A Year of Change

That’s all it was, just a dusting. In true Colorado fashion, the little bit of snow was gone in a couple hours. What a Fall. Everyone wants snow, mostly skiers and boarders. We’re just fine with this as it will come, no doubt about it.

Watching the news this morning, it looks like more of the typical crap in the city. First a suspect is in court for a random stabbing of a teacher in Thornton. This guy shouldn’t have been on the streets with his prior convictions. Next up, a drive by shooting suspect was captured. I’m sure he’ll be back on the streets by this afternoon. One poor girl was shot in the head. Another random act of violence. Throw in a few road rage incidents, and it’s just another day in Big D. Keep your head on a swivel if you’re down there!

Lori has her post-op checkup appointment today at 2. It’s a virtual appointment, thank God. Ty has a physical on Thursday. Looks like Jag might be off to Chicago on Monday and back Tuesday. He’s pretty far down the road with a firm that wants to hire him, fingers crossed it works out.

I have a call with Italy in 30 minutes or so and then another at 9, also with Italy. I’m making big changes at work. We’ll see if everyone sticks around or not as I’m also putting the Team on a more performance-based compensation package starting in January. If they perform, they’ll make more! The free ride is over.

My neck is sore this morning. Probably from lugging a rifle around on my shoulder up and down the mountains Sunday morning. 50 degrees up here today, which is really warm for November 18th.

That’s it, have a great day, be well, stay safe and God Bless.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: I did yesterday’s blog last night, so if interested, click back to yesterday’s post.

No snow at the house but you can see it up high, but it is a bit cooler outside. Hard to believe it’s November 17th. Thanksgiving is a week from Thursday! Time flies.

It’ll be a busy week for me. I have calls with Italy and France, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Friday, Davy I might head down for the last couple days of deer season.

Lori is getting much better, but as is her personality, she does too much, too soon. Think I’ll get to the gym for a couple miles on the treadmill before my 10am call. Have a great day, and go get your turkey now!

God Bless and Go Broncos!

I was up early stalking elk. By sunup, we were on a group of six. I hiked a couple miles up a mountain to get within 500 yards, and when I went around a huge boulder to set up for a shot, they gave me the slip. That’s why they call it hunting and not killing, ha. No big, might run down next weekend for a buck as we have a few 4th season buck tags.

We rushed home for the Broncos game and made it one minute after kickoff. It was a great game that we deserved to win, and this time we did.

Lori is doing much better. She still needs to stay home for a few days but works on her computer from here. Sorry for the late post today but Lor didn’t get to it. Ty and I watched the game together and Jag had a blast being there. See you in the morning, GB.

Davy and I will hit the road around 9 or 10. We’ll hunt tonight and tomorrow morning and hopefully be home in time to watch the Bronco game. Should be a good game.

Looks like the snow will arrive down there Monday, about 24 hours too late for hunting season. Maybe the elk will be heading down anyhow with the temps coming down. If not, still fun.

Ty is up and about to leave for work. He calls Mom every morning around 5:30 asking if she’ll make him breakfast. We need to tell him not to do that, ha. I was going to drive today but I think we’re taking the two dogs down with us as Abbey is off to Steamboat for a hockey tournament for River.

Hard to believe there’s about six weeks left in the year. 2026 sounds so futuristic. Thought we’d all be in flying cars by now. Certainly didn’t think we’d be so divided as people. If you think about it, it’s like adults have turned into children, and I blame both sides. It is Dems though that are like little brats but then the Republicans take the bait and react from time to time. Sitting on the sidelines, if you look at it objectively, it’s hard to even believe this shit can go on in 2025. We should all be living together peacefully with a live and let live philosophy, enjoying the advances we as people have made. It’s really frustrating to have every aspect of our lives inundated with politics and social disagreements. I think that’s the best thing about being semi off the grid, like at the ranch, or at any rural place. You’re not exposed to all the crap going on. It’s like it doesn’t exist. Maybe we just need to turn off our tv’s and get rid of our phones. As soon as we retire, we’re switching our phone numbers.

