What fun!
1st: my view! 2nd: campfire; and then the Train!
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
The Great Experimental Camping Expedition..
Well, haven't written for awhile. A brief catch-up:
Calgary was fantastic; had a private concert in the Calgary Petroleum Club by the #1 C-W singer in Canada, lots of dancing and fun; a great trip.
Got back, did some more clean up and ranch work.
Went to Tucson, worked a week, as did Susan.
Susan comes up Thurs night, I work 'til Friday. Goal was to fly up Sat am early; plane didn't start, still wouldn't start after 24 hr battery charge, so gave up and just drove up yesterday. Susan moved cows around, and then got caught in a situation with a poor first time birther (a big British White). Calf wouldn't come, then died, then the cow got all septic, then they had to shoot the cow. What a tragic mess. Had a picture of Susan up to her arm pit in the cow trying to get that calf out...was offered a job by the local cow calving expert. Jeesh. I taught her all she knows...but, poor calf.
Ranch looks like a war zone: piles of straw on the pasture next door, 4 helicopters coming and going dropping huge piles of straw with seed/fertilizer on the burn areas. Gov't paying $550 per acre.
This am early Susan gets up and heads for Tucson. Goes through a flood in Alpine (made the news in Phx), and I headed out to Cortez and then Telluride CO. All to meet up with Paul and Ash and the kids. Well, I FOUND the campground, it's on the Delores River 40 mi south of Telluride. No cell service but there IS Wi-Fi! So, I'm sitting in my truck, in the rain, mom's in Topeka and I'm not drinkin' anything but if I were it would make a good country song for sure. I can see 21 R-V's, all w/in 100'. This will be interesting. Grand-pas will do anything for grand-children...But, it's nice and cool, they just drove up, and life is good!!! Love to all, Dad/UR
Calgary was fantastic; had a private concert in the Calgary Petroleum Club by the #1 C-W singer in Canada, lots of dancing and fun; a great trip.
Got back, did some more clean up and ranch work.
Went to Tucson, worked a week, as did Susan.
Susan comes up Thurs night, I work 'til Friday. Goal was to fly up Sat am early; plane didn't start, still wouldn't start after 24 hr battery charge, so gave up and just drove up yesterday. Susan moved cows around, and then got caught in a situation with a poor first time birther (a big British White). Calf wouldn't come, then died, then the cow got all septic, then they had to shoot the cow. What a tragic mess. Had a picture of Susan up to her arm pit in the cow trying to get that calf out...was offered a job by the local cow calving expert. Jeesh. I taught her all she knows...but, poor calf.
Ranch looks like a war zone: piles of straw on the pasture next door, 4 helicopters coming and going dropping huge piles of straw with seed/fertilizer on the burn areas. Gov't paying $550 per acre.
This am early Susan gets up and heads for Tucson. Goes through a flood in Alpine (made the news in Phx), and I headed out to Cortez and then Telluride CO. All to meet up with Paul and Ash and the kids. Well, I FOUND the campground, it's on the Delores River 40 mi south of Telluride. No cell service but there IS Wi-Fi! So, I'm sitting in my truck, in the rain, mom's in Topeka and I'm not drinkin' anything but if I were it would make a good country song for sure. I can see 21 R-V's, all w/in 100'. This will be interesting. Grand-pas will do anything for grand-children...But, it's nice and cool, they just drove up, and life is good!!! Love to all, Dad/UR
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Calgary Stampede!
Good Morning all:
First, thanks to Erica for a wonderful evening in Phoenix two nights ago at the Stockade! A fun time, great meal, really cool surroundings. Then to Ashley and Paul's house for desert and more great family time! Always a great time with Noelle, Addie, and Mateo. They grow so fast (but I doubt if Ash and Paul appreciate that right now..) Thank you for our time there.
Susan and I spent the night there, then up to Calgary, where we were met by Cathy and Brian Hallamore, our friends from last fall we met on the Rhine cruise, Plus a country band at the gate playing their hearts out for the Stampede. We got branded there as well by the "welcoming committee". The town seems to go all out, kind of like Tucson does in the winter for the Vaqueros rodeo!
Cathy and Brian's house is beautiful. Beautifully appointed, and they are great hosts. They have a beautiful view looking west into the Canadian Rockies where there is snow all ove the mountain tops. We will borrow their Volvo SUV today and drive up to a ranch for the Juice Plus meeting (tax deduction!!), and then they are having a party tonight here in their home to meet some neighbors and friends. Fun!
It looks like we have a very full week here, whew. Watched some on TV last night, the Chuck Wagon races, and that looks amazing: we'll see it in person Monday night.
Love to all, Dad/UR
First, thanks to Erica for a wonderful evening in Phoenix two nights ago at the Stockade! A fun time, great meal, really cool surroundings. Then to Ashley and Paul's house for desert and more great family time! Always a great time with Noelle, Addie, and Mateo. They grow so fast (but I doubt if Ash and Paul appreciate that right now..) Thank you for our time there.
Susan and I spent the night there, then up to Calgary, where we were met by Cathy and Brian Hallamore, our friends from last fall we met on the Rhine cruise, Plus a country band at the gate playing their hearts out for the Stampede. We got branded there as well by the "welcoming committee". The town seems to go all out, kind of like Tucson does in the winter for the Vaqueros rodeo!
Cathy and Brian's house is beautiful. Beautifully appointed, and they are great hosts. They have a beautiful view looking west into the Canadian Rockies where there is snow all ove the mountain tops. We will borrow their Volvo SUV today and drive up to a ranch for the Juice Plus meeting (tax deduction!!), and then they are having a party tonight here in their home to meet some neighbors and friends. Fun!
