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Gearing up for a favorite snowshoe route: Signal Mountain, Larimer County, Colorado.

Go beyond the norm on the trail Sunset Magazine calls the prettiest hike in Rocky Mtn Nat'l Park.

Great Harmony Hikes video about foraging dandelions. Includes pesto recipe.

How to make a pullet pen in under an hour using materials you probably have on-hand.

This handy collection slides includes some of Colorado's most gorgeous wildflowers ... don't blame them that they're classified as noxious weeds.

The forecast for our planned Rocky Mountain trail called for wind, rain and snow. I probably don’t have to tell you that hiking all day in such conditions can be miserable. The weather at 10,000 feet is always a force to be reckoned with, but in spring it’s downright unpredictable. Add a projected 70% chance of thunderstorms plus freezing temperatures, and it just gets ugly.
The lower elevation’s forecast of a 30% chance of warm rain promised a greener, less wet and all-around prettier hike.  So we donned rain gear and headed for a nearby foothill trailhead.
We shot some video along the trail. Take a look.

Undaunted, we marched right up that foothill peak for a walk in the clouds. We discovered stark beauty on the burned over, cloud-enshrouded trail within what we dubbed the Wes Craven National Forest.  See for yourself…





If there is a moral to this story, it is that not only is beauty in the eye of the beholder, but said beholder may be wise to look closely. Very closely.
Posted in Outdoors Tagged: forest beauty, hiking, rocky mountains, Roosevelt National Forest, trees, Wes Craven

As mentioned a few entries ago, the previous owners of this property ran an  egg business. They’d built an amazing facility large enough for fifty hens, however, they were ready to quit farming thus not only was the greenhouse left fallow, they were down to twenty-five layers. That’s twenty-five aging hens and zero roosters.
Wonderhubby wanted those old girls evicted.
As any cook can tell you, eggs fresh from contented hens are one of the simple pleasures of life. With visions of fabulous frittatas swirling in my head, I determined to change Wonderhubby’s mind about the value of backyard hens. Here’s some of the information I used to convince my non-breakfast-eating, non-morning-person spouse that indeed we did want to take on a flock of backyard chickens.
A step toward self-sufficiency
Some chicken breeds are all about the egg (White Leghorns, for instance). Others, such as Australorps and Delawares are dual purpose birds: fine egg layers and good meat hens too.
Amusement
Chickens are a riot! Each hen has a distinct personality. One of my young hens likes to stand on my feet. Others follow me around the pen and another fills me in on all the gossip. “Cluck, cluck, cluck; she ate my bug!”
Bug control
A chicken’s life is mostly about food. They scratch and peck at the ground, breaking it up to find bugs and tasty morsels. The backyard gardener can collect offending bugs in an old coffee tin and offer these captured plant villains to their favorite feathered heros.

Connection
I just answered the door and met a new neighbor. Someone had given him one of our egg cartons. I like that we were able to offer him high quality eggs that originated less than a quarter mile from his home. I also like that he wanted to see the hens, thereby connect with his food source. Connection is good.
Flavor, plate appeal
I’ll put it to you straight: backyard eggs make more flavorful and beautiful meals. You’ll find the yolks of backyard eggs to be a far deeper shade of

I’ve had a few conversations recently about off-grid living, and so thought I’d post tidbits and resources here for anyone who might be considering a move away from the grid.

We do live on wild acreage and do raise much of our own food (herbs, fruit, vegetables and eggs) however, we’re not off the grid.
We have a few steps remaining to reach self-sufficiency: our built-in passive solar greenhouse does create heat, but we’re looking to add solar panels and possibly a wind generator with the idea of producing more than our meek energy needs (~$65 per month) and selling surplus to the local Rural Energy Association. Also in the works: a couple of goats (for milk and weed abatement) and raising fish (for meat and fertilizer). Colorado law forbids collecting rainwater and this property has already been refused a well permit, so we shall remain on municipal water. Given the long-standing fact of traditional grain farming in this area, and one’s inability to control groundwater, I deem buying treated water from the Continental Divide a good thing.

dutchtub.com
Following is a partial list of simple or off-grid living skill resources in my collection. None of these tomes are the most hip nor are they the most recent publications. I either bought the books at garage sales, picked them off remainders tables or inherited them in 1973 after my wannabe hippie father escaped the wilds and retreated to city life leaving me, a high school student, in a truly off-grid cabin located in the wilderness known as the Yurok Indian reservation. Seeing that used books are best for the planet, I suggest looking for these titles online or in your local library. Anyway, save technological advances in self-made energy storage, this data remains valid.

