The Same old Shoot-'em-up and the same old Rodeo

 Here we are at the end of July and things are just rolling along as per usual. Not complaining mind you, not at all.

A few days ago we had some stormy weather coming in, followed by nearly dime-sized hail - holy smokes! Those sounded fierce pounding down on Rocky's roof.  Ed was outside enjoying some firepit action and took this pic of the start of the onslaught.  Later we saw some pics from Estes Park, which is south of us by roughly 50 miles as the crow flies, and they had so much hail they had to snowplow it off the streets/sidewalks. Ours only lasted 10 minutes or so, thank goodness.

Looking at storm clouds.

Hail just getting started, whoops, time to douse the firepit.

Later that evening I strolled down to the river to see if it was running clear, which would mean "no drama" up canyon of us, and it was.

A good volume of flow but no mud.

And I took a shot of these flowers that fill the whole length of the wall of the shower-house building - so pretty, the pic doesn't do it justice as the day was a bit cloudy.

Yesterday Ed took the car just down the road to Dadd Gulch for a hike while I defrosted the fridge/freezer. He was the first one there so he was pretty continuously calling out "No Bear" just to clear his path up the gulch.  Well, when he started heading back down he ran across a mountain biking couple who said "There was a bear back there a ways" - haha (not!).  So, now, while hiking back to the car he was continuously calling out "NO BEAR!!!" But he didn't see a thing, whew.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I had just finished up the defrost and reload of the freezer when Ed suggested we head down to town, pick up our mail/packages and shop-up for the next couple of weeks. OK, let's hit it.

With all the town chores completed and with a firehouse sub in hand we headed up the canyon for a likely picnic spot whereupon we caught a group of rafters busily getting loaded onto rafts.

Looks to be a pretty good-sized group.

We found a likely picnic spot and while eating lunch we had a few close-up's of rafters coming through. It looked like they were getting a few last minute pointers for the run through the rapids.

"Here's what you need to do"

It looks pretty frothy out there, lots
of rocks along the whole way too.

Coming past our picnic table.

Some sizable cottonwood trees grow alongside the river. Here's a shot of our resident tree-hugger with one of them.

Back at Rocky, after breaking down the meats and getting them packaged up, I got all the meat, dairy, veggies and cold cuts loaded up and boy, was it packed pretty full! Ribs, pork chops, ground beef & Italian sausage, plus chicken, the freezer is full.

I use these baskets/tubs to help with the organization. I can pull
them out individually and root around in them to find what I want.

We shopped at King Sooper's (Kroger), which has an amazing variety of fruits/veggies, as opposed to Walmart, where we sometimes shop depending on what other household items we need. We feel so-o-o fortunate to be able to find and, for now, afford healthy, good food. Pray that that continues!

A full fridge for sure! You may notice the pancake
fan Ed added to circulate the cold air, giving us a 
more balanced temp inside the entire compartment.
It's attached using alligator clips in all 4 corners and
works a treat for us.

Well, I'll close with a sunset shot and a flower shot, and we'll see you the next time.

Thistle with a bee in it's bonnet.

Thanks for visiting, leave a comment if you feel like it - we love from hearing from y'all.

Good days, good eats and flowers

As the days pass by, the hotter weather is starting to build in a bit and the "monsoon" season rains have moved in as well.  After the mudslide up the canyon west of us last year, we have become wary when it rains for several hours/days in a row.  The grass and flowers are loving it but the day before yesterday mid-day, the river turned to mud and we wondered what that was all about.  We had had flash flood advisories around us but mostly to the south, closer to Rocky Mountain Nat'l park.  The river cleared up by the next morning - I didn't get a picture of it all muddied-up.

Coming home from town yesterday I snapped a couple shots through the car's window, and surprisingly, they turned out pretty well.

The lighting was fairly neutral which makes for an easier shot.
We've got a pretty good flow going right now.

There are several rafting companies in the area
so every time we traverse the canyon we see rafters.

Our neighborhood cotton-tailed rabbit is back making the rounds nibbling here and there, but it seems to be the chipmunks that gleefully munch on my flowers. We also have a nesting pair of northern flickers with chicks in the dead tree next door. We can look out our dining nook window (and up) and see the activities to and from the nest.  Pretty cool!

You can't see his white cottontail in this shot.

On this past Wednesday it pretty much rained all day so I got inspired as I watched one of my favorite youtube channel videos by Chef John - Food Wishes where he was making a smothered chicken dish, and decided to do the same.  My pantry has a fairly limited supply of spices, for example no coriander, no tumeric, and no saffron, but I made my gravy using cumin seed, cumin, hawaij, smoked Joe Parker chili powder and some others besides and it was yummy. This next shot was taken at  an interim moment, after a hard sear on the chicken thighs (skin side down) and while I was getting the veggies into the gravy to soften and cook.

I sure could've used a bigger frypan! I did get it all
 to fit and simmered it for a couple of hours. It had potato
wedges in it so no rice was needed.

Check out this porkchop cooked on the Ninja Foodi Grill - so good!

Some fresh corn on the cob, a tomato
salad and fresh sauteed asparagus - yum.

We were able to tackle a pet project of mine, swapping out the loveseat for a recliner chair and bookshelf.  My back wasn't very happy sitting sideways on the loveseat all the time, and since we won't be having any sleepover guests we decided to give it away and replace it with another recliner - lots of seating choices that way.  Adding a small bookshelf offered the opportunity to square away the craft supplies and etc., to clear the floor under the table. So far so good.

Still finessing it at this point but I'm liking it so far. The tray 
table that I use for the laptop has legs that easily slide under the 
furniture or swivel out and away from the chair for easy in & out's.
Since I often take the laptop to the table for food prep I've opted to leave
the cords in front of the bookshelf. A little less than tidy but oh well.

The flowers are all doing great, mine as well as everyone elses, and the peonies by the laundry room have bloomed. Such a soft, pretty pink.

And a few other pretties for your pleasure.

Columbines of course, but I'm not sure
what the tall blue bloom spike is. After
breakfast I love to make the rounds all around
the park, the upper level, middle and by the river
 too, plus along the properties perimeter, which
is what we back up to.

Well, that's pretty much it for this week's going's on's, thanks for stopping by.