Dickerson sisters

Meanwhile, back at the Ranch

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We took a road trip to Fort Collins. I had an appointment to review archives of the Dickerson sisters. These were two women who grew up on an off-the-grid homestead in the Mummy Range of mountains, where they supported themselves by running a timber operation and selling home baked goods and handcrafts. I had hoped to see some of their handcrafts but there was a misunderstanding and instead I reviewed a folder of articles, photos and clippings. I first learned of them when I read an article about a pin loom blanket made by them. This was while I was making a pin loom blanket almost next door, in the adjacent mountains.

Here’s a photo of Alice. I may try to recreate her hat. They lived together into their 80’s. I read their story in a book called Apples of the Mummy’s Eyes.

They were as poor as church mice but now their homestead is on the market for $850,000! I managed to copy their recipe for bread, in their case baked in a wood burning stove.

I am happy to share it with you.

At least, we had preferred parking due to our hybrid car.

After our visit to the museum, we hiked in the Eagles Nest open space. The landscape was much different from what we have become used to.

It was dry brush with no snow. The weather didn’t get quite as warm as we hoped but it was a great walk.

There were signs like these whenever we considered following the wrong herd path.

On our way home, we saw a small herd of bighorn (not longhorn) sheep.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch a flock of turkeys has moved in. One of the Toms struts his stuff around the grounds.

His ladies seem more interested in the meager grass and bugs in the lawn.

Now they have gone down the road a piece.

Guardians of the Valley

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I am reading a wonderful book about a pair of sisters, The Dickersons, who lived on the Mummy Range in the early 1900’s, called “Apples of the Mummy’s Eyes”. They viewed the profile of the “mummy” from the off the grid cabin they lived in for 80+ years! From the age of 5-6, they worked with teams of horses to pull stumps and did all sorts of hard labor. Helen was a real homebody, like me, and made pine needle baskets, candies, woven blankets, which she sold at a store on the edge of their property.

Here at McGraw Ranch, we have two guardians, Pulpit Rock and Indian Head. In fact at some point, the ranch was called the Indian Head Ranch.

It just seems like a strong profile to me but nonetheless, he is our protector. The first thing we see every morning.

We took advantage of several beautiful, warm days this week and hiked in the backyard. Tim went to Balanced Rock. I opted to skip the elevation gain and looked at pine cones instead. We have beautiful Ponderosa Pines all around us and their pinecones reminded me of a rose.

The next walk we took was along the Northern Boundary trail into the Comanche Peak Wilderness, where we caught a glimpse into the next valley. It’s easy to imagine what it must have been like to ride horses into this territory when this was a dude ranch.

We didn’t realize we could see Longs Peak, the highest point in Rocky Mountain National Park at 14,256 feet, for a good part of the walk but it was clear to us on the way back.

There was a sundog on the way down. A sundog occurs on either side of the sun when it is low on the horizon and is called a sundog because it sits beside the sun like a loyal dog. My best capture of this was in Maine when we wintered at Schoodic Point in Acadia National Park.

But now the weather is turning colder once again, single digits for the next couple of days. Space heaters are back in use and water is left dripping from all the faucets.

We stopped by the Stanley Hotel, the setting for Stephen King’s “The Shining”, while in town yesterday. They have special rates, more not less, for rooms with paranormal activity. Stephen King shot his own miniseries here but the hotel promotes the Jack Nicholson version.

What’s not clear is that it sits right at the edge of Estes Park and is not at all remote.

Although we are only 15 minutes from town, our setting is remote. Just the way we like it.