25th Anniversary Party - After Action Report

What was to be a one day Anniversary Party turned into a 4 day Party Encampment.

Folks started to arrive last Wednesday with the northern Minnesota crowd. This worked well since both groups brought their own homes on wheels and we could get them arranged by the house.

Marlys had been here all week and I drove up on Tuesday night, giving us time to get everything arranged.

We were also well stocked with wet and dry provisions, so the starting flag was dropped and the celebration began.

We couldn't have gotten better weather which was chancy based on previous weeks experience. It was hot and dry with only a brief tunderstorm on Thursday late afternoon which most folks just sat through...until it started to hail. It has to rain pretty hard up here before you get wet.


By this time the place was in full party mode, but because of the altitude (8300'), which most folks were not use to, it collapsed by 10:30pm after a firepit sit around.







This also made for a later start each morning, except for the dogs, which pushed a few of us to keep to the regular schedule.

The place had a real lived in look to it. I think that is the PC way to say that.

More folks arrived each day leading up to Saturday, with the emptying out process not getting going until Sunday. This place was full! My concern all weekend was that with the number of folks we would drain the water cistern. We rented a porta pottie to reduce the use of the house toilets. In the end we used about 3/4 of the stored water capacity, so everything worked out fine.
The porta pottie did need some modifications by Tom J. , the Sultan of Satellities , to actually dispense TP and hold the hand sanitizer. I think it only took him about 3 hours and multiple trips up and down to the shop to produce this work of art.

I believe he also took it for a few test runs (?) before releasing it to/on the public.



It will be kept in the archives for a possible 25th Anniversary - Sequel celebration or our 50th, which ever comes first.


BTW, I believe that Tom is going to submit a patent or design mode to Satellite and try to make a buck off of his sweat equity investment. Who knows maybe Tom has a furture as a "crapper customizer". As the Mayor of Garage Logic would say "Good Luck".



Friday and Saturday folks took advange of the area by hiking, going to the Gorge or washing their car...which John did several times over the weekend.


11 miles of dirt roads can be a bitch on a black Vette.


Marlys took a group up on the wagon trail road around east Anelope for a hike and the pictures don't do the views justice.







Our place is just above my sister Maureen's right shoulder at the foot of Ceyote/Samson peak.




The rain we have gotten made for a real green area, which is kinda unusual for this time of year.



By mid-afternoon on Saturday everyone was ready for the real thing. We took some pictures.


The Girls of course, since this was there annual summer weekend replacement event. Try and point them out as the day-night progress'.

Marlys and I, hadn't changed a wink since our wedding day.


Well Marlys anyway.


I think I use to have more hair...and it was darker...and I was more svelt that I am now and had a better memory.


Big Burger World showed up with more food then we have still been able to consume and the feedbag was on, to carbo load for the evenings festivities.


Most everyone was here by now, at the Rock (Thanks Joy and Tom).

We received a number of great gift/momentos, we even played on at the dance. I lost my voice singing to Colorado Rocky Mountain High, it didn't come back until yesterday.

Derek gave a toast. Which he is becoming more acustomed as he has reached the age where friends are starting to tie the knot.

Even the group from Derek's school had arrived, and taken over the shop, which had been outfitted for the basic human needs.


There was a some time spent letting the meal settle before, some of us decided to take a walk down to the shop to see what the young'uns were up to, since we could already hear it.

Let me do some context setting before getting into the next part.

When we started the planning for this party we invited Derek to bring some friends over and they could take over the shop, set up their DJ equipment and have some fun. We also thought that some of the younger crowd may also want to join them to dance and whatever.

Marlys and I thought we would show the flag then stay with the mature crowd up top listening to classic oldies, since the music that Derek played tended to be like the "techno twins" in the AT&T (?) commercial.


Derek had told us about the DJing gigs over the last couple of years, but we had never been to one since they tended to be in Gunnison or Vail. I pictured a couple of turntables, an amp, some speakers and vinyls which he had absconded with from our vintage stash over the years.


