Living in the Mountains in Winter

We are spending the winter months in the mountains at 9,240 feet in a secluded part of the state of Colorado. We love it up here in the summer and decided we had better see how year round living suits us.

We made it up here after the first big snow and the neighborhood snow plow had cleared the road to our drive way. We strapped on the snow shoes and made our way to the cottage, started the tractor and used it to blow the drives clear.

There was a lot of snow to clear to get the plow truck ready for use.

During the growing season all of the neighborhood takes the brush and branches they trim and deposit them on the "Slash Pile". On New Years Eve the pile is burned and the various neighbors gather around to celebrate the New Year.

The critters were sure glad to see us return. We've been feeding the birds and we've found they don't like the millet in the feed and  knock it out of the feeder onto the ground below the deck. The deer have discovered the seed and now spend time there eating away.

When we head into town we pass by the lake and the ice fishermen trying their luck.

We've experienced our first big winter storm where it snowed and blew for two days. We got about 16" of snow out of it and higher drifts. After it ended we spent several hours clearing the drives and using the plow truck to clear many miles of roads. Quite the experience.

This secluded life style suits us well. We head into town once a week or so and spend rest of our time on various projects, reading and winter sports.