Our guest arrived at approximately 7:30 am today for breakfast. Jay had already left for work. I had just moved from the dining room table to check something on Jay’s computer, and when I returned I noticed him standing on the deck. Now, I had not invited him, despite what Jay says. But the offerings for the birds: seed and hummingbird nectar must have attracted him. The dogs had not noticed him yet, so I moved them to my bedroom while I took pictures. I really didn’t want to attract his attention. Then I went to get dressed in case I needed to leave quickly. When I returned, he was starting to leave. I had to go find my camera again, so I missed that part. I tried to keep the dogs away, until I knew he was off the deck. Then they either noticed him hanging on to the edge or smelled him and went ballistic. He lowered himself down onto the hot tub cover and into the dog pen. They both dashed out the dog door barking and chased him out of the yard, especially Amber. I was concerned that the bear might turn on them, but he just flew up the fence and over. We had heard that bears like bird seed and hummingbird feeders were an attractant, but the bears didn’t notice it last summer and we thought since the feeders were on the side of the house on the upper deck, that we were safe. We have learned our lesson. In case you are worried, we have a shotgun with bear repelling bullets, but we want to use that as a last resort. After all, our house was built in their neighborhood and we want to be good neighbors, they were here first. One of the first rules of living with animals in nature, is not to feed them nor to make our food available to them. We have a bear restraint on our dumpster, for example. But we will be on the watch that he doesn’t come back looking for seconds. I’m afraid the birds and chipmunks will have to find refreshment elsewhere while the bear forgets our address or until he goes into hibernation. And he didn’t like the dogs barking like crazy and chasing him. So maybe he will remember the dogs…and stay away. And maybe the dogs will remember him!

Picture 5 is the bear claw scratch on the side of the deck and 7 is the remains of the screws still in the siding.

On June 12th, I haphazardly presented a contest to see who could remember the most jobs that Jay has had. I have had two responses, Mom and Mary Kay & James. Jay and I had to go back and search our memories as well. Jay feels that a job is someplace you have to be at a certain time and that you usually get paid for it. Note that I said usually, some “jobs” or businesses lost money and some were volunteer, but a serious commitment where other people counted on you to be there to do “the job”. A hobby could take as much time as a job and be a commitment, but can be done whenever and someone else is not relying on you. You will note… when you get to it, that Jay had overlapping jobs at times. I like to think that he is not afraid of a challenge and likes to try new things. Here are the responses:

Mary Kay & James:

1. New York City policeman   (nope, sorry)
2. New Orleans Policeman
3. Murphy Oil Refinery worker – Chalmette
4. Champlin Petroleum employee – Houston
5. Self employed (Market Energy) Fort Worth
6. Lawyer
7. Bank Teller – Westcliffe

Mom:

1. Car salesman
2. Family business – Brooklyn
3. New Orleans Policeman
4. Murphy Oil Company (MOC) refinery worker in lab
5. MOC New Orleans Crude oil buyer
6. MOC Houston Crude oil buyer
7. Champlin Petroleum – Ft Worth crude oil department
8. Market Energy Advisors -  self employed crude oil marketing
9. Landlord – Roundhouse Office Building
10. Coke and artifact trader
11. Lawyer
12. Retired
13. Road leveler
14. Bank Teller

Results: Mary Kay – We lived in Brooklyn, but Jay worked in the family linen supply business, not in law enforcement. Others are correct, just not enough. Mom – we count working for MOC as a crude buyer in both New Orleans and Houston as the same job, not two jobs. We don’t count being a collector of the various categories of items that we enjoyed as a job, that is a hobby, and road leveler is as well. And retired, although short lived, doesn’t seem to qualify as a job under Jay’s criteria above. Mary Kay and James named 6 jobs, Mom named 10.

