THE CHANGING OF THE SEASONS!!
You can tell by the smell of wood smoke in the air here in Laramie that fall has officially arrived! I for one am contributing to that as I have had the wood burner going since yesterday afternoon. With the improvements that I made to it, it is going to take some time to adjust the temperature settings though.. It has been hovering about 80 degrees pretty much all day even with the window and garage door open!!
Also another change is I have activated the WYOROAD report to the top of the Favorites list! With snow on "the hill" this evening and probably a good dose of fog it will be an adventure going to work in the wee hours of the morning tonight!!
We have a few "colored" leaves on the trees in our yard but some trees have already turned and dropped theirs so I am sure that fall has officially begun!!
Yee haw It is monday night football also...bye

SADDNESS AT THE BEAN'S

After a long trip on the railroad this weekend I got home at 3:30 this morning, took a quick nap and upon arising Becky informed me that one of the longest inhabitants of the fish tank met his/her end of a really long life!! 14+ years is a long time for any pet but a fish is pretty rare so now the 'larger" clown loach will be by his/her self which is sad as they were a neat pair to watch 'dance' in the corners looking for food and begging for a quick bite to eat!!
Hopefully the remaining fish will continue to entertain both of us plus the 'little' ones that come and visit and bang on the tank to see the fishy's!!

Bummer!!!

No new photo's but an update on the tree removal...
I went up on Wednesday and removed the tree limbs and tops along with Bonnie that were left from the last visit! While I hauled loads and loads of "green" down using the 350 and the 4wheeler trailer that had a flat tire ( I never realized it until I loaded it up with branches) fixing it with a load of air, with that problem fixed, Bonnie kept feeding the fire pit burning the "slash" till both of ours backs gave out!!
I spent the night in order to get an early start on thursday morning, with Becky visiting for dinner on Wed Night.. The next day started early with more trees cut down and drug down to the field.. the field is almost filled up with logs and "tops" so it looks like we will have to find someone to remove the trees for house logs or saw logs or I will have to cut them into managable lenghts and stacks till they are good for firewood...I hope something happens soon.
The weather is changing as the aspens are turning color so it means that winter is on it's way!!
Soon Mother nature will win the battle of when and if I get to remove more trees but in a way that is o.k. as it is a lot of work but hopefully we can slow down the battle of the beetles..
I have run into stumps several times with "ole blue" pushing in the rear bumper and destroying the guard on the front winch. It is hard to navigate in the trees trying to miss the trees let alone the stumps (which I hit several times). It is definately a 2 person crew job but alas I will continue as long as I can until the snow flies and the ground gets slippery.
Wish me luck

HEAVY EQUIPMENT WAS NEEDED!!

Here is Bonnie with the tractor on her way to "fetch" another tree to drag to the field. You can see in the background several trees that already have been removed.. It looks like there won't be enough room for all of them so hopefully we will find someone to use the logs or I will have to cut them into fireplace lengths.. Only a couple of thousand cuts!! Oh boy!!

THE SAD END OF THE TREE"S AT THE CABIN!!

This is the final end of the tops and branches of several trees that we removed this weekend at the cabin!!

A medium sized tree is getting cabled up for a move down to the field!! As you can pick out in this photo is Grannies and Pa's cabin in the background along with the "new 30 year old seedlings" that mark the location of the original cabin that burned many years ago! Once we get the diseased trees removed the plan is to replant with seedlings next spring.. Hopefully in 30 years the Kiddo's and Grandkids will get to see the results of our work that we are doing now!

OLD BLUE!!

The old 78 GMC turns 30 soon but as you can see she still gets into the action with the winch on the front! (4 wheel drive was needed also).. If anyone has ever moved or better yet tried to move a "green" live tree you will know that they are several times heavier that a dead pine tree. You can see JB on the 4 wheeler working at the same time. It was a team effort to get the trees like the one in the foreground moved to the field!

1 more "top" to drag out!

Here is JB hooking up the strap to the 350 4 wheeler to drag to the field. Once we fall the 30-40 foot trees and limb the branches it leaves the top that need to be disposed of also. The 4 wheeler and the trailer sure helped in this endeavor.

X MARKS THE UGLY SPOT!!

This is 1 of 100's of bettle infected trees on the Albany cabin site!! The disease is horrible and has caused us to cut down and drag to the field at least 60 or so trees. This weekend JB drove up from Denver to help cut down several trees. His help along with Bonnie and My wife Becky we made a dent in the number of trees that needed to be removed.

FALL HAS ARRIVED!!!

There are several "hints" that fall has arrived here in Laramie..
1: I have started growing my "santa" beard
2: The temperature dropped to 30.9 degrees this morning at 7 am
3: There is frost all over the squash and tomatoe plants (they will turn black by tomorrow)
4: Football is in full swing

While Becky was away visiting in Boise the weather guessers were predicting snow on the east range and the Snowy Range which by the way never happened.. For that trip at work I changed my clothing apparel to fall attire with a long sleeve tee shirt and a flannel just in case. I even wore my trusty Cabella's waterproof parka to ward off the rain and the snow that they said was sure to fall. We got some drizzle here and in Cheyenne but the snow was just a thick fog on the Summit that I had to drive through after a rather long trip on the road.

Oh yeah one other clue that fall is here is I have a killer cold!!! Yuck!!

THE PARTICAPATING TEAMS

You can't have a "Jr Nascar race" without the team member and these photos show some of the team members..

They tried 3 at a time with Keelan, Amber and Abby on one machine.. To Keelan on the "big" machine by himself to Bonnie and Angelie on the "little" machine..

But the competition was intense and dedicated so thanks to the drivers/owners/pit crews for the first annual Labor Day "28" at Albany, Wy!!

ALMOST WALKING!!!

We tried to get Ally to walk every chance we got. With a finger to hold on to she is just about ready to "TAKE" off and start running instead of the "fast crawl" she does now..

Soon she will be up and running with her sisters and us slow, old grandparents!!

DAD AND BABY ALLY!!!

During a pit stop on the Labor day "28" we got a chance to snap this photo while they were in the pits taking a photo opportunity!!

While Ally didn't make all 28 miles she sure enjoyed the laps that she got in!!

THE LABOR DAY "28" MILE RACE "AT ALBANY, WY

It started in the early hours and continued (see the next blog) but they got all 28 miles in with only 3 blisters on Ambers throttle hand was all the damage done!!

We replaced the fluids and the nurishment with a late dinner.. With S'MORES at the small campfire (see Beckys web site for those photos).

It was sure fun!!

Watch out NASCAR!!

Well into the evening did the 28 mile race go on into the evening hours on Labor day at the Albany Cabin!! Only using 5 gallons of fuel those NASCAR boys better watch out cuz this crew can stretch it out for 2 days of serious racing around the "field"!! Next time we will tackle the trees!!

YAH HOOO!!

THANKS ANGELA BEAN!!

Thanks Angie for toughing it out and making the trip to the cabin for the weekend at the Albany Cabin!! With the sickness and the lousy beds to sleep on you toughed it out and really brightened up my weekend and my birthday!! You and JB did great on the birthday gifts too!! Thanks for joining us for a great Labor Day weekend!! You guys sure have a great family of Kiddo's that I dearly love to see and enjoy spending time with them any time I can!!

BECK, ALLY, & GRAMPS

swinging on the swing at the cabin!! Look who is taking the photo in the reflection on the window!!!

IT WAS A GREAT BIRTHDAY WEEKEND!!!