4th of July, 2023: Too much fun, plenty of work. What a start to summer.

I had to start this belated blog with a slideshow of a walk I took last month with the dogs through a rare Iris superbloom up near Navajo Peak. I’d guess that only 50-60% had bloomed at that point, but it was already spectacular. Of course, photos simply can’t catch the beauty, but you get the idea, and maybe will be inspired to find some wild flowers near you. The smell was as amazing as the flowers. Also amazing was the fact that there had been NO one else up there.

The best part of the day was using my Olympus SLR camera for the first time in several years. I’ve become completely dependent on pics from my Pixel phone, which are pretty good, but not as much fun! Alan gave me the camera years ago, and I took many wonderful photos of animals in the wild, but slowly put it aside for the ease of the phone. Aaarggh!

June was full of good times, interspersed with hard work. Alan was finally able to turn on the filtered well water system, (He has become quite the plumber). It had ZERO leaks and is working perfectly so far, meaning I am able to water the new aspen trees with a hose!

Turning it on was a 2 day job. First we had to SHOCK the well, which involves pouring 3 gallons of bleach down the well head and running it with hundreds of gallons of water through the entire system. We then let it sit 12 hours to kill any bacteria, then flushed all the bleach out with hundreds more gallons. That ran the well dry, so we had to let it recharge to full capacity, which took another few hours. Then, and only then, could we start opening the many shut-off valves. And it all worked!

Now Alan is working on adding backflush drains, and then will start hooking up the on-demand hot water heater! That is truly something to look forward to. It’s been nearly 2 years since we started this adventure: which means nearly 2 years without hot running water. (other than in the camper).

I’ve been doing small projects: sanding the cold room door, finishing the woodwork in the bathroom, lots and lots of laundry, things that are not very exciting, and part of the reason I have not been writing blogs! We’ve also been taking lots of shorter hikes, trying to average at least 3 miles/day.

At night we tend to retire to the “TV room” upstairs and watch a show. We’ve been enjoying Joe Pickett and Alone and the new Avatar. We don’t really watch for very long, which is why the new Avatar movie took us 4 nights to finish.

Our daughter, Amanda, came to visit with Brody, dropping off her older sons, Alex and Will, for 10 days. It is always a pleasure to have them around. Alan and Alex hiked up to the clifftop on the old road Alan found that makes it a relatively easy 2.5 mile walk. The view from the top shows the new gravel covering the driveway. Interestingly, it is much, much greener than it looks here, with thick grass 3′ tall throughout the valley.

We took the kids camping on the Conejos River an hour away. A beautiful spot, but the mosquitos were atrocious! We spent quite a bit of time hiding out in the camper. One day, though, we went up to Platoro, high enough to escape bugs.

Now we’re home, settling into a long, hot, dry spell. It is 90 degrees today, which is hotter than average. Humidity is at about 10%. That’s dry. Fire danger is high. But the mornings are cool, getting down to 35 degrees at 6 am. That makes the heat so much more bearable.

So, Alan and I wish you all a Happy 4th of July and a summer full of joy and fun.