I spent another three-day weekend at The Lot, working on clean up. I know this gets repetitive but, after all, it is what I do when I’m in the high country.

Each weekend visit I set a goal of how much area to clear. The borders are arbitrary; usually an imaginary line between a couple of trees or an outcropping. Then I get started, cutting downed and standing dead trees. This year I have not done a thorough job of piling brush to chip although I do make a few small piles here and there. After all, I need walking paths to make it easier and safer for me to carry logs to a pile.

If I go up on Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon is spent getting started. The second day I put in a long day and finish the bulk of the work. The third day I clean up in the morning, walk the property, and get ready to head home, normally just after lunch.

I’ve been getting just over a cord of wood cut each time; a cord of wood is a pile that is four feet wide, four feet tall, and eight feet long (128 cubic feet). I already have more logs cut and piled than we give away each year and have not chipped anything for the last couple of weekends. But that’s OK; Pam keeps telling me I have time to get this stuff done and not to push it so hard. (Pam worries about me running the saw and chipper when she’s not there.)

It’s time to spend the next few weekends at home taking care of maintenance chores. However, I’ve taken the week of July 4th off as vacation and hope to finish cleaning the area at Sanderling we call the Aspen Grove (where I’ve been working these last few weekends). I’ll have a load of stuff to take to the burn pit, stuff too rotten to salvage as firewood and too big to chip. Add a few stumps to the mix and there is a load big enough to haul. I picked up a burn pit pass last weekend; the burn pit opened the first weekend in June. It’s open mainly Saturday hours.

Not all my mountain time is spent working, however. I like to sit in my chair and look out over South Park, plus enjoy the views from various points on the upper part of The Lot — including Pavilion Point and Squirrel Rock. There have already been a few nice sunsets to appreciate. No campfires this year, though. The entire state of Colorado is very dry and open fires have been banned. Some forest service lands have been shut down completely: no camping, no hiking, no recreation of any kind. Signs on the road encourage people to make sure that safety chains on campers and trailers don’t drag and start roadside fires from the sparks. There have been several minor and a couple major fires already in the state.

This last weekend I was reminded that Sanderling is in an open range area. In the morning a cow was munching some of the grass that has grown up along the edges of our driveway. It didn’t seem very concerned about me or the car.

Cow on Sanderling driveway

Not that this is exciting stuff, but I do enjoy my time at The Lot. It gets harder and harder when it’s time to leave; I don’t look forward to returning to work and dealing with computer (or operator) problems as much as I used to. And, of course, it’s much cooler in the mountains than it is on the edge of the high desert in the summer!

Here are a couple more photos taken over the weekend:

Purple mountain sunset

Iris still blooming

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

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

I spent the last few weekends working with the feral cat moms and the kittens. The four kitten litter has been weaned, and their mom is scheduled to be spayed next week.  The single kitten from the other litter just started weaning this week.  I really want these feral moms o-u-t, and I’m sure after two months of confinement, the feral moms feel the same way.

Happy Trails.