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.

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