along with the wedding gown from my first marriage and an
antique petticoat. The petticoat has handmade eyelet lace along
the bottom. I wore it under several formal gowns to dances I
attended when I was in high school. It belonged to my grandmother
Denison. She was quite tall and had a very small waist! My
waist in high school was about 27 inches, but I had to extend the
waist band about a half an inch with a safety pin when I wore it.
The wedding dress was designed to show-off the petticoat.

Landscaping

Landscaping going on at the Longmont house. We've
neglected it too long. The front yard is much improved. As
is the side yard in the back on the south side. Work still
be done on the north and the back yard. While the dog still
lives in the house I think we'll do a minimum in the back
yard. I plan to be over there a couple of times this next
week. Once to be there when the arborist is there to get
advice on the trees he isn't taking down and to make sure we
are on the same page with the removal. Then I'll go over
when the Landscaper is there to answer the multitude of
questions she has.

In the meantime, the work in the barn continues. Robert
found 4 or 5 vases I had stored over there. They were lying
in the mud. I said I had been looking for the box they were
in; it was on my list, but I couldn't find it. That's
because the box and the newspapers the vases were wrapped in
disintegrated into the mud and had totally disappeared. The
vases are thick with mud and may be cracked, but I doubt it.
They are not fragile, but large.

Paul, a friend who has helped before on the barn, came back
to help some more. He is a great worker. In addition
Robert has hired a helper who comes about twice a week, but
we don't know very far ahead of time which day he is coming.
But, he's a hard worker and does give us 24 hour notice or
more that he would like to come work. We'll see if he is
consistent with 2 days a week. That would be great because
when he is here he does get a lot done.

I covered about 1/3 of my new perennial bed with newspapers
and mulch this morning. I had hired help, but help did not
show up. Had I known I was to do it all myself, I would
have laid out fewer papers to cover. My neighbor, Allison
suggested I lay down newspapers before I put down the mulch.
The papers will gradually disintegrate, but will be
additional mulch. That is what I am doing. I used up one
bag of mulch and my back announced that I was done for the
day. I'll do a little each day and it'll be done very soon.
The part I did does look nice.

Looking Good

Wow, a real light IN the tunnel.

Sam and Robert are working in the barn and making good
progress. Before the flood Robert had begun to sort through
the stuff in the barn to try and clear it out. He didn't
want to leave a godawful mess for his kids to clean up. The
flood has hurried the process quite a bit.

Vernon has ALL the mud out of the fish pond and stacked
sandbags along the path to divert any further flooding into
the creek instead of into the pond. The inlet and outlets
are still filled with mud, but he has made great progress.
We and he use the pond as irrigation water when the dry
weather comes.

Sunshine had rain yesterday so Ingram Gulch flooded again.

Ecos is here again today and placing the Jersey barriers
behind the barn. They have brought up more sandbags so
there will be plenty of bags in addition to the barriers.
It should let us rest a little easier when the next flood
comes. The experts tell us we may have floods for the next
3 to 5 years. But, perhaps the trauma will not be so bad.
We'll no better than to leave anything we want, on the barn
floor!

Yesterday, I retrieved a disc that was hanging on a branch
near the pool. It was the one Robert said that he had left
in the boom box because both the boom box and CD were
covered with mud. The disc was certainly muddy, but I
decided to see how bad it was. I hosed it off and brought
it in. Using CD/DVR cleaner, I cleaned it and voila..it
plays beautifully. Nary a twitch nor twitter..clean sound.
Amazing! I had similar success with an LP that was muddy. I
used the same CD/DVR cleaner on it and it sounded fine. I
then copied it to a CD and the CD is clear and beautiful.
The LP is from the Isaac Stern 60th Anniversary Celebration
at the Lincoln Center in or around November 1985. I'm glad
to have retrieved it.

Steve, the window washer came today. The windows sparkle!


On the Longmont front, Kerry is working on the Landscaping and
Mike is sanding and staining the deck. Things are moving on
nicely on that front. I shall be anxious to see it when all
is complete. The house newly painted, deck stained and yard
put in shape! Already for us to move into....NO we're not
planning to do that any time soon despite fire, lightning
and floods.

One day at a time

Things are moving along.

