Thanksgiving is next Thursday and Pam and I will have a few days off. We’re looking forward to the break even though we have little planned for the holiday.
Normally Pam puts a roast in the crock pot but our pot died earlier this year; the ceramic pot broke. Pam ordered a new pot but it is back-ordered so we may not have it by Thanksgiving this year. Oh well…on to Plan B for preparing Thanksgiving dinner (whatever that may be…).
As for the past week since my last post, there are a few points of interest. We had our first snow of the season, very light, but nighttime temps have now been below freezing for several days and it looks like that trend will continue. Winter is arriving here and has already arrived in the high country; several mountain towns report a foot of snow or more fell during this last storm. Time for me to take the mower deck off the John Deere garden tractor and put on the snow blade, wheel weights, and chains. That is my task for today.
I’ve sold my snowmobile; the guy is supposed to be by later today and pick it up. I had really enjoyed riding for several years but have done little riding over the last couple of years so it’s better to move the sled along rather than keep it stored behind the house. The proceeds will go toward a brush chipper which will aid in cleaning The Lot up at Sanderling.
I get out with the ATV fairly frequently, which somewhat offsets selling the snowmobile. Last month I joined the Western Slope ATV Association and attended my first club ride yesterday. (Here is a link to the Club web site.) The ride was based out of De Beque, convenient for me! We went into some of the new space I had mentioned in my last post. While the scenery is not all that great I did see an eagle (photo did not turn out well) and passed a few year-round springs I didn’t know were in the area.
The group ride also passed an old homestead site, interesting in that the cabin was made mostly out of stone.
Stone cabin homestead, Wild Horse Mesa
Not only the material, but the construction is unusual for this part of the country. The walls are double; an outside wall and an inside wall with the gap filled with rubble. This is old country construction that I have not seen in western Colorado. Would be interesting to know the history of this place! Just to the right of the photo there is a small stream that appears to run year-round; this supplied water. Best guess is that sheep were run in the area which contains a lot of high plains grass. Cattle may have been run in the area but the consensus was more to sheep than cattle.
Here is a photo of a couple of us who made the ride. This was taken on a branch off the main trail, that goes up a sand – covered hill (my “sand dune”) and emerges at the top of a rock formation.
Two riders plus Sophia the dog
Keith is in the middle of the photo while Steve, with Keith’s dog Sophia, is at the left. Sophia rides with Keith on some ATV trips.
From this vantage point you can see the “De Beque Arch”, a hole in one of the local sandstone rocks.
The De Beque Arch
De Beque is a very small town and this is a very small arch.
The ride was fairly long, almost 60 miles, and did not require 4-wheel drive during any part but there were a couple of places where low range came in handy. The snow we encounterd made the main route muddy so we detoured onto less-used trails that were more grassy and traversed more rock shelves. This approach worked out well and gave us a variety of terrain to ride through. It was a nice way to spend several hours this past Saturday morning.
When I returned home Pam was outside with the dogs doing some leaf raking to tidy the last bits of the yard, so I pitched in until that job was finished. A final batch of leaves was used as mulch for the tree peony and various columbine plants. Anything left over was mulched and taken to my dumping area. By the time we finished the sun was setting and it was time to call it a day. As usual it was a busy Saturday, with lots of outside time and activity.
A comment on the house hunt: It’s been a week of doing some background checking on the house we thought might be a possibility (I mentioned this house in my last post). One concern is the cistern; I looked into the possibility of getting city water (Cedaredge) into the place. Turns out that’s not an option, and even if it was the total cost to connect to city water lines would be over $16,000.00. There is another water supplier in the area, the City of Orchard Mesa, and they are doing some research to see if they could connect to that parcel. I hope to hear back from them next week. Water in Colorado is always an issue. If domestic water to that location in Cedaredge is that expensive (a well would also be around $10 – $12K) then this house is out of the running (even though we are attracted to the lot and stream). Watch this space.
That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!
Pam’s Two Cents Worth:
I had an adventure in pet care this week when I removed Blondie’s stitches. After all these years of cats and dogs, I’ve never done stitch removal before. Luckily it went well; Blondie was very patient with me. I don’t do needles/injections either, although as my pets age who knows but that might be an activity I need to add to my skill set.
Our house hunt financing window may be closing. The Federal Reserve meets in December, when home mortgage rates are predicted to go higher. With the new administration due to hit D.C. in January, investments are volatile, which will impact one of the funds we plan to use for the down payment. I kinda figured we should’ve had an offer in play by election day this month, and it isn’t as if we haven’t been looking continually. Figures.
Happy Trials.
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