Berry Madness

Last year's berries plants all came back this year and it looks like it will be a record harvest.  We should hopefully have enough to be able to make raspberry and blackberry jams.  Jam making will be a first for me.  The grouping on the left is raspberry's and the flowering plant is the blackberries.  You can't see it from this picture, but further down there is another raspberry bush and another blackberry. 

Being that plants are doing so well, I decided to start two new garden area's and add some new plants.   Along the fence, I planted five blackberry's, two red raspberries and two yellow raspberries.   I planted them two weeks ago.  Been a while since I have made an entry in the blog.  I added some edging and mulch and it came out really nice.  Mowing along the fence was always a pain in the ass.  So with the new garden, we won't have to deal with mowing on the slope and the fence.  Better yet the sprinkler system will keep them wet, so I shouldn't have to hand water them.  From the time I planted to today, they have really taken off.   I won't expect much out of them this year or next, but year three they will really start producing, that is if I can keep them alive.   They get good sun for most of the day.

Then I moved my attention to our rock wall.  They are hard to see, but behind the berry plants I expanded the garden and planted five jalapeno and four tomato plants.  They are doing well and hopefully will take off and produce some fruit this year. 

In another area of the yard, I planted eggplant and squash.  They are growing but they only get a little sun, so not sure they are going to do so great.  We will see.

Candy made Clark and me hats to commemorate our hike in Phantom Canyon.  They are pretty sweet and a very thoughtful gift.  Here I am, posing for a picture with mine.

So the last couple weeks, we have just been working around the yard each weekend.  It has been really hot.  I blew up the pool and filled it with water and placed in in the only flat area that we have in our yard.  

When I needed to cool off from planting I would hop in the pool.   Yes, I am such a goober, but what can you do.  It was hot.

The yard is looking pretty good this year and excited about all the berries.  Hopefully all the new plants this year will take.   

Home Again

We got back from Wichita on Sunday afternoon and had Monday off for Memorial Day.  Needed to have at least one day off at home. We worked in the yard and I cooked some ribs on the grill.

Ended up spending the evening sifting through email and getting ready to head back into the office for Tuesday.   I made it through Tuesday and Wednesday and then off again on Thursday and Friday.   

Thursday and Friday were our days for making our hike.   Well, we did it and I had a blast.   Candy dropped us off at about 8:30 AM.  Clark and I put our packs on and headed down the road.  It was a great morning and not too hot.  It was 10 miles to the campsite we had scouted out earlier in the month. We would break at about every three miles.  Catch our breath and have a drink of water.

When we arrived at the spot we had picked out, it was taken.  Well, that sucks, so we kept on walking and found another spot that would work for us.   We started setting up camp, got our hammocks hung, wood gathered and had a bite to eat.  We both had beef stroganoff for dinner.  Just open the pouch and add two cups of boiling water and let set for a few minutes.  

I had a tarp that we hung up over our hammocks, but it was really made to cover one and not two.  I didn't take a tent for this trip as the plan was to sleep in the hammocks.  Well about 4 PM it starts to hail, then the hail turned to rain and it rained hard and then would let up and then rain/hail hard again.   We took everything down except for the tarp and we hung out underneath for the next couple of hours. It was still raining at about 7:30 PM and if either one of us would have had cell signal we would have called for a ride.

The rain was starting to lighten so we took down the tarp and headed out to see if we could find a little better place to set up camp.   We walked about a mile and came across a bridge.   We climbed down the embankment and made our way underneath.   We were able to hang our hammocks from a couple of support beams.  At this point, both of use were pretty tired.   We dug out our sleeping bags and got into our hammocks.

I can't say that either of us slept all the great.  Water was dripping down from the bridge, but less than being out in the rain. I woke up every other hour or so.  The sun was coming out around 6 AM and by 6:30 AM, we were back on the trail.

We had another 10 miles in front of us to make it to Victor.  We moved along at a pretty good pace and was in Victor by 11 AM.  We walked up to the only restaurant in town and had some breakfast.   We called Candy to let her know that we made it and she headed over to pick us up.  On the way home, we shared stories about the night we had.

It was a rough trip with the weather, but I would definitely do it again.  It was nice to be able to spend time with Clark, one on one and I am sure it is a trip he will remember as well.

Scouting

Saturday, Clark and I headed out about 11:30 AM on our way to scout out our route for our hike.   
Our first stop was at Brush Hollow reservoir.  We dug out the fishing poles and fished off the bank for about an hour.  No luck so we moved on. 


Made our way over to Phantom Canyon drive.   Our plan is to start about 5/miles in, where the dirt road begins.  We kept track of our distance on the way so we could start looking for camping spots at about mile 11 and beyond.  As we drove we found a place to pull over and eat our lunch.  We hung out and goofed around the creek.  Pebbles loved it and she even got into the creek to cool off.  Clark chose to use the log cross the creek.   We tried to get Pebbles to follow up but she wasn't up for it.

We found a great spot, but we will have to get a full 15/miles in on day one to get to it.

We are going to be sleeping in hammocks instead of a tent.   This will be a first for me.   Today I set up my hammock so I could see what is the max distance I can have between trees.

The spot we found is off the road a bit, and there are some great trees that we can tie up to.   We stacked some rocks for a fire pit and we spotted some good wood close around for us to use for our fire.

We continued up the canyon and ended up in Victor, CO.  We stopped in town and parked in front of a beer joint.   Went in and had a cold beer and sat and talked about our plans and things we will need to pack with us.

Then we headed over to Cripple Creek to hit one of the casinos.  Clark had never gambled on a slot machine so we thought we should give it a try.   I think he dropped $20 in and he ended up walking away with $52, pretty decent for a first timer.

We got back to the house just after 6 PM and grabbed Candy and went and had some dinner.   Now that we have driven the route I am even more excited about a trip.