Memorial Day Week

The Memorial Day week at Pinon Rock has been packed with activities. It started with a visit by Kathy and Bill from Minnesota doing there shakedown cruise with their 5th wheel. This was literally a minute by minute voyage as they came through Wyoming during the tornado outbreak that hit Windsor Colorado.

By the time they reached our place the mountains were waiting to welcome them with….snow showers. That white in the background is an approaching wall of snow.

Bill had to replace the AC cover which blew off somewhere in route because of a water leakage.

We also took the opportunity to hike up West Antelope with Herb. Herb provided quite the nature narrative with his background in scatology and herbology (bit of a pun). We now know how to tell male from female Elk droppings. Has anyone ever heard of a Mountain Buttercup?

We were also wondering about all of the rocks that looked like they had been flipped over and learned that that would be bears looking for insects.

Herb in a real naturalist.

On the way back down the hill to our place, Kathy spotted a large black dog at Cliff’s pond. When it turned to run as we drove down the road it magically turned in to a small black bear, which high tailed it down toward Brown’s.

Good eye Cathy.

Monday we went rafting on the Arkansas. Marlys and I have been here 10 years and never done what is probably the biggest tourist activity in the area. We didn’t do the Gorge, but Big Horn Canyon was plenty. The snow from last winter is resulting is a heavy/dangerous run off that is expected to increase over the next few weeks. A number of rivers in the state have already had a deadly start to the season.

Tuesday, Marlys and I spent close to 8 hours at the Fremont County Commissioner Public Hearing on the Conditional Use Permit for Black Range Minerals Uranium Exploration. This is something that we have become quite involved in over the last 9 months, once we discovered what the nighttime lights were for on the SE flank of East Waugh last fall. Even though it is a few mile away we are concerned about water quality and property values.

My statement to the commission is available at: http://autumncreekranch.com/acportal/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=35&func=view&id=80&catid=24

I also seem to have been quoted a little out of context in the Canon City Daily Record: http://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com/Article/96201.page

The issue is dividing the community along old/new residents lines and I hope that some type of compromise can be reached by the Commissioners. It has taken us 10 year to get this far in the Tallahassee Creek area to have it destroyed by an Australian mining company. I don’t envy Mike, Larry and Ed in trying to sort this out.

They should deliver their decision on June 9, stay tuned.

The Tiger moths are also out in abundance this year. Bill found 1 outside and after a little research I found out that they are a product of all of the “woolly bear” caterpillars that seem to be everywhere this spring.

We are also back in building mode as I attack the last major outdoor project in the house construction, namely the rear deck.

After consultation with my independent expert (Bill), it was decided that the attachment of the ledger for the deck to the house should be into the concrete of the basement instead of the rim joist of the upper floor. This keeps the house shell intact and puts the deck at an easy level to access with out a stairs to the ground, I will make a platfrom step from the rear door fo the house to the deck level.

I had initially started the work with the idea of drilling anchor holes into the concrete then inserting, a lag sleeve to secure a lag screw into, but this proved problematic as the sleeve would either spin or the lag screw would break.

After re-grouping, Redhead concrete studs were used as they could be inserted into the 5/8” holes I had drilled and provided for a larger load. The only problem is that the nice pattern I had laid out for the holes was hosed due to the broken off screws, so the result was not very symmetric, but it will be covered by decking.

The post foundation holes will be dug this week, and next week is reserved for concrete work.

After being sun burnt again and again and again... I have now decided to follow the example of “Herb the Naturalist” in that I put on sunscreen each morning before going out side.

Marlys began the project of painting the garage. We are attempting to use up some of the paint we found unsuitable for inside the house. We didn’t have enough. We cut the yellow glare of this stuff by mixing in the white ceiling paint also leftover. This will be a bright garage.

I have also been doing a very unscientific study of tidal effect in the area. This has been done mainly by picking up rocks as they appear around the patio and thorwing them downhill. The one in this photo was not even visible three weeks ago.

We will follow the progression of the rock in the second photo as it continues to emerge over the next few weeks.

For those of you unaware of tidal effect away from any large body of water, it is something that farmers have experienced forever in there fields, in that no matter how many rocks they remove, more will appear as they are drawn to the surface due to there higher mass.

In ending, this is a photo of a wire sculpture that Derek did last winter. The picture doesn’t due it justice.

I may be his dad, and not very objective, but his instructor said this was a “sell able” piece when critiqing it.

He is going to but a nicer wood base on it possibly using some of the remaining curly redwood we have.

Some folks have asked for a better picture of the Cowboy Sideboard, so here you go. You can clearly see in this picture the difference in tone between the heart and sap wood poplar used.
Until next time.

