But first a getaway! The leaves are changing and weather is holding, so we took advantage of the last weekend prior to my surgery and headed up the mountains. The aspens. Unbelievable. We didn’t do any roadside stops for the most gorgeous views where the aspen trees were not only marigold in color, but also the most inspiring colors of coral.
My knee was doing quite well in the run up to the surgery (I won’t belabor the mental stress of going into surgery with a knee that was working quite well). I decided to throw caution to the wind and do my biggest hike since I injured my knee back in June. If they’re going to repair it in a few days, I might as well use it now, was my rational. The 4 mile steep uphill was not a problem, but on the descent I had to be super careful not to slip and fall on the steep loose bits. It was totally worth it.
We hiked to Ice Lake up above Silverton, CO. The youngsters pictured above went in for a swim. Brr…
We came from way down in that valley. It was a perfect autumn day, with just a few sprinkles of rain on our descent.
Yes, I’m a tree hugger. The night before we were sitting in our camp chairs in a quite busy area and this guy just happened to stroll through…
On Friday evening before we headed up into the mountains we attended our first Balloon Glow. It was a big party with music and booths, and traditional Navajo dance on the San Juan College campus.
The balloons do not take off in the dark, but they put on a breathtaking show!!
If the video doesn’t work for you, here is a picture.
On Tuesday morning I had my ACL reconstruction. We were told everything went well and the nerve block lasted for so long that I was able to skip the narcotics (they just make me sick) and go straight onto over-the-counter pain killers and so far (48 hours post-surgery) the pain is staying quite low. I’m regaining some range of motion, and since I have my first physical therapy appointment this afternoon, I bet he will push it further and I expect to be quite sore after. Getting range of motion back ASAP and starting to fire up the quad and hamstring muscles seem to be the primary goals. I have to keep this ace bandage on for three days, so I don’t actually know what it looks like yet. Jesse is being a great nurse of course, making me food and bringing my ice packs.
In the run up to the surgery we tried to get as much yard work as possible done. The previous owner really let the yard go, including weed trees (black locust) growing along the foundation. They are everywhere here because they propagate by both massive amounts of seeds and root suckers. We prioritized digging out the ones along the foundation first.
This is a very small one. Some were large trunks that we are treating and will dig out more of them once the wood starts to die. We also have a part of the yard we call the back 30 which was like a jungle. It will be a long-term battle keeping these locust and elm at bay, but we made huge progress.
We want to keep this back portion of the yard as a shady oasis, but with different kinds of trees. We have a few mulberry trees we will probably keep for now. There are two huge locust trees that we will probably eventually have taken down by professionals.
I’m not going to be much help for awhile, but we are proud of our progress and thrilled to be in our home.
Nice pics as always. We tried to see the balloon glow in Meadville, Father’s Day weekend but it was too windy, maybe next year. I hope you’re able to be up and about soon. Good luck getting your yard cleaned up. Keep the blogs coming.
Love the pics of the Silverton area, I have not been up there, it is beautiful! Pops and Kelly’s Dad, Les, were up that way on motorcycles about this time one year and ran into snow.