Critters and Wood Hunting

The critters have really started to come out in the high country. In the last week, we have seen at our place, a herd of deer that seem to not be bothered with the table saw noise in the barn, as they stood right out the open front door last Sunday and ate what little grass there was.

But Saturday we had some different visitors.

After a meeting of the road committee, I was standing in front of the barn and I thought I heard a rooster crowing up the road by the house.

We don't have chickens.

Although maybe we should because I learned earlier in the hierachy of animal crap fertilizers, chicken crap rates pretty high, as compared to the horse crap we have been shoveling, transporting and spreading.

As it turns out that we had a flurry, gaggle, etc. of wild turkeys in the driveway. Marlys said that they too didn't seem to be too put out by her presence in the window watching.

I wonder if we can train them to deficate (crap) on the 100 sq feet of lawn we are attempting to grow.

On the drive up Friday the number of deer and antelope along the road has increased markedly, maybe last hunting season was not a great success...depending on your point of view (hunter or deer).

The following is a video of a small herd of elk camped out on our neighbors parcel.

On another note now that we have been in the house for 2 1/2 years, it is time to start remodeling. The first project is to replace the railing cap around the stairwell opening.

When we built the house in 2006, we finished the railing off with a cap made of clear finished tiger maple. Although the tiger maple is beautiful, its light color didn't seem to work, so we want to go with a darker wood. I was think about a clear fir in keeping with the western softwood used in the house trim.

So off to the lumber yard. Our neighbor had mentioned a place in the Springs called C O Lumber and with the address entered into the trucks nav system (guess I forgot how to read a map), off Marlys and I went.

I had previously been to a place in the Springs, I called CO (Colorado) Lumber Specialties, so this would be a new place to view some wood porn.

As it turns out, once the nav system had us at our destination it was the same place. When I asked inside as to the name I was told "C O (not C&O or the abbreviation for Colorado) Lumber" was the name. So we had been talking about the same place all the time.

As we started our tour, I headed us toward the S4S Fir, but in doing so we passed the area where all of the "exotic woods" were stacked. You gotta love Marlys, because she stopped and began looking at that assortment.

I got us back over to the domestic woods, but alas, it was not to be, Marlys had decided that African Paduak was what she wanted, and I have to confess it is a beautiful red/orange color. A 12' foot long, 13" wide board has now become a personal record/legend of sorts for us, as the most expensive piece of wood we have ever purchased.

I have now decided that Marlys will go on all future wood hunting expeditions.

Have you ever wondered about the jet contrails above you?

No this is not a conspiracy posting saying that the government is undertaking some type of social biological warfare campaign against its citizens, so if that is what you are looking for you will be disappointed.


As I have written ad nauseum, Marlys and have/take the opportunity to sit on the patio most afternoons and contemplate the area. Most times we will see contrails crossing the sky, depending on the conditions at the flight levels being used.

One of the questions we always seem to ask is I wonder where the jets have come from, or are going to. Being the king of all things trivial and having a semi-aeronautical leaning, I decided to check out what a high altitude enroute chart would say for the area.

The enroute chart in question is the H-3 and not wanting to make a trip to a special trip to a FBO or buy on on-line with a little googling I found the following and took a screen shot.

Most of the traffic we see is in the east-west-east corridor, which seems to indicate that the Blue Mesa junction is probably in play. The black lines represent the airways that are used by aircraft flying at a flight level altitude. I bet you all thought it was a free for all up there, but it isn't, these are like highways in the sky. BTW Blue Mesa is located by Gunnison. This though doesn't mean that all traffic is transiting that point.

Here is the low level charts showing airways that transit the area. As you can see there are many opportunities for looking at contrails, but probably not by those aircraft flying on the lower airways as they are probably not jets/turbo props. The blue lines represent the low level airways, but pilots don't necessarily have to use them.

We do though have military aircraft in the area that make some interesting passes below the peaks (which make them pretty hard to pick out.

The warning for the 11,700 tall Waugh Mountain is pretty evident, coming west out of the Canon City airport on the lower right edge of the chart. Like on the water these are called charts. Charts are maps for a specific purpose, e.g. shipping, aircraft, etc.

A day on the range + an invite

Two weeks ago it was sunny and I was able to model these custom designed/made/mashup sun and reading glasses.






This weekend it was cold, snowy and the wind was howling. I guess winter has arrived just in time for spring.

We have got the glulam bench out of the shop, but it is heavy enough that we had to wait for a weekend when Derek swung by to move it.


Speaking of Derek, he is finishing up his junior year at Western and is in the final stretch. We are keeping our fingers crossed.

Now for the invite.

Marlys and I will celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary this August and we have decided to have a party, here at Pinon Rock. The date is August 8, 2009. We will get started around 2pm and go 'til I tell folks to go home.

We are in the middle of nowhere so first come, first served on accommodations.

The nearest town is Canon City, and I may set up transport if there are enough folks staying there, this is of course assuming anyone shows up.

We are going to have it catered and there will be drinks, but if you need something special it will be up to you to supply it.

Drop me a line at ptcaulfield@gmail.com if you are going to come, so that we can get a count for the provisions.

More details to follow, so stay tuned.