Import from Wix (previous website) for posterity

 Welcome to Connie in Ouray - Septembe 14, 2021

Since March of 2009, I have written a blog for my far-flung family and friends. It's a small group for sure, but it's been a way for us to stay connected. It has been especially important during COVID since all three of my siblings and both my sons live elsewhere.

When Mike and I moved here December 1, 2020, there were four houses occupied full-time. This winter, it appears we're going to be down to two, Jason at 15 and us at 17. So...I'm starting this blog, open to anyone on Mineral Farms Lane, to keep those not here up to date on the goings-on in our little neighborhood.

This morning, six of us appeared before the Ouray County Commissioners at their meeting and expressed our concerns about the traffic issues on Camp Bird Road. Mike and I (17), Larry and Sandy (on Camp Bird), and Barb and Steve (3) presented a united front, and Mike agreed to present our concerns. Briefly, the issues we presented were (a) speed, (b) noise, (c) dust, and (d) parking in the narrows. Mike outlined the issues and then presented ideas for correcting these issues. I'm happy to report that the commissioners were very receptive to the presentation and promised to begin work immediately to address them. We shall see, hmm?

In more detail, Mike told the commissioners that the speed limits from Highway 550 to the Thistledown Campground varied for no apparent reason. For example, as one approaches the bridge over the gorge, the sign is 25 mph. Considering the foot traffic on that bridge, it seems unacceptable for the speed to be that high. A few days ago when Mike and I were returning from town, we got stopped on the bridge by a man trying to set off his drone in the middle of the bridge. He was accompanied by an unleashed dog who was all over the bridge and a small child. A truck then stopped in front of us to watch, and so we were all stopped. I don't mind any of this, but we all can imagine someone coming around that corner, speeding up to make the hill, and encountering someone on the bridge. Secondly, the speed limits are higher in residential areas on Camp Bird and lower once you get past Angel Creek Campground. Again, this doesn't make much sense. It should be the other way around. We proposed a 15 mph speed limit the entire length of Camp Bird, which then would probably mean people going 25.

Lower speed limits also mean lower levels of noise and less dust raised on the road, a win-win by all accounts.

As for the parking, there are two areas of concern for us. One is the parking just up from the bridge where people have been parking on both sides of the road to access the Perimeter Trail and the Via Ferrata. While we are very supportive of both those activities, it does cause problems coming up and down that road at 25 mph. Additional no-parking signs were suggested.

We've all been seeing pickup trucks with trailers parked on Camp Bird Road, where people are offloading their OHVs and Razors, leaving their trucks and trailers for the day, and going up the road. This has been occurring all summer, and the concern here is again the narrowness of the road. Additionally, the noise from starting those vehicles right by our housing is not acceptable.

And lastly, we asked that mag chloride be applied to the road by Memorial Day weekend because by the time the 4th of July gets here, the usual application time, we have already suffered through six weeks of increasing dust.

My next blog will be about Mike's and my current obsession with removing the algae from the upper pond. We know for sure where the term "pond scum" came from.

Thanks for reading!
Algae Hunting - September 16, 2021

As most of you know, Mike and I came here from Colorado Springs, urban to not urban, no swimming pool to two ponds. What we know about pond care could be summarized in one word: nothing. In the spring, we would find Rick Wall (formerly of 20) in the upper pond, dressed in fishing waders, trying to "fish" algae out of the pond with a rake. As summer has progressed, despite best efforts with animal-friendly chemicals, blue dye added to deflect sunshine in the water (sunshine apparently causes algae to grow), and Rick's continued raking the algae out along the road, it continued to get worse and worse.

At our yearly Mineral Farms HOA, which is seven properties, we had a lengthy discussion about the condition of the upper pond and decided to add another aerator and put another chemical in the pond, copper sulfate. Additionally, Aaron (24) purchased a skimmer net to start scooping out algae, and Mike and I started raking on the road and dam road.