So walking into the shop was a surprise. There were the turntables and amps, but the speakers were huge and formed a wall around and under the table where there was also a big Mac desktop, mixers, effect generator and lighting controls. Arching over everything was a light truss.
This was the real deal. He even had to show me around the setup. And in the shop that meant safety glasses.

Hell, I even recognized the song being played.

Also setup on the workbench (I won't call it mine, since Marlys uses it at least half the time now) was whated looked like a double ended plastic beer cup bowling alley.

But before this got going, the lightweights were deserting the ship, especially the chief grey goose consumer.



Wait can't say that since even though I have been known to have a cup. Later transfering the contents to my lap.



They had to go home, something about putting horses away. Heck, the way they are trained, all they need to do is put a timer on the stall doors and they would put themselves away.


Now some would say having a dance in a shop, where there are sharp things and power tools around, would be asking for trouble, but I say "hell no" it a great place to spend time.





Even some of Derek's pals knew there was a hammering in the offing.


Things didn't start slow.

What I now knew as beer pong was active.









There were rules taped to the bench.


..but they seemed rather dynamic in there interputation. Any arguments were all in good fun though.


As the night went on it appeared that we had a couple of ringers at one end of the table. The rules always went their way...but I think they wrote them and were probably the only ones that could read them without helpers.


By the end of the night there were many winners and losers at the game table. And no, the cougars were not on the prowl.

The dancing was intense.

Especially when the turntable/MAC got highjacked.











Bill and I seemed to be wearing about the same color of everything, so since he is taller then I, whenever you see a big ass from behind it is probably him.









I was much mistaken in that regard, on the narrated first run through of the pictures on Sunday. Sorry Bill for stealing the spotlight from you.




And that must be him that spilled the gg in his lap.



How is this for a family portrait. Maybe we should blow it up and have it applied to canvas like the last one. I can see it hanging from the wall in the living room.

As the night rolled on into an early Sunday morning, even the "Dancing Queen" was running out of gas.

About 12:30 am we called it quits and headed for the rack.

I think some folks probably are thinking that should have headed there sooner, not quite sure what the private drive sign means:>.

I haven't danced so much in years, who cared that I was in hiking boots and wearing safety glasses most of the time.

Well all good thing must come to an end and so did this weekend.

Some folks took off on Sunday after preparing their own breakfast using a secert Park Rapids recipe taugh to all by Tom and Joy.

Pretty simple, everything you may want in an omelet is put in a bag and boiled. It was pretty good.

By Monday we offically stuck a fork in it with the return of the facilities.

When evening arrived we were ready for the next event at the Rock.

The Board Room is Ready.

In preparation for the 25th anniversary shindig this weekend, Marlys and I have been in chair making assembly line mode.

What was suppose to have been a project to build a couple of extra chairs has now turned in to a covey of 8 in all.

As expected the later in the series the better the chairs. Keep in mind that all of these chairs have been made left over materials when building the house. Also all of the skis and boards came from garage sales or consignment stores.

We have built a few theme chairs.

There is the Judy the K2 chair.

There is the Martini and Rossignol chair.

The misc. Japanese chair, but one set of skis may actually be Finnish or some other Scandinavia country.

And the chair for the Head honcho, whoever that may be.

The latest update has folks starting to arrive on Tuesday.

A couple of big anniversary's

First, the most important one, my Dad, Thomas Caulfield turned 90 years old today. His longevity is really screwing with the actuary charts used in planning my retirement.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Second, the landing on the moon. I remember sitting in Kimball, MN watching the landing on a little black and white set with poor reception. We had just gotten back to the US after 2 years living in Goose Bay, Labrador.

Burning Mall Bus

Watched a Denver hybrid Mall Bus burn this morning at the Civic Center RTD Station. The smell of burning plastic was real strong. You may be able to see burning something dripping from the underneath of the bus.

I submitted the photo to Channel 9 here in Denver. We will have to see if it makes it on air.

It appears it has and here is the link to the story on their website: http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=119484&catid=188 .

