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.

Lazy Days, 1st Day of Summer Chill, Good Eats & Flowers

 The days have been clicking by smoothly, with the lawn greening-up and the flowers growing stronger and it seemed like the summertime weather had arrived, but then, on June 21st the morning temps were a chilly 35°. Wow! we thought and fired up the furnace, but the sun warmed things right on up throughout the morning and it was a beautiful day after all.

At this altitude (7200') the sun's rays are particularly strong and really make you feel like you're getting a solid daily dose of vitamin D. Based on all the flowers in the park, it's easy to see that the plants love it here.

A mixed petunia planter on a tree stump with
columbine below growing up to meet it.

I did a little thrifting last time we were in Ft. Collins grocery shopping and I found a few bits and bobs for the yard. A chili pepper planter tub and a yard welcome sign that I particularly liked. I've filled the planter with 8 plants hoping for a really full bloom show when they grow up some.

2 yellow marigolds, 2 coleus and 4 verbena - I hope they take off.

A little "kitchy" but what the heck, it's friendly right?

We've been tackling a few projects around here and taking local walks so not too many pics from farther afield, but I do have a couple of shots from around here.

A shot taken from the island's river shore.

The river is raging right now.

This next shot is directly across the river and you can see the burn scar on the far right side at the top of the canyon ridgeline. Bummer, let's hope we don't have any flash flooding this year, that was very deadly, with 5 people killed at the mudslide site and the debris generated took out the center support of the little bridge over to the tent camping island here in our park.

The 2020 fire came too close for comfort!

The owners fixed it by using several 
40' steel beams as underlayment support
for the rebuilt bridge span topper.

The food situation has been really good around here, featuring plenty of grilling and summer fresh fare interspersed with comfort food like enchiladas with Mexican rice, and spaghetti with meatballs.

Grilled chicken thighs, baked potato, asparagus plus a tomato,
pickled cucumber and kalamata olive salad.

We will split this enchilada and only eat half of the rice,
I make extra for a breakfast treat, or as I say 'put an egg on it'.

And to wrap things up a few more shots of some flowers in the vicinity, including a cut wildflower Ed brought home for identification and possibly inclusion in our yard scheme. Surprisingly after 6 days of being cut it still looks fresh as can be - wish I knew what it was.

It's growing wild in an abandoned house's yard.
If you have a clue what it is, please let me know.
It seems to grow about 16" to 24"or so tall.

Friendly garden arrangement alongside their trailer.

Pretty box of iris

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my blog, hope you found it a relaxing respite to all the daily drama.

Leftover trip highlights and some doings around here

I finally took the time to dump the pics from his phone and found a few nice shots, so I've decided to include them here as well as to do a "catch-up" session from Rocky.

Because Ed's not only braver than I am, but taller as well, he got a few nice shots of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

One year we camped down at the bottom of the
canyon at the East Portal Campground. Totally 
different perspective at the bottom.

Between the sheerness of the cliff faces and the depths
to the bottom to the narrowness of the canyon itself,
Gunnison is truly unique.

Here's a nice shot from that same drive, not exactly sure where the shot as taken.

Might have to use this one for the header shot. Nice trail!

When we first got here in Rustic we had a few cold snaps, one of which garnered some snow for us on the last day of May.  Here's a shot from the next morning, so pretty, but obviously didn't stick around more than a half day.

Not much more than a dusting but fun to see snow falling.

We went into town for a shop-up the other day and boy, did we get shopped-up! I could barely squeeze it all into the fridge and freezer but didn't dare use the small fridge we have out back - bears.  All 'n all a great day that involved lunch at Odell's Brewing Co and one of the food truck burgers.

They always have the most glorious salvia by their signage.

Odell's courtyard, large, and full of tables/chairs.

I've been working on getting the flowers I picked up the other day planted so we might have a lovely, flowery yard since we spend so much time out there.  