The Cowboy Sideboard is finally finished

The copy of a Molesworth cowboy sideboard I have been building for the last couple of months is finally finished.

The construction took a couple of weekends and the image routing/carving took another couple.

But it was the finishing that consumed the time. I finished this four times before it came out the acceptable.

It would have been easier to finish if I had done a better job of selecting lumber in that I got a mix of sap and heart poplar which is different in tone and accepts stain at different rates. Also Poplar is problematic to stain to begin with and I ended up belt and suspendering the staining by using a pre-stain conditioner and a gel stain.

The tops is covered in red leather which is a whole other story as to how to get enough without buying a whole hide.

All-in-all for the first substantial piece of furniture I have made I am pretty happy with it. But if I built another one I would ......

Next furniture project is a Molesworth inspired bedroom set, but first I have a deck to build on the rear of the house.

Heed the Call - A Short Story

Chapter 1 -

Last week I went to Minneapolis.

My flight landed at 7:10pm.

I cleared the airport in the rental car at 8:00pm.

At 8:30, I ordered 6 cheeseburgers and a sack of fries at.....

White Castle!

I really miss the Castle.

Chapter 2-

Wednesday I left for the airport at 9:30am.

At 9:40am, I ordered 4 cheeseburgers and a sack of fries at....

The no hassle Castle.

First and last stop.

It was a good trip.


Pat

Colorado's (dirty) little secrets.

In todays Denver Post it was mentioned of a new record being set this year, in that 17 people died at Colorado ski areas, either skiing or boarding so far this season. That nukber does not include those who died in accidents that happened outside of ski area boundries.

Its not that I am against these or other high risk sports, I just sometimes think that they are sold as a carnavial ride when in fact they aren't. There is no "test" that a skier/boarder needs to go through before they buy a lift ticket and ride the chair to the top (want to get my money's worth@$80/day) and head down the mountain out of control. And with the liability waiver that is part of the small print on the lift ticket there is little recourse for the other skiers that may/are endangered by those out of control. Yes I know many of these deaths are from impacts with tree/rocks/etc. and those hurt are limited to the person and there family (and those that responded), but sooner or later....

The other area where the "carnavial ride" aspect is sold is river rafting.

From the soapbox.

Pat

Its the End of March...and hopefully Winter

Another winter is coming to an end and not soon enough for us. Next week are heading to Las Vegas for a few days and hope to return to sprouting grass...since I planted 20 lbs of it Friday.

If you are wondering about the sorry looking Pinon in front of the patio, I have been taking it down piece by piece so Marlys won't know when it is gone and the view is un-obstructed. That of course didn't happen as she noticed the first branch removed last summer.

The Molesworth replica sideboard has reached the point fo finishing. The sideboard will be stained Vermont Maple which is a golden color and the raised tepee on the doors and the animal footprints will be a black lacquer.

The top will be covered in a reddish leather, if we can find it, with a black leather edge held on with large hammered tacks.

The drawer pulls and door knobs will be made from antler. Hopefully another couple of weekends should do it.

Then on to the next item...the rear deck or if Winter is still hanging on a end table for the living room.

I also found a way to get rid of the old boards that have been laying around the barn and believe it or not these are pretty comfortable.

Marlys and I talked quite a bit about the truck camper this weekend and we may start to look at a 5th wheel trailer for the temporary requirements of living at an RV park while we are still working. Looks like we can get one for less money and of course it will have more room.

Once we aren't be "full timing" , we would downsize to the TC.

We have got the truck to handle it either way...the mountain queen.

A slight Hiccup in the Plans.

This was our weekend to stay in town (Marlys haircut), so we went out to look at RV parks for the Truck Camper.

The good news is that we found a couple of really nice one.

The bad news is that because of micro bursting in the area of the foothills truck campers need to remain attached to the truck so that they don't get blown over. Now understand that this TC weights in at close to 5K and a few of the trailers we saw at the parks may have been in the 4K range, there were no exceptions. They are probably right in that the windstorms on the Front Range can be incredible.

We will need to refine our RV park research to areas probably east of I-25.

On another subject, the Molesworth Sideboard is coming along.

The carcass is built and next weekend I will finish the doors and drawers.

We had a heck of time finding the right stain and lacquer dye this weekend, finally going to Rockler. Marlys even let me go in unescorted, but she came in after I didn't leave fast enough to make sure my list hadn't expanded.

I ended up ordering the "hammered upholstery nails from Van Dykes (should have started there) and the next item on the "pick-up list" is the maroon leather for the top.

The other half of the new truck purchase.