And in the Denver Post: http://www.denverpost.com/ci_12841875

And on WorldNews Network: http://article.wn.com/view/2009/07/15/2nd_16th_Street_Mall_shuttle_catches_fire/

And on NewsChex: http://colorado.newschex.com/denver-colorado/2nd-16th-street-mall-shuttle-catches-fire-denver-post-2/

And on the Spanish language television network Univision: They called me on the ride home tonight and asked permission to use the photo;

Mt. Sherman July 10, 2009

We had not been up one of the 54 14er's in Colorado since Labor Day weekend 2007. Mainly due to repairs being made to mine and Herb's frames last year.

This year we planned about 2 weeks ahead of time to climb Mt. Sherman to limit the time in which we could injure ourselves before going up the hill. You know its hell being this finely tuned physically. Marlys is usually not impacted by these concerns so she was ready to go at any time.

Mt. Sherman continues our lightning fast serial assents of the peaks of the Mosquito Range. In order to say that I need to include Quandry (last one climbed) in the Mosquito Range, but I believe it is actually in the Tenmile Range.

In two years, we have hiked...well two peaks.

As per most advice when hiking up peaks during the summer in Colorado we started early to avoid any mid-day storms and reduce the chance of becoming human lightning rods.
We were late out of the house and didn't arrive until about 6:15am, just as the sum was really starting to come up.

There are a number of routes on Mt. Sherman, but we were going up the standard trail up the southwest ridge from Fourmile Creek ( http://www.14ers.com/routemaps.php?route=sher1&peak=Mt.+Sherman ).

There are a number of parking areas and we started from one just short of the 12000' level. It added maybe a quarter mile to the hike, but the thinking was it wouldn't get too congested by the time we came back down. In fact, we were the first party going up the mountain that day, and we didn't get passed until we were at the summit ridge by a couple of guys finishing off their last Colorado 14er.

Because of the abandon mines along the way, we didn't really push it right off the bat and spent some time looking at the old structures. You have to wonder about the type of person that would work, let alone build these structures in this environment.

The first mine we came across was the Dauntless. It had a number of wrecked structures scattered around and would be one of the last places with any privacy during the hike, if you know what I mean.
Further up the trail is the Hill Top mine perched on the side of the saddle between Mt Sherman and Mt Sheridan. It is hard to believe that all of the materials to build this place would have to be hauled in, along with working in the thin air (12,296') it would make for a slow process. I am not sure when mining up here started, but I read a reference to the Hill Top producing $600K ($9M in 05' dollars) in silver back in 1888. looking at the current mine data it looks like pretty run of the mill minerals (http://www.mindat.org/loc.php?loc=46519&ob=4 ).

As we got above the Hill Top, the route is to the summit saddle, but the trail was blocked by the remains of snow field/drift. It was still pretty early and the sun had not yet warmed it, so it was as hard as ice and just as slippery. He had to tip toe around it on a large scree field where any falls would result in cuts, bruises and the risk of twisting an ankle. It seemed as if we spent allot of time in covering this ground, but once we regained the trail we were on the saddle quickly.
Once the saddle is gained there was a view down both sides of the range with Fairplay to the east and Leadville to the west.

We also now came had a big wind, which would stay with us until the summit, where amazingly there was none.

Up until this point the temperature had been just about perfect for me, but now...it was cold. The temp when leaving the car was in the mid-forties and it drops ~3.5 degrees per thousand feet.

Marlys had not worn a shell, only a hoodie which had gotten partially wet from her camelback mouth piece leaking. I kick myself because when we left I thought of recommending a shell and didn't. She would need to keep moving and stay in the sun as much as possible to stay warm and those of you who know Marlys know that that is her preferred state.

As we headed across the saddle to the Mt. Sherman side and the approach to the summit ridge we came across a very old telegraph/power pole. We could see a few more on either side of the saddle so maybe this was a way to get power/communication's up to the mines.

I was still marveling at the ability of 1880's people to undertake what it would take to make a buck up here.

The transition to the summit ridge was abrupt and the trail made a number of switchbacks in getting to the most difficult (crux) part of the climb, a narrowing ridge with loose stone. What made this difficult was the exposure on both sides of the ridge, but mainly to the west where it dropped off thousands of feet. With the wind blowing this seemed like more then a 2 on the exposure scale (1-6). Which is the rating of this route.

