April 3, 2004
Dear Family and Friends,
This first weekend in April reminds us how changeable
and unpredictable our lives can be here in the mountains. Last month was
the driest March in nearly 100 years: our drought continues with slightly
more than one inch of precipitation during March making cities all along
the front range worry about continuing water restrictions and mountain folks
worry about their wells. We've had several wildfires in the region, a major
one that is on the verge of containment after a week of burning over 8000
acres north and west of Ft. Collins, about 100 miles from here. There is
already strong public support for an immediate fire ban in Boulder County,
except from those who demand a campfire to complete their weekend outdoor
experience.
Yet, surprise: This morning we woke to 8" of heavy
wet snow.
Evergreen branches are bent low and pasqueflowers in bud are hidden somewhere
under the snow. At the moment there is a beautiful Cassin's finch digging
snow off the hanging bird feeder just outside my office window, perhaps as
surprised by the sudden change in weather as we are. The snow will help put
some moisture back into the ecosystem and slightly raise the water levels
in area reservoirs, but the drought will need much, much more than this to
decrease the danger of fires and strengthen the resistance of trees to killing
diseases and insect infestation.
So much for the early spring weather report from west
of Boulder.
Our trip to New Zealand was
another "Great Trip." Number Seven. Not only did we learn more about the
rugged beauty and scenic joys of this country, but we returned with some of
the very best photographs we've taken on any trip. Our digital cameras took
up little space and weighed hardly anything, and the results were often postcard
spectacular. There are, of course, many snapshots verifying that we were
at one place or another; the one on the right was taken at the end of the
Milford Track by Alan holding the camera at arm's length. With the help of
our son, the trip is online like an extended photo album with lots of pictures
and brief captions in a day-by-day, place-by-place chronology that is easily
navigated at our web site. (If you were frustrated with your first encounter
with these pages, please try again. At the suggestion of a friend in Ohio,
Michael added some features that make navigating through the trip online
much more user friendly.)
The weeks before leaving on January 21 were devoted
to planning, purchasing, and packing what we'd need for backpacking (our first
trip requiring us to carry everything) in the second wettest region in the
world, as well as for being motel tourists in all kinds of summer weather
conditions (it turned out that meant mostly damp). When we got back, we spent
time going through over 1200 digital photos, weeding out the goofs, and selecting
those we wanted made into prints (150 4x6 prints at 20 cents each is $30,
about the price of half that many film photos plus processing; 
the difference is that we can pick only the best ones to print). We hosted
a local group to see the trip on TV with our photos on CD (and drink Steinlager—the
only NZ beer we could get—and finish off several bottles of NZ wines and
a mess of New Zealand green-lipped mussels). We had dinner with our
hiking companions, Alan and Cheryl. We shared each other's pictures and
began thinking about another trip together. (They'd like to trek in the
Himalayas or safari in Africa; we talked about trekking in Iceland or Switzerland—maybe
in Nepal or Bhutan. We'll see what next year brings.)
On the domestic front, there's not been a lot of time
since we came back to get into much trouble. Hughes resigned as Director
of the Visitors Center weary of micro management and budget ambiguities by
the new Chamber board), though he will continue to do his Saturday morning
"meet and greet" the visitors. A burst of warm weather the week before the
current snow encouraged H & J Construction to rebuild the rock walls
on the east side of the house that hold the flower beds against the house.
In spite of the daily back aches, we should have done this years ago. Also,
Judy found an incredible buy on a front-loading washing machine she's wanted
forever, requiring H & J Moving Co. and H & J Plumbing to spring
into action. We had a chance to really put it to the test by washing the
sleeping bags we used in New Zealand.
Frozen
Dead Guy Days, Nederland's quirky effort to lighten the winter blahs and
provide a brief transfusion to the town's economic ills, was bigger and better
than the past two events. Some things didn't change. Snow still had to be
hauled in from the ski area for the coffin races; a chain saw was used to
cut a hole in the ice on the children's fishing pond for the polar plunge
(That's Judy in the yellow dry suit waiting with other members of the Nederland
Fire Department to help folks out of the hole in the ice.); and Dead Man's
Ale was imported from Oregon. Three new events were quite popular: the Rib
Eating Contest (all you could eat in 5 minutes for $5) was a good meat-eating
value whether you qualified for the next round or not; the painful Brain
Freeze (you know the hurt in your mouth and head when you eat ice cream
too fast...?); and the Frozen T-Shirt Contest asked the question, how fast
can you extract a wadded up t-shirt soaked in water and frozen rock hard
from a plastic bag and put it on—over your clothing? Several thousand folks
showed up to see lots of hearses, coffins, and other groups in the
longest parade in Nederland's recent memory. The parade was so long that
it only made a single lap of the downtown parade route.
Judy continues to train for next month's running of
the Bolder-Boulder which she missed last year while recovering from injury.
The woman who last year finally won Judy's age group after years of coming
in second doesn't know it yet, but she will have to settle for second place
again. Hughes still meets a couple of times a month to make music with some
other guitars, fiddles, mandolins, and autoharps. He even gets to play the
tin whistle on occasion and spells the piano player when she wants to try
her hand at the fiddle or mandolin. We are both still reading mysteries
with other members of the local Mystery Book Club, and Judy continues reading
and discussing lit-er-a-ture with her ladies book club.
We don't have any firm travel plans until this summer.
Hughes hopes to go on a group mountain bike trip the last week of the month
on the Kokopelli
Trail (140 miles from the western border of Colorado to Moab, Utah). Plans
are still forming. Judy has been gearing up for a trip with granddaughter
Julia for a week this summer at Best
Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah. The "Reunion Group" (Judy's high
school girl friends and spouses) is planning their 7th gathering at Glacier
National Park in July.
However, for the most part we're keeping the
house picked up and the sheets clean on the bed in the guest room in anticipation
of out-of-town visitors. We don't know who yet, but if you're looking for
great mountain scenery and clean air at very reasonable rates, the Moir
B & B is hard to beat.
