Local Entertainment

Granddaughter Autobot and I decided to go for a quick, short ride this afternoon.  A few weeks ago I had purchased a "slick and easy" grooming stone for the horses to help get dried grit off them.  Autobot used it on the grays while I finished some stuff in the office, then we hooked their reins to the sides of their halters, threw on the sheepskins that we use to ride bareback and headed out for the 1 1/2 mile loop through what we call town, trying to beat an incoming rain cloud.  Just a few yards down the road, Washoe spotted the big cement pipes that had been delivered this morning to the field across the road.  Head went up, butt scooted under as he shot forward and - I came off.  That stone really did slick up his back and the sheepskin underside is shiny from lots of use.  I felt it start to slide and grabbed for mane, which I had very nicely used detangler on and could not hang on to.  It slid right through my hand like it was greased.  Autobot was behind me on Jesse, both hanging out while grandma picked herself up off the ground.  At least I had a sheepskin to land on.

I walked Washoe over to the pipes, had him touch them to see they were not monsters, took him back to the mounting block and we started over.  Very pleasant ride until we got to the last half mile.  We came down the hill, around the corner and up went the giraffe head again.  Llamas!  Now, these grays are used to llamas, but he quickly noticed there was no fence between us and the seven llamas grazing the big corner pasture.  Feet frozen to the ground, undecided what to do.  Then Jesse walks by, nudging him with her nose (wimp) like it was an every day event, so on we went.

As if that was not enough, a little further along the road we heard this weird rattling and rumbling coming up behind us.  Looked back and saw two trollie cars
loaded with people for a special event at the local 5-star restaurant.  Wow!  Rode into a driveway and watched them go by as the horses grazed on the knee high grass there.  What next?  We rode past the trollies as the people unloaded and headed up the final hill for home.  At least neither horse was bothered by the odd looking contraptions.

Of course, this being Friday, the local 'Friday afternoon club' was in top form as we topped the hill; a lot of people outside the local wood working shop enjoying a cool one or two.  By this time the horses were in parade mode with cars lined up on both sides of the road and people hollering and waving at them; nothing was going to bother them.

We got home, put them away and went into the lodge.  When I asked Bill if our hikers had gotten to the pizzaria for dinner, he said, "Yep, and they got to see someone fall off a horse."  I'm not sure if they recognized that person as one of their hosts, but glad I could offer some entertainment.
Bionic Cowgirl

Yard at Work

It's been a wet spring, and the yard out back is VERY overgrown.

I do not like mowing.

So, we strung a hot-wire...

And brought in a crew to do the mowing for us.  They are slow, but they work cheap.

The only downside?

You can't rake up the clippings...

Bill

And the Cleanup Continues ...

The area has worked particularly hard to get things back to normal as much as possible since the flood.  It's hard to believe that it has been six months now - and yet to realize all that has been accomplished in those six months!

This week when Bill and I did our town trip for chores and groceries, we chose to come home a different route.  Heading out of Loveland up I-34 I spotted many new signs for the businesses in Estes Park.  This is one from a business that works closely with the Livery across the street from us; taking fishing/pack trips to our mountain lakes on horseback.

Then we headed up the Big Thompson canyon itself, amazed at the cleanup that has taken place.

A little town, Glen Haven, that sits just a few miles north of Estes Park on a little winding road, was nearly wiped out.  One of our sons and his family had done a lot of volunteer work there in the weeks after the flood and we had heard - and seen many of their pictures - of just how hard they had been hit.  Many of our guests had come that way this fall and we were hearing amazing stories of the road work and cleanup that has been done; although not completed by a long way.  We had avoided that trip, not wanting to see all the damage, but decided we needed to get caught up with that area.

We saw 'new fields' (didn't use to be there before) that had been scraped clean of debris.

Piles of reclaimed asphalt ready to be used for the new roadbed, or as fill dirt.

Crossed over a temporary bridge; no, the road did not use to go here.

....and got to see some places that have not been scraped clean yet.  This is just a small idea of what these mountain strong people have been dealing with, in-between bouts of snowy weather.  That's the river on the other side of the fence, that still needs to be dredged before spring runoffs come.  It's important!  Areas above this are currently sitting at 180+ percent of normal snowpack.  We love the snow but it does seem to come at times when the area is already stressed.  We feel for all of you in the north and upper midwest that keep getting hit with storms this year.

What a beautiful view to come over the top of Devil's Gulch road and catch this view of Long's Peak (center rt.) and Meeker Peak (center left) just before spotting Estes Park at their base.

After passing through Estes and heading south on SH 7, we came to St. Catherine's Chapel at Camp St. Malo.

Notice the dark dirt spot just below the trees on the left side of the picture.  Now take a closer look; that depression was the lake that the chapel sat above.