Last night Marlys and I spent close to three hours at the Denver RV show looking at the few truck campers that were on our short list.

Okanagan - 117
Bigfoot 3000 Slide
Host Everest
Eagle Cap 1180

Other then the Bigfoot, all of the target campers had at least two slides, one being a rear sofa slide. It was pretty clear that we have the right truck to carry the load of any of these homes away from homes. In all cases though the dealer said they would add air springs and frame mounted hold downs.

The Bigfoot still seems to be the fit, finish and purpose built camper winner, but and this is a big one the slide is only for the dinette and wardrobe. It is a big slide, but it still has the feel of a truck camper inside.

The Everest is by far the most spacious but seemed a little cheap (hard to say that about a $50K truck camper) on the inside.

The Eagle Cap dealer said he didn't have one and would never have one....da da da. So we left there area, but not quick enough because we had to hear why Snow Rivers were the best for Elk hunting. He must have mistaken us for someone else, because we never mentioned anything about hunting or going off road, etc.

We spent a great deal of time going over the Okanagan, with both the dealer Rep (Hallmark Campers) and the factory Rep. We looked, poked and questioned most everything. A couple of observations; this camper is made for all season use and there cold weather testing (Truckcampermagazine.com) was impressive. The interior fabrics are not as fashionable as some of the others, but they were OK (pun). The storage is probably the biggest issue, but there is only so much space that can be crammed onto a truck. It had everything we were looking for; full kitchen (stainless steel), genset, thermopane windows, heated basement and tanks, complete awning (slides and side), outside speakers, shower (clean the dog) and BBQ. Electric jacks, satillite dish/antenna, dry bath (bigger then the one in our Jayco Trailer) and a real sofa. this camper also had flat floor slides (no step up into the slide areas).

And the colors will go well with the truck.

So, where are we going to take this behemoth? here are some of the places on the list;

Alaskan via the Alcan
Goose Bay, LAB via the Trans-Labrador Highway
New England in the fall
Daytona for the 500
Indianapolis for F1 (if it comes back) and the Brickyard 400
Bristol, TN
Talledega, baby
Las Vegas (Winter)
Texas (visit Tom and Joy @ the camp ground)
Arizona (visit whoever is down there when we are)
Florida (Camper just seem to fit in, in trailer land)
Munich for Octoberfest (OK we won't take the camper)
Detroit Autoshow (This will need to be a January Trip)
Wherever the spirit moves us to trek.

I also looked into biodeisel cookers this week and it looks like I won't be brewing any of that up anytime soon as they run $3k to $8k. I would need to brew-up a lot of cooking oil to pay that off. Besides I would be spending too much time collecting used oil from resturants.

So we had a question we never asked and wished we had as we walked to the car (trying to see how many times I could use we in one sentence);

Why do truck campers cost so much, when compared to trailers (tow behinds, 5'rs, toyhaulers), class B & C motorhomes, that have more space, stuff (cabinets, counters beds, etc.) and chassis?

The price of the Okanagan would buy a really nice RV in any of these other types. Even a Hallmark popup truch camper is going to run $20k-$30k+.

Pat

It was a Bittersweet Day.

Saturday we picked up the new truck.

This should have been a happy moment, but the whole way into Canon we talked about how this would be the last ride in our truck.

We remembered the trips we had taken in the truck over the last 9 years and how Derek had grow up riding in the back seat.

We saw and talked about many things riding in the truck.

Once when making the 19 hour trip back to the Twin Cites while passing through Denver we spotted a glow in the sky that we thought may have been city sky glow, but it seemed to far north. We turned on the radio thinking we would hear about a major forest fire, but we heard that it was a happening that rarely makes it this far south...the northern lights.

Or the listening to books on tape and staying in the truck at rest areas until the end of a chapter. I heard every Harry Potter book this way.

Watching Derek go from being small enough to sleep on the floor in the backseat to the 20 year old who said that the trip home last Christmas would probably be the last road trip with us for him.

And the plans. Lotsa plans on when to move. When to build. What we would do when we had the time.

I am sure that the new truck will become a member of the family as we have new adventures, but for now we keep thinking about the member that we left at a car dealership.

It was a great truck for us and I hope it gets a good home...it deserves it.

We Take the Next Step's.

Marlys and I took the next step in our plans to someday retire.

You need to read all of this post, so as not to thing it is just about buying a car, oops I guess I let it out of the bag.

We bought a new truck last weekend to replace our 3/4 ton 1999 Ford F250 Super Duty. This has been a great vehicle that has seen us through many of the events in our migration to Colorado started back in 1997. Our truck has 195K miles, but it is running strong (knock on wood).

