In Mountain and Meadow~Colorado Nature Close To Home -

15 November ~2009

I finished putting up a roof on a shelter that I started last Saturday at Horse Rescue. The borderline collies helped by looking out for prairie dogs and munching on horse apples.

At the end of my shift I loaded up the truck with manure for my garden and then went to visit Mom. She was disappointed I had another load this week, because of what her neighbors think about my truck being parked on their street and all. I told her I am probably good after this load, and imagine the garden I will have next year.

Mom was happy with all the birthday cards she received, and the polar bear cookie I got her, and thanked me several times for dropping by to see her after working. My older sister took her out to dinner the night before, so Mom had plenty of company leading up to her 84th birthday.

It started snowing right after I unloaded my truck in the back yard, which ruined Saturday night dancing. That is too bad for me, since a big portion of my social life occurs on Saturday night.

Instead I started a fire in my basement wood stove and me and Ben and Maggie and Mollie watched movies and ate popcorn not far from the heat of the stove, while the snow piled up outside.

A wood stove makes hunkering down during a snowstorm a pleasant experience. All the wood I burn comes from years of trimming and maintenance on the twenty trees in my yard, which I collected in anticipation of the day when I would get a new stove. That happened last February when Lowe's had them at half price.

I was thrilled at the bargain I got, but after three guys loaded it into my pickup I wondered how in the hell am I going to get it into the house.

I could have waited and hired somebody, but instead I bought a hand cart and placed a couple of tires next to the bed of the truck. I strapped it hard to the hand cart and managed to lower it onto the tires. I then took it down my steps to the basement, one at a time, very slowly. I had a feeling if the 300 pound stove started moving I would not be able to stop it.

I was awful relieved to get it to the basement floor in one piece, without any injuries to my back or other parts. Within a couple of hours I had the old stove out and my leaf blower inside the flume to blow out the stove pipe for a half hour. Later that evening I had a fire in my new wood stove, which mades this old house even more like a home for me and my three dogs.

My exwife couldn't wait to get out of here and into something newer and fancier. I couldn't be happier in it though, with all the trees and my garden in back and my three dogs waiting to greet me. That probably reveals how different we had become.

I know this place would have been paradise compared to how we started out, in a one bedroom apartment on the west side of Golden. It is still that for me.

First thing in the morning us four walked the GreenBelt, which had a white Christmasy look about it. Mollie jumped onto what seemed like ice on the lake, but turned out to be slush. She scrambled out and it hardly phased her.

I love the energy my new girl has. I have seen her climb half way up a mountain above timberline, just poking around. When I whistle she comes bounding down and over to me, with her border collie smile, to see whats up Dad.

A year ago she was a three month old puppy, in love with life and her new best buddy, Ben. She is full grown now, and little for a border collie, but still in love with life and Ben. I am so lucky to have her, probably the best gift I have ever gotten.

I was introduced to her by an email on a Saturday afternoon from Alyssa, which just said 'Dad's new dog.' Alyssa had found Mollie for sale when she went to buy hay, in the back of a pickup truck with her puppy brothers and sisters:

little mollie