Ecos, the company that has the contract from the County to
help with the clean up is here today. They have removed all
the sandbags, heaven help us if we have a flood today, and
are clearing out the debris from the sides of the barn. They
are putting the dirt on top of the pile and the rocks to the
side of the pile. They assure us they'll remove the dirt
Thursday or Friday.

Yesterday, Sam whom Robert has hired to work for us
twice a week, cleaned the rest of the mud out from the
freezer room and helped rebuild the shelf, under the
north window, which had collapsed. Between Marti,
Carl and Sam an impossible task has been completed.
Erin worked hard, too. She worked in the main part of
the barn. Connie would have shoveled, too, but I put her
to work on other things. Thank you, thank you everyone!

In the meantime, through all of this, I have been trying to
preserve our property in Longmont. The deck has been
power washed and will be stained tomorrow. The
Landscapers are coming today. They will be removing an
old fence, adding a trellis for the grapevine to climb over
the wheel chair ramp, fertilizing the lawn, re-seeding
where necessary and adding some plantings and grass
stop, and mulch to the front. It has also recently been
painted. On top of all that the plumbing seems to have
fallen apart. We had one plumber do emergency repairs,
but have called another to complete the job and get the
plumbing up to standard.

It always seems like things happen all at once. Fortunately,
I can deal with the rental property by hiring people while
Robert is dealing with the flood.

All in all things are looking up and we are grateful that we
are hail and hearty. It's just a nuisance that we so easily tire.

Working on reclaiming my LP collection.

I made a start at organizing my LPs. I have about 100 LPs, but not all of them were in the barn! Of the ones in the barn I have cleaned two and nee of those cleaned play beautifully; one is so scratchy that I don't think it is salvageable. A Dave Brubeck record plays beautifully on one side; the other side is hopeless. Carl says they have players now that don't touch the disks, but use a laser to read the music. If they aren't too expensive that may be in the future. I'll have to see how many I have to discard. I just discarded the "Messiah" by the German Gramophone (I don't have them in front of me and my German isn't good enough to try spelling what is on the label. Anyway, those records were covered in mud. I saw no way they could be reclaimed.

I'm currently listening to an old Herb Alpert disc. Probably, no one remembers him?? This is "The Lonely Bull" by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.

Thunderstorms have a 30% chance of occurring here this afternoon. We have cleared as much as we can to be prepared, but our Jersey Barriers are yet to be placed. We'll hope it is a minor storm.

Connie, Carl and Gabby helped out today

Connie, Carl and Gabby came today and much was accomplished.

Carl took out many loads of mud which enabled Robert and him to
rebuild the table that had been knocked askew. They also sorted
and boxed or bagged any good stuff they found. There were two
new pumps, bought as backups for the well and pool. So far, that
is three pumps found and Robert has the first one working again!

Connie worked some in the barn, but then concentrated on
Robert's parent's shell collection. When they died we found
500 pounds of sorted shells in their garage. These were the
ones, before mentioned, from Sanibel Island. Connie and
later Gabby washed and sorted the shells and rescued the
delicate ones and put them safely in storage containers.

With Gabby's help I pulled about 65 LPs out of the mud soaked
box they were in. Many of the jackets were covered with mud,
but I think by and large the records themselves will be OK. The
only jackets that I really want to save are two. One is of
Robert Frost's poems read by Robert Frost. The record appears
to be fine, but the jacket is not. Likewise, I have a record of
Thomas Dylan's poems read by Thomas Dylan. Again, the jacket is
a mess, but the record seems to be OK. I hope I can restore the
two jackets.

At Carl's suggestion I Googled "LP sleeves." Up popped a site
that sells sleeves and storage boxes. I have ordered both so
that after I clean up the records I have good storage from them.
Some of them I have already converted to CDs, but I have many more
to convert.

It was a very productive day. I can't believe how much we
accomplished.

Thank you Connie, Carl and Gabby! You are the greatest!

Help from many directions!

Help from several sources.

We have been so honored! Many people have come forth to help.
The Ecoscape crew had 6 guys and a Ditch Witch working for
almost 4 hours to clear the mud from the barn. You can actually
see the floor. Now we have only the corners to clean.

