Home

So for all intents and purposes, this blog was supposed to be about the building of our new straw bale home.  However as I've written before, the current U.S. economy brought that dream to a screeching halt and added a few more years onto an already anguished wait.

 

Yesterday I took the "kids" up to the property.  It is, after all, only about 4 miles from this very spot.  But sometimes it seems to hard to make the time.  Yesterday, though, I made it a point to make the time.  Especially since we had such a fierce wind-storm earlier in the week, I wanted to make sure everything was OK up on the property.

There was a fresh blanket of white laying on the mountain range to our west.  The Spanish Peaks had snow above the tree line.  The brilliant white was a vivid contrast to the electric blue of the sky. 

The dogs and I walked our building site and then up the driveway to a spot that has a majestic view.  I could hear the breeze through the trees and the calls of the birds.  Occasionally a jet would fly by way, way overhead. 

And then it hit me.

While I've been selfishly lamenting the delay of our house, my wonderful husband has been working hard to make what we already have into a home.  He has spent many back-breaking hours clearing the circle in the driveway.  He's dragged probably tons of rocks to make steps and paths throughout our land.  He's made rock walls, sitting areas and drainage canals.  He's even set our yard decorations artfully and playfully about.  All these things make a space a home. 

I love him so much and I'm so blessed that he loves me, too.

Winter is Coming

This morning I awoke to find the needle on the thermometer hovering right around 28 degrees.   Brrrr!  They said that it would be a cold night both last night and again tonight.  Whoever "they" are -- apparently they're right. 

Les left for California early Sunday morning.  Just a few short hours went by before I realized that I missed him already.  I wasn't sure what to do with myself on Sunday.  So I took a nap and watched movies.  Sounded like a good idea. 

Then later that afternoon my friend Joelle, her mom Yolande and I took a drive up Highway 12.  I've already written about how spectacular Highway 12 is and this day was no exception.  We turned off of the road just before Stonewall to see the elk.  Joelle told me about a couple of times she drove up that road to see literally thousands of elk gathering to "sort things out" about who was going to be with whom this season... if you get my drift. 

I think we could have gone up a few weeks earlier and had more success because we saw only one herd of elk.  Standing in the valley before us and quite some distance away, was a group of about 30-35 elk.  They stood in a very tight circle and standing off to one side was a magnificent buck.  Things had already been sorted out as far as he was concerned.  He was keeping his herd together and from what we saw, there was nothing to dispute.  This was his herd and that was that.

As we drove further up the valley we saw many groups of deer and a couple groups of turkeys.  Now what do you call a group of turkeys anyway?  A herd?  A gaggle?  A troupe?  That's what I think I'll call it -- a troupe of turkeys. 

Unfortunately I was not able to get a good picture of the elk and only a so-so picture of some deer.  Too bad, too.  My camera has died and all I have is my iPhone to shoot all of my pictures with.  It's good in a pinch, but it sure doesn't have the quality that my camera had.

Regardless, the fall leaves were spectacular.  The serenity of the mountains was calming.  Watching Mother Nature do her thing is just something I've missed for so long.

Puppy Joy

Did you ever wish you had been born a dog?  Sometimes dogs just seem to have it made.  Their people feed them, pet them,  clean up after them and all they need to do in return is eat, sleep, bark at the mailman and be cute. 

Mindy is just such a dog.  Schultz is now the now the older, wiser, more mellow guy.  Mindy, however, is a bouncy, carefree pup.  She doesn't walk anywhere -- she runs.  Her life's goal is to have as much fun as any dog can possibly have.  She harasses Schultz to no end.  To watch him walk down the sidewalk one wonders at the patience he has with this young ball of energy.  She dances from one side of his face to the other, but he passively endures her goofiness and only occasionally let's her know "ENOUGH!"

Being a rescue, you never really know the dog's history.  Mindy was picked up as a stray in town, but it's very apparent at this point that whoever threw her away never abused her otherwise.  We're pretty certain that she's never had a hand raised to her and I think that's one the reason she's so carefree.  This dog doesn't have a worry in the world.

Yesterday she saw the vet to be spayed.  That really took the wind out of her sails.  She was so sick yesterday after her surgery.  And as she slowly walked the few steps she did she looked pathetic with her head hanging low.  Then this morning she was up and ready to be her usual self again.  You'd almost never know she had surgery yesterday.

And tonight, Daddy's girl is sleeping peacefully in Daddy's lap.  Schultz is sleeping peacefully on the floor.  And soon we'll be sleeping peacefully in bed.  Good night to all.

Fall Colors

The other day Les and I took a drive on our favorite road.  Highway 12, otherwise knows as "The Highway of Legends," has some very beautiful scenery.  And with fall firmly upon us, the colors were spectacular!

As you start on the drive from Trinidad, you follow the river up the valley.  Farmhouses and small communities dot the bucolic setting -- some nearly new and some well over a century old.  Some of these homes were built in a factory and some were built from Mother Earth with mud and straw and sweat.  Some are loved and cared for -- some have long been forgotten.

As you pass through the small villages of Primero, Segundo, Weston and Stonewall, the homes and farms begin to diminish leaving rich, untouched Colorado scenery to appreciate. 

In Stonewall, there is a stone wall.  (Who would have thought?!)  This wall, built by God from volcanic rock, is one of many that meander across these Southern Colorado mountains.  Rich colors adorn the wall.  In many places, the wall is a sheer drop 100' on both sides.  In other places, the wall has been worn down by wind, rain and by time to just a few feet -- however it is no less magnificent.

One of the legends of this stone wall has to do with the "Devil's Stairs."  It is said that long ago the devil came from Hell and used the stone wall as his stairs.  He sat upon the mountains and surveyed the land.  God learned of this and saw the beauty of the valley and the mountains.  He took it as His own and forbade the devil to ever appear there again.