Barbara and Jay’s reckoning since our marriage in 1972:

1. Ford car salesman – Norman OK
2. Insurance agent – National Life and Accident, Norman OK
3. Clifton Coat and Apron (family business) – Brooklyn NY
4. Policeman – New Orleans LA
5. MOC shift worker in Refinery – Chalmette LA
6. Owner and operator of a snow cone stand – New Orleans LA
7. MOC crude oil buyer – New Orleans LA & Houston TX
8. Champlin crude oil dept manager – Houston & Fort Worth TX
9. Consultant: Parachute Presentations: resumes – Fort Worth TX
10. Market Energy Advisors – Owner: crude oil marketing – Fort Worth TX
11. Landlord – Roundhouse Office Building – Fort Worth TX
12. Co-owner Maternity and Nursing Fashions: retail store – Arlington TX
13. Co-owner Employment Insight: job training for the blind – Fort Worth TX
14. Attorney in private practice (licensed in TX,  CO & WA*)
15. Teen Court Judge* – Fort Worth TX
16. Staff Attorney for Legal Aid of Northwest Texas – Fort Worth TX
17. Bank Teller Wells Fargo Bank – Westcliffe CO
18. Colorado State Trooper – Cadet – Golden CO

Jay was licensed in Washington state, but never practiced there. He has gone inactive, since we no longer plan to move there. Teen Court Judge was a volunteer job, but a weekly commitment, and he coordinated the other judges (there were 2 courts at the same time) and provided training to the Teen judges & attorneys. So he counts that as a job, because they depended on him to be there every Monday at 6:00 pm (except during school holidays.) And he hasn’t actually started as a Trooper Cadet, but he has his letter of employment AND it makes number 18. 18 is a lucky number for Jews, it is the numerical equivalent of CHAI which means life. Jay’s police badge number in New Orleans was 1818. Double Chai – even better. So with the State Trooper job being number 18, I think when he retires the next time, it will be for real and this will be his last paid job. You know you can’t keep a good volunteer down and Jay has a long history of volunteer and philanthropic work, so he will probably find something to keep him busy when he retires for the second time.

Now, we have two contestants and I have two prizes. They are both “Red Hat” items, which I hope they can use. For Mom, I have a purple feathery fan, quiet and suitable for church, quilting, SAAC box office and helping Laura with medical meetings and conferences. For Mary Kay, I have an address book, that is thin and can easily slip in any purse, for those emergencies when you leave your cell phone at home and need someone’s number. I hope I get these in the mail faster than I did the bunny tracks in the snow contest!

Thanks for playing and watch for my next contest, whenever that may be!

Wallace and Jen are in process with their move. The moving company packed them on Wed. the 18th, loaded the van yesterday, the 19th, and is on the road to Texas. Wallace and Jen shipped both of their cars via transport with the movers as well.  They report that packing and loading went very smoothly. They have been in a hotel in Portland for the last two days and “are leaving on a jet plane” tomorrow morning. (My tribute to Peter, Paul & Mary..LOL) Wallace is going to Japan for a week for another company conference and Jen will visit LA for her grandmother’s 90th birthday and then will spend time with her parents in San Francisco. Jen will join Wallace on the last leg of his return flight from Japan, meeting him at the SF airport and traveling on together to Austin. Their furniture will arrive before they do and be in storage at the movers waiting the command to deliver to their new house. Wallace has posted additional photos of their new house at flickr. They expect to be moving into their new home sometime the first week of July.

Matt enjoyed a visit to Philadelphia on Memorial Day weekend as Molly’s escort to attend a wedding of one of her classmates. He said they did a lot of walking! but they had a great time. Molly enjoyed showing him around the city where she went to college. He is still enjoying his work and his new car.  I was supposed to do a follow up blog that I misstated his car, it is an RX 8, not an RX 7. This link will give you the differences between the two cars, if you are interested. His car is bright yellow, like the photo. He is looking forward to Wallace and Jen’s arrival. I have heard that Jen is planning on having family dinners and inviting Matt and Josh B. What bachelor wouldn’t enjoy such an invitation?

Julia and Amanda were troopers and went to Alba last weekend to pick up furniture and household stuff that someone wanted and that we couldn’t fit in the trailer over Memorial Day. We were concerned that they would have difficulty loading the trailer, but Doris rallied the troops in Dale Creek subdivision and there were 4 or 5 gentlemen of the neighborhood there to help load. It seemed like they loaded the whole thing in less than an hour. Julia took some furniture and household items, Matt took towels, lamps and toaster oven, Wallace took ladders, ping pong table, a sign, and then Julia got stuff that Doris had not been able to sell for us. I told her if she sold them on craig’s list, she could keep the money. Now we just need to get the stuff to Austin. She is taking two classes each session of summer school and is keeping busy coaching softball. Amanda plays on several teams. Jewls reported that they won two games yesterday. yeah!

