June 14, 2009

Nice lazy day after a very hectic week! Mostly just stayed home and did all the necessary stuff----laundry, vacuum and shampoo carpet, etc. The wind picked up early today (before noon) so most things needed to be done inside. The weather had not been as promised---Floyd told us "warm with light breezes". HA!HA! So far I think the highest has been 75 with strong winds every afternoon. It gets into the lower 40's each night with down to freezing a couple of nights. Come on summer!!!

June 13, 2009

The Fishing Day turned out very good!! We had a couple of hundred people (kids and parents). They only caught 4 of the tagged fish----I was so worried they would catch all 40 of the tagged fish and I would not have enough prizes. Well, we had enough prizes that all of the kids got a prize plus Wendy's gave us over 300 coupons for free Frosty's so they got those also. All of the kids had a great time. Because they put 1,000 trout in this small pond and only about 200 were caught, we are going to have special groups come fishing over the next 2 weeks. This is a spring runoff fed pond so it will dry up during the summer.....want all of the fish caught before then. Maybe tomorrow Mike & I will go fishing....nice trout dinner sounds nice.

June 11, 2009

YEA!! Finished collecting all of the prizes for our Kid's Fishing Day. We collected more prizes than we have tagged fish so we will be able to have several drawings during the day.

Mike is so much better...thank goodness. Prayers ARE answered!

June 10, 2009

This is a much better day!!! Mike was release from the hospital yesterday, the original diagnosis of Acute Altitude Sickness was also the final diagnosis. Still, he had to go back a couple of hours later for a stress test. All results came back good (no signs of pulmonary or cardio vascular disease). I was in the room while he did the stress test and watched the films of his heart....looked good to me. He is feeling much better. We won't be doing any hiking at higher elevations for a few weeks. He should be adjusted to the altitude by then.

Our Kid's Fishing Day is starting to come together nicely....we have all of the prizes, the 1,000 fish have been delivered, newspaper and radio releases have been scheduled, mowed around the pond....now just wait for the big day! Of course, we are hoping for better weather than today. It has been COLD (high of 53) and overcast or rainy all day......somebody forgot to tell Colorado that it is summer! Can Texas please, please share some of their heat.!!!!

June 8, 2009

The weather this weekend was not the best.....lots of wind and very cool. Saturday we did some more sightseeing and Sunday we just kinda hung around home. Watched movies and cleaned the house. All in all, a good weekend.

Then today was a mess!! We started off our work week okay, collecting for the Kid's Fishing Day went good. Got some really great prizes. Mike was still having trouble adjusting to the altitude...short of breath and chest pressure. We decided to stop by the clinic to have it checked out.....next thing, he is in the hospital. They are just being cautious because he is diabetic and has a family history of heart trouble. They are keeping him overnight to be sure but the preliminary diagnosis of Altitude Sickness still stands.

June 5, 2009

This was our first full day off this week. We are only assigned Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays but I am still collecting prizes for the fishing day so off to the merchants we went. Walmart finally came thru with a $50 gift card. Some of the local merchants were very supportive (fishing poles, backpacks and many meal coupons).

We hiked to the base of Zapata Falls today. You have to hike thru COLD water to get to the falls. That is saved for next week when we are better prepared (water socks) and maybe a little warmer. It is an easy hike (1/4 mile) but it climbs over 500ft in that short distance. We are both having a little trouble getting used to the altitude. We also hike the sand dunes. Check out the tiny prickly pear with a big sign....definitely not our Texas pear. The horse cripplers were in beautiful bloom.

June 3, 2009

We just completed our first week of work this season. Tuesday was the most fun. We toured all three refuges and met the other volunteer couples.

Monte Vista and Alamosa NWR's are close to town and are like most of the refuges we have visited throughout the country. Baca; however, is much different. It backs up to the Great Sand Dunes National Park. It is a 94,000 acre 1800 Spanish Land Grant ranch. The refuge system acquired the ranch in 2006, until then it was a working cattle ranch. There are still several old buildings dating back to the 1800's. The plan is for us to switch sites the middle of July with the couple that is parked up there. Am really looking forward to that. Baca has several large herds of elk.

On our way back to Monte Vista, we went thru a hail storm. The hail is much different than we are used to.....it was soft. Just like driving thru snow. The weather has been cool and wet but we are assured this is not normal. We are ready for warm dry weather.