Let me preface the next part by explaining that Marlys has been up two 14ers. Which is pretty amazing when you consider that she sometimes has height anxiety bouts when riding chairlifts.

Well, when we crossed over onto this narrow rocky path at 13,600', she said no way. I could tell this was something she wouldn't and shouldn't be talked into trying. This is where we were passed by the guys finishing off their climb all of the 14ers. One of them mentioned to Marlys that this was his first time this high on Sherman, because the last time he had stopped and turned around about 100' below where she was at, because of the same exposure in front of her.

We weren't that far from the top, so I got Marlys arranged on the sunny side of the ridge out of the wind. I figured it would take us about 30 minutes to summit, and get back to her for the hike down. Above all I didn't want her turning around by herself.

I didn't take a picture here, but this is a link to a photo taken at the very spot Marlys made her decision and would wait for us: http://www.14ers.com/photos/mtsherman/RSher_113.jpg . Even though you can get a feel for the grade in the photo, it really isn't the same thing as standing their, the wind blowing, looking down thousands of feet of barren rocky, treeless mountainside.

Herb was a little bit ahead of us, so I moved quickly to catch up.

Once we were on top and the actual summit was only a easy walk away, seeing the two that had passed us only a short distance ahead, the though of trying to pass them and be the first ones to summit that day was a thought...a passing thought.

We all got to the summit marker at about the same time. It was 8:15 and had taken us 2 hours from the car.

Out came the signs to cemmemorate the day. Cameras were passed around for the picture taking.

Last time on Quandry we didn't have a sign, but there was one being passed around. This time we brought our own. The calligraphy is due to the efforts of the Herbster. It didn't need to be shared because the other guys brought their own to signal their last ascent of a Colorado 14er.

We though miss the guys making coffee .

This view to the southeast shows Black Mountain on the horizon. Black is located in the South Park Hills which is the mountain complex that Waugh (the view out of our front windows) Mountain belongs and is the highest. Black is the little nipple in just about the very middle with the sharp drop off on the eastern side (left). We live just SE of it.

Off to the north, on the horizon, beyond the guy who never talked to anyone and went and sat by himself, are the possible next targets for a summit hike.

This cirque (I am picking up french climbing terms , but they sound kinda cool) of 14ers is made up of Mts. Democrat, Bross, Cameron and Lincoln. The remainder of the 14ers on the Mosquito Range. They are in the middle right of the frame. They sit just south of Quandry and the ski resort of Breckinridge.

Because of the way they are situated they are generally all summitted on the same trip, by going up Democrat and then traversing the summit ridge over to Cameron, Lincoln and Bross, then descending its southwest face to the starting point at Kite Lake.

This too is a 2 on the exposure scale, and even though the routes net altitude gain is only 250' greater then Mt. Sherman, because of the up and down on the summit ridge between the four peaks you actually climb 3700'. The length of the route is also longer at 7.25 miles about a mile and half longer then the Mt Sherman route.

We found the summit log, but because we wanted to get back to Marlys quickly we didn't sign it. That's it attached to the stake in the lower left of the shot.

On the horizon is the tallest 14er in Colorado Mt.Elbert. That is Leadville in the middle right of the frame.

Mt. Sherman is one of the lowest 14ers at 14,036' and is ranked 45 out of 54 in height.

You can find more info on Mt. Sherman and the route we took up check this url: http://www.14ers.com/routemain.php?route=sher1&peak=Mt. Sherman .

As the saying goes getting to the top is optional, but getting down isn't. Herb and I headed down to meet up with Marlys, then back to the bottom.

Going down hill is always more treacherous then the climb up, because generally if you stumble you end up falling away from the slope. Going up hill you fall in to the slope. Down hill hiking also seems harder on the legs, so we were real careful.