But we needed a bigger one. What you say, a bigger one. Yes we need a bigger one to haul around our next weekday home.

Our apartment has been OK, but it isn't our place, so we are going to buy a truck camper and full-time it, at least on weekday's and vacations and going to NASCAR races and driving up the Alcan to Alaska and going to Goose Bay Labrador, via the Trans-Labrabor highway.

We are looking at two different floorplans of Okanagan truck campers. We are targeting these because they have slideout that significantly increase the feeling of size when inside. This was one of the same things that lead us to buy the trailer we stayed in at Pinon Rock until we built the house last year.

These campers are built in BC and are year-round rated so that we can use them when we go skiing or work my next targeted job as a greeter at Breckinridge during the ski season.

You probably noticed that they both have "living room" areas with sofas. Heck you can even get an optional fireplace (electric).

The construction is also different from other campers (and most other RV's) in that it uses monocoque wall construction vs. an aluminum or wood frame. Although there is wood and aluminum in the walls the interior and exterior skins are glued and pinch sealed together, making for a strong stressed skin construction.

And they weight in the 4K lbs range, which is the reason for the big truck.

But we plan to leave the apartment and live in camper moving around between different Walmart parking lots on a nightly basis. There are 20 stores in the Denver metro area so we should have a pretty good selection.

Not really.

Well at least the Walmart parking lot part.

We are going to look for a year-round RV Park. We have a couple in mind closer to the mountains.

This will be the great experiment.

BTW: We bought another Ford. A F-450 Super Duty King Ranch model. It cost as much as our first house. It also has some options that I can't figure out why they would put them on a "man's" truck, like a navigation system. Everyone knows that guy's never get lost. I am sure Marlys will like it.

Here is a picture I plagerized from a Ebay ad.

Annual John Koskinen Memorial Toast

Four years ago last week a dear friend of mine John Koskinen passed away. John and I had made a number of trips to the Mountains of Colorado and California over the years and although he was a "water person" we talked about living here.

Since the house was built it has always been in the back of my mind that, Marlys and I never got to share it with the John.

So "Krankman" here is the annual grog lift in your memory!

Some pix's from January

The "girls" came to visit Marlys in January on their way to Phoenix. Of course, it turned out to be one of the colder and snowier weekends.

In anticipation of their visit I had to get a few of the lingering tasks done.

One was to join the two piece fireplace surround, which I did with a loose tenon joint. I also refinished both the top and surround.

I finally finished the coffee table, but we are now in need of something to set on the expanse.

We are making plans for our next life transition so stay tuned.

November Works in Progress

I have quite a few projects underway, some have a purpose e.g. coffee table and some with no particular place to put them in mind, e.g. change and key drop or as most of the Catholics call it the Holy Water table.

I did end up refinishing the stoop and top to the fireplace, see the post on satin finishes, to get a better more consistent look.









The barn is also looking like a real working wood shop, if the amount of sawdust counts. in fact it seems as if a lot of what I am making is sawdust.

The slab of wood on the assembly table will hopefully end up being a bench top for the original coffee table legs I had welded up last summer.

We also got the flat screen up and mounted above the fireplace and the trim work in the house is now all done!

The pallet load of curly redwood is also dwindling.

Next year I will get to the rear deck.

GABF

Thursday night Marlys and I went to the Great American Beer Festival at the Denver Convention Center. We had tried to go last year but found out after standing in line for about an hour that if you didn't already have a ticket you were out of luck.

This year we bought our tickets early and living downtown made for a simple walk over and home without needing a designated driver.

We showed up early but still ended up at the end of a line that stretched around the convention center. Once in, with our official GABF glasses for the 1oz pours, there were 406 brewery's from which to select. We came no where near trying all of the brewery's let alone the 1884 different brews that were there, but we did learn a few things.

• Marlys is not an ale drinker, especially India Pale Ales (IPA).
• Many of the stouts almost tasted like a whiskey.
• Apricot Wheat is my favorite fruit beer.
• There are a lot of bad beers.
• This was a real friendly crowd.
• It is possible to get beered out.

Most of the time the tasting was one or two sips then throw the rest in a slop bucket and rinse the glass out for the next brew. Even with the crowds we rarely waited more then a 1 or 2 minutes to try a brew.

Out of the ~40 brews (of 1884) we tried here are the brewery's (of 408) we thought would be worth a second look.

• Alltech's Lexington Brewing Co.
• Great Adirondack Brewing Co.
• Hale's Ales Brewing
• Redrock Brewing Co.
• Rooters Brewing Co.
• Smugglers Brewpub and Grill
• Trumer Brauerei

We didn't try those that are local and/or easily available, e.g. New Belgium, Breckenridge, Flying Dog, Tommy Knocker, Sierra Nevada etc.

