Sparkly, pristine, pure white snow

Warm spell going on here - 22 degrees today. yes, I know that sounds absolutely freezing, but in the land of no humidity, it's not. Perfect to go play outside. We live in a world of magical white.

Lots of animal tracks in my tracks on the snowshoe trail. Also pee markings - I think a sign of approval. Fun to imagine all the travelings back and forth in the night.

The first Monday night Gunnison History class was really great. Professor Vandenbusche is a long time, multi published, and big personality faculty member at Western.No doubt we will learn a lot. Surprise though, there is reading homework, there will be a paper due, and here I thought extended studies meant sit through some lectures and slide shows. Ha. Quite a few regular students taking this for credit as well (and have more requirements then the rest of us). And let's not forget I am in the midst of genetics and evolution class. Must be a throwback to "real" school when I sort of panicked over the first graded problem sets. Figured it all out in the end (although I don't have my grade results yet). Honestly, I am loving this experience and the format of these MOOC classes is fantastic. And I have one more starting in 2 weeks. Philosophy from University of Edinburgh with 80,000 of my closest friends. Yes, am aware I'm just a tad in overboard mode.

Speaking of a learning mode, I want to share some interesting info we learned about in the Gunnison area a few months ago. Surprise to us, there is a substantial population of Cora Indians living in our area.  Never heard of them? Nor had we, so I looked them up.  They come from a remote mountainous area in western Mexico. Came to our area to have a better life, and are some of the hardest working people around. The difficulty lies in the fact that they do not speak English nor Spanish, just Cora. There are other Latino people in our area, mestizo, but they are not, in any way, the same. So programs have been set up to help everyone get along. Always the way, isn't it.

Beauty in every direction. Still a long time before winter is over. Big snow through March, sometimes even April...

Cold, bread, icicles, and cows

January is the coldest month here. And this year is no different. Today the high reached 3, really. And that's from a low of -17. A warming trend is coming Wed with a high of 25 - practically beach weather.

I think the cold has caused some kind of frantic cooking spell on my part. Some great new dishes have come out of this. A butternut squash/ kale pasta recipe, really good and healthy, a mushroom and fresh thyme soup, good and also healthy, while tasting creamy and high fat, made with chicken stock and low fat milk, and my most fun thing yet - homemade cinnamon walnut, raisin, cranberry bread. No-knead, really easy, you just need a cast iron pot with a lid for the blazing hot temps that make the fantastic crust. Yummy. The soup and the bread recipes come from a blog I've started following. Forkontheroadblog.com. She's a chef who has a street crepe and waffle stand at various markets etc. in Vermont, splitting her time between there and their renovated country home in France. Sounds nice yes?

Good thing we have giant piles of wood. We continue to go through enormous amounts every day.

Genetics and Evolution class is still going well. I do have problem sets to submit that are graded this time. And this weeks lectures were on genetics 101, as in genes, mitosis, etc. Oh, boy...

We had some snow a couple days ago and our neighbor who we've hired to plow our driveway promptly came over. Very cold of course, and he did a great job until his engine kept died. Out came the jumper cables. I don't know, we may have to consider a heavy duty snow blower next year.

The cows the last few days have frost on their backs. Now that's cold...

Off to the History of Gunnison Cty class at Western State. Can't get used to calling it a university, but that's what it is now.

Winter and little bits of other stories

It is snowing as I write this. Lite snow but more to come and bitter cold following, in for the weekend. After my snowshoeing the last few days the trail was nicely packed down - not so now. No trace what so ever of the path, animal tracks, nada. We'll be starting all over...

We shiver, build lovely fires inside, drink spiced tea, and the cows eat, drink, and sleep outside. Even in -20. The cowboys drop hay for them every morning and that's apparently all they need. This also goes for the horses, goats, sheep, and any other animals the ranchers and farmers keep all winter. Harsh...

So speaking of animals, want to share some information I  found out some months ago. Pronghorn aka Antelope. They're a big deal in Colorado and we enjoy seeing herds of them from time to time.Here's the funny thing, there are NO antelope in North America. These beautiful animals have been misnamed for at least 130 years, probably longer, and it seems to have started with the man who wrote Home on the Range.Which is actually the state song of Kansas, who knew, and written by a Dr. Brewster Higley in 1876 - you know the one, "Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam, Where the deer and the antelope play," etc. Perhaps he was distracted with his 5 wives and drinking problem, nonetheless, its been engrained in our heads for a long time. There's a movement out here to correct all of us, but I can tell you pronghorn does not come off the tongue easily.

