Snowstorm of April 2009

This storm made the national news.

The following is a blow by blow of the snow storm of 2009 as told through an email thread. I have also edited out email addresses and certain other identifying details so that they will not end up on a spam list.

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Hi All,

Yesterday (Friday) morning I was watching the snow pile up on the pick nick table outside my window on Lazy Z, when my gut whispered "Storm of March '03" You might remember it - it dumped 4 to 5 feet of snow in our neighborhood.

... THEN the power goes out. ... and I figured that the internet would not be far behind.

I love where I live, except when the power and internet goes out - so I bailed.

What I mean is: I beat a retreat to Boulder - the land of health food stores, free wifi, and (more) reliable power and snow plowing service.

Not that all is peaches and cream however. For example, I heard that the "improved" King Soopers on 30th is leaking like a sieve and is closed. However, the traffic is moving pretty well in the rain.

Rain down here... snow up there. That's the way it usually works this time of year, right?

Anyway, does anybody have enough electricity and digital bandwidth to give a report of the conditions in the PUMA neighborhood?

BTW, I meet a couple in Sunflower market that said that Ned was still a mess, with power in some parts and not others. Sunflower market itself was taking on water too, but was open.

Excuse me for taking this long to get to my point, but I'd like to start a discussion about current road conditions on Magnolia as well as side streets such as Lazy Z.

Also, how's the power holding up? (No need to answer if you don't have any :-)

- Mike

Allen Gordon to Mike

show details Apr 18 (2 days ago)

Reply

Hi Mike

Power was off on on then off again about 6 PM last night. Still off until estimated 6PM tonight. This appears to be area wide. Snow is about 4 feet and stll snowing. Don't know how the roads are. Haven't finished plowing yet. I don't know if this will go to to the puma list. If you come up, post a note about the road conditions.

Allen Gordon
Pine Glade

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

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Greg Ching

I've been on battery backup going on 20 hours the last 24 hours and 4.5 hours...

Apr 18 (1 day ago)

Greg ChingLoading...

Apr 18 (1 day ago)

Greg Ching to Mike

show details Apr 18 (1 day ago)

Reply

I've been on battery backup going on 20 hours the last 24 hours and 4.5 hours the previous. I've been on battery backup going on 20 hours the last 24 hours and 4.5 hours the previous. Phones out since last night. I've not driven. Roads by me have one lane plowed.
ones out since last night. I've not driven. Roads by me have one lane plowed.

greg

mvgerard@aol.com

Just got my power back about 2 hrs ago on Pinon Way. BTW, I meet a couple in ...

Apr 18 (1 day ago)

mvgerard@aol.comLoading...

Apr 18 (1 day ago)

mvgerard to mikeseiler

show details Apr 18 (1 day ago)

Reply

Just got my power back about 2 hrs ago on Pinon Way.

Clark R Chapman to Mike

show details 8:27 AM (13 hours ago)

Reply

Mike -- I assume that you've made it back. Our internet was out until this morning. Briefly, here's what happened around here. A snowplow came down Lazy Z around midnight Thursday night, then not again until around noon on Friday. It was just before noon on Friday that the power went out. I was down in Boulder on Friday and returned between 5 pm and 6 pm, driving up Magnolia. It was totally marginal, even with our high clearance, all-wheel drive, and studded snowtires. There was about a foot of unplowed snow on this part of Magnolia and Lazy Z. The temperature got down to about 47 degrees in our house. Finally, a major snowplowing effort was made fairly early Saturday morning. The power came back on last evening at 8:50 pm -- 33 hours without power! (The weather bureau reported a snow guage 3 miles southeast of Pinecliffe with 53 inches of snow...roughly what I guess we had here.) Hope your feline is o.k. Clark

d

Mike Seiler to Clark

show details 9:18 AM (12 hours ago)

Reply

Clark,

Thanks for the update.

Rachel and I are glad we sat this one out at the Golden Buff in Boulder.

We're heading back up after a good breakfast.

- Mike

Mike Seiler to Clark

show details 9:43 PM (0 minutes ago)

Reply

Hi All,

Thanks all for the updates.

We got back this afternoon.

About 1/2 mile from home, we suddenly found ourselves in the ditch because of a surprising thick,irregular and hard patch of snow, which was followed by a slippery mix of mud and snow. Fortunately, a neighbor yanked us out.

Right after that, it was my turn to try yanking another neighbor out. (Long, strong tow straps are a must have in the car up here) But this neighbor was much more stuck then I had been.

Just then Steven McCullum (from Blackhawk) came by with his backhoe. Steven pulled the neighbor out, then he came by to dig out my driveway. 1 hour and $100 later, he had made it all the way up except the last 100 feet. That was just to steep and the backhoe kept spinning its wheels in the heavy wet snow. ... but getting almost all the way up was good enough for me.

It was good to be back after two days and everything was just fine. Power and internet were both back on. The cats were really glad to see us (we had left lots of food and water)

- Mike

Rocky Mountain Winter Wonderland

In the past 9 days, we've had 3 significant snows. This is the time of year for heavy snows since the air has a lot of spring moisture in it.

Some Local Views of the Snow

You Can't Split Frozen Wood

This fall I decided to turn some dead trees (mostly pine) into firewood for winter.

The tree was cut down and cut into portable sections.  The sections where then trucked up to a cutting and chopping station right next to the deck.  

Each trunk section was cut into logs that would fit into the wood stove.  If the log was more then about 4 inches thick it was chopped.  

The ready-to-burn wood was pilled onto the covered deck.  This way it would be easily accessable even if it was snowing.  

The whole operation went smoothly until it started getting really cold at night.  Suddenly, instead of hearing a loud CRACK!!! when I brough the maul down on the end of a log, I'd just get a dull thud.

That's how I discovered that you can't split frozen wood.  We recently had a warm spell, and I was curious if I could once again the logs I had prepared for that step.

What I discoved was that I could split smaller logs, and larger logs as long as I avoided the still frozen core.  Here's a couple of pictures of a log that I could split about 4 inches in.  The inner core was still frozen and would not split.

You can see how the maul blade would just dig into the frozen core without creating a split like it's supposed to.  You can also see the section that split off.  The split would follow a tree ring at the edge of the frozen core. That way, I ended up taking a slice out of the log.

Moral of the story:  Don't try to split frozen wood.  You may have to wait for a few days, or even a week, of above freezing temperatures for the wood to "melt."  Then you can split it.

Blowing Snow Closes Mountain Schools

It's been quite windy of late.  In fact, the below freezing temperatures and high winds (gusting to near huricane strengths) has been hard on the trees.  At about the half mile mark on Lazy Z, I saw one live tree pulled up by the roots.  Another tree had the top 20 feet snapped of.

Today there is a light snow with the wind.  This creates large swirling clouds of snow and near whiteout conditions.  I heard that this even caused the closing of mountain area schools around here.

Fortunetly, I recently cut down some trees from the forest below the house.  I've cut, chopped and stacked them on the deck.  It's enough to keep us nice and tosty warm.  Aside from a little work, they did not cost me anything, so I don't mind cranking the heat up a bit.

Solstice Sun

This is where the sun rises on the winter solstice. Sunrise was about 7:26 am

I Love My Bed

Yesterday afternoon I was surveying the 4 acre forest that is between my home and the road. There where a 5 beetle kill trees that I had the neighbor kid cut down and are now fire wood.  They should keep me warm for January and Feburary.

But that's not what this is about.  I noticed a few dozen ice patches in the 4 inches of snow.  It took only a moment to realize that they where made by the elk that came through a few days ago.  

Can you imagine this?  The elk must simply sleep on the snow.  Gradually, the snow melts as they slee on it.   This leaves an icy patch to freezes up after they get on with their day. 

I now have a whole new appreciation for my nice WARM, soft bed.

100 Elk on the Meadow

I took this picture of about 100 elk at about 10 mile marker on Magnolia

I wish I had a video camera to take a video of  two bucks that where locking horns in the middle of the herd.

The herd was to big fit into the picture.  The mountain in the background is Thorodin.

