7/12/11 update :O)

Gary looking for gold in rocks, thought it was cool framed like this out of this old cabin window.  we we're about 12000 ft above sea level. Yes, it was hard to breathe lol

these are the cripple creek burros, they roam around all over the town free.   It's really cool when you see them walking down main street with all the casino lights going. 

and of course a picture of cricket :O)  at 12000 ft in the old cabin. She is the only one that acted like the altitude didnt bother her.  lil brat.

this is the view from the top of that mountain looking down at twin lakes.  about half way down you can see a pond, I think it would be a perfect place for a cabin :O) 

Gary Peggy and Matt.  this was about the only time I got them to all be in the same spot.

Stopped at this spot just east of the monarch pass, was a few ft to the bottom lol   gary was playing it safe:O)

still here :O)

  howdy all :O) 
  Just lettin you all know that Iam still alive and doing great.  Peggy Gary and Matt are here with me prospecting until tomorrow then then head back to Kansas sat morning.  going to miss not having them around here, its been truly a blast and a joy :O)  I will miss them.  We have been prospecting everyday and have been finding some gold each day, some days its pretty fair and sometimes its not so good :O)  But a bad day prospecting is still better then the best day at work  lol   Have not seen a bear yet, still waiting ..    I will be in town Sunday to do laundry and such, I will post pictures most likely then.  If not I will do so soon.  I promise  :O)    Matt has been camping here with me in his tent while Peggy and Gary have stayed in town at the motel. 
  Sure hope all is well with everyone and that they are enjoying their summer as much as I am mine :O)   talk later and be safe all    :O)   

rambiling again

  Going to have company this weekend and next week.  Looking forward to seeing them.   I have been just skipping around here and there this week waiting to meet up with Peggy Gary and Matt.  I was as you know over by fairplay for a while, headed back this way and stayed the night about half way back to buena vista on a co road.  then went on to buena vista and then right on threw to granite co.  Stopped and looked around that little mining town for  awhile then headed on up the road too leadville co. Seen some really cool old houses and museums.  Visited with some people and decided to head back too granite and check out cache creek where we are going to go gold prospecting while they are here.  Talked to some of the old timers about prospecting and how they were getting along out there gold wise.  They showed me some of their gold and it defiantly got me interested!!!  Found a pretty good spot I think, will have to tell you later after we dig big holes again lol 
  I spent the night up in the national forest above granite that night and talk about mosquitoes!!!  Again!!!  about ate me alive but the worst was yet to come the next night lol  anyway, got up and drove back down the mountain, stopped at the granite cemetery and looked at all the old head stone, some of them were really works of art.  
  I headed over the ridge to clear creek lake,  pretty little lake but around 4 or 5 in the evening you want to run to your camped and make sure that there are no holes anywhere or your going to get eaten alive by the millions of little tiny mosquitoes that thrive there!!!!  its horrible!!!  you can even feel them stick you, just afterwards when you feel the itch do your realize that you have been stuck!!   other than the mosquitoes, it a really nice place. Meet an old guy there that was real interesting to talk too. We both stayed a extra night because we were having such a good time bull sh*tn with each other lol 
  Met a couple from Arkansas there too,  they are living in there van since the lost there jobs there and are working there way back to Arizona. He's a pretty good artist (not as good as Terra :O)    but pretty good. He sells his art when ever they find a place that will let them set up a booth.  Not rich but they get by and they love the way they are living now.    

Anyway,  I will post some of my pictures later on, not sure when I will get the next chance to be on here while Peggy and Gary are here, will be doing some sight seeing and then prospecting. After they leave next week I am most likely going to stay up the since everything will be all ready set up and just keep on prospecting for at least another week. So it might be awhile before you hear from me.  Until then, be safe   :O)

rambling

I took cricket to the vet, she is fine now. They said that she might have ate some deer poop and that will give dogs the diarrhea. I had them express her glands again and he said that since I just had it done 5 months ago that I will have to keep a close eye on it or it could get bad. He also told me that cricket has a heart murmur…. Its not bad right now but I have to be careful with her and pay attention. He said that there is medicine she can take to help her if it get any worse. Other than that the little girl is doing great and loving it out here. :O)

