The Zoo

Little Lake City Colorado is way too small to have a real zoo. So a local home grown artist decided to redemy this.

                                and opened a wildlife art zoo in her very large backyard.

She has painted over 200 animals on wooden cutouts, most of these life sized and a smattering of stones with the likeness of animals in the forest.

Okay a few of them may be extinct.

Children are given a sheet of paper with a list of animals they need to find and check off.  If you complete the list...you get a lollipop.

I like that she has the animals in groups.

It have discovered that it is a great way to entertain your younger guests, although a group of my college aged visitors had a ball here. Karen, the lady that created all of this also has rock painting classes on the grounds,

a fun little putt putt golf course,

and a  challenging croquet course..that my Granddaughter Hannah enjoyed. 

Of course my favorite is the only live animals running about...as I mentioned in the last post...the very entertaining Marmots.....this one posed for me ever so nicely. 

Mommy Marmot

I always look forward to seeing Marmots when I come to Colorado. We don’t have them in Texas. Marmots make their homes in big rock piles at high altitude. They are very fond of sunning themselves early in the day. So on a sunny morning, they are pretty easy to find.

I spotted this Mother and child when visiting our local art zoo. The mother Marmot was very protective of her little one and would not let me and closer..

More on the art zoo later. I hope that you have had a good week...Janey

Just a Little Dream

Or should I say a fantasy? On our morning walk we have been passing an item for sale.

It is a small vintage travel trailer. It seems to me the price is more than reasonable. Of course I have not seen the inside.I do read that a lot of people are renting and buying recreational vehicles so that they don’t have to stay in hotels during the current pandemic. This one looks like it would be easy to haul...

It is so small seems it could be parked just about anywhere...on public land. (The above borrowed from the Internet).

Of course  I would want to decorate it and make it quite girly.....which would not be my Tom’s vision. Actually he wouldn’t want to be dragging this down the highway to begin with....but I think it would be fun...How about you?.

A Work of Art

Out in front of one of our small local businesses  in town is this carved sculptor of a little fat patriotic bear.

Some folks may not remember, but the artist who created this at one time had a little shop on the main street in town.. There is also an intricate castle done by him that sits in the middle of an outdoor patio of a popular restaurant. You see a young German family happened on to our little mountain town and fell in love with it. His wife went to work as a teacher at our school. I say our school because we only have one...kindergarten thru senior high....and he went to work creating all kinds of things out of local fallen wood.

I happen to have not one,

but two beds he carved out of Aspen trees.

It is not easy to keep a business going in such a small place. He eventually closed his store and got a job with a construction crew...and one year he and his family were gone. People come and go here but he is one that I will always remember.

A Morning Walk

3Hello, we have finally gotten settled in our summer home and have already had guests. Yes, I know we are really taking risks doing so..but these guests were members of my family that we have already been around during this lockdown.

My niece Jill  is a nurse and lives in Santa Fe, NM. She was raised in Texas...which explains the shirt.

Julie her sister is a teacher and does live in Texas. She travels to students homes that are unable to attend  school because of health issues, many of them with terminal illnesses. I so admire the work she does. 

We had a wonderful time during their very short visit.

Other than entertaining guests we have finally started our morning walks...

J

We have several old homes like this in this little mining town, most were built sometime in the 1870’s. Not sure what will ever be done with them. They are protected by the historical society but if something isn’t done soon ...they will certainly fall down and just become a pile of  rubble.

Some of the homes have been lovingly cared for. Hard to tell but this sweet little place is almost as old as the other. The bay windows were a luxury item at the time.

It’s next door neighbor is what is called a shotgun house, because the rooms are all lined up one after the other. You see if you shoot a shotgun at the front door..The bullets would go straight out the backdoor.

 This little log cabin at the end of the block has been well taken care of and added on to.

Always happy to see a bunny ....it means there are no mountain lions roaming about,

and this beauty was a showplace in it’s time....and you might guess correctly if you guessed that the owner owned the local saloon!

New Set Of Four Walls!

Yes, we have arrived and are  enjoying our new set of four walls....not to mention the view!
We had a very nice trip up, being very careful about social distancing .....Wearing masks when we stopped for restroom breaks and careful not to touch anything more than we had to and of course using sanitizer when we got back in the car. I packed food for lunch and dinner in a cooler so we didn’t even need to stop to eat. Found very nice rest-stops with shaded picnic tables.

There wasn’t much traffic on the road even though we are approaching a big holiday here in the U.S. (4th of July, our Independence Day). Some folks are being wise and staying home. We are not on vacation ourselves, simply moving to our other house for the summer.

We aren’t going to be doing much here. Maybe have one other couple over to social distance on our deck.

I went out on the deck to take a break from unpacking....Gosh I love this place.

As you can see it is a lovey day. Forty four degrees this morning and we will only reach seventy something as a high. This is our view to the south. That is Round  Top mountain by the way.

• This it the view to the southwest....I focused on the mountain top so you could see that there is a tiny bit of snow left. That is T Mountain.
• Seems we have a new neighbor...I am speaking of this tiny little gray squirrel. He was not happy with me being on I guess what he thought was his deck. He was screeching at me nonstop.
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•  We are going to have to become acquainted so he understands that I live here and he is the guest!😂