Dance's Excellent Adventure - Lone Pine Ranch 2nd Installment

Those of you who know us well won’t be surprised that we immediately began working in our “yard”. It’s spring and that means weeds to be pulled. The path to the river was barely defined, the rock garden ignored by previous workampers, and the fire pit was full of ashes and topped with misplaced boulders. Compared to the park setting down at the main house, our hilltop site was lacking visual appeal. Dixie had planted some annuals for us and a few of the flower beds had iris and tulips waiting to bloom. Here’s some before and after pictures.

The path to the river…before

And after

The rock garden…before

And after…no flowers yet though (have to wait until after the last frost)

The picnic area…before

And after

Bob and Willie

Different subject…

Dixie invited me to join her and a friend on their “walk” up the canyon. They pretty much walk every day. She says it’s about 3 miles round trip and takes about an hour. So after a week and a half or so Bob and I joined them on their “walk”. Four humans and six dogs went on the “walk”. So you may have noticed that I keep referring to the walk as “walk”. I ask you, “when does a walk become a hike?” Is it a long walk or a short hike? Is was a bit warm that day. We had one bottle of water. The older ladies had nothing. The pace was quick. It was a gradual ascent with steeper spots as we neared the turn point.  I found myself trying to catch up often.  It was fairly humiliating when I had to stop to rest when Dixie and her friend, both I would guess in their seventies, are smoking my ass! Denise, good friend that she has become, said it must have been my lack of acclimation to the altitude. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

Our first visitors, Mike and Denise, came up for the day last Friday. They brought the fixin’s for burgers, a bottle of wine and a tomato plant for our garden! They were also kind enough to stop by Walmart and pick up a couple of Dickies work shirts for Bob. We walked them around the ranch and took a ride to Blue Lake. Hope they come again soon!

We’ve been told to expect to see jack rabbits, deer, and antelope. We’ve been warned about the possibility of the presence of a mountain lion. Well so far I’ve only seen one deer and that was up in the canyon on one of my walks. Foxie promptly chased it up a hill and then lost it! She stood looking around thinking “Where did it go?”

Oh and Bob killed his first scorpion today!

Thanks for all the quick replies; I love that you’re enjoying the tales…

Kim (and Bob) Dance