Looking out of our yard 

The following shot was taken last July and demonstrates how many wildflowers there are around the Poudre Canyon and surrounding areas. I hope we get a show like this this year as well.

Beautiful, isn't it?

The Glen Echo staff held a seasonal customer appreciation luncheon on Saturday and it was a delicious Mexican spread, including beer and wine. A pretty good turnout was had and a nap was required afterwards, lol.

These are just some of the seated folks. 

Linda's deconstructed taco's, pork, chicken and ground beef - yum.

Finally, we had a big rain shower the other day and afterwards we had a swarm of Western Yellow Swallowtail butterflies show up for the minerals (I guess) - very cool.

They didn't mind me at all, super intent on getting whatever they were after.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by for a visit.

Heading up to Rustic & the Antelope Mash-up.

 Still playing catch-up on the blog but I'm almost current! This is just prior to Memorial Day weekend. 

After our stay in Cortez we got on the road to points north on our way "home" to Rustic, CO. We planned a hit 'n run overnight stop in Glenwood Springs at the Hanging Lake Inn, an unassuming old-style inn we've stayed at before. But first, a beautiful drive up Hwy 145 towards Telluride then up through the Grand Mesa area on Hwy 65, the Grand Mesa Scenic Hwy. The scenery in the Grand Mesa area started out  flattish, and dry, with rock formations and cliffs.

 

The diversity of Colorado's landscape is always amazing to me.

Up on top of the Mesa there was lots of snow and small frozen lakes. Apparently it is a big cross country skiing attraction during winter. We'd made sandwiches before we left Cortez so we stopped to  picnic up on top.

Small, mostly frozen lake up on top of Grand Mesa.

It was a great day for driving and the scenery didn't disappoint. Once we made it into Glenwood and got settled we ordered a delivery pizza and called it a day.

The thought was to make it to 'Rocky' on Thursday mid-day to assess her condition after 8 months away. Then, hopefully spend the night assuming all was well (no critters), and do a big shop-up on Friday prior to Memorial Day weekend.

When we left Glenwood Springs, the head honcho decided our route should be scenic (of course, it's his M.O. and I'm glad of it) so we took 70E a short ways, then headed north on 131 then east again until we got on 125 which is a long straight shot from Granby up to Walden, where we would catch 14 up over the Continental Divide then on to Rustic, tada.

Definitely some great scenery around and about. Talk about the lazy-man's way of sightseeing!

Somewhere near Glenwood Springs

Gee whiz, it's hard to keep them all straight, mountains everywhere!

Pronghorn Antelope, Courtesy of CCO Public Domain

So cool how when you come up towards Walden it's wide open spaces, grasslands, ranches  and part of it is even a wildlife sanctuary. So we're tooling along about 30 miles south of Walden, it's noon'ish and we're starting to get excited to be (finally) getting to Rustic, when out of nowhere, an antelope leaps out right in front of our car - BAM! No way of avoiding it whatsoever - BUMMER for all concerned.

Luckily, the lady in the car behind us stopped to make sure we were OK, (we were ,but the antelope wasn't 😞) and after some discussion she offered to call the sheriff once she had made it back into cell phone range. What a lifesaver that was, as we wanted to get an official incident report for insurance purposes.

Messed-up left front corner, wiring harness for cruise control, 
lane keeping etc. but driveable, fortunately!

We were sure thankful that it was a smallish doe rather than a big buck and that nobody was hurt. It was so strange to get back in, crank up and head off up the road like nothing had happened. Great scenery and all. The area between Walden and the Cameron Peak Pass (continental divide) sure is pretty. 360° of gorgeous mountains (with the snow lit up in the mid-day sun).

We made it up to Rustic, the rig was in great shape and we did get shopped-up. Now we just have to decide what to do about it all. Oh well, into every life a little rain must fall. (Isn't it funny how these little sayings come creeping back into our vocabulary at times like these?)

Thanks for stopping by and we'll see you next time.