Hunted on Saturday

I tried hunting for coyotes or bobcats on Saturday. I only made two stands. The first was in an area that is fairly close. I didn't walk too far from the truck because I found bobcat tracks in the snow and thought it looked as good as anywhere. No luck. There are mule deer all over the place in this area that have came down from higher elevations for the winter. I saw around 20 deer. One decent sized buck, two small forkies that were pushing each other around and a bunch of does and yearlings. There were a few people parked nearby that were walking the area. I believe they were looking for mule deer sheds. I would have walked farther if I had known they were there.

The second area was just east of State Bridge along the Colorado River. I walked up what looked like a small ridge to call over the other side from the road. It was a lot taller and steeper than it looked and I was sucking for oxygen. I probably sounded like I was dieing. The first two pictures are my view from the ridge. If you look hard at the second picture you can see the road heading east to Kremling along the upper Colorado River. When I got back in the Tahoe and headed toward McCoy, I watched a Bald Eagle that landed along the Colorado fishing. When I got back on the road, I hadn't drove a couple miles when I had a Golden Eagle fly over me. I had never seen a Golden Eagle before. They are bigger than a Bald Eagle.

The third picture is from the road facing west. I was driving on the Colorado River road heading west toward Burns. There are some beautiful ranches in some of the big valleys along the Colorado.

The last two picture are along the Colorado River Road between Burns and Dotsero. If you haven't already figured it out, the road runs right along the Colorado River from McCoy to Dotsero. You can see how red some of the mountains are here and how the Colorado has cut through the land.

Although I didn't hunt much, I still enjoyed the drive and seeing lots of new country. I ended up seeing around 30 mule deer, the two eagles, and a herd of around 30 elk while on my way home just off the side of the interstate on the west side of Avon next to the Arrowhead golf course.

Kids having fun

Heather took the kids Ice Skateing last Wednesday evening at the Town's lake, Nottingham Lake. The ice is about 8 to 10 inches thick right now and will only get thicker. They really enjoyed using their new skates. The first five pictures are of them at the lake ice skating. They used the contraptions that look like walkers some, since there is not a rail. The ice rink at Beaver Creek has a rail around it that they hold onto. Isaac and Olivia didn't use the walkers the whole time, but I believe Boyd needed it most of the time. You can probably tell they wore themselves out.

The next two pictures are of the playground in Eagle that I've shown before. Isaac went sledding with a friend so I took Olivia and Boyd to the playground. Olivia is having a hard time with Isaac having his own friends. Isaac has gotten old enough that his friends don't want to always have his little sister around. I dread the day that they actually hope she is around. The playground was full of elk tracks and the kids favorite, elk poop. There is a herd of around 100 that has came down out of the snow coverd mountains to take up residence in the valley for the winter. They have been all over the golf course, playground and yards. They were hanging out feeding across a field while we were there, so we couldn't get closer than 300 yrds or so.

Week After Christmas

It's Friday now, four days after Christmas and three days before the new year (2007).

I had taken Tuesday after Christmas off so we drove to Grand Junction, which is about a 2 hr drive west. We mostly shopped and took the kids to Chuckie Cheese for lunch. We had told them we were taking them somewhere fun, but they didn't know where. At lunch they were yelling for a McDonalds we drove past with a playground. When Boyd spotted the Chuckie Cheese sign he started begging to go to Chuckie Cheese. They finally figured out that was where we were taking them. They feel deprived not having a Chuckie Cheese in Avon.

The first place we went before the kids spotted Chuckie Cheese was The Sportsman's Warehouse. If the kids hadn't been so wild in the store, I could have wandered around and looked at things for hours in that store. It doesn't have the "Mart " feel like BassPro or Cabelas. It reminds me of the old Tom Snows or Uncle Lee's that were in Paducah when I was a kid, but much bigger. Sean says there is one in Memphis, but I think the stores originated here in the West. It may be I just haven't got to hunt enough lately and I'm going into withdrawals. I did try to help my symptoms by using some Christmas money to buy a new pair of boots, a hunting video (imagine that), and a predator call.

