The blue, blue sky.

The winds were a little hellacious last night and today, finally subsiding a few hours ago. Here in the mountains the sky always seems to look amazing and sometimes I forget how blessed we are to have a place here that we absolutely love to call home.
I often wonder if people that live here take the view and beauty for granted. When you see something everyday its easy to never really see it after a while. We do our best to remind each other to look at it as if it's the first time, new.

The drive in was amazing as usual.

Getting closer, even more amazing.

When you visit the hardware store, this is the view from the parking lot

We had some light hail last night and a good soaking rain. I was pleased, all the seed I spread around will get a fighting chance, especially considering the winds that were raging today. As usual I managed to get just a little too much sun but I don't like wearing shirts anymore when I'm running, especially when they feel like parachutes in the 30 mph gusts. It was a shorter run than normal but I made myself get out there and do it and since I didn't die I'll consider it a success. The usual headwind both directions at those gust speeds was awful.

Rock had a great time hiking around and swimming in his favorite holes. The creeks have a few deep spots, this one being the deepest and there are brookies for him to paw at and get excited about.

Splash-Splash, taking a pittie bath!

Bobcats, coyotes, deer, elk, turkeys and a whole lot of birds. We saw one of the cats (typhoid) but haven't seen rabies in a few weeks. With any luck she moved on to a better woodshed, but it's not the first time she has vanished for a while.

Birds abound and everything is green and amazing.

The laundry is almost finished and all of the other chores are done. I just got back in from hiking a few miles with my backpack, only a little breeze out in the plains. The Amish neighbors down the road a bit have a new baby horse but it didn't want to visit me. Further down the road there is fresh construction, there are about 4 new places within 5 miles and there is a big field for sale with water rights 1 mile down. I haven't priced it out but I'm sure it will sell no matter the price, it's buying and moving season.

I spied down the road further and a fellow bloggers property and we might be just a little jealous of the view they will have from any window.

Night falls.

Tonight is just amazing.

Rock and I just got back from a great hike and he enjoyed splashing around in the creeks. We are listening to the water from inside, it's spring finally. The water is high and the mountains have a ton of deep snow sitting on them. It's going to be great run-off year and with ay luck we will get a nice amount of rain as well. There is only a small bit of snow left in the yard, mainly next to the spruce tree and along the cabin foundation where it landed as it slid off the roof.
Compared to this picture of yesterday, wow.

It harder to imagine that there was 2-3 feet of snow here on Sunday afternoon. That's what we love about Colorado, all 4 seasons and none of them suck too bad.

Rock and I brought a truck load of supplies down including 80 #10 cans of long term food storage. I did some quick math and have about 200 more #10 can to move down and I'm kicking myself for not keeping them in the original boxes. We hauled down our new bathroom vanity for when we get the electrician out here (he has to do some work in the bathroom before we hang it). In the load we also have most of our battery backup system (for smaller electronics, lights, fans, etc.) minus the batteries that will be in the next load.

I'm going to build a lighting system similar to one that my Dad had in our house back in the day. With all the great LED lighting it should last a long, long time on a dual battery system. Once it's operational I'll get a couple of solar panels hung to keep the batteries topped off. I wanted a much bigger battery bank but that will have to wait, these suckers aren't cheap.

We wanted batteries that will be good for 10 years and the Optima Yellow Top D31 series seemed to be the best choice. The regular ones don't have the same capacity and aren't 75Ah.

It's a big work weekend; bulb planting, limb cutting, wood stacking, yard seeding, wildflower seeding, increasing the spring pool damn size, chimney cleaning, plotting a deck expansion, loading up on lumber, etc. In the city the grass needs to be cut already but we put that off for a couple of days.

Work is... well it's work. I did a compliance audit and we are out of compliance with a half-dozen or more Federal Agencies, literally 100% failure. I'm the only one who thinks it's a big deal and the person who caused this disaster is being protected and if I don't fix it, nothing will change. I'm drafting a letter to my boss, the owner, because I can't let this sort of thing just slide even if everyone else is willing to. Bah.

A little scuba diving!

With work in an uproar it was a perfect time to leave for a scuba diving trip. Truth be told we had this trip planned and although we had worries about leaving, the boss said to go. Something will always get in the way and we won't ever go anywhere.

The hotel was nice but the all inclusive part was horrible. I guess it's designed for people who like shit food and drinking too much while getting sunburned at the pool while being entertained from morning to night....

Yup, we hated it. A basic hotel would have done a better job. Oh well, we ate out all the time and had great seafood.

The diving was great! It was nice to be in good enough shape that my air supply lasted the entire planned dive duration, even in really strong currents. One dive had to be aborted because the current was too strong and everyone was running out of air after just 20 minutes. We had enough air for another 20 minutes, cardio and endurance counts. Here are some pictures, enjoy!

The pool was open so it was time to make a splash!

Some people get nervous, I want to ride them.

I was pointing to an enormous eel, or was asking for directions, not sure.

I love to look up close under the edges of the coral. I spent a lot of time upside down.

When not upside down I was hiding from the sunburn monsters.

There were a lot of these little guys at times.

Some name I don't know coral...

Splendid toad fish. This is one of the coolest fish ever if you get to see the whole thing.

Sleepy fish I nicknamed rock fish for no apparent reason.

These little bastards swarm and sting the shit out of you.

Think this is some sort of crab. It looked so awesome.

Now we are back home and shoveled snow... yup, from 85 and sunny to 20 and 2 feet of snow. No problem, we shoveled at the cabin and went for a run. Everything is greening up nicely and the snow is going to make a big difference and should put the snow levels at normal. The water is flowing great and we just can't get enough of being down there, even after a week in the Caribbean!