Spring

Spring has finally arrived to the Rocky Mountains!  Most of the trees have, at last, started to leaf out.  Some are still barely showing the first blush of green.  In another couple of weeks, our very, very long winter will be just a memory.

We had our annual meeting for our Ranch Association last week.  As president, I was really dreading the meeting.  You see, when I took over as president, the exiting president of 8 years gave me "The Book."  When I asked him a couple of details about "The Book", he answered, "I don't know.  I've never read it."

Sigh...

So I immediately dove into "The Book."  I read every single page -- Imagine that!  And I found that the corporation had been dissolved back in 2003 when no one bothered to do the annual paperwork.  No one did the tax returns.  No one filed with the State of Colorado.  Nothing was done.

Then when I came on board, and I started taking care of these things, I received some rude opposition from a couple of members of our little ranch.  The Treasurer refused to repay me for the filings.  I mean, it was a whole $27 after all.  One of the residents, who is a little loopy, voiced her opinion loud and clear.  So when I wrote out the agenda for this years' meeting, one of the line items was, "Do we follow the laws?"  Crazy!!!!  Of course, the answer was yes, but I needed it to be recorded in the minutes in order to make it loud and clear that we should do what we should be doing.  Our little association consists of 22 properties, 17 owners, and the only common property we have is the road.  Our dues are only $300 per year, so we're not talking about a huge deal.

Still, things need to be done properly.  A corporation is a shield for each one of us in case some dummy decides to ignore our private property signs and go screaming up our little mountain road and crash off the side.  Tax returns need to be filed.  (Seriously??)  They hadn't been filed in years.  And I just kept getting opposition from our Treasurer.

So a vote was held and not one person voted against following what the laws direct.  I mean it really seems stupid to even talk about it, but that's what happened.  Politics, even on the minuscule scale that our little association is on, stinks.

Spring?

Bubble wrap greenhouse

Well, the calendar says that it's Spring anyway.  Friday I was driving down our mountain and when I entered town, I saw that the local nursery was open.  It's only open maybe 2 months out of the year and I'm so anxious to get my tomatoes started.  So I stopped in and bought some heirloom tomato plants.  Saturday, I went into New Mexico and bought some good Miracle Grow soil.  Then when I came home, the 70 degree weather got to me and I went ahead and put those plants in the ground.

Sunday, it was warm.  Monday was even warmer.  It was a good day to air out the house after being shut up all winter so all of the doors and windows were open.  It even started to get a little hot for me... 84 degrees is too hot.  I don't like it that hot.  So I started closing windows to keep some of the cool inside.

Tuesday it rained.  I decided to make a little greenhouse out of bubble wrap for my tomatoes.

Snow on May 1 2013

Wednesday it snowed.  And snowed.  And snowed.

Today it's clearing up.  Most of the snow has already melted.  I just went outside to check on my little heirlooms and they seem to be doing fine.  Imagine that -- a bubble-wrap greenhouse.  All I know is that I will be enjoying delicious heirloom tomatoes way before anyone else here in Trinidad.

I thought I'd put this picture up of some claw marks on this tree.  I noticed this while out on one of my walks the other day.  This is either a mountain lion, or a bear.  I'm thinking that it's probably a lion.  These marks start at my eye level and go down at least 2 feet.  Incredible what these animals are all about.  I haven't ever seen one, but I know they're there.

Claw marks from mountain lion