Connie in Ouray

 Over the weekend, we were sitting on the deck in the sunshine:

 Yesterday, Mike and I started up Veenstra's trail, me on snowshoes and him with just boots.  He had to turn around pretty quickly as he was sinking in too far.  The dogs and I kept going, and all was good until we got to just below bear meadow, appropriately, when I started seeing large imprints I couldn't recognize, and by the time I got to bear meadow, I was pretty sure I was seeing bear prints.  I kept going a bit further but I was getting really spooked because no bear horn, no bear spray, no Mike.  I came back down, showed my photos to Mike, and he agreed.  We went back up today to confirm and found a mama and cub print side by side.  My photos aren't very good, but trust us that they are bear prints.  Hibernation has ended early. Saturday photo.  Hmm... Today, I put my mitten next to it for perspective. It was definitely as big as my spread-out hand. Cub on the bottom and mama on the top. Her claw marks were clearly visible. On our way...

 And if I don't, it's a wasted day.  Last week, while Mike was in Denver, I noticed teeny-tiny bugs on top of the snow piles around where we stack wood.  I assumed they came from the wood, but no, they are called snow fleas.  Marchelle was the first to tell me because they had to look it up.  They hadn't seen them before.  Here is a link to explain about snow fleas:  https://www.farmersalmanac.com/snow-fleas-29846.  After reading this article, I'm relieved to know we're in good shape. The deeper we dig into this bathroom remodel, the more bad stuff we find.  I'm not going to go into it here, but if you want the story, I'll sit down with you next time you're on MFL.  I am grateful for our eagle-eyed contractor and subs. The longer I live in Ouray, the more I come to appreciate the ampitheater.  Rounding one of the corners on Camp Bird Road, it's there in your face in all its glory.  I especially like it with snow, but in an...

 This was a question I posed to Aaron and Marchelle (24) after an inauspicious start to their Ouray stay.  When they arrived later Saturday night, they were met with a foot of snow on their driveway, much of which had turned to the consistency of concrete from the melt/freeze/melt/freeze ad nauseam, only to discover, once they finally got to the house, that we didn't have water.  Welcome! First to the water, it stopped Saturday night.  Our water guy, Ed, came up Sunday midday and found that one of three electrical conduits - please note that these are probably not the correct words - was not working.  The other two were on, which allowed us to have everything electrical in our houses to work, just not the water (no power to the pumps).  Because there isn't an alarm system for this situation, which had not happened in the 20 years he's been working at our pump house, he didn't know.  He got in touch with San Miguel Power, they did their magic, and we ha...

 I woke up to eight and a half inches of surprise snow.  It is gorgeous!  I don't know what it is about this stuff that energizes me, but there you go.  Sam has already been up to clear the road.  Since Mike is out of town, and I don't trust our snowblower not to drag me across the pond, Ross is using it to clear his driveway.  I think I've mentioned I'm lobbying hard for my very own snowblower, a smaller one that won't drive me.   If I need to get out, I can, but snow! basketball! views!  I'm staying put. From my living room window Aspen forest magic

 I just walked down the road.  Big mistake!  Deep ruts, ice, ice, ice, frozen mud, dangerous, and I won't do that again.  The path next to the house that I've carved out for the subs is an ice chute, so I blocked it with a broom.  What a bunch of nastiness.  It's supposed to rain this afternoon, changing to snow as the temperatures drop later tonight, and I'm curious how that will affect just about everything up here.   I'll let you know! Back of the house - it's going to be one hell of an avalanche when she blows I'm making my own mountain Marchelle (24) texted me Sunday night asking if I could go over and check out their Starlink dish as they were having trouble getting a signal.  I started to walk over Monday morning but ended up having to snowshoe in.  There was at least a foot on their very long driveway.  Unfortunately, there wasn't a speck of snow on the dish, and it was sitting a good two feet above the snow, but the view: A...

 Mike is in trial mode - his "stupid dog case" starts Monday in Federal Court in Denver - so he was up at five this morning.  It was -2 in Ouray, appx -6 up here on MFL.  But, oh, my, the view when the storm clears is gaspworthy, unbelievable blue skies in sharp contrast to the snow covered cliffs.  It's hard to stay away from the windows.  I feel so sorry for those of you who can't see this every day of winter. From our deck Note the frosted trees at the top of the cliff Wednesday night, it snowed 7.5 inches, a surprise for us when we got up.  According to my unofficial counter, we are just under 100 inches for the year.  We had to get out early as Mike had an appointment in Montrose to get his skin cancer stitches removed.  Robby and Amber (18) had come in the day before, and I texted Amber an apology that we had to get the snowblower out early.   Among the neighbors, we were able to get the road cleared and accessible.  We have t...

 We received just around three and a half inches of snow on Monday, plus cold temperatures, enough to make it prettier than ever on MFL.  We've made arrangements with Steve, the manager of the VRBO, to snowblow up to JP's whenever we get snow, and he's super responsive to texts and emails.  It only took us well into our second winter up here to figure this out.  Fortunately, our learning curve is flattening out. We are under a winter weather advisory until 11:00 tomorrow night.  The forecasted totals keep changing, but the cold temps don't.  We'll be below zero tomorrow night.  The day before my son and his girlfrined were due to arrive, our water heater started acting up.  It's not a huge surprise because it's old, and we knew that, but the timing, ugh.  Fortunately, with my contractor sending subs up here for our bathroom renovation, I'm able to be in contact with reputable companies.  Unfortunately, because they're good, they're reall...

 The grammarian in me had to look up that word in case I was making it up.  It's a word.  A local told Mike yesterday that we are now in the throes of mud season #3.  It has been in the 50s in Ouray all week, aiding the big melt, and MFL is a mess.  The slush freezes every night and forms huge ruts, which then melt and reform...ad nauseam.   It is icy and slippery and frankly dangerous.  Mike has finally had to park the TT until this is over because there's just not enough clearance.  He is sad. We were walking on the road a bit ago - a really bad idea - and we noticed the thinning of the ice on the pond.  Most of you will remember the trauma last year of Dempsey falling through the ice and of Mike's rescue. We are going into a week of much colder temperatures and higher chances of precipitation.  This makes me happy, although once it's done, mud season #4 will commence.  I'll think about that later.  In the meantime, my s...

 Temperatures have been in the 40s on Mineral Farms Lane, so we are getting slush and melt.  The weather is changing over the weekend, though, with much lower temperatures and much higher chances of snow.  According to my very rough calculations, we are at about 86 inches at my house.  While I'm happy for that two feet we received last week, obviously sitting here looking out at my aspen forest, I want more and more.  We shall see. When I was in town Monday for a haircut, I saw big dump trucks full of snow heading for the river.  There are huge piles of snow all throughout downtown Ouray, so they have many trips to go. Friends and relatives who haven't visited here always seem to think we're so isolated, and I tell them that 550 is rarely closed, a truth.  After this storm, 550 between here and just north of Durango was closed for avalanche mitigation.  Silverton was essentially cut off, which they seem to embrace.  Once 550 was open to Duran...