After the Sportsman's Warehouse and Chuckie Cheese, we went into the Mesa Mall. The kids had to spend a little of the money they got for Christmas at Target. Olivia and Boyd bought another toy and Isaac bought more Pokemon cards. They also bought a set of wireless controllers for their Playstation 2 that were on sale. We got there just in time and I got the very last set of controllers before someone else showed up. After we got the kids toys our of the way, Heather went into several stores and bought some clothes for herself. The stores were pretty busy but I don't believe they were anywhere close to as crowded as Paducah would have been. After a seperate trip to an Old Navy store that left the kids and myself in the car for way too long (thank God for portable DVD players), we stopped at the McDonalds the kids wanted to play in then headed home. Boyd and Olivia slept most of the ride and we made it home about 9:45 after a couple coffee breaks.

Other than the Sportsman's Warehouse, I didnt' care for the shopping too much. What I did like, was the drive to Grand Junction. Heather drove part of the way so I was able to look at the scenery and look for wildlife. I just like going for drives here, since we're always seing new country. Along the way we saw ducks and geese on the Colorado River, a couple Mule Deer bucks in a field and several deer and smaller elk that had been hit on the Interstate. I took several pictures from the van as we drove. I watched for turkeys but never saw any. I've included some of the pictures from the drive.

The first two pictures are from just outside of Grand Junction. There is a canyon that the interstate runs through along the Colorado River just before Grand Junction. The third picture was taken west of Rifle before getting to the canyon. The Cottonwood trees that can be seen, are growing along the Colorado. The other pictures are taken in various parts of the canyon. The Colorado can be seen along the side of the road and one of the pictures is a dam on the Colorado.

I may take a drive north on 131 toward McCoy and Burns tomorrow in search of coyotes and bobcats. I'm also going to look along the upper parts of the Colorado near Burns for possible areas to hunt ducks. I'll try to take some pictures of the area because it looks different than any of the pictures I have posted so far.

Christmas Day

This morning was a big morning for the kids. They were pretty exited when they got up. I was up by about 5:45 and made sure everything from Santa was still in place and started some coffee. The kids were up by about 6:20 ready to go. We didn't take too many pictures, but we did video for a while.
Santa brought a PlayStation 2 for the kids and they each got a Gross Out Doodle Monster, Ice Skates, Sleds, and stockings full of candy.
Their other gifts were from Heather and myself, Grandparents and Aunts/Uncles. They ended up with plenty of clothes which didn't exite Isaac a lot. The biggest hit was probably the Heelys that we bought for them. They also got some games for the PlayStation 2. Good thing grandma guessed right on which game player Santa would bring.
Isaac has played the PS2 nonstop since I hooked it up. We'll have to manage his time on it or he'll not put it down. It was bought for all of them, but Boyd and Olivia are only mildly interested in it.

I added a few pictures, but like I said, we ran the video for the most part and didn't take pictures. The top picture is of me wearing the gifts the kids picked out for me at school. Isaac bought the scarf, Olivia bought the gloves and Boyd made me the elastic tie. You can probably tell, I won't be wearing this outfit to work anytime soon. I couldn't keep from laughing at Olivia's choice of gloves. The size and color were more than I could take.

The second picture is of Olivia painting Boyd's toenails with her new makeup kit that mom had bought her. I'm afraid Boyd liked it as much as Olivia did. I just hope he doesn't start wearing her clothes.

The next three pictures were taken on my way back from Grand Junction a couple weeks ago. The elevation is only a little over 5,000 ft there and as you can see, it looks quite a bit different than here in Avon. I told a little about the place a few posts back. I'm off work tomorrow, so we may drive to Grand Junction in the morning and let the kids spend some of their Christmas money. Heather and I have some money left also that we could spend too. I really like the Sportsman's Warehouse and can see a couple new videos coming home. Heather and I both need some boots for the snow and I would like a pair of snowshoes for hiking/hunting in the snow. And then there is that God forsaken place called Chuckie Cheese that we will take the kids too if we go.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. I believe I've talked on the phone enough in the last few days that I have an imprint of our cordless on the side of my head.