It was also sometimes hard to smile when someone would tell you they mortgaged the house and spent the savings to start their brewery, when the brew was bad. In fact, I thought that the brews I made back in the 80's were better then some of ones I tried.

Hey maybe I should get back into it...and start a brewpub ;>

Wind Storm

The wind blew and blew this weekend as a cold front decided to park over the Collegiate's putting AC in a big pressure gradient. One indicators of the gradient was a 40 degree temperature difference between Aspen, Gunnison and west of the divide and Canon City and the Teller County area.

When we get wind storms at AC they generally are post frontal out of the NW, but this one has a steady southerly component. It started on Friday and didn’t end until front passage Sunday morning.

Many of the Aspen groves were at peak so this served to strip the trees bare ending some of the more colorful views in the area. It is/was still a good weekend for colors with gold, rust and reds. Most of the Ponderosa’s have dropped there needles also, so the look of an early stage beetle bit tree is ending.

On Friday night as the front would waver there would be times when the quiet was deafening, and then you could hear the train a-coming round the bend. When it would hit the house, beyond the boom of impact there was not the shutter, which had been our experience in previous homes, e.g. Parker, Eagan and Omaha. I guess the engineering on Pinon Rock, although a bit of a pain in the arse last year (4/9/06 post) is paying off…knock on wood. If you remember we ended up putting a steel I-beam in the floor of the great room to support the prow against just these types of forces.

This was a four day weekend for me and my goal was to get a few things marked complete on my project list. I also wanted to work on some none house projects like setting up a new table saw, assembling the legs for the coffee table and smoothing the carved bowls on the key/change table. Since last weekend we spent in town, there were also a couple of things that needed installation. But the main reason for the long weekend was the installation of a propane direct vent free standing stove in the lower level family room.

The stove went in without much of a hassle and the remote control thermostat and controller is pretty cool. This should more them take the chill of the lower level this winter. Now I can measure the space for a big screen to go in beside it.

Herb and I also wanted to do some work on the snow fences, e.g. repairing, moving and figure out how much more should be put installed. Eventually Jim would also show up to help and bring the end of day beer. This would turn into some real Keystone Cop scenes with the wind rolling up the fence as fast as we laid it out and the need for Jim to “gauge” the setting of each t-post before we could move on. The joke telling also got kind of dangerous when the punch line coincided with the lifting of the t-bar driver. We were lucky there were no on the job accidents that a set of Depends couldn’t resolve.

Over that last few weeks I have been researching the purchase of a new table saw. I have had a Makita 2703 since 1999 and it has served us well, but I had out grown its capabilities and a larger saw (read heavier) would be needed for a few up coming projects (e.g. cowboy sideboard). I would have loved to have a full cabinet saw, like BK’s Delta Unisaw, but it didn’t appear that I could find a cabinet shop that selling off its equipment. The new hybrid saws were still out of my price range, so a contractor’s saw seemed to be type I would be looking at. I read up on many of the brands like the Jet, Delta, Powermatic, General, Grizzly and on and on. All seemed to be good. So I listed what I wanted, it was a short list; a cast iron table with double cast iron wings, a belt drive motor (vs. direct drive) and a substantial fence system that would accommodate sheet wood. I started thinking that a Jet fit the picture and Rockler was having a sale, but I still kept looking around until I could come up with a good rationalization to tell Marlys on the “need” this saw would fill.

After a few weeks I was pretty confused, after reading numerous reviews it was clear each saw had good and less good points and unless there was a sale they were not in range of my price point of $500. When I have run into this before “tools of the trade.com” helps me get back to the basics of what I want. This is a web site that reviews tools people actually work with, not just sit and admire. Many of the high-end woodworking sites will do a great review, but there tends to not be any room for compromise (ah, the real world) so their picks tend to be high-end tools with a matching high-end price. My price point was very much in the bottom feeder range for this type of saw.

TOTT had a comparison review of contractor saws that caught my eye. After reading it they pretty much said that the Rigid TS 3650 even though it had a low end price its features were that of a saw at the higher end of the range. This was not a saw on my radar screen. I have seen them plenty of times in Home Depot; they are hard to miss because they are pumpkin orange.

