Jeeping and the joys of summer

We went jeeping on the Alpine Loop - Engineer Pass side that ended at the cute town of Silverton for lunch. Haven't done it in 4 years. It was spectacular as always.

one of 21 avalanches we saw on our trek. From winter before last.

Lost it's top in the avalanche (see below)

This was massive mining territory in the late 1800's. Ruins everywhere. Don't know how the miners managed to survive the harsh winters.

For sale- but would you want to traverse the bridge?

The Rock in all its glory

The miracle of life right in the middle of  these immense peaks

On top it was freezing and 40 mile an hour winds

The alpine tundra is truly gorgeous. Beauty that survives under harsh conditions.

On a more domestic note, I have just replaced Scooby (the original mopping floor robot) with Scooby2. Old Scooby made a good run - 8 years but finally bit the dust and has been discontinued. This new one is a trip - wifi enabled, goes to its docking station when finished and I think it's going to be a lovely relationship.

Voila - a protected herb garden. Mark built this screen frame so our little creatures can visit but not eat.

Happy 4th of July! Be safe be well.

Bear, One Way, flowers, and dry-aged beef

Surprise- I'm back again. Grand there's so much to blog about here at Star Mt. You will see the bear photos above and below. We were on Ohio Pass for the first time this season and lo and behold our first bear sighting of the summer. Scared him up a tree - I've seen claw marks on trees but never before actual animal climbing.

Lots happening in town - CB that is. Restaurants flinging open their doors and adding tables out on the street. The main drag (Elk Ave) has been turned into a one way, one lane road to allow for more pedestrians and restaurants able to serve outside which is the safer option right now). We've made it to Secret Stash once for outside lunch. Caution is the key. And fyi Secret Stash and others have been literally feeding those in need with a weekly farmers market type set up for months now. Bravo. We will support all those restaurants gladly.

It's just gorgeous every direction now. Our flowers are peak or just past - Star Mt. is always earlier than other areas. We'll do some exploring soon to investigate.

still a little snow on Carbon Peak

Here is the new patio. We expect to get a lot of use out of it. The animals are not so sure. Keeping a wide berth so far, and since we just planted flowers that are supposedly deer resistant, probably not a bad idea.

Normal changes around here. The cattle are in, 120 or so, and everyone had to run and close their gates. They're here until early October. Ahh the joys of manure in the road...

Annual window washing happened thank goodness. Can you believe we tried to do this ourselves when we moved in 11 years ago. A bit of insanity there...

We dry age beef, did you know? So easy - cheesecloth, small rack, and stored in the frig. We started doing this many years ago with great success and then couldn't find the time or the right kind of beef, who knows...  Anyway grand success - 28 days. There's a lot of waste as you can see.  I think is part of the crazy cost to buy dry aged, which of course now is completely ridiculous due to all the virus, meat packing plant situation.

That's it for now. As always these days, wishes for everyone to be safe and healthy.

Joyous summer in the mountains

We're in fantasy land here and it feels fine. Grateful every minute for the magnificence that is Star Mt. No surge of coronavirus in our area or in the state at this point. I think these are such extraordinary times and you just have to try and do your best to live life and be safe. The towns (CB and Gunnison) are taking the masks and social distancing very seriously. Noone wants a surge here.

The creature report: deer everywhere, saw my first fawn of the season, the tiny thing clearly had just been born - it could barely stand up. No photo even though I had my camera - it just seemed wrong to disturb the anxious mother. We've had a couple fox sightings - this one is pretty lean from the winter. Needs to fatten up I think. The hummingbirds are insane. I'm boiling up sugar water at a rapid pace every day. We have 4 feeders and they are maxed out.

The flowers are quite spectacular right now with everything blooming much earlier than usual. One of my favorites -the state flower - Columbine is just out. Usually blooming in early July.

we had snow the day after I took this

same mountain range- lot more snow!

We are spending lots of time on home projects as the house seems to require a lot of maintenance and manual labor. Mark, now retired for 6 months, is spending giant amounts of time catching up on projects he couldn't get to before. Sanding and repainting deck chairs, stripping and restaining our 1000 sq ft deck, mowing our wild grass around the house. Hoping he doesn't burn himself out. I'm not shirking work either - we just had a patio built close to our woods and much disturbed area to repair, move rock, shoveling, raking, reseeding grass, and adding plants. Crossing fingers the deer will leave the new plantings alone but history says they may eat it all - especially Flap who is well known for eating things no other deer will touch.

Back to Star Mt.

Magic times at Star Mt. How lovely it is to be back. Life feels so normal here and peaceful. In town it's a bit different - masks on and social distancing. Our little area was hit hard by the virus and all precautions are in place. Numbers are small right now and have not gone back up so far - crossing fingers.

Flap

Saw Flap the very first day we were back. So happy to see her. Quite the elderly doe at this point - at least 12 years old. Good for her Lots of animals out and about: deer,elk, grouse, plus a first time visit from a bear dumped over  community trash bins. Hummingbirds came back right away and we have had to put up all four feeders. Could be a busy summer.

Flowers are out two weeks early this year. "Normal" winter and snowfall so hard to say why.

A lot of trout were delivered to our community pond. We lost all the previous fish over the winter, just as we had the winter before. Sad. We have already deepened the pond so next is probably an aerator. Feeding the newly arrived fish for a couple weeks lands in our lap.  It's  kind of semi nasty pellets - just ground up other fish, corn meal, and who knows...

We happened to arrive in Crested Butte at the very moment the graduation car parade started. All graduations everywhere are a strange affair in this time of the virus. Crested Butte school is a national award winning one and has a graduating class of 45. Small town living.

Dusky Grouse

Thrilled to be here even if it means outdoor celebrations are cancelled and visitors are few and far between. Nature rules here and it's gorgeous.

Musings and time to go back to Star Mountain

Another month has gone by since I posted. March and April were the slowest two months of my life - was it the same for everyone else?

We leave next week for Star Mt. as second home owners are now let back in with no restrictions. Excited to get there but a bit anxious about the trip. Oh yes, it's flying and a rental car and masks. Sounds like a party right?

Summer heat has arrived in Naples which means no more sliders open to the fresh air but the crowds have mostly left so things are quiet. We do have some stragglers staying for some unknown time as their northern homes are still reeling in a big way from COVID-19.  We just ventured out for our first restaurant meal in months. A favorite sushi place at an outside table. They took our temperature as we walked in. First time for that but I think we better get used to it.

Our beaches are open, sort of. They did open, then closed (due to a giant pile of Miami people racing over since their beaches were still closed), and have no reopened with big restrictions. Strict enough I don't care to go. No chairs, no umbrellas, no coolers. Soooo not much to do except walk and I'd rather do my morning walk in my neighborhood.

Since I posted our new grandson Braden James was born. Happily everything went well (super fast) and all is good. Joy for these times. We have 4 grandkids now (3 girls, 1 boy)  - amazing!

All photos are from times before. It gives me a warm feeling and optimism for the future - hope it does for you as well. Be well be safe. Until next time.