I know you all on Facebook have already seen the turkey photos, but this post is for my sister who is not on Facebook. I promised her I would put them on the blog. So here they are: the Baker's Dozen hanging out by the pool. I am thankful I didn't have the pool open on this day or they might have just taken a dip it was that hot!

Silly turks! I could not believe my eyes when I saw them all lined up on the railing. 

And while we're here, why not land on the cabana?

They hardly ever come in to the back yard. I like it when they do because they eat all the bugs.

I'm sorry I'm not here more often. I guess my motivation for the blog has diminished. It started to celebrate our new life in New Jersey and all the adventures, flora and fauna that were new and different to us. Now it's just everyday ho-hum. Add to that the fact that we can't wait to move back to Colorado and start the next chapter of our lives together and well, it's hard to keep the blog going. I think you know where I am coming from. But, until the house sells (and it seems we are not having much luck with that) we are trying to enjoy the rest of our time here. We're taking advantage of the pool and swimming lengths most mornings.

I haven't given up the blog, just scaling back a bit.

Not New Jersey

We are home in New Jersey as of Saturday late afternoon. My own house feels strange to me. I am in still in a Colorado state of mind and I'm finding it hard to adjust back to the noises of neighbors mowing their lawns and the annoying small planes that fly over the house on the way to the local airport. 

However, an incident last night reminded me of exactly where I was. We had our first bear of the season. I got up to close the curtains as it was getting dark. Out the window I saw our trash can toppled over and trash strewn in a wide swath across the front yard. Then I saw the big black bear. I stood on the front steps and clapped my hands and yelled at it. It took one last tasty piece of prime trash and retreated into the woods. 

Yep, we're back.

It pretty much either rained or was extremely overcast on our 3-day journey home. It seemed that the entire state of Nebraska was inundated with water. The Platte river was out of its banks and newly formed "lakes" appeared in so many fields. So. much. moisture. It was that way in Colorado too and it was nice to see it so green.

We listened to a very interesting book on the way home called "The Buried Giant." It was fantasy with a mix of King Arthur and The Hobbit, complete with ogres and dragons. It was so well read that the author's descriptive words and wonderful dialogue came to life. The story had a very interesting premise which kept us talking about it long after it was over. The 12 hours of CD time seemed to fly by as Lex's tires ate up the miles. Between that and podcasts of America's Test Kitchen we kept ourselves well entertained.

The pool is open and warmed up. However, it has mostly rain and stormed since we've been home. Rick did take advantage of a quick dip on Sunday, but since that afternoon we've had nothing but rain. I am not sure we even have fireflies since it's rained every night, and if they are here I'm sure they are all drowned. I did catch this little froggie on top of his "kin" upon opening the pool yesterday. Whenever it rains we get frogs in the pool. They are the devil to catch.

Most people ask if it's good to be "home" again. I would have to say, no, not really. I'm sure I will settle back into my normal New Jersey routine before too long, but right now I am not ready. We both become so immersed in cabin life that it's not easy to rewire ourselves. Plus, we kicked off a few things in preparation of living there full time while we there, such as next month we'll have new batteries installed and more solar panels. We found a great shed/small garage/storage barn that is going to be perfect for what we need. A neighbor is going to be clearing and leveling the spot for it this week (depending on the weather). 

Our yard was about to become a virtual garden with the promise of lupine, Wyoming paintbrush, fireweed, pink plume, blue flax and more. We won't see it in bloom. Neither will we see the fruits of our efforts to reseed the slash pile burn areas where we spread seed and native wildflower mix.

We're missing all the animals that come to our brand-new mineral and salt licks.

It takes a while to adjust to having moose, deer and elk visit vs. a bear getting into our garbage.

A few days ago I stood at my front window and watched this herd of deer come down the hill next to my neighbors’ house. They were have a rather rough go of it through the deep snow. I feel sorry for the poor things, there isn’t much out there for them to eat with all this deep snow cover. They reached the road and just stood around scoping out the territory.

They decided to come through the woodsy part of our front yard, but one small one got curious about the food on the ground that I scatter for the birds and squirrels. He/she approached cautiously.

He/she finally decided it was safe and started eating. I know some people hate for the deer to come around because they eat down the bushes and trees, but I don’t mind at all. They can eat whatever they like. Lip-smackin’ good!

Such sweet eyes!

Pretty soon it took off to join the rest of the family.

Yesterday morning I looked up from computer and saw this scene out the window.