Marti came and took out many loads of mud from the freezer
room. She found all sorts of stuff buried under the mud, some
retrievable and some not. She did yeoman duty!

Another day Erin came. She worked on the SE corner of the barn.
She found goodies there, too. Most notable were the box of sea
shells that we brought back after Robert's folks died. This is
the best of the best that his folks had collected over a twenty
year period from Sanibel Island in Florida. They survived. She
also found their sand collection, most of it in tact. Some had
lost their labels so aren't going to stay in the collection.
There is still much clean up of them to do.

The work continues. Connie and Carl are coming today to help.

Yesterday the County came and carefully looked at our barn and
its precarious situation. They have told us they'll bring Jersey
barriers for the west and north sides of the barn and position
them in such a way the water of the next flood should be diverted
from the barn. The barriers will be placed and the sand bags
relocated against the barriers. They also will finish cleaning
the mud from the sides of the barn and will take away the huge
pile of dirt and debris that sits in the barn yard.

All of the above has made our lives much better. Robert doesn't
show depression, but I know I have been terribly depressed at the
seemingly insurmountable job of the clean up. It seemed we would
be spending the rest of our lives on the barn and I was decidedly
unhappy about that. One never knows what is coming next in your
life, but if you are in your 80s and in Robert's case struggling
with a chronic disease that is eventually terminal...but in the
meantime robs you of any stamina you might have had, spending
so much on the barn is hard.

Now, the tunnel is still long, but there is light peaking
through!

Pictures of the clean-up

Today, Bill Melvin's Ecoscape crew came and cleaned the mud
out of the barn. It is truly amazing. The light in the tunnel is
still far, far away, but there is light.

We had another flash flood warning and a thunderstorm, but
so far no flood.

This is one of three piles of debris from barn






















Inside of barn after the Prius has been dug out.

Muddy debris mostly from Robert's shop.


Sand from middle of barn














Backhoe working to clear debris from the east
end of the barn; the part that is pushed in.

The flood clean-up goes on...

The clean-up goes on.

We have now had two floods, but the second only affected
us emotionally, no damage. It wasn't as big as the one
on Wednesday. There were warnings on Saturday, but no
flood.

Yesterday, Bill from Gold Hill came down and spent the
morning hauling mud out of Robert's shop. Paul from
the DSES group also was there all morning and most of
the afternoon. Paul is involved with a group who
is studying the rain fall patterns nationally and there
was no rain gauge in this area. Now we have one. We
also have a couple of hail pads. Those take me back
to the NCAR days.

Viki spent the afternoon cleaning the Prius. It is
ready to go again!

Last evening Carl, Martha and Gabby brought up pizza
and ice cream. Viki stayed and we all enjoyed a
relaxing evening together. That was nice.

Connie's house is getting into shape. When it is
finished she'll have the joy of unpacking, but
next weekend she is planning to come here and lend
a hand as are Carl and Gabby. Martha has her
annual dance weekend so won't be joining the crew.

Today, Ecoscape Co. is here in force donating time
to the flood victims. They are working on the
barn. The county is bringing up a dumpster some
time today! All of these are very helpful.

Robert reports that the Vermillion's driveway
which is also drainage for a gulch is now a
mini, but still Grand Canyon instead of road!
I hope to get up there today.

Dodged the bullet today

There were huge thunderstorms with hail, rain, wind, etc, but not in the burn area! That meant we dodged the bullet.

We had two local teens working this morning and made some progress on the mud in the barn! Gradually, things are appearing from under the mud. Many things can be salvaged with a little washing. Some, of course can't. I'm trying to list the losses for our taxes next year! The biggest may be the Prius. We'll not know about that for a while yet. Robert took more stuff out of its innards again today. I didn't do any digging, just washing.

Word has it that one of the houses that was hit hard last Wednesday was hit again with the storm yesterday. People worked to clean out the house all day yesterday and after they went home another mud slide hit the house.

Another neighbor had their well filled with mud. They spent the day digging that out and then discovered the board holding the pressure tank was rotted and down went the pressure tank. I think they have been able to retrieve it, but I don't know what shape it is in.