 This is what it looked like a week after the flood.  Pretty amazing!
Somehow, the road crews have taken all the trees and dirt and compacted it into a semblance of a smaller pond.  Last week we saw the mound of trees and dirt they were working on.  Neither of us could believe they created such a serene looking area from the mess they started with.

Everyone has worked super hard to make our area a pleasant place to visit again.  Tell you friends and neighbors to come check us out.  Check out this site:  http://www.supportestespark.com/  It's a great way to help out the area and make it easier to travel in the summer.
Bionic Cowgirl

Larger Than a Kayak

Today was our day in town, doing chores, buying groceries, that sort of thing.  Bright and sunny and early we head down Hwy 7 - the St. Vrain Canyon.  Coming around a corner we are surprised to see a huge, yellow 'steam shovel' crawling down the side of the bank into the river!

It then turned on its tracks and started crawling along the river, basically straddling it for the most part; sometimes in the water.  Now pre-flood there would not have been room for something so big, but the river bottom is considerably wider now.  It was just such a strange sight to see.

 
One of the behemoths had a huge jackhammer it was using to break apart the boulder piles; another one had the regular 'steam shovel' arm.

I watched that one take a giant scoop from the river, then turn and dump it on the bank.  Probably a hundred gallons of water poured out - then this huge boulder clunked down.  It would have been fun to just hang out and watch.  It brought back the kid in me!

After finishing our town business, we headed back home, up the same canyon - and passed SIX of these big machines cleaning dead trees and debris from the river bottom, with yet another one on the side of the road, getting refitted for different work.

Look at all those trees and rocks that were clogging the river!

 Thank you to all the 'hard hats', as the locals have nick-named them, for being willing and able to put in all this effort to help with flood control for next spring's runoff; and thank you to FEMA for awarding more money to the state to help with this.

We were also rewarded with some beautiful ice sculptures on the rocky cliffsides along the road.

 

This is the real beauty of our mountains.  Come up and get unplugged from the real world and let your imagination play, too.
Bionic Cowgirl

We Got a Call

We got a call From "Compass", the gal that runs the livery across the street from us.

"You need to go the post office.  Take your camera."

Now, it's snowing.  It's been snowing for the last 2 weeks, and I'm getting kinda tired of it.

I didn't want to go. At all.  But I went.

Snow.

From a ways off I saw something stuck out of an 8 foot snow drift...

Yup.  I'm not alone in being tired of the snow.

Sometimes you just need to get plowed.

Bill

    (And no, it weren't really someone.)

Free at Last!

This morning a little after 5:00, a commotion outside woke me up.

Crud.  Horses loose on the road.  All 40 or 50 livery horses were out.  Only the 2nd time this year for an escape (and one of those times only 4 or 5 got out).  Last year by July 9th, the herd had gotten out for the 4th time.

The wranglers and I put on a show for our early riser guests and got them all rounded up and back home.  Leaping in front of a running herd, waving your hat and making a loud PSSSSSSSH'ing sound will either turn the herd, or get you killed.

The herd turned.

Our little herd was still pretty riled up.  The greys, Jesse and Washoe had been running/bucking/f@rting the whole time the others were out.  Didn't see Ranger, though.



B  Hey buddy! Where are you?

R  I mm em hr  Beel.

B What's that, Ranger? I can barely hear you.  Where you be?

R    I amm in the scary shed Beel.

B  Oh, there you are Buddy!  Why are you hiding in the shed?

R  There was too much excitement Beel.  All of the neighbor horses were breaking the rules.  That Mare and The Kid were running around being crazy like dogs.  It is safer in here.

B  It's safe now, Ranger.  Come on out.

R  Okay Beel.  Can we eat now?

They got a snack.

We talked with the guests at breakfast and one of them told us "Where I come from, we NEVER get awakened by a stampede."

Sad.  So sad.

Bill

Strolling ...

It was just too nice today to not get the horses out.  Jesse promptly stuck her head in the halter; Ranger was even amenable.  Jesse did have a huge mud rump that I chose to NOT brush, as it was really wet.  Besides, it made her look like she had her spots back (she is a paint, you know).

We turned the corner and spotted the Post Mistress out for her lunch time walk.

She strode out ahead of us and soon put our guys - and us - to shame, with our pokey about town.  Even with four days of close to 60* weather, we still have considerable snow on the ground.  Talk about perfect:  snow on the sides of the road, and dry road for playing on!

... and this is why I ride with a towel!!!

 Bionic Cowgirl

I'ts Continuing ....

I've lost track of how many inches of snow.  I will go back soon and do a count.  You see, every time I go out to feed, I judge how much snow we have gotten by how much snow is in/on top of the horses' feed bowls (about 8" in diameter and 4" deep) since the last time I fed.  I feed bowl food twice a day, so it's a pretty good indicator, and then I write it on the calendar.