I've edited this post and added two more pictues of Isaac playing his game. They have ended up at the top so my descriptions above are a couple pictures off. The first is from above in the loft where our bedroom is. Boyd is laying in the floor surounded by new movies, new socks someone took off, an empty stocking and my very fashionable new scarf. Boyd is also eating the dinner of champions, a banana and Nerds. Isaac is locked into his Xgame skateboarding PS2 game.

The next picture is straight on of Isaac playing the game in his very fashionable summer pajamas from a couple years ago and his new Heelys. As you can tell were all about fashion here. That is why most of us never took our pajamas off today. This may be the only views you will get of Isaac for a while.

Christmas Program

I tried to post on Christmas Eve, but I couldn't get logged on to the blog. The top two pictures are of posters that Isaac and Olivia's classes made in school. You can't tell how big they are from the photos, but if you look you can see foot and hand prints.
The second and third picture are of Olivia's school program. The room was really crowded, but we got a few pictures and some video. Olivia never got embarassed and sang the whole time.
The last picture is the sanctuary at church. They had the chairs all moved around and set up at tables for the Christmas party/dinner. Heather helped with getting the food ready that had been bought from Costco. We did a gift exchange and they had talked five couples into playing the Newlywed Game. None of them were newlyweds, but it was funny. We are friends with Chris and Heather Berg who organized the party. They had asked Heather if we would be in the game, but she never got back with them. I'm glad we didn't have to play. It was much more fun to watch other people embarass themselves.

Four More Days

There are only four more days until Christmas and the kids are ready to open presents. We wrote letters to Santa last night on the internet @ www.emailsanta.com. Santa immediately writes back and you can hear him in the background, HOHOHO. The kids really liked it.

We are getting a little dusting of snow now, but the Front Range and on toward Nebraska and Kansas are getting hammered. It looks like there is another storm lined up out over Oregon right now.

I found out that I have screwed around long enough on my application to take the PE in April that I can't meet the deadline of Jan. 1. I could have swore it was the last week of January. I'll have to take it in October. It actually takes a lot of pressure off and allows me to study more through the summer. It will also not interfere with our plans to go home in April over the kids spring break.

I've got to get my dates lined up for the spring break so I can apply for an IL turkey tag. I plan to hunt during the break with someone even if I can't draw a tag for that time. I have had an IL turkey tag for the last 17 years. The tags left over from the 1st drawing for residents doesn't give me a lot of hope for the 2nd season I think I need to draw. Residents w/o tags get preference over NR during this second drawing so I'll be lucky to end up with a tag for anywhere other than Gallatin/Hardin County. I'll be alright though, everyone will have a second season tag and I'll be happy to hunt with anyone who has a tag.

The kids have their Christmas program at school today so I plan to meet Heather there. Maybe I'll be able to get a few pics and post them tomorrow.

Monday - 7 days to go

Only seven more days until Christmas. The kids are counting the days down. We are going to miss being with family at christmas this year. It will be nice to not run around feeling stressed about getting everywhere on time though, and it will be nice to set and play with the kids and enjoy the day with them.

On a more serious note, Isaac and Heather both got sick this weekend. It is the same thing I had last weekend. Isaac was up all Friday night and Heather was up all last night. Heather had to call in sick today but Isaac was doing good and went to school. I'll leave work early today to pick the kids up from school.

It snowed around 6" yesterday and last night. The sun is out now and its fairly warm, but we have chances of snow throughout the week. I have one more personal day to take from work before the end of the year. I think Heather and I are going to go skiing on that day.

Merry Christmas!!

Back from Grand Junction

I'm back from Grand Junction. I spent the last two days (wed, thurs) at a seminar given by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) on Contract Administration. Some of our jobs next year have been awarded federal grants, so additional contract items are required. It was two very long days.

Grand Junction is a lot like Paducah back home. It may not be as spread out and trees are very limited, but it has the same "feel". There is a big area with a mall and lots of surrounding stores that Heather would like. I went into the Sportsman's Warehouse on Wednesday night. I had never been into one before, and I like it better than Gander Mountain or Bass Pro. They have everything there and the Mule Deer, Elk, and Mountain Lion mounts are everywhere. I bought a couple Judo Points that can't be found locally around Avon.

