End of Virginia trip, wildlife drama, and crazy intense hike

Back to the gorgeous mountains but missing those girlies. Happily they'll come this way the end of the summer along with their parents and Heather and Jay. Great fun will be had...

Some end of Virginia visit photos.I loved being there for summer time fun: the pool and adventure trip to the strawberry farm. A long way out but in the end worth it. Penny loved picking the berries and then loved eating them more. And Heather was able to stop over for a nice visit after all.

Love these girls so much.

Can you believe that baby did not come out after Mark opened the gate!

Back here we've had save wildlife drama. 6am lots of mama elk and babies headed into our woods. One mama stayed behind and went the opposite direction to our new neighbors house. Mark realized there was a baby behind their fence not able to get out. The drama ensued. Mama pacing, baby pacing, Mark jumping into the jeep and zooming over to open the gates. Still, baby could not figure out how to get out and went to hide in the bushes. Humans (us) having a fit too, builders arrive disrupting everything further, sending the mama up the hill. We hurried back over to the house, enlisted the builders help, scared the baby out of the bushes and she/he finally just crashed through the fence up the hill to the waiting mama. Ah, a satisfactory end.

The steers are in the common ground soon to be roaming all over the rest of Star Mt. They're enjoying making a mess around the newly stocked trout pond right now. Mark keeps catching them and they are quite fat. Hand feeding and lots of natural insects etc. are a winning combo apparently.

the start of the giant uphill climb

the group

Razor Edge Dome 11,500

Indian hunting barricade to force big horn sheep off the cliff

culturally scarred  trees by ancient Indians - who knew

atlati - predates bow and arrow

And then there was the all day archaeology hike with the extended studies program at the university. Oh, boy I would like to say it was great, inspiring, stimulating, informative. Hmmm, not so much. Let me just say it's a long time established program every summer and we've heard tremendous things, but this was a new one and I think our leader was inexperienced. Very strenuous hike to see - a pile of rocks. Not as advertised, nor was the hike accurately described. Ended up 5 miles, 2000' vertical and 11,500 ft. No wonder we had a tough time! Looked at a few things on the way back, but I think we'll sign up for the professors that we know next time...

Hiking and those precious girlies Penny and Juliet

This is a combo post of sorts including our last hike on Snodgrass before I left for Virginia. We marched up the mountain ,or a portion of it, and realized we have a long way to go before being ready for the first 14er or the 12 mile hike from CB to Aspen. We're seriously working at it though, well when I get back :)

And onto my joyous time with Miss Penny and little Miss Juliet. Only two days left! Oh my, those girls are growing up waaayy too fast.

Summer in full swing here and so far lots and lots of rain. Hoping to enjoy the community pool before going home. Mark's been busy with home projects and golf back at Star Mt. Time is rushing by too fast!

Let me tell you 'bout the birds and the bees, and the flowers and the trees

So much blooming and so much life exploding here. We have two bluebird nests, one with baby birds chirping. the other under construction, and of course the slightly deranged robins. I am staying away from this area as much as possible. The hummingbirds are right on schedule with a lull at the feeders while they feast on the massive amount of wildflowers and build their nests.

The elk are around every corner in singles with babies appearing. As I walk most of the time in the morning when you are most likely to see them I've had to change my route multiple times to avoid very upset elk mothers. They sort of honk at you when they're in their protective mode. Soon they will, at some mysterious signal, gather back together with all the babies and disappear until fall. Happens like clockwork every year. We love seeing the babies and so far we have one not very good photo. Because of that, I have posted two pictures from last June that I took from our living room windows at the bottom of this series. Magic...

Leery mama

Baby way upper left

Another mama this morning heading for her baby in our woods

The flowers are amazing more popping out every day. Wild iris are out, sunflowers are starting and lupine and larkspur still going strong. Plus the dandelions, fields and fields of them. Apparently they are wonderful for our bees, and no one seems to mow them down, so helping in this bad time for bees with colony collapse and wild species nearing extinction. Food for thought, scientists now think the systemic pesticides put in seedlings and plants sold in nurseries may be a major factor. Of course I read this after we bought our hanging baskets and flowers for the deck. Whoops, try for organic next time...

Trout pond going smoothly. There have been no dead fish sightings and they are quite lively at feeding time. Mark has tried to use his fly rod out there once so far, with no luck yet. It may be a salmon egg pond, we'll see. There are certainly a lot of creatures already living in it, salamanders, tadpoles, and leeches of all things, ick.

The deer are everywhere, and many more young bucks than I remember in the past few years. Can't imagine why.

Projects are slowly being completed around here. One particularly nasty one was getting the gravel out of the grasses that had been flung there by snow removal equipment, and back onto the driveway. Many hours of manual labor with shovel and rake, at least I didn't need to worry about using my weights (which I do not like at all).

"Our" historic mining cabin -half is anyway, wow, every winter condenses it further

Late breaking news, Mark just got back from the trout pond and this time caught 3 good size rainbows. So all is good over there (and of course he threw them back - trying not to keep them, since they will not reproduce).
Off to dinner in Gunnison at a new place, Blue Mesa Grill, which is getting some very good reviews. And I will need to do some packing tomorrow. I leave for Virginia for a week, with a short side trip to CO Springs to visit George and Linda, on Monday. I'm coming Penny and Juliet!!

A thousand things with quick family visit

Castle Mt. looking quite like Ireland

An amazing amount has gone on the last few days. We're just coming up for air today. We had spur of the moment company over the weekend (Lisa and Charles) and definitely made the most of it. So great they're just a few hours away!

Before company arrived we went up to Taylor Reservoir to do a bit of fishing in the one man inflatable (Mark) and some watercolor painting (me). Mark caught 3 trout in short order and we had them for dinner. Baked with fresh thyme, onion, chopped fresh jalapeno, and a little white wine. Yum.

Mark, Linda (neighbor and my fellow board member), and I behind the camera, ready for the "dumping"

170 10-16" trout came shooting out of the tube

Next, trout stocking in the 2 acre pond that sits on Star Mt. common ground. The truck came over from Monte Vista with a very enthusiastic driver. He delivers trout all day every day and loves his job. Nice. Mark has taken on the pond and the creek restoration (soon to start) behind it on as a project. Lots of people excited about having a viable fishing creek and fun fishing in the pond for our community.

Majestic Teocalli - jumped out to snap this photo on the way to CB

Secret Stash oh yes

Third Bowl homemade ice cream - a must!

Lisa, Charles and I zipped up to Crested Butte to play. Mark had a two day golf tournament so he missed the food and fun part.

Yes, we are back at the pond, this time to do the first trout feeding and Lisa and Charles wanted to observe.Who knew Ace hardware had trout food? For the first couple weeks, you're supposed to throw food every other day hopefully in the same spot and time so they become "trained". They were very slow to respond at first but by the end were thrashing around it.

Went back into CB the next day and tried out the new Paradise Cafe for breakfast. Another crazy switch in restaurants - this town seems to have this happen all the time. New owners and has gone in where East End Bistro was. I will be kind here, it's never a good idea to go to a restaurant that has just opened. Too many things to work out, so we will reserve judgement for another time.

Loaded up the jeep with branches for a Lisa painting project

We took Lisa and Charles on a mini jeep ride up Carbon Creek Rd. It's literally 5 minutes from us but feels a world away. There was a giant landslide sometime over the winter which I tried to capture. Did not do it justice as the scale is just too big.

Lisa and Charles have gone back to Santa Fe. Good times with precious family...