Happy Halloween!

It's a quiet Halloween here in Monument. Meredith left this morning to live and work in Crested Butte for the winter and probably next summer. She'll work for a great local coffee shop, 'Camp 4 Coffee', and volunteer on the mountain for a ski pass. She wants mountain safety but could end up as 'Betty' or 'Bubba' bear. Tonight is Tyler's last eve home....he leaves for Houston in the morn, goes to Tulsa next week, and then training in Denver.
So unfortunately Arn and I missed the Halloween party at the club. I think I'll keep our costumes a secret so we can use them next year. Our Halloween this year (chinese take out, laundry, and football). I guess tomorrow is really Halloween but we usually don't get trick or treaters. I'll pick up some candy just in case and maybe a pumpkin for us to carve. Feeling blue....this is really empty nest time. All 3 kids have jobs and are on their own!! Oh for the days of making their costumes, giving out candy, carving pumpkins, and going to the school Halloween parade!

Beetles, Gutters and Windows, oh my!

Trees cut, windows washed, gutters cleaned and deplugged! Our fall ' to do' list keeps growing. First of all each Sept. we need to walk the lot and look for pine beetle infestations. If infested the trees need to be taken down while the beetles are still in the larva stage (they are harder to kill as they get bigger). The Co. State Forest Service came and gave us info and tagged two tree. Arn and Tyler already have them down and the wood is in the sun and drying. We have two possible people who will take the wood. One tree (really a half tree since it broke during the last heavy snow) is already dead so we left it as a wildlife tree (basically to give woodpeckers someplace to peck). Wednesday the gutter/window guy was here all day, washed the windows inside and out and cleaned all the gutters. Sadly it won't last....every spring the yellow pine pollen flies and pine needles are continually dropping. At least we are closer to being ready for winter. We also planted a couple of new bushes, one to add some interest to the side of the garage and the other to camoflauge the well cap. I plan on posting pics of the newly planted bushes so I keep up with their progress. The lady at Tagawa (garden center) said to plant them in our soil without any additions. Our soil is awful so it will surprise me if they grow.

Date or just Quality Time (QT)??

What a nice fall day. It started off with some charity sewing for the Palmer Divide Quilt group (we make hats, turbans, and comfort pillows for cancer patients) and a delicious soup luncheon (cream of green chile soup) and then on to a 1 1/2 hr. hike out on the Monument Preserve. Then we stopped at La Casa for a great mexican pizza, chile rellenos with fresh pablano chiles and a refreshing mojito. What will the eve bring?? Football and then listening to the Clamdaddy's at the Speedtrap in Palmer Lake!

Boys will be boys!

Balanced Rock!

The famous Kissing Camels



Balanced Rock (G of G)
Mike (NGD) and Greg (Doc) flew in for a fun weekend getaway last weekend. Lots of golf was played, we checked out Garden of the Gods, and went to O'Malley's and La Casa. It was good to see them and I think the break did Mike good. Meghan was in town for work and was able to extend her trip another day so she could join the fun.