There are so many things to discover on the land in the Rocky mountains.
Indian prayer tree. Ute Indians lived in these mountains.
This is an Indian prayer tree on my mom's property. There are several categories of Ute Indian prayer trees. Read all about them here: https://www.castlepinesconnection.com/ute-indian-prayer-trees/
From what I've researched: This one is a burial tree. It points towards the lush valley where underground springs fill my mom's two lakes. Because my mom's property has water, this would have been an important place for hunting, had a steady water supply and it would have been a place of abundance. The healing power of this valley is palpable. I lived up here for a few years. There's something magical about this area.
Watch a video of how to identify Ute prayer trees here: https://youtu.be/3LkYQbcnlkE?si=k--tL7YjxGnMVYGV
How the homestead cabin was before moving and renovating it.
Marked logs, ready to move it.
My mom moved the original homestead cabin up the valley and added another set of rooms (as an upstairs and below there's now a kitchen.) The resulting cabin is still small, but unless family is out there: it's a good size for just my mom.
She actually went to lumberjack school. The man who built the addition and finished the interior did everything by hand. There were no electric tools used to finish the cabin. It is completely authentic to the time period. She's been living up here full time for the last ten years or so. I really enjoy coming to visit.
Working on the cabin.
View up the valley from the lower lake.
The tree to the right is a cottonwood. It's where the cabin was originally situated and the tree was planted by the guy who homesteaded here.
But, she has a mountain lion and a bear in the neighborhood. We walked to the fence and back (about a mile) for decades. Never thought about it. Now my mom doesn't walk the land by herself and she's always armed.
My granny happily catching fish back in the day.
My mom's big dogs helping with the chickens.
This is Pearl. She's enormous!
Interestingly, she was watching my dog once and she heard something on the front porch. She opened the front door a crack, to look out. It was a bear... and it forced its way in. Her dog and my dog barked at it and stood between it and my mom. It ran upstairs with the dogs chasing it. She opened the front door all the way and made it to her downstairs bathroom and called 911. The dogs scared the bear enough that it peed in her front room. The bear scared my mom enough that she waited in the bathroom until the police showed up. Our dogs chased it outside and down the valley. When they came back: my dog (a fine boned whippet) wouldn't leave her side. He didn't know anything about that place, except: it had big scary animals outside. So, now my dog has a great story to tell all his doggy friends!
Some of her chickens
Mom's ducks
Anyway, the bear came through while I was there. However, he didn't come inside and we weren't dumb enough to open any doors. But this is why mom has a German shepherd and a German shepherd/Newfoundland mix (that dog is a giant). She needs big dogs that can hold their own against a bear, in case the bear or the mountain lion ever come after her again.
Hummingbirds
I'm currently reading a book about an EMP (One Second After) where city folk come boiling out into the country. If you have a go-bag and think hiding in the woods is going to be a good idea... Yeah. Stay in the city where there's some infrastructure. Don't go hide out with the bears and mountain lions and become dinner (there are lots of other things out there, that can hurt you too, like: badgers and bobcats, elk and even moose. What would you do if you fell and were injured? Plus, there's a lot of people out here with guns, protecting their property.)
Chipmunk (My mom calls these chip rats. Between these guys and the Prarie dogs, anything she plants: they tunnel under it and kill it.) Rodents also carry bubonic plague out here in their fleas and there's hantavirus that you can catch from rodent droppings.
But even if the idea of evacuating cities (thinking that the countryside is always safe), is not actually accurate: it's almost an insurmountable part of the thought process of humans. "Let's escape the city and live off the land" isn't going to work. Most people would just starve or die from dehydration.
Woodpecker
Anyway, outside of being cautious about apex predators, my mother's place is so enriching and fulfilling. We stick to the porch at night, and don't leave the house and wander around when we can't see. And luckily: her dogs are big enough to not be attractive as bear bait. They come between us and the bigger wildlife. However, the neighbors lost their smaller dog to a mountain lion recently. So, death by big predator is not a big risk: but it's definitely there.
The big problem with living in some of the homes up here is: if we lost power and propane, it's really, really hard to heat a home on the type of wood that grows up here. You have to import hardwood firewood to stay warm, and how would that be possible if nothing was running? It is either cool or bitterly cold up here. There's almost no growing season for a garden. So, beautiful place. But, like with our Texas heat and drought: hard to make it work without the conveniences of modern life.
Meet you out on the porch for the view and a cup of coffee. We'll save any bear encounters for the city folk who come camping and mountain biking up here.
Crazy Green Thumbs
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