Spring Mountain Spring Moon
Found this finally on Youtube. Wolf and bear fishing together at a waterfall. Amazing. I can imagine our Rigel doing this.
Category Archives: Dogs
What’s For Supper?
Imbolc Black Mountain Moon
I can see Rigel doing this. (video of wolf catching salmon)
The Week
Imbolc Black Mountain Moon
Neighbor to the east, Jude, has transferred to days after four years of working nights. This means that he now lets his two border collies out around 6. They bark, for some reason, without stopping until he leaves for work around 7. It makes the quiet of the early morning here less desirable, means I’ll have to adapt. Today I sorted and read e-mails.
Not sure what I’ll do over time.
A quiet week, but a busy weekend. On Friday I’ll attend the member preview of We (heart) the Rocky Mountain National Park exhibit at the Colorado History Museum. On Saturday Kate attends a mineralogy day sponsored by the Friends of the Colorado Geology Museum. It features lectures on gem coloration. Then on Sunday we go to the Curious Theater for a play that is the second of a trilogy, The Brother/Sister Plays, written by a student of August Wilson’s, Tarell Alvin McCraney. This one is In the Red and Brown Water. The first in the trilogy will play this summer and the third in the fall.
Buddy Bill Schmidt has fiddled with the fonts on Ancientrails. Thanks, Bill, I like the change. Anybody else have an opinion?
Oh, Yeah. Fox!
Imbolc Black Mountain Moon
We have fox here and some use Black Mountain Drive as a route from here to there. Late this afternoon Rigel was at the window, looking out toward the road when a fox ran by. Rigel, who is feral herself, gave a prey bark and the others responded. Soon the house filled with barking and yipping, running for the front door, the back door, anyway to get at the fox.
Rigel and Vega have coyote hound and wolf hound blood. This animal was in the prey category. Smack in it. And they felt the need. You could see it activating their attention, their ruffs, their dogness. This was the moment they were made for.
Much as I would have liked to let them run the fox down, or give it a try, the danger to them would have been too great. (cars, angry neighbors, getting lost) So they had to forgo the hunt.
Even a half an hour later though they were still smiling, prancing, looking 100% dog qua dog. Not pet. Not domesticated, just animals cued for what their life purpose is.
Beautiful
Imbolc Settling Moon II
Kate did such a great job finding our Black Mountain Drive home. Not only does it provide plenty of room for both of us and our various creative activities, it’s also located about half an hour from this view: Kenosha Pass, 10,000 feet.
On an ordinary errand, taking Kepler to Paws and Claws for grooming in Pine Junction, we just stayed on 285. It winds through a long valley following, of all things, the north fork of the South Platte River. Pine Junction is the first stoplight on Hwy. 285 headed out of Denver. This view is about another 20 minutes beyond Pine Junction. The small town of Jefferson is just off to the left, out of view here, on the valley floor.
Early On
Winter Settling Moon
A few photographs
9358 Black Mountain Drive
Both shots from the small porch off my loft show Black Mountain in the background
I included the disabled parking sign to prove that even the disabled are more fit in Colorado.
Jon and Ruth (with yellow avalanche shovel) came over to push snow the night before the van arrived.
The dogs were still wary when I took these shots: Gertie, Rigel, Kepler, Vega. Well, maybe not Vega.
Cardboard and Dogs
Winter Settling Moon
One real marker of being here: driver’s license, my Colorado driver’s license, came today. A new state identifier. The license plates will follow. Then, we’ll be indistinguishable, at least at first glance, from other folks who live here.
More: boxes, opened. The ledge over the fireplace, a long one, is clear now. The small oriental is down in the living room with the coffee table on it for the first time in years. The coffee table was our television stand for the last 6 or 7. Found the amplifier and the dvd player, though playing dvds seems anachronistic. The little Roku hockey puck has replaced coaxial cable, receiving our television over a wireless connection to the internet.
Closing in, today, on freeing up space in the loft, especially around the window that overlooks Black Mountain. Working first to podcasts, then to youtube videos of the Band.
Kate takes Gertie in to the vet tomorrow. Gertie has an arthritic knee and needs pain pills to be her usual happy self. On the human medicine front we’ve located a Medicare specialist here to discuss our options. We have until February 20th to shift plans, but this is something I don’t want to do too near the deadline.
Still working on energy cranked up last month. Pack. Load. Unload. Unpack. Get this done. Get that done. As more and more gets done, I can feel relief waiting to break free. But, too, I can feel a sag, a slump coming after so much push. Time to collect myself, be non-productive, non-task focused. Not yet though. Not yet.
A Frenzy of Dogs
Winter Settling Moon
Kate’s been fighting off a feeling of dis-ease. A couple of naps and a very reduced activity level seems to have her on the mend.
Vega got bit, by Kepler I think. We tried to put staples in it (yes, we happened to have some lying around in a sterile package. Doctors.), but Vega resisted. Teeth and muscle are a strong argument so we only got in two.
The bite was during a frenzy to get outside and solve some doggy territorial matter. Everybody was squirming, lunging, snapping at each other. I imagine Vega got a nip in at Kep and he repaid her. Not very significant in the world of canines.
The book box opening proceeds, but not at a rapid pace. Unboxing them and stacking them on bookshelves is the first step. I love it, touching each one, remembering why I bought it, what I hoped to learn. That emotional response though makes doing too many at one time difficult. It’s going to take a while, perhaps longer than it took to pack them.
There is, though, no rush. There is no deadline, no race. Yet I look forward, very much, to the day when the books have found their new homes. Then my library can once again be the resource it has always been.
Starting the New Year Tired
Winter Settling Moon
Realized this morning that we’ve been pushing, pushing, pushing since the week before the movers came to Andover on December 15th, spent time on the road getting here, had a day of rest, then the two day unloading with its associated drama and have been, since then, in cardboard liberation mode. All this while acclimatizing to 8,800 feet. No wonder we’re both tired today, January 1.
At no point, or at least at only a few temporary points, have I experienced stress beyond what a major change like this produces. Even at that our stress levels have remained more than manageable thanks to pre-planning, good friends and a solid relationship.
Settling in occupies our minds with many boxes still to open and little thought possible yet about where to position things. There are, too, those other matters that just take time: driver’s license, car registration, find a Medicare advantage plan, find a doctor, dentist, vet.
We’re both taking a day off today, resting, maybe tomorrow, too. A holiday, a holiday weekend? Maybe. There is no pressure here, no race, only the desire to have our home a place of nurture as we know it can and will be.
The dogs have adapted, running to the garage door to get in the truck and go home much less often. They treed something yesterday, probably a squirrel. Lots of tracks in the snow. They’ve been acclimatizing too, of course. A lot to absorb for them.
Stars and Galaxies
Winter Settling Moon
Jon came out and assembled our new snow blower. It’s a yellow cub cadet with power steering (no kidding), a big light and a joystick controller for the blower. We’re ready now.
We’ve already unloaded many boxes, with many, many more to go. Kate’s focusing on the kitchen and I’m helping her move boxes and arrange them for ease of work. The loft space over the garage has received some early attention since it has the computer with all my passwords. I will post pictures when we get a bit further along.
The dogs have claimed our back yard, running and sniffing, testing the boundaries. No attempts to escape as yet. This is a five foot fence and will provide a challenge even to Gertie. A challenge, unfortunately, that she’s probably able to surmount. But not yet.
Last night driving back from Evergreen, headed toward Conifer, Orion stood, tilted to his side, just above the mountains. The sky itself was black, pricked with stars and galaxies. Yesterday, too, a family of mule deer buck, doe, and two fawns crossed Shadow Mountain Drive ahead of us.