December 23 Office Window Snow

We had 6" in Leadville last night, 10-12" in Avon, and they reported 17" on the ski slopes. Its not easy to hang out at work in these conditions. I would rather be skiing, but someone has to show up.

Sean, Jennifer, and the boys showed up on Friday. We cut a Christmas tree on Saturday, went to church on Sunday, and skied at Ski Cooper on Monday. Jacob and Jennifer did not get to ski because Jacob got sick Monday morning. They are going out with Heather and the kids later this week and I'll take all the kids up on Saturday also. I don't have any pictures because I left my camera here at work over the weekend, but I did get some good video of Sean digging himself out of a faceplant in the powder and Lane actually doing a face plant in the powder.

I'm hoping to get out this afternoon looking for a cow elk to fill my rifle tag. If my tag was good for unit 45, I could easily fill it. I'm seeing elk everyday when driving to work.

Bow ( Oct. 19, 2007 - July 2, 2008)

I finally took Bow's picture down from my cover photo. Remi has now taken his spot in our home, but Bow has not been forgotten. I was more attached to Bow than the rest of the family was and it is probably the same with Remi. It is incredible how much a part of our lives they become in such a short period of time. We had Bow from late Dec. 2007 to early July 2008. Remi is now just as much a part of our every day life as Bow was. These are a few of the photos I took of Bow during his short life.


The above photo was take while Bow was still w/his litter in Nov/Dec 2007.

This was just after Bow came home with us the weekend before Christmas 2007.

We did routine walks in the snow at Turquoise Lake. My snowshoe tracks can be seen in the photo. Bow is 13 weeks old in this photo.

Our walks during the week were at night. We were walking in the snowfall at Turquoise Lake in this photo.

This was Bow's first and only exposure to birds (quail) on our April 2008 visit to IL. I took him over to Wendel Wright's house in Paducah and let him get his first smell of a game bird. Needless to say, he liked what he smelled. I was pretty proud of him on this day.






These last two photos were taken in late June a couple weeks before Bow died. We took our walk at Twin Lakes and Bow did several water retrieves. He was a retrieving fool.

Office View

This is the view from my office window. I will probably never have a better view from an office. I may make this my "cover" photo if the fog clears from BC and I can get it in the photo.

Ski Season

There has been quite a bit of snow here for a while now. The last series of storms and those that we are experiencing right now have sealed the deal on what appears to be great skiing for the Holidays.

Ski Cooper opens on the 19th. We have season passes again and are ready to get on the mountain. Even with the "Epic Pass" for Vail/BC being sold at such a discounted price, the cost for three kids and two adults was more than we were willing to spend. If we lived in the Eagle Valley we would have bought them, but the cost along with the drive made it impractical.

Our Christmas visitors (Sean and family) will be here in a few days (19th). I don't believe they will be disappointed with the snow. It will probably take them a few days to acclimate to the altitude (10,152 ft) in Leadville, but I'm sure they will be OK. I'll assign them each a snow shovel and that should speed up the process.

Expect to see lots of skiing photos soon. I'll hopefully have another elk photo soon. My late season cow tag started on the 15th and continues until 1/15.

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!

Remi has grown a lot since I got him in August. He has claimed us as his own. The bay window is a favorite of his to keep tabs on us and the neighbors. He likes to stand there in the window and watch me when I leave in my truck.

We will be in IL on the 21st and will leave for CO on the 29th. We are looking forward to the visit. Heather has planned out where we will be and when we will be there. I will spend more time at Mom and Dad's or Sean's house since we will be bringing Remi with us. Hopefully we will get to visit with everyone.

It sounds like the church (Mt. Sterling) will be having a chili supper and hay ride on the 22nd, so we plan to be there. We will celebrate Thanksgiving with Mom and Dad at Mom's on Wednesday night and spend Thursday at David and Gretels. In between all of that, I'll bowhunt with Sean a lot and hope to drag a doe or two out.

Winter is approaching

Olivia and I took Remi out for a walk and released a couple quail for him. He is definitely "bird crazy" and hunts like a dog on a mission. I've not seen the same inclination to point out of him that I did with Bow at this age, but Remi pointed more as a pup than Bow did. So, I still think the point will come around, but I really need to get him on wild birds. Maybe I can find some quail in IL when we come to visit over Thanksgiving. Regardless, he is ours and we wouldn't trade him for anything.

Looks like we will be visiting IL over Thanksgiving. Our plans are to arrive on Friday the 21st and leave on Saturday the 29th. We will spend most of our time with family, so if you want to visit you will be welcome to stop by. I will bowhunt (of course), so finding me may be difficult.

The photo above is Olivia with Mt. Massive and Mt. Elbert in the background.

Winter is here.

We had our first 1" of snow Monday then Tuesday night/Wednesday morning it snowed 3 or 4". When we got home from church last night at 8:45 it was 17 degrees. That isn't that cold if it was December, but it sure seems cold right now in October.

The kids are getting all geared up for Halloween. Boyd and Olivia got costumes last night, Ghost Rider and a Skeleton. We're going to take Isaac to Silverthorne and Frisco tonight to look for his costume. I believe he wants a Star Wars costume.

They will probably trick or treat at Beaver Creek this Saturday, then Minturn on the 30th and Leadville on the 31st. We'll have enough candy to last till next year.

Remi has grown quite a bit and is now 6 1/2 months old. He isn't as big as Bow was. I've released several quail for him. He finds them well and hesitates when he does, but he hasn't pointed for any length of time. I still believe he has potential, but probably not as much as Bow had. That is ok though, because he is a really good family dog even if he never makes much of a hunter.