No snow? No problem!

Since the snow gods seemed to be slacking off, we decided to take advantage of the warm weather and visit some friends in Salida Colorado. Plus, as old lore goes, when you leave town, there is sure to be a dumping!

In Salida we found some amazing food, hikes, local flavor and great art. It was really amazing! Salida was like steamboat if you took away the troves of tourists and had all of the shops local. On top of all that, our friends' house was beautiful and they had four fun-loving dogs to boot! By the end of the trip we were ready to come back the next weekend, but alas, it did snow while we were away!

Horace the horrible

We sorely needed a mouser. Not just any mouser, but a hardy one for up in clark at our ranch. So we headed down to the shelter and asked if we could adopt a feral cat. They offered us horrace the horrible, so we got all of our papers in order, bought a carrier and picked up horrace from the shelter. Once horrace was in the car, we read the file. Over his name, feral had bee crossed out and semi feral was penciled in. At 25 pounds, if horrace was semi feral, does that mean that he is just a lazy giant? Well, he is up at te cabing now and I guess we will just need to wait and find out!

OOfta

Hunting isn’t easy – the hike in, the stalk, the cold, and if you are lucky, the haul out. But more importantly, if you do get extremely lucky (or extremely good) it doesn’t get easier. You see if you get a trophy elk, you need to mount it. And if you mount it, you need to carry it and hang it up and an elk isn’t exactly light! Here I am helping  friend carry his mount into the car so he could hang it up.

reunion!

Jeeze! Within two years of going to college, my high school teachers are all grown up! My Spanish teachers came over for dinner and while I was away not only got married, but got pregnant! I tell you, pretty soon I’m going to start feeling old!

Fix It!

With skiing conditions sub par I have decided to take advantage of my free time by getting some things off of my parents’ list. Task #1: fix the pod with some serious JB weld!

Holiday party

Back in the boat just in time for the holiday season! The mountains are tall, the skies are bluebird but there is only one problem – there is no snow! With one lift open – strips of doom – we opted for a hike instead, then got ready for a party. Not bad at all.

the hot springs

There is nothing like the Strawberry Park Hot Springs. Except maybe hiking up to the strawberry park hot springs, getting into the hot pool...

then into the river!

engines

I think the world would just be better off if we all went Fred Flinstone style - no pesky engines, just running to and fro. Starting a bunch of engines after a summer without use is challenging! On the list for yesterday at the cabin were the snowmobiles - only a three hour job, the snow blower - a two hour job including some squirting oil - yum, then the wood splitter. Now the wood splitter was pretty entertaining. We checked the oil - all good, then the gas. There wasn't any, so my dad went to pour some in and it spouted out of the engine onto his shoe. After a few moments of blundering around looking for the leak we found it in a punctured tube. We caught the remaining gas in a container, recut and attached the hose, then started all over again. And this was all before we could even start splitting the wood!

relax?

What is that? I get off the plane in Denver, get picked up by my parents and proceed straight to my brother's house at Colorado School of Mines. There, we go out for lunch, where he informs us that his door got broken and hasn't been fixed yet. But not to worry, he had the door, it just didn't fit into his door frame. You see, his house is really really old and nothing - NOTHING is square. Of course, we decide to fix it, so we get out the belt sander and in two hours flat, the door is in and I'm ready to fall back asleep. It's good to be home.

Packing

Heading home for winter break– with everything necessary for some great adventures in Steamboat and beyond!