Angel girls and babysitting

A quick little post from Virginia. We are here with the two sweetest girls anywhere - Miss Penny and Miss Juliet. Whoa, getting used to their schedules has been challenging! Thank goodness Tiffany is a master list maker. Back in the dark ages I did this with my own two little girls, but how you do forget....

Along with the unfamiliar we've had one big snowstorm and record breaking low temps, and now more snow tomorrow. This one is supposed to be a couple of inches early in the day. Sounds like a bunch of nothing after the 10 inches last Sat. - hope so.

Back home they've had 15 inches and the skiers are ecstatic. What is up with the big snow the minute we leave town? We fly back to CO Monday and there's still snow in the forecast. Our area of the world has a big winter month to come. 

Our Aruba vaca parents will be back late Friday and we'll have a nice family weekend before we have to leave. 

Winter this winter that

And where's the snow? New snowfall I mean. Well, never mind, everyone's out doing their thing anyway. We hear the mountain is mobbed this weekend, so we chose a little quieter venue - cross country.

I'm sure you are all quite over the Valentine's hoopla but here's my mountain contribution. Sweet. Away it goes til next year.

Cross country skiing again. And fame comes to the trail. Don't know the details but it looked like filming a "piece" on nordic. Hey, who's that good looking man strolling by? And they're not filming him??

Looks pristine right? I'll bet the film does not talk about the plethora of dog poop on the trail. I ran over some today in my track. Excellent substance to jerk you to almost a standstill.

A few strange scenes around, possibly due to the lack of new snow. This woman was exercising her dogs- the lazy way,

Hay, hay. You can see a running theme here. Roads are for other activities than driving...

We're on countdown for the trip to VA. Making a sidetrip to CO Springs to see George and Linda before the Denver flight. Amazing how little we've seen each other when we're only 3 1/2 hrs apart! And their weather is not our weather. People out of the state don't get this at all. It's those monster mountain ranges.

Luminous skies and winter waters

We continue to hope for more snow and I know the northeast would gladly give it up. We'll enjoy the unseasonable warmth and keep the outdoor sports going. Snowshoeing is a little crunchy slidey, cross country track seems to be holding, and Mark reports the mountain has some brown patches showing at lower levels but is still good skiing.

And the snowmobiles were clearly here

Drill those holes!

We made the drive up to Taylor reservoir to see the sights. Just missed a big ice fishing tournament but there were two guys there drilling away. It was 14 above as opposed to the -14 it has been on previous visits at this time of year. The reservoir has had recorded temps as low as -53, I think a state record but not sure. Anyway, damn cold.

The hog trough was active but not swamped. Mark said lighting conditions were difficult to see the fish and they like to hang on the bottom not eating unless something practically jumps in their mouths.

And Mark's big rock is standing strong

Ducks! Fish eating Mergansers to be exact

Lots of water in the Taylor. Crazy mild winter.

Took the recommendation of a friend and hit this Mexican restaurant in Gunnison. Tiny, tiny place that's been here 5 years, and the best so far in these parts. And if you can't make out the name from the grand sign, it's called Anejo.

Snow shoeing this time on the common ground to see how the pond is doing. Happy to report water flow seems good so hopefully all the trout are surviving.

Quite a bit of travel on the horizon. Mark is on a business trip this week and end of next we fly to VA to babysit Miss Penny and Juliet. Tiffany and Chris are Aruba bound - great fun for them, and we'll be sure to pack the run after fast moving small children shoes. Lastly, exciting news - Tiffany and friend Becca have launched a blog called popandbanter.com. It's a lifestyle blog packed with info about all things current. Fun and very informative. Check it out!

Wind, elk, animal tracks, and real estate

Given my little tale to come, I should have entitled this post something like, "the crimson blood dripped on pure white snow", but that would be dramatizing. And in this crazy over hyped media nutty circus world, not gonna do it.

Coyote tracks and those spots are tree bark, not blood

First, no return of the mountain lion, at least no tracks around. It's weeks now, so maybe he's moved on to greener pastures, so to speak. We've had a couple of inches here and there of snow so by the time I got out to snowshoe my tracks were mostly covered as you can see . Now those are coyote tracks (I've become an pseudo expert) in my tracks on the bottom part of my wide circle through the woods. Followed the tracks a long way enjoying the camaraderie and suddenly there were drops, vivid red drops every few feet but not in the pawprints. Kept with me all the way to our back gate. So what the heck, - carrying a kill that suddenly started to bleed, or a body/leg injury? Don't know, and I guess it will remain a mystery.

And we went cross country skiing again, and it was miserable in 40 mile an hour winds. However if you were this gentleman, you were golden. This is kite skiing, my friends, and a perfect activity in the blustery wind. Apparently some people even skip the lifts and kite ski up the mountain.. Whoa, a little much for me.

Elk sighting again. We see lots of evidence of animals but the actual animal is a little sparse.

Mark reports the mountain has been very very quiet, fun skiing for locals. And nope, I haven't made it up yet. Soon perhaps. Or it may have to wait until we have company, which is March. See how cleverly the anxious downhill skier puts this off...

a minute section of all the wood we still have 

Local breaking news.- long, long time resort Harmel's is up for sale. 13.5 million if you're interested. It goes way back in our family's history, not that any of us ever stayed there. It was down the road from "our" place Spring Creek Resort. I had to like it by the way since Mark's family had already been going there for years. I do not believe we would have stayed married if I hadn't happily embraced that which was. And life will change even though try as we will to hold it at bay.