We got out early Thursday, so I drove back in the daylight. I had drove there in the dark so I couldn't tell what any of the surrounding country looked like. It is completely different scenery than around Avon. I watched for turkeys along the Colorado River, which had the only trees for roosting surrounded by fields. I didn't see any, but a friend at church says he knows some landowners in the area with turkeys and we will maybe knock on a few doors for hunting permission next season. The cottonwoods along the river reminded me of my hunt in SD a few years back, except for the additional surrounding mountains. If I'm lucky I'll hunt the cottonwood riverbottoms with an unlimited tag and draw a limited tag for the mountains closer to Avon. I look forward to hunting turkeys as a resident and killing another Merriam.

Monday - Sick at Home

The weekend started off good, with us taking the kids to ski school and Heather and I skiing for an hour or so before we went to the church to help with the "Parents Day Off". The day was long watching all the kids at church then helping clean up afterwards, but we have left our kids there on a Friday night before and thought we ought to help out.

Saturday night/Sunday morning was a different story though. I woke up around 0300 and puked my guts out, or so I thought. I continued to get up about every half hour about 5 or 6 total times until I knew for sure I had puked my guts out. I felt terrible all day Sunday and stayed home while Heather and the kids went to church. I managed to hold down a little bit of Sprite and then some soup that night.

Today I stayed at home to recover and to keep from spreading it at work. One of the ladies at work has a little girl with cancer and she can't take much of any kind of sickness without a trip to the hospital. Boyd was coughing really bad last night so he stayed home from preschool with me while Heather went to work and then to school to help Isaac's teacher. I feel better now but I'm still kind of weak and a little dizzy.

I have attached a few pictures of the kids getting ready to ski last weekend and Boyd after a full day of skiing. The other pictures are of it snowing this morning outside of our apartment window. It has snowed around 4" so far.

Thursday

My legs have quit hurting and I'm ready to get back on the mountain. Heather and I plan to take the kids to ski school again Saturday while we ski that morning before we go to the church.

Heather and I plan to help at a "Parent's day off" this Saturday that they have at church every month. It allows parents to leave their kids for four hours at the church for games, videos, movies, & snacks. Pretty much an all out play time. It is normally held on the first Friday evening of the month and is called "First Fridays", but this one is Saturday from 11-4 to allow parents to Christmas shop.

I've included a picture of the kids from back home. I believe it is from Gretel's birthday party before we moved here to CO.

My legs Hurt!

The kids and myself took an all day ski lesson Saturday and my legs are still sore. The kids loved it and are already literally counting the days down until they can go next weekend. I did quite well even though it has been at least 12 years since my last time on skis. I lucked out and during the process of moving my way up through the levels I ended up getting a private lesson with an Australian ski instructor. It was a fun day and I got to ski a lot and learn a lot. I only fell one time in a little traffic that spooked me. I did have a rude awakening as to what it costs to eat on the ski slopes. A cheeseburger/fries and coke cost me $18.50.
Since Heather works for the resort my lesson only cost $42.00 and I ended up with a private lesson that would normally cost $600, so I guess I still got my money's worth.

Isaac was the only kid in his group so he got to have two instructors to himself. They said he did very well and they were shocked he had never skied before. Olivia and Boyd were in the same group and did real well also. Olivia needs one more lesson and will be ready for the lift. At Boyd's age, I don't think he will be on the lift for a little while anyway. The kids were able to take plenty of breaks but with a high of about 18 deg. I was impressed that they made it through the whole day (9:30-3:30). They all fell asleep on the bus ride to the parking lot, and Boyd had to be carried to the car. The only pictures I got was of Boyd asleep on a bench with all of his ski gear.

Heather is going to take a lesson tomorrow so Boyd will get to go again. Isaac and Olivia will not be happy when they find this out. They will be even more upset when they find out he may get to go again Wed. while Heather does some training at work.

Skiing tomorrow instead of hunting

Heather is going to a Ladies Luncheon at church tomorrow, so the kids and I are going to take ski lessons. We get really discounted prices because Heather is working up there. Its been at least 12 years since I skied at Paoli Peaks, Indiana. I'll try to get pictures up of the kids in their gear on the mountain soon.

