Siding and Riding

Two main events have transpired since my last post. The first is installation of the new siding on the south end of the house. The second involves my recent trip to The Lot in Park County, Colorado, which involved a few ATV rides. I have plenty of photos that document both events.

I’ll begin with the siding project. Pam and I had been painting the new siding at a workstation I had set up in the garage. All the long boards had been painted and Pam had worked on painting a few short boards that were left after the garage addition was completed. We were in pretty good shape when Bob the Builder and his helper arrived to remove the old siding, install a new kitchen window, and put up the new siding. Here are photos:

I was in Colorado during this process so Pam handled all the on-site organization and inspection. There are a few touch-up spots that need to be addressed but overall the new siding is a huge improvement over the old! Plus, the new window works much better than the old one and the Tyvek and caulking will help make the home more energy efficient. One more item off the home project list.

While the siding project was going on I was in Colorado visiting The Lot and opening The Box for the summer. My goal was pretty minimal given my medical circumstances and the fact that I am no longer acclimatized to The Lot’s higher elevation. (9,750 feet.)

The largest single job was to remove a large pine tree that had fallen across my west access trail. The tree had been partially down last fall, leaning against another pine, but over the winter it hit the ground. I really hate to loose a pine like this.

Using my ATV’s winch I moved the trunk sections off to the side of the trail near one of the piles of branches. Chipping the limbs is on the agenda for the next trip.

Doing this work revealed how little stamina I have at this point. It was cut a few branches, rest, pile up the branches, rest, cut a few more branches, rest, and so on. Clearing the tree took me most of a morning.

I did manage to clean up a few smaller trees that had not survived the winter. A small pile of these were chipped but I have not yet dispersed the chips. (No problems starting the chipper as I had brought the battery home with me last fall and kept it on a ‘maintenance’ charger all winter.) There were no major changes around The Lot but there was a bit of garbage to pick up here and there. This is normal but the volume has picked up since the neighbors moved a large RV trailer onto their lot and have been spending more time there.

One of my goals for the trip was to get some riding time on the ATV. There is a trailhead about 8 miles from The Lot that gives access to several miles of forest service roads. I had explored part of this system last year but wanted to do more riding in the area. I had picked up a map and photographed the area I would be riding in.

I enter the area from trail 146 located in the upper-left corner of the photo. These trails are not difficult. I would describe them as pleasant but they are forest service trails — none goes to an old mine, ghost town, or scenic overlook. A person does ride through a variety of landscapes that include grasslands, pine forests, and aspen groves.

My ATV (Yamaha Grizzly 550) is equipped with electronic power steering so I did not find the riding took a toll on my stamina. I enjoyed getting out on the trails and spent several hours over a couple of days riding the area. These outings were the highlight of the trip for me.

The road part of the trip was uneventful. I paid a high of $3.25 per gallon of regular gas in Denver and a low of $2.55 in Ogallala, Nebraska. Two nights were spent in hotels and summer rates are in effect so prices were a bit higher than I expected, near $100.00 for the first night (Days Inn) and about $78.00 (Motel 6) for the second. Distance from NE Iowa to the lot came in at 926 miles and took around 18 hours of driving time.

The only disappointment came in the form of a failing chain saw. The more I ran it the worse it ran. I finally had to quit using it. On return home I took the saw into a local shop and they will clean the carburetor and get the saw running as it should. Estimate for this service is $40.00. But…the failure put a cramp in my planned activities for the last day or so of my trip. I walked The Lot and located all the corner stakes and rode my ATV around the development.

I really enjoyed the visit to The Lot and being in the mountains again. Getting out on the ATV and riding new trails was a real hoot. I did get some work done on The Lot and found the The Box and the power equipment survived the winter OK. Temperatures were in the upper 70s during the day and upper 40s at night. There was no rain but it did get windy at times. (Back in NE Iowa during the same time period it was in the 90s and heavy on the humidity.) I am looking forward to a return trip (or two) later this summer.

Photo Archive

Not much this time. The first is a photo of the cabin we owned near Nederland, Colorado.

The baby cradles were made for us by our good Colorado friends Hank and Elinor. (Felicity’s and Toby’s middle names came from this couple.)

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

Pam’s Penny

Due to excessive heat and humidity for this time of year, I confined myself to mainly small inside projects during Himself’s absence. I did mow sections of lawn on a rotational basis.

While I’m pleased to see the south end of the house’s siding now tidy and painted, the mint green conduit running up it’s height is going to drive me crazy. It stands out as a focal point on the red paint, and it is not meant to be a focal point.

Happy Trails.