Connie in Ouray

We had four inches of snow overnight and into the early morning, and with the accompanying wind, the aspens had snow clinging to them.  It was just achingly beautiful, especially when the sun came out and the sparkling commenced.   With this latest snowfall, we're at my unofficial total of 37.5 inches, three feet (!), which we did not have until January last year.   Mirabella in her $5 Petco coat and Dempsey waiting for Mike and Greg to come up from the pumphouse The snowblower dude did the road early before 7:30 this morning.  I am so grateful! 

 I woke up to two and a half inches of new snow and this view:   Mike went with the trail group last week to cut trees that had fallen across Portland Trail.  He said there were at least 50, a result of that horrible windstorm we had.  The three of us hiked up Veenstras' trail to take care of the tree that had fallen across the trail, any excuse for Mike to get out the chain saw.  

... for the five innocent souls murdered Saturday night in Colorado Springs, my home town for 39 and a half years.  In times like this, I always think of Rodney King, who said, "Can't we all just get along?"  Food for thought. Mike and I hiked up Veenstras' trail Sunday morning, trying to find some peace in this world.  It was cold,  the snow was sparkly.   A very distinct deer trail sparkly snow two trees down on the trail,  one above and one below Since we have been unseasonably cold, the ice farmers are really starting to build ice both in the gorge and on the beginner hill.  It's fascinating.

 The tourists and golden leaves are gone, and the ice climbers haven't arrived yet.   We can get into retaurants without waiting, and in talking to owners of restaurants and shops, they are welcoming this brief respite.   It has been unseasonably cold so snow, 29 inches to date, is still on the ground and on the roads in our area.   Camp Bird Road is closed at Senator Gulch for the season. The not so great news is that there is little chance for snow, as seen in the extended forecast, for the next few weeks.  As we all know, that can be drastically wrong.                                                                                                                                                     

 When we first moved to MFL almost two years ago, we knew we would have new experiences.  I didn't expect one of them to be analyzing animal scat on the road, but here we are.  Now that Mike has seen a coyote in our neighborhood, we are finding scat everywhere, and he feels compelled to show me why he knows it's coyote poop.  Jeez. On our walk down the road today, with two inches of new snow, we saw deer and fox tracks.   We also saw a new downed tree, which is no surprise since the wind was fierce and scary yesterday.   With those two inches, we are now at 28 inches for the new season.  This time last year, we were at 13 inches.  I hope this is a harbinger of what's to come. Update on Barb and Steve's Florida house, preliminary reports from neighbors are that only the garage flooded.  Steve's son is there now to do a more thorough check, but they really dodged a bullet.  Yay!

Mike and I finally accomplished our Viking River Cruise, visiting Switzerland, Germany, France, and the Netherlands over eight days.  If you ever have a chance to do a river cruise with Viking, we highly recommend. Bad news out of the way:  Hurricane Nicole is taking direct aim at Barb and Steve's house in Stuart, Florida.  Although it is tropical storm now and expected to strengthen to "only" a Cat 1, flooding is the big concern, really big.  All your best thoughts should be sent their way. While we were gone, MFL got another foot of snow, as measured by son Greg.  I was so sorry to have missed it!  He said it was beautiful, snowed all day during the day, which is always a treat. As Mike was coming home from town around noon yesterday, he saw a coyote cross the road and go into the drainage by the three big garages near Brett and Zoey's.  We haven't seen any bear sightings in the day and a half we've been home, so I'm hoping they're snug in their dens