August 29, 2009

Such a disappointing day!!!!! The groups I had scheduled for hikes and tours of the Visitor Center did not show. They were to come from Denver in 2 groups....one at 9:30 am and one at 1:30 pm....neither showed or called. Sad that this was our last day of work at the Refuge!!

August 28, 2009

Only one more work day!!! We completed the majority of our projects today....I distributed and installed all of the new fire extinguishers while Mike rebuilt the fence for the bird viewing area. Tomorrow I am opening the Visitor Center for a group coming in from Denver to hike the trails along the Rio Grande River. Mike has a few odds and ends to take care and we are finished.

Sunday we will break camp, wash vehicles, etc. Monday the Refuge is taking us out to lunch and we will say farewell to the people we have worked with for the last 3 1/2 months. Although there are a few things we would change about this experience, the people and the Refuge are not among them. I do wish Mike had not had such problems with the altitude since that kept us from doing too much hiking.

Tuesday morning we will head for the Mesa Verde area (Delores River RV Park). We will join the Theis', Shoves and Lees for several days of playing tourist.

August 25, 2009

WOW--once more I need to play catchup with this blog!! We have been so busy playing tourist with our friends from TX that I have hardly opened the computer. So here goes......

August 18 -- Another work day off the list. Mike is still working on the deck along with assorted other chores. My chore for the day was taking pictures of the completed safety issues along with getting some of the appliances ordered.

August 19 -- Finished getting all the appliances ordered. Yea! Some of our friends came to see the refuge and the Visitor Center. Today is our oldest son's birthday--HAPPY BIRTHDAY TODD!!

August 20 -- We went to Fun Valley to see everyone. So much fun visiting and as always, wonderful food.

August 21 -- We went to the Royal Gorge with Bruce & Ann Shove. Ann is terribly afraid of heights but we got her on the sloped railway...she did great. Mike & I crossed the gorge on the tram while Bruce & Ann went on the trolley. We all rode the trolley back to get the car, then drove over the bride. GREAT DAY!

August 22 -- Another day with the Shove's. Today we went to Creede to tour the underground fire station and the mining museum. Afterward we ate with the crowd at Fun Valley. Great chili, Jean.

August 23 -- Today was an at home day. Usual fun items to take care of (laundry) plus Mike had several items he wanted to get done around here. He finished my beautiful craft cabinet and more shelves for the medicine cabinet. The cabinet makes a great end table and has plenty of storage for all my craft stuff!!!

August 24 -- Today was the first day of school for all of our grandkids -- Have a great year kids!!!! We took all of the group to Baca NWR. With all of the old buildings and history it is one of my favorite places in the valley. After lunch, we all went to the Great Sand Dunes NP. AMAZING place. Of course, we had to eat once more before saying goodbye to all. Some of the group is leaving tomorrow, others are leaving on Wednesday and the rest will be meeting us at Delores, CO. on Sept 1st.

August 25 -- Mike played golf and I beaded. Not much going on today !!

August 17, 2009

Next to last week of work!! Mike is rebuilding the deck around the office and I am taking pictures of the completed safety inspection issues, purchasing the new appliances and any other chores Floyd comes up with. We need to get all of these projects completed by August 29th......our last work day. I have hikes and tours scheduled at the Visitor Center that day.

Our group of friends from TX arrived on Saturday. They will be spending 2 weeks at Fun Valley in South Fork. Unfortunately, we will only get to see them on our days off as SF is 50 miles away. We had lunch with Bill & Marilyn Theis on their way thru Alamosa but the rest of the group came a different way. They were about 2 hours behind the Theis' and had already stopped for lunch by the time they came thru Alamosa. Will have to ask which way was better!!

Yesterday was Justin's (our oldest grandchild) 14th birthday. Can't believe he has grown up so fast.

It is starting to cool off quite a bit. We have had frost the past several mornings...my one poor little tomato plant is still producing but the leaves are starting to curl. The coyotes, ducks and ibis have returned in quantity. NICE

August 12, 2009

We are finished working for this week. Still working on completing the safety violations from our recent inspection. Hopefully, we can get this wrapped up before we are finished here. We only have 7 more work days!

We are going on our train ride tomorrow. We should get some good pictures to add to our blog. We have visited with several people that have taken this ride and without exception, all says this is a very worthwhile trip.

August 9, 2009

Time here is getting short!! We are doing things we have been putting off all summer because we had plenty of time....today we went to Pueblo to the zoo and the Aircraft Museum. We made our reservations for the Cumbres & Toltec train...Thursday.

We need to get the oil changed in both vehicles, have the parking brake adjusted on the truck and have a light harness installed on the jeep. Lots of little things but all time consuming. Of course, we still have to work 3 days a week and the Rigs group will be here Saturday! The refuge is having an volunteer appreciation lunch on the 16th but somehow I ended coordinator????? And I have a group coming for Visitor Center/hiking/bird watching the 29th. Lots still to do and not too much time.

I took a right-angle beading class....the bracelets are turning our pretty good!

August 8, 2009

Thought I was doing so much better on this blogging but guess not as it has been a week since the last entry.

We'll start with last Monday. I am in the process of getting prices for new appliances for the refuge complex...all of the new appliances have to be energy star rated. Such a fun job.

Tuesday was another day of certifying the fire extinguishers. Unfortunately, we have several extinguishers that did not pass inspection. It took several hours to do Monte Vista NWR so we will be doing this again on Thursday.

Wednesday, Mike worked over at Monte Vista NWR on the kiosks and I goofed off....not really!!! Did some paper work for both the extinguishers and the appliances but did spend a good part of the day off.

Thursday was once again spent on certification of fire extinguishers but this time at Alamosa NWR. Again, there were several extinguishers that need to be replaced. At least all of this work will get the complex current on fire extinguishers!

Friday, we once again hiked to Zapata Falls. The last time we did this hike, Mike ended up in the hospital. CoCoa and I did not hike all the way to the falls but we did hike to the top of the ridge to look down on the falls. Mike hiked to the falls.

Today was spent on necessary chores.....grocery store, local farmer's market and washing the vehicles and 5th wheel. Oh!! and out to breakfast.

August 1, 2009

We had a heat wave today...it was all the way up to 79 degrees...really is so much better than yesterday afternoon's 59 degrees. We are in the monsoon season so it rains every afternoon. Wish I could send some of this cool, wet weather home to TX.

Yesterday we said goodbye to the YCC kids. They have done such a great job...lots of hard work. Great Kids!!!! A farewell lunch with the staff and kids.

Today we drove some of the back roads to Creede. We went by Terrace Lake...it is the victim of old gold mines. The area mines used arsenic in mining. This killed all life in the lake and river when the retention lake dam at Summitville broke letting all the arsenic flow down river and into the lake. Several years ago they were awarded "Super Fund" monies to clean up this mess...they succeeded!!! Cleaned up the river and lake, then Mother Nature took her course, they stocked the lake with trout. The trout, the river and the lake flourished. Unfortunately, the dam broke again so they had to drain the lake. There are still no fish but the grasses and flowers are starting to come back.

We stopped in Creede at the mining museum. They were having a rock and mineral show so the tours of the mine were not available today. I did buy a couple of polished stones for necklaces.

The buck is one of our nightly visitors. He is so pretty.