Dog got down
It just got real (See Signs, Trump Dilemma) and now we have a president-elect who is orange in color. I can’t understand how any woman would vote for this guy, but apparently some did and a lot of voters just didn’t vote so…
Look for plenty of ‘deer in the headlights’ moments, continued tweets that make no sense and just plain ‘made for TV’ bullshit we’ve all seen before. Nobody wins.
Remember last September when we went to Chimney Rock ? No? Well click HERE if you forgot.
Chimney Rock Farms has a Mobile Hemp Lab!
It’s a chemical extraction laboratory! Basically you can take this to hemp farms within Colorado Washington state to provide an extraction service on the spot. You can just pack up and go to the next farm and do it all over again. It even has a bunk and portable toilet so you can save on hotel bills.
Basic ethanol extractor
Remember back when I sold some of my extractors on E-Bay? There’s an old post from May, 2008 about selling my micro Soxhlet. Oh, HERE it is!
Here, this guy explains it
“How can farmers profit in the new Hemp Nutraceutical value chain if they are locked into the commodity side of the business?” Huh? What? Oh, look! 22 Liter flasks!
All Aboard?
Backpacks loaded into baggage car
of the D&SNG which stands for the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge. How narrow? About 3 feet. Normal tracks are 4 feet, 8.5 inches.
Steam engine #486 getting ready to haul ass
Our asses, and a number of other passengers. We’re going up to Silverton, Colorado to see the mines.
Steam release on the bridge
If you think you are smart enough, you can wait for a good turn in the tracks and hang out to take a picture of the engine during the ride up to Silverton. Make sure you stow your valuables when you attempt this as they could get sucked out of the window. FYI, my hotel key card is now lying on the track bed about 25 miles south of Silverton!
The Return Trip ?
No, it was suggested that we take the train up to Silverton then take the bus back. It’s a good idea, especially if you’re not THAT crazy about trains. The trip up took 3.5 hours. Trip down, a little over an hour. Not the same as the FoCo trolly ride’s 10 minute trip but worth it once in a lifetime.
Was the Animas River Orange today?
No, all that bad orange sludge went someplace into New Mexico and perhaps further South. NOTHING TO SEE HERE. GO ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS.
A Ghost Bike:
Yet another Memorial
Here a cyclist was run over by a dump truck and killed on Kirchner Road. The accident is marked by the bike painted white, a ‘Ghost Bike’. We’ve seen them closer to home as shown here back in November of 2013. Kirchner road is one of those overpass roads that lets you cross the I25 highway avoiding the high traffic volume that’s typical on the Harmony road interchange about a mile north from this spot. Still, it’s the safest way to Swetsville Zoo. There is a short section over the bridge that provides very little shoulder and care must be taken when riding here. Just watch out, and please be safe.
The DDA says “No Way!”
Time for a change
Can’t take visitors through Old Town this Summer because there’s not much to see. Not good for the businesses is the area, and to make matters worse, a transformer fire just the other day caused a number of stores to go into emergency status. Most notable was Ben and Jerry’s loss of power to their ice cream freezers. Too bad Duncan Madog was not there to lap up the goodness.
Over budget, so what else is new?
Was $3 million, now $3.9 million. The man said “By bringing in additional resources, we are not at the point where we are having to look at eliminating amenities or features,” and “We are approaching changes with a scalpel and finding efficiencies in the ways things are built … rather than using a chainsaw and lopping off a desired amenity as a way to stay within budget. The goal is to not have to go there.”
Stuff happens on the front range…
Racoon, Rabbit, maybe something else?
And a collection of Silphidae adults and a mess of Enchytraeidae in the dirt. This reminds me of the time we went to Boris’ lecture on Forensic Entomology back in 2009 (Click HERE to see it) No blow-fly larvae found. 🙁
Don’t kid yourself– it’s still winter; even though the east coast is knee deep in snow and it is 70 degrees in FoCoLand…
Dead Frog
At least I *think* its dead. I poked at it with a stick and it didn’t move. Note that I put a quarter next to it on the frozen pond to show you how big this frog was or is. Whatever. Dead Frog.
Dead for sure
Desiccated frog on the shore. How did it get there? I’ve been to this pond many times and have never seen this before. This could be a normal thing thing perhaps if the water becomes frozen solid.
Dead Fish too
There are some that claim that the ice on the top of ponds can cut the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water and if there is a lot of plant growth and silt on the bottom it can spell death to any fish if the pond is iced over for several weeks. Then again some might say it is caused by “military testing of some kind, maybe some kind of death ray maybe some chemical, testing it on the animals with a view to possible future use on humans”
Or was that the 15th annual Sustainable Living Fair?
On display, A Tesla Model S EV
Yes, on display only. I volunteered to drive/co-pilot the Electric Vehicles (EV) at this year’s fair. I test drove a Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt and Mitsubisho MiEV, but NOT THE TESLA. Maybe next year?
It gets better: Finnders and Youngberg on the Main Stage
and a giant chess set made out of junk
All along N/S Harmony road Fort Collins was hit by a hailstorm today:
Average size for our area
But further east the hail piled up on the roadways and some claim tennis ball sized or larger. Roofs, skylights and gardens got shot to hell today. Nobody remembers hail this bad, but who knows? So far, our damage appears to be bug screens and window glazing. Don’t know about the roof yet.
News flash! All the dinosaurs got wet!
Even the metal Scelidosaurus got his front feet wet
The Poudre river is running high today and it is quite evident at the Swetsville zoo. I don’t remember seeing *all* of the creatures standing in the water like this.
OK, maybe the one guy on the TyranosIsland didn’t get wet
But really the place was TOTALLY CLOSED TODAY! I rode out with Duncan Madog to visit the zoo, but we could only view the zoo from the Harmony Street bridge.
The metal musical sculptures were silent
It’s raining again the the mountain snows are melting. And there were reports of tornadoes in Weld County (Ha! I get it now! Welded sculptures in Weld county, right? No, wait, it’s in Larimer County, but maybe the Weld County line is about 4 miles east of here.)
