THE SUMMER COMES TO AN END

Our summer in Colorado is coming to an end, and I am looking back to the new people and creatures that came into our lives these past few months..

This little rabbit was spotted one day and immediately adopted by our son, Scott. It gave me a new subject for my camera.

It always seemed to be there when we got up in the mornings, waiting in anticipation (we hoped).

Scott began shaving carrots for him as a treat, and he gobbled them down with relish.

One morning our neighbor, Bob was walking his lamas down our street and stopped to visit.

Scott got an introduction to Betsy and Oreo, and it is not hard to guess which was which.

In the bird life in our yard, the Orioles had passed on, replaced by these birds which we identified
(hopefully correctly) as female and young Yellow-headed Blackbirds.  If anyone who sees this

picture has a different idea, I would be glad to hear it.  Of course the hummingbirds continued to empty the feeders of sugar water - no bears here to worry about (I hope).

From our bedroom window above the ground was usually covered with our feathered friends.

NEW RAFT AND NEW RAFTING

When the old raft sprung a leak and the company agreed to a return and refund, a new raft recame a possibility.

I drove the raft and its captain up to the launching point for the Gunnison River.  With time on my hands before picking him up at the end, I decided to spend some time trying to photograph some of the residents of the local Prairie Dog colony.

One of the colonies is very near the shopping center and this resident made it his job to alert everyone

that an intruder was near.

This little guy decided to peak out to see what or who was causing all of the commotion.
 

But this well fed adult seemed not concerned, only interested.

The next day, having had a successful maiden voyage under his belt, Scott found a way to enter Tomichi Creek which flows by the end of our street on its way to the Lower Gunnison River.  He assured us it was a beautiful , easy ride and took his father the next day and me the following.

 

Of course where I go, usually goes my camera, and the captain is a good  spotter of wildlife.  He saw a little animal atop a rock, that I could barely see.  So I pointed my camera where he said and snapped.

                                            Sure enough there sat a very contented Marmot.

The ride was peaceful and beautiful as described, with a few nice homes occasionally appearing on the shores.

There was a definite transition as we passed into the faster flowing Gunnison River.

I have to admit there was some confusion in finding the  planned landing place, but the captain finally found the location he wanted, and when the old passinger finally reached dry land, I snapped the shot below of where we had been.

FIRST LIGHT TO LAST LIGHT

Every morning the view out our bedroom window is a new experience.  Though we don't have the high mountains that we did from our window in Mt Crested Butte, it is still always a treat.

One morning a week or so ago you would have thought we were at sea with just the tops of houses across the field jutting above the waves of fog.

But always the geese fly over our house, sometimes is small separate flocks, sometimes in a huge one, as they travel from the golf course behind us to the fields outside our window.

Often they fly off into the rising sun in one long line.

And seem headed for the base of the mountain.

One day we looked out to see this tractor heading across the tall grass, and knew that the mowing had begun in the field.

Late in the day the white towers of Allied were silhouetted against the mountain shadows as the tractor worked in that part of the field.

Our day ended with this surprising view as a deer led her surprisingly young fawn across our back yard. We wondered if perhaps she had given birth in the tall grass of the field and needed to find a new home once the mowing began.

MOWING THE FIELD

As a city girl, who has spent a lot of her life by the ocean, the wonderful bales of hay in the fields have always fasinated me.  How were they made?  so neatly??  Finally I had a front row seat to the whole process, right out my back door.

First this tractor pulling a raker went by fluffing up the newly mowed grass.

It was followed closely by this strange looking  machine towed behind another tractor.

It all became clear as the tractor came to a stop and began to raise its rear cover.

Out came an "egg", a neatly rolled bale of hay.

The tractor pulled off to gather more grass to create another bale.

Before long the field was dotted with neatly rolled bales.

The next day the gathering began,  The tractor put it tongs inside the center of the bale,

Lifted it, and neatly placed it in a truck on top of other recently picked up bales.

Before long the field was cleared, ready for the coming winter.