This morning dawned clear and thankfully smoke-free. Yesterday was not a good day for breathing air as the smoke from the Beaver Creek fire descended on us big time. And, no, we are not in any danger from the huge fire but we do occassionaly get the smoke if the wind blows from the right (or in this case, wrong) direction. You know, "smoke from a distant fire?"
We ate breakfast al fresco on our porch as we we so often do since we bought this wonderful retro table at a local antique store. Its cheery yellow formica and metal trim reminds me of the table we had growing up only that one was green formica and was not a drop-leaf table. There were also green vinyl padded chairs to match. This little table was exactly right for this spot on the porch. Plus, with both leaves up it can six or maybe eight if we squeeze. We bought mis-matched chairs at about $25 each at both the antique store where we bought the table and also at Bart's, a favorite browsing antique/flea market spot. Two of the five chairs actually match and those are the two pictured here.
After breakfast we took the dogs up to open the gate and for a little exercise before we took off by ourselves to change out the cards in the game cameras up top.
To Destin, walks mean sticks!
The hike up to get change the camera cards gets easier every time we do it. We scared up a cottontail. A BIG cottontail! I think we may have caught the same rabbit on the camera at night.
By the way, what happens when a bunny sees his own shadow?
We are not getting much from the cameras at their present locations. A few deer, a rabbit, what we think might have been a grouse at night, and even a snake. We positioned one camera next to a big hole in a rock next to the ground and that's where the camera captured the snake. Not exactly what we were hoping for. So, on the way back we scouted out possible new locations to try. One is a well traveled game trail that is near the beaver pond. We'll leave them up where they are for another week or so, then try a new location.
We saw this hornet's nest near the pond. It's very low to the ground and at first I thought it had fallen out of a tree. I reached out my hand to move the branch that it was on because it was literally only a few inches off the ground and then I saw the hornets. No no no, Lynne, don't touch that! Very wierd place for a nest if you ask me.
It was a great morning and just another reason why we love it here so much.
Okay, this may not be the most glamorous post. Nor even interesting to most of you. But, it is a huge breakthrough for Lynne and me at the cabin.
One of our big frustrations is a "trip into town". It is especially difficult while Destin is still a puppy, because we don't want to leave him too long. A trypical trip into town involves checking the mail, dumping trash, picking up groceries we need, stopping by our storage unit, and a likely trip to a hardware store. Oh, and there is the library, and lunch, and we even like to pop into Bart's or an antique store to browse. Add doing laundry at a laundromat to the list and it really takes a lot of time. Usually, Lynne would do 5 or 6 loads at a time at the Spic 'n Span laundry (a very nice laundry), while I tried to get as many other errands done as possilbe.
That really ate up a day. Figure roughly an hour to get to town and another to get back, we had at most about two hours we could spend in town since Destin is crated at the cabin. (When cooler weather comes, we can take him with us.) Since doing a trip's worth of laundry could easily take 1-1/2 hours, there was not much time for anything else. It felt like rush, rush, rush. Plus, at about $3.00 a load for washing and drying, it was expensive.
So, one of our first priorities was to get the ability to do laundry at the cabin. I did much research before settling on an Ariston washer (the bottom part of a stackable unit built for RVs). I found one at Camping World in Longmont and picked it up on my way back from visiting family in NM for Dad's memorial. A plumber from RNR plumbing in Fort Collins actually made the drive up here and tapped into hot and cold water at the water heater and added a drain. We still have to use an extension cord to get power to it, but it is "fully functional" and a dream come true.
The washer just fits in our utility closet.
It takes a maximum 15 pound load, which is not bad. As a front loader it uses little water, yet gets the clothes super clean. It is quiet--I kept checking on it for the first few loads thinking it had quit working. It spins fast, up to 1200 rpm for some load types (that's 20 spins a second!) and the clothes come out mostly dry. We've now done 6 or 7 loads and all have worked flawlessly. We could not be happier! I no longer wear my underwear for three days in a row
What about drying? Well, it is so dry up here, and the sun is so intense; and, we have a breeze most of the time. Clothes dry on our line in a matter of minutes. In winter, drying outside is also fine except in bad weather where we'll use some drying racks in front of the wood stove.
Our "dryer. Lynne teases me about the pants stretchers...
The other day we took a walk to "plant" the game camera in a totally different place hoping to catch more varities of game in our lens. We are actually hoping for a bobcat or mountain lion as neighbors have had a few sightings. I would love to see either one just so long as I am not standing there at the time!
We have a wide variety of woods, deep valleys filled with aspens, high rock outcroppings and high prairie grasslands on our 74 acres. The cabin is located nearest the woodsy part and aspen valley. In the valley, Bart's creek (named after our water-loving dog Bart) runs with snowmelt until late June when the tall grasses lushly take over. Monkshood likes to grow in the moist "bottom" as we call it, as it is the lowest point of our property.
