Month: August 2018

The last couple of weeks have been fairly routine- for the summertime: “Went to the lot, cut firewood, chipped brush, etc…” Here are a few updates and photos taken along the way.

Chipper:
I moved the chipper over to our new path through the Aspen Grove and chipped some brush. No easy task, as the chipper weighs 1700 pounds and is not very “nimble.” There is  plenty of brush to work through; the chipper will be in its current location for several weekends worth of work.

Chipper in new location on the path.

Firewood:

Here is a photo of a typical load of wood after it has been cut and is waiting along our driveway for our friend Kathy to pick up. This pile is about 2/3 of a cord:

Typical load of firewood

The above load has since been picked up, but another load waits in my utility trailer.

Load of uncut firewood

The load is shown here with the tie-down straps removed; for transport I use no fewer than 4 separate straps to keep everything from falling off. (Pam says the outside cats consider the cut and uncut wood”Wood Disneyland.”)

The Lot:

Because of the South Park view from Pavilion Point, we get a number of people trespassing on the Sanderling acreage – they usually come in from the ridge above. Pam thought these signs would help cut down the traffic over the upcoming Labor Day weekend:

Pam’s custom Keep Out sign: Don’t disturb the SNAKES

We’ve never actually seen any snakes in the rock outcroppings (under this sign).  If there were any, they would be rattlers, but I don’t think they live at 9,000 feet elevation. Pam figures people who would walk on private property will not pay any attention to a “Keep Out” sign but they might pay attention if they thought they would suffer a snake bite for their trespass.

Around the house:

Foster cat Sollette is getting pretty comfortable in the house. She now mingles freely with our other inside animals, both feline and canine.

Sollette relaxing on a pet bed. (Photo by Pam)

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

We drove over Boreas Pass this weekend and I communed with Mom. It has been almost three decades since her ashes were dispersed up there, and Boreas Pass has seen some changes in the interim.  Considerable conservation activities have occurred at the boarding house and log cabin, plus railroad signage now describes the historic activities that took place at this location. Mom is always with me, but particularly on Boreas.

Happy Trails.

I had taken Monday and Tuesday (August 6 and 7) as vacation days to be able to spend some time working at The Lot. The path I previously cut through the side of the Aspen Grove opened a lot of area to work in.

Since I had stockpiled quite a bit of salvageable wood to convert into firewood already, this weekend was not about new cutting. Instead I concentrated on clearing and stacking brush  along the path. (You can see  some of my brush piles in the photos.) I did bring home another trailer full of wood and plan one more load before the end of the season. That will give our friend Kathy the quantity she needs to get through the upcoming winter.

Salvage wood, foreground, and burn pit wood, center back. Other brush further down the path.

Wood and brush to right of path

Pam had driven up with the dogs on Sunday and stayed over to Monday; this gave us a chance to chip some of the brush and bring home a couple of bins filled with chips. (Pam plans to use the chips around the house.)

The chipper is still up on Homestead Acre, quite a distance from the current work area. I hauled some brush to the chipper location, but I’m planning to move the chipper operation closer to the path where I’m currently working so I don’t have to handle stuff twice. We’ll have to see if this works out! It will require some judicious maneuvering with the Ford F-150, as the path for the new chipper location is not very wide and has a few bends in it. Plus it will mean backing the chipper up a slope. Should be interesting.

Back home in De Beque we had a bit of an event; our irrigation pipe broke at the connection location near our driveway. The four inch pipe sent quite a bit of water out over our lawn and up and under the driveway itself. In fact, the driveway cement slab tilted down just a bit and is no longer level with the sidewalk. That will make shoveling snow interesting.

Drive and sidewalk now off by about 1/2 inch

The town did a pretty good job of repairing the break and had the neighborhood irrigation water back within two days. (The incident occurred Saturday and the pump was shut off; the town completed the repair on Monday.)

Town guys working on the irrigation line in our yard

Otherwise, it has been h-o-t. The local record for the most consecutive days with temperatures over 90 degrees was 63 — we have blown by that mark and look to have at least another week of 90+ temperatures. This summer will go down as one of  the hottest on record. We are also in an extreme drought zone this year.

Our friend Kathy picked up another load of wood from our driveway, and I am about half-way though cutting the last load I brought home. I think there will be one more load after this for Kathy to retrieve. Then I will concentrate on the chipping  that needs to be done up at Sanderling. I would like to get those piles of brush chipped this year, and work on spreading the chips on the Sanderling footpaths.

Kiddo Update:  Daughter Felicity just arrived in England for an extended house sit. While there, Felicity hopes to take part in a Jane Austin Festival in Bath (in September). Pam sewed up a Regency-era costume and I mailed it off to Felicity this week. We’ll have to wait on photos to see how well the costume fits and looks on her. Back in the USA, Toby is working on a plan to purchase the house he has been renting in South Bend, Indiana. Now there’s an example of “adulting.”

There were two anniversaries last week; I celebrated my 66th birthday and Pam and I celebrated our 44th wedding anniversary. Yes, I know…we are getting older than dirt!

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

What a nasty summer from hell this has been — good thing I’ve been at home to keep the cooling equipment going!  The absolute best purchase this year was the multi-room air conditioner.  Without it, I know the animals and I wouldn’t have been nearly as comfortable indoors.  The evaporative (“swamp”) cooler we used in previous years wouldn’t have been able to keep us cool during these 100 degree days.

Occasionally a reference to a famous relative of mine shows up in one of the local newspapers (this time, the Aspen Daily News).  Although only distantly related to Harriet Quimby on my mother’s side, I find it so cool to say I can claim kinship (in any way) to this aviation pioneer.

This Day In History – August 1, 2018

Happy Trails.