Category Archives: Shadow Mountain

Critters and Us

August 11, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Lughnasa Recovery Moon

As in Andover, we share our property and neighborhood with many other critters. Elk and mule deer come regularly to eat the clover in our front or strip bark from the aspens. A fat old fox waddles down the road now and then. Last night coming back from Evergreen on Black Mountain Drive a mule deer doe standing right on the shoulder of the road watched us as we slowly passed her. All of us enjoyed watching her watching us.

On Sunday Kate and I drive into Evergreen to the Lakeshore Cafe for our weekly business meeting. This last Sunday, going down Black Mountain Drive toward Evergreen, two foxes, healthy with beautiful coats, were in the middle of the road, one red and one black with just a nip of silver on its tail. As we approached, they startled and each headed for opposite sides of the road.

In looking for a picture of the black fox I learned they are called silver foxes and are a regular, but uncommon melanin variation of the red fox. They were the most prized of fox fur and according to Wiki were once considered worth forty beaver skins by natives of New England. Seeing the two together, both with fine coats, was a treat and a surprise.

We know there are bears, too, since our Shadow Mountain neighbors have been talking about them opening car doors in search of food, but we’ve not seen any. That’s just as well since any sort of habituation is dangerous for the bears. That’s why we keep our garbage in the garage and take it only an hour or so before pick up.

Where there are deer, the saying goes here, there are mountain lions. Maybe so, but again, we’ve seen nary a one. Of course, they’re very elusive, like bobcats and lynx, so they could be close by and we’d never know.

I do hear coyote yipping at night around 9 pm, but I’ve never seen one of them either.

Shadow Mountain, The West, Weather +Climate

Wildfire

June 25, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Summer Healing Moon

External fire sprinklers are back on. Jacob Ware, deputy fire chief for the Elk Creek Fire District, came out in his red fire department pick up to talk fire mitigation. He was an interesting guy and a neighbor. He lives near Upper Maxwell Falls trailhead.

Jacob, a former hotshot who fought fires in Idaho and the Pacific Northwest, says external fire sprinklers work. He described an Idaho fire where his crew took portable sprinklers out, built a fireline a half mile long, attached them to a water source, a portable generator and left them running. The fire stopped at the fireline. He’s also seen them work on individual houses. A cheap, do it yourself kit is what he recommends. He’s sending me particulars.

The thirty foot defensive zone around the house is most critical. Not only do you have to get rid of ladder fuels like high grass and shrubs, you also have to break up fuel continuity so an ember can’t spark a fire and be led to the house through mulch or dry, tall grass. After that, create a ten foot span at the crown between and among trees. That means cutting down weaker, stressed trees. This I can do. Aspens are good, they’re fire resistant, but the conifers are mostly pitch and burn like candles. We have mostly lodgepole pine in our yard.

Black Mountain Drive in front of our house will act as a fire break in case of a fire coming from the south and west. It also provides excellent access for fire departments. Combined with our long driveway, top rated roofing and, surprisingly to me, our siding, he said we were already in pretty good shape. Good to hear.

Faith and Spirituality, Feelings, Health, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant., Shadow Mountain

Nourishing the Self

June 23, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Summer Healing Moon

Finding myself driven into my Self, wanting to nourish my soul/Self, my inner life, needing to do that. Mood a bit down, usually precedes inner work, and I plan to follow that thread today.

I may use the intensive journal, read some poetry, look into some books on the inner life. Meditate. Maybe hike a bit.

The tomorrow wall has gone back up, closing off my dreams for the future. This is not bad. It focuses me on the here, the now, but I will not allow this wall to stand after July 8th. No matter what the final pathology report says I plan to regain my usual rhythm. Write. Translate. Explore Colorado. Learn new things. Go out with Kate, the grandkids.

An example of what’s going through my mind right now. In traffic on I-70 yesterday, headed east, away from the mountains, I looked at all the cars and trucks and buses filling lanes, six lanes altogether, going east and west. Unbidden came the thought that all these drivers, all the passengers will get taken off the board.

This traffic, filled with strangers on unknown journeys to unknown destinations, purposeful and not, was a moment in history. And history’s tide would wash over it, sweeping in its wake all the souls present.

This was not a dark thought, rather a descriptive realization, offered to me, I think, by my unconscious. Why? To place my current predicament in context. Am I going to die? Yes. And so are all these others. As have all the others who lived, say, 120 years ago.

Family, Garden, Our Land and Home, Shadow Mountain, The West

Family Plots

June 19, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Beltane Healing Moon

A new seasonal event. Pine pollen gathers on the black surface of our driveway leaving yellow rings where water gathers in the driveway’s low spots. Sweep your hand across a piece of our Stickley furniture, palms and fingers come up yellow. We have only cross ventilation for cooling. Shake a branch of the ponderosa and a yellow cloud fills the air. All about sex of course. No wonder it’s beautiful.

