I looked into the older pages of the blog to see pictures of Aunt Martha. What a delightful woman she was - so hard to believe she's gone from our world. While whizzing through all the pictures, I also stumbled upon the large stack of logs that are now firewood. Made me laugh again - I can only imagine Rick the lumber man's horror when he saw his nice work converted into firewood. The good news: we really are well set for firewood now!
Wow - lovely transformation of the chicken house, the tool room, the cool room, the garage....nicely done Sid and Mancinis!!! I'm not sure everyone would call those days at the farm as "vacation!" Perhaps Sid's equivalent of having friends and family dig cactus out of the pasture. Yep. Vacation for some; plain hard ranch and farm work for others. So appreciate the pictures Dee. You are making that little Nikon of yours work like it means business.
Whew. I am with you Kay. Posting pictures is impossible for ordinary folks like you and me--which makes it especially nice to have Dee and Sid take up the chore!!! It's really such a wonderful record of the farm's transition to Shiver River LLC.
Thanks so much for the pictures Kay. I think the road looks really good--nice, smooth, and even. There are benefits from having the logging trucks and heavy equipment go though it seems. I also love seeing your little hound - so cute with his graying head-a lot like mine, I have to say!!
Wow - what nice pictures of the logging operations -- and of the false brome, the lupine, and even sweet Noah doing some hard work, beating back the grass. Great idea I think. Since mitigating the potential for fire to reach a house is really fresh on my mind, I'm sending hugs to that hard working young man. I expect most of those evergreen's limbs are pretty high off the ground, but just in case it might be worth for that to be one of the projects that Bill and Tom take on someday. Fire mitigation in general I mean, not simply lopping off low hanging branches near the house. Sure appreciate those super pictures -- and wow, Scott really is TALL.
Hooray - the Black Forest fire is almost fully contained. Our evacuees and their animals have for most part returned home yesterday afternoon. One of the fire fighters (ffs) video'd a two hour battle to save someone's house -- they let the fire come up all the way to the mulch the folks had put around house to protect their flower beds (bad idea according to the ffs), holding it back with fire hoses. The owners had cut the limbs off the surrounding evergreens 10 feet up the trucks. The ffs said that helped save the house as the fire wasn't able to ignite the trees. We could see the flames trying to climb the tree trunks but it couldn't make it up to where the needles and smaller more flammable limbs were.
In some cases (one person said, I haven't substantiated) the AC would suck embers into house causing the fire to burn the house inside out. 15500 acres burned/482 houses gone totally and 17 damaged. Two people dead, lost as their trees had crowned and the fire swept over their house before they could get into their car--ffs found the car doors open and the people in the garage.
Thanks Dee for posting the picture. I simply cannot get the job done myself; appreciate you doing it.
Fire happening now in the Black Forest, about 20 miles (we're very safe) north of us. We have opened the ranch to folks that are being evacuated. I'm grateful every day that our woods haven't burned. If you look in the media library, you'll see the picture of the fire's smoke imaged from our kitchen deck. I cannot load the picture here. The website hates me.
So...Sandra - is that a challenge? One easily met I'd say-you're a beautiful woman and there's not much a photog has to do but point the camera is the right direction. We'll be taking all kinds of pictures this weekend I suspect. Can't wait to share hugs with the family and most importantly: see Jessica and Gavin tie the knot. Makes me dizzy with delight just to think about it. Sending love.
Oh thank you so much Dee!! The farm looks beautiful--but not as lovely as that picture of Judi and Aunt Martha. Wow. You did good with that baby Nikon!!! Sending love.
I'll bet the engagement party was fabulous fun. I seriously toyed with the idea of a surprise attendance, but couldn't pull it off from work. Sure would have been fun if I could have. Envy you all for meeting Robert's family. Wasn't Tory's sapphire beautiful though?
Noah looks so much like you Dee, it's amazing. No one could mistake whose kid he is!! The couch looks so much like the one in your family room Dee.
My beautiful daughter showing off her sapphire and platinum engagement ring. Robert flew down to Colorado with the intention of asking for her hand in marriage. We're thrilled: a beautiful match of two beautiful people.
That sounds like a great team Murray – but I’m glad you have your own guide and that the two of you have had at least a little one-on-one experience with each other. You were so wise to have your own guide. The moon is barely a crescent right now. I cannot imagine climbing in the dark. Will you be down on Friday PM? Happy Valentine’s Day. Sending love to my adventurous son. Your worried Mom
From: Little Wet Noses - Murray [mailto:murray@littlewetnoses.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2013 7:33 AM
I agree. The guide's name is "lobo" which is "wolf" in Spanish I think. If all goes well i should be down by 8am your time Friday morning, if you can believe it (if not sooner if it doesn't go well).
Leaving soon! Happy Valentines Day! Love MTM
On Feb 14, 2013 9:39 AM, "KC Thompson" wrote:
Murray – that seems too quick. You leave at midnight tonight and are back at 8 am tomorrow? Will you even get to see the view? Love Mom
From: Little Wet Noses - Murray [mailto:murray@littlewetnoses.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2013 7:50 AM
I adjusted the time to localize. I am GMT-5. So my time, i start climbing at midnight and get summit in 7 or so hours, then about 2-3 hours down. I might have messed up the conversion. But no, not much time on summit as it's very, very cold and dangerous. Off soon! Love M
From: Little Wet Noses - Murray [mailto:murray@littlewetnoses.com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2013 8:20 PM
To: KC Thompson
Subject: Re: Trembling at the Thought
I'm trembling at the thought too. I leave base camp tomorrow morning for high camp and make the summit attempt tomorrow night (Thurs). It's truly an international expedition: me, an Aussie, a Swiss, and a German. We all have our own guides, but have been a team aside from that. Wish me luck! I think the weather looks favorable so I'm encouraged. But i won't push it and will be safe. I'll write when I'm down. Love MTM
Sandra - I totally sympathize--having a machine drop all my script before I get it saved has happened to me more than once -- and not just on this web site. Talk about aggravating. Meanwhile, I'm home from work today to bathe hounds and relocate my show gear. We have the big Denver cluster starting tomorrow. I'm taking time off work to go if you can imagine. Flash (our black yearling) and Swann (our 3 year old white girl) are my entrants all four days. It will be exhausting. Coursing, hunting, and racing are all way more fun for me.
Hey T - well, made it up volcano #2, to 5126m (16800') today. Absolutely exhausting, 8 hours of strenuous, exposed climbing, 16km in total, starting in rain and ending in snow. The absolute scariest shit that I have ever done. Period. Some places were so exposed with 500m drops on either side of the climbing ridge that I really didn't think I could do it - it was so slippery, no ropes or crampons, OMG. But, calmed down, breathed deeply, found and connected to my bravery and somehow managed to move on. Again, and again and again. Then, further up, the guide decided that harness, helmets and rope was necessary cause that's when the really steep exposed stuff started. I honestly don't know how I did it. But, I made it back down safely. And exhausted from the physical and mental effort. Tommorow I rest off the body stress at such extreme altitude exertion, and rest my muscles for the real deal, Cotopazi.