Moxxor

I've been exploring all kinds of new corners around here in the last few weeks.  I've even blogged about some of them. 

It's been fun seeing familiar sites from totally new angles.  ... and even seeing them with greater clarity then before.   My distance vision, although already fairly good, has recently improved.

I owe my new athletic energy, as well as other improvements to my health to an number of things I've recently discovered that work really well.   One of them is an antioxident called astaxanthin.

Another is a extremely potent "fish" oil called Moxxor.  I would never have believed that such a small quantity of oil could have such an energizing effect.  Moxxor is supposed to have lot's of "essential fatty acids" or EFAs.  I guess that the fats really are essential, and I've not been getting enough of them. 

How Cute! Mommy and Kitten Bobcat Pay a Visit

I took these pictures 2 days ago, about 10 am.  I first noticed them because the walked across the entire length of the deck.

The 2 bobcats are not that easy to spot because they are camoflaged quite well.  They where making the rounds, looking for brunch.  

The kitten is almost impossible to spot in the upper picture (it's on the very upper left) because it blends in so well with the wood pile.

Is Winiger Ridge a Glacial Deposit?

On the way back from the post office, I notice a large white van parked on Lazy Z at about the .5 mile marker.  There where about 10 people standing at the side of the road.

Curious, I stopped and joined them.

The group was a geology class being lead by Ken Hopkins of the University of Northern Colorado.

I learned that IF this was a glacial deposit, then it would be between 600,000 and 1.2 million years old.  However, it is uncertain if this is what Winiger Ridge actually is.

Mystery Bear: Case Solved

I met a neighbor on my way to the post office this afternoon.  I asked her about the large plastic honey bear. 

She knew all about it.

It turns out that it hidden away in the woods like that so that they could cheer up a mountain biking friend who was having a hard day.

Mystery Honey Bear

It's been an amazingly mild fall this year. It's one thing to hear scientists argue if global warming is real, but another entirely to experience such unseasonally warm weather personally.

I've been taking advantage of the warm weather by spending some time soaking up lots of vitamin D producing sunlight.

While riding around in the woods, I found a mysterious large plastic honey bear just hanging out in a dense stand of trees. It was clear that someone put it there for reasons that I'm sure was clear to them.

Also, I noticed 2 elk in the trees near there as well, but I don't think the elk were there to admire the honey bear.

First Snow of the Season

Freezing rain and snow have been making clear that winter is here.

Note the thin layer of ice on the Aspen leaves. Click on small picture for a larger image.

Found Another One

I found another large puff ball today. It weighted in at 1 pound, 4.2 ounces.

Into the cooking pot it goes.

The Aspens are turning

A Goji Juice Project

People have been asking for the "good stuff" that is in Goji Berries for a couple of years now.

But what shocked me is when I discovered that Goji Juice cannot possibly contain the most important active ingredient from the Goji Berry, namely the Goji Polysaccharides.

Once I understood this, I had to write up about it. You can see the result at BetterThanGojiJuice.com

I talked to the first person that bought from the site. He was even more excited than I was about my discovery.

Puff Ball Find of the Decade

Today we found a 1pound 13 ounce puff ball. That's a really big mushroom! ... and I know from experience that it is still solid and good, not to ripe yet.

It's the biggest puff ball I've seen around here in a decade.

I also found some smaller puff balls as well. It all totalled 2 pounds, 5.4 ounces of good mushrooms. (I left the overripe ones where I found them, still rooted. You can tell by giving them a light squeeze if they are already to far gone)

What are these mushrooms?

As best as I can tell they belong to the Lentinellus family. But the gills don't look very serrated. Click on the picture for a larger view.

http://www.mushroomexpert.com/lentinellus.html

The 3 turkeys of Winiger Ridge

While on a late afternoon walk up on the ridge, I saw a flock of 3 turkeys. They would not let me get any closer then about 25 feet. I got the feeling that they where related, but I could not tell what the relationship was.

Organic Goji Slim n' Trim

This is a project I've been working on.

Goji berries are getting more and more popular... but not everyone likes the taste... or wants to carry around a odd looking dried fruit.

That's why I think the time is right for Goji in a bottle. ... and of course, everyone wants yet another weight loss product to try.

See what I mean at Organic Goji Slim N' Trim

What I did this summer

It's been a while since I did a post.

Well... I've been busy traveling this summer.

You can see a very few of the 1000+ pictures I took this summer here.

Dummy and the Bear

At about 4 am, I awoke from a light sleep because I heard heavy footsteps on the deck. Then I heard heavy footsteps on the ground below the deck.

My curiosity got the better of me and I grabbed a flashlight and carefully (it might be a bear!) opened the door.

Whatever it was ran off to the right and was gone before I could shine the flashlight beam in that direction.

At about 7, we saw a large, dark brown bear wandering around the yard. (So it WAS a bear that I heard!)


I got over a dozen pictures of it over about a 10 minute period before it wandered off at about 2 mph across the meadow to the west. The bear clearly knew I was there, but seemed indifferent, except to look my way a few times.

What kept the bear around for over 3 hours? Last night, I had thoughtlessly tossed a few remaining bites of rice from my cold dinner over the deck.

I won't be doing that again.

P.S. This bear was not interested in the hummingbird feeders, unlike the bear of the May 25, 2007 post. It did however bite into a plastic gallon jug that had just water in it once.

Tick Resources

My neighbor Jennifer found the following 2 great resources about ticks:

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/72109.htm
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05593.html

So that's what a fresh elk skull looks like

I was taking a walk this afternoon on my usual trail, and there, right in the middle of the trail, was a fresh elk skull. It was so fresh, that the brains looked like they where still inside the skull. There was no sight of the rest of the skeleton.

My guess is that a coyotes took down the elk. They don't look like they have jaws strong enough to crush an elk skull. On the other hand mountain lion or bear would have crushed the skull to get to the brains.

Then, perhaps a dog picked up the skull and dropped it on the trail after getting tired of it.

Other random observations:
* I just heard the first thunder of the season
* a couple of days ago, I was outside heard a familiar melodious chrip. I looked over to the barn and, indeed, there was Mr. Bluebird.

Positive Handyman Reference

The following comment was added to the post I did about a local handyman. I have reprinted it here so that it is easier to find.

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Bonnie S. has left a new comment on your post "Local to Magnolia Handyman Available":

Dear Neighbors,
I saw on Mike Seiler's blog a request for a post about Van Hunt's handyman work.

When I hired Van Hunt last year to do some work, I was grateful that:
--he shows up at the time agreed to

--he brings his own good ideas for improving the projects we work on as I like people who work with me to offer that
--He is skilled and when he doesn't know something is ready to acknowledge that he doesn't yet willing to discuss ways to accomplish it

I recommend him as a handyman. He charges reasonable prices and is effective in his work. He is also quite skilled at packing moving trucks and gardening help.

So if you have projects you want to tackle with someone's help, do call on him.

tick, Tick, TICK... BOOM!

tick, Tick, TICK...

BOOM!

Alright. I admit that above is a cheap shot.

Yesterday I found the first tick of the season on my ankle. The body was about .1 inches in size.

Beware.

I Know to Much

Warning - True confessions:

I was just asked a question on a social networking site, "What do you know a lot about?"

My Answer:

I know a lot about... about... a whole lot of things. Seems like I spend way to much time reading. I sometimes feel like all the stuff I know is like a all the parts in a lumber yard. I keep acquiring more "stuff" (facts, really) but don't spend enough time using it to build my success.

I guess my fantasy is that at some point my "lumbar yard" will spontaneously explode because it is sooooo overstuffed. Then, as everything falls back down after being blown sky high, it will spontaneously assemble itself into a castle of success that will put the Disney Kingdom castle to shame.

OK. Maybe I'm just weird to imagine this, but do any other overeducated information hogs out there wish that this could actually come true?

