I Live On Top

I live on top where the air is pure and the soil is rock

I live on top where jobs are scarce and so are clocks

I live on top where time stands still and beauty mocks

The people who think they control anything

I live on top

RED EYE TOURS

I tried to give my friends a good selection of mountain scenery to view and memories of beautiful places to take home with them.  I wanted them to see snow and mountains and Hot Springs.  I think we got them all in there.  The lake is Windy Gap Resevoir, a bird sanctuary.  The top of the mountain shot shows snowboard runs that were being used heavily when we drove by that day at the end of May.

The hot springs shots are at Hot Sulphur Springs.  Another Red Eye Tour sucessfully accomplished!

Spring Over 9,000 Feet

I went hiking this morning.  I left early to avoid the crowds of people that Memorial Day often brings.  This wasn't one of those days and Roland and I never saw another person or dog.  I went up above Plume on a bike path that was too muddy to walk up two weeks ago.  It was like bathing in color, having beauty doused over your eyes, waking up after the long miserable winter.  I could smell life, not just snow melt but growth.  The ground isn't just not snow covered, it's thawing enough to create a scent of growth and newness.  

The willows have big fuzzy blooms on them and the grass is coming up soft green through the dead brown of last season.  The pools of melted snow that sit in the sunlight have floats of lime green algae that startle the eye.  The evergreens have soft light fresh color at the tips of their branches creating a soft velvet sense when seen from a little distance.  The dandilions, day lilies and buttercups are everywhere , half an inch high at the most fitting right in with the rest of the short ground cover.  Even the wild grasses look like they've been mowed they are so short at this time.  The branches of the various willows have changed the tone of their bark from the brittle dark reds and browns of winter to the more vibrant shades of growth.  There is snow everywhere still and the mountains are still so deep that the warm sun gives a lustre from a distance, pearlesence and folded like white velvet.  In the deep woods there are streamlets running everywhere and the new growth comes right up through the edges of all the snow banks.

Spring gave me a joyous day today and I am grateful.

There's frost again this morning.  It's pretty cold outside and I think about all the people who are coming up to our forests thinking they should camp out on Memorial Day Weekend.  For years it's been a miserable holiday weather wise up here.  There's sun on occassion but the temperatures are in the 30s, not exactly balmy for a sleeping bag that came from your little brother's Fort Commando set!  Every morning in the resturants of the area you will see them huddled over coffee, snuffling their runny noses and telling their girlfriends, wives and children that it wasn't usually like this.  And it isn't at least not in July!  However, the end of May is chilly up here.  We don't plant outside until as late as the second week in June some years.  In another month I may be whining about the heat but right now, I'm building fires in the morning and living with my garden indoors.

I find the tourists invading us for every holiday a strange thing.  We need the money but it's hard to deal with the discourtesy, poor driving, vandalism and trash they bring with them.  The average American family doesn't seem to have a lot of fun on vacation, more like a lot of stress! It's time for the locals to step back, go to work and stay at home if possible for the rest of this weekend.  The party atmosphere that used to come with holidays here now comes with listening to people complain about the prices while they drive cars that cost 4 times the amount my home did and require one of my paychecks to fill.  I'm fixing my home up for my company for the next few days and now matter where we go or what we do, I'm going to make sure not a complaint comes from anyone.  Vacation is all about fun and we're going to have it while trying not to make anyone else miserable.  Wish us luck!

A VIEW OF MY BASEMENT

Yeah, it's a little wet down there.  The bottom of my water heater is leaking like mad.  When I went down to use the water turn-off valve it fell off in my hands.  Oh dear!  So after a morning of dealing with being soaked in rusty water and the depression of knowing I have no, that would be none, as in zero, zip and nada funds to fix the problem.  Did I mention no plumbers in the county work on trailers?  So there's a lot of shovel work I'll be doing on my own.

I'm not sure who put the word out but I've been given a water heater in good shape, now I need to find a guy or two to help me move it up here.  I've figured out how to turn off the gas and there looks to be only two other connections.  I have a room on the outside of my place just for the water heater so it could be a lot worse to get at than it is.

Another skill learned by the time this thing is done.  Of course, depending on my learning curve, by next week I could be living large with hot running water or blown to bits and buried in that damn water heater.  Stay tuned.  (For Dan's benefit, I have no idea what has made font colors, sizes and underlines happen to day.  I guess it's just to keep you on your toes!)

MY HUMMINGBIRDS

Sounds pretty possessive doesn't it?  My hummingbirds now let me stand six inches from them when they are feeding.  Before the end of summer they will sit on my hands and will buzz right up to my nose and tell me to get on filling the feeders.  The evening I took these shots there were around thirty birds in my yard and under my porch.  These are pictures of the slow ones!

The West Mutter Dog Show

These are some pictures from our yearly dog show.  It's a benefit for the local animal shelter and is attended by hundreds of people and dogs, some cats and a few exotic pets!  Yesterday there were over 150 dogs and I saw not a fight.  Roland got up in some dogs face but for all the growling, not a bite!  I was upset when dogs put their noses up my butt also so I understood his attitude!  

The gentleman in the blue scrub shoes and tshirt shorts combo is our local animal control officer.  He is, depending on your relationship with him, treasured as a unique and giving soul or hated as a crabby old grouch.  Either way, people lined up all around a football field in order to dunk him in a tank of cold water.

I love the guy myself but it was a money making charity event.  I noticed a guy grinning as he watched the festivities.  I asked him if he was anygood with a baseball and he said he was.  I gave him a five dollar bill and told him to dunk my friend as often as he could with that.  He laughed and told me he would do it for free.  These are the ensuing shots!

The contests consisted of Lumpiest dog, Best Smile, Best Costume (that was killer) the obstacle course which included a hot dog tree that stymied many a contestant, relays, speed races and demos of obedience which many of our local dog owners watched with disbelief and their pets with horror.  My God, those dogs obeyed!  You may notice in one of these pictures Roland throwing a fit as his try for best behaved dog went down the tubes.

The whole thing is like a circus and clowns on stilts and people with bubble machines wandered everywhere.  There were dozens of plastic wading pools out and dogs laid in them or got drinks as they felt.  There was food, for the dogs, a doggie psychic, a masseuse who worked on both animals and people and an animal adoption going on.  All in all, a great day in the sun!