Penny, all Penny

Posting from baby land in VA. a week has zoomed by and we leave for Star Mt tomorrow. (Tiffany, Penny, and myself- sadly leaving Chris behind). They are visiting for a week - hurray! Can't have enough Penny.
Warning- if you're bored with baby pics, move on, thats all I've got this time! Penny's a doll baby, gorgeous, and much too smart for her own good. Look out world!


























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BEAR #3, cows leaving?, and jeeping

Headline does not lie - ANOTHER BEAR! This time on our property and within sight of the house. This morning the scenario goes:
We look out our living room windows watching deer eating inside the fence and another group outside the fence. All of a sudden they all bolt, those inside leaping over the fence and all racing across the hill to the other woods. Mark says, "I think I'll look out the bathroom window to see what spooked them, maybe a bear." I snickered as he walked away. And then he called, "it IS a bear", and I ran in with the camera.Just outside our fence, and then it went back the other way deep in the woods. One very out of focus bad picture, but I'm putting it up anyway. Crazy year, before this summer we had seen a total of bear three times ever, and now we're three just this summer.

Bear is there - the black blob in the middle

Another jeeping trip yesterday. This was above Almont towards Flat Top winding through a maze of rough roads in sagebrush and cactus territory. Sooo, maps aren't always accurate, and roads aren't always where they're supposed to be. We were ready to find our shortcut which turned into, oh no, we're going to dead end into private property and the gates will be locked and we'll have to back track(You go through a lot of gates on these treks, to keep cattle in) We were within sight of Ohio Creek Rd and Eagle Ridge Ranch and just knew that we would get to the last gate and have to turn around. Hurray, it was unlocked and homebound we were. It would have been an extra 2 hours if we'd had to backtrack. Eagle Ridge must have an agreement with the national forest to have open access. Thank goodness.

rocks picked up there - sandstone and ?

The cows are leaving, maybe. Cowboys showed up late this afternoon to herd out about 50, a little less than a third of what's here. Doing it in stages this year? Not sure, but if they are leaving now, it's 3 weeks early. Everything was early this year, and all the local people you talk to are hoping and praying for a GIANT snow busting winter.

Early color, ya, ya, repeat. When I'm back with Tiffany and Penny in a week, it could be peak. Breathtaking is the only word for fall here. Books have not been priority recently, but did finish Martin Walker's Black Diamond. He is a terrific writer, longtime AP guy and recently turned to murder fiction. Good stuff.
Next post from baby territory in Virginia.

Fall, elk, and chopping wood

Fall is here with crisp days, cool nights with everything starting to change to yellows and golds. We haven't reached freezing temps yet, but I bet it happens in the next two weeks. Our now gorgeous hanging baskets are still up until then, and the hummingbirds have mostly left for Mexico. We have a dozen or so sticking around, but the chill will send them away too.

Backtracking a bit, to right before we had our company. We are continuing on the try new restaurant quest, and went to Brick Cellar bar & bistro in Gunnison for their Tuesday sushi night. This place is celebrating its 10th anniversary and we've never stepped foot in the place. They have a lot of live music nights (this wasn't one of them) lots of good wine by the glass for decent places, and sushi was better than expected (we're pretty picky having had great sushi in other areas).

Lots of work happening in our woods, and happily not by us, just paid by us. Two local guys are spending days cutting up wood that's fallen outside our fence.  It probably hasn't been touched in 25 years. We now have enough wood for lots of winters, and they're only clearing a couple of acres. Unbelievable.

Amazing sight yesterday. An elk standing in the road as we went out the front Star Mt. gate. It didn't move as we inched in the car around it, and knew there had to be an issue. We NEVER get this close to an elk. In fact, our guys cutting up wood, also saw the elk and said it was limping, but they felt it wasn't a serious limp, so hopefully it made it to a resting place to heal up.

The cows are still with us, probably for a month.  They are fat on Star Mt. grass and spread out all over. I can't deny, it will feel good to fling open our gates again.

brown then gray, who knows why one changes first

The deer are with us in bulk now. Every morning there are at least half a dozen chomping away on our remaining wild grass and wildflowers. They are in the middle of the coat color change which always heralds the coming of fall and winter. Only ding dong Flap is eating the day lily leaves however. They freeze back to the ground so it won;t hurt anything, but deer are not supposed to like those - only Flap...

I leave in a couple days to help take care of Penny for a week. Their wonderful day care person is out of the country right now for 3 1/2 weeks! Happy to fill in of course! Tiffany and Penny come back with me the following week for some vacation time at Star Mt. Happy, happy about that.

Adventures with Friends part 2

Sorry, craziness on blogger. Here is the official part 2. Lovely time had by all. And rainbow to add.

Yes, they are hard to see, and yes that's mother nature

Tom and Marci are gone, oh, we're sad, but had a fabulous time.Went in super fast time! So trek up to Cumberland Pass via Taylor River and Taylor Reservoir. Lots of people everywhere - holiday weekend you know. We saw an unusual sight, young big horn sheep rams. They're all tagged, almost in the endangered category, with lots of groups trying to help the population along.

Hogtrough busy, and lots of fishermen on the reservoir. Wonderful weather and color starting in the trees. What's not to like?

I can assure you Tom is not about to jump

We promised a great view and spectacular drive.. Hopefully came through. 12,000 ft peaks and moose are around, 3 baby moose were seen here last week, but no sighting for us.

Open mine shaft right off the road. WHY is it not covered? Tom counted 10 seconds after a rock went down with bumps but then no noise. How deep? The second picture is of rock by the hole. Looks like copper - copper mine? Amazing to think of the men who went into the shafts for a living every day.

Finally made it to Montanya Rum. Yes, Heather! Fun place, great drinks and the rum is good. They are planning on distributing in 50 states and are close to completing.  Making 1,000 bottles a week.

Dinner at Soupcon was fabulous. It never disappoints. Ahh, the life.

Wildlife was a priority. No sightings of bear or elk, but lots of everything else, deer, coyote, fox, skunk. Love the magical mountains!

Adventures with Friends Part 2

And the visit with Tom and Marci is done - boo. 4 days of doing everything we could think of - went fast! So part 2 as promised.

Adventures with friends Part 1

Traffic in the road on the way to pick up friends at the airport

Cramming in as much as we can with our friends from Maryland, Tom and Marci. How do you make time slow down?

Went back up Brush Creek and had a magical couple hours with Mark and Tom fishing, and Marci and I enjoying the sunshine and mountain air. Different trout caught then last time. Cutthroat, cutbow, brown, and tiny amount of brook. They kept none, too bad.

Finished it off with a lunch at yes, of course, Secret Stash. Always consistently good  and always giantly stuffed afterwords.

He's not part of our group but we wish to aspire to his style

Three Rivers - elk burgers and barbecue - last weekend for lunch

Guys off fishing on the private water Mark has access to through his fishing club, and Marci and me off to shop. Which is more important here, a coin toss. Both had success, bargain shopping and lots of fish caught. Also managed to avoid a slightly agitated bull - the guys, not the girls...
No more time for posting. Be back with part 2. It involves wildlife, open mine shaft hole and dizzying heights (the excitement builds!)