Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Monday (Brrrrr)
Michelle on her way to town dropped Jax and I off on top of Hurrah and while it was a little chilly today it was beautiful.
Friday Stuff
We woke up to another dose of overnight snow. By afternoon it had melted and water was running everywhere turning the desert floor into mud. The ground has had to absorb a lot of moisture over the last few weeks and it finally ran out of room today.
Jax and I tried to sneak over to the Conspiracy of Ravens which are hanging with the dead cow almost the whole day but they had posted a guard who when we came through the gate alerted everybody else and as we rounded the corner they all took off. I think I'll charge the GoPro tonight and then next time I go to town I'll pull the truck up to the road, the ravens will all take off, I'll hike the GoPro and then pick it up in a few hours when I come back. I'm a little nervous they're smarter than me and they'll find it and it will join the walkie that is still missing, but, we'll see.
Jax and I got our longest hike since the injury trudging through about three miles of mud today.
Jax and I got our longest hike since the injury trudging through about three miles of mud today.
Jax, Hiking, Movie, and Disc
The guest said "I didn't know Cavapoo came in red?"
Each day we get in a couple hikes for a mile or two and each day the limp becomes less noticeable. He gets so excited when squirrels make a run for Michelle's Jeep.
I got an email from the movie people today and filming will begin early May and take most of the month. The story is 150 years ago in The Canyon Lands some guys are going down the Colorado River into Canyonlands and come across an Indian settlement in a canyon somewhere which they massacre for whatever reason. 150 years later the guys relatives are going down the river and their raft flips and they land in the same canyon that their ancestors did 150 years ago, unbeknownst to them. The ghosts of the Indians that were massacred seek their revenge one at a time. So my job is to find canyon like places for ghosts revenge. I can do that.
Years ago when they made Lone Ranger out here I talked to the location people when they were interested in staying and filming around here and I ask if they could get Linny and Kobae in the movie and they said they had already written the script. Kobae is the strong silent type and didn't really need a speaking part and Linny would be happy with anything.
The last paragraph of the email today said "Also, it looks like I have a part available for a young Native American girl. No speaking lines, but would have make up to look like ghost with blood. Is that something Linny might be interested in?" The answer is yes. A star is born.
Jax and I hiked part of the new course Sunday and this is cool. A basket is down to the left in the crevice and then you walk up the narrow trail to the tee for the next hole in front of Hull's Place.
Then on another hole this is your approach through the bent tree limb.
The last paragraph of the email today said "Also, it looks like I have a part available for a young Native American girl. No speaking lines, but would have make up to look like ghost with blood. Is that something Linny might be interested in?" The answer is yes. A star is born.
Thursday, February 21, 2019
The Days
Quickly counting down to the start of The Season. We hadn't seen anybody for a week or so and then three vehicles not connected pulled up within five minutes of each other for bathroom, directions, and or to look at rooms. Same thing happened the next day.
Jax and I hike every day for about an hour and we're getting back into it. He's healing and getting a little crazier each day. It snows most evenings and melts in the afternoons, way more on south facing slopes than north facing. Not hard to look at pictures and tell which is which.
In the mornings the first thing I hear are the ravens talking to each other and shortly after the arrival of the ravens the songbirds know there won't be any hawks and they break out into song. The warmth is coming, the forecast changing, just a few more days, the songbirds will be looking for mates, and every one, all the little people will be doing the same. The ringtails, foxes, raccoons, skunks, and by late spring there will be babies everywhere. The big horn and mule deer made the selections back in the fall and in a few months they'll be more of them. I'm ready. I miss them. I see a few each evening but it's cold and nobody hangs around long. It's hot dogs and Kit&Kaboodle and then they're off. I don't take it personal. When it's not snowing at night the stars and planets are brighter than ever.
When we start to hike Jax always takes a drop, facing north, smells a few things. comes over to me and puts his paws up on my waist and licks my hand to thank me for the walk, then we're off. Use to be that somewhere soon into the walk happiness would overwhelm him and it was like he found crack. Suddenly he'd take off running, doing circles, zig zags, and then jumps into the air. Since the injury that hasn't happened. A few days ago he just couldn't help it. Shortly after his 30 seconds of crazy he was limping again.