Teddy had a job washing dishes at Chili Bears. They cut back on his hours, it was part time to start. So he found a new job at The Feed Store, one of our newer restaurants and very upscale. This is a full time job, as a dishwasher. But he is friends with the chef, and other staff, so it is more pleasant for him. He says he should be working 48 hours a week, and he plans to save his money to move to Denver. A lot of his friends are moving there he says and want him to join them. We hope he is successful in his plan to save money, so he can accomplish his goal.

Our log cabin sale in Alba is still on track. We were supposed to close today, but the title insurance is taking longer to complete, so it will be sometime next week. Doris & Ed, our neighbors, were tremendous help to us, overseeing everything, selling the furniture, helping Julia load up, and taking the rest to Goodwill for donation. They are special friends, going above and beyond the call of duty. They say they are going to make a trip to Colorado to see us, we hope they will decide to pay the gas prices and come on up. No snow since the first week of June. We are looking forward to a visit from my brother, Paul, his wife Maggie, and daughters Meredith & (maybe) Lindsay in 9 days. They will be in Denver for the wedding of Maggie’s niece and added some time on their trip to drop down and see us. They will be the first family to visit that are not our children. (Note: Lindsay is definitely his daughter, it is a maybe whether she will be able to fit in a visit to Westcliffe)

And a mention about almost family, one of Wallace’s best friends since kindergarten, Lee, was diagnosed with testicular cancer which was apparently successfully treated, then a tumor was found in his lung. After chemo and the removal of the remains of the now benign lung tumor, we are happy to report that he has finished all of his treatment and is now cancer free. We are so happy for the whole family, especially Lee and Mimi, who married shortly after Wallace and Jen, and his parents, our good friends, Jim and Terri. Congratulations everyone!

I mentioned a possible contest when I wrote about Jay’s new job. Mom was quick to reply and the only one. I’ll have details on that contest later. Time to go walk down the mountain and back up again with the puppies.

Tuesday evening we attended a concert in the “event center” of Westcliffe… a field at the end of Main Street with a large yellow and white tent. This is the same venue where the other Westcliffe musical festivals set up, High Mountain Hay Fever Bluegrass Festival and Westcliffe Western Days. This event was a fundraiser for the local pregnancy counseling center. The home town blue grass/western/gospel band Sons and Brothers was the lead band, a great favorite local family and The Wells Family Band, from North Carolina. Sons and Brothers is all male relatives, the Wells Family Band are a mom, three daughters and a dad. We had dinner with Jay’s boss at the bank, Elizabeth and her husband Mike before the concert. We had had clouds, sprinkles of rain, thunder and far off lightning threatening the concert. Nothing bad happened, but there was a beautiful double rainbow over the mountains. Unfortunately, the picture didn’t capture the second rainbow which was faint and an echo of the first. Enjoy.

We use propane for hot water, cooking, fireplace and heat. I think I told you how we almost ran out of propane in the middle of winter, because our propane provider, Margas, couldn’t get up our driveway. We have been trying to switch over to a local company, who was able to get propane to us after three tries from Margas. Margas, from Pueblo, refused to sell the propane tank to us, the manager said anything under 20 years old was an asset and the company wouldn’t sell. So we arranged for Margas to come remove their 1,000 gallon tank. When Norup came to evaluate the setup for their installation of two 500 gallon tanks, they discovered that the tank was built in 1973! 35 years old! Dealing with Margas has been very frustrating, we could never rely on what they told us would happen. It rarely happened as they said… don’t know if it was lies or incompetence, but it was very frustrating.

We got 100 gallons of propane on May 14th, hopefully enough to last us until the tanks could be exchanged, which occurred on Wed., June 18th. However, we ran out of propane on Monday night. It wasn’t so bad, we knew we were having dinner out on Tuesday, for the concert, and the house is well insulated, so even though the nights are cool, we were comfortable. The problem was showering. We solved that problem by going to the gym to workout after Jay finished work, and showering there. So we were clean for the dinner and concert and ok for Wednesday am.

Margas was supposed to come first thing in the morning on Wed, which is also my bowling day. Jay had arranged to go into work late so he could be here and I could bowl. Last time Margas was here first thing it was 9:30 am. This time it was 8 am, and they didn’t even let us know they were here. Jay happened to walk by a window and see the truck. They had the 1000 gallon tank on their truck, strapping it down at 8:15 when we saw them. The first time that Margas has performed on time! So Jay got to go to the bank, just a little late, and I got to go bowling.

