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I drove my wife to and from the eye Doc this morning and didn’t get out until 11 and filled 49 large, medium and small planters for the decks and then she started planting her annuals. I’ll get a total count when we are done but I have already used 23 cu-ft of Black Gold. Our son in law came over earlier to do some serious weed whacking over the “hill” and he’ll be back tomorrow to finish.(that’s what he thinks). I have a morning appointment for a hearing test and a tuneup on my current hearing aid and then fill more pots before moving back out into the garden.

BTW... all this activity is about a month late for us...

That funnel cloud was near Leadville which is about 10.000 ft elevation and about 100 miles SW from here. The funnel cloud was near Mt Massive, the 2nd highest peak in CO and just west of Leadville. I climbed Mt Massive about 10 years ago after 2 other tries where I had to turn back due to hail and lightning. The third try was clear and very good weather, a pretty easy climb. Only Mountain Goats tempting my dog Shadow to run into dangerous slopes were a problem. He was on all the other attempts too and hated the lightning, but liked chasing critters and truly loved going into the mountains.

I only plan to take dogs on “hiking” type routes, but had one occasion downclimbing a nearly vertical route with Shadow, he was a 70 lb Belgian Sheep Dog, on my shoulders with no rope and a small storm moving in with intense lightning. The guide book was written by a type of climber who boosts his ego by saying something is very easy when it is really difficult. I climbed Audobon Peak and then crossed a narrow ridge to climb Payute Peak. Going down from the low point of the ridge to the south was supposed to be easy even though this was in spring with much ice and snow. So I found myself and my good old dog Shadow (deceased from old age now)on about a 2,000 ft descent to easier ground that gradually got worse going down on the south slope until the last 1,000 ft was narrow, slanted ledges that were only about 6 inches wide at times and with vertical drop off. I carried Shadow down on my shoulders and I could tell he was keeping his shivering and reaction to lightning strikes under control, but I could clearly feel them. At times the ledges got wide enough I could let Shadow down on his own and at the next narrow ledge he would let me help him back on my shoulders. The last few hundred feet of steep slope was a snow field and we slid down effortlessly. I needed to put Shadow on leash to comply with park regs and I found it had fallen out of my parka pocket at the top of the snowfield. So, dead tired, I had to climb up without crampons or ice axe and get the leash. I then slid down and put shadow on leash which always embarrased him. The storm continued most of the way back to the SUV with lightning frequent and close. Shadow was happy when we got in the SUV and I was still shaking. The weather in the mountains is always unpredictable!