Whenever Jax and I hike out to the Base Camp sign there are ten or so ravens gathered around the dead cow and one Golden Eagle walking around it while all the ravens are talking. It's like somebody was killed in a gun fight in the old days and while the Marshal is out checking the body in the middle of the street all the townspeople are gathered around murmuring. I can hear them talking and then when Jax and I come up out of the driveway by the sign they all quit like we shouldn't know the secret. I don't speak Raven.....maybe. I don't want to say for sure in case they're reading the blog.
Jax and I walked over to Last Hurrah garage today in the wind and flurries to turn the generator on. Only a few more weeks before Donn, the solar guy gets here and I'm dumping another $25,000 into solar next door. Donn's dad Ken was the solar guy before he passed a few years ago. At the memorial I heard one of the funniest stories ever. Ken drank a bit, ok, all the time. He use to go down the river before there were rules. Was hard to find anybody that wanted to go with him. He went hundreds of times. On one journey down he had a few guests with him and two BLM Rangers. He never really got drunk but the glaze never left his eyes either. While camped on shore having lunch a rattle snake came into the pit area. Ken ask if anyone wanted to learn how to catch a rattle snake and everyone agreed they did not. Ken said "Ok, I'll show you." Ken went around behind the snake and then ran in to snatch it by the neck but it felt the vibration of Ken's weight on the ground running and turned at the moment Ken reached down to grab it and bit him good.
The BLM Rangers were mortified. One of them, a bit hurried said "We've got to figure out how to get Ken to a hospital." One of the guests who knew him best and was telling the story said "Ken will be fine. We've got to figure out how to get the rattle snake to a Betty Ford clinic."
Walking back from Last Hurrah today we walked by what is my favorite basket on the new course set up in a gap in the rocks and my favorite tee box right after that which comes out of Hull's old place.
I don't see Michelle much. She wakes in the mornings and it's not long until I hear her Jeep leaving. She's off wandering around the property looking for a project. Something that isn't quite right that needs to be moved. Something broken, lying about, abandoned, not cared for, that needs to be fixed and have it's own space. Sometimes two things that are broken and can become whole again by being together. She'll find a can with no label on it, half filled with something, put a brush into it, and start to spread the liquid on her new project. When the can is empty she'll say "What do you think was in it?" I'll say "I don't know." She'll say "It looks better where it is now." She's right.
Over the next few days the new book, chair, shelf, table, lamp, picture, or things that I don't know what they were when she found them and now know even less about them since she's fused them and liquified them with something, I'll find at a location, then a few days later a different location, sometimes a third, and occasionally a fourth. Then one day it doesn't move anymore. It has a place and it is home.
She seems happy.
Michelle sent me a picture a couple days ago of when she first got Jax and then another one not long after he moved out here and went from designer dog to desert dog. I hardly see the difference.
Jax and I hike every day for about an hour and we're getting back into it. He's healing and getting a little crazier each day. It snows most evenings and melts in the afternoons, way more on south facing slopes than north facing. Not hard to look at pictures and tell which is which.
Whenever Jax and I hike out to the Base Camp sign there are ten or so ravens gathered around the dead cow and one Golden Eagle walking around it while all the ravens are talking. It's like somebody was killed in a gun fight in the old days and while the Marshal is out checking the body in the middle of the street all the townspeople are gathered around murmuring. I can hear them talking and then when Jax and I come up out of the driveway by the sign they all quit like we shouldn't know the secret. I don't speak Raven.....maybe. I don't want to say for sure in case they're reading the blog.
The BLM Rangers were mortified. One of them, a bit hurried said "We've got to figure out how to get Ken to a hospital." One of the guests who knew him best and was telling the story said "Ken will be fine. We've got to figure out how to get the rattle snake to a Betty Ford clinic."
Walking back from Last Hurrah today we walked by what is my favorite basket on the new course set up in a gap in the rocks and my favorite tee box right after that which comes out of Hull's old place.