Oh well, is what it is, have a great Saturday. I’ll do the blog tomorrow afternoon as Lori will probably not get to it tomorrow. Hope everyone is doing well. Continue to fight the good fight and God Bless and Go Broncos!

Lori is getting better with each day that passes. Looking forward to being done with this. Ty’s off to work and I’ll head to the gym soon. Snow is coming, but maybe not soon enough to drive down the elk from the high country. Davy and I are heading back down to the ranch tomorrow morning to see what we can see. We’ll come back Sunday. Marty has to go to some Thanksgiving dinner in Greely with the in-laws as he can’t go on Thanksgiving.

Jag is working on a project for a company that wants to hire him. Think he goes to Chicago or New York in a week or so. We’ll no more next week.

Work is work. One day down at Davy’s ranch gives you a taste of the stark difference between how we live and how we should be living. Lori and I are making a move. Not sure when, where, or how, but between her surgery, and what she’s gone through, and the non-stop hamster wheel we’re both on at work, we realize there has to be a better way. Could be living on a golf course in Scottsdale, or on a ranch in Montana, maybe both! One thing we do know is continuing the day-to-day grind, wasting the years in the back half of our life, while we’re still relatively young and active, isn’t the answer. I think we’re all so conditioned to do what everyone does, that you never make the change. Diving into something new is hard for people. That can be retirement, moving, starting a new job, anything. People are creatures of habit which means you get into a routine and do the same thing over and over, like Groundhog Day. Not us, we’re doing something, we just don’t know what yet, but we will soon.

It was so peaceful down at the ranch. No phone, computer, no noise at all. Time moved slower. We were up at 5 and by 9am it felt like a whole day went by back home. It made me think, what the hell am I doing? I’ve been back for 2 days and can feel the difference, in everything. More to come.

Here are some pictures. First one is 5:30am, then closer to 6, and the inside of one of the cabins from the 1900’s that Davy added on to.

That’s it for today! Time to get moving. Have a great day, be well and God Bless.

Yesterday we were up early and glassing the mountainside at 6:10 when the sun came up. It was 12 degrees, which seems cold, but with no snow, is not cold enough to drive the elk down out of the high country. I think they were down during the night, eating and drinking from the river which flows right through the middle of the ranch, and then worked their way back up through the timber before sunrise.

We glassed for a good two hours, seeing dozens of deer, but no elk. We had two other guys on radios, and we all kept checking with each other. In the end though, no elk.

After driving around the ranch in Rangers (4-wheel drive Polaris Rangers used on the ranch) and considering the 3 days of scouting before of not seeing any elk, we figured they won’t come down until there’s some snow. Good news is Friday there’s a 30% chance of moisture, which would be snow down there, and 50% on Saturday. With the season ending Sunday, we decided to pack it in until Saturday morning. By 11 we all hit the road the home. Marty and I took Hwy 92 up the Black Canyon of the Gunnison River and then dropped down through Crawford until we hit 133 at Hotchkiss which we took into Carbondale. Then we cut over Cottonwood Pass to Gypsum. It’s about a 3 and a half, four-hour drive. I told him, we just drove all that way with using a major highway like I-70. We pulled in around 5 or so as we stopped for food in El Jebel. Davy and I will watch the weather and hopefully head back down Saturday morning. Marty has to go to a family pre-Thanksgiving thing in Greeley. He’s bummed.

Davy just called and we decided we will head back down Saturday morning. Abbey is flying out at 7:30 this morning for a funeral in Michigan and back tomorrow night. The ranch is amazing. Davy’s dad bought the first 1100 acres of the ranch in 1994 for $1.1 million. Two years later he added another 1800 acres. The Gunnison River runs smack dab in the middle of it. There’s five houses and a couple cabins. Of course, the houses are decked out using all kinds of old furniture from the stores and stuff. After I sent Lori pictures, she said, let’s move there!

Lori is doing as well as can be expected. She’s on 50 mg of steroids for the next three weeks, along with a heavy dose of Keflex, which is an antibiotic. Her neck is still red, but not as swollen. Good news is, her headache is almost nonexistent. We just need to get rid of the rash and we’ll be good to go.