On my way home from bowling, stopped at the post office, I snapped this picture of an Amish buggy waiting outside. We have several Amish families in town, a community that is growing. It is always a treat to see them and their children in the community.

Norup came around 2 pm with three trucks, the big crane with two 500 gallon tanks, a propane tanker, and a service truck. Tracy, the driver who brought us propane in February, drove the service truck, and the others were two guys. They set the tanks, installed a regulator in the line going to the house for our back up propane generator, filled the two tanks (800 gallons – they always leave room for expansion), and checked all of the propane appliances and relit pilot lights. They were gone by 3:30 pm. I was finally able to wash dishes from Monday, and do laundry yesterday. We are greatly relieved to know that we will have service from a reliable local company.

Get Ready! This will be a long one, I have lots of pictures to share and stories of our adventures. Let me know if you’d rather multiple short blogs or the whole story.

June 5th The snow that fell while I was at the dentist getting my teeth cleaned. This is June? June 8th – Leadville Here are a few pictures of Leadville, including one with me ready to go sightsee. The rest of the week was uneventful, Jay worked, I bowled, attended a quilt guild meeting, bowled again, and spent the next two days at home.

Saturday, June 14th – Two festivals in one day. The sky was a brilliant, rocky mountain deep blue, although I’m not sure it shows up in the photos.

Silver Cliff Mining and Western Days – The town of Silver Cliff, which is adjacent to Westcliffe, celebrated their silver mining heritage at the town park. They had train rides for kids, tractor pulls, the Dept of Wildlife mules on display, weavers, blacksmiths, the US Postal Service, and a wiggle butt contest, among other things. The wiggle butt contest was for dogs and everyone who sees Amber thinks she should be in it and would win, but as we were not returning home directly from the local festival, we left the girls at home. We enjoyed watching the blacksmith make nails and hooks, he was very informative. And we spent some time with our postmistress, who was dressed in period costume. I was able to send a letter via pony express and had just a few minutes to get it written and addressed. I sent the letter to mom, requesting she let me know when it arrived. I got the call today, that it had made its way to El Dorado AR in four days. That was good time. Sometimes things take 7 days to get to Fort Worth. However, I think the mail actually went by way of truck and airplane, not pony express. We spoke with many friends and some of Jay’s clients from the bank. I got to see our friends who rock climb and got some tips on how to find good places for Mat & his friends to climb when they come in August. But the morning was enough for this festival, and we were off to lunch then to Salida.

Salida – FIBArk stands for First in Boating on the Arkansas and is 60 years old.  Salida is a quaint town on the Arkansas River, northwest of Westcliffe. We drive through Salida on the way to Monarch Ski Area and Leadville, previously mentioned. The FIBArk is a national Whitewater Festival, kayak competition, events and racing, music, food, vendors of all things related to whitewater recreation. We stumbled into it last summer and couldn’t wait to go again this summer. Nationally ranked kayakers compete in races, freestyle competition i.e, how many flips can they do in 60 seconds in a white water hole, and a community Hooligan race, where the item floating down the river is not supposed to resemble a boat nor be floatworthy. We listened to one band, Blue Turtle Seduction, for most of their set, sitting under a giant old oak tree. We enjoyed their music, but couldn’t quite decide what the style was. It had elements of celtic, romanian, pop, electric, etc. They had a good beat, had a great violinist/fiddle player, and were very energetic. You can sample their music on some YouTube videos on their website. The Hooligan race was very popular and we were told that there were 5,000 people on the banks of the Arkansas river watching it. I can’t attest to the number, but it was a big crowd. The racers had to float down the river and go over the drop where the “hole” was. Many craft fell apart in the effort. Then we watched the Women’s finals and the Men’s semi-finals of the Freestyle competition. While sitting on the rocks on the river, a big friendly dog came, played in the water, then sprayed water all over me. Everyone thought it was pretty funny, including me, once the water evaporated out of my cotton shirt. We got home around 11 that night, after a mexican dinner in Salida. It was a long, but successful day enjoying Colorado sunshine and festivals.

