Wildfire

The third largest wildfire in Colorado history, according to a denverpost.com article by Kieran Nicholson today, was started by a lightning strike early last Saturday.  As of yesterday evening, the fire was zero percent contained, moving at 20 to 40 feet per minute and had grown to 41,140 acres.  It is about 80 miles from the cabin, but still brings home the threat of forest fires to the Rocky Mountains. 



Yesterday, after running a load of things down to the apartment and having a shower, I returned to Nederland, dropped off a library book, went to the spring for water, picked up pine cones for kindling, stopped off at Ace and had that last gallon of interior paint put back on the shaker and stopped at B&F and got some chicken quarters to boil up for the foxes.  The smoke from the fire was obvious from Nederland so I decided to drive part way up the ski area road to see if I could get a better perspective on the fire.  This is all I could see...

That's smoke not clouds, but for something so destructive, this appears fairly benign from this distance.  One 62-year-old woman, who lived alone in what must have been a rather secluded cabin, has been killed.  The denverpost.com article, quoting the sheriff, reported she received two evacuation notifications on Saturday, but both calls went to voice mail.  If she uses a cell phone and gets the kind of reception I do here in my cabin that seems totally understandable.


There was a lot of haze in the air yesterday...

The road visible in the photo above leads west to Eldora and the cabin.

Below, the ski slopes in summer..

High winds have been a major factor in the fire's spreading.  They aren't bad now...NOAA is predicting winds between 7 and 11 mph, gusting up to 18 mph for Eldora, but they could pick up tomorrow to 24 mph.  I hope the firefighters..."ground crews aided by five heavy tankers, five single-engine air tankers and at least five helicopters, with more choppers on order"...according to the denverpost.com article, are able to get this under control soon.

Strange, even with the death of a human being, my thoughts go to the animals, especially the newborns and young.  How terrified they must be.  I think if we had a fire here, I'd be more worried about Vixen and any kits than the cabin.  Teddee

What to Do on a Windy Day

It did get down to 38F degrees last night and although it's sunny and exactly the 61F degrees that NOAA predicted yesterday (how do they do that?), the winds did pick up and are even higher today.  NOAA says gusts as high as 30 mph.  

Even though I abhor the wind, I spent about an hour outside this morning changing the hinges on this cabinet so it opens from the left instead of the right...

This is something I started last November!  This cabinet was one of the first things I painted when I decided to paint the interior of the cabin.  I had taken the door off, but knew I needed to get it out on the deck where I could put it on its back in order to change the hinges.  

This morning I unloaded all of the dishes and food items it was housing, cleared a path through the cabin, dragged it out onto the deck, along with its door, located the hinges and screws and then started trying to figure out how to switch the hinges.  I measured the locations of the old screw holes and marked the same holes on the opposite side, drilled pilot holes so it would be easier to screw the screws in, then started trying to determine, with my spatial limitations, which way the hinges went.  That took some time, but through trial and error--I always feel like the chimp who was failing the test--I actually got them right the first time.  Because of my arm injury I had to take the screws out three times and re-drill in order to be able to get the screws in, but I eventually prevailed.  

Once I got the cabinet out in daylight I could see that the single coat of paint I'd given it while I was listening to the football game last November needed touching up.  For some reason I'd totally skipped painting the wall behind this cabinet, so that had to be done as well.

Even though I'd wrapped my paint tray, roller and brush in plastic bags the last time I used them, it had been so long ago they had dried out.  I couldn't get the cover off the roller and have been painting with a brush.  My injured arm gets tired quickly, so part of the time I'm painting left-handed.  

I decided while I was at it to see if I wanted to paint this plywood floor the same color as the walls...

Boy, I don't know.  I'm all for cozy, but this is almost claustrophobic.  I think I'll need at a least a slightly different color just to differentiate between the walls and the floor.


I also sanded and filled in where I'd removed this one shelf right inside the cabin door where the secretary is going once I get it painted...

I think I'm going to have to ask my neighbor to help me get the top shelf off since I couldn't even do it when I had two good arms.  I think it will require the thinnest pry bar he owns in order to get under this and put some tension on that screw that's just going round and round.


I'm also making the ugly side table disappear, painting in situ because of the wind...

On the wildlife front, I haven't seen Vixen this morning, but she was here twice yesterday evening.  I'm always a little relieved she doesn't seem to be relying entirely on me for food.  

