Packing Up!

Well another week has whizzed by. The days are getting shorter and cooler. We have had a terriffic amount of wildlife in the yard lately: swift foxes, red foxes, skunks, robins, mtn. blue birds, magpies, cottontails, elk, white tailed deer, mule deer, owls, bats and the like. A startling surprise was last week, when a mother black bear was letting her cub wander out a bit from the den. My neighbor Hilda, was the first to spot her. She was thankful that she wasn't in between Momma and her cub before figuring out that the little black ball of fur was a bear instead of a dog. Yes, the signs of fall are here, the Aspen trees are on the cusp of changing and the animals are packing up for the long winter!

John finished the roof of the house with some new energy conserving insulation. He replaced the damaged roof from last years horriffic winter and thought he'd add a few layers of insulation while he was at it. Just like the animals are packing on layers to keep warm, well... so are we!!!

Whitley dear, packed up the last of her things for her week long mountain expedition that starts early Monday morning. I'm really curious to see how she is going to re-pack all this stuff before coming home. Her one and only suitcase contained: a sleeping bag, reg. size pillow, snow pants/ski coat, hooded sweat shirt, long johns, 4 shirts, 3 prs. of pants, undergarments, snow boots, tennis shoes, 4 pr. thick wool/hiking socks, a camera, notebook, 4 pencils, deck of cards, toothbrush/toothpaste,shampoo,brush,sunscreen, chapstick, lotion, sunglasses, 2 ski hats and 2 pr. gloves! Anyway, she is really excited as she found out that she is in the Columbine Cabin and gets to do three activities that she signed up for: archery, photograhy and hiking. She is nervous how she is going to keep up physically from 6:15 am to 10:45 pm....as she's a little like her Mom..., and likes her sleep! Anyway, it should be a great time for her and hopefully she'll have some beat pictures to post after her adventure.