I started to look into them and about the only complaint on one forum was that someone thought they wobbled and wouldn’t handle large sheet goods well, which was one of the reason I wanted a larger saw. A number of other folks said this must have been a poorly assembled saw, because they used it for large pieces day in and day out. So last weekend I did my own survey. First I went to Home Depot and butt checked the end of the front rail to get a feel for my baseline wobble index. Then over the course of the next two days I butt checked a number of Deltas, two Jets, a Powermatic, a Hitachi and a General. Of all of these the Powermatic was the most solid, the cast iron Jet was about like the Rigid and all of the other seemed to wobble more, but let me put this in context, none of them moved much and the leveler adjustment on the legs was the most critical item (if the table was assembled correctly).

So I went over to buy a saw.

They had a scratch and dent model for $50 off the list price, but that didn’t move me off of a brand new one in the box. I asked if there was any type of discount if a HD card was used and they said only if it was a new account, damn I had used that discount up when I bought the miter saw 5 years ago. Then a voice from the Contractors Desk said come over here for a minute, which I did. I was told that if I signed up for a Commercial Account I would get a credit and a discount applied to my first purchase. Sold!

One of the other items mentioned on the review forums was that you should plan to spend about 6-8 hours assembling the saw, and to get some help because with a complete cast iron top it could be a beast to stand up. No problem I figured I could call Mike or Herb, if I got stuck. Plus, no tools had ever taken me more then an hour to setup, so this must have been written by a woos.

Well, it took me right around 8 hours spread over two days, and I just about blew a gasket lifting it on to its legs; only to find out that since I had assembled it upside down, I had assembled the integrated wheel lift assemble…upside down. Now it sat in the middle of the floor and I couldn’t move it. It took some finagling, but I got the wheel lift off and repositioned correctly, so that with one step on a pedal the saw is raised off the floor so I can move it around. Even with the 40TPI Rigid blade this saw makes some sweet cuts.

So what did I give up; a magnetic on/off switch (safety) and a Biesmeyer Fence (the gold standard and costs as much as the saw), either of which I could retro at a later date.

So what else did I accomplish this weekend?
- Re-trimmed the garage doors after the door installers scratched the crap out of the trim putting in the doors last fall. I also painted the trim green, so I figured I was done with painting until Marlys said the doors themselves need to painted to match the house and oh BTW the trim on the rear of the house (that no one will see) has to be painted green also…when will the painting nightmare end.
- Installed the Hot Water Lobster underneath the utility sink to stop the cold water line freeze up experienced last winter. This would have been easier done last year before the washer and dryer where installed, but hey I enjoy a challenge. As I squeezed my 217#’s under the sink and after getting a shot of water as I disconnected the feed line I jerked and smacked my head. From there on out I only needed the flexibility of a contortionist to get everything in, along with being irritated by water dripping down my ear and neck. When I evacuated my frame from the seemingly shrinking space I found that the dripping water was actually blood and the puddle of water my head was in fact not water and was staining the grout in the tile floor…which had not yet been sealed. As you can see from the picture I did get it installed and set for a cool down temp of around 100F before the cross over opens on the hot water line and allows the warm water to move down the cold water line via convection.
- I also finally got around to sealing the coax entry point on the rear gable where the satellite dish cabling comes into the house.
- I also vacuumed up a number of wasps and crickets that moved inside from the change in temperature…I hope. For insurance I bug bombed the entire house when we left on Sunday.
- I also shooed a number of large Angus cows away that kept moving in on me as worked down near the barn on Sunday. This was accomplished by waving my arms and saving shoo doggie. As they meandered a few feet away I noticed from the rear that they had intact swinging appendages. I also remembered that bulls attacked the movement, not the color of the cape. So I stopped, and let them watch whatever it is they though I was doing that was so interesting. I should have taken a clue from Dusty, who the day before when finding “real cows” by the barn barked a few time to move them away, but on this day didn’t do anything, but look at these bovine bulls.
- Let’s see we also got the flat screen for over the fireplace, now I need to get the right bracket to hang it. We had planned to suspend it from the ceiling, but Marlys thinks an articulated arm attached to the wall would look better and I agree, so off to find one that lets the TV swing for viewing in the kitchen and the great room.
- We also bought a coat rack for the front door that is made out of a wagon tongue and harness horns. It must weigh in at 30-40# so I doubt it will be tipsy. It sure looks great and yes that is an authentic lasso and a hat dusty from the trail hanging on it.

I think that’s enough for now. Until next time.

A Thought on Autumn

Many moons ago my Dad said to me that the way to tell the difference between a Democrat and a Republican was that a Republican would drink gin and tonic in the summer and manhattans in the winter, and a Democrat would drink beer in the summer and beer in the winter. This was probably not original, but I always give him credit for it, but it does create a conundrum in today’s day and age of wines and micro-brews.

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that summer was over. I can now officially say it is as the Aspens are very yellow...

...and I drank the last Corona

…of this season.