Poor old Valentino also came later, but got into a foot race with Jimmy who appeared out of nowhere.  It was nip and tuck, with Valentine leading Jimmy on a merry chase in, around and through these aspens next door...

...with me yelling at Jimmy to stop and holding my breath the fox would win.  My own Belmont Stakes.  Valentino won, but I think it was a close enough call he also wasn't saying I'll Have Another. I don't think he ever returned to eat.

I also had a visit from the bear about 11 o'clock last night.  I was just sleeping good when I heard it pulling at the firewood access door on the east side of the woodshed and pulling and pulling and pulling, then moving over to the one hummingbird feeder I still have up on the east side of the cabin and trying, unsuccessfully to pull it down.  It sounds very large when it's moving around outside and walking on the deck.  I still have never been able to see it out the window and wish I had the nerve to go out with my camera, but figure one accident per summer is probably enough and I don't need to add bear wounds to those I already have!  Teddee

Vixen Is OK

Good News.  Vixen came to eat night before last and has been here twice a day since then.  I can't tell if she's given birth. 

She always has looked as if she were nursing, so that's no sign.  Any weight I've been able to put on her seems to have disappeared.  What a scrawny, beat-up baby.  

Upon her return after her brief hiatus, she had been a little more flighty than usual.  That first evening, she had Valentino, the male fox, with her and she seemed quite concerned that he not get any chicken.  She started to leave to go back to the den with her one piece of chicken and when she saw me getting ready to throw out another piece, she circled back and grabbed that one too, so I can't decide whether she sees him as a helpmeet or competitor.  I haven't seen him since, and this morning she was much more relaxed.  In fact, she was quite funny.  

After she ate her kibble and egg and took one piece of chicken back to the den, she returned.  I'm trying to stretch this chicken out since I'm on the long forced march to the second Wednesday of June when I get my next Social Security check (can someone tell me why we can't get our checks on the same date, i.e., the 10th, each month, not the same day, i.e., the second Wednesday?), out of which I must save enough for July rent for the apartment in Boulder.  Thank goodness I have enough in savings for June, which is due day after tomorrow.  So I wasn't going to give her another piece of chicken until tonight.  She finished the kibble and then sat, enjoying the sun on her face...

This time of year, it's warmer outside than inside the cabin when I first get up, so I had the cabin door open.  She came in...

...and grabbed this cloth...

with which I had been removing sanding dust from the top part of the secretary that I'd been working on yesterday...

...and carried it out into the yard.  Then, while I was taking some close-ups of some of the wild chives...

...and wild iris in the yard...

...I had left my coffee mug on the picnic table bench...

...she trotted over, put her front feet up on the bench, stuck her nose down in the mug, took a sip and came up with that same expression on her face little children have after their first taste of coffee.  No, of course, I wasn't quick enough to get that shot.  I gave her some unsalted chicken broth that I'd cooked down after I cooked this whole chicken I bought at B&F for 99 cents a pound, the cheapest thing I could find, especially for her.  That seemed to satisfy her.  The next time I checked, she had left.


She brings me so much pleasure.  Teddee


P.S.  Eye is improving although these close-ups of 68-year-old skin, sans makeup, are really discouraging....A facial?  Botox?  Reconstructive surgery?  And I haven't deliberately sunbathed since I was in my 20s and both my moisturizer and makeup base contain sun block!  Too much time in Arizona and the high Rockies!  The knob on my forehead is numb.  I'm hoping that will go away.  And my cheekbone is still sore, but not nearly as sore as it was even yesterday.  Arm is still a major source of pain.  Pain pills at night are a godsend.  I am sleeping long and hard.

Diggin' Out and Diggin' It

I spent some time today digging out from yesterday's wonderful snow.  It didn't snow that much more overnight.  I measured about 22 inches just off the deck in the west meadow. 

 It was a gorgeous day.  It got a bit cloudy at mid-day then cleared off again and it's cloudy again now at 3:30 p.m., but the rest of the time the sun was bright and the sky that wonderful shade of blue that I've only seen here.

The fox had broken ground for me.  He didn't come around until about 7:30 p.m. yesterday evening.  I had turned off the porch light and closed the curtains, but heard his footsteps crunching in the snow.  You wouldn't think a fox would make the snow squeak, but this is what it looked like just before I turned out the porch light...