Today, two folks from the Deep Space Exploration Society (DSES) came up to help. But, we under threat of more storms so they spent most of their time looking at Robert's solar system and carting away some extra batteries that Robert was donating to the club. They are the outfit who have taken over the 60 ft. dish at Haswell, Colorado.

I think I am getting used to the fact of the barn and that cleaning it out is not going to be finished this week nor next nor the next. We'll gradually rescue stuff. All the dry food in the freezer is fine. That is the food I store in case we can't get out of here for weeks. That is rice, beans, flour, sugar, etc. I also had gallons of water. At least one has turned up from under the mud.

That's the story from here for now.

Flood, fire and locusts?

Fire, flood and what's next?

I admit that my fear is that this is just the first one! Which leaves me in a rather grim mental state as well as being very tired. I have not worked nearly as hard
as Robert, but I've had enough of filling the wheel barrow with wet mud, dumping it and all over again and again and feeling like there is absolutely no end to the mud in our barn.



The dark area of the barn is all mud and debris!

But thanks to Viki, Keegan and Robert
efforts yesterday, today the Prius got winched out of the barn.














Yea Eric!

It's interesting that the fire caused so much
out pouring from the community. It's destruction
was so widespread and so obvious. The flood for
a few was terrifying and destructive. In our
town two houses were hit and hit hard. Both are
filled with mud. I haven't seen them, but been
told they have 3 inches of mud. That would be
so awful! Our barn has much more than that, but
it is a barn NOT our home, thank goodness.

I was go have book club Wednesday evening. It
was raining hard and so I called Julie who
lost her house to the fire and is now living in
town to say I was cancelling book club. I
knew we'd all be nervous about her driving
down the canyon after book club. She was
disappointed, but she and Shannah, another
town member, were together and went off to
do something else. I called at about 6:50 PM.

Robert said he guessed he'd go and move the
Van. He set off, first to the pool to turn off
the water into the pool because the creek was
getting muddy. Then to the Van to move it.
He never made it to the Van...he only made it
to the ground around the elm tree near the
road on the front side of the barn.

I was in my office and doing something..when
I realized he hadn't come back. I went out
to the living room and saw from the window
that the "creek" went from our wall to the
cliff on the other side of the pool and was
roaring. I raced outside looking for Robert,
but couldn't see him and knew he was gone. I
went back inside and screamed and screamed,
a useless thing to do, but it helped a
little. After that I called Carl to have
someone to talk to me. He was great and
helped me calm down and insisted I call
911 which I assured him would do no good
because there was no way anyone could get
to us.

I then went out again and headed toward
the barn although I knew I couldn't get
there. This time I heard Robert call me
and found him on the other side of the
river and on a very small piece of
ground between two roaring currents.

He told me to call Vernon which I did,
but Vernon's phone was out and he wouldn't
have heard it anyway...He had his own
problems to worry about.

We waited hoping the water wouldn't rise
anymore. It seemed like forever, but
finally it did start to go down and we
knew Robert would be OK.

About this time the water rescue came
responding to my 911. They were happy
to see Robert was alright! They had tried
two ways to get to us, but were blocked in
both directions and just had to wait until
the water went down.

Before the road-river was completely gone
Vernon showed up and he and Robert took
off to see the sights. I went back to the
house to get a dry jacket (my rain gear
was in the Van and still out of reach).
While there Marion Sikora called offering
a place for people to come if they were
washed out of their home.

I went to check the fish pond. It was
full of mud, right up to the top and at
the same time, Ariel's old sandbox had
been scrubbed empty of sand.

I walked down the road a little way, but
really didn't want to see any more

The following URL is a video taken by our
neighbor, Steve Le Goff, who lives behind
the barn. He is also known as one of the
bicycle guys:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v​=6gVuhSvoHYA&feature=share

Flag day

This must be flag day..if I remember correctly.

While Ariel was here, two weeks ago, we took
the Van to Gateway Park. The United Way was
hosting a picnic there for the Mountain
Community. Ariel was delighted. She loves
to drive the go-carts.

The first thing we did after we were given our
ride tickets was to head for the go-carts. Ariel,
as it turns out is a really good go-cart driver.
She whizzed around the course as fast as her
little cart would go. She reported later that
some of the carts didn't go very fast, but she
had figured out pretty quickly which ones did.

