Let it Snow Let It Snow Let It Snow!!

Well Wolf Creek got a lot of attention in the last few days for opening yesterday.  Sadly, I was unable to join my friends in their marathon trip to southern Colorado to ride on opening day.  However, we were not without our share of the white powder at our Colorado Mountain Retreat!

Northstar Peak from our driveway! Mogul loves snow!

Looking toward Red Mountain from our Deck

The last holdout Aspens!

Looking up at Northstar from the deck

Quandary Peak from Blue Lakes Road

Here are some photos we took in the 'hood over the last couple of days!

We hope you enjoy the photos.  I fired up the snow blower and worked on our driveway a bit, and shovelled the snow off the deck.  Just when I finished the wood task, along comes the snow!  Not even a weeks respite!

Of Moose and men (and women)

Today was a big day!  While out walking Zep and Mogul, we got to meet several of our new neighbors!!  I'm not takling about the human kind, but of the Moose Kind!  We first saw a cow and calf, along with a small bull.  I hurriedly gathered up the dogs so they wouldn't get trampled.  We hurried home to get Julie!  Julie and I returned to the scene, only to find 2 large Bull Moose crossing the road and heading up the hill toward our home!  I tried to get a photo but they disappeared behind some trees, not to be seen again!

I hope we get to see them again soon!  They are magnificent creatures!

We are living in our Perfect Colorado Mountain Retreat!

Here is the video of the Bear in our yard...

This bear was video'd after he'd has the chocolate syrup and the beer!





What will you find at your Colorado Mountain Retreat?

Heating with a WOOD Furnace!

Mogul has split a lot of firewood today!

So one of the cool things about this home is our STEEL KING wood burning furnace.  This looks and works much like a gas or oil burning furnace, except that the fuel for it is wood.  Now I live on 6 acres of mainly spruce forest, so finding firewood is not an issue.

I remember being a kid and visiting my grandparent's home in Connecticut and going down in the basement.  There was this huge boiler down there.  My understanding was that it was originally wood fired, then coal fired, and finally it had been converted to oil burning.  This was a big old creaky, moaning, fire belching monster in the basement.  This was my only experience with wood burning furnace.

I had previously had a wood stove in our rental home in Breckenridge and heated most of the time we were there with wood.  I didn't even know they made wood burning furnaces any more.  I found this website - Energy King which seems to have the same or similar furnaces to Steel King.  I'm not sure if it is the same company or not, just with a new name.  They appear to look and work the same.

Ductwork just like any forced air system

Rear of Furnace showing combustion air fan.

The furnace has the same type of ductwork as a gas fired one, and my model has a combustion air fan.  This fan is thermostatically controlled.  When the thermostat calls for heat the fan turns on, kicking up the heat on the fire. Then there is a squirrel cage blower fan to circulate the warm air.

In the future, I am going to add cold air return ducts as currently the fan pulls air from the basement to warm and distribute out.  My filter is already getting clogged after just a few days of light heating.  I think pulling air from upstairs instead of right next to the furnace will result in better air flow, and less cleaning of the air filter.

We are not yet really cold so it's hard to say how well this system will heat the house, but no doubt they will reduce our electric bills for using our baseboard heat. One small item to repair is the ducts all need to be reattached and taped and sealed as the original owner didn't even screw them together.  I'll accomplish that soon so that more air gets distributed directly into the rooms where it is needed.

We are loving our Colorado Mountain Retreat, and we can help you find yours!

Moving In - A Saga by any stretch!

Zeppelin is helping me with the moving truck!

Good morning everyone! We have been off the Blog for a while due to internet availability issues (more on this later and our creative solution).  We made it to closing and the purchase went off with no hitches.  The move in, however, was challenging to say the least.  First, we still had a ton of stuff in storage in Erie that wouldn't fit in our old house.  Second, the driveway to the new house was questionable for the moving van.  I had to drive to Boulder on Friday night to rent the truck.  I then loaded our stuff in Erie and drove up to Breckenridge.  We hired 3 great guys in Breck to help us move! Thanks to them, or we never would have gotten moved.

As expected, we couldn't get the van up the driveway to the house (or rather I was afraid that I may never get the truck out of there after getting it there!  We parked the truck at the bottom of the hill and loaded stuff into my old green chevy pickup and brought a little bit a t a time to the house.  This probably increased our moving time 3 fold, but saved us from the pain and expensive tow bill for hauling a stuck moving van out of our driveway!

To cap off a stressful move - we had to have the van back to Boulder Sunday PM, so off we go down I-70 in the horrible traffic! Took us about 4.5 hours to get from Breck to Boulder - uuuuugh time to widen that road people!

Julie and I have found our perfect Colorado Mountain Retreat, Let us help you find yours!

The Septic Inspection....

So Septic systems are huge deals in rural areas such as the unincorporated parts of Summit County and elsewhere.  Summit County requires all systems to be pumped and inspected prior to the sale of any property.  As such, today was the day our inspection happened.

Our system was likely installed in 1972 or 3 when the home was originally built.  The tank was a fiberglass tank, common in a tank of that age.

The contractors uncovered the tank today and pumped it.  In the photos below you can see the equipment and the opening in the top of the tank as well as the pump hose used by the contractor to pump the tank.

Needless to say,  a hole was discovered in the side of the tank, and it has been leaking for a while.  Under new regulations, this will require a 2000 gallon tank for a home the size of ours.  The Seller will pay the contractor to replace it and the work will take place next week after closing.

Here is a video of the excavation taking place....