Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Fall color spectacular is beginning

Emerald Lake
Busy trying to fit lots of fun things in before the leaves are done and friends have gone back to their permanent homes.

We had a great time serving friends Gail and Steve, Mark's paella. He is quite the cook and for extra fun he christened his new chef's outfit. Check out those chili pepper pants!

Decided to go up the mountain (Ohio Pass)and have a cookout dinner. "Our" camping place was taken, so we went further up and found a great new place. And having a lovely steak dinner sans the actual camping out is sooo easy. The cows were a tad concerned though...

And the fall color is arriving. Gorgeous every which way. And as usual Star Mt. will be a little bit behind - why I don't know. Spectacular season.

We jeeped over Schofield Pass and Paradise Divide stopping at Emerald Lake. This is for you Tiffany and Chris!

Bonez- home of fabulous unique small tacos
Crested Butte is close to back to normal after the Whatever Budlight extravaganza, although the street is scraped but still remnants of blue. Heather and Jay, Bonez is back to normal. Fun you were part of the splash.

Paul and Sherry arrive on Sat. Fun times will be had without a doubt!

Friday, September 12, 2014

Golden meadows, crystal clear starry nights, and animals afoot

It's all about the animals. Changes of behavior are a precursor to full blown fall. We are edging ever closer to freezing temps - soon...


The deer are active munching away at the grass that's left. All are turning gray by the minute. Flap and twins have been around most days. The little girl has turned gray, but little boy and Flap have not.
The ever curious Flap
Newsflash - our neighbor Glenn on "our" side of Star Mt. saw a mountain lion running across the road close to his house. Wow, keeping a sharp eye out.

A new found area just outside the city limits while searching for a gun sighting in area. Hunting term- for Mark, not me. Anyway, looks like we're back in the 1800's don't you think?

hawk perched on our gate


Mommy and baby great horned owl- these looked much scarier than "ours".
Birds are out and about, although the hummingbirds are all but gone. And Penny and Granddaddy's deck feeding of the ground squirrel was apparently his goodbye meal. No ground squirrels just little chippies still around.

big coyote watching me on my hike

On the continuing animal front, we are minus one rather nasty packrat. It appears to be the only one, thank goodness. A friend's live trap did the trick...
And Mark is meeting with professional trappers as I write, as the beavers on the creek have not gone away despite Mark's efforts to break up their dam building blocking the headgate.

The elk are more visible now, although they haven't shown back up at Star Mt. yet. And no more bear sightings to date, but they are around and voraciously eating to bulk up for winter. Still lots of time to see one or another, in Mark's case.

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Family visit part two

And they're all gone, boo. Our family week has come to an end after lots of fun and activities. First, fairy princess action.

Next, first bike ride. Must admit though, even without pedals it takes a bit of balancing.

And then a fishing trip to the trout pond. No fish caught but had a fun time anyway.
Upon arriving we disturbed a resident geese family

Penny learning to cast
Juliet doing what she does best - wiggle
Notice Heather has taken over Penny's rod...
Playing in the dirt won out over fishing
Juliet loves her Aunt Heather
In the meantime the crazy national promotion and commercial shoot that Budlight put on for the weekend is over. 1100 twenty somethings showed up and took over Crested Butte. Seriously, the town was closed to outsiders with this Whatever USA promo and everything in sight was painted blue, free beer (Budlight of course) was everywhere and live concerts on the main street.  The closest Mark and I got were the charters at the airport. Our little Gunnison airport has never seen anything like this!

And yet another playground, Gunnison this time. Penny beelined to the purple dinosaur - of course.

Gigantic playset, could be anxiety for even adults at the top of this one


Heather and I zipped up Mill Creek to snap a few pictures. Guaranteed to be pretty summer or winter
And more cute kid pics. I know, I'm out of control. Can't help it!

Fall color is beginning. In a couple of weeks it will be blazing with gold, orange, and red everywhere. And we do have more family visiting in a couple of weeks - Paul and Sherry. Yippee!