Local to Magnolia Handyman Available

I find that it is sometimes hard to get handyman type help up here. So I'd like to welcome Van Hunt (see below) to our local labor pool

The following post came through on the PUMA list today. Please leave a comment to this blog post if you use Van Hunt and let us have your impression of him.
________________________________________________________________

I am Van Hunt, living on Forsythe Road, and I am available for general labor and other kinds of help - for example, house and/or pet sitting, any kind of tree and firewood work (I have my own chainsaw), outdoor spring clean-up, garage or shed organizing, hauling (I have a truck), general handyman work, and/or anything you can think of. I can provide local references, no job too small, reasonable rates.

Please call 303 449 9237 or email accoaone (at) gmail.com

Let us work together for our mutual advantage

The Bears are Back

A couple of neighbors have reported seeing bear tracks in the last two days.

The Birds Are Back

A swirl of clouds came through this afternoon.

What was so striking is that right after the clouds rolled in, that there was suddenly a flurry of birds EVERYWHERE.

Nutty woodpeckers, "humingbird feeder" (see previous post) woodpecker, chic-a-dees, lots of robins, and finally, "our" hawk even lighted on his favorite perch.

"Plan B"

Google and Virgin Galactic are now taking applications for people wanting to help colonize Mars.

Mars, here I come!

... that's "Plan B" in case things get to weird on this little swirly blue and white marble we call home.

The Moose Are Coming!

About 5 years, ago, I was camping west of the Divide, not to far away from here.

I was surprised to see a Cow Moose and her baby munching their way through a swamp at about 10,000 feet.

Now comes word from a neighbor (Jennifer) that she's spotted a momma Moose and her yearling right here in the neighborhood last night.

Excel Energy Bird Cams

As a regular reader of my blog, you've noticed that I like to keep up with natural phenomena in the Colorado Rockies area.

I just came across this cool set of birding webcams

I'm sure this is a nice little public relations move for Xcel Energy, but, as the old saying goes, "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth."

Anyway, enough blabbing, here's the link:
Birding Webcams

The Bear and Hummingbird feeder video, Part II

Linda writes:

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-----Original Message-----
Sent: Sun, 16 Mar 2008 10:12 am
Subject: Bear in Hummingbird Feeder Photo


Hi Mike,

this is Linda Masterson, author of Living with Bear: A Practical Guide to Bear Country (www.pixyjackpress.com)

Wendy at Sinapu forwarded me your bear in the hummingbird feeder photo last year, and somehow I misfiled your info and just discovered it.

I wondered if you had any other photos of this incident (or any others) I am looking for a good photo showing a bear with a hummingbird feeder - tried looking at this one in b&w, and it does not show up very well.

I am also working on a redo of all of the Division of Wildlife's bear literature (as a volunteer) and we are collecting photos for use in brochures and fact sheets...

So, if you have anything you are willing to share and give permission to use, we'd be very grateful. I'd be happy to send you a copy of my book as a thank you if you'll send your address.

Thanks a bunch,

Linda Masterson
Living with Bears: A Practical Guide to Bear Country
livewithbears (at) aol.com
Practical Guide to Bear Country

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My reply:

Dear Linda,

The picture looks like it came from a video I took.

You can find the video at video.google.com
Bear, Hummingbird feeder


Since the video is about 10 seconds long, and I think it's showing at 15 frames a second, you should have 150 frame (pictures) to choose from. However, all were taken from the same angle. I chased the bear off right after this. I did not want him to think that coming onto my deck was exceptable behaviour. Also, and the bear broke the feeder with his bite in his hurry to get to the sugar water.

I personally do not have a bad relationship with this bear. It once watched me for about 20 minutes while I was busy doing something about a mile from my home(where the video was taken). Te bear sate uphill on a jeep track and could have charged. But it just sat there after giving a snort to let me know it was there. It seemed that the bear was just letting me know I was its' guest at the edge of it's territory.

Yes, I did have a exit to a nearby tree planned in case it charged. ...And I'm good at climbing trees.

As it was, I got done what I doing and left without incident.

However, my next neighbor has had endless trouble with bears. One night a bear used it's powerful claws to bend the top edge of the door frame away from the body of the minivan. The bear appears to have left when the safety glass suddenly shattered because the frame had been bent out by about an inch.

The year before that a bear made off with a 150 lb goat. That was a shame because I would borrow the goat to mow my lawn, thistle path and cheat grass patch. Now I have to pay the same neighbor's kid to do the same.

A bear also went right through an electric fence to make it's way into a chicken coup a couple of years ago.

If you send me the time stamp of the exact frame you an want, I can probably find it on the original video and extract a black and white version of it. A proper adjustment of the contrast should fade out the background trees so that the picture works in black and white.

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By the way, this morning I heard a familiar chirping sound in the neighborhood of the hummingbird feeder. I had put it up last summer again, once it was clear that the bear was ignoring my house in favor of having a territorial spat with the neighbor.

There was still a bit of sugar water in it from last summer. The water has been frozen for much of the last 5 months. But a familiar woodpecker had to check to see if his favorite nectar was available. I'm sure he'll keep checking back until it melts.

I wonder what will happen come May when the hummingbirds will want their share.






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The Bobcat came by

I'm always amazed that any animal can survive the winter here without going into hibernation.

But the bobcat came through the yard today. At one point he scratched in the fresh snow, as if looking for something. Then he moved on and wandered of.

His paws where wide enough to keep him from breaking through the snow crust. He just had to "post hole" through a couple of inches of fresh, light powder.

Instant Newspaper Logs without a Rolling Device

It's been quite cold that last few weeks.

I can always tell because my normally perfectly tuned wind chimes start to sound strangely out of tune. That's because the extreme cold makes metal extra stiff and brittle. So the chimes de-tune.

Fortunately, we put in a few months stash of firewood. But, in this cold, the pile is getting smaller at an alarming rate.

That's when I learned about a sneeky trick for turning the morning's newspaper into tight, long burning logs for the evening fire.

Neat!

2 cords of hardwood for $400

I had a dump truck show up with 2 cords of hardwood this morning.

The hardwood consists of the remmant ends of 6 by 8 inch untreated railroad ties. The remnants are between half an inch and 6 inches.

I think this is a awesome deal, and I almost hesitate to write about it because I don't want to drive up the price because more people want it.

If you are interested, and you live around Boulder, Colorado, give Rod of RC Construciont a call at 303-935-6231

Blogging course

I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a now, they're letting you get it for free if you write about it.

Ok, the simpleolgy folks bribed me into doing just that, but that's because I like the rest of their stuff.

The course is about:

• The best blogging techniques (Let's find out if I'm trainable?)
• How to get traffic to your blog (Ummm, writing about something more people are interested in would help, which exclude long diatribes about the content of my navel lint.)
• How to turn your blog into money(I've made $4.49 with this blog so far - Guess I'm not in it for the money) .

I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.

Fences don't make good neighbors when the elk are around.

The following is from a neighbor that has a little farm. During the summer months he has a farm stand where he offers truly locally grown produce.

I know what he means about the elk knocking down fences. It got so that I gave up having a fence.

hello everyone, just wanted let the list know that we found the
horses. they did a little tour of the twin sisters area and made
their way back home this morning. it turns out the elk herd had
knocked some of our fence down, so thanks to everyone who was keeping
an eye out.

peace, josh and family

The Elk came through

Last night, the a herd of elk, probably the same ones that I saw in the last entry, came through the yard.

The moon was nearly full, and reflecting from the fresh, cold snow, so it was easy to see them.

It was about 7 degrees F, so we thought about inviting them in, but then we realized we couldn't fit all 30 of them. Besides, they looked hungry, and they don't eat turkey.

The Elk Are Back

I've been waiting for the elk to come down from the high country to these mid-altitudes. There is a herd of elk that prefers to spend as much of its winter around here as possible.

At this time of year the high country becomes snowed in and the plains are to populated and dangerous. So the elk pick the area around here as a suitable compromise between a rock and a hard place.

Anyway, I saw the Elk at the top of Lazy Z the day before yesterday.

Almost Cloud Nine

One of the joys of living in the high country is that sometimes we get sun up here while the clouds settle below. In other words, we have a completely different climate up here.

