I just loaded the WordPress App on my iPad.
The Above is a snapshot from the iPad screen that was saved in the iPad photo library. Expect more of this next month during the feast of the RAGBRAI.
Archive for June, 2012
iPad testing: XML-RPC Enabled
Friday, June 22nd, 2012THANK YOU FIRE FIGHTERS
Thursday, June 21st, 2012Hey, I found a few trucks:
Fire fighters from Lakewood, Co, The Colorado National Guard, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Great Northern Fire, Eagle CO. F.D., Sunfire from Keystone, SD., Basalt Fire & Rescue, Syracuse UT FD, BLM Fire, Rapid City SD FD, Edgemont SD FD, Kansas Fire Service, and last but not least, the Left Hand Fire & Rescue. To you and all the others I didn’t see today, THANKS FOR BEING HERE!
Solstice Jam Party
Wednesday, June 20th, 2012In Old Town Square, Fort Collins:
Yet Another Community Drum Circle
This was sort of a last minute assortment of drums and people to celebrate the longest day of the year at 5:09 PM on June 20, 2012.
Some people biked in with their drums
The Black Sheep with Congas in tow
NoCo Water
Tuesday, June 19th, 2012Celebrating it’s 75th year:
Now located in Berthoud, Colorado
I think I’ve mentioned before that water is an important topic in Northern Colorado. And if you need to learn as much as you can about what’s going on with our water (us being Northern Coloradoans) you can get on the waiting list to attend a NCWCD tour. Once you are on the guest list, you can get on over to Berthoud, Co. (Remember Berthoud?) and get on the bus to either the east or west slope tours.
Windy Gap blow holes
The pumping station at Windy Gap pushes tons of water up-hill in an eastern direction towardLake Granby with the intention to control the water level of the lake: It is not to change by more than 12 inches! If something happens to the pumps that would make them stop, tons of water flow back to the station and shoot out of the blow holes.
Not an ICBM bunker
It’s a tunnel that goes under Rocky Mountain National Park
The Alva B. Adams Tunnel, specifically
One of many tunnels in the “System”, the system being the Colorado-Big Thompson Water Project (aka, the C-BT) , but this one is the largest water tunnel, 13.1 miles long, 9.75 feet in diameter, drops 109 feet end to end (How did they do that?) it takes the water from Grand Lake on the east on the mountains and delivers it at 5 miles per hour to Mary’s Lake on the east side of the mountains.
Pumping station talk
Among other talks on the tour– Oh, about the tour: This was the West Slope Tour: it was free, and it included a continental breakfast and lunch and a bus ride through Rocky Mountain National Park and back; Total time on tour: 10 hours!
Windy Gap Reservoir bird island
This was a very environmentally friendly area and it was great for viewing the local wildlife. Of course there are many more reservoirs in the chain of the C-BT, let’s see: Our water comes from Green Mountain to Windy Gap to Lake Granby to Shadow Mountain to Grand Lake to Mary’s Lake to Lake Estes to Pinewood to Flatiron and finally Horsetooth.
Eric tells us how
Eric is one of the plant engineers at the C-BT and he gave us even more information about Colorado water than the engineer on the 2 hour bus ride up to Windy Gap. Really it’s information overload unless you are a water engineer or something like that.
It’s WAR
Sunday, June 17th, 2012The High Park fire is now the largest wild fire on record in Colorado:
The National Guard has their HUMVEE’s ready to go
View from the back yard
Earlier today it was relatively clear in the foothills but later today the winds changed and now smoke and ash is blowing into Old Town Fort Collins.
At Vern’s in LaPorte
The firefighters’ number one priority is to keep the fire from spreading to populated areas. They are doing what they can, but today’s winds are making it difficult.
Wyoming Postcards #1
Saturday, June 16th, 2012Today it’s the Wyoming Territorial Prison
The Prison in Laramie, Wyoming
The cells were in the large brick building on the right and inside the wooden fortification were the exercise area and a manufacturing building to keep the prisoners busy.
Front entrance
The is the first thing Butch Cassidy saw when he got off the prison wagon to spend some “hard time” for stealing a horse.
The Infirmary
The prison is now a museum; Originally built in 1872, it held prisoners until 1903 and it was restored in 1989 and is now a Wyoming Historic Site.
Guard’s beds and a few irons
Guard’s view of the cells
Over 1000 men and 12 women passed though these doors.
Prison Bunks
“Prisoner” making a broom
The prison shop made 720 broom a day. Some were exported to Japan and China!
Bingham Hill Park
Wednesday, June 13th, 2012Remember “Payton’s Hill” in Arlington Heights, Illinois?
This is the view from “Bingham Hill Park” looking westward
I was biking up Bingham Hill a few weeks ago in preparation for the preparation of that big bike ride across Iowa, whatever it’s called… Rag– something or other. In this picture there is a farm house and above it in the background are the foothills of the Roosevelt National Forest.
The same view today
The smoke from the High Park Fire has taken away the foothills for the moment. Uncertain winds will change this scene more than a dozen times in a day and there are hopes that the fire does not spread eastward. Since last reported on June 9th, the size of this fire has increased an order of magnitude. The type I fire crews have control of 10% of the fire as of today. Note: Type I fire crews function as the “initial attack” on a forest fire while the type II crews carry out suppression efforts and mop-up activity.
Bingham Hill area residents on the hill
I watched as several people over an hour’s time walk up to the top and look over the valley in the direction of the fire. The home-owners are a bit edgy as they know that conditions could change rapidly and the fire could spread into the valley. Less than a mile west of the hill is the road leading to Lory State Park; the road is blocked by Colorado National Guard vehicles and so is Rist Canyon Road near the town of Bellvue.
We will be glad to hear on the news when the Type II fire crews are in place. Soon I hope…
Jackson and the hole
Monday, June 11th, 2012On the road north into Wyoming we find:
Drive up liquor stores in Jackson
This is in Jackson, Wyoming– not to be confused with ‘Jackson Hole’ which is the valley between the mountains north of Jackson although some people think the town’s name is Jackson Hole, but it ain’t. Even some of the locals like to say they are “from Jackson Hole” when they really mean “Jackson”. Why anyone would want to be from a “Hole” is a mystery; maybe because some celebrities like to visit the real Jackson Hole to go skiing?
Tim, Scott, Danny and Bryan looking in the direction of Donnie Scott(not in the picture)
The band is known as the Bar-J Wranglers and they play seven nights a week during the summer months at the Bar-J Chuckwagon in Jackson, WY. The Bar-J is part of something called the Chuckwagon Association of the West which includes the Bar-D in Durango, CO, the Circle B in Rapid City, S.D., the Flying J in Riudos, NM and the Flying W in Colorado Springs, CO.
If you ever get to Jackson for an evening in summer, the Bar-J Chuckwagon is the place to be. Note: They don’t serve liquor.
High Park on Fire
Saturday, June 9th, 2012The view west from our deck:
Near Rist Canyon
At the time this picture was taken at noon today, it was a 200 acre fire. By 7:30 p.m. it increased to 5000 acres. It looked like the Horsetooth Reservoir was on fire this morning but in reality the High Park area is about 25 miles from here. What a start to the Summer, two days ago it was the Camman fire, then Stuart Hole fire, and last month the Hewlett fire.