After her ride, we went to the tent set up for
our picnic and had lunch. Brots, hots and hamburgers
and all the fixin's were on the menu. Ariel
didn't find anything she wanted to eat. Fortunately,
Janet Bell, James and Kailash sat at our table. I
suggested to Kailash that perhaps he could join
up with Ariel to "do" the rides. He said, "sure" and
off they went.

After we finished lunch, we found the kids and gave
them our tickets so they each had 6 tickets instead
of 3. We told Ariel we'd be at the Van if she needed
us. We went to the van and sat under our awning and
read for about 3 hours, when Ariel showed up.

She had had a good time and eventually did eat and
was ready to head back up the mountain.

It had been a pleasant day for each of us. We were
happy to have the Van!

I picked up my garden-in-a-box two weeks ago.
Before that, Ariel helped me prepare the garden
bed. We added sheep and peat.

I laid out the garden, using the map provided and
using Robert's survey sticks to mark where each
plant should go.

The next day, Trace planted all the plants in the
appropriate places. Robert and I took the trailer
down to the Logan Mill fire station where there
was a pile of green mulch, left from the fire
mitigation work. We loaded up what we thought
to be plenty of mulch. However, Trace and
Robert had to go and get a second load.

The plants all look happy and healthy. Trace did
a good job. Not one plant wilted! I think that
is amazing. They are all perennials and have plenty
of room to spread out. Hopefully, they will.

Robert's new computer arrived this week. This is
to replace the one zapped by lightening while we
were gone. He has spent the week getting it up
and running. The operating system is Windows7 and
so he is running the virtual XP on top of it. This
is not as good as an XP system, but better than
Windows7. There is some problem with the network
hooking up to the xp system.

Carl, Martha and Ariel are coming for dinner
tonight so Carl can do some trouble shooting. It's
always fun to have them come for whatever reason.

Greg has now moved to Denver and started working
at COBank. Connie and Meara are still in Wichita
getting everything ready for the big move later in
the month.

What fun to have them move so much closer!

A lovely week

This has been a lovely week. Not only good
weather, but good visits.

Connie and Meara were in town on Wednesday.
We met at the library and walked to the
Tea House for tea for me and lunch for
them. Meara hadn't seen the tea house
before and was appropriately appreciative.

After lunch we walked the Pearl Street Mall
with a stop at the Peppercorn. It's a long
way from Boulder to the Denver Tech Center
where they were staying so the visit wasn't
very long, but very enjoyable.

Yesterday I ran errands and then picked up
Ariel at 5 PM at the Erie Rec Center where
she attends Day Camp. Yesterday was Field
Trip day so she hadn't wanted to miss it.
It turned out to be a very, very hot
day and they went to the Zoo. After the
fact she wished she'd skipped the Field
Trip. The bus driver wouldn't turn on
the air conditioner so it was a hot ride
as well as a hot Zoo.

Today she helped with several gardening
projects until it seemed too hot. Actually,
it's not that hot outside, but in the sun
it sure felt hot.

I just received a call that I can pick up
my garden-in-a-box on Monday instead of
the 18th. We started getting the garden
ready, but ran out of peat and sheep
which I want to spread and dig in before
I plant the new garden.

Tomorrow the United Way is hosting a picnic
for the Mountain community at the Gateway
fun park. We are signed up to go and plan
to take Ariel and ourselves in the Van.
Hopefully, it'll be a day such as today
rather than hot as yesterday was. We'll
see.

What next?

Forest fire, lightning strike and now, what next?

I got up at 3:15 AM this morning to get something
to ease Robert's sore throat. He was having trouble
sleeping.

As I entered his office from our bedroom I heard
a terrible mechanical screech. It wasn't the weather
warning, TG. It wasn't the furnace pump, which
sometimes squeaks asking for oil. It was coming
from downstairs.

Soon it became clear it was coming from the
computer room off of the kitchen. I thought it was
coming from our new modem, but soon realized it
must be coming from a UPS. I crawled under the
desk, found the offending screeching thing, but how
to make it stop? Turning off it's power wouldn't help.
That was what was making it scream. Finally,
moments that seemed like eternity, later I found the
button to push and quiet reigned!

