Life and its mysteries

A quick and short post. My father passed away yesterday and is finally at peace. Everyone is coping and life will go on. Thanks everyone for the well wishes! Life does throw curves at all of us.

Tree in Mom's neighborhood

Mark is back from the first week of the new job. Looks very good so far! We have family coming in next week, and in the meantime Mark will be off on another business trip while dropping me off at Mom's for a few days. Winter is not far away here, so we are enjoying lovely weather in the meantime.

Bye, bye aspen leaves, elk, and marching to winter

We are back from a quick visit to CO Springs to see Mom and Dad. Dad is not doing well and it's quite difficult at this point. All I can say is thank God for hospice. They are a wonderful organization that strives to provide quality of life at the end of life.

We stopped at Rudy's barbecue on the way into CO Springs to pick up brisket to bring to Mom and Dad's. Yummy stuff and we know of them from Texas. Texas barbecue is the best!

Dusting of snow happened while we were away, and as usual, while weather was calm everywhere else, the big boy Monarch Pass was 27 degrees, snowy, icy slush on the road at the top and snow plows working. Wow, precursor of things to come...

Last of the fall leaves and snow on the peaks at the same time.  Oct. is marching on.

The most amazing thing happened on my walk this morning. A herd of at least 30 elk ran across the road in front of me. Of course I had the camera at the ready - I stood still and snapped pictures as the bulls, cows, and half grown babies thundered by. I think they'd been spooked elsewhere by hunters. It is that time of year.
As quickly as we got back home, Mark has left again, this time to St. Louis. A new job awaits! Apparently, he's not ready to leave the workforce just yet. He'll be working from home part of the time, with travel to a number of cities. Let the games begin again...

Deer, grouse, rum, miners cabins, and end of fall

Sooo much fun with our great friend Marci. Weather was terrific and the last of the leaves waited to turn while she was here. Deer everywhere. Missed you Tom!

And the cows were on the move again... This time on the road from CB to Gunnison. Better not be in a hurry to get anywhere.

Lunch at Ryce with great Asian spicy. Marci loved her eggplant dish. A new nutritional category, if you're not aware.

The DRINK

On Marci's list was a repeat visit to Montanya Rum. Maharajah drink is to die for, hopefully not literally. It sells twice as much as any of their other great drinks. Marci has tried to copy it, and I just found out Heather has too. Neither was quite satisfied with the result. We picked the brain of Will, distiller extraordinaire, and along with a great tour, he checked the recipe to make sure it was accurate. Small tweeking needed. They are down to 9 states needed to complete entire US distribution.

traffic

Walking through the woods with the last leaves dropping and deer everywhere lazily eating and laying down resting before moving to lower ground. Time is coming soon. And a group of dusky grouse appeared, plodding along, good thing for them you can't hunt here. they'd be goners.

Marci and I went to take a look at the old miners cabins. Wow, hard to imagine how they lived in that time, surviving the minus zero degree COLD. Again, very sad these are falling down with no stop in sight, but isn't it always the land that's left anyway...

Gold leaves in the air

Wind, wind, wind has been the word for the last few days. It's blown off the majority of the leaves and many of us are scrambling to do winter prep things. Lowest temps coming so far - supposed to be 20 degrees tonight - ooh. So outside water needs to be turned off, hoses unscrewed, and those crazy hanging baskets are done tonight, I'm pretty sure. New ones next summer!

Went to Gunnison to celebrate a birthday (Steve) and say goodby for the season to good friends. Steve and Gail are going back to their other home and we won't see them until May. 5 months went by in a flash. New restaurant ( for the four of us anyway, it's been open awhile) Twisted Fork. American Asian Fusion is what they call the cuisine. Big success as we shared the food and liked it all. We'll be back...

I took this photo on my morning walk 4 days ago and it was blown away the next morning. Gotta be quick on the camera trigger finger around here.

So this is our cabin (well half of it anyway). Anyone want to stay there when we're too full up? Really, its so sad all the old mining cabins at Star Mt., aka Baldwin, are disintegrating all around us. We didn't know half this cabin was on our property until this year - we might have tried to do something to shore it up before now.

Like snow but gold leaves instead

We have company coming, our friend Marci flies in for a few days. It'll be fun, but a tad chilly. Hope she's ready!

Ohio Creek

deer are still around but not for long

Finished two more books: Wild Strawberries by Angela Thirkell, which was okay, not my style - surprising really as it was British country life in the 1930's, and Guardian of the Horizon by Elizabeth Peters, always entertaining archeological mystery stories.
Fishing report:  Mark's been out a couple of times with good luck on the Gunnison the first time, not so much the second. Water very low, and the Taylor to be "turned down" one more time for winter. Everyone's hoping for big snow, or at least normal snowfall this winter. Is there a snow dance to do?

Bugling elk, cattle drive, and falling leaves

October already - where did the time go? Crisp air, every variety of apple for sale, golden leaves blowing in the wind - aahh...

I know I've talked about this before, but in fact, our only traffic jams are cowboys moving cattle. Really. An out of town friend recently said to me, "You know, when you say the cowboys came and moved the cows out of Star Mt., it's not normal. The rest of us live in the city."
Okay, get that. But it's a reality here, case in point, yesterday leaving Star Mt. I noticed "evidence"(cow poop in large quantities) on the road, relieved I was going the opposite direction for a dentist appt. Met them anyway coming back hours later  from the other direction. Very friendly cowboys though, just telling me to drive slooowly through them. Gotta love it.

The pace has changed here, people are starting to talk about snow and the ski season to come. October is traditionally a month of change, leaves falling and snow coming down in little bits, just a teaser... We have fires going in the fireplace every morning now. And no worries about wood supply - 11 cords here (multi year supply). Anyone need any?

Elk have returned to Star Mt. I awoke to bugling and thought it was a trick of sound that it appeared so close, but jumped to the window after the second noise. A dozen or so were running across the bottom of our hill to the woods on the other side. Missed the head guy though, think he was at the head of his harem. Hope to see him - heard him in the woods this morning on my walk, bugling a warning that I, the nasty human, was close by. It is a big month for hunting, and they know it's protected on Star Mt. (except for the common ground across the road) and our neighboring ranch.