Blog

     We live 5 miles from Mt. Lake Hotel (of Dirty Dancing fame).  When we were looking at the property and making all of the construction decisions, the lake was full.  We stayed there for several nights with our eldest son and family and our youngest son.  It is a delightful place to stay.  Over the past 7 years, we have watched the lake go completely dry on two occassions and have read that this phenomena has occurred in the past when geologic changes have cause the drain holes in the bottom to leak water more quickly that the springs and rainfall were filling it.
     Though it is not the attraction that brings in visitors in this state, it is interesting to watch.  Since it went dry 3 summers ago, it has only refilled to about 20%, draining toward the dry end of summer and refilling partially in the winter.  We began to wonder if we would see it refill in our lifetime.  Last summer, when it was nearly dry, geologists began a study of why it was overdraining, where the water was going and if it would self correct.  Then the Conservancy that owns the property announced that the General Manager who had been there for dozens of years was retiring and a new, very young General Manager had been hired.
     Articles began to appear about the changes that were being made to bring back the guests, tearing down some old buildings, renovating others, adding new recreational opportunities, teaming with a local river outfitter for kayaking, rafting, or fishing trips on the New River.  Though I hated to see some of the buildings go, these were understandable changes.
     The change that bothers me, however, is that they have hired a company that has come in with heavy equipment to completely drain the lake, recontour the bottom, using boulders, then rocks, then gravel and soil to plug the drain holes in the bottom of the lake in hope of it refilling completely in the next two years.  We drove up to see this today and have a gnawing concern about how this might affect the water table and the wells of us that live a couple thousand feet below the lake in elevation.  Pehaps we should allow mother nature to take care of herself.

This year’s winter vacation was not with a ski club.  Instead we journeyed off to Steamboat Springs on our own to visit and ski with our cousins from Atlanta.  Leaving our home at 3:30 a.m. for a 6 a.m. flight.  Our accomodations were a beautiiful spacious 3 bedroom house that they traded for 2 weeks for their lovely hacienda in Zijuateneo Mexico.  From the house we can see Steamboat Springs ski slopes, the town and Howlsen Hill training area.

An afternoon adventure took us took us out of town to Strawberry Park to the hot springs.  It had snowed all day and had accumulated several inches, making the steep, narrow road a challenge, but our fearless driver in the rented Subaru Forrester met the challenge.  Upon arrival and paying our entry fee, we were directed to the changing hut, a small wooden structure, unheated, with 3 curtained stalls to change from all our winter layers into bathing suits.  Suits are optional after dark, but it was afternoon, so suits we wore.  The hut seemed freezing cold and to get from the hut to the pools were 30ish icy stone steps.  Back on went the snowboots.  Towel wrapped around the shivering body, out into the snow we went to a tiny stone shelter where you could leave your shoes and towels before settling into the pool of your choice, ranging from 70f to 110 f.  With hats on our heads to keep the snow off, we started in one of the warmer pools until we were about half boiled, then moved to a slightly cooler mineral pool to soak the sore from our skiing muscles and half fearing the walk back to the changing hut would be chilling in the 21 f air temperature and snowfall.  A quick dip back in the hotter pool, we ventured out and much to our amazement, we stayed warm, relaxed and sluggish as we climbed the icy steps back to the changing hut, which surprisingly no longer felt cold.  The rest of the day was been spent in residual lazy relaxation, hung over from the mineral bath under the snowy skies.

Six great days of skiing with more than a foot of fresh powder while we were there.  We arrived home 8 days later just after midnight.  It was a great, exhilarating week.

Snow fog this morning.

     The change in seasons brings new sights and sounds to the lives of the pups.  Our log home has a metal roof and the ice and snow sliding off and crashing to the ground made them jumpy and constantly on guard for the first couple of snows we had.  Now they glance up and ignore it.
     The end of hunting season has brought the deer back out to graze and as the grass is browned and often covered with snow, they come closer to the house where the rain runoff areas that are sheltered from the worst of the winds, often have more grass or clover still available.  Their scent and occasional glimpse of them make the dogs crazy.
     Ranger, the mastiff, takes offense at the vacuum, barking at it like it is going to eat me, brooms and mops are potential toys, to chase.  This makes cleaning up the constant coating of dog hair a bit of a challenge and I have learned to do it when they are outside chasing each other or to our dismay, exploring the creeks that are flowing freely with the rain and snow melt.
     The newest item of their concern, however are two tiny Tufted Titmice that discovered a dried sunflower that I hung last fall from the eaves of the front porch.  They have been flitting in and out grabbing seeds for the past several days.  At first the dogs barked, scaring the little birds away.  Now they sit, vigilant. . .

Ranger, bone in mouth, watching them from the living room windows.

Shadow, alert and probably wondering if she could catch one, she is the stink bug annihilator, chasing them down and eating them.  She also brought me a dead, half eaten squirrel a few day ago.  Only she know where she got that one, but it was still flexible.

The source of their attentiveness.  Our guard dogs.

     The snow caped skeleton trees and frosted cedars, glimpses of the snow through the bare forest on the hillside, snow on the ground and still falling, make a memory to revisit when the temps and humidity soar this summer.  I love the mountains, year-round.

     I don’t know how long it takes to make a tradition, but this is the 4th Friday in a row for snow.

     Another snowy wonderland for puppy play.  A day to knit, spin and read.

     The severe weather in the south has thankfully missed my family living in Georgia.  It is raining hard here, with flash flood warnings and the threat of more trees down and power outages.  The floods are not really a threat to us this high on the mountain and our creek is lower than our house.  The weather was a discouragement to drive two towns over to my weekly knit night.  I missed them last week while we were skiing, and I was looking forward to the socialization, but I don’t like to drive at night in good weather, so venturing out tonight wasn’t going to happen.
     Instead of knitting with the ladies, I stayed in and spent the evening spinning.  I finished half of a 4 ounce bag of Merino that I bought with my daughter in Florida last summer and plied about 130 yards of 9 wpi (worsted) weight yarn for her.  I don’t know what she will do with it when I finish and mail it to her, but it has been interesting to spin and I learned Navajo plying to try to keep the colors interesting.

     Hubby and I were very dedicated to improving our health and stamina and joined the gym about 3 years ago.  We went about 6 days a week, walking the indoor track or on a treadmill, cycling on a stationary bike, using weight machines.  This seemed to help when we went skiing and for hiking our mountain trails.  Last spring, once our basement rec room was completed, we used the money we had been spending for the gym membership to invest in a treadmill and 3 pair of free weights.  Our routine was for me to get up in the morning and go down to use the treadmill and hubby used it each evening.  We were both in good shape, he had lost a significant amount of weight and we both felt good.
     Sometime during the summer with the dogs, trips, and gardening, the dedication to walk each day faltered.  Fall came and with it a series of illnesses and still we lagged from our dedication.  This past week, we took a 3 day ski trip, and realized that we were helplessly out of shape with only a few weeks until a more significant ski trip out west.  This was a wake up call and we decided to encourage each other to rededicate ourselves to fitness. 
     First day all I managed was a 30 minute performance walk with some incline and only about a mile and a half of distance.  Today I was determined to get in a 5K and I wanted it in under an hour, much slower than I was doing before.  I did manage it in 53 minutes with some incline and continued to walk for the remainder of the hour getting up to 3.4 miles.  I’m hoping that between the walking and the riding lessons, that the western trip will be somewhat easier on us and our overall health and well-being will improve again.