Pictures For The Week Of 12/18/16

The river walk down town Estes Park. all deck out for Christmas.

This past week has been a week of transition.  We are preparing to transition into a new year.  Starting with this post, I am using a new camera.  Hopefully the pictures will get better as I go along.  Last but not least I am transition from work life into retirement so that I can spend more time homesteading and blogging. Most of the pictures this week were taken in the Estes Park area including several in Rocky Mountain National Park.  We spent several nights there to celebrate my retirement.  Enjoy!

The Big Thompson River just after the confluence with Fall River.

Looking into downtown Estes Park.

The fences in this photo are part of a experiment to help the habitat recover from overgrazing by the abundant elk in the park.

Long's Peak 14,259 ft shrouded in clouds and blowing snow.

We saw these elk between Estes Park and Glen Haven

Woke up Christmas morning and these critters were loitering around the house.  I thought maybe somebody forgot to take them back to the North Pole.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and God Bless.

Vince

Pictures For The Week of 12/11/16

Wow How things change in a week!  The name of the game this week was staying warm.  Even the chickens were smart enough to come out only long enough to eat.  It was -7 F (-22 C) when I took the above picture.  Other than going to work,  we only ventured out to go to the winter farmers' market and do a bit of Christmas shopping.  Enjoy the pictures.

The Farmers Market was all decked out for the holidays.

A variety of winter produce was available at this market.  We purchased beets, carrots, potatoes, onions, Jerusalem artichokes, a pumpkin and some sprouts. Believe it or not, one vendor even had lettuce, tomatoes and radishes.  He grew these in a green house that suffered some damage during a wind storm last week so we got them at a pretty steep discount. 

About 45 minutes after sunrise looking to the south east

Looking west with the moon getting ready to set.

Bunny tracks

Pack rat tracks.  These things are the bane of our existence up here..........The rats, not their tracks.

Fox tracks.

Human tacks

Hm.  This one is quite funny if you think about it. (To the best of my knowledge no bunnies were harmed in the creation of this photo. Although, it might have had the wits...........or..........something scared out of it)

Looking west

looking west.

Looking to the south west.

Have a great week and God bless.

Vince

Pictures For The Week of 12/4/16

The week started out warm and sunny.  We have enjoyed warm temperatures and very little moisture for the past few months.  Winter came back with a vengeance though, on Wednesday, complete with snow, and sub-zero fahrenheit temperatures.

Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation October 3rd 1863

 October 3, 1863

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.

 I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward,
Secretary of State

Reboot Comming Soon.

Hi Folks!


Stay tuned for a reboot of the Windy Valley Digest coming up soon.  We think you will be happy with what we have planned.


Vince