This picture was taken today about an hour after sunrise. The view is toward the south east, which is toward Denver from here. The clouds are at about 7000 feet, and the picture was taken at 8400 feet. There is a cloud bank at the top edge that is hiding the sun.

Janet Bychek

I've been slow to get these pictures up that I took while on a hike with my friend Janet Bychek up.

The first picture is of "Solstice Rocks." I call it that because the winter solstice sun appears to shine through a small arch at the very top of it.

The second picture is of Coal Creek canyon, about a mile downstream from Pinecliffe. The creek flows through a very rugged, remote gorge at that point on its way to Gross Reservoir. The picture was take from the north shore at a bend in the creek.

The two pictures where taken about a hundred yards apart.

The Rest of the Story about the Mountain Lion

The following was published on the Daily Camera today. Of particular note is that the person that claims to have shot the mountain lion is from out of state, and that it is implied that he shot the lion in self defense.

This is a great angle if you're trying to minimize the consequences of shooting a mountain lion.

Man shoots, kills mountain lion near Gross Reservoir

Cougar had attacked a puppy chained on the property

By Vanessa Miller (Contact)
Originally published 12:27 p.m., October 8, 2007
Updated 12:27 p.m., October 8, 2007

A man shot and killed a mountain lion outside a home up Flagstaff Road near Gross Reservoir after catching it attacking his puppy, which was chained on the property, according to the Colorado Division of Wildlife.

Wildlife officers are investigating the shooting Friday and are trying to determine whether the man was within his legal rights when he killed the adult cougar, division of wildlife spokeswoman Jennifer Churchill said.

“We’re investigating what will happen to the person who shot the lion,” Churchill said. “We do have laws that allow people to protect their safety and the their livestock. But this is the tricky gray area of it being a dog.”

The shooting happened about 1:30 a.m. Friday in a neighborhood just east of Gross Reservoir, at the west end of Flagstaff Road near its intersection with Lakeshore Drive.

Churchill said the shooter, whose name, age and hometown haven’t been released, is from out of state and was visiting a person in the west Boulder neighborhood. Three dogs were chained up outside the home, and several people inside the home heard the mountain lion attacking the dog in the early-morning hours, Churchill said.

“The people went outside and started yelling at the lion,” she said. “It wouldn’t drop the dog, so he got a shot gun to scare it.”

But the lion approached the man with a gun, Churchill said.

“So he shot it,” she said.

The puppy that was in its mouth is going to survive, Churchill said.

“He had a couple lacerations on his belly, around his neck,” she said. “He was in the lion’s mouth for a few minutes, so he had to get stitches and antibiotics. But he’ll live.”

Wildlife officers confiscated the lion and sent it to a lab for testing, Churchill said. She expects results back in a day or two, but it’s unclear when officers will make a decision on possible charges against the man who killed the cougar.

“We are still looking into it to make sure it was done appropriately,” she said.

One area resident, who didn’t want to be named in this story, speculated that the slain lion was responsible for killing a man’s pet miniature horse in the Nederland area Sept. 2 and a couple’s 60-pound Australian shepherd in Nederland on Sept. 27.

Officers with the Division of Wildlife in September tried to capture and euthanize the lion after it killed the horse, named Bodacious, but traps weren’t successful in snagging the cat.

Comments

Correction - Mountain lion picture not the local lion

It turns out that there is a miss-communication about the picture that was published in yesterday's blog entry. I now find out that this picture is an EXAMPLE of a mountain lion, not the actual lion that was shot.

Local Mountain Lion Shot Dead

The mountain lion that was referred to in previous posts appears to have been shot yesterday because he attacked a puppy. This is likely the same mountain lion that ate a miniature horse a few weeks back.

[UPDATE: the picture at the right is NOT the mountain lion that was shot, lthough I initially had the impression that it was. I'm leaving the picture in as a EXAMPLE of a mountain lion]


As reported in a email on the PUMA email list:

"A neighbor to the east of here with 2 small children felt compelled to shoot a mtn lion dead yesterday morning about 1:30 am. This cat moved towards him when he went outside to rescue their puppy who was being attacked by the cat. This neighbor immediately reported his shooting to the DOW and is now facing possible consequences as a result of his decision to shoot the cat.

It is believed by other neighbors who saw the cat after it had been shot that this same cat had killed another large dog earlier in the week. In the same area east of the CR 68J deadhead and up the 4 x 4 trail past Fred & Betsy's property about 3/4 of a mile. There may be a DOW investigation report that provides an opportunity for residents to voice their opinions on this matter. "

More Fun With Bears

A met a neighbor on Lazy Z today and he told me the latest on the local black bear.

As there was some chatter on the local PUMA email list, I posted the following to it:

---

There is a bear here at the end of Lazy Z that has repeatedly tried to break into his cars. I myself saw the bent frame of a passenger door from a minivan. The bear had tried to peal away the door the top edge with its claws. Eventually the door glass shattered as the fame was bent outwards.

Now my neighbor keeps the doors unlocked and the windows down. This seems to keep the bear from trying to peal away doors, destroying them in the process.

First Frost of the Fall

This morning there was a coat of white frost on the ground. Also, yesterday's rain had frozen on blades of grass.

However, the Goji Plants and house plants seem to have survived it, so it was not a hard frost. Does that make a soft frost?

I suspect this frost will the trigger for the turning of the Aspens.

Livestock Puma will not be trapped and killed

Thank you Sue (see below) for doing all this wonderful research and summarizing it in a email. I can picture the incident in great detail because I knew the horse and I've wandered through the pasture where it happened.

****

Hi Everyone,
An update about the lion situation: The trap has been pulled.

At this point they are not planning on taking any further action other than to keep a close eye on any further incidents that arise.

Here are the facts as shared by the DOW information officer, Jennifer Churchill who was very informative and nice. Most of you already know these but here it is for those who don't:

• The pony was killed on Saturday night at the top of the lower meadow of the Kellogg's property. He was then dragged down near the corral which is near William Kellogg's house.
• The lion did not kill the pony at Otsie's house, nor did it ever go to his house, it was seen only on the Kellogg's property.
• The main concern was after Otsie had his farrier down to work with his remaining horses (I believe on Sunday or Monday). The lion stayed next to the pony's remains for the hour or so that Otsie and his farrier were working with the horses. Again-the lion was in the open meadow next to the pony's remains. The Camera reported that it was in an open meadow and neglected to mention that it was next to it's cache, very typical lion behavior.
• We discussed lion behavior and she agreed that some lions do stick closer to their cache than others, but it always makes them more cautious when they see lions who stay near their prey in the presence of humans.
• For what it's worth, I'd like to share my perspective on such behavior: I have done research on Open Space properties for the past decade and work in an area where road killed deer (and lion-killed deer who are taken too close to residential areas) are dropped off for lions to be able to eat in a safe location away from people. Many rangers have commented that they will often have to shoot lions with rubber bullets in order to get them away from their caches and I have pictures here, here, and here that show a lion in my study area in South Boulder doing just that, hunkering down on his cache, despite the rangers watching them and taking photographs from a truck.
• The only other killings that she said concerned them were of a llama and a pony. One was on Flagstaff and she couldn't remember where the other one was (I believe the llama was Sugarloaf). She said there was no way to know if this was the same lion, but they were concerned that the lion had possibly shifted it's prey choice to livestock rather than deer/elk and they target lions who start focusing on livestock.
• I asked if there was any regulation regarding responsible livestock or pet ownership and she said no. She agreed completely that the lion is the one who pays with his life when we choose to let our dogs run free or we don't keep our livestock in safe enclosures at night. Even if you don't report it to the DOW when your dog is killed, it's clear that word of mouth spreads the story and then, when an event happens as did with the pony, the stories fly such as "I know of 7 dogs in the Magnolia area that were killed by lions." Unverifiable information but quite powerful when rumors start to make it back to the DOW. When a decision about whether to kill a lion or not is unclear, those stories push the DOW into choosing a lethal option.
• I asked if we could organize a neighborhood meeting with their district rangers and she said she would make some calls and see if they can pull that together. I offered to organize things from this end and will call her next week to see what kind of time constraints they have on their end.
• If anyone has a venue that they know about or could volunteer to host such an event please let me know.
• Please send me a private email stating if you would like to come to a meeting with Sinapu and the Division of Wildlife and I will start contacting everyone to see what dates are best.