Ty’s off to work and I’m going to go to the gym. 6:39am right now. I fell asleep around 8 and slept until 5:30. Have a great day, be well, take care and God Bless. Winter’s a coming!

Lori forgot to do the blog today. Sorry it’s so late. I took off yesterday for the ranch which is 30 miles south of Gunnison to see if we could spot some elk. As I said, it’s warm, too warm for the middle of November. Marty and I made it down by 3 or so and stopped by the DOW to get our tags, which are licenses. By 4 we were at the ranch and getting settled.

We had a nice dinner and by 9 or so, were crashing as we were getting up at 5.

Meanwhile Lori was at home fighting her allergic reaction. Ty was home and she insisted I go. Nate, our neighbor and doctor, came up to check on her. I think today she’s seeing a dermatologist.

More to come in the morning, time to go, be well and God Bless.

Yesterday we ran down to the hospital and had Lori’s bandage taken off. She, unbeknownst to us, is allergic to derma bond, which is the adhesive that is on the bandage. For the rest of the day, she took Benadryl and steroids to calm down the rash. It looks a little better today than last night. The good news is most of her headache is gone! She’s pretty much stopped taking pain meds.

Today Marty and I are headed down to Gunnison to meet Davy to look for some elk. It’s so warm with no snow and a full moon, that the elk are hard to find. They’ll feed all night, as it’s so bright, and then bed down in timber with no sun making them hard to find. Davy hasn’t seen any for a couple of days now. We’ll head back Thursday morning.

Ty is home today and tomorrow or I wouldn’t go. He can take Lori anywhere she needs to go or run any errands for her.

Warm outside right now. Nice for us but bad for hunting. Happy Veterans Day to all who served! Have a great day, take care and God Bless.

As it says, Lori is getting better with each day that passes. She’s still really sore, but we’re seeing good progress. She’s really itchy where the derma bond is on her incision. That’s normal as lots of people are allergic to bandages and especially the glue they use to seal up where they open you up. We’ll run down to the hospital today so Lori’s PA can change out her bandage.

Looks like Marty and I will head out to Gunnison tomorrow and hunt tomorrow night and Wednesday and hopefully get a cow elk or two. Ty is off the next few days so he’ll be here to help and keep an eye on Mom.

Jag and Ava took off around 11am for Denver so they could get home and get ready for the week. We loaded them up with some good food. Great to have them up here. Jag and I were throwing a football around and now the muscle on my side is sore! Guess I’m not 20 years old anymore, ha.

I have a bunch of work to knock out today on the computer. I need to write up a summary of what’ll be different with the Company in 2026. It’s been a rough few years since Covid for everyone, but we’re still moving forward.

Speaking of elk, Davy hiked up to 12,000 feet yesterday morning and saw some but couldn’t get near them. Normally we have snow by now which brings them down lower. The full moon isn’t helping either, as they’ll feed all night with it so bright and then hunker down in the dark timber before the sun comes up. That makes it hard to find them. We’ll see what the moon does the next few nights.

That’s it, have a good Monday. Time to start thinking about getting your turkey! God Bless.

We’re hanging in there. Lori’s headache is still pretty much non existent, which is amazing, but right on schedule, her neck still hurts. She does have a little rash near the incision site which is probably from the adhesive. Dr. Braxton came by yesterday to check on her and bring her flowers which was really nice. Abbey brought us dinner last night but Jag and Ava made this fantastic rack of lamb too. It was really really good, top shelf restaurant good. Jagger sure can cook.

Ty’s already off to work and the other two kids are still sleeping. I think it’s like 20 degrees in Denver this morning. We sleep with the windows open and it didn’t feel much colder than usual. We’re loving the now snow thing. It’ll be here soon enough.

I might take off tomorrow night or Tuesday morning for the ranch in Gunnison to go elk hunting, depending on how Lori is doing. Of course, she says go, and Ty will be home, but I’m taking things a day at a time.

7:30am now and football is on! Have a great day, be well and God Bless.