Into Denver last night to check on Jon’s garden. Jon, Jen, Ruth and Gabe are in Chicago for father’s day, visiting Jen’s grandfather and grandmother, both great-grandparents. Her grandfather is 96 or so and his wife around the same age. Barb, Jen’s mom, flew out because her mom fell and broke a hip. She’s headed to a nursing home. error correction: Kate says Barb’s mother has a hair line fracture of the pelvis.

Jon grows quite a garden. He has grapes and currants, potatoes and herbs, tomatoes and carrots, peppers, strawberries and onions. Being a gardener of the arid west he has a drip irrigation system which delivers small bursts of water, around two minutes worth, to each plant via a plastic line connected to a small plastic stake with a watering head. Before they left he positioned garden furniture over his more delicate plants because hail can be a problem.

My job is to make sure the irrigation system works, then to make sure that none of the watering heads malfunction and finally to watch plants that might wilt in the heat. There are two main concerns, one is for the health of the plants, but the second is to make the sprinkler system doesn’t send them into another tier of water pricing by running too long. Colorado is not California, but water, especially municipal water, is still a precious resource and priced accordingly.

Our Land and Home, Shadow Mountain, Third Phase

Pace of change picks up

June 16, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Beltane New (Healing) Moon

Very windy this morning on Shadow Mountain. The pines sway and the thick clouds of last night have dispersed. Rain again yesterday and last night.

The sale of the Andover house–still a cause for joy here–has started a cascade of small and large changes on Black Mountain Drive.

An electrician came by yesterday to give me an estimate on installing our generator. I have to schedule a plumber to run the gas line to the west side of the house, then Eric will position the generator and the plumber will connect it. After that the automatic transfer switch goes up and connects to the generator.

Kate’s interviewing a housecleaner today.

Our bookshelf order from Ikea for my loft comes today. Jon will begin to install them when he gets back from Chicago next week.

After the deputy chief of the Elk Creek Fire District gives me a mitigation plan on Thursday, I’ll begin to implement it. Once I know what he recommends, I’ll also call in a stump grinder to clear the many stumps in our back yard. That will make the yard much more useable as an outdoor space.

Still to come: new bed and mattress, kitchen remodel, shower remodels.

All part of settling in. Good to be in a place to do these things.

Jefferson County, Our Land and Home, Shadow Mountain, The West, Weather +Climate

Fire

June 10, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Beltane Closing Moon

Fire mitigation is on my mind. Firewise is a project of the National Fire Protection Association and has wide exposure here in Colorado. They recommend defensible space, 30 feet out from the house no trees, shrubs, fuel. Trees out to 50 feet or so limbed up to 10 feet so fire can’t skip from ladder fuels (shrubs, grass) to tree branches. That’s considered only good sense up here on Shadow Mountain.

And, to show you that no good deed goes unpunished, the very wet, fire repressing May and June (thunder outside right now) we’re having, will nourish grass and shrubs. They’ll make excellent ladder fuels in the dry time of late June and July. Geez.

Our property’s not in bad shape in terms of defensible space. The previous owner seems to have done much of what’s suggested. To make sure though I’m having the deputy chief of the Elk Creek Fire District come out next Thursday to do a fire mitigation assessment.

Still working on the idea of an external fire sprinkler system. I’ve read many websites, pdf’s. Lots of options, including a few that don’t use water, but spray fire retardant chemicals. Managed to confuse myself, so I e-mailed the state coordinator for wildfire mitigation and asked her to comment on their utility. Lots of wind apparently renders them near to useless and high winds accompany most mountain fires.

Also, they need enough water for 3 hours of continuous sprinkling, 2 hours before the fire to create a moist micro-climate and one hour afterward to protect against embers blown back. That’s likely a good bit more than our well can handle which would require an in-ground water tank.

A new place, new challenges. All part of becoming native to this place.

Dogs, Health, Shadow Mountain

Morning

June 6, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Beltane Closing Moon

This morning I got up as usual at about 5:30, turned on the hall light and the downstairs light. Kep had thrown up something, looked like light fur. I wiped it up with a towel after an oh no. It came up easily, not wet. That was good. I let him outside through the downstairs door.

On the couch I picked up my phone, swiped to open it, swiped again to move to the second page where my health app resides, found the oximeter, pressed it and then pressed measure. After 30 seconds or so, a number popped up. 93. My usual early morning reading. Still below normal or average, but not in the OMG zone. A cascade of thoughts about smoking, decisions long ago effecting today, could I have some pulmonary disease? Then, just as quickly. Oh, stop. No good comes of this. Let it be until we get more data.