June 15th Father’s Day was pretty quiet. Jay took his big wheel (ATV) with the road grader down to show our neighbor, Dan. They took turns grading the road, which is much improved, but not quite finished. Jay got to hear from all of our kids and we went to dinner for Father’s Day. I’m not sure who that treat is for, me not to have to cook or Jay not to have to eat my cooking? We went to a restaurant for the first time that we pass every time we go into Pueblo or Canon City. It is housed in a former general store in Wetmore, CO, that looks like it has seen a few years. There are still some old store furnishings and it is eclectic, western and interesting. The food was good, we’d go back. On our way out of the restaurant, there were three deer all grazing around our car. They were too fast to get pictures of, but they were sleek and lovely. Happy Father’s Day (belated) to all my friends and family members who are fathers. Hope you had a great day too.

I realized that I forgot to mention that Jay applied for and accepted a job as a bank teller at the Wells Fargo Bank in Westcliffe. One of our guests at the Seder in April and my quilting friend, the same person – Sue, works at WF and told us that they had an opening for a part time teller and that part time employees get full benefits, including health insurance. We currently are still under Cobra from TX, but it does not last forever. His first day of work at WF was May 5th. Everyone at WF loves him, including the customers. All of the other tellers and staff are women, so he created a big stir when he started. It was supposed to be part time, but he has generally worked 5 days a week, even though it was less then 40 hours, it still feels like full time, when you go to work 5 days a week. The health insurance was scheduled to begin July 1.

Note that I said was…. Jay has resigned from the bank to take a different job. He has been offered a position as a Colorado State Trooper. In CO, it is called the State Patrol and they are the elite police force in the state. I can imagine gasps of shock and awe at this announcement from many of you, while some of you were listed as references and were contacted to dish the dirt on Jay. I guess everyone had nice things to say, because he passed the background check and many other tests and steps along the way. Who wouldn’t want Jay to be on their team?

Jay originally applied to the State Patrol (CSP) in September of 2007. He determined that age was not a barrier, that you did not have to pay for your own training (you do to be a prison guard or deputy sheriff) and that they offered group health insurance. After several months, he received notice that he was scheduled to take an entrance exam in Pueblo. He describes it as an ACT or SAT type test, heavy on math and critical thinking skills. You find out if you failed the test, but don’t hear much if you did pass. Then months later he was told he would be scheduled for a lie detector test in Denver at the Headquarters. He asked if he passed the test and was told, “I don’t know, but you probably did since you are scheduled for this test.” He also had to fill out forms and questionnaires on line either before or after the lie detector. Then we didn’t hear more for another month or so. Then Trooper Terry called to say she was assigned to do a home visit. This was the official job interview, held at our home in January. We told her to get a 4 wheel drive to get here. She was very nice, went over the entire application again, asked lots of questions and told lots of stories about being a Trooper. She made it sound like a good job, even I was ready to go sign up. She was also the Trooper who did all of the background research and questioned Jay’s references. Trooper Terry told us that we could individually request a “ride along” with a trooper to get a feel for the work, but we couldn’t be together in the same car and I couldn’t ride with Jay when he was a trooper. Jay was able to schedule a ride along with the Canon City Patrol in early May. He was torn between working at the bank, which is local and easy and the Patrol, which would be demanding, yet interesting, and suited to his background and training. He loved it, he got to ride with two different troopers and got a lot of inside information. We didn’t hear from the Patrol HR again after January until mid May. when they called to tell Jay he had passed the next step and was to report to Denver for more testing. This was a physical fitness test that all troopers have to pass annually, a drug screen, and a visit with a psychologist. The fitness test was timed and had tasks that troopers must do, like crawl through a tunnel (i.e. under an 18 wheeler), run up ramps holding a weight, drag a sled which weighed 125 # (i.e. pull a person out of the road? or out of their car), etc. It was very demanding, but he didn’t quit. The trooper who was timing him, told him he was the top recruit and he better finish it, and he did. The psychologist had an hour or more of written tests before the interview. It was an all day affair. About a week later, HR called and said he had passed the physical and the drug test, and they would be sending him a provisional offer (since they didn’t have the psych report) and more paperwork to fill out. He had to have his doctor fill out a work readiness form, which said he could stand, sit, talk, reason, turn, lift, carry, etc, etc. Each task on the three pages directly related to something a trooper must do. After faxing the completed form and mailing the hard copy, a week later, June 6th, a Sargent called to offer him a place with the CSP and to let him choose a post after the academy. I believe Jay was still at the top of the recruit list and was one of the first called. He was offered the three closest posts to Westcliffe, which were Gunnison, Alamosa, and Leadville. All three according to Google maps are about 2.5 hours from here. Jay had a few hours to make his decision. He called one of the troopers that he had ridden with to get his point of view on the different posts. The trooper recommended Leadville because it was in the same troop as Canon City, Jay’s first choice, and it is easy to transfer within the same troop, and he said the Sergeant was cool. That was good enough rationale for us, and Jay accepted the post in Leadville. We didn’t know anything about it but what we could find on the internet, and it appeared to be similar to Westcliffe, a former mining town in the mountains north of here. So, on Sunday, we took a drive to explore Colorado and surprise! we drove through Leadville. We were very pleasantly surprised. It looks like a really neat town, with a bowling alley! (yeah), restaurants, museums, a college, and it is close to Vail, Breckenridge, Copper Mountain, and they have their own small ski area, Ski Cooper Mountain. Then Monday evening, June 9th, Jay got another call from HR, saying that they were making him a final, official offer of employment. The psych report came back ok. We thought when the Sargent gave him the option of a post, it was official, but apparently not, but now it is. Final!