Yesterday morning - Is there a car under there?

There it is!

Aaah.  A path to the road.  Now to find the hay shed ....

I'm pretty sure there IS hay in there somewhere .... or I'm in big trouble!

Did you just take a picture of me?!  I'm eating here ...

What's that on your feet, guys?

Spring feedings always include knocking ice balls off the fetlocks.

Their tales get so long over the winter, that sometimes they get caught up in the ice balls.

If course, I had to show the snow was knee-deep on me, too, but at least I don't develop ice balls on my fetlocks!

Then we went 'to town' for grocery buying, etc. and saw our favorite other animals on the way home.

Rocky Mountain big horn sheep.  Some sort of girls day out.

Bionic Cowgirl

A Quick Winter Ride

Neither the horses nor us could tolerate being inside our respective 'pens' today, so just as we were headed out with halters in hand, the neighbor calls.  Wanna' ride?

Happy days!  53* and sunny, little wind - and lots of smiles!

Just look at all the snow on those mountains; that's left over from the storm a week ago.

The trails in the trees were still covered, which made it a lot of fun.  In a few places we had to bushwhack around some deeper drifts.

Washoe got to lead out and follow some hiker's prints.  What a way to spend a winter afternoon in the Rockies.
Bionic Cowgirl

First Ride of 2013

Well, the wind finally settled down to under 30 mph for a bit - and the temp was over 30* - the sun was out and the horses called to us.  OK, something called to us - but the horses didn't complain. 

Obviously, Beel and Ranger were enjoying themselves.  Ranger kept breaking into his 'floaty' trot.

If fact, Jesse was delighted with being outside 'the walls', as I'm sure she calls the corral.  Poor Washoe got left behind - with an extra flake of hay.  What a great day.
Bionic Cowgirl

Overheard at the Corral This Morning

"Looky there!  That's one of the big neighbors runnin down the middle of the road!"

"He got's no people with him..."

"Wow, he is gunna be in trouble!"

"Ain't he one of them Belgers?"

"Yup.  They are big 'uns for sure."

"No chair on his back, and no bag on his face like last time...  he gets to eat all of the grass!"

"I hate that"
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"HAY YOU GUYS!  LOOK! LOOK!  All of the neighbors are out and going the other way"

"We know that Mare.  Do you think we is dummies?  (Say Kid, she is right!  They are ALL out!")

"Say, ain't that Beel coming outa the lodge with a lead rope?  He looks CRANKY."

"Well, you KNOW he hates leaving the lodge before the sun  comes up."
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"It seems to be taking longer to catch them this morning."

"That is 'cause they are eating grass out here, and do not want to go home, I bet."
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"Well, it looks like they are all back in the pen.  I wish we could'a  go'ed out."

"Someone should 'splain to Beel that Colorado is "Free Range" .  I think that means we gotta be fenced OUT, not fenced IN."

"Lawns are a waste of good graze"

"Yup."

Just Look'in Around

About 15 minutes ago, we looked out the window and saw a string of horses going down the road.  Probably 15 or 20 of them.

Not really an unusual sight around here.

They were all saddled and on their way.

With no one on their backs.

And empty feed bags on their faces.

Opps.

Team Lodge (Juanita, Bill, and grand-daugher "Autobot") mobilized and headed out to head them off.  In years past, I would have jumped in a truck or minivan to herd them home in, because they would be off at a run.  But these guys were obviously just out for a stroll.  We managed to get them stopped (okay, they stopped themselves at a nice lush patch of grass and tried to eat through their feed bags, with limited, to no success) and grabbed a few to lead them back to the livery.  Reinforcements arrived from the livery, and we got them home in less time than it's taking me to blog about it.

Back to breakfast prep....


Bill

Small Town Vehicles

Here in Allenspark, you learn the local vehicles fairly quickly.  They are the ones you see over and over mixed with the tourist trade cars you only see a time or two.

We noticed this truck cruising Main Street right away.

Kinda Stands Out

Saw the truck several more times, and then parked at our neighbors, just south of the lodge.
Next time, at the fire station.

Naw, it can't be!?!

Yup.  That's our local Fire Chief's truck.

It's like, camouflage.

Awesome.

Bill

RoofTop Rodeo Parade

We went and saw the Roof Top Rodeo parade in Estes Park today.

Fire trucks.

Pretty girls

Our youngest boy driving a "deuce and a half"

Pretty girls

Big team.

Pretty girls.

Little team.

Pretty girls.

Stage coach.

Pretty Girls.

Dead float.

Pretty girls.

Fire trucks.

Pretty girls.

Good little parade.

I noticed I posted a couple images of fire trucks. I must subconsciously REALLY LIKE fire trucks.


Bill