I do not have jury duty and very happy about that. Was dismissed Wednesday - bless those 14 that are left to decide the verdict in the probably 5 week murder trial. I hasten to add the murder did not happen in our county, was just moved here. We're still a land of mostly petty crimes, thank goodness.

snow ribbon

red tail hawk nest - winter empty

More snowshoeing photos. It is the quietest place, our woods, only snowshoes can be heard crunching on the snow - stop and not a single sound , only pure silence.
My online genetics and evolution class is going well so far. Only practice homework the first week, we'll how I feel this second week. The video lectures have been fascinating - learned a lot already. Next class is a live one - history of Gunnison County at Western State through April. Mark and I are both taking it on Monday nights. What's with all this learning stuff? Don't know, could call it New Year's resolutions, except I never make any...

Cold and playing in the snow

All about reentry here. Goodness it's been cold. Deep in the minus for lows- 17-24 below. All the temp stations are different, so hard to be precise - really what difference does it make - just COLD! We have been cozy by the fire, going out for snowshoeing in the heat of the day and nice solar action. The coyote and fox have been in our tracks through the woods in the night, fun.

Had a rare badger sighting on the way to the mailbox (which is 2 miles from the house). They generally stay in tunnels underground, so must be quite hungry. Quite awkward lumbering down the road, hard to believe they're so ferocious.

busy up on Mt Crested Butte too

We went for a cross country ski lesson today. Thought we'd come out experts in the hour. Um, not so...  little matter of technique to be mastered. Great instructor, but it's quite different from downhill and even showshoeing. Think it will be great - just need to practice. The Nordic center in CB was crazy busy - it's got tons of groomed trails, ice rink, lessons on everything under the sun except downhill, and apparently lots of hockey going on. Exuberant group of quite young boys were gathering for the next game. Had lunch first at Ryce for energy, good thing, it was quite the workout.

"our " old miner's cabin - half of it anyway

Other news, my evolution and genetics online class has started. Very excited about it, and the initial lectures were fascinating and quite well done. Beware, I may be sharing new found knowledge with you down the road. Little nervous about the weekly problems (homework!) and the upcoming mid-term and final exams. Heavens, it's been a long bunch of years since I had any of this. 20,000 students ended up signing up for the class. Everyone had to sign an honor code and if you get on the discussion boards and talk about the exams, you're out.  Amazing isn't it, when there is no cost, and you do not get college credit for this, people will still try to find a way to cheat. WHY?

horses with their loafing shed ( new term I learned this past year)

Mark leaves Monday on a business trip (CES in Las Vegas) and I must report for possible jury duty. Could be weeks of trial if  I'm picked. I'll let you know...
And books read - Diane Keaton's memoir Then Again (really good) and The Richard Burton Diaries (really bad), and another one in the series The Accusers by Lindsey Davis (great as usual).

Happy New Year!

Another year done, and this one went by in a flash. Some good, some not so good things - normal I guess. We are back at Star Mt. after our whirlwind 7 weeks away. It's quite the shock after 80 degrees in Naples now to minus temps. I think it was -10 last night. Hurray for cozy fires in the fireplace, down comforters, and electric heat. Lots of animal tracks in the snow (we have about 2 feet everywhere) but no sightings yet.

Not unhappy just serious about the brie

The Plaza - thanks for the photo Lisa!

Our car trip was good, with stops at our destination restaurants (Original Oyster House - Mobile, and McBrides in Wichita Falls, TX). We added on a Santa Fe stop  to visit family. Didn't get to see everyone- Charles was down with a nasty stomach virus that had already blazed through other family members. Crossing fingers noone else will get it. We did have a wonderful dinner at Pasquals with Nancy, Lisa, and our newly engaged Chase and Heli. So nice to meet her!

deck before Mark's snowblowing

Blazing that trail

Busy at the house, unpacking those Florida clothes and stashing them high in the closet. We won't need those for many months. Mark blowing snow off the deck, bringing firewood up, and starting the snowshoeing trail through the woods. Lot of work this snowshoeing and massive calories burned (Mark looked it up -1,000 calories for a man for an hour exertion). Not fair, but my calorie burn is 775 for the same...

Had to include a photo of my fabulous Christmas present from Mark. Stopped at the gallery in Madrid (close to Santa Fe) to pick it out. Bronze ram sculpture by Jill Shwaiko. Love, love her work. I am a sucker for art above most other things, as it turns out...

sunrise

New adventure starting this Friday - I enrolled in a MOOC (massive open online course) that starts Friday, with my second in a couple weeks. They are free, done through highly acclaimed universities, and are promoting democratic learning. Sounds like fun to me, although if there's lots of homework, we'll see. First up is Genetics and Evolution from Duke University (17,000 people signed up) and then Philosophy from University of Edinburgh (70,000 people signed up!) I went through Coursera if anyone's interested. I'll keep you updated.
Happy New Year and peace and good wishes to all.