Three Trees and Other Things

There use to be three trees up on the embankment below the lodge and with the rains of the last few years and the creek sides getting washed away two of them have moved well out into the creek bed. Even though there's no rain now the embankments are still crumbling and the third tree is about to join the other two.

Somebody came by a while back and ask if I had a map of Bears Ears. I said no, it was 30 miles away. They said, you're in Bears Ears. I went online and couldn't find any solid boundaries for the north end. Obama created it on one of his last days in office, Trump shrank it on one of his early days in office, and Biden brought it back to Obama boundaries and expanded it. Says it's now a joint venture between the BLM, not Black Lives Matter, and the Forest Service. I emailed the BLM and ask if I was in Bears Ears? They weren't sure. After some checking they said it now goes all the way up to Hurrah Pass. Since my property is on both sides of the road going up to Hurrah it sounds like it is. I swung by the Forest Servie building in Moab a week or so ago and ask them. They didn't know but knew somebody that did, called them and they didn't know but knew somebody that did, called them and they said yes. Nobody yet seems to know where the northern boundary is yet, at least not for sure.

Side by sides are still going fast by the property and more and more going off road and tearing things up. I called SITLA and ask if they were going to put fences up coming down this side of Hurrah Pass like they did the other side and they said some day but have other priorities right now so I might just fence it all myself. Then I called the county and ask them if there was a grader in my future to make a pass up and down Hurrah. It's not bad yet but there are getting to be a couple spots here and there that coule use some work. They said they have about finished grading all the roads that were impassable so yes it's in my future but couldn't give me a firm timetable. In the meantime both sides of the Hurrah Pass sign have turned into commercials.

Linda sent me this which is probably a good idea.

Stuff

Jax and I still hike almost every day after 5pm or so to let the heat break some. Still mostly in the 90s but 100s is coming.

Critter feeding (little people), raccoons, skunks, ringtails, and foxes takes place every night at 10pm or so on the front porch. Still not a lot of babies from the night people. I see tiny Colordo chipmunks, rock squirrels, and white tailed antelope squirrels everywhere and as well there are small house finches following parents around trying to get them to feed them and the parents rebuff them telling them there is food everywhere as I still feed all of them at three locations around the lodge every morning before 7:30am. But not the night people yet. No babies. One small ringtail gets three or four hot dogs each night so she's pregnant, three or four baby skunks come up and get lots of hot dogs I assume taking them back to their mother who born them last yeat and a couple of raccoons take a lot of hot dogs and drain all the Kit Kaboodle bowls so babies are coming but not here yet. No foxes the last two nights but they don't like a bright moon so to be expected.

In previous years I've kept Kobae's gate open during the day but it was time consuming going out to check on him all the time so this year until he comes out around 3pm or so I keep it closed and he doesn't seem to mind. Sometimes I open it, he comes out, looks around for awhile and then goes back in until feeding time. This year we've limited his greens to keep him from getting diarhea and the grocery bill has gone down. Four romaine, four cucumbers, four green peppers, and sometimes some carrots. At his past pace if he lived to be 80 he would have cost roughly another $250,000.

InExplicable

As we wait for the beach to show up and where it might show up I check the Rocky Mountain snow charts and everyday it says there's about a foot and a half of snow left on average. Everyday here we have 1,900,800,000 cubic feet of water go by. The next day it says the same thing on snowpack and another almost 2,000,000,000 cubic feet of water goes by. Lake Powell rises anothef 8 or so inches a day with a 2,000 mile shoreline, more than the Pacific Coast. Then over the last week the river depth at the lodge has gone from 16 feet to 17 feet. It's not going down. Still too fast and deep to kayak. We moved the kayaks back down to the boat ramp in anticipation of having a beach before July 4th but I don't see how that's possible. Jesse and Jake got in kayaks at the boat dock just in case they couldn't paddle upstream and just broke even on paddling with a lot of work so got out at the boat ramp. You don't get out at the boat ramp or the creek bed three miles south of here, I think you're going to Lake Powell.

Courtesy Teresa

Change

Last weei somebody checked in and gave me this as payment.

In the early days I donated to Big Brothers in Salt Lake. As I recall a disc golfer who played here a lot was running the show. When he left so did I. No problem the certificate being 12 years old but the thing that stood out going back and checking is the price for a room in 2011 was $135 per night, two night minimum. Now, 12 years later the price is $135 per night, two night minimum. Collective inflation has been more than 30% since that time. At the lodge profitability is pretty small and getting smaller. Not because of lack of people but expenses have climbed so much and I'm not doing anything much more than I did then.

It's time. On September 1st rooms at the lodge and the male hogan next door will go to $165 with the same two day minimum. The female hogan will go to $185 with the same two day minimum. The female hogan many times we have to provide up to five sleeping bags and or comforters which take quite a bit of time to clean and the female hogan guests burn a lot more fire wood than anywhere else. Though it's the unit that rents the most over the course of a year the profit is not much.

The two houses will stay the same at $425 and $370. The side by side rental will go from $165 to $195 for a 4 hour block of time. I've never had a profitable year with the side by sides and in most years my total losses are a minimum of $5,000 up to almost $20,000 one year and has they age the respairs become more frequent and for larger things. Explains why a six seater side by side in town is now up to $700 per day with a $2,000 deposit. If you've already booked the price stays the same as does the side by side rental but Sep 1st on the price changes are effective.

More Stuff

Jax had a rough week. His anal glands got clogged up and his butt hole swelled up. Took him to the vet and they had to clean it out. I've never seen him in so much pain and Teresa walked outside. It was absolutely horrible. Now we're giving him treatments and he's getting better. Not quite full strength but pretty close. Then the groomer was out of action for a month or so and it was three months between haircuts though Jesse and I did cut him some to help but it wasn't pretty. The result was he would get lots of stickers when we hiked and it was hot wearing his fur coat. Much on the mend now.

It's daybreak by 6am and not dark until nearly 10pm, Still not getting a lot of critters for the evening feeding. Seems like there are a few more but no babies yet. Usually the smaller the little person the sooner the babies. I expect we'll see ringtail and skunk babies soon and fox and raccoon after that.

The days are wonderful. Still in the 80s but 90s are coming shortly.

Some Stuff

The river never really got us this year. It came over the bank at the 21 foot level and peaked at 21.5. It's down to 17 or so now and part of the boat ramp is coming back so we'll be checking to see if kayaking is back. It was too fast and too strong there for awhile and we pulled all the kayaks up to the gravel pit. There's only about 2.5 feet of snow left in the Rockies versus 27 when the beach disappeared. This is the third deep snowmelt since I've been here. We had one in 2007, again in 2019, and this year. Lake Powell is up 35 feet versus the same day last year and all the reservoirs upstream of it are about 86% full on average.

The Desert Willow tree finally exploded. It does every year between May 10th and May 14th but last year waited until the 17th and this year waited until the 24th of May.

The back porch has needed some work for awhile and thanks to Serghei, Serghei another one, and Craig that finally happened and very nicely done.