By that time Robert had joined me. He said that
since he couldn't sleep anyway that I might as well
go back to bed. I did.

I was afraid it was our new modem that had gone mad,
and was glad that, at least we were leasing it and wouldn't
have to pay out the money to buy another one. I was not
happy that we would again be without Internet for a few
days, because of the holiday weekend. It wasn't the
modem. It turned out it was the UPS itself that had
failed!

Mystery solved. Computer and modem still working.

Home again

May 25, 2011

We returned from our travels to discover that a lightning strike
had apparently fried Robert's computer and had damaged the
network port on my old computer. The Qwest technician comes
tomorrow to fix our DSL cable and to determine if our DSL modem
is also gone. The controller (the Mate) for the Solar system has been
zapped also. Since Robert left the solar running the house was
without electricity after the Mate got zapped. Apparently
nothing else of the solar system was damaged. Fortunately, it
couldn't have been off very long. The freezer was at -5F when
we got home and the frig was fine, the ice cream had not
thawed. All and all not a very happy welcome home.

The trip was fun, but not as expected. We went to Haswell, as
planned. The site now has a very official sign "Plishner Deep
Space Exploration...." There is another word after exploration,
but I don't remember what it is. Robert gave a lecture and was
called upon to give input many times while we were there. It was
fun for me to see the place because I have heard so much about
it. It was much as I pictured it. While we were there it was
hot, very dry and VERY windy. Our VAN was covered in sand,
inside and out. The temperature wasn't too bad while we were
there, in the 70s I think.

We left Haswell and headed south with the list of museums I had
compiled. It didn't take long to realize that we'd come too
early. None of them were open! My list, if I had read it
carefully, did state the hours and days they were open. I noted
the days, but not the dates. They all open next week.

We went to Vogel Canyon which is an off shoot of the Purgatoir
River Canyon. It is a shallow canyon and has a couple of easy
walks so we did the rim walk and that was nice. There is no
campground there, but camping in the parking lot is allowed and
since we were the only people there, we did that. The Picket Wire
Canyon (so called because it was easier to pronounce than
Pergatoir) is more dramatic, but the walk into it is hard. The
reward though is great. There are pictographs and dinosaur
tracks; the largest collection of tracks in the world. They are
in all sizes, from very small to very large.

We stopped at the National Historic Site of Boggsville.
Boggsville was the home of Kit Carson and his home is there. It
is a small collection of buildings. Of course we couldn't go in,
because it wasn't open, but we peeked in the windows.

Our last stop was John Martin Reservoir and the Hasty Lake
Campground. The reservoir is VERY low and the campground at
the west end of the reservoir was closed, but the campground
at Hasty lake which is a lake made from the outflow from
the John Martin dam was open. We bought an annual State Park
pass. It was $35...the last time we looked into it the
price was $60. Perhaps the 35 is the senior rate; in any
case we were told the price was going up July 1 to $60.00.
I assume that means the senior rate is going to disappear,
as did the senior real estate tax break.

The campground had many trees so each site was well shaded,
which was good because the weather had turned hot. We arrived
late afternoon and took out folding chairs out and sat in
the shade and read. After dinner we walked around the
campground, met a couple from Charleston, SC who are "doing"
Colorado for the next month. They were headed next to
Colorado Springs.

We drove home from John Martin (between Las Animas and Lamar)
yesterday. We were stopped for about 30 minutes south east
of Hugo for road repairs. And as we arrived in Hugo where
we had lunch a blustery thunderstorm hit. Lots of rain and
lightning, but no damage to us or the VAN.


May 27, 2011

Finally, we are up and running again. It turned out our modem
was zapped. We now have a new, speedier modem and all is working
again. We decided to lease a modem from Qwest for $5.00/month
because it is then covered. If it is zapped again or just
quits Qwest will replace it. We also gave up our independent
ISP, Indra's Net and are totally with Qwest. I feel badly
about that, but we are saving $24.00/month by doing that.

A quiet week

Of course, the big news this week was the killing of
Osama bin Laden. I have to wish he'd been captured
alive and given the chance to say he was sorry. Even
if that is very unlikely. I even more fervently hope
we, very soon, will withdraw all of our troops from
Afghanistan. The people there want us gone, too.
In addition, let us stop bombing raids in Pakistan.

