| Karen, a.k.a. Tabberone, with a loving grip on her husband, Mike. |
 The boss is on the right |
| This is the view looking due north from the house. The snow-covered mountains are the Continental Divide, part of the Colorado Rockies. Karen wanted the back side of the house facing north so Mike would have this wonderful view while he was washing the dishes. |
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| Trivia question: Why are these mountains called the Continental Divide? What geographical happening signifies the Continental Divide? |
| January 2001, we had some visitors. This is why we put up a fence. We live in Open Range where the critters roam. Cows don't make that much noise when they visit but they do leave some rather large calling cards. |
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| May 22, 2002, we had some rain. Around here we get about 15 inches of rain/snow a year. Sights like this are rare. |
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To get to town, we have to use County Road 53. It's twelve miles of unpaved road. Sometimes
the local bison get loose and have meeting rather near
the road. Unlike the cattle, these guys don't always shy away from a motor vehicle. They can
get downright ornery when they have to get out of your way. The popular name for theses critters
is American Buffalo but they are really in the bison family.
Every so often, we get really nice sunsets. So nice, that I have to take two pictures of it. The first picture is due north at the divide while the second picture was due west over a nearby hill. What's really different is a reverse sunset. The colorful sunset isn't in the west but in the east. It happens in wide valleys when the clouds are just right. On November 5, 2002, we had a spectacular reverse sunset. Picture #1 and picture #2 show the view from our house looking due east while the sun was setting in the west. And yes, that's snow on the ground. |
| Our area is considered "dry". We typically get 15 inches of rain a year. On Friday, August 20, 2004, we got about 5 or 6 inches of rain and hail when a thunderstorm stalled over the area. What happens then? Flash floods. County Road 53 is near our house. This is a shot of the house from CR 53 showing some of the pooled water that was trying to flow over Rt3 53 because the culvert was too small. We did better than our neighbor's road which was partially washed away by the heavy water. |
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The winters here aren't as bad as people think. The weather is unpredictable because of the various mountain ranges around us
many with peaks over 14,000 feet (they are called Fourteeners out here.) Fronts tend to move around the mountains or bounce off
them, making predictions more of a guessing game. We're in a valley at 9,000 feet and while we do get snow from the north it's
the snowstorms that come up from the southwest that really do the damage. Those storms, carrying moisture from the Pacific or the Gulf
of Mexico, like to make things interesting if there is cold air from the north.
The winter of 2006-2007 was a doozy. Beginning the weekend before Christmas, "let it snow" became more than a melody. In a five-week period we got six major snowstorms that dumped on us. The first storm liked Colorado so much it stayed a day longer than projected. These storms all hit on Thursday, Friday, and/or Saturday. The first storm being a two-parter. The snow around here tends to be dry which makes it perfect for drifting. Did we mention the winds? We started taking pictures December 29, 2006, starting with what our vehicles looked like. This early morning, about 8am, while it was still snowing. The snow in this picture is moving horizontally from left to right. That's correct, horizontally. Did we mention the wind? We figured we were going to need photographic proof of why we couldn't get out to the post office 15 miles away. A week later, January 5, 2007, the view out front was pretty much the same, with the snow in this picture again moving horizontally from left to right. Did we mention the wind? The next day the sun came out and we could get a better picture of our vehicles. That snow drift is only about 18 inches deep. This picture is from the top of the driveway after we finally managed to get the Jeep up to the road. Being smarter than we look, which is fortunate, we began parking Jeep #1 on Maskoke Trail, which is also fortunate, because a week later, and another snowstorm later, the view out front was getting worse. We considered the driveway a lost cause because of the drifting. Have we mentioned the wind? Our major problem, however, was getting the ½ mile down Maskoke to County Road 53. The drifting snow was so deep the Jeep couldn't clear it. We were stuck until the county plowed us out. That snow was 2 feet deep. You can see the county road in the picture. It's not that far, on a clear road, that is. At one point the drifts in the yard were over three feet high. |
| So, you ask, what does it take to liven up our day? A visit from Francis, of course. He dropped by one Monday morning around 530am and anounced, rather loadly at our bedroom window, that he was hungry. So, not knowing the donkey words for, "Sorry we're all out of Donkey Chow", we fed him. We discovered donkeys like Cheerios. His owner came and got him later that day. Took us several hours to locate the lost owners. |
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Company A & Comapny D, 9th Infantry, 25th Division |
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