“We are always more anxious to be distinguished for a talent which we do not possess, than to be praised for the fifteen which we do possess.” – Mark Twain, Mark Twain’s Autobiography
Friday, September 16, 2011
Day Two 2011 Cabin Trip
Another long day. We made it to our regular stop in Grand Island, Nebraska. It was a good driving day with clouds all the way and only brief rain. It has been cold on our stops to walk the dogs.
We heard that a pack rat has invaded the cabin and done some “damage”. Not sure what that means yet. Crap. Just what we need, walking into a cabin that stinks of rodent pee. We’ll find out soon enough.
Tomorrow is a short day. We drive through about 3/4 of Nebraska, then through Cheyenne to Laramie where we will do some shopping before driving in to the cabin. We should get there between 2 and 3 tomorrow afternoon. Will post again after settling in and let you know how it is going.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Posted under: Cabin News • Stuff You Gotta Know! • by Rick on 09/16/2011 at 05:56 PM
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Wednesday, September 14, 2011
The Annual Migration
We are about to embark on our annual migration to our mountain cabin in Colorado. We drive about 20 minutes south to I80, then 1750 miles west to Laramie, Wyoming, then 40 minutes south to the cabin in Colorado. We know all the stops along the way (pee, eat, sleep). We will be taking the 3 dogs and 2 cats, and the whole routine is going smoother this year—we’ve had lots of practice.
I’ll try to blog along the way and at the cabin. But, if you really want to keep track of our adventures, be sure to follow Lynne’s blog at http://www.rickandlynne.com/lynne. She has turned it into a “membership only” blog because of the spammers and in order to know who is following her daily posts. Membership is easy, just send an email asking for membership and she’ll grant it. You will be rewarded by her fantastic photography and insightful commentary.
Posted under: Cabin News • Stuff You Gotta Know! • by Rick on 09/14/2011 at 06:11 PM
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Saturday, October 02, 2010
Cabin Visit 2010 - Day 14
This morning we took a walk around with the dogs and Bella had her swim—not as much as usual, I think it was cold. Then, Lynne and I wanted to cut enough wood to replenish what we’ve used on this trip. It has been so hot, that we did not use much! However, the big saw is so dull that it would take forever (and it is not good for the saw to try to cut with a dull blade), and I could not get the small saw started—I think I flooded it following the starting instructions. So, that was one chore avoided.
After a shower I went over to talk to our neighbor. I had some topics for him regarding the “mess” on our land from logging beetle kill trees. And, since he is president of the land owners’ association, I wanted to hear his side of some of the hot-button issues with the land owners. We ended up driving around a big chunk of Sand Creek Park to see various projects that he has been working on. And, I even saw some parts of the area that I had not explored before and met a couple that are renovating an old ranch house and barn. That took a couple of hours.
When I got home, Lynne made us a sandwich and we had our usual lazy afternoon and evening with “trailer spaghetti” for dinner. It is so named because it used to be our “go to” meal at the end of a long day of driving our trailer around when we were showing dos every weekend many years ago. We fry up some hamburger, coat it with a bottled spaghetti sauce and toss that with cooked spaghetti and Parmesan cheese. Very quick, yet usually pretty tasty depending upon the sauce we use.
We took a drive and watched a beautiful sunset and saw a small herd of elk—one big bull and an harem of 8 or 9 cows. Very beautiful.
We are both bushed and, I think, about ready to head for home. We were off to bed early and on Saturday will do as much prep as we can so that we can leave very early on Sunday morning. We lose an hour a day on our way home, so it is important to get an early start. We’ll load the truck Saturday as much as we can, then on Sunday morning we’ll “close up” the cabin, drive to Laramie where we can dump our trash, grab a MacDonald’s breakfast, fill up with gas and head east.
Posted under: Cabin News • by Rick on 10/02/2010 at 07:41 AM
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Friday, October 01, 2010
Cabin Visit 2010 - Day 12 & 13
I’ve fallen a bit behind in documenting our daily activities, so will try to catch up in this post.
On Wednesday (day 12) we took a walk to the bottom with the dogs, then put them in the cabin, and walked to a neighboring parcel where there is an old cowboy or shepherds cart as well a a cabin. Lynne took photos, and she has posted about them on her site. There is also an amazing old tree there that I called “Old Grand Dad” that must be several hundred years old. It is bent and gnarled and broken, but still going.
After that we spent the day around the cabin reading and taking it easy. I must have done some chores, but can’t think what now 
Oh, yeah. I attempted to sharpen the chain saw, but it needs professional help.
Salad for lunch.
We had leftover lasagna for dinner and we watched Survivor on TV with a nice fire in the fireplace.
On Thursday, we had a hearty breakfast (poached eggs on toast with hash browns) and then we took the dogs to the bottom and then left them in the cabin while we hiked the property lines. I have each corner stored on a GPS, and we use that to go from corner to corner. We can’t always go in a straight line, but the goal is to stay as close to the property boundary as possible and find each corner—most have survey stakes to mark them. It is a total of 2.25 miles and mostly up and down and trekking through dense forest. It is a beautiful hike though and takes us to parts of our property that are mostly inaccessible and that we do not otherwise see. By the time we get home we are scratched, muddy, and have legs like rubber.
After the long trek, all we want to do is take a shower and take it easy—sort of a theme lately. I did work on the gutters some.
The Zaffino’s came over mid-afternoon for a nice chat. Larry came over to review the clear cut area and talk about the logs that he will remove.
Dinner was awesome grilled rib eye steaks with baked potatoes and s’mores for dessert. We did not turn on the TV that I recall, instead we chatted, read and went to bed. It was cool overnight and the furnace ran a couple of times. Bella was antsy and finally settled down on the bed—but that makes it hard for us to be comfortable and sleep well.
Posted under: Cabin News • by Rick on 10/01/2010 at 07:48 AM
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Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Cabin Visit 2010 - Day 12
Today, we decided to make another short trip into Laramie. We needed cat food, wanted a supply of “special” bones for the dogs (for Christmas), I wanted a file to sharpen the chain saw, and we needed to make our annual trip to the West Laramie Fly Shop to buy a commemorative T-shirt. But, rather than go straight to town, we decided to take a long-cut over Sand Creek Pass down to the Laramie River Valley, up along the river to Woods Landing, then into Laramie. It was a nice drive, we got our shopping done quickly, and we headed home, arriving around noon. (Oh yeah, and we filled up with cheap gas.)
We had the 24-hour, 7-layer salad for lunch. Then, we spent the afternoon cleaning the cabin and Lynne prepared her wonderful porcini mushroom lasagna.
Dave and Sally came over and we took a hike “around” since they had never seen the parcel we are on in detail. After that we talked while dinner cooked. We have some shared experiences with expatriate assignments at Hewlett Packard, and there is never a shortage of conversation. Dinner was great as was the frozen pie Lynne made for dessert.
I think it was close to 10:00 before we headed for bed and then I read for an hour to finish the second book in a trilogy I am reading.
It is hard to believe we have only two more days here. There are a lot of chores I have not done yet, and now wonder if they will ever get done on this trip.
Posted under: Cabin News • by Rick on 09/29/2010 at 08:32 AM
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