Time has come to switch over to Fat Tire for the winter.

Not sure what that makes me…a consequentialist libertarian? Say that after a couple of beers.

Since a Guinness is good anytime I must be a GDI (There is a clue here).

There was a reason I took pictures of the walls before sheetrocking.

We decided a few weeks ago that a stove would be a good add to the lower level family room. We haven't really used the area, but plan on putting in a big screen sometime in the future. We also noticed that with the open layout of the house that cooler air will sink into the lower level making it noticeably cooler.


Another deciding factor was the power out situation from last winter, when we heated the upper level with the fireplace for a number of hours. This should take care of the lower level.



So off to Energy Alternatives we went to look at stoves. We used AE for the fireplace and vacuum system when we built the house last year.



We decided on a gas vs. a pellet stove for convenience and went with a Vermont Castings Brown enameled quasi old fashion model. It will be installed 10/5.



Last year when building the house we had anticipated this move and had Johnny's run a gas line to that area in the family room. Scott also ran power to the area so that the fan system on the stove could be hooked up. The stove will have a wireless thermostat/remote for control.


At the urging of David our framer, I photographed all of the walls before the sheet rockers closed them up. This was great advice as I have referred to them twice; once when the garage doors were installed and now for the placement of the direct vent for the stove. As you can see there is one bay for the stove piping to go through the wall between the gas line and the electrical run.


This library of photos is pretty extensive on the hard drive of the home computer and it can take sometime to figure out what you are looking at, but it is sure interesting to look at and remember how far we have come.



Fall has arrived in the our part of the Rockies as evident by the needle turn on the Ponderosa's. The needles that turn brown will fall off and become fire fuel on the forest floor until they decompose, which will take quite a while. Next summer following the example of the folks whose house survived the Tahoe fires this year we will clear the ground of fuel materials within 50' feet of the house. Taking some advice from Tim Longsdon the excavating contractor we will have a hole dug and deposit the slash and organics in it to be buried vs. burning.





While in Minnesota in August I scarfed up some railroad spikes from Bill Karsten. We had been looking for a towel rack for the area around the hot tub and when I saw them laying in his barn an idea struck me.

This is novel so I try never to overlook the occasion.

Anyway this is what I did with them. The wood still needs another coat of sealer so that the color matches the balcony/deck, but it has a nice rustic feel.

The patio is blotchie becuase now that it is a year old, I power washed and sealed it. The sealer will take a couple od days to dry.


Well, back to finishing up outside items before the snow flies. This weekend I am going to re-trim the garage doors (see 9/21/06 post). Last year when installing the doors we had a slight/un-sightly mix - up, which resulted in a rough cut along the door edge. I am going to trim over it with Hardi-Trim then paint the doors and trim green. once done I can really say the trim painting is done! Wait there is the back of the house. This is like a recurring nightmare.

A Sunday Walk Up Qaundary Peak

Since we started on the house last year we haven't had the time to do one of the things we like most about Colorado, and that is to roam around...roam around with a destination in mind.

A couple of weeks ago on a Saturday we noticed that the list of items left to do were now of a less then critical nature and were more of "nice to dos", e.g. plant cactus in pots and arrange on patio. So a break in the proceedings could be scheduled.

We hadn't been hiking in a while, and had been talking about going up another 14'ter for a couple of years. The last time we had hiked one had been been Grays Peak (14,270') in 2001.

That one was no problem so why not another one.

This time we picked Quandary Peak (14,265") just south of Breckenridge in the Mosquito /Ten Mile Range. This image is from http://www.14ters.com/ and is from Hoosier Pass.

It was fairly close, has easy access to the trail head and Herb Zimmerman, one of our neighbors (another Minnesotan), had been talking about going up it too. So a date was set 9/2.

When going up these peaks just about any time you need to be concerned about changing weather and the possibility of rain, snow and lightening. Keeping this in mind we established our start time as sunrise, which this time of the year was right around 6:30AM.

Trip reports on the web from others who had gone up in the previous couple of weeks seemed to indicate that the climb up would take about three hours and the walk down just a little less. We were going up using the East Ridge Route, which would mean about a 6 mile round trip and an altitude gain of about 3200'. Spending a little time on top that should put us back at the trail head by about noon, hopefully before the clouds overdeveloped and the chance for rain and lightening increase. It probably goes without saying that being caught above treeline on wet rocky slopes and lightening looking for a rod is not safe.

To reach the tail head by 6:30AM, we left Autumn Creek at 4:30AM.

After a coffee and rest stop in Fairplay we were on the trail at 6:20AM. The alpenglow in the valley provided plenty of light.

