May 15th In The Mountains

Yes, that is snow in the middle of May which is not all that uncommon at higher elevations. Notice how the driveway is wet from water sheet flow. As the ground thaws the springs open up and start flowing. We have more than a few springs that run for a few weeks in springtime. We have two that run all year long on the property. Others just bubble up at random places out of the ground. This is a good reason to have a tractor to repair washouts and ruts from the steady flow of water coming out of the mountain. We are about 800' in elevation from the top of the mountain and water runs down hill. Some years it runs so hard that where it comes out of the ground it will shoot up 6-8" high. I have traced the source to way up on the mountain so really there is not much we can do except channel it off where it will do the least damage. We have evolved to pretty good ditch diggers. It only lasts about two weeks and then it will dry up again. We have 7-8 disappearing springs and two full time springs that flow steadily all year.

Water is good and this should give us 30-40 days of wildfire protection. We have been taking advantage of the pleasant breaks in weather to haul our broken branches to the local burn site and remove fuel from our property. We work around the weather when possible. Ah, life in the mountains is just a minor distraction. This also explains why we like to get our firewood in at the end of winter. Like the weather forecaster on television just said: In the springtime in Colorado we can experience all four seasons in a single day.  We love it!!!!