Over the next few days the new book, chair, shelf, table, lamp, picture, or things that I don't know what they were when she found them and now know even less about them since she's fused them and liquified them with something, I'll find at a location, then a few days later a different location, sometimes a third, and occasionally a fourth. Then one day it doesn't move anymore. It has a place and it is home.
She seems happy.
Michelle sent me a picture a couple days ago of when she first got Jax and then another one not long after he moved out here and went from designer dog to desert dog. I hardly see the difference.
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
The Weather
A few days ago a storm came over Dead Horse Point and has been coming ever since. The weather forecast for the next ten days is the coldest of the year and more snow. The snow pack levels in the Rockies are the second highest I've seen since I've been here. The beach will probably be gone in April and there will be mosquitoes this year. Last year the water never reached into the tamarisk trees and the mosquitoes never hatched. I think we had three or four days of mosquitoes. and the beach that didn't go under until late May and was only gone for three weeks will be gone a couple months this time. My plan was to go get Kobae the end of the month but the temps currently show the high will be 32 that day and the low 8 meaning Kobae won't leave the laundry room until he sees temps in the 50s so kind of pointless to get him then but I'll have him here for the tournament. He's pretty popular. So, not predicting the weather future, here is today, Tuesday morning February 19th.
All About Healing
For the last week Michelle has been working on broken projects. She likes to fix things that are broken and give them life and a place. It's very touching. I've been working on the booking sites and rechecking all bookings to make sure I didn't miss anybody. There are a lot of bookings. It's way up
Each weekend a few people show up to work on the second 18 hole disc golf course. The tournament is sold out but I'd be surprised if they turned down anybody that drove all the way out here. I've lost a few camping spots with the new fairways and baskets so I'm going to have to go out a couple days before the tournament and set up new camping sites. Day One will be 18 holes of the first course in the morning and 18 holes of the second course in the afternoon and then for Sunday Doug has made a Safari course of 20 holes out of the combination of the two courses.
For Jax and I it's about the healing. We hike'd 15 minutes the first day, 20 the second, and he can do about 35 minutes or so now. He still yelps a couple times a day if he forgets he's injured and runs or wants to play but it's getting better and I think it will be a complete recovery.
I saw a hawk this morning at the across the driveway feeding area. Two ravens came and landed, the hawk took off, and now all three feeding places are filled with birds singing and eating. I can't believe it.
The dead cow when I eventually found it again had lost about a 4th of it's mass and now it's down to about half. Every dead cow I've come across over the years has been broken through by a critter of some sort and the insides eaten, but not this one. The Golden Eagles took it's eyes the first few days and nothing else has been touched. There are fox tracks, coyote tracks, and bobcat tracks around it but nothing has been able to get through that tough hide. Over the last week the ravens have set up camp next to it and it's sort of a worship shrine of some sort with six to eight ravens watching it all the time.
Each weekend a few people show up to work on the second 18 hole disc golf course. The tournament is sold out but I'd be surprised if they turned down anybody that drove all the way out here. I've lost a few camping spots with the new fairways and baskets so I'm going to have to go out a couple days before the tournament and set up new camping sites. Day One will be 18 holes of the first course in the morning and 18 holes of the second course in the afternoon and then for Sunday Doug has made a Safari course of 20 holes out of the combination of the two courses.
For Jax and I it's about the healing. We hike'd 15 minutes the first day, 20 the second, and he can do about 35 minutes or so now. He still yelps a couple times a day if he forgets he's injured and runs or wants to play but it's getting better and I think it will be a complete recovery.
I saw a hawk this morning at the across the driveway feeding area. Two ravens came and landed, the hawk took off, and now all three feeding places are filled with birds singing and eating. I can't believe it.
The dead cow when I eventually found it again had lost about a 4th of it's mass and now it's down to about half. Every dead cow I've come across over the years has been broken through by a critter of some sort and the insides eaten, but not this one. The Golden Eagles took it's eyes the first few days and nothing else has been touched. There are fox tracks, coyote tracks, and bobcat tracks around it but nothing has been able to get through that tough hide. Over the last week the ravens have set up camp next to it and it's sort of a worship shrine of some sort with six to eight ravens watching it all the time.
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