Early Fall & September Storms!

During August & September we've had tons and tons of rain storms, and as you can guess later into September as the temps started cooling we started seeing snow in the high mountains. This is a photo taken driving along Freemont Pass on my way back to Leadville from Summit County the first weekend in September.

Brian's first Elk Hunting season was Sept. 14 through Sept. 20. He was in an area just southwest of Leadville, near Granite and Twin Lakes, and had some great opportunities to get one. There was a lot of activity, and Brian learned a ton. He was out before dawn, usually around 5:00am. He plans to buy an over the counter tag and maybe do some more hunting with Jacob, in the next several weeks. Hopefully between the two of them they'll get one. Here's some pics of the Aspen's changing color to that beautiful gold.

Ok, this is after my co-worker's Baby Shower, just after we got home thought we'd take some updated photos. I wish I had another one of us on a mountain top, but we've been busy in town.

Look at how much snow Mt. Elbert has already! This was taken Sept. 22, SO beautiful. Brian is ready to go skiing, like right now!

Here's the snow we got in town from the early week's storm.

We just added heavy plastic sheeting to the chicken's run, to protect them from snow & wind. We also replaced the heating light bulb with a green one...we'll see how that works, it looks like they're watching TV. OH! and also we've been getting about 3 eggs a day now, since the last week of August! So cool, they are a really pretty brown color, still on the small side, but very tasty!

Brian found this partial fencing at the dump, so we could enclose an area for the chickens to roam around in and eat bugs and green grass. Besides the chicken food we buy, we also give them scrap lettuce, kale, pac choy, and whatever other greens are wilting from our veggie share. We think they're pretty happy chickens!

Our deck is a little disheveled currently as we're using chairs to block off when the chickens roam in the yard.

Ski season is just around the corner!

Boom Days & Building the Chicken Coop

Boom Days 2009 - Leadville, Colorado

Bobby Lewis, former Camp Director of Adventure Unlimited Ranches, and now School Director of the Link School in Buena Vista, begins the third leg of the Triple Crown Burro Race. He won the first two legs, one in Fairplay, and the second in Buena Vista during Gold Rush Days. The Leadville leg is a 22 mile course beginning and ending in the middle of town, and heading up Mosquito Pass and then back down and around toward California Gulch. If he wins this leg, he is named the Triple Crown Winner, of which no one has won in years.

The ladies Triple Crown Burro Race, also had a women in the same runnings for the Triple Crown, as she also won the Fairplay and B.V. races. Her name is Karen, who is from Salida, who's husband was a main organizer for the Salida Omnium Bike Race. We got to know them a bit since Brian raced with their teammates and also spent time volunteering. This woman below, however is NOT Karen, this poor women's burro was being a stubborn ass! :)

While we waited for the burro race we walked around town, got some Kettle Corn of course, and checked out some of the mining competition performances. This was a drilling competition with steel drill pieces and pure muscle to see which team in 10 minutes could hammer out the deepest hole. This was a set of brothers who have been doing this together for years.

Here's Bobby at the finish with Dave Bailey behind the camera, Natalie standing behind Wetstone or Welstone, and Cody and Jessie. Bobby did WIN the Triple Crown!! He and Natalie actually drove in from Montana all night and arrived in the morning as he decided last minute to cut their trip short to come back and take a shot at winning the Triple Crown. He did an excellent job!

And the Burro Racing wouldn't be complete if old Curtis Emrie wasn't there. Yup, he's still racing. Although just after he finished, he went to adjust his burro's harness and it head butted him. "Ouch!" I guess it's probably not the first time, he just got a little unedged but was fine.

After the morning of Boom Days it was time to build the chicken coop! Toby couldn't wait!

Brian's brilliant design coming to fruition. All we had to buy for this project was chicken wire, we got palletes from local shops and had the dog house on our property.

Toby checking out the new chicken run, while Brian was installing the heat lamp in their little house.

Chickens scoping out their new pad.

The white ones are the Light Brahmas which as you see below have feathers down their feet to keep them warmer in cooler temps. The also don't have much of a crown or waddle (the thing under their chins) which is also a benefit in cooler temps.