Tuesday, January 21, 2003

Given that neither Mr. Holzman nor Gov. Owens seem to have the common sense to put the "Holzman for President of CSU" thing to sleep, I have informed all members of the CSU Board of Governors, Governor Owens, and Marc Holzman himself that I will cease any contributions to CSU if he is appointed President.  I urge all CSU alumni to join me. Let's just say no to an amateur running CSU!! 1:23:32 PM

Wednesday, January 08, 2003

This last weekend we traveled west to Breckenridge via US 24 and CO 9 from Colorado Springs.  The whole trip to Hoosier Pass was brown, dry and it is clear that the whole South Park area is very dry.  Once we crossed over the pass, we were immediately into the snow which was at least a couple of feet deep in shade.  I would guess that it is mostly left over from the early season big snow that come through the northern and central mountains, but which had minimal impact on us. So if you want to find snow, best to stay north of Hoosier Pass.  That would be between Alma and Breckenridge on this map. 11:10:05 AM

Thursday, November 14, 2002

We are having that very rare event this morning, snow falling mostly straight down!  This does not happen all that often in our corner of Colorado, this kind of friendly, fluffy, floaty snow.  Most often our snow comes down with a slant, often with enough of a slant that we refer to it as "snowing sideways."  But this morning, the sun and the clouds are dukin' it out and the snow is coming straight down. 8:28:15 AM

Tuesday, November 12, 2002

Not only have we trained the squirrels to eat out of the bird feeders, the past few days evidence continues to mount that that raccoons are happy to squeeze up into the cages for a few bites.  So, back to bringing in the feeders at night. 10:32:29 AM

Yesterday, a squall line moved through in the early afternoon with the clouds starting to clear in late afternoon.  The sky took on a wonderous look with swirling dancing shapes of snow in the air, all lit with the pinks and oranges of evening.  This morning the peak is shining, wearing those shapes that moved through the evening sky. 10:22:51 AM

Tuesday, November 05, 2002

This morning we had a fox in the back yard.  Now this is the second new fauna of the week, the stellar's jay being the first.  Gail and I were wondering how it got into the yard (six foot fence all around), when the fox simple jumped up on the fence and down on the other side.  So we have now determined that cats, squirrels, raccoons, bears, and foxes pretty much disregard our privacy.  Haven't seen a skunk on the fence yet, but I am not discounting that it might happen. 8:48:16 AM

Monday, November 04, 2002

Over the past week, the squirrels in my back yard have demonstrated their ability to learn once again.  I have two bird feeders with sunflower chips, both in cages to limit consumption to the house finches, gold finches, chickadees, and siskins.  Each feeder is equipped with a tray to keep fallout to the ground to a minimum. The squirrels had learned how to hang from the trays and scoop the seeds in the trays off as a new meal.  But never once had a squirrel crawled up into a feeder to eat seeds.  About a month ago, one of the trays got knocked off and I didn't replace it.  About a week ago, we started to see squirrels up in the cage without a tray eating from the feeder.  And this weekend we saw squirrels up in the cage with a tray eating from the feeder. Once they know what is possible, the little buggers are real good at exploiting the opportunity!  I shoulda replaced that tray the very first day!! 8:41:43 AM

Saturday, November 02, 2002

One of the primary reasons I love living in Colorado is the wonderful look of a blue sky stretching from horizon to horizon with nary a cloud to be seen.  I grew up on the Great Plains (in South Dakota), and there is nothing more exhilarating than daybreak after snow, the sky lit up with pastels whose tones match the cold (very pale in very cold weather, very rich in warmer weather).  We have come through the fog and the mist, and now the trees bend the sunrise to their own glowing purpose. 2:24:02 PM

© Copyright 2003 Craig Johnson.