You would think that after 3 weeks at our Weston house sit, we would be ready to hit the road in search of more adventure. Well, you’d be half right. We were itching to get back on the road and explore more of Colorado but no sooner did we start the Weston house sit, when a previous house-sit host asked if we would make a return visit, a visit to Rye Colorado. Considering the timing and proximity of it all, we decided, why the heck not?
Rye Colorado house-sit. Another example of ranch community housing.
Yvette and Dulce hiking around the cliffs.
Rye Colorado is a sleepy little town about 30 miles southwest of Pueblo Colorado, just off Interstate 25. Its a great secluded home located on a fairly large piece of property. There are plenty of hiking trails to keep us busy, though the afternoons here were a bit damp. After all, this is their “monsoon” season. (Sidebar: Up until age 8, I thought a Monsoon was a musical instrument). We encountered plenty of thunderstorms and more hail than I’ve seen in my entire life. Hail size ranged from pea to golf ball size hail and there were a few moments where I cringed every time I looked out at the truck as it was getting pelted.
Electrical Storms (that's the term they use out here) can be so severe, it is common knowledge that to being on a mountain anytime after lunch is extremely foolhardy. I can understand why. Of the 7 days, we were at our house sit, there was a thunderstorm every afternoon except for two days. And you don’t normally see just one round of the cumulonimbus beasts, there can two or even three rounds of them all with the same intensity. Usually, there would be a break after dinner affording us a quick walk or small hike before dark.
Hail three days in a row. The largest would be about the size of a golfball.
Speaking of dinner, one of our pet peeves is the lack of quality food in this area. Ten miles from here is a supermarket whose name escapes me, but the selection of fruits and vegetables leaves a lot to be desired. There are no “real” farmer's markets here unless you drive 35 miles north to Pueblo. Well, to be entirely accurate, there was a farmer's market at the local library on Saturday, but of the twelve some odd vendors, only two were farmers, or perhaps gardeners. Both of which didn’t have two grocery bags of produce between them and absolutely no farm fresh eggs anywhere. Maybe it just doesn’t pay to have farms here. Maybe everyone is okay thinking that “eating your vegetables” means having either a birds eye or a big giant green dude on the bag that comes out of a freezer so there isn't a demand? The soil certainly looks capable and though this year has been a bit tough water-wise, most years there seems to be plenty of rain. Come to think of it, maybe that’s why they DON”T grow any produce here. Yesterday we had enough hail to cover the ground to about an inch. And some of these hunks of ice were falling like they had been shot out of a canon. I can’t really see having greenhouse or acres of leafy squash or lettuce if hail is always on the weather menu 40 days out of every growing season and then drought the rest of the time. But lack of fresh still wouldn't keep us away.
Dulce. One of the many reasons to return to this house-sit in Rye
We did miss Dulce. If you remember when we here this spring (CLICK HERE FOR PREVIOUS POST ABOUT OUR MAY RYE HOUSE-SIT) Dulce's sister, Roxie was very sick and a few days after we left she had to be put down because she had been suffering from cancer. But when we arrived, Dulce could clearly remember the good times and there were more to come this time around as well.
Enough much needed rain to fill a pond that was dry the day before.
Burrito, Cowboy and who's the gal with her eyes closed?
The horses (Major and Freckles) and donkey (Buritto) were just as comical as ever as were the two barn cats, “Cowboy and Cowgirl.” We were also lucky enough to capture a blonde black bear on the trail cam that had been roaming the neighborhood.
"Blonde" Black Bear captured on trail-cam.
People around here are still talking about video capture of the mountain lion we snagged the last time we were here. If you haven’t seenthe video, you can CLICK HERE to see the video (VLOG) that I put on YouTube describing the last time we were here.
Showers bring rainbows, sometimes doubles.
Rainbows, but no Unicorns. Though Major could probably come close. (Freckles in trail)
"Dulce" and me saying goodbye. Such a great dog!
(Look close for an inbound hummingbird)
A quick list of the things we accomplished in a week? Sure but the structure of this may not be grammatically correct.
Received some items from Amazon including some food items. Haircut.
Writing, including another article that I submitted to a travel mag.
Yvette and I have started to plan our return trip to New England. (Hope there’s some sweet corn left…)
Kicked around spending Christmas in the U.K. in 2019, it’s stretch, but so was this!
Applied for a house sit in Georgia for Christmas and NewYears. Still waiting to here…
And many other large and not so large tasks that we do overtime we house-sit.
What’s this? Looks like there’s another house sit up in Breckenridge? 7 days? That might give us just enough time for the weather to cool down in New England before we head back. Should we take it? Stay tuned.