Only four deer this time and only the one came over to eat. The other three seemed content to roam our front yard.

She stayed and ate and ate. She must have been out there for at least fifteen minutes. A short while later I was sitting once again at the computer and caught movement out of the corner of my eye. Imagine my surprise (and delight) to see that the turkeys had joined her! Now, that was a sight to see. 

They were not completely comfortable with each other and every time the deer raised her head the turkeys jumped back a couple of feet, but I guess in this brutally cold and snowy winter it’s share and share alike! 

Yesterday we had about 2.5 inches of wet snow. It stuck to everything and made it all look very Christmas-y. Very nice indeed. It won’t be melting either since we are to have below freezing temperatures through the end of this week when it’s predicted we get yet another storm on Saturday. Right now we’ve heard everything from another wintry mix to 3 to 5 inches of snow first, then ice, then rain. Both my neighbors have their Christmas parties planned for Saturday and Sunday, so I hope they still get a good turn-out. All we have to do is make it across the street so I guess at least we’ll show up.

Nearly every night I am awakened by this sound. It penetrates through the closed windows. Very eerie. At first I wondered if it was a bird of some sort, but no, it’s the fox. It makes other odd sounds too. Sometimes it sounds like it’s right under our window, while other times it’s in the distance. The sound really carries in the moist, damp air. I don’t mind having it around but I do think it’s the reason we don’t have any turkeys anymore. I miss the turkeys. I’m not sure if it’s still living under the side deck or not since I haven’t actually seen it in a while, but the dogs check out the hole almost every day.

If you want to see our weather you can always check out our weather cam which is now aimed at the front of the house. (Note: images stop at sunset.) You might even catch a glimpse of me once in a while!

Photo: our front door

Just as we are nearing the end of our stay we are completely in cabin mode. We don’t really pay attention to any kind of schedule (except for the dogs) and we get up when we feel like it, eat when we feel like it, and go to bed when we feel like it. Last night we turned in around 8:00 p.m. I think. We got up at 5:30 because the heater wasn’t coming on fully. (Rick had replaced the batteries in the thermostat and the cover was not on completely.)

We do shower every day but tend to wear the same clothes for several days. Fashion mavens we are not.

We’ve done really well planning and buying meals this time. We are really getting the most out of the ingredients we bought, such as we had to buy italian sausage for the Lasagna Soup and we used the rest of the sausage for italian sausage with peppers and onions last night.  Thrifty!


Sunset over Bull Mountain on Monday evening.

The weather has not been typical at all for this time of year. We didn’t bring any really warm clothes as we never need them. I am usually running around in shorts with layers on the top, but this year I’ve worn shorts once in two weeks and that was yesterday when the temperature was about 70 degrees F.

We are usually longing for keeping a fire going in the wood stove and this year have pretty much had one every day, although we let it go out in the afternoon.

The wind is something else that is not normal this year. It’s been extremely windy most days. I am not a big fan of the wind but if you live up here you get used to it. September is not usually a windy month—mostly winter and spring is when it blows. The wind also becomes your friend up here. Why? Because Wind=Power! Everyone has a wind generator (our is decommissioned now). We were discussing the wind last week when we had our neighbors over for a drink and they all said they celebrate when the wind blows by staying up late watching movies! Ah, high country life.

The aspens are not behaving as they should either. Some have turned while others’ leaves are still on the tree, but they were touched by the frost and snow last week and instead of turning color they will just fall off.

We took a drive yesterday over Sand Creek Pass and up a BLM road on the back of Bull Mountain. It’s usually a beautiful drive in the fall, but again, the trees this year are pretty much hit and miss. The view of the Rawah Mountain range is always beautiful from the top of the pass.




There are quite a few antelope around and we saw this little group of girls that was being watched over by a big male. He was pretty possessive of his little harem and while I was trying to snap their photo one female broke off from the pack and started to run. We watched him run after her, covering a large amount of ground in a very short period of time, and turned her right around and chased her back to the other females. Very cool.





We are expecting some snow on Thursday night into Friday, the amount of which seems unclear at this point. One prediction is for not much while the other one is for “a substantial snow event.” If that happens we won’t be leaving on Friday as planned, but will have to wait a day. We left the snow chains at home with the thought that surely we wouldn’t need them in September!

Rick has been posting some very interesting and enjoyable blog posts over at his site too all about our days at the cabin. I encourage you to go over and visit him, read a little and learn a lot!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad at the cabin 8,650 feet above sea level