Thanks to everyone for their feedback. I still would like to gather as many factual accounts of lion encounters so that we can have the right information available should there be any other lion predation event. I'd also like to hear from people who have had no encounters as those are valuable as well.

Thank you all for taking the time to read these updates,
Sue

Mountain Lion Causing Quite a Local Buzz

We were repeatedly buzzed by two Helicopters this afternoon. The first was red, and the second was yellow with a blue tail.

I was not sure what it was about at first, but I'm guessing the following has something to do with it.

Mountain lion kills horse in Boulder County foothills
In case the Daily Camera link does not work, the articles says:
"Colorado Division of Wildlife officials are responding to property in the Boulder County foothills where a mountain lion attacked and killed a horse, sheriff's officials said this afternoon.

The property's owner reported that the cat was still in the area, located off Magnolia Road near Pineglade Road. "

Also See: http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=76716

***

I've seen the pony that was eaten any number of times. I'm sorry to hear it's turned into cat food. I assume this is the same mountain lion that's been sighted on our land here. The pony lived about a mile from here, on the other side of Winiger Ridge.

True Confessions: I was a unpaid scout for the power company

We've had three lightning caused power outages in the last few weeks. It's fashionable to blame weather weirdnesses on global warming, so I'll jump on that band wagon to explain it.

Anyway...

A few hours after this latest lighting induced power outage, yesterday, a large Excel Energy Truck with a cherry picker shows up.

A "old fat man" (these were his words) jumped out and started asking directions to a pole so that he could replace the fuse.

It was twilight and I knew the moon would come up any minute because we'd had a lunar eclipse the day before. I'd not had my habitual walk either.

So I volunteered to show him the way. OK, I admit, I was curious too how this all worked.

The power pole he was looking for was in the narrow valley on the other side of Winiger Ridge. This meant going up 100 yards, then down 300 very steep yards. At night.

Fortunately, I knew most of the faint trail that would take us there pretty much by heart.

We set off and about 30 minutes later we where at the pole with the blown fuse. This is where it gets tricky. The fuse is nearly 40 feet up and the only way to get at it is with a 40 foot long telescoping fiberglass pole. Given the flex of the fiberglass pole, this is not easy.

Also, if the lightning had taken out more than just the fuse, it would have created a very loud explosion as the new fuse also blew.

After about 15 minutes of fussing, the utility line man was able to install the fuse. It held. No explosion.

My curiosity was also satisfied about how this all works.

On the way back up , I learned that the lineman would retire in 3.5 months, after 37 years. I wondered where the new talent would come from to replace him. Nobody in "the younger generation" seemed interested working in the wilds of Colorado in all kinds of weather conditions.

I had volunteered to carry the collapsed telescoping fiberglass pole back up after seeing how much of a strain it put on the lineman to manipulate the pole to get the fuse back in place. It got quite heavy by the time I was back on top of the ridge.

After we got back, I got to keep the old blown fuse as a souvenir.

Then, it was back to business as usual... at least until the next global warming induced lighting strike.

Scary!

I just picked up some folding tables that I had loaned to the NEXT DOOR neighbor over the weekend.

While I was there they showed me the passenger side front door on their van. The window had broken and the top of the frame was pulled back about an inch from the body.

This was the latest episode in a nearly nightly harassment by a bear.

Lions and Coyotes and Bears, Oh My

I just got word that neighbor saw a mountain lion in the woods below the house yesterday morning.

Other neighbors have seen the same cat at other times as well.

Also, the coyote infestation in the valley here seems to be particularly bad this year, judging from the nearly nightly yelping and howling. The deer have taken the hint and left.

And I read in the paper that bears will need to be spending 20 hours a day eating, so that they can pack on the weight for winter.

3 mile fox was hit by a car.

I feel like I lost a friend. The fox mentioned below seemed to take a special delight in greeting cars on the way home.
***
If you drove down Magnolia today you probably saw the dead fox on the side of Magnolia, past Magnolia townsite. He (or she?) must've been hit last night by a car. This fox was very wily to cars and people. He would run to the side of the road and turn around and look as you passed by. I'm amazed he was hit knowing how fast he got out of the way for me in car or bike. The driver must've been going very fast.

I know I'm speaking to the choir on this list (I hope) but lower speeds mean you can slow down faster and not hit wildlife (or dogs, pedestrians, runners, and cyclists). Driving 30mph down Magnolia from Lazy Z takes about 18 minutes (yes, i did the math). Driving 35 gets you there only 2.5 minutes faster. Driving 40 gets you there 4.5 minutes faster. I have 5 minutes to spare...how about you?

Thanks for reading,
Whit

Now that's a big bug

This bug landed on the living room window. The black circle next to it is a quarter that I taped to the window. The body of the bug was about 2.5 inches long.

Pine Beetles in the Colorado Rockies

Thanks Jenifer for some great research on Pine Beetles:

---

Dear Friends,
We are all aware of the beetle epidemic on the Western Slope. Anyone
who has driven I-70 westward has seen it.
In our own area, we need to be aware of the condition of our trees.
Over-crowded, stressed, or damaged trees are vulnerable.

Living pines should not be trimmed or cut between approximately
beginning of June to approximately September, as beetles are attracted
to the scent of sap.
Wood (and probably anything else) should not be stacked against living
trees.
Beetles don't acknowledge property lines. We must work together as
residents of Magnolia to protect our forest. Stay alert, communicate
with your neighbors. Know the signs of beetle presence. Know how to
determine whether beetle presence in a tree has been repulsed by the
tree, or is killing it. Not all attacked trees succumb! Healthy trees
can expel beetles in a flood of sap.

If you have concerns, call the Colorado State Forest Service
(303-823-5774), and/or a neighbor who has experience with beetle
management. Dan Metzger is one such person.

Here are some websites with info on Pine Beetles.

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05528.html
http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/fidls/we_pine_beetle/wpb.htm
http://www.barkbeetles.org/mountain/fidl2.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_pine_beetle


Best,
Jennifer

Large, Shaggy Dog or Black Bear?

A black bear that looked like a large dog walked across our long deck a few minutes ago at twilight.

My New Friend, A Lonely Dove

This is the kind of self-indulgent entries that blogs are famous for.

As I was walking up my very long and steep driveway this morning, a dove flew in front of me. I live high up in the Rocky Mountains, surrounded by national forest. Doves are not native around here. A couple of hours later, I'd made a new friend, who you can see sitting on my shoulder.

I called over to my neighbor, who once had brough up some doves from Denver. He told me that this last, lonely dove had been hanging around there, but he was afraid that it would soon become Red tailed Hawk food.

Perhaps my new friend figures that if its friends with me, then the hawk won't get it. I hope she's right, because after getting a expert ear cleaning from her, I'm starting to like this bird.

The Grand Yellow Green Pollen Cloud Finali

There are some hazards to living high up in the Rockies that you don't find out about until you're actually living here.

In the winter, there are the large stinging clouds of swirling snow.

Right now, we are just coming to the end to the large gritty clouds of yellow green pine pollen. ON warm days (>80 F) like today the pine pollen gets ready in the calm morning air.

Then, as the first gust of afternoon wind blow across the hillside, the pollen takes flight, and forms huge yellow green clouds.

These clouds coat everything with a thick, gritty, yellow-green coat. This pollen keeps blowing around until it is finally washed down by a afternoon thunderstorm, like we just had.

We had similar situation last weekend. The whole process was interrupted by a cold snap that we had right after the weekend.

Hopefully, this is the end of pollen season. It takes weeks for the pollen coat to disappear from surfaces.

Finally back online

In my previous post I mentioned a bad wind storm. It knocked out our internet connection shortly after the post until this morning.

It's been stange weather. We had a hard frost last night, and I had to bring in all the house plants that did not have the good sense to come in on their own.