The hunting will have to wait until I check on where I can or can't drive, because of the snow, and where all the late season elk hunters are. Although it is legal, I doubt the elk hunters would appreciate me screaming on a predator call trying to kill a bobcat or coyote.

I don't know what the world is coming to on the day I decide to ski instead of hunt.

More Snow

It snowed some more last night and has been snowing a little today also. The snow was about 2" deep on my vehicle. It was the litest, fluffiest snow I've ever seen. I don't think it would have made a 1/4" of snow back home. I'll get some more pictures up showing the snow soon.

I might get out tomorrow and try a little predator hunting as I said before. I'm not sure about where I can go because of the snow, but I've got to figure these things out sooner or later.

Drive to Denver Airport

We made it to the Airport in Denver, through the snow storm, without too much trouble. The driving was slow (45mph) on mostly snow covered roads, but no wrecks on our part. The eastbound lanes were closed near Idaho Springs due to a wreck that killed four people. We could see the wrecked van on the way back to Avon from the westbound lanes. My guess is they were driving entirely too fast since we saw a lot of people doing just that.

Mom and Dad made it home by 11pm Central time. We had a good visit and look forward to the next.

I think we have had around 10" of snow. At least that is what I cleaned off of my Tahoe this morning, but as much as the wind has blowed it may have been more than that. I bought some amo at the Denver Bass Pro store and may buy some snowshoes this week to try my hand at hunting bobcats and coyotes this weekend. As soon as we get a free day we are going to take ski lessons and start skiing. We may take the kids for lessons this weekend.

Drive to Leadville, CO

We drove to Leadville on Saturday so Mom and Dad could really see the mountains. Not that they were'nt from Avon, but the views from Leadville are incredible. The drive was good and Mom and Dad enjoyed the scenery, something Colorado has no shortage of.

The first picture is at Turquoise Lake near Leadville. Dad and the kids are standing on the road that runs over the levy. Mom and Heather stayed in the car because it was 34 deg and wind off the lake was cold. The road past the lake had not been cleared and was only open to 4x4 and snowmobile. There were a lot of snowmobilers using it. This was our first time to see the lake but I'll have to make it back to fish for Lake Trout sometime.

The second picture is from HWY 24, which runs from Avon through Leadville. The largest snow covered mountain in the background is Mount Massive, which is one of Colorado's 14ers and stands 14,421 ft. I believe it is Colorado's second highest peak. The sun was really bright so the big valley in the foreground is really dark looking.

The third picture is a WWII, 10th Mountain Division Memorial. The 10th Mnt. Div. was located along HWY 24 between Minturn and Leadville. This particular memorial is located closer to Leadville at the entrance road to Cooper Mountain Ski Resort. The old foundations for all of the structures can still be seen in the huge valley where they were stationed. They were an elite group trained in the surrounding mountains. They fought in the Apennine and Alps Mountains in 1945 against the Germans where 990 of them were killed.

The fourth picture is another of Mount Massive from the Turquoise Lake levy. It is the opposite direction from the first picture.

Beaver Creek's Lighting of the Tree

We went to Beaver Creek tonight to watch the lighting of the Christmas Tree. We ate at Blue Moose Pizza, watched the tree lighting and fireworks and the kids got to ice skate for free. We will probably buy them skates for Christmas.

The last picture is of Beaver Creek taken yesterday from Wildridge Subdivision just north of Avon. You can see all of the ski slopes. The snow covered peaks in the background is the Holy Cross Wilderness Area.

The second picture is Mom, Dad, Heather and the kids in front of a sculpture of a Grizzly looking at an Indian boy. The boy is holding a small bow and the bear has an arrow sticking out of his hind quater. The bear seems to be asking, "Now why did you do that?".

The first picture is of fireworks behind the Christmas tree.

Friday

Kenneth got the pics of Dustin's buck to me. They aren't in the field pics, but its all they got. I think it is a buck to be proud of and wouldn't have hesitated to take the shot. Even if I can't hunt this season it's nice to follow along with everyone elses seasons. I've got to get out and hunt coyotes and bobcats soon though. i'm going to use my shotgun and #4 buck. I won't have the range I would have with Dad's .223, but it has better range than the couch.