Scenes from Monday

5:00 a.m. Making morning coffee and Cranberry Orange Walnut bread. It was too early for Bear :)!

We woke to about 6 inches of new snow. This photo is after I cleared the roof of Wild Thing. Can you spot Bear on the dash keeping an eye on things?

The aspens – their white bark, reddish brown branches – beautiful with the evergreens and snow. The road is lined with aspen groves and if the deer are standing quietly, they blend in and you can easily miss seeing them. It is like a Bev Doolittle painting come to life.

The new snow and the calendar put me in a Christmas mood. Saturday afternoon, Mama, Betty and I went to a local Christmas bazaar. I found the carved nativity ornament and the moose & sleigh salt and pepper…perfect for a bit of Christmas on the road. (The moose had a broken antler which Bill fixed for me!)

Miss Dixie Lee and LB after their afternoon walk. They run and chase and play and probably get 10 times the distance out of a walk. They always arrive back first and sit on the hill together…

…waiting for Mama and Barely.

All of us home today…snow to be cleared, work and chores to do. After a gorgeous and productive day we shared the best pizzas! Crust homemade by my Mama – she, Bill and I each topped a crust. Betty prepped. We all ate and enjoyed and debated which we liked best with no consensus reached…all were delicious.

It was a perfect start to the week :)!

South Fork, CO

Bear and I took a ride in the Jeep this morning…just a few miles north of South Fork, CO towards Creede.

Heading back towards South Fork, my folks home is in the valley which begins the west grade of Wolf Creek Pass.

The Rio Grande…looking a bit on the cool side.

Home :) !

And yes, it is as cold as it looks and forecast to get colder but all is warm aboard Wild Thing as well as in the house where roaring fires blaze in two wood stoves.

Louie

Louie (Louis Armstrong Morgan)…my folks tuxedo cat. As all tuxedo cats I’ve known, Louie is a tough guy.

“Whaddya mean, what happened to my ear???”

Louie condescended, for a very short time, to be photographed.

“Are you done yet?”

“I am about ready to have that camera outta my face”.

“Do you really want to try another shot???”

Just another day at the office

Work day today…

…sometimes it gets a bit boring…

But a beardog must stay vigilant!

Yowza! Mule deer here versus the whitetail deer at home. Well fed mule deer here!

The old man keeps a harem of 6 or 8. He keeps an eye out as they eat and follows them to safety back up the hill, guarding from the rear, when they move.

Where are the photos???

So…a first for me. The hard drive on my laptop failed. Probably my own fault for letting it ride on the dashboard of Wild Thing with no pad or cushioning.

The good news is that it gave me warning. The VERY good news is that I am a regular backer-upper – always have been. I back up to 2 external drives, keep them in separate locales…one which is the motorhome. I backed up before I left home and when I started getting warnings, I backed up the few new things.

And the VERY BEST news is that there is a wonderful tech shop here and Bryan took care of my computer toute suite and was pleasant as well. I was less than 24 hours without my laptop. He was able to clone the failing drive and as far as I can tell, nothing is lost and I have not had to reinstall anything…my work environment is intact. It is a big deal.

Meanwhile, I got Wild Thing cleaned up a bit and situated for a 10-14 day “park”, did some baking, walked with Bear and spent 24 hours without a computer. I was not really offline as my phone gets email, internet, etc. AND, my folks have computers that I could have used but I didn’t. And I lived :)! But, I’m glad to have the darn thing back. A lot of the info of my life lives on it…recipes!!, my financial information, recent photos…and oh, yes, my livelihood depends on what I do on this machine.

So…2 work days lost and 3 days of photos in the camera… eventually I’ll catch up with news and photos but for a day or so, it has to be work and family – family being why I’m here and glad to be here and enjoying every minute of both getting here and being here.