Wind and Snow

It has been quite windy today, as illustrated by this knocked over Aspen tree.

It also looks like its trying to snow over Thorodin.

Suggestions for a bear proof bird feeder

This morning, I heard the dogs in the neighborhood go crazy with howling an yowling. "Must be the bear" I thought to myself. Sure enough, I saw bags of scattered trash when I went throuhg the epicenter of the yowling a few hours latter.

Another bear related note: --
A neighbor suggests this for a bear proof feeder:

Hi Everyone,

A few years ago, we used a pulley system like the one mentioned here
to keep our birdfeeders out of reach of the bears. It worked for
about a year but then the bears started to figure it out. The first
bear to figure it out climbed up a tree until he was higher than the
metal cord that we had running between two trees (about 15 ft off the
ground). Then, he jumped down and grabbed the cord as he fell. This
method worked for him but it was a long jump down. We put the pulley
system back together, and the next bear (or maybe the same bear)
figured out which rope lowered the feeders. He pawed at it until he
got the feeders to fall.

We abandoned the pulley system at that point, and my husband
constructed a new system. We have a 15 ft tall metal pole sunk in
concrete, and 4 arms coming off of it near the top. There's a feeder
on each arm. We have an electric fence (3 fence posts with wires
going around them making a circle with diameter of about 2-3 ft)
around the base of the pole. We have a long pole with a hook on the
end to put feeders up on the arms (or take them down). This system
has now worked for 2.5 years or so. We've observed bears (in the
daytime) trying to get at our feeders, and they get completely
spooked when they touch the electric fence (it's not a huge shock -
we've touched it to see what it feels like). From what we've
observed, each bear never tries again after getting shocked once.

If anyone else is interested in setting up a system like this, I
could take some pictures and post them. My husband could provide
technical details. We really like this system because we can leave
the feeders out all the time with no worries that we're helping
corrupt bears.

Claire

Mountain Lions Sited on the Neighborhood on Saturday

Just a quick report on a great wildlife sighting from a Neighbor:

Brian and I saw three mountaint lions on Magnolia this past Saturday night
about 11:30 pm. The cats were in the road as we came up, roughly 2.25 mile
mark. We guess it was a mom and cubs since they were traveling together,
but don't know for sure. Got a solid look at one, two dropped off the road
quickly but the long black tipped tails are unmistakeable!

Save Forsythe Falls

I took a walk down to Forsythe Falls today.

I wanted see how far above the current level of Gross Reservoir it was. I eyeballed it, but I suspect that there is only about 30 feet between the current full level of Gross Reservoir and the bottom of Forsythe falls. Raising the level of Gross Reservoir will destroy this beautiful falls.

I have posted three pictures for posterity.

More Bear issues in the Neighborhood

Hi All:
Last weekend -- during the DAY a bear must have come on my deck and destroyed the bird feeders and on the other side of the house dismantled the hummingbird feeder. I want to feed the birds but I am not gonna do that anymore as it attracts the bears so much. I would love to have a bird feeder on a pully system between two trees but I bet the bear will pull on the roper or chain. Any suggestions from clever humans???
Terry

At 09:10 PM 6/1/2007, greg joder wrote:
>Hi everyone,>>The bear, or a bear, that has been around here for the last couple >weeks just tried climbing onto my deck (9:00 p.m.) - we could see >its feet, paws and face! My dog and cats went crazy!>>Just took in the feeders too (no trash out). Keep an eye out!
>>greg
http://www.wildmagnolia.org/phpbb/

Contact Xcel with your power flucuation problems

In regard to my previous blog, another neighbor suggests:
I just talked to a full-service agent at Xcel, andshe recommends that everyone who has noticedrecent fluctuations in electric service shouldphone so that they can understand the magnitudeof the problem and the region affected. She saysthat the number to call is 1-800-895-1999, andselect "outage". If you don't get through to areal person, just select nothing and after about6 prompts, it will ring a real person. Ask thatperson for a full-service agent.We also suspect that we may have had damage tosome of our electrical equipment, even though itwas connected to a UPS (that has been frequentlycycling on-and-off the last few days).

Lighting Caused Power Blips

In a message dated 5/31/2007 9:10:37 A.M. Mountain Daylight Time, savitar@mric.net writes:
Has anyone been experiencing electrical service fluctuations lately? We've been have several episodes of flickering lights, and the computer UPS battery backup systems clicking & coming on. I don't know if it's surges or momentary loss of power. I'm wondering if it's our service only, or if others nearby have experienced anything similar. It's happening at different times of the day, and even when we are not using much electricity.
I read someplace that one Mt. Evans, which is actually visible from my location on Lazy Z, is world famous for the number of lightning strikes it gets.

A lighting storm some distance away can still effect our power here because of the way that the power lines run as they distribute power.

The moral of the story here is that the lighting around here is intense enough that it interferes with our electricity. However, you may just want to check that a recent storm did not blow a tree against the power line to your house. I've had that happen too.

I have included a picture above of the relative number of lighting stikes in Colorado over a 6 year period. I have called out Mt Evans. Boulder County is the rectangle above it with the ragged left edge and a notch half way along its southern boarder. We're just one County away from Mt. Evans.
P.S. Welcome to the joys of living "way out there" at the end of the line, so to speak.

702-835-1108 Harassment

If you are reading this, it probably means only one thing. You've been getting harassing phone calls from 702-835-1108. The caller ID says "CyberneticSyste" There is a Cybernetic Systems in Henderson, Nevada.

If you call the (702) 835-1108 number, there is a recording with an unbelievalble story about this being a "toll free testing service" for Service Bureau Networks. This is of course, different from what the caller ID claims. BUT if you Google that number you get an earful about a disreputable company, Telespammer

Service Bureau Networks seems to also be known as Telseven according to the posts. There are claims on the forum that people have been charged just for calling numbers associated with Telseven.

Don't bother talking to the voice that says "wrong number." It is just a recording. You can tell because there is no hang up sound. Also the timing and intonation is exactly identical each time.

We've been getting 6 or 7 of these annoying phone calls a day for the last 3 days.

Please EMAIL ME at
702harassment@gmail.com and let me know that you've been getting them too. I'm trying to figure out what the scam is.

If there is enough interest, a class action lawsuit might be in order, as well as complaints to the FTC and FCC Those links go directly to the complaint proceedures, so have fun.

---

Special note to the heartless scum behind this harassment: It's not good for your mental health to annoy a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) expert. That's putting it nicely.

You'll find yourself with thousands of dollars of legal bills in short order. Harassing me and other people who contact me can get VERY expensive very quickly.

Trust me, you really don't want to go there.

Don't say you've not been warned. Please CONTACT ME if you wish to nip your punishing legal expenses in the bud.

Bear, Part II

There have been four bear sightings in the last 12 hours here on Lazy Z.

I'm bringing in the hummingbird feeder.

This is what happened last year.







Case Study

Last Frost of the Season?

It snowed yesterday and then it looked like it was going to freeze last night.

It was a good thing that I took in the house plants that did not seem to have the good sense to come in on their own.

It made it down to 28 F last night.

However, in a conversation with a hummingbird this morning by the hummingbird feader, I found out that this should be the last frost.

But I'm keeping in the house plants for another night, just in case.

The Elk Are Back... Again

I just saw a group of about 8 bull elk grazing their way through the snowy yard.

The Red Baron Won

I saw the red tailed hawk (I call him the Red Baron) resting in a tree by the house today. It looks like he won his territorial right to hunt here.

The two ravens that where harassing him last week where nowhere to be found.

My Buddies the Elk

Two male elk just came through the yard. They both had fuzzy, half formed antlers.

They left behind a large, well formed pile of scat. This is different then in winter. At that time of the year they leave tight little oval pellets.

Dogfight over Lazy Z

There's been a fierce battle ragging in the air over this end of Lazy Z for the last few days.

Its the red(baron) tailed hawk against the dark raven. They soar and dive. Sometimes, you can hear the screaming feathers of the raven as he goes into a power dive. The raven also makes crowing sounds, but the hawk only occasionally lets loose with a peep.

