It's Busy

May be as busy as it's ever been and it's July. The best July I ever had was $10,000 and I passed that on the 8th of July this year. Thanks so much to Linda for stepping in to help Tami and then Michelle did the same. Linda and I did get a hike in with Jax heading to The Fingers but was going to get dark before we got through it so just took a short hike and hung out just outside The Fingers.

Hiking and Some Stuff

Jax and I are doing a morning and an evening hike most every day. Nice to be active again. I had a doctor appointment and he had previously told me lose 30 pounds and diabetes is a thing of the past. I was getting there when Michelle took Jax and I never hiked on my own again cause I didn't want to go without my hiking buddy. Show of solidarity. Fortunately when I went to see him a couple days ago his computer crashed just as I walked in so he couldn't see what the charts were from my appointment four months earlier. I told him I finally quite eating at Burger King and he want to slap my hand congrats but I couldn't do it. I told him Burger King went out of business and they were closed. It wasn't a voluntary departure on my part.

It is the time of the season. Babies are being born. I've lost track of how many baby skunks, somewhere between three and six. I know I went through eight hot dogs with little skunk faces coming to the hole under the porch one after the other so not sure how many were repeats. Then on Tuesday night the first baby raccoons showed up. I haven't gotten many raccoons the last couple weeks and my prediction was because mamas were having babies and not yet ready to leave the dens.

I'm working on my refi of both places and sent in a loan ap and they wanted a narrative of what I've learned and changes I've made over the last 13 years. What an experience that was. Took me awhile but here's hoping.

I haven't kayaked once all year and I have a river that runs through the property. I keep thinking how busy I am but the moment Jax came back my priorities changed to make sure I hiked with him twice a day and I actually feel like I'm getting more done despite having two to four house per day less time. I dropped guests and Michelle off in town a couple days ago to kayak back from town, Jax got right in the kayak and they stopped on a lot of sand bars so took six or so hours to get back.

I think I quoted different numbers last time leaving out a month but with the Co-vid thing I was down $75,000 over the first five months of the calendar and fiscal year but got $18,000 of it back in June dropping it to $57,000 down and I've already passed July of last year. It's amazing how busy it's been. The main house at $425 per night has rented 35 of 40 nights. Chris left a few weeks ago and Tami has come up huge. Michelle has helped a few days and Linda who visited most of last week did the same both showing up at just the right time to pitch in.

Linda, Tami, and I are all taking turns feeding Kobae. You have to have the food ready to go right when he gets to the porch or he just runs over you. Got Linda's fingers one day and nicked mine a couple times.

Friday Evening

I have a few guests that want to go to Skinny People so Friday evening Jax leads like he'd never missed a day.

It's 3:45am Friday Morning

The week before mama had three baby skunks on the side of the west cistern and they've been living in there. Little dicey getting water out but not so much if you have a hot dog with you.

I'm sitting on the front porch watching the baby skunks get acquainted with life in the wild. There is a raccoon watching one of them and the baby gets nervous and sprays minor smells at random. Behind the skunks I can see lights coming down Hurrah Pass at 3:45 in the morning.

At 4am I walk inside the lodge living room and a vehicle pulls up, the door opens, the front screen door of the lodge opens, a small dog runs in, jumps up on the couch and begins licking my face. I hear Michelle's voice say "I'm going to go sleep in one of the hogans. Have fun." For the next 15 or so minutes Jax is so excited my face is almost licked off. In bed I awaken at 5am and see Jax staring at me, then again at 6am. No point trying to go back to sleep. Jax is ready to go hiking and so am I.

Critters

The big news however is the road. San Juan County came and graded both sides. Yes that's what I said. Both sides. I think it's been about eight years since they did my side. I was going up Hurrah Pass the other day, got out and gave the grader operator a standing ovation. It still needs to be hiked to kick or drag all the big rocks but I don't have a dog so I'm not hiking without him in support of WDM. White dogs matter movement which is as close to a social movement as I'll ever get out here.

The raven is still crying every morning about 0530. But the cries are a little less painful and shorter and after a few minutes it eats at the feeding areas with everyone else who have accepted the first time ravens have eaten with the little people.

Kobae is starting to take little hikes around the yard.

Deer visit the sand bar.

Sunsets are amazing. Can't waste a trip into town. Got to bring back wood and gas.

Coming back from the Skinny People hike with Heather I saw a whip tail snake track at the bottom of the driveway. The next day Ze saw a whip snake going into the tree. I grabbed it and pulled it down. Put it in a container and took it next door to the gravel put where I take everything that eats things so they can all eat each other.

Earlier in the day I saw a Golden Eagle fly low over Kobae's pen and then do another loop before departing. Pretty unusual. I take guests to the Main House for check in and while I'm there Heather calls on the walkie and says there's a baby duck in Kobae's pen. When I get to the lodge it's hiding in a bush. I'm thinking the eagle dropped it is how it got inside and then was looking for it when I showed up. If I leave it in the bush this night the foxes will find it and it will be the end. I pick it up and take it into the lodge, put it in a box, put a bowl of water in the box and put it in my room to look for it's mom in the morning. During the night it escapes from the box and I can hear it bumping into things. At 5:30am I can't sleep from all the noise it's making so we head down to the river. My instinct is to put it in the river but that's a lot of people instinct with tortoises not realizing they can't swim so I release it on the river bank. It runs, tries to jump up a ledge falls, jumps, falls, eventually it runs into the bushes.

Heather, Ze, and Family

Daughter Heather, who does the Face Book page for Base Camp showed up for a week. Did some disc, hiking, kayaking, side by side, Jeep, fishing, and misc stuff. We all hiked to Skinny People and Thousand Eyes.

Dance of the Raven (Courtesy Tami)