Farm, fields, sun, and gravestone

Bouncing around enjoying the lovely weather. We're supposed to get rain late tomorrow through Tues, so making the most of it.

inside Soupcon

outside across from Soupcon

Lovely dinner was had at Soupcon with only one other table occupied, and that was it for the evening- nothing for the second seating even. Getting ready to go quiet as a grave (which actually I'll talk about a little bit further in the post) but the server was thrilled, he's going all over Europe, and it appears many of the employees head to exotic waters during 7 weeks of off season. Single, happy go lucky people of course, who else could do that?

Lots of fun playing with the new special effects for Picasa 3.9. Anybody else use that? And the title photo is not retouched - some things just don't need the help...

Farm visit again. Our greeter was a sweet cat watching make sure we signed in. Caught the dairy cows at their post for daily milking, the family out with all the duties that a farm entails. Hopefully you can see, the little piggies and chickens do live together - crazy. They told us there were lambs but only saw the sheep.

our neighbor ranch draft horses

another new wobbly kneed calf -there are countless numbers here now

Mark went out to try fishing again. Last day of his non-resident fishing license. We most definitely are residents here and have the proper state drivers license to prove it - the cost is half of course. Lots of fishermen out, he said, but no strikes. He'll try again another day. Just crazy activity going on for this time of year here. Our golf course opened yesterday, and the hiking, biking, etc. area of Hartman Rocks just opened as well. Not usual... And we bought a pressure washer today - yes, I know I'm trying to get rid of things not add to them, but this will definitely come in handy for the constantly filthy cars and other projects.

Lastly, the gravestone above. Never have noticed this until today. It's on the ground behind our new modern ugly mailboxes. A mystery here - don't know which Scott or what happened, and why there? You never know around here...

Disappearing Snow

As the title suggests, our white stuff is rapidly melting by the hour. No sign of more snow to come, which is very unusual, and birds, bugs, and green things (including my daylilies and daffodils) are suddenly up and out. I checked out our normal woods walk a couple of days ago, which hasn't been passable and is not plowed at one end for the entire winter. Should be able to return to walking that instead of the other direction since it's mostly dry on the road. Still so pretty with tons of snow in the woods - going fast. It's all a month ahead of itself, making for a good bit of slush for the last week and a half of ski season on the mountain. Bye, bye snowshoes til next winter.

Construction going strong in our basement. The ordering of plumbing stuff not going so well. Tub arrived but was damaged, so another is on its way, and the plethora of faucets, drains, etc. lost somewhere between Virginia and here, so another order is in process to be shipped. Yikes - best laid plans. Hope to have it all done in a month - we'll see. The end result will be great - more room for guests and a family room for leisure activities - games, X box? (that would definitely be a new one for us.)

Back and forth to our two towns, that we're smack in between. One for play (CB) and one for all the regular errands and now - tile and carpet store, plus cabinet place. I always seem to be posting a photo from CB not Gunnison. One is definitely more picturesque for sure. Dinner tonight at Soupcon - lovely. Gotta get it in before they close for off season...

Eggs, smoke alarms, early spring, and sawdust

Early spring seems to be marching on here. The big snowstorm only produced an inch at our house and melting has commenced again. Pretty sunrises, rivers with rushing water, and still cold enough to have roaring fires in the fireplace everyday. Not so bad...

Lots of activity going on here - inside. The basement finishing project is in full swing. Framing is done, and now we're awaiting the plumbing fixtures. What a world - I ordered all of it online from the same company I used when we were building the house - faucets direct. A great site with terrific prices and very efficient service - hoping the truck gets here in short order. A nice thing about having your original builder doing a renovation, he cares a lot about the work and the state of the house. He immediately sprung into action and climbed up his high ladder to patch and paint where one of our beams had done a little settling. And changed the battery in our highest unreachable smoke alarm. You know that annoying beep, beep of the smoke alarm battery going dead (usually happening at 3am) - well, we heard it in one of the upstairs bedrooms, which are not easy to change either with the high ceilings, but Mark managed all but the one.

