As the sun sets over Bull Mountain and day ends, we find ourselves at the last evening of our cabin vacation. It’s been good, but we are ready to take our lives back up where we left off. The dogs (and us) have walked our legs off! They’ve watched the loading up of the truck today and seem to accept the fact we will be leaving.

I hope you’ve enjoyed your mini vacation along with us. I will continue to post about the cabin after we get home since I have left many things left unsaid.

So, dear friends and family, we leave you with the sunset behind Camel Rock.

See you all back in reality!

It’s not necessarily a bad thing when the leaves start to come off the golden aspens. They have other purposes too besides a showy dress for the trees.

They decorate small fir trees that happen to be growing underneath them, not unlike Christmas decorations.

They form a golden carpet on the forest floor too.

Still it’s a shame they have to go.

Just like it’s a shame that we too must go. Home. But we’ve extended our cabin stay by one day so we still have tomorrow ...

In this case RV would not stand for Recreational Vehicle but perhaps Rest Vehicle for a cowboy or cowpoke. I’m not sure if this was once an old chuckwagon used on cattle drives or just a “mobile home” for a cowboy out with his cows. It sits on the property that adjoins our one parcel on the west, so yes we were technically trespassing to visit it. We first found it years ago and it was in much better condition then. Now the packrats have taken it over as their residence and it’s basically not long for this world. It’s sad to see it fall into such disrepair. But, the the land has not been used for some time as the fence surrounding it fell down years ago. I wanted to capture it in a few photos before it no longer exists.

It’s situated at the edge of their stand of trees, looking somewhat sadly and yearningly (at least to me) out to the open spaces where it once was useful.

It’s wheels aren’t turning any more over the open prairie.

It sits neglected. No longer of any use to anybody but the small rodents that now call it their home.

I’ll just let the photos speak for themselves except for a short explanation.
Photo 1: Me and Alex
Photo 2: Alex
Photo 3: Family photo of Rick, me and all three dogs.

Just in case any of you out there were wondering exactly where our cabin is, “X” marks the spot!

The driveway.

It’s hard to believe that we only have three days left at the cabin. Three days. Where did the time go? The days slip by in a sunny blur. Yesterday our weather station here at the cabin registered 83 degrees F! Crazy. We are unsure yet of how to best spend the remaining time here. Do we take another drive? Walk the perimeter of our 70 acres? Or just be lazy and sit around and read (and blog)?

We’ve done a few chore-like things but not much. We have to fix our fence at the entrance to our cabin every year because the snow piles up so deep that the fence poles (which are just trees that have died and fallen over) don’t hold up very well. Rick took the big chain saw and cut through downed trees on our path through the woods and replaced the threshold on our front screen door. That’s about it for work.

Part of the fence.

The other night we finally got lucky and caught a herd of cow elk just over the hill from the cabin. They were spooky and didn’t hold still for long. Still, it was nice to see them.

The cows continue to stroll through our newly formed “meadow” leaving lots of meadow muffins. behind. Like this:

Yesterday they just laid down and took a long afternoon nap. We forgot they were there and when Rick went out with the dogs after their meal Hailey took off chasing them. argh! I didn’t see it because I was inside, but from hearing Rick yelling at her I knew something was happening. She chased them out of the woods, across the road and over the hill, then she came back. She thinks she’s a cow dog now and is very pleased with herself.  Here they are at our salt lick (which we have to attract the moose, not cows) yesterday morning.

eBay likes it when the cows are here too. She looks out the window frozen into position and her whole body just quivers. I don’t know if she’s quivering with excitement or fear, but it’s amusement anyway. Speaking of eBay, she’s got her nose out of joint because I haven’t shown any photos of her, so here she is doing her favorite thing at the cabin—rolling around in the gravelly dirt in the driveway and taking a dirt bath.

We took a drive yesterday over Sand Creek Pass and down to the Laramie River road and on to Woods Landing, taking the extremely long way into Laramie. This stand of aspens were too pretty to pass up without capturing them.

One thing that Colorado and Wyoming have over New Jersey it that blue, blue sky that goes on forever. And, of course, signs like this one.

And folks, it’s no bull!

Uhm, but in this case it was a bull!

After errands in Laramie we came home and I made lasagna for dinner. We had neighbors David and Sal over. We took them on our “around” walk before dinner and they were completely amazed at all the trees we have. Bella took a late afternoon dip in the pond. I liked the ripples fanning out from her and the reflection of the tree that goes right through her middle!

I have so many photos to share I think I might do another blog entry later today, so stay tuned to the cabin channel!

Oops, almost forgot to include an aspen pic!