We got back to Marlys at 8:30. The first thing I noticed was that she was shivering, even though the sun was on her and the wind was not. We had most of the summit ridge to walk down and this was not good. I got her to walk right behind me and hold onto my pack to steady herself. We got back down to the saddle quickly, but didn't hurry.

One of the things that can contribute to being cold is holding your water (urine), I believe it is due to the clenching of muscles which cuts down on blood flow. Marlys needed to go bad. So all modesty aside she squatted and let go.

Once we were moving again we thought there may be a better way around the frozen snow field that took so much time earlier. We followed Herb across the saddle to the foot of Mt. Sheridan. Herb was about 50' ahead of me when we started to walk out on some snow to see if we could spot a trail. I saw right away that we were walking out on to a big cornice and I yelled at him to stop. These things can collapse in to avalanches and I don't know but the heating and freezing could be helping.

We backtracked to where we came up in the morning and since then the snow had softened. Herb did a very gazelle-like dance across the snowfield, with Marlys and me following.

Once back down to the level of the Hill Top mine it was a pretty leisurely hike back down to the care.

We were passing allot of folks just starting out and wondering how many would make it to the top, since some seemed prepared for the trip and some seemed like they were ready to walk a circuit at the local mall. I thought that the snowfield and the wind that hits at the saddle would decide their fates.

We got back to the car at 10:15. It had taken us 4 hours round trip. Not bad! I think the hikes around Autumn Creek had helped Marlys and me, plus I was carrying about 30 less pounds of ballast around my mid-section.

It is a Wildflower Year

The water received this spring and early summer has resulted in one of the best wildflower displays in years. Most of the colors are out, red/oranges, yellows. violets, purples, blues and of course white.

Marlys is attempting to ID the flowers, but my phone camera is falling down on the job.

The only flowers wilting out so far are the Rocky Mountains Loco's, but they seem to be being replaced by the purple Colorado hybrid Loco's.

The Lupines have also sprouted. I thought lupine had something to do with wolves (Harry Potter), not plants.

The entire valley is green, which is great to see. Those of you around here in the 2001-2002 time remember how gray the ground color was due to the drought and how the scrub oaks didn't even leaf out.

The Pinon Rock Walk

This is the walk that Marlys and I try to do everyday when at PR.

The Haul of the Skiueen

The objective: Make two more ski-adirondack chairs.

The task: Acquire 4 more pair of alpine skis.

The outcome: 8 pairs of the skis, mixed alpine/nordic.

The project: What do we do with all of them!

On the face of it, it seemed pretty straight forward, build a couple of more chairs. Since we were out of skis or boards a hunting trip was proposed. I would look up ads on Craigslist and Marlys would make the visit and buy the skis (if they met our strict requirements, cheap).

Little did I know that when I sent her an ad for some skis in our area, that there was actually a neighborhood-wide garage sale in progress.

Well the rest is history. Marlys stopped and bought skis and skis and more skis, to the point that I had to drive the Audi with skis sticking into my side and with my right arm at shoulder height.

So what should we do with them all:

• Make 4 more chairs (remember the original plan was for two)?


• Use one of the old pair of wooden XC skis for an outdoor mount for the deer skull/antlers project?


• Wait a minute the XC skis are narrower, so two pair per chair probably won't work...I need 5 skis per chair, and that will only leave us with 3 pair of alpine skis. 3 pair will only be enough for 1 1/2 chairs, so it looks like WE NEED MORE SKIS!

And I thought that by finishing the bathroom trash can, and the end table, this weekend I would be up to date on projects, but now it looks like an assembly line build of chairs is in the offing, thanks to the efforts of the Skiueen.

I wonder how Craigslist can be searched to eliminate ads that are part of a neighborhood garage sale event?

Monday's Drive into Denver

For the last few months, actually since the threat of snow has diminished, we have been driving back into Denver on Monday mornings. There are a few reasons, but the two biggest in making the decision, was being here the completed day on Sunda,y and there is less traffic on Monday mornings.

The drawback is that we are up at 3:30am to be at work by about 7am. But is reality this is only a little over an hour earlier then when we normally get up at 4:50am on work mornings.

