Have you ever heard the footsteps of a Squirrel?

I just bought an online book…  11 Steps to Living a Strategic Life… and Step Number 10 kinda sums up my new philosophy on life/living.  Hope the authors don’t mind the Quote.  Great book… I recommend it.

Number 10 is to enjoy the good life under your own terms. Your. Own. Terms. Repeat that. This is your life and as far as we know, the only life you will have. If you spend your life fulfilling the dreams of others to the exclusion of yourself, you will be missing out on experiencing the wonderment of a new challenge, the joy of a job well done, the adventure of a path less traveled.

It does not take a lot of money to enjoy the good life. What it does take is a commitment to having fun and a dedication to pursing dreams. So go ahead, smell the roses. Figure out the life you want to live given the resources you have. Just do it!

What a marvelous summer it has been.  All my life, or since Smokey The Bear was born, on my birthday by the way, I have wanted to work for the Forest Service.  A dream full-filled this year.  How does it get any better?

Sept. 6, 2012

An American Red Squirrel, a type of Pine Squirrel, lunches on a Lodgepole pine cone. (borrowed from internet)

Have you ever heard (not seen) a squirrel running through the woods?  Can you imagine so much quiet that those little feet are making the loudest sound around you? These little Colorado squirrels are running about gathering pine cones to store for the rapidly approaching winter.  Snow will soon be here and I will soon be gone.

Borrowed from internet, but will try to replace it with my own photos, but this is exactly what I saw.

Have you ever watched a pair of hawks soaring on the thermal waves for hours, just for the joy of the ride?  So close you can see the pattern of individual feathers.  They never seem to tire.  Once in awhile, they dive to earth to catch some small critter in the meadows.  Awesome.

Tomorrow it’s suppose to storm.  Ice is in the air.  The company has the closed date for my campground as October 21.  Locals say we will be deep in snow by then and the roads closed to all but snowmobiles.

Hunters are all over the place – mostly on the free Forest lands.  Archers have arrived.  Black powder hunting begins this weekend.  No one is finding any game to shoot.

Photo borrowed from internet, not my lake, but I imagine it will look something like this.

I’ve been told the Lake freezes so deep and solid that dozens of snowmobilers will be out there racing about at speeds of 100 mph?  Wow… that would be something to see, but I hope to be in the southern states by then.  I am having a late “time-off” break after my busiest weekend (Labor Day). 

I decided to paint the bathroom floors in the old campground (not that they needed it), instead of taking my usual Tues and Weds off.  Having working 1/2 day each of those days, I took Thursday off to enjoy this beautiful place.  Unlike the weekend before, the group of campers this weekend were wonderful and healed the pain of the “bad” campers the week before.  It was my biggest and best weekend and group.

My kayak-mobile.

I’m making a real effort to enjoy the rest of my time here and am prepared to leave with one hours notice.  All my gear but my van and kayak have been moved to storage in town, since road conditions could get really bad really fast.  I can deal with that and will have plenty of food and water on hand to wait out bad road conditions for a few days, until I can get down the mountain, in case the company doesn’t call me down in time.

All the locals say that after Labor Day, the weather can turn fast.  A rancher said yesterday that within two weeks the cattle will begin going down the mountain on their own due to lack of food and dropping temperatures.  There is ice in the air and it hailed a couple days ago.  Time for blanket number 3.

And I just finished another sketch for a fellow school mate.  Neato.