It started snowing around 6 am. Jay saw a light dusting of snow at 6:30 am when he peeked outside. By 9 am, the snow was really accumulating. I decided to chronicle the snow every 3 hours, ergo, photos labeled with a 1 indicate photos taken at 9 am, pictures taken at noon are identified by a 2, and around 3:30 by a 3. We decided that we got about 16.5 inches of snow today. Jay measured when he shoveled a path to the car and I measured the accumulated snow on the side porch, near the doggy door. I tried to show the progression of the snow as it covered the land. The snow stopped falling about 4 pm and the skies cleared. The dogs had a hard time playing ball in the snow, they kept losing the ball. Finally, Jay just through the ball directly at them, short range catch.

Our neighbor had his snow plow ready and plowed down the mountain to let the next neighbor out. We didn’t have anywhere to go today, and Jay thinks the Tahoe will make it down our driveway in the morning, on our way to bowling and Rotary. I experimented with baking bread and watching sports on TV. First bowling, then the Cowboys and now the American League playoff between Boston and Cleveland. The bread came out pretty good for a first effort at high altitude baking. I think I’ll keep practicing.

Here are a few photos to entice you to go to the link to the Picasa photo album (blue word “photo” in first paragraph)

Last night about 6:15 pm as we were driving to town for Jay’s second night of Thursday PM League bowling, we noticed 6 deer in a row just off our driveway. The heads were just peeking up over a ledge. We then started counting deer (bucks, does and babies) by the time we got to the highway we had counted a total of 54 deer. Now we assume the number may have been higher than that as we didn’t slow down as we drove, unless they were in the road, and the babies are sometimes harder to see, being shorter. The deer are frequently on the edge of the road grazing and look at you, as if to say, “What are you doing in my path?” The babies will usually leap away, but the parents mostly just look at you. They must know that they are safe from hunters in this area and are used to cars going by. On the way home, 9:15 pm, we only saw one deer on the road, but it was dark.

Jay says that he read that the most common birth pattern for deer was twins, then singletons, then triplets. Which agrees with our observations, because you almost always see one doe with two fawns and frequently see family units together, a buck and his flock?, gaggle?, herd? if you can call one family unit a herd. We still get a thrill seeing the deer, although we are no longer surprised to see them.

Jay, Ted and I met with the Navy recruiters in Canon City yesterday. They were very nice young men, very enthusiastic, just what you would expect from recruiters. They are going to help Ted get in shape and prepared to ship out in December. Time is really flying by now.

We continued to have snow off and on during Sunday and awoke to white roofs, white on the grass and the cars. The thermometer said it was not quite 3o when I left for bowling.

This afternoon on the way home from town and bowling (I did better today), I passed two groups of deer on our driveway. The actual driveway on our property, not the road to our property. I hope the mom and baby are visible in this picture, they are on our yard to the left of my car.

The sliver of a bright moon, the sunlight from behind the mountains, and dusk. Most of the snow is gone, except under trees in the shaded woods. One day, so many pictures.

It has been a busy month since I last posted family news. I still haven’t gotten much more unpacked…. but I guess that’s what the winter will be for.

On Sept. 25th, Jay took me up to see Hermit Lake, a trip that he had made with the Rabbi two weeks earlier. He told me the road would get rough, and I thought I understood rough roads, but I was wrong. It seemed like there were boulders in the road. I’m don’t believe normal cars could make the trip, but fortunately the Land Rover has a rock crawling feature which elevates the chassis and prevents the car from running away on downhill travel. It took us about an hour to get to Hermit Lake, then another forty five minutes to get to the top of Hermit Pass. From the top of the Pass, you can see three glacier cut lakes, Hermit Lake, at the edge of the mountain, surrounded by trees, Horseshoe Lake, higher above tree line, and a small lake even higher, in a small hollow above Horseshoe. It was warm in the valley when we left, and there was ice at the mountain top, about 13,000 feet elevation. We’d packed a lunch for Hermit Lake, but it was too cold to do more than eat one sandwich and we hightailed it back to the car. We kept going up to the top and I was eternally grateful that the car was in good shape, because it would have been a long, long walk down to civilization and an even longer time before anyone else came up to the Pass. It was definitely worth the trip though. We drove through pine and aspen forests up past tree line and into high mountain tundra (if that’s the right name.) I have attached a few pictures here, and a link to my Picasa web album, where you can see more pictures if interested. I am new to working with Picasa, so if it doesn’t work right, let me know and I’ll learn how to fix it.

The next day, I left for Texas to attend Joey and Emily Nelson’s wedding. I stayed with Julia and ran errands for her while she worked, and visited with my Texas friends. It was a great trip, wonderful to share meals and time with my friends, a wonderful wedding shared with my best friends, the mother of the groom, Denise, and Brenda, mother of another bride, Sara, whose wedding I missed in August. Julia has a new cat, Mufasa, and it was really neat to be in a house with a cat again. I was home Sunday evening, no worse for the wear. I don’t have pictures yet, because my camera wasn’t used and I’m still waiting for my copies.

Jay and I had ordered new bowling balls, which arrived Oct. 5th. We have been practicing regularly and trying to get used to them. Fortunately, our league teams have been able to carry on while we are learning. However, last week in our Wed AM mixed league, I accidentally made a terrific shot. I have had significant trouble picking up spares, so when I had a split, 6,7, 10 – 7 on the far left side, 6 & 10 on the far right side, I just tried to go for the two 6/10 pins on the right side. Well, the 6 pin slid across the lane and knocked over the 7 pin, and the 10 pin went down as well. This is a very hard shot to make and I screamed when all the pins fell. I am sure you have a hard time imagining me screaming, I am so low key usually, but I did. It was totally an accident and I could probably never do it again, but it was exciting and I got a lot of high 5’s from the surrounding teams. Last Thursday, Jay and I met with two of the coaches at the bowling alley and got some tips. We have both changed several things about our approach, swing and release, and are anxious to try them out again. Jay has joined a Thursday evening league now, so we are both in two leagues now.

Jay has joined the local Rotary club, which meets on Mondays. He volunteered to work on a new project just starting, loaning medical equipment to individuals in need. Mondays he has lunch with the Rotary and I have lunch with the bowling ladies. Last week, I joined the local quilt guild and went to my first quilt group meeting. They meet at a church, bring their sewing machines, and everyone works on their current projects. I brought some hand quilting because my quilt room is still not functional and I did not have any piecing projects to do. However, hand quilting in this community is apparently a novelty, because many people came over and commented on my work.

We had our first snow at our house last night. It was a light dusting only, and was gone by 10:30 am. Jay says he can see occasional flakes now and then, but nothing is sticking. But since it will be a novelty for the next several times, I am attaching pictures of the first snow, and a picture of our welcome sign at our driveway, so it will be familiar when you come to visit. That’s all for now. Have a good day. Go Cowboys and Colorado Rockies (major league baseball team in World Series playoffs).

Jay offers some photos of wildlife that he has personally encountered within the last month. Unfortunately, he has seen other wildlife, mountain sheep and many deer, when he did not have his camera handy. He tries very hard to have his camera with him at all times, to be able to take the shots that nature provides.

This is not wildlife, but wonderful views as seen from our porch in late September.