It looks like we have a very full week here, whew. Watched some on TV last night, the Chuck Wagon races, and that looks amazing: we'll see it in person Monday night.
Love to all, Dad/UR
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Off to California:
First, apologies to Mark; he's been in the dark; had the wrong email written down.
This note, however, will ignore the fire as we are trying hard to do. Tomorrow we will drive to Carlsbad for a week at the Mariposa Hilton Grand Vacat Club for some R and R. Last week and into Tuesday took a lot out of us with this unbelievably huge and fast growing fire. Old Dad/UR got a little air time to boot, going on 2 TV stations in Phx and Tucson. Kind of interesting..
For an update, we did not get "the call", so we assume our cabin has not burned. The fire line is just feet from our front door it seems by a good map of the fire, and our valley appears out of the flames. Hope it's accurate!! We've had friends/acquaintances lose homes, and there's bound to be some extensive smoke damage, but we can deal with that. Cows are separated in two different pastures miles apart, horses in a third, but I'm not going back up now (been up twice) until they let us back into the area. Don't know when that will be, so why stay in Tucson and sit and worry when we can worry in Carlsbad?
Anyone know anything particular to do in San Diego? Looks like it'll be Susan and I in a 2 bed room penthouse for the bulk of it, then Erica will join us for the last 2-3 days or so, or at least that's the plan!
But, we are safe, animals I think are safe, now it's wait and see what the mountains have yet to offer.
Check out www.wunderground.com, search for Alpine, look for "wundermaps" on the right side in small print, scroll down to see "fire" box and check it, uncheck "smoke" or it's hard to see. Keep exploding it and you can see the area where our little ranch is/was..is hopefully!
Love t all, Dad/UR
This note, however, will ignore the fire as we are trying hard to do. Tomorrow we will drive to Carlsbad for a week at the Mariposa Hilton Grand Vacat Club for some R and R. Last week and into Tuesday took a lot out of us with this unbelievably huge and fast growing fire. Old Dad/UR got a little air time to boot, going on 2 TV stations in Phx and Tucson. Kind of interesting..
For an update, we did not get "the call", so we assume our cabin has not burned. The fire line is just feet from our front door it seems by a good map of the fire, and our valley appears out of the flames. Hope it's accurate!! We've had friends/acquaintances lose homes, and there's bound to be some extensive smoke damage, but we can deal with that. Cows are separated in two different pastures miles apart, horses in a third, but I'm not going back up now (been up twice) until they let us back into the area. Don't know when that will be, so why stay in Tucson and sit and worry when we can worry in Carlsbad?
Anyone know anything particular to do in San Diego? Looks like it'll be Susan and I in a 2 bed room penthouse for the bulk of it, then Erica will join us for the last 2-3 days or so, or at least that's the plan!
But, we are safe, animals I think are safe, now it's wait and see what the mountains have yet to offer.
Check out www.wunderground.com, search for Alpine, look for "wundermaps" on the right side in small print, scroll down to see "fire" box and check it, uncheck "smoke" or it's hard to see. Keep exploding it and you can see the area where our little ranch is/was..is hopefully!
Love t all, Dad/UR
Friday, June 3, 2011
Leaving
Well, the Wallow Fire is indeed bearing down upon us, Alpine has fire,
and the order had come down to evacuate Nutrioso. They have us about 3
hrs notice, @ 8 pm. Cows loaded and taken to Springerville, came back
for the horses. Saving what we can, leaving some precious things
behind. And away we go. Here's hoping and praying we can come back
soon. It is a very big and large wildfire.
Love to all, UR/Dad
and the order had come down to evacuate Nutrioso. They have us about 3
hrs notice, @ 8 pm. Cows loaded and taken to Springerville, came back
for the horses. Saving what we can, leaving some precious things
behind. And away we go. Here's hoping and praying we can come back
soon. It is a very big and large wildfire.
Love to all, UR/Dad
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Day 4, June 2
Well, howdy from the ranch: lots of stuff going on for sure.
Fence is up and running, found out we do not have 2 bull calves, rather we have one bull and one heifer! That's good news!
Bad news, we think one of the chickens is a rooster...uh oh.
We do have a problem brewing. You may have heard about the Wallow Fire, about 20 miles south of us now, about 16 miles south of Alpine. Well, our valley is and has been filled with smoke for a couple of days, and the wind keeps blowing, and it's 0% contained. We can't even see Escudilla for the smoke. Ash and soot actually blowing in our windows!
Please follow it with us @ www.inciweb.org, and follow the prompts. You can see a map and news of evacuations. Have to admit the people around here are getting a little nervous! We just need rain so bad, and it won't come until around the first week of July. This is not a good place to come visit right now for sure.
We are here until Sunday am, Chipman's coming over for supper tonight, and maybe the winds today will at least blow out some of this smoke!
Love to all, UR/Dad
Fence is up and running, found out we do not have 2 bull calves, rather we have one bull and one heifer! That's good news!
Bad news, we think one of the chickens is a rooster...uh oh.
We do have a problem brewing. You may have heard about the Wallow Fire, about 20 miles south of us now, about 16 miles south of Alpine. Well, our valley is and has been filled with smoke for a couple of days, and the wind keeps blowing, and it's 0% contained. We can't even see Escudilla for the smoke. Ash and soot actually blowing in our windows!
Please follow it with us @ www.inciweb.org, and follow the prompts. You can see a map and news of evacuations. Have to admit the people around here are getting a little nervous! We just need rain so bad, and it won't come until around the first week of July. This is not a good place to come visit right now for sure.
We are here until Sunday am, Chipman's coming over for supper tonight, and maybe the winds today will at least blow out some of this smoke!
Love to all, UR/Dad
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