Before we get to worry about Leadville, Jay has to finish the Academy. Training is 22 weeks in Golden, CO (near Denver) and begins July 14th. The recruits / cadets live at the Academy during the week and can go home on the weekends. It is definitely a para-military boot camp type environment. Jay’s primary concern is the PT or physical training. The information says that it is adjusted for age and sex, and I am confident that he will be able to meet their requirements. He has begun working out here to get into better shape before he goes. If you are interested, you can learn more about the academy on the CSP website.

Jay still says that he has two thoughts about this 1) Are you crazy? and 2) This is a great opportunity and if I don’t try it, I’ll be missing something important. We are excited about this opportunity. I think Jay is well suited to being a Colorado State Trooper and the Patrol is lucky to have him. Several of the troopers that he met, commented about how unusual it was to get selected to go to the academy on the first try. Several of them had applied more than once before they got in and had previous careers in law enforcement or the military. The screening process is rigorous. We didn’t say much about this application or the State Patrol, because there were so many places that one could get screened out, that we thought it was better to wait until we knew for sure. So now you know the rest of the story…

Jay will work at the bank through the first week of July, unless they hire someone soon and release him early. They are sorry to see him go, but they seem to understand. Then we will have one week to gather the rest of the supplies and uniforms he will need to go to the Academy. Life is strange, Jay started out his career in law enforcement, and may end his working career in law enforcement…. unless he decides to open a pawn shop after he retires from the Patrol! Who knows what the future holds? Certainly not I.

Maybe I should hold a contest to see who can remember the various jobs/careers Jay has had since we got married? Any takers?

The May outing for the Custer Cutie’s Red Hat Chapter was May 20th, lunch at the famous Broadmoor Hotel. I was the driver for our carpool, Nancy bowls on Wed. mornings with us, Mary is the founding queen mum of this chapter and Mary Pat is my new friend and neighbor. Mary and Mary Pat are both 83 and proud of it. Mary was born here in the valley and Mary Pat moved here 30 years ago. We had great fun, good food and lots of smiles.

We received a bird feeder for our holiday present from the J Doyles, and put it up this spring. I think this is a pinyon jay, our first visitor. Since then we now have small birds that look like a finch to me, but we don’t have a bird finder book, so I can’t be sure. Also, the hummingbirds are back in full force. When the wind blows hard, the sugar water ends up all over the deck!

While we were in TX packing up our personal items from the Pond House, Jen and Wallace were in Austin looking for a house. Julia and Amanda drove down Memorial Day weekend to Austin to visit with them. Wallace and Jen were fortunate to have a full week to check out the houses they had been monitoring via the internet. A new house came on the market that week, and after seeing the other houses, they were confident that this house was a good bargain, and would meet their needs. They made an offer on Friday evening, accepted the counter offer on Saturday, and are in the process of buying their first home. We are very excited for them, the pictures look lovely, and they expect to move in by the end of June. Congratulations Wallace and Jen.

We picked up our shared road grader from our co-owners this weekend. Jay used it on Sunday afternoon to grade the road through the Aspen grove. He is not done, but it made a big difference in the ruts. I didn’t get a chance to take a picture of it in action, but I’ll try to get a good before and after picture in the future. The snow is all gone on our land (for now), but there is still snow high on the peaks of the Sangres. Enjoy! You should recognize the view from my deck by now!