First trip of the year

Good Morning,

This past weekend, I made my first trip of the year up to the project. I pulled into camp at 12:45 AM Saturday. The first surprise I got was the temperature. The preceding week, I had monitored weather reports on-line. The closest town listed is Termo which is about 20 miles away. All week long, the reports had said that it was hovering around 30 degrees at night and 40 during the day. When I got out of the truck, it was 17 degrees. YIKES!  My first task was getting a fire going in the wood stove. Between the stove and two propane heaters, it took two hours to get the dining room up to 40 degrees.

After a couple hours of sleep and a quick breakfast, I started loading fencing supplies. Once I had the truck loaded, I took a quick tour of areas that I thought would be dry enough. After losing my truck to the mud many times, I am a little gun shy this time of the year. What I saw on my tour is that spring is just starting up there. There is still snow on the ground where the sun does not get to. The roads are pretty dry but off road is still pretty moist. The grasses and flowers are just starting to break through the surface soil. There was an abundance of birds, flitting around and competing for the few insects that are around.

There was a buck antelope hanging out all weekend. Most of the times I saw him he was way off in the distance. However I did come upon him twice when he was close. He is a curious one. Both times that I was close, I stopped the truck to watch him and both times, he walked up to around 30 yards from the truck. Trying to figure out what I was I guess. The first time, I drove off with him still looking me over. The second time, all of a sudden he spun and ran like lightning. I think the wind must have shifted and he caught scent of the dogs who were in the back of the truck. What a beautiful animal when it is just standing, and even more amazing when it is in a full run. I also saw a fox, deer, chipmunks and squirrels.

I worked on the fencing around the Aspen grove most of Saturday and then again Sunday morning. It was perfect weather for slamming fence posts. The top foot or so of the soil is thawed and still moist. The temps never got over the high 40s which kept me from overheating. Between the two days, I slammed 86 fence posts. I got about three fourths of them in around the grove but I hit bedrock up above it. I will have to rent an air drill to make holes for the remaining posts. And then I can start putting up the wire.

The camp was in pretty good shape. A few mouse turds here and there inside. The mice found the hot pad mittens that we forgot to put away. Looks like the insulation in them made some good nests. But, I did not find any pack-rat nests or damage that I usually find when I open up the camp. Looks like we did a pretty good job of sealing up the cracks that they use to get in.

Sunday afternoon, I worked on the back-hoe then packed everything up and headed back home at around 6 PM. We pulled into Oakland at mid-night. Good trip. Got some work done and made it out whole....lol.