Upstairs to pour a cup of coffee, let it sit while I head to the garage to let out Vega, Rigel and Gertie. When I snick open the crate, I call each dog’s name and run my hand over their body as they bound out: Vega, Rigel, Gertie. Each dog momentarily presses their body into my hand. We acknowledge each other and they’re out the garage door. Back among the ponderosa’s they sniff, run, urinate. A soft blue sky with hazy clouds is over them now, not the darkness of night that greeted us all just a month ago at the same time.

This is my usual morning. It also involves walking to the road to pick up the paper, feeding the dogs, letting them out again and waiting until they return. After they’re all back inside, I go up to the loft to read my e-mail, write a post here and exercise.

Which I’m off to do right now.

Anoka County, Family, Feelings, Jefferson County, Shadow Mountain, The Move

Closing Moon

June 3, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Beltane Closing Moon

The closing moon has presided over the sale of 3122 153rd Ave. Northwest, Andover, Minnesota, 55304. We only needed one buyer and, in fact, had only one offer. But, it was a good one, from a couple that will continue our work with the land and with bees. That they want the raised beds, the orchards, the hydroponics, the bee woodenware and will use them all feels like a legacy. And a profound one.

Feels so good to have this behind us. A settled feeling, residing somewhere below the heart, has begun to permeate me. There is no longer that agitated sense that we do not quite belong on Shadow Mountain, that a tie from yesterday makes us not fully present in our new home.

Over the weekend I entertained, briefly, what would happen if the deal with the Vorhee’s fell through. The house would have to go back on the market. We’d continue with two mortgages and utilities. The uncertainty would continue, perhaps through the summer. And, we would have to drop the price again. That felt dismal, like sinking in the great swamp of that name.

Now I can concentrate on dealing with prostate cancer with a single focus, not one divided by financial concerns. I’m confident that the prostate cancer journey will have a good outcome, too, but the path forward still has some unknowns, mostly what sort of treatment we’ll choose. That unknown should disappear on June 11th, after then only the execution and recovery.

Colorado, Family, Minnesota, Mountains, Shadow Mountain, The West, Third Phase

I’m An Old CowHand From the Rio Grand

June 2, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Beltane Closing Moon

Three things of significance today. Picked up Mary for her first visit to Black Mountain Drive. I’m wired up with leads and a belt holster, ekgs available at the push of a button. This is for thirty days or until I have 3 episodes or events.

And. The Andover house closed, almost all of the money is in our bank account. We are no longer cash poor and paying two mortgages. Yippee, Yi, Ya as we say out here in the West. It hasn’t quite sunk in yet, but we’ve looked up our bank balance and it’s pretty damned healthy. Great to have that uncertainty behind us.

Now the entire circus tent has been struck, all three rings, loaded on the train and the train’s left town, heading west. Our last physical and fiscal ties to Minnesota ended today around 3pm. The friendships, the cultural and political ties, those will remain.

But today we are wholly here from a business perspective. Black Mountain Drive already feels like home, as does the Front Range. How long it takes for our souls to take root in the mountains is an unknown, but a pleasant one, a process of taking the mid out of the midwesterner. It’s already begun. Gotta go now and hitch my hoss to a post.

Faith and Spirituality, Great Wheel, Great Work, Jefferson County, Mountains, Shadow Mountain, Weather +Climate

For Millions of Years

May 29, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Beltane Closing Moon

A mile or so from our driveway is the trailhead for Upper Maxwell Falls trail. I went once in the winter and didn’t take my yak-traks with me. It was too icy to navigate the altitude gain.

Today, as the gloom began to settle in late afternoon, and as my own mood began to mimic the gray overhead, I set out for Maxwell Falls.

The trail is not long, about a mile and a third round trip, but it does climb, then decline through ponderosa forest. Piles of large boulders, weathered and jumbled together, cling to the side of Shadow Mountain above and the trail, while Maxwell Creek flows with equal parts power and grace, going white over rocks in its way, curling around them, too, in gentle embrace.

The falls themselves are modest in height, but there are several, one after another, giving more speed to the already rapid water. This is the way it’s been here for millions of years after the snow melt and when rains come. The water starts up high and finds these channels that allow it to collect and be the chisel. Later, it will grow calm after having taken a fast ride, perhaps pooling behind a beaver dam or a spillway or flowing into a lake or pond.

It is a privilege to live so close to this magic. It dispelled the gathering gloom in my Self, allowed me entrance to the Otherworld, the place where humans are still one among many and not more important than any other.