Pam and I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving holiday. In case you missed it you can view our 2017 card here or on my E-card page.
Given that the weather was exceptionally good for this time of year with near-records being set (low to mid 60’s) the weekend was unusually active. Here are some of our activities:
I mowed our lawn and our sunbird neighbor’s lawn to clean up the last of the autumn leaves and level out the grass for the winter. I was surprised at the amount of grass that ended up in the bagger; the leaves I had expected, but there was a fair amount of grass as well. After that chore was done, I took the mower deck off the John Deere lawn tractor and put on the blade, weights, and cable chains to get the tractor ready for winter snow plowing.
The Friday after Thanksgiving I rode with my ATV group in a place called Cactus Park. This area is south and west of Grand Junction and offers a lot of trails and some history; mostly homesteading and prospecting for uranium. The homestead we visited was old enough to have a log cabin house but new enough to have an old tractor from the ’50s on site.
Homestead log cabin in Cactus Park
Club members examine old tractor at Cactus Park homestead
We had a total of 22 machines in the group, giving me a chance to say hello to people I knew and introduce myself to some new club members. There was a mix of single seat “quads” as well as several side-by-side two-seaters and even a 4-seater that looked like a miniature Jeep. Two dogs and a couple of kids were along for the ride and it seems like everyone enjoyed the outing.
ATV group in Cactus Park the day after Thanksgiving
While I was out Pam took care of the grocery shopping and worked on making Christmas cards.
Pam working on Christmas cards
Saturday’s task was to get the outside Christmas decorations put up. We don’t have any new stuff this year but did some rearranging of a few items. “Stars” that were in our front windows last year ended up on the front of the garage, a move both of us think is an improvement. Here is a photo:
Garage lights
We don’t do a lot of indoor decorating due to the six cats and three dogs, but we generally have a small tree in the master bedroom (which is off limits to the animals) and a few other “up high” decorations that the cats and dogs can’t reach. Decorating brought our day to a close.
Sunday was a “down” day, no major projects planned. I did some minor work on the Oliver OC-3 crawler tractor and watched a little football. A walk took up some of the afternoon as I needed to work off some Thanksgiving calories.
It was a pleasant holiday weekend. Food and weather were excellent, the ATV ride was interesting, outside decorations are up, the last of the lawn chores completed, and the John Deere LX176 garden tractor set up for the winter. Both the Packers and the Broncos lost, the only bummer during the 4 days off.
That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!
Pam’s Two Cents Worth:
I’m hearing crying kittens in the neighborhood again. Late Fall litters are not rare here, but those babies are in a struggle for their lives in cold weather. Kittens so small are very tricky to catch; they are usually not heavy enough to trip the trap. It is always something.
Happy Trails.