Life on the High Plains

We drove up to the mountain town of Cripple Creek, Colorado last week.  It's a former mining town that is now home to multiple casinos. Cripple Creek is hosting the Ice Castles this winter.  It's normally in Aspen so it was nice to have it a little closer to home.  We weren't quite sure what to expect.  There it is sitting up on the hill behind town.  We had to wait for our timed entry so we decided to visit one of the casinos.  (Such a waste of money and depressing environment.) At our appointed time we made our way to the entrance. There were a few ice sculptures. There's my gorgeous hubby! There were lots of tunnels, towers, thrones, crawl spaces, and nooks and crannies to explore.  Some of them were quite slick--you had to sign a waiver before entering. The lights were the star of the show. I got to wondering how in the world they create the Ice Castles so I looked it up.  It look a team of 20 artists eight weeks to put it together by creating...

Since Mary got a new puppy we have started a new tradition of Friday fun days.  In an effort to socialize her puppy, Willow, and to get her out of the house for awhile, Mary and Willow come over for dinner and playtime. We have snacks and board games followed by dinner. The rule is that whoever is the loser of the games has to prepare dinner the next week. There's a lot of chaos in the house with this puppy--barking running in circles, playing tug of war.  It's a lot for two old retired people who normally have a quiet, peaceful house. Mary and I are both pretty sure that this guy will find a reason to get out of cooking a meal so he's the official clean up guy. Mary always snaggles some leftovers to take home.  This brings up the question of why she's really coming over (she normally visits once per year).  Is it really for the puppy?  Or is it for the free food and beer? The last time she came over the U.S. National Figure Skating Championships were on TV so u...

Yesterday we went on a troll hunt.  Are you familiar with the Thomas Dambo trolls?  The Danish artist has built several of them across the globe and last year a second one was completed in Colorado. It was a beautiful day so we drove about an hour and half to Victor, Colorado. Google Maps knew exactly where to find Rita the Rock Planter.  This marker was at the entrance to the road.  If you ever visit this one please know you can drive to the top of the hill to park.  There is plenty of parking and even some porta potties. It was about a 100 yard walk from the parking to Rita.  In the background you can see the waste from the Victor gold mine.  It's still an active open pit gold mine. Rita is made entirely of recycled products. It's speculated that the artist put Rita in this location as a symbol of the damage humans have done to the natural environment. From Rita it was a short walk to an overlook of the valley with the sun just starting to set. The g...

I went to the barn yesterday morning to feed the horses around 7:30 and witnessed a beautiful sight. The sun was rising to the east above the prairie. And the moon was setting in the west above the mountains at the same time. Living out here with the big open skies and where the deer and antelope play sometimes provides the best starts to the day. Happy Skywatch Friday!

 Hallelujah!!  The artic blast of January 2024 has finally moved on from the front range of Colorado! To celebrate we loaded up the dogs and headed to Cheyenne Mountain State Park to enjoy the sunshine and soak up the warmth! In a 30 hour timeframe we went from an artic -19 degrees (-30 with the windchill) to a high of +56 yesterday. We were all glad to get outside after being cooped up for four days. That's Maisy on the left and Aspen on the right.  They were especially happy to hit the trails. Interesting paw print.  One of the trail cams at this park picked up a mountain lion a few days ago.   Aspen is mostly an Alaskan Malamute according to her DNA test.  She could have kept going in the snow all day. As we were leaving this beauty decided to make an appearance. The rest of herd was not far behind.  What a glorious sight! Happy Skywatch Friday !  I hope you survived the cold spell too.

 Have I mentioned lately how much I hate winter? I love painting and I love my little studio, but winter is a challenge.  Today I went out there for a couple hours.  It was 29 degrees outside with unbelievable winds and 47 degrees inside.  My little heaters can't get the job done. Here I am in my winter coat trying to finish up my teepee painting. It's close to being done.  Hopefully I won't turn into an ice cube out there one day. Today I had the thought that maybe I need a job.   How long until spring arrives?  Why can't we move to Arizona?

It was that time of year again--the 4-H Western Roundup that is held annually every January right before the National Western Stock Show opens.  I was once again asked to come up and tabulate the national 4-H Horse Judging Contest. A friend who is still actively involved with coaching kids called me the day before I was heading up to Denver and asked if I wanted to go to the horse bowl contest.  Why not?  So I headed out the door at 6:30 a.m. to pick up Jackie and head north to Denver. This year the contests were held in Colorado State University's newest campus--The CSU Spur.  It's an educational campus that focuses on education surrounding food, water, and health.  I was truly impressed by the facilities. We watched several rounds of horse bowl and when they broke for lunch we made our way over to the Denver Stockyard Saloon.  Of course we had to stop for a selfie in front of the saloon entrance. Later that day we attended the coach's meeting for the hors...