I saw the most gorgeous sight today – HUGE, beautiful snowflakes falling on the dusty ground that’s been making my nose run for the past few days!! It was one of those peaceful sights where as far as the eye could see, snow was covering everything – the trees, the land, the bison who were grazing on the dry grass, and the mountains in the background. For awhile I could have sworn in was winter, but then remembered it is SPRING!! They’ve been dealing with drought conditions here for the last few years, so any sign of water (rain, snow, etc.) is a VERY welcome sight!! It’s the only place I know of where people are HAPPY to see snow in April!!
The first group of Turkey hunters is just about done and will be leaving in the next couple days, but there are still a few of them who have not shot their turkeys – and they’ll be heading out in the snow in the wee hours of the morning (Brrrrr…..!!!). Oh, and did I mention that it’s supposed to get down into the teens (and probably below WITH the wind-chill factor)!! In fact, I just checked weather.com and although it’s 23 degrees outside, it FEELS like 3 degrees due to the cold wind blowing outside my windows…yikes!
Thank goodness I’m in the “overly-hot” room with all that cold wind blowing in!! Since I arrived, I’ve been trying to figure out a way to keep this room COOLER because the heater works so well (and, of course, it doesn’t have a separate thermostat). But TONIGHT, I’m happy to be in my warm, cozy room! My theory is that this room is the closest to the furnace (and above the kitchen), so I get all the heat – and the poor girls across the hallway must be at the end of the furnace line because they are MUCH colder!! Let’s just hope this room doesn’t feel like a sauna this summer – but we’ll deal with that if and when the time comes!
What else?!?!?.....I am at the end of day 8 and have 2 more to go (ugh!!), and I’m really looking forward to my days off on Saturday and Sunday!! I’m not sure what I’ll be doing with myself, but there are plenty of options….sleeping and laundry are at the top of my list right now! Most of the staff is off on Saturday because most of our hunters will be gone by then. The turkey hunts are a “package deal” where a specific number of hunters come in for 5 days, and then we have 2 days to recover before the next group comes! During the fishing season, however, we have people coming and going all week long – more individual reservations versus group reservations.
With so many of the staff off on Saturday, I’m sure there will be SOMEONE “heading into town” so I can tag along! Now just to give you a picture of how remote we are, Raton is about 40 miles from here, but about an hour and fifteen minutes drive because of the bumpy road conditions. (You know you’re in a truly rural place when your mailing address is “40 miles West of Raton on Hwy 55"…not even a street address, just directions on how to get here!!)
So Raton is our closest town, but Trinidad, CO is the next big town and THEY have a Walmart (for all those “essentials” I wasn’t able to pack into my suitcases) AND more importantly, they have a Starbucks!! You KNOW you’re living in a remote area when the closest Starbucks is almost two hours away! Oh well….I just keep reminding myself that I wanted a “unique living experience” for a new adventure…and here I am!!
And finally, the “big news” yesterday was that one of our turkey hunters (an 88-year-old purple-heart veteran who has always wanted to come to the Ranch and hunt) got two turkeys with one shot!!! It must have been one of those “flukes” because even the long-time “expert hunters” were pretty impressed! It was so cute to watch this older gentleman be the center of attention – surrounded by all these big ‘ole burly guys in “cammo” (i.e. camouflage clothing from head to toe)!! A memorable moment on the Ranch for sure!
And speaking of “cammo” – this seems to be the proper fashion statement around here! Add a lot of facial hair to those cammo hats, jackets, shirts and pants, and the Guides are almost indistinguishable from one another!! I’m sure this is a great thing when you’re out hunting so the animals can’t see you, but it makes it VERY difficult for me to recognize them when they come and “check in” at night! For safety reasons, we want to know when all the Guides and hunters are coming in so we can make sure none of them are stuck out in the woods all night, so they check in with me at the front desk.
Most of them check in via radio (YES….I’m learning how to do CB-talk!!), but they sound like this…. “frntks dsksj this is 1 ??” so I respond “130 this is front desk”….and then they say “yeah….we’re comin in” – sometimes they say more, but I can’t usually understand them!! It’s a little tricky because EVERYTHING you say on the radio can be heard by everyone with a radio….so I try and sound very professional when I can’t understand a THING they’re saying!! I’m slowly but surely getting used to their drawls (since a lot of them are from Oklahoma, Texas or other southern states), but it’s a whole new skill I’m learnin’ and it’s kinda fun tryin' to figure out who’s calling and what they’re saying!
