Memorial Day Nature Walk around the property

About noon time I took an exploratory walk around the ten acres here on the side of Boulder Mountain - about a half mile, on the hillsides, all the way around the property. What fun. Next time, I'll take more time to look at some individual features.

I went out the front deck (West), stopped by the sandbox, and walked on up the road to the "turnaround" which is about in the southwest corner of the property. Going a bit south, up the hill, I followed the path that will lead to an eventual neighbor's home site - there is a fire ring there, now. I then took off across the face of the hill, about 50 feet above the property line, for a ways, and called Annette on the walkie-talkie, to be sure it worked. When she came out on the deck with the camera, we discovered it was easier to just talk. Here are the close and distant photos she took there.

I then walked to my left in photo above, east, along the south face, and she moved from the west deck to the east deck and took these photos.

From there, I proceeded further around the hill just a bit and then descended to the wash, just below the house and continued east, just about along the the south property line to near the south east corner.
I was near the road to other neighbors eventual house when I sat on the rock and Annette took another set of photos from the southeast deck corner.

This long shot, with me at the far left and the Capital Reef mummy formation on the Water Pocket Fold to the far right. Teasdale and Torrey are in the valley below.

I went up to the road, walked to the right over behind those trees at far right, where the neighbor's house will be, then returned on the road, to the left, back to the house. A really neat trip!

Yesterday, I got this photo of a blue bird, just off the back deck, near the dining area of the kitchen!

The many hummingbirds, chipmunks, and little tiny lizards are all very active on the hill outside the dining area window, as well. Neat place!  ;-)

It is another very good day!  ;-)

Al and Joleen Bolger in Utah

When we arrived in Teasdale to visit Larry and Annette for a couple of weeks, we found out that Nancy's brother, Al and his wife, Joleen, were only about a half hour behind us to stay the night enroute to Portland, OR, to visit their family. They had stayed the prior night in Bayfield, CO, only about 150 miles from where we stayed overnight in NW New Mexico! Small world!

Here is the group - less me, taking the photo, looking at the new house being built on a nearby ridge. Al on the left, Larry pointing, Jolene in between. Annette in front, Nancy behind.

This is the house they were looking at. "Our" road can be seen running this side of that house.

Below is the house we are looking from... off the back deck... they were looking to the left...

Some additional improvements going in... three new little ponderosa pines - you can see two in the photo - when grown, will look like the one on the right.

Just below the railing, Larry has put in a rock garden with new natural plants/flowers - the red sandstones will form a sidewalk between the rock garden and the pines...

I'm taking this looking over the railing - the sidewalk will go along the top, in this photo. This is on the near side in the house photo, above.

We are having a great time, with more to come.  ;-)

Salmon Ruins, Bloomfield, New Mexico

On our way out to visit Annette and Larry at their home in Utah, we stopped along the way to see a couple of Anasazi ruins in northwestern New Mexico. We started at the Salmon Ruins, just west of Bloomfield - we had not visited here before.

This site was preserved privately by the Salmon family homestead for many, many years. This is a photo in the museum.

Their gift shop had a great selection of Kachina dolls and related items...

Outside, on the trail to the ruins, Bill stopped in front of one of the restored homestead building, this is the bunkhouse.

Here is Nancy, on down the trail to the ruins themselves.

I went on ahead, as she rested a bit, along the wall of the pueblo ruins.

The next three photos are of the ruins themselves.

Later, we went to the Aztec Ruins, a few miles to the northeast of here - see my next post.

It was a very good day!

Bill  ;-)

Cabin Updates Today

Finished with the staining of the cabin exterior today. Here is the west side:

The south side:

Rich also redid the steps and walk over to Rex and Leta's place:

And, one big red flower on my transplanted flowers, next to the Iris... should figure out name, I suppose!  ;-)

It was another very good day!  ;-)

Day after Mother's Day 2010

We "celebrated" Mother's Day this year on Monday, due to Allison's work schedule. She had today off. She brought a beautiful card, Nancy is reading, below, and the box on the table is a JigSaw Puzzle... we'll assume it will eventually be put together and recorded here, as well. It looks like fun... 1000 pieces.

The flowers on the table were from Arrion, Ben, Alex and Kaylee. Annette called and we'll celebrate out there in a couple of weeks! Not that we keep track... all three daughter's remembered Mother!  ;-)

Allison, Nancy and I went to the Grand Country Buffet after the photo above.

It was another very good day!  ;-)

Got back from Austin in under 12 hours

Had a great return trip from Austin via Interstate... chose to come on Sunday, to avoid traffic - boy did that work out WELL!

We were in Austin to celebrate grandson Alex's 6th birthday. He really is growing up. Friday night, after dinner, he helped clean the table by taking plates to sink, but also wiped off the dinner table. Wow!

Maturing as well as growing up. That is really neat to watch!  ;-)

It was a very good, but also tiring, day!  ;-)

T-Ball Saturday

Around noon on Saturday, Alex had a T-Ball baseball game. Grandpa and Grandma got to go watch. Kaylee prefers to ride the swing in the nearby park.

Ben was with Kaylee in the park for the first time around batting - each team bats around twice. I got to take pictures of Alex, first time around. The last half of the game is going on in the background, above.

Alex was up to bat first in the lineup, today.

He hit the ball nicely - can you see the ball flying away, under the bench, on right!
One coach helps them bat, the second coach worked first base. Hit, run, and fielding are skills being learned. No outs. They do learn about foul balls. Pretty neat, actually. Now, Alex, No. 2, is on first base, getting ready to run on the next hit ball. 

Now, Alex has advance around to third base, where Arrion, his Mom, is the coach today (far right), to help the runners remember when to run home. Everybody gets on base and everybody scores.

I missed Alex scoring, but here he is on the bench after crossing home base.

Snack time after the game seems the best - Grandpa, Ben and Grandma got in this photo by Arrion, and we didn't even know it. Alex on the left, with two teammates, having snacks.

Kaylee got to have a snack as well.

A great day at the ballpark...  ;-)