Life on the High Plains

I'm sharing some simple shots from around my house this week.  Nothing too exciting.  Last Friday afternoon I was painting in my studio when I heard a lot of rumbling trucks heading into the property across the street.  This 40 acre parcel was sold last year and we knew some folks were planning to build a house at some point this year, apparently the time is getting close. This parcel of land is very odd.  An easement road had to be built through two adjoining properties to reach their 40 acres.  Out here in the wild west there are occasionally disputes over easement roads, some have lead to shootings when the property owners block it off.  I hope everyone gets along. Anyway, on Monday morning they started drilling and by this afternoon they packed up and left.  Seems pretty quick.  Our well is 600 ft. in depth, I wonder how deep they had to go for theirs. Other views from our yard is my front "English" flower garden.  A few years ago I plant...

Colorado is parched, just like most of the West.  In the forecast this week we're supposed to get multiple days of monsoon rains. Earlier this afternoon I was at a meeting at the Nature Center and snapped this photo of Pikes Peak aka America's Mountain.  The clouds look promising! About 20 minutes later I was almost home.  It looked like rain had reached our pasture.  I loved how the sun was reflecting off this cloud.  Very grateful for the rain we received, but hoping for much more.  Our horses can only eat hay this summer because the grass is all dead (hay is very expensive right now). An update on the Aspen Acres fire I've posted about the last two weeks.  It's staying quite stable at 101,545 acres and it's now at 61% containment.  Residents in the area are being allowed to return home after being evacuated for three weeks!  Woohoo! Keep your finger crossed for rain! Linking with Skywatch Friday

 We recently came back from our favorite camping trip of the season. We headed up to Pike National Forest to one of our favorite forest service campgrounds. This is real "roughing it".  No water, no electricity, no sewer hookup.  This is the first real test our off-grid trailer has had.  It has solar panels on top and despite all the trees our batteries stay charged the entire time. At this campground you have no choice but to be totally unplugged.  The cell service is very sporadic and non-existent most of the time.  There's no better way to recharge! One day we drove to Buena Vista to go to the Mt. Princeton Hot Springs.  It was a beautiful day! They have an adults only area which was great.  We spent most of our time at this infinity pool with Mt. Princeton as a backdrop.  Its temperature was 106 degrees.  I tolerate the hot water much better than the hubby. There is also an opportunity to get into Chalk Creek which runs through the r...

Today I'm going to the archives for my Skywatch shot of the week.  In the spring I visited the Boyce Thompson Arboretum near Surprise, AZ. I'm an oil artist and I've been contemplating using this windmill as my next subject.  I love the desert bushes and trees, the old fashion fence is cool too.  The shadows might add an interesting element. I think I've convinced myself to add it to my long list of projects.  What hobbies spark your creativity and keep you busy? Linking with Skywatch Friday

Dear Readers, I just got back from a few days of camping in the high country of Colorado.  I thought I'd share a few of my sky shots with you. One evening we spotted some beavers in this pond.  Of course when I tried to get their photo, they hid.  Oh well, some of the best memories are those witnessed without a camera. We're still dealing with a lot of smoke from wildland fires in Colorado which makes for a beautiful sunset.  Last week I posted that the Aspen Acres fire was 50K acres, this week it's up to 91K acres with 15% containment.  They're making progress! One day we drove to Buena Vista, CO and enjoyed the hot springs located at the base of Mt. Princeton. This is a view of our hike from Manitou Lake back to the campground.  You can barely make out Pikes Peak in the distance. Another shot of Pikes Peak from our kayaks in the lake later in the day.  Lots of smoke in the air! Not a sky shot, but still a very cool shot of a group of American White P...

Dear Readers, I don't have any great sky shots to share of Southern Colorado this week.  Why?  Because our state is on fire.  Currently, there are approximately 127,000 acres on fire in Colorado.  Three wildland firefighters were killed last weekend. The largest of the fires is the Aspen Acres fire, it currently the #1 fire in the nation.  This shot was taken on Monday morning when the fire was a mere 2,300 acres.  Since then it has grown to 50,187 acres with 0% containment as of today.  Multiple towns have been completely evacuated.  Our skies are now just smoke.  The house smells like smoke even with the windows closed and we live 60 miles away from the fire.  As of last night ash started falling from the sky.  It's impossible to go outside for even a few minutes. Therefore, the pictures I'm going to share today come from last month. One of my favorite places to take the dogs for a walk is the Fountain Creek Regional Park.  T...

Last week we loaded up the trailer and drove six hours to a campground near Pagosa Springs, CO.  It was about 20 miles out of town in a remote area.  Not real convenient, but it was the only place I could find with a tree covered campground and cabins for some guests who were joining. It was quiet, spacious, canopied by trees and had swarms of hummingbirds. Since we were so far out of town we were the cooks for the three days we were there.  Once again the Blackstone got some good use.  One night was beef fajita night. One night was Dutch oven beef stew (my specialty).  It was appropriate that I was cooking in the Dutch oven over Father's Day weekend.  He's the one who taught me my skills.  Thanks Dad! On the last night we broke out the Dutch oven again for some peach cobbler.  I tried a new recipe this time called "Lazy Peach Cobbler".  I didn't really care for it.  Back to the old recipe next time. Our one and only hike was to Piedra F...