I think the hawk is winning, but not be much. They are pretty evenly matched.

Last year, the hawk must have won, because I saw and heard him all summer.

Grow Your Own Goji Berries

We're doing a experiment around here where we are seeing if Goji Berries, which originated in the Himalayas. We've been reading all kinds of great things about them, so we have some seeds sprouting right now. We even have one plant so tiny that you almost need a magnifying glass to see it.

You can read more at How to Grow Goji Berries

Growing Goji Berries

I've been studying a lot about a super nutritionous berry that became popular because of the promotional effort of a MLM company.
Turns out it really is a most remakable berry, with even more nutritional power than blueberries.

Goji berries, also sometimes called wolfberries look like oblong, red raisins. They're not very sweet, but the have a flavor that you an quickly get used to. This happens naturally once you digest a handful and your body gives you a enthusiatic thumbs up once it's had a chance to analyze what's in them.

I've also tried the goji juice concentrate

Anyway, here's a bit more about these berries. See Goji Juice Extract
http://gojiconcentrate.googlepages.com/home

It all sounds so good that I'm going to try to grow some, although it'll take years to get any fruit from them.

Our Roadless Wonder - The PUMA way

John Carter, a neighbor up here, had this observation:

*****
The U in PUMA does mean unique.
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/may/04/scientists-measuring-roadless-areas-by-volume/

http://dailycamera.com/videos/2007/may/03/26/

The first link is to a story in the Daily Camera. The second is acomputer-generated video prepared by USGS scientists. The idea is that theydraw pyramids based on the distance from roads. The video spans 60 years,showing the Colorado Front Range from 1937 to 1997. When you watch thevideo, the pyramids all over the map erode away, as new roads are built. Ifyou look just below and a bit to the left of the green "B" in Boulder, thereis one three-sided pyramid that endures. That's the triangle formed byMagnolia and 119.

It's one reason that I love Magnolia, it has been preserved (the "P").
John, ~ the chart guyJohn Carder,
CMTTopline Investment Graphics
Where your chart dreams come true!
www.topline-charts.com or www.chartguy.com
PO Box 2340Boulder, CO 80306-2340 USA
800.347.0157 (toll-free in the USA)
303.440.0147 (fax)

Elk Pellet fuel

We have a pellet stove in the basement. It is the primary source of heat for the house. I like the pellet stove better than our central forced air heat.

The forced air heat dries out the air, cycles on and off in an annoying manner, and most important, I consider the propane that it runs on politically incorrect.

On the other hand the pellet stove heat is steady and uses renewable wood pellets.

Therein lies the problem. This time of year all the hardware stores run out of the 40 lbs bag of pellets. So, unless you've bought ahead, it is easy to run out.

On a recent walk on the trail by the house, I had to step over some elk pellets. That got me thinking. In a recent trip to India, I noticed that the cow patties from the cows that where EVERYWHERE where quickly picked up, dried, and used as fuel. I even saw large, geometrically well contructed pills of cow dung for sale at the side of the road. Nothing goes to waste in India.

Anyway, I noticed that the elk pellets where about the same size and shape as the pellets that the pellet stove takes. I had a mad vision of putting up a portapotty that would be inviting to elk, and collecting the pellets so that they would automatically dry in the hot Colorado sun. Then, I would make my rounds, pick up the dried pellets and feed them to the pellets stove.

Humingbirds and ticks

Two days ago, I heard the first humingbird. This morning I saw the first tick. Spring is here at 8,000+ feet.

Flashback to Dec 21, 2006

At times in the last 2 1/2 months, it has seemed that a glacer, formerly known as our driveway, would singlehandedly turn the tide on gobal warming and be the nucleus of a new ice age.

But yesterday, I made a significant discovery that suggests I'm a little premature in calling for a permanent winter up here.

At the bottom of the driveway, where the glacer spills onto lazy Z Rd, I spied a tatered piece of green plastic. I dug it out of the ice and read the date on the frozen newspaper that was inside the green plastic bag: December 21, 2006.

That was the date of the first of a series of snowstorms that brought in enough snow so that I could have my own private ski slope for the last couple of months.

Perhaps spring will arrive after all.

The Horned Owl Vs. the Flock of Ravens

After living up here long enough, you know that whenever a large flock of ravens gathers, there there is food nearby. Usually, it means that something has died...

So I pulled on my over boots and post holed through 2 feet of snow into the direction of the noisy flock of ravens.

As I got to the epicenter, I saw a white owl fly off. It was hugging the ground because it was carrying something heavy away.

A closer inspection of the area that the owl came from showed a spot of blood and tufts of rabbit fur. Evidently, a rabbit had hopped out from its home under a log and onto a snow bank. It presumably was sniffing the air for signs of spring, because there was nothing but a deep blanket of white in all directions.

Perhaps the rabbit was to hungry to go on, because the owl, also hungry did not miss its chance.

As the owl flew away, the large flock of raven followed it. But they stayed safely out of reach by staying up above the tree tops.

The ravens must have been hungry too, but they where not about to become owl dinner as well.

The Ridge Elk

Starting right after the first big snow storm, I've been seeing elk prints up on the Winiger Ridge. At first the elk had a hard time finding a patch of grass, so they actually had to dig down through the snow to find some food.

Gradually, the wind and the sun cleared some grassy patches, especially on the sunny south east slopes.

Today, I saw a herd of over 30 elk on the grassy slopes below the ridge.

I spooked them, and the ran up over the ridge and into the safety of the dense forest on the north side of the ridge.

I thought to myself that is was a huge amount weight (30 elk) to move around, powered by nothing but grass.

Tame Deer

Here are some delightful pictures of a herd of tame deer that share the woods and yeard with a family. http://www.pelorian.com/deer.html

A couple of years ago, I had a deer that considered its "home" to be the front porch of the barn.

Recommendation for a new plower

Hi PUMA

I am out of one of my two huge long drifts and down to the
road. This was thanks to a new plower I met. Wonderful guy named
Patrick McCarthy. He charges $75 an hour and no trip time and did a
great job with his pick up and snowplow.

His phone number is 303-241-6567.

Terry

My Neighbor Gives Great Advice About the Local Weather Forcast

Here is some great info about the weather from a neighbor:

The U.S. Weather Bureau for the metro Denver area is
located in Boulder, and has more people working the
forecasts than anyone else. Go to:

Weather.gov

The buttons give a variety of information. The official
forecast is gotten by pushing "Zone Forecast" (then
use your browers "Find" function to search for "Ned").
This forecast is updated several times a day, but most
significantly around 4 a.m. and 4 p.m. (only in
unusual circumstances, like today, is it updated
more frequently).

The "Short term forecast" is updated every 3 hours
or so and is more immediate. Look for the part that
includes Nederland. During calm periods, nothing
is posted here.

During periods of potentially bad weather situations,
click on the "Warnings and Advisories" button. During
threatening situations, this is updated every 6 hours
or so. An alternative is the "Special Weather" button,
which is often changed during morning hours more
frequently than the "Warnings...".

For those who really want to understand what to
believe about the official forecasts, the really
special button is "Forecast Discussion". While
this discussion (be sure to go to the Denver
discussion, rather than Grand Junction, Pueblo,
or Goodland) is filled with abbreviations and
technical jargon, the forecasters let their hair
down and tell you about their confidence (or lack
thereof) of the forecasts. Anyone can get the gist
of what's in their minds, behind the official
forecasts, despite the jargon.

For example: last week's storm was confidently
predicted 48 hours in advance, and the "Discussion"
indicated confidence that the storm would happen in
the way it actually did. This storm, that seems
to be ending in our area, had great uncertainty
for the last 5 days. If you read the
"Discussion", it was clear that this meteorological
situation was unprecedented, involved inherently
unpredictable aspects, and the official forecasts
were extremely uncertain. For us, added to the
general uncertainty, is the fact (apparent from
the Discussions) that we have been on the western
fringes of the storm. If it had moved (and, still,
if it might move) a hundred miles to the west, we
could get a lot more snow. But if it moves a
hundred miles to the east in Kansas/Oklahoma,
then we're finished with the snow.

