Connie in Ouray

As I was sitting in Allen Fieldhouse, mecca for the Kansas Jayhawks basketball team and fans (me!), I checked Ouray weather and saw that we had gone from winter storm watch to winter storm warning, starting tomorrow morning and going into Saturday morning.  Mike and I are flying into Montrose Friday afternoon, and it certainly gave me pause as to how we're going to get home.  The forecast is for "12 to 24 inches with localized amounts up to three feet.  Winds gusting as high as 40 mph."  Telluride is supposed to get slammed, which will make Mike happy because he bought a six-day Epic ski pass.    We have the dogs boarded south of Montrose at Iron Will Dog Lodge, and they are my first concern.  Since Montrose is supposed to get just a few inches, that is not my worry.  Nor is getting through Ouray and up Camp Bird Road as the silver mine seems to make sure it's plowed.  Steve, property manager for the VRBO, will have hit MFL from Camp Bird up ...

Mike and I are spending a few days in Kansas with my family so I can only report what I see on Ouray webcams and cell phone weather reports.  When my son flew out of Montrose on Sunday, the wind was ferocious, but there wasn't much damage up near us.  Telluride Ski was closed for the day due to wind.  Can you imagine how mad you'd be if you came to ski and couldn't because of Mother Nature?  Where would you put that mad? Alex and Greg, our sons, and Alex's partner, Samantha, were with us for a few days, and all Alex and Sam wanted for Christmas was snow.  They live in Colorado Springs where it's been unseasonably warm.  When they woke up Christmas Eve morning, voila!  And it was such beautiful snow, heavy, full of moisture, and clinging to trees and branches.   When Mike and I left Monday morning, snow was very light, but I'm seeing from weather reports that we have INCOMING!  Every day there's a good chance of snow.  I'm hoping tha...

Six inches and snowing: View down to the pond

 Thursday night, the motion light outside our bedroom was triggered around midnight, which usually means an animal has wandered by.  I've gotten up before to check and haven't ever seen one.  This time, I got up, peeked out the window, and not 10 feet from the window was a coyote.  We stared at each other for about 10 seconds, and then it ran off.  It happened again last night.  We've named him Wile E. Coyote.  Our son Alex asked if it might go after Mirabella and Dempsey, and Mike thinks not since they are bigger dogs.  For those of you with smaller animals, I think being aware is a good policy. I can't remember if I've mentioned before the Ouray County Plaindealer,  our local newspaper.  It is really excellent.  This week, it has two really good articles about the ice caves, and one in particular struck a note with me for two reasons.  One, it showed that people on opposite sides of a position can come together and do somethi...

 I woke up at five this morning when the motion light outside our bedroom came on.  I got up and looked out to see a blizzard.  The wind was fierce at that point. However, on my official railing counter, there was just an inch or so of snow.  The road appears to have more, but I think it's just from blowing snow.  I walked down the road with the dogs earlier, and I didn't see any damage.   I could hear the snowblower from 5 MFL running.   Mike had been down in Ouray yesterday afternoon and said the wind there was something else, while we seem to have been somewhat protected. I am grateful not to be living on the Front Range anymore - think Denver down to Colorado Springs - because the storm has just moved east, and there's not much moisture with it.  Fire danger is high, and even the light rail in Denver is removing overhead crossing lights in anticipation of big trouble.   But all that said, I forget from year to year how ener...

 Yesterday was a bust in terms of snow accumulation.  I was so disappointed!  The storm was late arriving  becauase we now have about 5.5 inches at our house.  The best news for ski areas and ice caves is the cold.  When I got up this morning, it was 21, and the temperatures have been falling ever since, expecting a low of 1 degree overnight.   Mike saw early this morning that Telluride Ski got 17 inches and Purgatory (near Durango) received 21 inches.   Mirabella has on her $5 winter coat We walked up to the mine yesterday, and there was a good five inches on the ground there.  We saw an odd animal print, not sure what it was.  Those are always kind of scary. Steve, 5 MFL property manager, emailed this morning asking if Mike wanted to use the snowblower.  We told him we thought we were fine for now.  Snow isn't in the forecast again until next Tuesday, and it should be above freezing a few of the days before that....

 I just saw our weather report go from winter storm watch to winter storm warning starting Thursday morning into Friday morning.  The only snow estimates I've seen are for Telluride, upwards of 18 inches.  Time will tell, but we did get three inches Monday night into Tuesday.  My unofficial total for the winter season is 18 inches - dismal. View of the pond from our house When we left yesterday morning to go to Montrose to look at bathroom plumbing supplies - the "pod" has to go - Steve, the property manager for 5 MFL, had already taken the snowblower down the main road.  That was much appreciated.  He told Mike the other day that they are booked for Christmas and New Year's so he'll want to keep that cleared for guests, and we will benefit. Interesting cloud bank as we came into Ridgway from Ouray  On Monday, Mike and I moved the red canoe farther along the damp road just.in.case.  For those of you who haven't heard this story, last spring, Demps...

 We are under a winter weather advisory starting tonight and into tomorrow above 10,000 feet.  We are at 8600 feet so I have some hope.  Scary, scary dry up here.  The rest of the week looks good for possible additional snow.   I came across a photo from four years ago late November, and the difference in the ice caves is startling.  Come on, cold weather! Saturday afternoon, suddenly we had no water.  Mike called Mark Veenstra, who got a hold of Ed, our on-call plumber.  Ed had gotten the alarm that something had shut off, but it came in while he was out of phone range.  He came right over, fixed whatever it was, and we had water by late afternoon.  We're thrilled that it all worked out the way it has been planned.  Unfortunately, there is a new leak at the valves on the dam, and Ed will be coming up to change those out.  In the infamous words of Roseanne Roseannadanna, "It's always something," but all's well that ends we...

 November 30, 2020, Mike and I signed the papers to buy 17 Mineral Farms Lane, all online, of course, since, well, pandemic, and we loaded up a UHaul van with plants - yes, a UHaul van just for plants - and Mike drove to Ouray.  The next morning, I met the movers at our storage unit, they loaded up the van, and off we all went.   On December 2nd, Two Men and a Truck - although there were three men, not that I minded, were escorted by Mike up Camp Bird Road to Angel Creek Campground, where they could turn around, head downhill, and make the turn up MFL.  There were about six inches of snow on the ground, it was 20 degrees, and two of the three had on shorts.  They had the best attitude, all three of them, and were so helpful. During the next week, it snowed another 20 inches, Mirabella and Dempsey were in doggie heaven, and we were ecstatic as one of the reasons we had moved from Colorado Springs was climate change had decimated snow levels for the front ran...