When we began this it was a drive in the dark, but as we get closer to the Summer Solstice the sky is brightening at only about an hour on the road. Starting with this Monday's drive the days will now start getting shorter.

Because Marlys drops me off downtown Denver, we drive in via the CO 9 - US 285 route which can make for some incredible sunrise scenes.

These phone shots don't do it justice but let me place a couple of them. They were all taken along 285 east of Fairplay.


This first one is of the hang gliding launch at Kenosha Pass. It is looking to the NE directly at the launch. The LZ is right where the road curves to the right out of the frame.

These are in reverse order, but I am too lazy to re-config. This pic is looking at the backside of the Front Range just west of Jefferson at the east end of South Park (yes there really is a South Park and a Middle and a North Park). On this morning the only other living thing we had seen on the road, to this point, was a elk we spooked back on CO 9. Meaning there was no traffic.


This last pic of the drive in was earlier so it is pretty dark. This is looking at the south side of Hoosier Pass just south of Fairplay on CO 9.


On the north side of Hoosier is Breckenridge.


Besides the drive in we made a lot of progress over the weekend and finished the under decking project.


Marlys made incredible progress on the deck staining, utilizing the combo scaffolding/shelving purchased last summer at Menard's.


No longer is she standing on the top of a 8' fiberglass step ladder. When I say top it is not the top rung, but the top. It was frightening to watch.


We also got the stair railing finished. I will grab a shot and post it next week.


The projects on the list for this weekend are Marlys' trash can and the living room end table.


Marlys is out today at garage sales buying skis for the building of more Adirondack-style chairs. At the last update she had paid $20 and gotten 4 pairs, so far. She appears to be in her element.


UPDATE: Just in Marlys is up to 8 pairs of skis for a total of $50. We will be making chairs all summer.


She is the Skiueen (Ski+Queen) of garage sales.


She has also become pretty proficient in using the HVLP sprayer, which was her weapon of choice in staining the under decking material.


Next week she is staying up and hopes to finish her deck staining project (she has a rear one to re-stain now too). I will also leave the trash can and table for her to put a finish on.


BTW our next hike up a 14er is tentatively scheduled for July 10, and we will be going up Mt. Sherman.

Projects, Projects, Projects

My arms probably won't recover from the another house project started this weekend. Because it is spring/summer here most items are focused on the outside work...with some inside jobs on the list when it over develops and starts to thunderstorm. This week was a case in point.

Since building the house there has always been a observational issue with the underside of the deck/balcony. Because the approach is uphill the deck joist were always pretty obvious.

We have talked about a number of ways to fix it, e.g. staining, putting in a cross hatch panel and the one we have decided on putting beetle kill Ponderosa Pine furring strips on the bottom of the joists. This weekend we got started.

Marlys has been putting a first coat of stain on the 150+ strips in the barn for the last two weekends and probably has another full day to go, while I stood on a 6 foot ladder and installed them. Marlys will put another coat on when she re-seals/stains the entire deck later this summer. Marlys has been putting the HVLP sprayer to work with the staining and I used the finishing nailer I got for Christmas a few years ago. This nailer has been very under used in that I can do most everything with the pin and framing nailers, but with this project it is earning its keep (what ever that is). But, it does weight a few pounds and after a period of time I can hardly lift my arms.

Anyway, we got the north side of the deck done before the storms rolled in and I think this will be the ticket to camouflage the deck joists. probably a couple more days needed before it is done.

When the storms rolled in we moved inside to finish the railing re-model. The color of the Paudek is great after a couple of topcoats. When it started raining on Sunday I put the post caps together and I am going to hold of on taking a picture until they are installed.

The old railing caps (curly maple) have been re-sawn and will become the top to a table for the living room.

On Sunday morning we went into town to visit the Western Heritage Festival at the Abbey. It was only its third year so there is still a lot of room to grow, but they had Old Time Baseball games going in the afternoon with the Colorado Springs team playing Canon City. Turns out this is an organized league. An because the teams are playing in the 1860-1880 era, they don't use mitts of any protection for the catcher, pretty basic just a ball and bat.