No matter how much you might like Mike Nelson's
personality, he is mainly just giving a "popular"
account of this official forecast. Some media
outlets subscribe to other services (like Accuweather)
which, I believe, are less reliable. For the March
2003 7-foot storm, United Airlines relied on
Accuweather, which predicted snow flurries for
Denver, and flew all its planes into DIA to be
stranded. I relied on the Weather Bureau, which
predicted a possible "storm-of-the-century" in its
forecast "Discussion" 36 hours before the first
flake fell, so I loaded up with supplies. Somne
media simply aren't savvy. KUNC radio, for
example, hasn't figured out when the new forecasts
are issued. So KUNC reported around 5 o'clock
that we would get another foot of snow tonight,m
relying on the official forecast written before
dawn and not realizing that the usual afternoon
forecast (available between 3 and 4 pm) had
downgraded the snow forecast.

I hope this is helpful. Although I am a professional
astronomer, I actually have a Master's Degree
in meteorology and have long been interested in
the weather...so there is a bit of professional
backing to my recommendations.

For the next few days, however, we're happily
stranded by all the snow in our driveway.

Happy New Year!

Clark (& Y) Chapman

3 feet of snow and counting

Earlier today I measured 21 inches of new snow and a total of almost 3 feet of snow. And there is supposed to be more on the way.

I heard that you'd have to go back to 1913 to find another instance of two back to back snow storms like this.

In Boulder, they have the concept of a 100 year flood for the flood plane.

Up here, we seem to be experiencing a "100 year" snow.

Plowing the driveway using heavy equipment

As I mentioned in yesterdays post, when the snow gets to deep, its time to call in the heavy equipment. We called High Country Excavating because they've given us a fair deal in the past.
The neighbor that usually does our driveway was stranded coming back from Florida, so the snow got to be 2 feet deep in the driveway. This is very difficult for a regular residential grade snowplow to handle.
If you look carefully at the opening sequence in the video below, you'll see that the front end loader had to PUSH his way UP the driveway using the backhoe. This is obviously not a maneuver that is available to a pickup based snowplow.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas.

Here is a response I sent to the Puma email list after Terry Greenberg asked about plowing services:

---

Hi Terry and all,

This is starting to feel like the storm that started on March 15,2003. Contract residential plowing services could not handle it. It took earth moving equipment to dig me and a bunch of neighbors out.

The problem is that standard plowing equipment can't handle more than about a foot of snow. We're working our way up here to two feet now. Once you've got more than a foot, it becomes difficult for a residential snow plow to get through, especially on long uphill driveways.

I just put in my call to High Country Excavating. Last time, spring came to the rescue. The snow may not get as deep this time, but its not even Christmas yet.

Who wants to fess up to singing "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" ONE TO MANY TIMES!?!

- Mike

Thorodin in the news

Yeah.

Thorodin made the news. It's just a little bit about hiking Thorodin in the Fiday December 15 edition on page 3B of the local Daily Camera, but its something.

The problem with climbing Thorodin is that the one trail to the top was blocked of years a go by a zealous land owner at the trail head. Another possible route goes up a private jeep track that has a "no tresspassing" sign. The jeep track is used to maintain the 2 story antenna farm that is on the top of Star Peak (part of Thorodin)

The suggested trail in the Camera article starts at Panorama Point in Golden Gate State park. It then suggests a moderate bushwack 1.5 miles and 1200 foot elevation gain to the top. It recommend the hike because of the view. I'll second that recommendation.

A friendly neighbors experience and advice about mountain lions

Dear Pumites All:


Over here at Twin Sisters we have regular mountain lion presence as well. Tracks mainly, but also, scat and occaisional sightings and even one encounter.


Roz came home around midnight a few years ago, to find that a mountain lion had treed a racoon or something right in our parking lot. It was roaring, and stayed at the base of the tree forat least a half an hour. A thrilling basso profundo roar, a bit like the Metro Goldwin lion. I was listening out the upstairs window. Roz stayed put in her car. Finally, a long time after the lion stopped roaring, Roz made a dash for the house.


Another time I was gazing idly out the bedroom window at the meadow in the moonlight, 10 pm or so, when suddenly one, then two more deer came tearing across the meadow, east to west, just above the garden, followed immediately by the long, low to the ground outline of a mountain lion, long tail out behind. The whole group was moving at top top speed, the lion maybe thirty yards behind the three deer. Just past the garden the deer cut an impossibly abrupt left turn, downhill, which the lion matched as best he could, (I think he lost some ground to them), then the whole show disappered down below our barn, and that was the last I saw of them. The whole thing was in complete silence. I found a few tracks in the morning, to confirm I hadn't been dreaming, but I am a very lazy tracker, easily bored, so I didn't try to map it all out.


Anyway, we see tracks, every year a handful or so of times up on Twin Sisters. Most recently, ten days ago in one of the fresh snows.


The Antidote to Lions. Roz and I gradually became a little uncomfortable about this definite presence of lions, particularly since we often hike alone, and at dusk. So we have taken to sometimes carrying a super potent can of pepper spray with us. My limited research on this subject leads me to believe that this pepper spray is the best thing you can do for yourself in case of a real life lion encounter. I think this is the consensus among wildlife biologists as well.


The spray was designed as an antidote to grizzly bears, and is used most frequently in Alaska, where almost everyone carries it in the back country. You can buy it at McGuckins for about $40 a can.


VDAP Pepper Power- Bear Deterrent.


Of course it would be useless if you were surprised in an ambush, and it could be counter productive if there was significant wind moving agaInst you. But in a lot of mt lion encounters, wind isn't a problem, and there's plenty of time to get organized to defend yourself. In such cases the spray could make a real difference.


I find it sort of comforting to have along in a back pocket, whenever I think to bring it. And as for muggers, gangs, or maurauding packs of wild dogs or wolves, you're covered.


Well, that's the news from Twin Sisters, John & Roz McClellan

Re: [puma-news] New Mt. Lion

On Mountain Lions.....thank you, Yvonne, on the update from Colleen,

I have been seeing signs of lions in this area for several years...
tracks, scat and kill signs. I have frequently seen their scat along 68
and Cumberland, as well as up around Forsythe and the elk trails through
the woods near Winiger. Two years ago I watched a lion as it walked
through the woods by my studio on a bright, spring afternoon. Beautiful.
Females can breed any time of year....having no set season. Although
they can roam very large distances, they tend to hang around when there
is ample food (resident deer, elk....even an occassional bobcat, raccoon,
rabbit, mouse, or ground squirrel). They are known to hunt during
anytime of the day or night, tending to ambush their prey and therefore
preferring lots of brush or rock outcroppings for cover. When I am out
hiking in these types of areas, I just try to remember to be extra aware.
They do not like to associate with other lions (except for mating), and
are very territorial, I think it would be unusual if there is more than
this one in the area.....at least on most occassions.

I feel so fortunate to live in an area where lions co-exist alongside
me......with so many of Nature's predators being villified and destroyed,
I remain somewhat hopeful whenever I am reminded of their presence here.

Sharon Ticehurst

On Fri, 17 Nov 2006 14:21:22 -0700 George Blakey <ysgb@earthlink.net>
writes:
> Hi all,
> Colleen Canon wanted me to send out an email just to let neighbors
> know
> that in our area of Aspen Meadows and down 68, she has been seeing a
>
> very large lion that usually doesn't hang around here. As they are
> out
> all the time it is good to be aware and not paranoid about this.
> She has seen it at her house around 6:30 P.M. and said that one of
> her
> horses has been trying to dig it's way out of the enclosure down in
> the
> lower meadow, she will be leaving it free for now.
> She thinks that since West Magnolia has been closed to the hunters
> this
> year and that there has been a lot of killing of deer/elk? up behind
> us
> that the lion may have been drawn by the smell, also don't know when
>
> their mating season is, but that could be an affect as well.
> Just a heads up for those who enjoy a walk in the evening.
>
> Yvonne Short
>
>
>