And the fun continues

Fun, fun, fun with Lisa and Charles. They came in yesterday and while I know they say they wanted to see us, in my heart I know its all about Penny. Well, we'll take what we can get...

Sis and Bro

And Miss Penny is soon to be arriving. Hurray! I think Tiffany, Chris, and Penny will be quite tired, since normally its a long trip to get to Star Mt., but this was especially wearisome, with a Giant wind and rainstorm blowing out power last night in DC area as they were finishing packing etc. Delays getting their luggage and rental car. Just general travel fun. Once they get to Star Mt. all will be well.
Heather got hit too (they wisely bought a generator last year) and with a million people out of power, could be some time before all is restored.

Hmm, definitely pear shaped- the statue, not Lisa

CB for lunch, drumroll please - of course Secret Stash!
Surprise, surprise, we have some orange Rufus. They appeared yesterday, just a handful, and I had given up on them entirely. A month late! So what were they doing? Too much partying in Mexico?

Ohio Pass gorgeous as usual. New sets of wildflowers blooming in just a week's time.We've had rain multi- days too. A relief for sure, although we still need a lot more. Can't be greedy...

Mill Creek, projects, and summer fun

Early morning visit below our deck

We had our first rain in a month last night, only 15 minutes, but anything is welcome (without the electrical please). Please send positive thoughts to all the areas fighting forest fires in CO. Most were caused by lightening. Dreadful year in that regard. My parents, brother and all his family are in CO Springs, so keeping a close eye on their big fire.

this one from Mark's great zoom

We ended Gail's visit with a gorgeous hike up Mill Creek. Not, I hasten to add, the Storm Pass strenuous 8 mile hike, just the easy 2 mile one. If we ever, ever final camp, there are wonderful sites up there, although the cows are there as well sans a fence barrier. Could be interesting...

I am in the throes of putting together a cabinet for the laundry room. The unopened box has been staring at me for weeks, and I have avoided it as long as possible. I ordered this cabinet, I wanted this cabinet, I just didn't want to put together the 150 pieces with 10 pages of instructions(slight exaggeration). Wish me luck.

The newest hummingbird feeder has bitten the dust, so to speak.A suicide fall from the deck onto the ground below. Mark tried to stick it all back together, to no avail. The hummingbirds went extra crazy without it, so I've purchased a new one. What a lot of silliness over these teeny weeny birds.

Photo courtesy Mark

We've seen two elk mommies with their babies. Too far for photos unfortunately, and apparently, we're not having the large influx of elk having their babies here this summer. Stayed higher up? This is definitely an odd year for a number of things, including no rufus (the orange, aggressive hummingbirds), much abbreviated wildflower season, and low water in the rivers. All due to low snowpack from the winter. The normal giant amounts of snow are evidently quite important the year round.

More company coming! Lots of it, including that precious baby Penny, and I'm very excited to see everyone. We did get downstairs furnished and ready for guests. Bring it on...

Cows, crazy CB, and fun with company

A doe at rest in our woods (before the cows plopped in)

The cows are in and our gates are closed. Good thing as they've already wandered up our way. The cowboys were herding them this way and that - something different this year, they brought in water tanks placed at strategic points around Star Mt. Way too dry around here, I'm thinking of doing a rain dance soon.

Our houseguest, Gail, is here and instantly fun (and silly) things are going on. Her one way car rental has turned into a two way rental, due to the fact that her rental car company does not exist in Gunnison (naturally- crazy town), and we couldn't even park in normal parking at the airport to find out what was going on, since they had repaved and striped the parking lot. Ah, 10 days ago and still closed,  we're nothing if not progressive here...

Tried to make it up to Emerald Lake and beyond - road closed. Can't imagine what that's about. Usually it's all about high snow there, definitely not the case this year... Made the best of plan B of course. The ride was beautiful on the way up anyway, and had to show Gail the bustling town of Crested Butte. Boy, was it hopping today. There's a chainless bike race happening late this afternoon - one in which crowds gather to see the victims crash at the end into columns of tires lined up on the road. Crazy costumes and strange looking bikes were everywhere. The end of race is in front of Secret Stash, by the way. Had lunch there - fun and good pizza as usual.

Fast and furious weekend as both Mark and Gail are leaving Sunday early. We'll see what we can cram in.

Fawn, meatballs, chickens, and farmers market

Perched on Star Mt. gate, waiting for horse? car? tractor?

Magical things, hidden things, are going on at Star Mt. Our first fawn - Mark caught this little scrap of a baby with his long lens. One day old, and pretty sure it was born in our woods as they skirted on by coming out by our front fence. Waiting for the first elk calf sighting - we see solitary elk behaving in odd ways (as we have the absolute best views all around our house for wildlife behavior).

Went to Crested Butte for the farmers market. Suddenly lots of people are here, and apparently ready to buy, buy, buy. Greens for us - basil, kale, and swiss chard.  And lunch at a favorite: Sherpa Cafe. It appears the Tibetan family that came over from Katmandu are making a success of their two year old restaurant. And did you know that all those families from that area have Sherpa as a last name. I was amazed to find that out.

Mark made his terrific meatballs, which we will be sharing with many. Organic beef, veal, and pork - yum.

Finished another book: part of my mother's day presents - The Bucolic Plague by Josh Kilmer-Purcell. He is part of the Fabulous Beekman Boys duo. Their reality show was on Planet Green, soon to be moving to Cooking Channel. They are a gay couple from New York City who bought a 1800's farm in a tiny town upstate, without, I might add, any knowledge of farming whatsoever. Very entertaining show, and this memoir is quite funny, along with telling the good, bad, and the ugly behind it all. And I also now have their bestselling cookbook (also part of Mother's Day).

So interesting news from our farm. First of all, they are revamping all their "shares", so we'll make some changes on what we're ordering (I think just ground meats) and this came without my imput - who knew?  The next bit of news may not be so positive. They're looking for a chicken farmer to take over their egg production as they're going to focus more on their meat and dairy, plus evidently the predators are taking out more and more chickens. They're down to one Great Pyrenees watchdog, which is probably part of the problem. But, really, OH NO. My wonderful eggs! We'll wait and see if they can find a local farmer to keep the hen scratching going.
Company coming on Thursday - a newcomer.  A friend of Mark's who he worked with in Detroit. It's always fun to show off our area to someone new - good times coming.!

Lazy days of summer with all the creatures

Summer marches in, with every day a carbon copy of the last with blue skies, crystal clear air, and soaring peaks.Coyote howling in the night,actually much visiting of coyote, one in particular we're seeing at different times zipping through the yard. He/she has a distinctive fur line down his side - easy to identify.

More flowers have popped up, pretty hardy considering we've had no rain in weeks. I'm just grateful we don't have any fires happening as opposed to the massive fire on the other side of the state. So much damage and barely controlled at all.

first columbine in the woods

Deer seem to be everywhere - have to drive slowly around Star Mt. to avoid collision. These were going down to the water hole, which we've named "mudhole", especially apropo now with it mostly dry.

none of these are Flap - seen her only twice!

The start of company coming next week. It will be quite busy and fun for the next few weeks with rolling waves of people. It's a great time of year to come!

Finished another book, one of a series by Rhys Bowen. Evanly Choirs - mystery set in Wales. Light and entertaining.
Mark is back for a week - hurray, but it always seems to go verryyy fast.

Enjoying that hammock. Come on over...