(These are simply in the order in which I nabbed them off the shelf.)
The Forgotten Arts series by John Seymour
How to Build & Use Greenhouses by Ortho (!)
The Food and Heat Producing Solar Greenhouse by Rick Fisher & Bill Yanda
Your

I don’t mean to be an alarmist, but, uh, this caused heart palpitations in me.

It’s the end of the world as we know it… or so it seems. I better get this book on thrift done STAT! (Wait, the gov’t press is the only one running… we’re doomed!)
Posted in Balance

From red fox



The other morning I spied a red fox in the back yard. Not surprising, given our wild and unfenced Colorado locale, however, this red fox had perched in a pine tree and was being harassed by a magpie. As Wonderhubby ran to grab the video camera, I stood, transfixed, at the dining room window and watched that plucky magpie dive bomb and pester the fox right out of its tree and onto the snowcapped boulder below.






From magpie



My grandpa always claimed magpies would hold a grudge. Montana writer, Gary Turbak, says magpie is synonymous with moxie. We can only guess what the fox did to earn the ire of the magpie. Perhaps the fox did nothing more than show up, or perhaps the fox had climbed the tree in search of a moxie pie.
I can state as fact that the video I shot is not worthy of your time, what with the low light, through the window and fully zoomed in shooting conditions, so here’s a better one I found on YouTube:

Posted in Outdoors, wildlife Tagged: Colorado life, fox and magpie, harassing magpie, magpie, red fox, wildlife

This entry was originally posted in my MySpace blog.
The past two mornings as I stepped out to go wake the chickens, I’ve been greeted to the sound of a bugling elk. Just one call each morning; looks like everybody is cutting back.
Enjoy this video of a bugling elk who walks right past hunters. We’ll call him the Brave One.

Posted in wildlife Tagged: Colorado living, elk bugling, wildlife

This entry was originally posted to my MySpace blog.
I hesitate to mention this, because back then I had a television production studio, whereas the video below was created for under $300 (including the equipment costs), but this is my first full-blown video production in seventeen years. It’s a promotional ditty for Wonderhubby’s just opened robot manufacturing company, RoBe:Do Robotics.

These robots are an expandable platform for software developers pushing robotic technology forward. Stated in English, these robots are a potent tool for those kind folk working on bringing us the Jetsons’ way of life.
Posted in Robotics Tagged: autonomous robots, beer, linux, robot, robotic, software developers, Twitter

This entry was originally published on my MySpace blog.

This week we’ve been blessed to witness over a thousand Sandhill Cranes migrating south.

Sandhill families migrate together.
We didn’t record any of the large, noisy and visually arresting flocks that flew overhead, but I’d like to share these YouTube videos, Web links and images that you might experience our joy at these flyovers.


All About Birds: Sandhill Cranes
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Sandhill_Crane.html

Wikipedia’s Sandhill Crane page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandhill_Crane

Nature Stock Shots has some lovely images of this majestic-looking bird
http://naturestockshots.com/sandhill_crane.htm

Sandhill Cranes live 20 years and mate for life.
National Geographic’s Web site sports a nice video featuring the lovely flight and unique sounds of the Sandhill Crane. Click here.
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/animals/birds-animals/waders-and-waterfowl/crane_sandhillmigration.html?fs=animals.nationalgeographic.com
And did you know there’s a spring festival devoted to the Sandhill Crane? Indeed, there is, and it’s here in Colorado. Check it out here.
http://www.cranefest.com/

Posted in 1, wildlife

snippet of our silly video in which robots conspire to drink beer

Video only feed of autonomous robot navigating my hallways. The infrared sensors are visible with th