So that’s my day….snow, freezing cold winds blowing hard outside my window, cute octogenarian killed two turkeys with one shot, everyone wears cammo and is indistinguishable, and learning to decipher the messages on CB radios….all-in-all an interesting couple days!! Time for bed – but I’ll write more again soon (assuming I don’t freeze tonight)!!
The first group of Turkey hunters is just about done and will be leaving in the next couple days, but there are still a few of them who have not shot their turkeys – and they’ll be heading out in the snow in the wee hours of the morning (Brrrrr…..!!!). Oh, and did I mention that it’s supposed to get down into the teens (and probably below WITH the wind-chill factor)!! In fact, I just checked weather.com and although it’s 23 degrees outside, it FEELS like 3 degrees due to the cold wind blowing outside my windows…yikes!
Thank goodness I’m in the “overly-hot” room with all that cold wind blowing in!! Since I arrived, I’ve been trying to figure out a way to keep this room COOLER because the heater works so well (and, of course, it doesn’t have a separate thermostat). But TONIGHT, I’m happy to be in my warm, cozy room! My theory is that this room is the closest to the furnace (and above the kitchen), so I get all the heat – and the poor girls across the hallway must be at the end of the furnace line because they are MUCH colder!! Let’s just hope this room doesn’t feel like a sauna this summer – but we’ll deal with that if and when the time comes!
What else?!?!?.....I am at the end of day 8 and have 2 more to go (ugh!!), and I’m really looking forward to my days off on Saturday and Sunday!! I’m not sure what I’ll be doing with myself, but there are plenty of options….sleeping and laundry are at the top of my list right now! Most of the staff is off on Saturday because most of our hunters will be gone by then. The turkey hunts are a “package deal” where a specific number of hunters come in for 5 days, and then we have 2 days to recover before the next group comes! During the fishing season, however, we have people coming and going all week long – more individual reservations versus group reservations.
With so many of the staff off on Saturday, I’m sure there will be SOMEONE “heading into town” so I can tag along! Now just to give you a picture of how remote we are, Raton is about 40 miles from here, but about an hour and fifteen minutes drive because of the bumpy road conditions. (You know you’re in a truly rural place when your mailing address is “40 miles West of Raton on Hwy 55"…not even a street address, just directions on how to get here!!)
So Raton is our closest town, but Trinidad, CO is the next big town and THEY have a Walmart (for all those “essentials” I wasn’t able to pack into my suitcases) AND more importantly, they have a Starbucks!! You KNOW you’re living in a remote area when the closest Starbucks is almost two hours away! Oh well….I just keep reminding myself that I wanted a “unique living experience” for a new adventure…and here I am!!
And finally, the “big news” yesterday was that one of our turkey hunters (an 88-year-old purple-heart veteran who has always wanted to come to the Ranch and hunt) got two turkeys with one shot!!! It must have been one of those “flukes” because even the long-time “expert hunters” were pretty impressed! It was so cute to watch this older gentleman be the center of attention – surrounded by all these big ‘ole burly guys in “cammo” (i.e. camouflage clothing from head to toe)!! A memorable moment on the Ranch for sure!
And speaking of “cammo” – this seems to be the proper fashion statement around here! Add a lot of facial hair to those cammo hats, jackets, shirts and pants, and the Guides are almost indistinguishable from one another!! I’m sure this is a great thing when you’re out hunting so the animals can’t see you, but it makes it VERY difficult for me to recognize them when they come and “check in” at night! For safety reasons, we want to know when all the Guides and hunters are coming in so we can make sure none of them are stuck out in the woods all night, so they check in with me at the front desk.
Most of them check in via radio (YES….I’m learning how to do CB-talk!!), but they sound like this…. “frntks dsksj this is 1 ??” so I respond “130 this is front desk”….and then they say “yeah….we’re comin in” – sometimes they say more, but I can’t usually understand them!! It’s a little tricky because EVERYTHING you say on the radio can be heard by everyone with a radio….so I try and sound very professional when I can’t understand a THING they’re saying!! I’m slowly but surely getting used to their drawls (since a lot of them are from Oklahoma, Texas or other southern states), but it’s a whole new skill I’m learnin’ and it’s kinda fun tryin' to figure out who’s calling and what they’re saying!
So that’s my day….snow, freezing cold winds blowing hard outside my window, cute octogenarian killed two turkeys with one shot, everyone wears cammo and is indistinguishable, and learning to decipher the messages on CB radios….all-in-all an interesting couple days!! Time for bed – but I’ll write more again soon (assuming I don’t freeze tonight)!!
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