Leaving on a Jet Plane

Heading out tomorrow and leaving for Florida on Wednesday. A quick visit with the in-laws. Traveling with my daughter Erin and granddaughter Ellie. Should be able to soak up some sun and spend some time at the beach.

Jim worked with Kelley and replaced the water and electric connections on the outside of Sugar and capped off the old refrigerator propane line.

Winter Hikes and Sacred Trees

Jim and I have been going on winter hikes the past few weeks. I took these pictures at Fox Run Park. There was an article in the paper last week about these twisted trees. I always wondered how trees grew in such an unnatural way. Turns out these trees are sacred and were cut this way so the Ute tribes prayers would be heard for 800 years, and that the trees are twisted to point to Pikes Peak. As you can see we found a few of them on our usual trail. When these trees were cut to form these twists they would have been much shorter and closer to the ground. many of these sacred trees have been destroyed during development and our recent forest fires.

New Years Day

Went for a winter hike. Not enough snow for snowshoeing. The temp was just around 30, or a little lower. It was good to get outside, no wind.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013

Christmas 2012

I took a few pictures of Christmas decorations. We went to Gustavus, AK a few years ago. The gas station (only one in town) looked a lot like the little ceramic gas station we have on our mantle. The Santa Face was made with the help of my mother-in-law Emily in 1986 or so. Erica gave us the knitted Mr and Mrs Claus. Erin gave us the snow people. Plus a few pictures of the lights.

New Faucet

The faucet was replaced since the original was either on or off, so many times more water was used than needed. Plus this new faucet leaves more room between the faucet, dish washing and space for hand movements.

Forest Fire in Rocky Mountain National Park

There has been a fire burning in RMNP since October. The fire worsened over last week and there were evacuations. It seems pretty close to two of campgrounds we went to in 2011. The part of RMNP we usually snow shoe in every February is currently closed and snowfall has been minimal. As of today the fire is more controlled. Praying for lots of snow in the next few weeks in that area. The fire is in the Fern Lake area and also Moraine Park.

These pictures are of the RMNP areas.