When Aaron and Marchelle left with Rainee for Denver (boo-hoo), Aaron loaned us the skimmer net, and we have become, I hate to admit, obsessed with removing algae from the pond. We have been taking the community canoe out - and I'm happy to report I haven't fallen out of it again - and scooping and raking, and scooping and raking, and I think I mentioned scooping and raking. We put a big plastic bin in the canoe and filled that with algae that came out of the pond, dumping it when it got half full because it became so heavy! We believe at last count we were at 10 or 12 of these dumps. Some of you with property right on the pond will notice dried-up algae at the edge of the pond. This happened when we were able to reach it from shore.

By our estimate, we are about 80-90 percent done. What we're seeing now is leaf accumulation and smaller pockets of really thin algae under the surface. We'll continue to go out in the canoe and nab what we can, but the pond is looking so much cleaner.

Now as to pond scum, I know I have used that term before without really knowing what pond scum looked like. I have now gotten up close and personal with the stuff, to the point of having it actually on me, and it is slimy and gooey and wet. It is scummy and gross. I truly hope the additional aerator and copper sulfate combined will keep down the amount of algae.

Next post will be about the sub-subdivisions on Mineral Farms Lane. It was so confusing to us when we moved here, and I think I finally have it figured out...until I don't.
The layout of Mineral Farms - September 21, 2021

When Mike and I offered a contract on 17 MFL the middle of October, 2020, it was fast and furious. We had been looking for a year, and houses were flying off the shelf. It wasn't until our kids were here at Christmas and we got out the plat map that we realized we owned 1.1 acres, most of it aspens. We were pleasantly surprised but surprised nevertheless. Come to find out, that was the tip of the iceberg of what we didn't know. I won't get into propane, dumpsters, and septic systems in this blog - and won't you be looking forward to those blogs - but most confusing to me was which houses belonged to which HOAs, which organizations, which subdivisions, which, which, which.

At first, most of my information came from the Ouray County Assessor's website. You can find it at Ouray County Assessor. Scroll down to "Online Parcel Information," next page "Enter Eagleweb," and finally "Public Users Login." For general Mineral Farms information, type "Mineral Farms" in the street address and then find "Lane" under "Designation." Don't type in a house number in order to get all of Mineral Farms. It is a gold mine of information.

There are 17 lots/houses included in Mineral Farms. There are two undeveloped lots - 1 and 26 - and there are 14 houses directly on Mineral Farms Lane. The outlier off of Mineral Farms Lane is the Kraffts' house on Camp Bird Road, and we include them of course because we adore them. (There is a rumor floating around that the trail behind the Kraffts' house that leads down to the creek is where fairies can be found. Just saying.)

The numbers on Mineral Farms Lane itself are 1 (undeveloped lot), 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26 (undeveloped lot). The Mineral Farms Water Users Association includes all these, plus the Kraffts' house. You might remember Larry and Sandy's concern raised at the annual meeting about lack of a fire hydrant by their house.

Now it starts to get complicated. There is an HOA on Mineral Farms Lane, aptly named Mineral Farms Subdivision I HOA, or maybe just Mineral Farms HOA. This HOA incorporates 14, 17, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26. This HOA owns the two ponds.

There is the Waldrum Exemption, which is 1, 3, 5. The Campbell Subdivision is 2, 9, 13. The Contact Lode is 7, 11, 15, and the Kraffts. None of these have an HOA.

In addition, behind the odd-numbered lots on MFL, Vern and Steve Lankenau (father and son) own 11.43 acres, and it is currently on the market. Steve is an encyclopedia of knowledge about this area, and I have his contact information if any of you want it.

Okay, I think that's it for subdivisions and HOAs and the whiches. Update on pond cleanup: Ralph and Carolyn Bryan have joined our little algae fishing group. I can't stop laughing at Carolyn's comment that it's been near the top of her bucket list to learn how to do this. Ralph went out with Mike today to learn how we've been doing this, and Ralph will then teach Carolyn. Only two can fit in the community canoe safely, and I'm really not willing to take another dip.

Next post will probably be Fun with Propane.

Neighborhood updates - October 8, 2021

If you have not been up to leaf peep, you are now probably too late. Our aspens on Mineral Farms Lane were late to color, but trips to Silverton and Telluride and up Camp Bird Road satisfied all our needs and wants. As we approach mid-October, the temperatures are going to bottom out into the 20s. Brr.