Although I would put us in one of the early groups heading up we were not the earliest, which became real obvious once we summited (damn gave away the plot). We were led by Herb and Halle, the Black Lab, who proved to be the masters of the mountain.

The early part of the climb was a nice walk through a park like forest to treeline at about 11,500'. Halle had point. A good hike to get the blood flowing and hopefully find a pace and rhythm. Mine is slow, but I had already warned Herb.

Water always plays a big part in these hikes in that not only are you working hard, but as the pressure drops fluid respiration increases (I slept at a Holiday Inn last night). Marlys and I each had 2 liter camelbaks knockoffs and carried another 3 quarts in bottles, by the time we reached the bottom we would only have one quart left.

It was cool when we started and the group was clothed to match, except me. I knew I would be glowing quickly so I only had a light fleece on and convertable pants. I am noted for being able to work up a sweat just walking on a sub-zero day. This is another reason for carrying a lot of water.

According to some of the other trip logs I had read the most difficult part of the climb was suppose to be reaching the summit ridge shoulder just above treeline. For this group that would turn out to be total BS...unless the summit ridge shoulder was the false summit about 5 minutes and a fairly level walk from the true summit. The classification of this climb seems to be in question, just like ski trail difficulty. Most sites rate this as a Class 1 climb (easiest), LocalHikes has it at moderate, but Summit.org rates it as an advanced climb. It was more difficult then Gray's Peak is all I know.

By the time we had made it above tree line and gained the summit ridge we were an hour into the climb and needed to stop and shed layers. I was soaked. The sun was coming up over the eastern side of the valley, which put the terrain in to sharp contrast and focus.

For those of you familiar with the Autumn Creek Area, the mountain on the horizon in the very middle of this picture is Black's.

Please don't mind the dates on the pictures, as I had to change camera batteries and didn't have a set of reading glasses with me so I could reset the date.

Other then a layer of dissipating clouds, probably remnants of activity from the day before, it was a going to be a bright sunny day. Our fingers were crossed that the clouds would hang around for a while to keep the direct rays of the sun from baking us during the already hot task of getting up the slope.

After what would come to be thought of as the most pleasant portion of the climb on the crotch between the summit ridge shoulder and the climb to the false summit, what for me came the most challenging part of the climb. I would literally not look up to see how far we had to go and just concentrated on how far to the next stop to catch my breath. By the time we were about a third of the way up the face to the false summit we reached the two hour point.

A cool breeze had also started to come up and layers were being added back, except me who was still soaked.

I was bringing up the rear. I like to think it was because I wanted make sure we all made it up, but with the looks from my partners it appeared they were more worried about dragging my butt to the top if/when I collapsed.

3 hours and ten minutes into the climb we reached the summit. Although we were one of the early groups there was a crowd already there, signing the summit log, taking pictures and resting before starting down. Everyone was in great spirits after achieving the goal, there were many offers to share energy bars and M&M's (Vitamin M). Some guy even started up a small camp stove to make coffee.

Marlys was looking for a private spot, but none were to be found on this rock pile.

The mountain masters didn't even look stressed.

Halle had some water, then it was time to head down.

To use on old saying "Getting to the top is optional, but getting down is not."

We started down to lines of folks heading up. This made for a stop and go type of progress. Groups within a 1/2 hour of the top would be greeted with "You don't have far to go now." Beyond that point you just said "how'ya doin", because you didn't want to break their spirit by telling them they had quite a way to go.

Speaking of spirit breakers, were the folks running up and down the mountain, and the guy carrying his child in a backpack. We passed him going down and he repassed us a little while later on his way down. Boy, did I feel old.

We weren't much below the false summit when cumulus clouds began to appear. These would portend the rain and lightening normal in the afternoon in the mountains this time of the year.

On the way down we continued to pass groups going up. These people were chancing it with this late of a start. An unscientific observation was that the later the group started the less prepared they seemed to be for the climb ahead. They tended to be in light shoes and only have a bottle of water. We even passed a group below tree line headed up when the sky had already become dark and ominous just before noon.

Although the downward trek is easier on your lungs, the knees and thighs take a beating. Part of this I think is because on the way down you don't stop to rest hardly at all because you aren't winded. Virtually the entire hike had been on loose rocks and large rock steps, I couldn't imagine doing them in the rain.

We reached the truck around noon, and collapsed into positions that would be hard to move from within minutes. The rain hit us within 20 minutes later as we drove over Hoosier Pass. I sure there were at least a hundred people on the mountain. Later that day a camper would be killed from a lightening strike.

We figured that at the rate of one 14'ter per year we will all be past the century mark before we finish. We are starting with the easiest ones first to get in shape.

Pat