Hummingbirds, elk, exploring, and Happy Memorial Day!

Hope everyone is having a terrific Memorial Day weekend! Our weather has been great, but I hear not everyone's is cooperating. In spite of that, let's celebrate all our military and their loved ones...

Hummingbird mania is upon us. We added another big boy feeder to help with the endless refilling, which has helped, but given we aren't even in peak numbers yet (the crazy orange Rufus haven't arrived ), we've decided to order two more to replace the smaller ones. We sadly did have a few casualties last week when the temps dropped below freezing. These little birds do not do well in cold, so its a mystery why they get here before freeze date ( June 10). Yes it's very late here - our daffodils are still blooming - the end of May!

The elk continue to stay with us and we got to see a group of them playing around on the piles of dirt at our neighbors property across the road. They are starting construction on a house and the elk took advantage of the quiet to play who's king of the castle (or queen in this case). And for those of you who've expressed concern we have a house going up close to us, it is different after not anything for 4 years, but they will be a good distance away tucked way close to their woods as we are to ours. No issue I think.

We went exploring to Lake City, an old mining town an hour south of Gunnison. While the mining influence is still very evident with old operations dotted around, it's been transformed into a complete recreational place with river, Lake Cristobal, places to hike,horseback ride, and a cute town. The crowd had evidently not shown up yet as most of the stores and restaurants were closed even on Memorial weekend.

Mark snapped a photo of a neighbor

We took a different road back - a cutoff, not to be confused with a shortcut, and it definitely was not shorter. Fun to see a new area, with homes (part of the Blue Mesa HOA) and large plateaus above Blue Mesa, and in part we drove through an area apparently owned by the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation. Large signs indicating basically do not get out of your car and touch or walk on anything...okay then.
Local news: anyone remember the story of the young bear who woke up way too soon and was captured by Roaring Judy? He was released a few days ago way up on Red Mountain. He gained 100 lbs in captivity (was only a scrawny 25lbs when caught) and now is very healthy and raring to go bear. He jumped out of the cage and never looked back. Nice story...
And we got the scoop on new ownership of the Kochevar bar on Elk St. when dining at Soupcon - it's Chef Jason! We were the only customers that night (they'd just opened back up after off season) so time for talking. Spectacular food as always, and everyone seems excited about the bar purchase - its right behind Soupcon. No big changes in food over there, definitely remaining a bar type place.