Just found the location thingy on here lol  guess I should have been doing that all along. I will try to remember that I need to do that so you can follow me at a glance 
 I'm sitting here is a bar in fairplay, really cool looking place for a bar. the people are really friendly. Might have to come back over here tonight and shoot some pool and meet some of the locals.   I'm not sure which direction I am going to go this time, have to flip a coin I guess :O)  I do believe that I will be staying below 10000 feet though,  It was okay but you run out of breath really fast. 
 Just texted with my sis angel, she is in eagle new Mexico with her husband visiting his family.  Wish that I could go down and see her but its not in the works right now. maybe the next time.   I wouldn't mind seeing the back roads of new Mexico.    Well, better get off here for a while and check the maps and check on cricket dog :O)  she hates it when I have to leave her in the rv.    Talk later all and be safe :O)
 

more pics

i guess they dont call it beaver creek for nothing lol   this thing has rocks the size of a baby's head mixed in there with all the sticks and mud.  This one is just alittle taller than I am. So I would guess 7 feet.  

this is the top side of the beaver dam.

this fence was covered with all types of shoes for about 1/2 mile on both sides.  there are tennis shoes, hiking boots, ski boots everything but a pr of work boots Ssssoooooooo   lol

                                                                                                             I added a pair of boots of mine :O)

fairplay colo / beaver cr.

I have been up at Beaver creek co for the last 6 days so far, about 10900 ft above sea level. Yes, it was hard to breath at first lol I’m at the GPOC claim here and across the creek there is a old mining operation, I took several pics of the old stuff around there.

Found this jack rabbits foot in the tree just like the pic shows, I don’t think that it was very lucky for him so I left it there. I need better luck than that lol

These owls were in the park at Buena vista, one adult and two babies. They sat there all day long watching everyone walk around the park. I was extra careful with cricket because the adult was eyeballing her pretty hard. The park was a really nice one too, couldn’t stay over night but you could hang out all day. There was bathrooms and water hydrants and you could dump your trash there in the bin. I also found a place on the east end of main street by the activities park that have restrooms and a public shower. It costs you a dollar for 3 minutes, it took me 3 dollars to get clean just stand there in the hot spray of water :O) It felt sooooo GOOOOOOOODDDDD!!!! Lol I do miss my hot showers with water pressure..

This old shovel is something out of the mad max movie I am pretty sure :O) It could be related to dads loader which his dad had started building and using back in the 40’s. They look like they were built by the same person. What do you think clayt? Lol I don’t think we can drive her home though so you might want to bring a trailer lol

 

This is the view I had from the top of a mountain ridge that I climbed the other day, took me 2.5 hrs to climb it and about 45 min to come back down lol Didn’t see any animals except squirrels birds and ants… Lots of huge ant hills around here, got to be careful where you stop to rest at because sometimes, they don’t make ant hills they just kind of make their home at ground level.. Cricket started hoping around like a crazy dog and come to find out she had stopped in one such place.. She is more observant of the ground now :O)

Okay, so they are not whales but they were fun to catch. About froze my feet off standing in the water to catch them. I guess this is as big as they get up here, They are called browns I guess from what one guy was telling me. There are some beaver ponds here too, some really big ones. Probably about head high to me. I have learned one thing too, when it comes about time for the sun to set, you go inside because the mosquitoes from the beaver ponds come out to play!!!!
The side of the mountain by the old gold mine had these flowers all over it, thought I would share them with you all :O  

sunsets and cricket and more rambling

I couldn't decide on which picture to post  so I put both of them on here :O)  hope you enjoy them.

Cricket enjoying the stream :O)   I think that she is part lab or something because she really likes the water. It looks deeper than you might think.  I jumped over it and she thought she needed to be on the other side too,  jumped right in and barely made it across.  I made her a bridge out of some boards but I forgot to take a picture of her crossing over it.  When she went across it you could see on her face and actions that she thought that it was pretty cool to get across the stream without getting wet.  lol

 

We also saw a few animals while we were hiking around,  one evening we saw a hen grouse with 2 little babies, she was doing the fake hurt bird thing trying to lead us away from her babies that where scrambling down the mountain side.  The stood about 2 inch's high but they sure could move..  The hen stayed about 5 to 10 feet away from us the whole time until we took another path away from them so she could go round them up again :O) 

 then just yester day we saw a deer as we were walking down the road, it wasn't but 20 ft from us and there we all stood looking at each other like who is going to make the first move. I did, i reached for the camera and that's all it took, the moment was gone :)  he took to the hills.

This morning I was cleaning up camp and putting things away, took the humming bird feeder down to rinse it out and while i was squatting there with the bottom of the feeder in my hand at head level I heard a humming bird that was real close!! looked up and there he was trying to get a drink out of it, we looked at each other eye to eye

about 12 inches from each other lol   I didn't know if he was going to poke my eye out or what for taking away his lunch buffet.  :O)   I would loved to have had a picture of that.