Cows, bear activity, flowers, and company coming

Soo excited. Tiffany, Chris, and Miss Penny are on their way here as I write and Lisa and Charles will be here late tomorrow. Great stuff - summer company.

expecting a package?

water truck for the cows

And the cows are all in, all 140 or so. Oh the joys of the plop in the road, the moo moo at any time of day or night, and don't forget to drive slooowly on our roads.

Flowers are still going strong here with a shift in bloom. The lupine are just about done, sunflowers have probably another week, and lots of other kinds are popping up to take their place. Mark gathered up a bunch of lupine seed to add to our yard - good luck on that, I tried it also another year and have seen absolutely nothing I can attribute to my seed flinging. It's harder then it would appear to get things to germinate.

While gathering the lupine seed, Mark ran across some bear scat, yup, that time of year. Instead of showing that (how tacky) I put up a photo of our bears via pictures and notice the hanging whistles. We provide everything, even a warn the bear off whistle...

Up Ohio Pass

Some exciting news: I had a photo accepted in the Wilderness Society 2014 calender. They're all about protecting the wild places in the U/S and we certainly have a plethora of that in Colorado. Should be for sale online soon. Don't know if it's for sale in any retail outlets.

Teocalli

My online archaeology class is stimulating, fun,and a bit of a scramble to keep up with the homework. Happily, they have adjusted the requirements to slightly less since a lot of people apparently complained they couldn't get it all done with vacation, travel, work schedules etc. Brown University is putting this one on and I highly recommend it if they do it again...Professor Alcock is very entertaining.

Oh, the joys of summer

As soon as I talked about the cows, in they came - the very next morning. Only a portion are in (about 50), and the rest remain in the Carbon Creek field. Don't know why or when they're coming in. And then there was the race to close our gates, as every year they love to surround our house. Don't know what is so enticing...

Mark has been in conversation with the rancher who provides the cattle every summer about our barely running spring, and if he could dig and try to widen it for the cows. Didn't know we had a spring? Why yes, way on the other end of our property, doing us no good at all at this point, so we were happy to to oblige. The mudhole, as we call it, is also on our property, and the rancher also worked on it, with limited success as you can see.

miles of this massive old fence up Ferris Creek-who and when?

all trip #2

trip #3 this and below

Mark closeup

Mark closeup - they're both great

Trekked out to Brush Creek again, and was rewarded with fields of gorgeous wildflowers. This was actually trip number 3,as we had zoomed out right before I left for Virginia to catch the flowers at peak, only to find we were early - again. had a fun time though and made a side jeep trip up Ferris Creek close by.We also had lots of company for #3, bikes and cars galore. Everybody's here

Went to Ginger Cafe after a long hiatus for a Sunday lunch after the farmer's market. Food wasn't as good as we remember - hmm. Montanya has outdoor seating now and Secret Stash serves breakfast - haven't made it there since they reopened but I'm sure a visit will be soon.

Good grief, books read list is WAY out of date. So here we go:
Shadows in Bronze by Lindsey Davis
Eldest by Christopher Paolini
To Darkness and to Death by Julia Spencer Fleming
Prague Winter, a personal story of remembrance and war, 1937-1948 by Madeleine Albright
Murder on the Ballarat Train by Kerry Greenwood
All good, Eldest was very good, but massively long, Madeleine Albright made me feel inadequate, the rest are parts of very enjoyable series.

Wildlife report:
Hummingbirds are very calm, only cluster at the feeders at dusk. There is a massive amount to eat ala nature, so we expect a resurgence in a couple weeks (and the Rufus haven't shown yet) The irony here is that we bought two more Big Boy feeders, totaling 4 and do not have to fill any of them up all the way right now...
Chippies slowly appearing, elk we think have taken off for the mystery wherever for the summer, and the deer are here, although a little quiet (could be fawn time).

Miss NO, NO Penny, Reston, and flowers, flowers everywhere

Wheee, I'm back after a whirlwind athletic sprint at Tiffany's house. I'm very overdue with a post, sorry!
My trip, in brief, was a marathon of packing, moving, cleaning arranging, etc. all to help get Tiffany and Chris's townhouse ready to sell. It looks terrific, so hopefully a buyer will be found quickly.

peek a boo

Yoga (and Penny can do downward dog!)

Miss Penny was a joy and is now in the very active toddler stage with no,no, no, no popping out of her mouth quite often. All part of growing up...

My Daddy

Pigtails! Penny allows 5 minutes or less and then they're OUT

The fun part of this story is in just 8 days Tiffany, Chris, and Penny fly here for a week to play at our house. Yippee!

Mark was on top of everything while I was gone with time for fishing and golf. Fishing still is not great, water still a little high perhaps.

First columbine of the season

I know I'm repeating myself, but the flowers are stunning this year. There's a layer of pollen over everything which we were used to in Maryland, but not here. Flowers on overdrive after a poor showing last year...

120 bright and happy steers (many out of camera range)

Cows are in the field on the Carbon side awaiting the end of the larkspur before the ranchers let them in our gates for the summer. Should happen in the next week or so...Hurry, hurry close our house gates. Love them or hate them, they are a part of Star Mt.

Company, sweet blooms and bird song

Lots of fun had with old friends Bob and Peggy; a relationship rekindled after many years apart. They've lived in Colorado since 1999 but knew little about our area. We had a great time and as always, enjoyed showing off "our" little place of heaven.

We headed once again toward Ohio Pass, knowing it had been closed just two days before, and hurray, it had just opened up. Still snow in patches but so great to be able to go that way. Made it to Lake Irwin which had also just opened up. Interesting, they have sheep grazing up there now with guard dogs - we didn't see any but there's a big sign with pictures on how to behave around them. Rounding out the morning we went up to Gothic. Everything is just leafing out - 10 days behind Star Mt., but still gorgeous any time.

those fabulous early glacier lilies

 Intended to go to Secret Stash (of course) but it's closed for lunch now. The grand opening of their new location down the street is June 19th, so I think they're busy finishing the grand new place. We've been assured that all their funky decorating will be moved as well. You have to see it to believe it... So, Ryce it was, and a terrific lunch was had.

Hammock is up and open for business. I was in it for awhile yesterday. I swear there's some kind of sedative drug built in, amazingly relaxing, the bird song, aspen leaves rustling - could hardly haul myself out...

Hanging baskets are up and doing well. If any of you remember the story from last summer when I nearly killed these sweet expensive baskets watering with our well water. Mark figured it out and now it's rain or spring water for these babies.

The online archaeology class is going well so far. The professor is quite a character, filming from her messy office as a start and the requirements are definitely low key compared to my crazy genetics class. Wonderful opportunity for learning - FREE.(coursera.com)

The creatures winged and four footed are busy, busy all around us. I swear it's the same pair of slightly wacky robins from the last 2 years now trying to build their own nest. Not the best job I ever saw...

I leave the end of the week for Reston. Get to see Miss Penny while helping Tiffany and Chris get their house organized, spit spot and ready to sell.