...and this is what it looked like after I heard the footsteps.

I didn't see him, but told him to hang on and put some food out.  It hadn't been touched this morning.  I think he must have given up and gone home.  This is what his meandering path looked like this morning.  His was not the shortest route between two points.  I wonder how they even know where they're going when they're down in deep snow.

Today, I addressed first things first, clearing a path to the toilet and wood.

Then, using the fox trail as a start, I dug out to my car.

 
A close-up of the west side of my car:

 

My strength amazes me.  I certainly don't look fit and had taken a couple of Ibuprofen before I started, but was making very good headway when a local gendarme stopped by and offered to help.  While he was shoveling from the front of the car out to the road, I swept off the car.  I asked him if he would mind if I took his picture for my blog and promised I'd take it from behind to insure his privacy. 

He commented it probably wasn't a very flattering view.  I said he looked like he was in pretty good shape...Hey, you don't forget how to do this just because your 67!...and that he'd be in even better shape after he finished.  We discussed the snow (lots of  it), avalanches (very likely) and who we liked in the Super Bowl (neither team) and decided we'd probably both be watching just for the commercials, and if the Broncos couldn't be playing, we'd be more interested if Green Bay or Chicago were.  I got some "how do you rate?" looks from drivers of cars going by and yelled at one young woman, who actually slowed down and gaped, "Just look helpless!"  I suggested to my neighbor, who must be in his 80s and probably had his  cars dug out by 8 a.m., that he'd started too soon.  The deputy told him teasingly that I'd made him stop and help.  I said, "Yeah, I wept and wrung my hands."  Anyway, I thanked him profusely, he gave me his card, left, then came back about ten minutes later to see if I'd got my car started!  I told him I hadn't tried, but didn't think it would be problem.  I had no intention of going anywhere, just wanted to get dug out.  Success!

It was a good thing it snowed.  Otherwise I probably would have been lured to Boulder to the 50% Saturday at Goodwill.  I'll show a couple of things I didn't get when I was there on Thursday.  I'm thinking this could be almost as much fun as actually buying the things.  I really loved these two heron prints, but they were asking $35.99 each.  I thought that was steep.  I probably would have wanted to get new frames on top of that.  I'm sure they sold right away today if they hadn't already.

Then I found these two candle sconces out on the patio.  Made in the Philippines.  Gorgeous.  But, if I recall correctly, they were $24.99 each.

My solace was that I thought I might be absorbing lead just handling them.  Definitely "Not for Food Use!"

Then there were these two cute little New Orleans illustrations mounted on slate. 

So that's what I would have bought if I hadn't been saving for the electric improvements.  Maybe this is like the professional organizers who have people take photos of things before they force them to give them away.  You'll always have the memories!

Uh oh!  Snowing again.  Hope it doesn't fill up my paths and cover my car up.  Well, my favorite Saturday night blues show is on KUVO, so I'm happy even if they are having their winter fund drive.  What was your Saturday like?  Teddee

Blame It on the Baby

It seems it's always the baby's fault.  Sometimes it's the boy baby's fault and sometimes the little girl's fault.  If I understand correctly, we've been having a La Nina (little girl) winter when the global weather patterns are affected by colder temperatures in the Pacific Ocean.  During a La Nina winter, according to http://library.thinkquest.org, there's more snow and rain on the west coast and unusually cold weather in Alaska while the weather in the rest of the USA is unusually warm with even drought in the southwest and a higher than normal number of hurricanes in the Atlantic.  However, if I understood that lecture and slide show I attended last evening at the Black Bear Ecology Center in Nederland, La Nina is getting tired and weakening and this is the result:

We are finally getting snow--a lot of snow--not only here in Eldora, but in Colorado generally.

 

This was my car about 11 a.m. this morning and it has been snowing lightly all day.

Snow, like a big loaf of bread, on the picnic table covering almost half of the lower pane in the south window.

The dark line three quarters of the way down is the deck railing with snow on top and snow almost up to the railing underneath.