Picked up eggs at the farm. Lots of signs of spring there. Piglets abound (the pigs and the chickens roam together. Fun stuff. One of the pyrenees dogs stood guard over all. The sheep baaing loudly in another pen. Love it...

The ski mountain closes soon - April 8, and with it go all the out of town people. Hence the restaurant closings in CB for off season. A long off season - until mid May. Don't know what all the wait staff does about money with their 2 or 3 jobs, but it happens every year - I'm sure they plan for it.

Finished another book - have no idea at this late date where I got the author's name, but it was entertaining and there are two more in the series I'll get. A murder mystery set in New Mexico with a UFO twist. The Clovis Incident by Pari Noskin Taichert.
Mark back from Detroit for two weeks. Good stuff...

Bald eagles, coyotes, fishing, and snow fun

The family visit is done - how sad. Great weather all week, lots of skiing and snowboarding done (but not by moi), and we even had an extra visitor - Lisa! She hopped over to surprise us and stayed a couple of days while doing some work as well. Met with store owners in Crested Butte. Very efficient use of time, I'd say.

The snow is melting like crazy, and it's much more like the end of April than March, people here say. We don't know - never been here at this time of year, so it's all a surprise. Heard owls, sandhill cranes were circling around our mountains, saw robins,coyotes out and about, bald eagles eating,and the bluebird pair is settling in around our deck. Seems springy to me.

Coyote photos courtesy of Mark - they too jump headfirst in the snow hunting

I have a fishing report - shouldn't if there was normal snowfall, but have one nonetheless. Mark and Paul spent all one day fishing, but alas caught nothing. Apparently, it's really hit or miss at this time of year. Fun to try though.

We drove up to Taylor Reservoir and no ice fishing going on at all. Ice getting a little thin? Hog trough was packed with fishermen. Mark saw a big fish landed while standing there.

The basement finishing project is full on and our builder is starting this week. What a job organizing and moving everything out of there. It's all in the garage at the moment until things are done - a month maybe.

Winter fun with Texas family

Fun times with company! James took exactly five minutes after arrival to march out into the snow and sled? Jumping over the fence was just a tad harder than it looked...

Drop dead gorgeous weather here. Paul, Sherry, James, and Katie had a fantastic first day skiing (snowboarding for James). The rest of the week is supposed to be the same. Bright sun, blue skies, and 40. What's not to love? Krissy, again, we miss you!! Mark and I were supposed to ski as well but somehow didn't have the energy. Well, we can pick and choose our day and time. Better get on with it though, the mountain closes in less than a month now. How did the time go by so fast?

Fox roaming around our house. Their coats are so beautiful and their hunting technique amazing. Jumping straight up in the air to dive down into the snow headfirst after listening intently for their rodent prey. Not worrying anymore about their winter survival. No rodents in our house by the way (or flies either) after the pest control guy came last Sept.

Mark's long lens camera

Mark's camera again -great closeup

Finished a book- A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor, an autobigraphical travel story about his adventures tramping around Europe in the 1930's (just before World War II broke out). Very good and I'm getting his second, which is the continuation of the 3 year story. He died last year at 96 - long accomplished life. I'm still reading Atlas Shrugged, in bits and pieces - boy it's a struggle. I'll get it done eventually...

Crunching snow and cleaning out

There's a strange feeling of spring in the air here - I must point out that it's waayy too early, we haven't even gotten to mud season (April). Nonetheless,  a bluebird has shown up hanging around our deck - what is it eating? All snowy here.  More calves are being born every day and low 40's  are the temps the last few days. Paul, Sherry, and kids show up Sat. - a skiing snowboarding spring fest on the horizon!

Snowshoeing every day and it appears the creatures in the woods have found our tracks. You know, a little pee here and there. Animal marking I mean...

Red hawk nest

A new project for me - cleaning out the basement. We're going to start finishing it out. Oh, boy...It seems that the stuff I got rid of when we sold the house in Maryland, didn't all go away. Anyone need twenty year old exercise equipment, giant size cell phones or VHS players? Hey we even have a Beta - remember those?