On the personal front it has been a quiet week for us.

Robert did go to Longmont on Tuesday and drive antique
cars. This time it was antique trucks. He had a good
time. Later this month all 380 vehicles are to be moved
from Longmont to Lafayette. What a mass driving week
that will be. I have offered to ferry people from
Lafayette back to Longmont to pick up another car.
We'll see if that happens.

We are still waiting on the county, working with our Fire
Chief, to finish the creek clean up. I was told by the
Fire Chief when I inquired if there was a time line for
the final pick-up, that "patience is a virtue." Ah,
well...so much for a definitive answer. We'll wait.

Yesterday Robert and I met Susan Wayland in Louisville
where we had lunch at the Santa Fe Grill. It was a
fun time. Lots of conversation and laughing. We
spent more than 2 hours at the restaurant; it's good
they weren't very crowded.

The First of May

There's an old saying, "Hurray, hurray it's the first of May.
Outdoor love-making starts today."
I substituted two words for the one that fits better, but
don't want to shock my grandchildren.

We continue to wait for rain. On Friday I was walking
up the road and it started to rain. I was well below
the junction and assumed I would get wet. I was not
sad about that. The soil is very, very dry and the
danger of fire is certainly real. The trees are gone,
but now the earth under the burned trees is covered
with dry straw! In any case it continued to rain as
I walked home, but when I arrived home, took off
my coat and hat and found they were dry. So much
for that rain.

Last night Robert and I watched "The King's Speech."
It is a winner. We both thoroughly enjoyed it and gave
it a 5 out of 5 in our rating system. I recommend it. I
think we were both surprised, especially Robert. He
was watching reluctantly and admitted he was amazed.
It had garnered so much hype he figured it would just
be another piece of Hollywood trash.

Wednesday was Vernon's birthday; he is 59 and holding.
Viki, Keegan and Vernon came for dinner to celebrate.
We had a quiet celebration, but it was nice to get
together. We missed Liza who had other plans. I
didn't decide to do the dinner until Tuesday.

The cleaning ladies came on Friday. They are so good,
so fast and so thorough! I love it!

Home again

On Sunday, April 17th the Salina Community cleaned up the creek.
About 40 local residents and 25 foot ball players from Boulder
High, with their coach, arrived at 9 AM to help! What workers
those boys turned out to be. They and the locals did a fantastic
job of cleaning the debris from the creek.

In addition to the creek clean up lunch was served at the Salina
Cafe with donations from the community. Anne Brady made a
hugepot of her famous green chili and almost 100 bean and cheese
burritos; Thelma Robinson supplied a huge pot of Mediterranean
Bean soup and a loaf of bread; Patti Beebe donated 100 brownies
and 50 macaroons; Carl Cowley supplied 2 huge pots of macaroni
and cheese and two key lime pies; Martha Cowley brought two
loaves of her famous sourdough bread; Ann Lawrence donated paper
ware, chips, salsa, salad, hoagies and two apple pies; Michelle
Wieber donated a salad and a huge platter of cheese and meats
and accompanying rolls; Antoinette Vastenburg donated a green
salad; Russell Brockway donated a bag of tortilla chips; Michelle
Grainger donated birthday cupcakes since it was Maria Mitchelle's
birthday. Others donated candy and cookies. So much food that no
one could go hungry after all the hard work.

Work continued for a while after lunch, but by 3 PM most everyone
called it quits for the day and the boys left, all but one. When
the boys arrived as a convoy in the morning, the last one pulled
into our driveway, blocking the other cars and ours and announced
he had run out of gas! Fortunately, we could still get one car out.
In the afternoon, after Larry Gates had donated a gallon of gas the
posse was ready to leave again, BUT no, the boy with the gas less
car had now lost his car keys! Eventually, mom was called and to
arrive in an hour or so with a second set of keys. The rest of the
boys and the coach left. An hour later Mom arrived, but the car
wouldn't start so she left to call a tow truck; tow truck arrived
and got the car turned around and headed down hill and with,
perhaps, more gas, was able to get the car started. At least it
didn't have to be towed to Longmont! Hopefully, a lesson or
two was learned.

