The Saturday get-together

St Vrain State Park

What it sounds like at our house.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLm3oj1i5DE&feature=channel

 

A little more playing just because it’s cute…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qAw9lt2Ggs&feature=channel

 

 

100!

 

Today would have been Mom’s 100^th birthday.  Happy Birthday Mom.

 

 

And now.

Ready for the next adventure.

Resting up from the latest adventure.

Guanella Pass

Last weekend.

Tuesday

Had an 8 raptor day last Sunday:

Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Cooper’s Hawk
Swainson’s Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel

…and a few days before that, we got two Ferruginous Hawks!


They’ve been getting some weather in Port Aransas. We’re told they’ve had a foot and a half of rain over the last week. A couple days ago they got over 11 inches of rain in one day! Lots of flooding there. It’s dry here in Colorado.


That kestrel picture I sent out yesterday… He was standing on the ground, prey in his talons. A grasshopper. Fearsome predator that kestrel.


Found a snake underneath our picnic table this morning.


Judy had to wrangle it. I have no idea what’s up with that. She just can’t walk away from a snake.

American Kestrel

Matt and Lindsay

We helped them celebrate their engagement.

The wedding is planned for Next September.

Wobble

The freeway seemed a little rough leaving Becky’s house last Saturday. By the time we got to Santa Fe Drive, the road was even rougher. By the time we got to Chatfield, we could hear the noise the right rear wheel was making. We looked with a flashlight. Three lug nuts loose. The other two were entirely gone. We almost had a wheel fall off!

We applied the field-fix. We took one lug-nut from the left rear, and put it on the right rear. I jacked up the right side of the car, made sure the wheel was lined-up properly, and tightened everything. Now each rear wheel has four tight lug-nuts. The roads are significantly smoother than they were.

We’ll get the missing lug-nuts replaced at the Jeep Dealer in Longmont next week.

We moved back to St Vrain State Park.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=107013362562471418011.00047964b60d16d130156&ll=39.939225,-104.82605&spn=2.371092,7.113647&z=8

Here for two weeks.

Dirt dogs

The reason they need baths.

What's in a look?

We call Annie’s name to get her attention. She looks back.


A perfectly benign look, right?

Then we ask if she wants to come back to the house.

Practically the same look, but oh so different.

The Curtain Rule

The Curtain Rule in RVing: “Once you close the curtains at night, it doesn’t matter where you are.”

That might work for an overnight stop in a WalMart parking lot, but we don’t do overnight stops in WalMart parking lots. We tend to stop early in the day at a place that is interesting to us. I’m thinking back to our stay at the Jeffco Fairgrounds. The Curtain Rule didn’t work. We were there for three days. Every morning we opened the curtains and we were still there.



We’re glad to be back at Chatfield.

Tuesday

Nothing to report. I attended a continuing education class all day.

Here’s another high country photo. Goliath Natural Area.

Bath time at our house

After Labor Day

We pretty much have the campground and trails to ourselves most of the time. It gets busy Friday afternoons, then clears out again on Sunday.

Can you spot the...

…Mule deer buck in the forest?




Cooler days now; in the 70s and 80s. Cool nights. We run the furnace a little in the mornings to take the chill off.

We spotted a Great Horned Owl in the campground. We keep Henry really close when we’re outside at night.


Henry sits outside with us in the morning working out puzzles. He is currently determining if there is a difference between pebbles from the dirt and puppy kibble. The crunching continues. He’s still working on it.

Meanwhile, inside, he has discovered the toy box.

It’s a group effort to keep up with him.

Above the Bristlecone Pines

Higher up the slope last weekend. 14,000 feet. Mountain Goats on the tundra.

Chatfield State Park

We moved back to Chatfield on Monday.

Our front yard. The morning view. It’s quite a bit nicer than the fairgrounds.


Some nice old cottonwoods along the Highline Canal.

Surprise

 

Lunchtime walk.  Met another guy on the trail.  He told me about a bird.  Finished my walk quickly, to get back to Judy and the car.  We drove to the marina (five minutes away).  Walked out to the point and spotted two birders with scopes up, pointed right at the bird.  A walk-up lifer.  Little Gull!  Way out of range.  Hanging out with a bunch of Ring-billed Gulls.  The smallest gull.  Mostly a European and Asian bird.  Not one a person would expect to find in Colorado.  Glad he stopped by, though. 

 

 

Bristlecone Pines

At treeline, on the drive up Mount Evans, between 11,000 and 12,000 feet, there is a Bristlecone Pine forest. These low growing stunted trees are a thousand years old.

It's a boy!

Meet Henry


He’s a Cavapoo. Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and Poodle. Eleven weeks old.


First a stop at PetsMart to pick up some puppy stuff.


Followed by a quick nap.

Two hours later we were up behind Mount Evans hiking.