Monday night, we had bear visitors at our house. Our visiting friends heard noises outside their bedroom during the night - the floodlight on the back of our garage had come on - and when we left Tuesday morning to sightsee, the bear(s) had gotten into Brett and Zooey's dumpster at 5 MFL. I sent a quick email to Steve Williams, one of the property managers, and he was incredibly responsive to get that picked up. I am impressed!

Additionally, Brett and Zooey have offered the garage code and location of the key to the big snowblower they have stored and even had Steve come twice to show Mike and Steve (3 MFL) the ins and outs of this cranky machine. I know Mike and I feel better about being up here in the early parts of winter now that we have access to something other than our little snowblower. It's okay to be stranded for a few days but more than that...

I know that I'm not the only one who is happy with Brett and Zoeey as our new neighbors at 5 MFL. They have been welcoming and responsive to the needs of the neighborhood, and I feel they have gone out of their way to be helpful.

We met Denise Skinner and Carl Buckingham - 9 MFL, the little A-frame - a few days ago. They have two darling dogs, one of which is now BFFs with Dempsey. They have been putting a new roof on their house because their insurance company refused to insure them with their old roof. They had plans to add on to the A-frame this past summer, but with the prices of lumber and lack of availability, they have put that on the back burner for now.

We have such nice people on Mineral Farms Lane - except those pesky bears!

And lastly, Mike and I are continuing our work on the pond algae. We have ordered some copper sulfate, which will arrive next week, and if we can get some warmer weather, we'll work it onto the algae. I also recently saw an article that suggested climate change has a lot to do with increased amount of algae growth in ponds.

Weather Report - October 9, 2021

First, I spoke too quickly when I said leaf peeping was over. There are still areas of color, even on Mineral Farms Lane. That said, we had quite the wind late afternoon into the evening yesterday and rain during the night, so a lot of the trees shed most of their leaves during that time.

For the first time this fall, snow is in the forecast for Tuesday, and the bottom drops out with that forecast. We'll get a hard freeze Tuesday night. When we moved in December 1, 2020, there was already snow on the ground, and another 20 inches came in one fell swoop the following week. We were pretty busy and preocupied with the move and didn't keep track of total snowfall as we went through the winter. We plan to do that this year, and I'll keep you up to date here.

Mike and I hiked up Veenstra's trail to the overlook this morning, and I can only say I wish I could bottle the smell in the forest after a rainstorm. It would sell millions.

Weather! - October 10, 2021

We are under our first winter storm watch, starting midnight tomorrow night through 6 p.m. Tuesday, the San Juans over 9000 feet. Considering we're at 8600 feet here on MFL, that's a little close for comfort. Mike got the snowblower out yesterday, and it's oiled and gassed and ready to go.

We were working in the pond today, using JP's canoe to get the algae near the shore we couldn't quite reach, and then Mike threw out a bunch of copper sulfate. Fingers crossed we didn't just kill a bunch of fish. Pollyanna says if so, Mike will scoop them out for the bears getting ready for hibernation. Note I am not going to have anything to do with this.

Oh, the weather outside is ... - October 12, 2021

Gorgeous! Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. Currently there are three inches of snow on MFL, and it's lightly snowing now. The snow is really heavy and wet, good news for us in the extreme drought area. Unfortunately, with the hard freeze last night and tonight, that's pretty much it for the fall colors.

Mirabella and Dempsey had vet checkups yesterday, and they must think snow is their reward for being good doggies with the vet. Although Dempsey likes snow, Mirabella loves it with all her heart. I have photos of her from last winter where she would flop herself down in the snow mounds outside our house left by the snowblower, and I swear she was grinning. She sticks her nose all way in the snow banks; we call it snowconing. She has always been a joyful dog, but snow takes her to a whole different level.

When I was out with the dogs on the road this morning, I didn't see anything amiss, such as limbs down from the weight of the snow. I'll take another look tomorrow to see if we all made it through okay. There was some fierce wind accompanying the snow late morning, but that calmed pretty quickly. I did see this pretty lake view, and there are no dead fish! The remaining algae seems to have sunk below the surface with the application of the copper sulfate.

And last but not least, we saw three wild turkeys on the road by our house Sunday morning. We hadn't seen them before, but there they were!