But on this day the bottom was not our goal — the rocky outcroppings were. So we donned our hiking boots, and off we went. We had an idea to put it somewhere along a game trail that looks used, but not overly so. On the way there we had to pass by our marshy bog that never dries up, even in summer. And it was there that I had a joyful moment. It was almost like someone had queued up a choir of angles to sing Ahhhhhhh. I could not believe my eyes when I saw that the bog was harboring my favorite flower of all time —elephant head! I have never seen them growing on our land before, yet here they were. I nearly had a heart attack. Once you see them you'll know why they are my favorite. Their big ears, their long curled trunks — perfection.
But enough dilly-dallying over flowers — on to the main point of this blog post! Sheesh, Lynne, choirs of angels? Enough!
We picked our way up and over the granite rocks and scree like a couple of not-so-graceful mountain goats. It's a good workout, especially at this altitude. It's kind of like walking on little ball bearings on a slant. Very good for the balance!
We found a tree that Rick thought would have good coverage of the area.
Below us was the aspen forest.
So many cool rock formations up here! To me, if I were a mountain lion or a bobcat, I would hang out here.
On top, but not the highest point of our property by any means.
There are also lots of dead trees that are interesting (at least I think so). There is something very moving and thought provoking about these old giants that have given up.
I was really sad when this one fell over. It looks at rest though, doesn't it? Like someone who finally gave up after a brave battle with the elements.
This favorite still stands ... for now.
Its bark is weathered in a beautiful way. Sometimes I like to think I can talk to these old trees. I lay my hand on their bark and just stand there, listening, paying it reverance. (Not to worry, I haven't heard anything back yet.)
This same slope is also home to "Downward-Facing Dog", an old tree that was struck by lightning and gutted long ago, but after I put this up on Facebook many people thought it looked more like a wolf than a domesticed dog, one person thought it looked like a deer's head. We just thought that name up because it was catchy and like the yoga pose.
And that my friends, was our walk on the rocky side. I know you're sad it's over but there is always more to come. I have promised the fans of "Dick the Tree" that I will do an update on him for all of those who know and love him, and it will introduce him to a whole new set of "Dick" lovers out there.
~Side note: We did switch out the cards on the game cameras (we put up one more as well) from the rocky ridge and only managed to get a shot of a doe deer and baby, the mamma moose running with the baby so that only the baby was captured, and what we think was a jack rabbit at night (hard to tell). No cats yet. Boo.
I am a fan of foraging for mushrooms around our cabin site. There are literally hundreds of different kinds of mushrooms that grow here. We've found 3 that we can forage as edible (and hope to find more over time). One of those is the oyster mushroom. It grows on dead aspen trees in cool wet areas like the picture below.
The other day when Lynne and I were hiking below the cabin at a place we call Picnic Rock, we noticed a few oyster mushrooms on a large dead and fallen aspen tree.
I had no way to collect them at the time, and there weren't many, so we left them. But, I decided to go back down this morning with my power drill and do some "plugs" to propagate the mushrooms. Turns out if you drill a hole in a dead host tree (aspen in this case) and then fill the hole with some existing fresh mushrooms, a new cluster of mushrooms is likely to grow at that site.
Here I am drilling hole in the downed, dead aspen.
And, plugging it with some mushroom picked elsewhere on the tree.
The squirrels had been busy eating green pine cones on the same tree.
And, I picked and ate a few wild strawberries before turning to head home.
After I turned back toward the cabin, I spotted more mushrooms growing on a different tree that I had not seen earlier. As I walked to that tree, I saw another stump literally covered with mushrooms!
I guess I did not need to try manually propagating them. There are more here than we can ever use! And, they were fresh and ready to cut. Oyster mushrooms are attractive to bugs as well as mycophagists, and even if they are a few days old they can get infested. Most of these were in perfect shape. So, I came back up to the cabin, got Lynne, a knife and a bag and headed back down. She took these two photos of me cutting a few of the nicer ones.
Here are just a few of what I cut. I've put the word out to neighbors that I have these and more to see if anyone want some. If not, I'll blanch about half of them in boiling water for a couple of minutes, let them dry out real well, then freeze them in a ziploc bag.
The ones we don't freeze will go into some kind of dish within the next day or two. (I store them wrapped in damp paper towels in a paper bag in the warmest part of the refrigerator. They'll keep for a week that way.) Maybe sliced and breaded and fried? Maybe in an Asian-flavored stir fry with some steak and veggies? Maybe in an omelette or frittata? Suggestions?
(Please, don't ever eat a wild mushroom that you are not 100% certain of. Wild mushrooms can be deadly. Never eat any wild mushroom raw. In other words, don't try this at home unless you know what you are doing!)
We love an occasional breakfast of waffles. We have an antique cast-iron waffle maker from the Wagner Manufacturing Company that we use at the cabin. It is marked with the company name and location--Sydney, O(hio)-- as well as "PAT'D FEB 22, 1910".
It took a while to get it properly conditioned so that waffles don't stick. But, we can now successfully make waffles. Of course we have to adapt the waffle mix recipe to high altitude by adding a bit of extra flour. I also increase the oil slightly. One secret to good waffles from this waffle iron is that we never wash it. Just wipe it clean after each use.
It goes over the stove burner. I let it get good and hot and then flip it to get both sides hot. Then, the batter goes in and I close the top. When I "sense" it is done on one side (I really should time this...), I flip it over to cook the second side (see video below).