The next morning we packed up the Van and left, after lunch, for
Crested Butte to deliver tools to Robyn that had been loaned to us
last November. The weather was iffy, but they were good enough.
After we got over Monarch Pass I called Robyn to let her know we
were over the mountain and would be arriving in time for dinner.
We arrived and the tools were unloaded and by then it was raining.

Tuesday we awoke to four inches of snow and more coming down
hard and fast. Robert considered leaving, but reconsidered so we
stayed and visited with Robyn for the day. After the roads had
melted she took us on a tour of Crested Butte and Mount Crested
Butte. We visited an area of Mount Crested Butte fully developed
with at least 30 McMansions perhaps more. We drove up, around
and through the area and in our whole drive saw only 2 houses that
were currently occupied. The others were clearly furnished and livable,
but second or third home of the owners. It was creepy seeing a
whole village empty. I felt badly for the 2 live-in owners. I wondered
how it felt to live in a neighborhood full of empty mansions?!

On Wednesday we said goodbye to Robyn and headed for Utah.
The roads were fine by then. We drove to La Sal junction and then
north to Moab. Moab was inundated with jeeps, hundreds of jeeps,
thousands of jeeps, millions and billions and trillions of jeeps. Amazing!
We went on from there to the San Rafael Reef area and found the area
full and overflowing with RVs and ATVs!! Every place we had ever
camped was either fenced off or occupied. By this time it was after
eight in the evening so we found a place to pull off the road and
decided we'd spend the night and get out of there early the next day
before all the thousands of ATVs came roaring by! And so we did.

In the morning we drove back out through the reef and found a place
to park so that we could go for a walk on the slick rock. It was
interesting because once up on the rock and slightly out of sight
of the zillions of RVs we saw no one. No hikers on the rocks, no
cave explorers, just us.

From there we headed towards Hanksville and then on to Bull Frog
Basin. Along the way the greening of spring was showing and the
green of the willows and the red of the soil made a vibrant back
drop. At Bull Frog basin the water in Lake Powell is so low that
the marina buildings have moved down the ramp so that the
services that serve the boaters would be near the water.
The area they left was empty except for junk and beyond
the junk it looked like a Tamarisk farm. The Tamarisk plants
looked like they had been planted in rows and no one was
making an effort to discourage them. Maybe they think the
water will rise again so it doesn't matter. The RV park was
not full, but we drove around and saw the sights, bought some
fuel and went on our way.

As we drove along the river it seemed that perhaps the bugs the
forest service has let loose on the Tamarisks was working. We
saw lots of black Tamarisk plants.

We headed toward Natural Bridges National Monument, but found
a random spot to camp between UT95 and UT275. We were off
the road and behind some rocks, but had a perfect view of Jacob's
Chair! After a short hike I fixed another late supper and we were
soon to bed.

By now it is Friday and we headed toward home with a stop in
New Castle, Colorado on our way. My good friend Betty Wilson
is recently widowed and I wanted to stop and spend a little
time with her. We've been friends for almost 45 years and been
though a lot together. Betty was administrative assistant in
the Advanced Study Program at NCAR. Back in the early days
we occasionally would enjoy Friday lunch at the Lamp Post in
Boulder where we could have a bowl of clam chowder and a
martini for $1.50 plus tip!?! Great lunch!

We had brought supper so Betty and I fixed dinner of
spaghetti and salad and fresh-baked bread and a glass of
wine each. And we talked.....

Checking the weather in the morning we decided we'd stay
for lunch and leave by 1 PM. The weather was again pretty
iffy, but it turned out the roads were fine. We made
it home before 5 PM.

Getting home I was happy to see that the branches that lined the
road from the spring clean up of the creek had all been chipped
and pretty much disappeared. There are still some big things
to get rid of and we're hoping the county will supply us with
a dumpster. I've e-mailed to ask for help in that area. That
remains an open question.

The helicopters have dumped a couple of loads today despite it
being very overcast. I assume that means they will be running
again tomorrow. It was nice to get a way from the burn, the
flood danger, the helicopters and the mess from the creek. But,
as always it's good to be home.