I tried to measure the snow on the deck right outside the front door with a yardstick this morning.  It measured about 19 inches, but there seemed to be a lot more than that out in the meadow and the local ski area made the news this morning with "more than 24 inches" overnight.  Needless to say, they and their powder lovers, were ecstatic.  You can bring up their web cam by going to Eldora Mountain Resort Web Cam if you're interested.  When I did publicity for Midwestern ski areas, a loong time ago, I learned that the optimum temperature for making snow, which all Midwestern ski areas did, was 27F degrees.  My thermometer has been reading about 29F degrees today and I notice now at about 5:30 p.m., as the temperature is dropping, it seems to be snowing harder.  Don't know if that has anything to do with it, but NOAA is predicting possibly another seven inches over night.  Is anyone old enough to remember Al Capp, Li'l Abner and Lower Slobbovia? 


Although the on-line headlines this morning used verbs like "pounding," to describe the storm, it has been absolutely quiet up here in the mountains, so I'm cozy as can be.  I think the snow piled up around the cabin may also be providing some insulation as well...like being in a snow cave.  It is supposed to get down to 13F degrees tonight and then 6F degrees tomorrow night, but it looks as if the winds are going to stay calm.

I can't think any animal would willingly dig itself out of this snow at this depth, and if I did put food out for the fox, it would sink and then soon be covered by the quickly falling snow, so think I'll take a chance and not put food out for the fox this evening although I'll keep my eyes open for him.  He made repeated trips last night, carrying dog food by the mouth full back to the den while I was bringing in wood!  It made me realize that the consistency of pet food is probably not ideal.


Here is another not so great photo from last night.  He always comes so late at night that the photos are underexposed even with the flash.  He had one red eye, which I was able to fix, but one white eye, and there seems to be no way to fix those.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  He looks quite demonic.  Teddee

Moose and Miracles

Do you believe in manifesting?  I'm not sure whether I do, but sometimes I do find just the exact thing I'm looking for when I'm "junqueing."  You may recall that I was torn about repainting an old bread box that had been in the cabin probably since it was built.  It's painted metal and has two shelves and two doors and we've always used it to store our spices. It's in bad condition, but I was afraid some members of the family might feel sentimental about it and not want me to paint it.  I was tempted to sand it and paint it aluminum. 

The first manifestation took place a couple of weeks after I blogged about it.  Low and behold, there at Goodwill was a vintage bread box, almost identical to this one except it was yellow with flowers.  They wanted $12 for it.  I didn't put it in my cart right away, but was thinking about it as I shopped.  Since someone had already donated it, I could paint it without concern.  Had every intention of going back and getting it, then forgot.  When I went back two days later it was gone of course.  I was getting closer and closer to sanding and painting this one, but when I went to Boulder today and stopped by Goodwill, what did I find but an aluminum bread box with two shelves.  It has such a mirror finish I had trouble photographing it without getting everything in the vicinity in the photo, but I think you can get the idea.

Only one door, but it's almost identical to what I had in my mind and only $4.99.  This is the final step in the pantry makeover.  Needs cleaning up a bit, but that should be a good task for tomorrow since NOAA is predicting some significant snow.

I also was looking for a basket that I could hang over the edge of the wood box for kindling and another really skinny basket I could use for a trash can between the new bakers rack and the wood box and found both of those.  I'm tired and it's late, so I'll have to post photos of those later. 

This has been a big day.  I was just going to go into Nederland to pick up a book the library had borrowed for me on an inter-library loan and on the way spotted some moose really close to the road.  This looks like a moose with a hat on, but that is the hump on the back of the smaller one standing behind!

Moose are rare enough around here that everyone stops to either take photos or just gape. I was the only one on the road this time and these moose were totally unconcerned.  I got all the way up to the fence and they were munching away, then this stupid woman and her dog (Hah!  Could have been me and Lola) came along and they scattered, so I only got one photo.  It was so bright I couldn't see what I had in my view finder.  Does anyone else have that problem?  I feel I need one of those old black hoods photographers used to use. 

After I stopped at the library,  I went on over to the spring and got water.  That's getting really interesting.  I'm going to need crampons if it gets any icier.

Then I decided to run down to Boulder.  On the way back I stopped in Nederland and got groceries and sort of hoped I might see the moose again and, miracle of miracles, more moose. 

Getting on toward dusk so only got one more good shot.  Once I got the car unloaded, some wood brought in and the fox fed, despite the fact that it had started to snow, decided to drive back to Nederland to attend a lecture on Colorado weather at the Wild Bear Mountain Ecology Center to get some answers about the winds here.  More on those in another blog.  I'm to bed.  How about you?  Teddee