House, can there really be more, Updates

Mudded and ready for paint.

But first we need to texture the wall so it looks like the rest of the house from the 70s. I bought a spray can that works well on small areas and Mike rolled mud on the bigger areas. More sanding and another coat of sealer goes on before the paint. Which means more dust and more clean up!!

We also decided to remove the white paneling that was on the sliding door wall and replace with sheet rock.

Fortunately it already had sheet rock and we just need to patch! Yeah!!!

While Mike worked on that I continue to rip down more walls. Again this is the laundry room are and we are removing the yellow closet today. I took down the cabinets above washer and dryer and discovered this lovely red and putrid green wallpaper of pheasants.

This is the closet...no more.

During the week I painted the dining room Cucumber and love the color. Cannot wait for final touches of hardwood, floor boards and crown molding!

The living room also was painted a warm brown cannot remember the name of the color though.

Yippee 2 rooms done minus floor and molding!

Great Sand Sunes National Park

Friday night we headed to Great Sand Dunes National Park in Alamosa, CO. It was a 2 hour drive to our B&B and then another hour drive on Saturday to the park. It was a beautiful day and the scenic view was worth the drive.

These are the tallest dunes in North America, the largest rises 750 feet and covers 30sq. miles.

You cross a little stream that reaches your ankles, then start your ascent. We took off our shoes and splashed merrily across the trickling water. We noticed a slew of kids playing while their parents sat in their lounge chairs and conversed. This trickle of water was a big deal. Land locked Coloradans are desperate for water! How sad. The stream will dry up in a few weeks and you will never know that it was even here. Once the snows come again this winter and melt next spring the stream will again appear for a few weeks much to the enjoyment of moms, dads, and kids.

The wind was strong and the sun hot. The sand will reach temps of 140! Ouch!! Mike and I enjoy the views and watched people try to scramble up the dunes but only to slide back down. One step forward two back. Bring self bailing shoes.

The diversity of the terrain was pretty cool: alpine tundra, forests, massive dunes, grasslands, and wetlands all in one convenient location.

A great place to hike and camp if you want to.

Images as we drove by and I hung out the sun roof.

Lonely little house

Patriotic oil tank

The Sangre de Cristo (Spanish for Blood of Christ) Mountains are one of the longest mountain chains on Earth. They stretch from Colorado to New Mexico. There are ten peaks over 14,000' high and more than two dozen over 13,000'. The name, is said to come from the red color of the range at some sunrises and sunsets, especially when the mountains are covered with snow.

The Scenic Highway of Legends

Native Americans believe this to be the devil's tail. That the devil surfaced to see if he could conquer the world but God cut of his tail and it remains still as a reminder that the devil will not prevail.

Another myth is that the giants used these as shields during a battle. The gods grew tired of their noise and destruction and caused the land to dry up and die forcing the giants away.

One giant was left to watch over the area and make sure the enemy did not return. After years of waiting the gods took favor on him and turned him to stone. Gee, thanks, I guess.

Goats prevail today!

No matter what you believe it is an amazing view.

We stopped in Cuchara to see the old historic town. A few stores and a restaurant. This small town is a summer haven for Texans.

The Timbers Hotel and Restaurant opened the weekend we were their so we went in and had a beer and chatted up the bartender who travels the world doing seasonal work.

The resident herd of deer were on the road to meet us on our return from Cuchara.

We stayed at the Inn at the Spanish Peaks, in LaVeta. A cozy B&B run by Tracy and Bill. Tracy greeted us around 9:45pm as we had driven down from Centennial and it takes about 3 hours. The room was designed in a "Costa Rica" flare, and now, more than ever, we are dying to get to CR to see Greg and Gail's cabins that they are building. The breakfast was fabulous and more food than one can eat. They gave us great local info and stimulating conversation as well.

As we entered there were about 10 humming birds in the nearby tree feeding in the lovely nectar our hosts and left for them. They were hard to capture in a still picture.

Sunday we headed home via a scenic route and stopped in to see some ghost towns.

St. Elmo Ghost Town

Built in 1878 in a heavily forested area, originally named Forest City. The USPS complained of too many such named towns. Griffith Evans, one of the founders, was reading a book at the time titled St. Elmo, and hence the name was changed. Some historians claim the population was over 2,000 during it's hey day, but 1,000 is more accurate.

In 1881 it became a station on the Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad line where the tracks continued through the historic Alpine Tunnel. The settlement was considered a main source of supplies arriving by train for the area settlers and eventually included several merchandise stores, three hotels, five restaurants, two sawmills and a weekly newspaper called the Mountaineer. The miners worked at several silver, gold, copper and iron mines throughout the area. The Murphy Mine shipped as much as 50-75 tons of ore per day to the smelters at Alpine. Altogether, there were over 150 patented mine claims in the immediate area.

In 1881 Anton Stark, a cattleman brought a herd to the railroad and was so taken with the town that he and his family quickly took up residence. Anton became a section boss for one of the local mines and his wife, Anna, ran a general store and the Home Comfort Hotel, which later became home to the post office and telegraph office.

The survival of the town was largely due to the Stark family and their descendants, who remained the sole year-round residents for many years.

The failure of numerous mines, and the closure of the Alpine Tunnel in 1910 started the decline of St. Elmo. The railroad continued to run until 1922 and it has been said that the rest of St. Elmo's population rode the last train out of town, never to return. In 1926, the railroad tracks were torn up. But the Stark family stayed, believing that St. Elmo would thrive again, buying up property at tax sales.

For many years, the Starks tried to influence developers in re-opening the mines, but when they were unsuccessful they turned to tourism, leasing the empty cabins to vacationers and continuing to run the general store. After Anton Stark's death, Anna realized that the tourism trade was not providing for the family and sent Annabelle (daughter) to work in the telegraph office in Salida, 20 miles south of St. Elmo.

According to local legend, Annabelle Stark, still keeps a ghostly watch over the town.

It was a long solitary road into St. Elmo's and we contemplated turning back several times as there seemed to be nothing here. I am glad that we did not. We had stopped earlier at a supposed ghost town that looked like an artist colony instead. It was still very active and had a population of 5,000.

If these walls could only talk. I am sure the tales they would tell would have us howlin'.

Loved the old sled.

Every house must have an outhouse. The house are so close you think they could have shared them.

The rest of the trip was driving home through the mountains on twisty, turning roads that had Mike panicking as I drove them a wee bit too fast for his liking.