Quotes
A bachelor is a man who comes to work each morning from a different direction.
– Phyllis Diller

In my bachelor days, the priority wasn’t learning to cook.
– Rob Lowe

Never trust a husband too far, nor a bachelor too near.
– Helen Rowland

Marriage is a fine institution, but I’m not ready for an institution.
– Mae West

I’m a bachelor in the old sense of the word, meaning I flirt, I have very many close relationships, but then I come home and like to read my book.
– William Ivey Long

“Without a doubt... the worst part of being a single woman was having to take care of your own car.”
― Lisa Kleypa

Married and Non
CU Boulder professor Peter McGrawn said in Coloradan Alumni Magazine his single minded goal is to better understand and even celebrate the millions of individuals who are unmarried.

The trend seems to be toward fewer married people and later marriages.

A rising share are not living with a romantic partner. A new Pew Research Center analysis of census data finds that in 2019, roughly four-in-ten adults ages 25 to 54 (38%) were unpartnered – that is, neither married nor living with a partner. This share is up sharply from 29% in 1990. -Pew Research

Pew goes on to explain - While the unpartnered population includes some adults who were previously married (those who are separated, divorced or widowed), all of the growth in the unpartnered population since 1990 has come from a rise in the number who have never been married.                                         
 
                                  Comparison of Partnered and Unpartnered 2019

Education attainment
Obtained at least a Bachelor's - partnered men 37%,  unpartnered men 26%
Obtained at least a Bachelor's - partnered women 43%  unpartnered women 33%

Employment median compensation
Median earnings - partnered men $57,000,  unpartnered men $35,000
Median earnings -  partnered women $40,000,  unpartnered women $32,000

Similar differences are observed for partnered and unpartnered in living with parents and health questions.
Professor McGraw said, "There is nothing wrong with being single, where you are in life at this moment is a wonderful opportunity.


Heat Wave 2022

 Quotes
“The idea of a full dress for preparation for a battle comes not from a belief that it will add to the fighting ability. The preparation is for death, in case that should be the result of the conflict. Every Indian wants to look his best when he goes to meet the Great Spirit, so the dressing up is done whether in imminent danger is an oncoming battle or a sickness or injury at times of peace.”
-Wooden Leg (late 19th century) Cheyenne

“It does not require many words to speak the truth.” – Chief Joseph, Nez Perce

“Remember that your children are not your own but are lent to you by the Creator.” – Mohawk

“They are not dead who live in the hearts they leave behind.” – Tuscarora

“Those that lie down with dogs, get up with fleas.” – Blackfoot“

When you were born, you cried, and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice.” – Cherokee

Kit Carson
Christopher Houston Carson traveled across the American West trapping beavers. He also served as a guide for Major John Fremont's exploration party which openied many places in the west. Fremont Pass near Leadville,Colorado was named for Major Fremont.

Carson was an Indian fighter. He fought ruthlessly against the Crows, Apaches, and Navajoes.

In his life he learned much about Indians and how they thought. He evolved from killer of Apaches and Black Feet to defender and champion of the Utes. Carson supposedly was quoited as saying he had more respect and sympathy for the Indians than he did for his own peers. 

Places in Colorado that are named for Kit Carson include Kit Carson Country, and Fort Carson military base near Colorado Springs. But to many others Carson symbolized a white campaign to pave the way for colonization of the west. Critics of Carson regard him as a war criminal. 

Kit Carson served in the Union Army during the Civil war. In spite of the "dime novel" that portrayed him as a giant he was 5'2" and weighed around
140 pounds.

He died and was buried at Fort Lyons, Colorado

You Can Help Monarchs
Plant milkweed Monarch caterpillars need milkweed to grow and develop. 
Plant butterfly nectar plants to provide energy.
Encourage public land managers to create Monarch habitat.
Join efforts to track Monarch populations.
Support Monarch organizations which have Monarch presentation programs

The Laff is on Us
Wood burns faster when you have to cut and chop it yourself.
- Harrison Ford

The best way to prevent sea-sickness is to go sit under a tree.
Spike Milligan

Quotes
There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.
R. Buckminster Fuller

The caterpillar does all the work, but the butterfly gets all the publicity.
George Carlin

We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.
Maya Angelou

Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.
Nathaniel Hawthorne

The butterfly is a flying flower,
The flower a tethered butterfly.
Ponce Denis Ecouchard Lebrun

We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever.
Carl Sagan

Species Loss
Extinction makes us think of dinosaurs meeting their end 65 million years ago. Most scientists agree we are in the midst of the sixth great extinction in the history of earth. We are having species becoming extinct at a faster rate then it would happen in nature. Human activities are the key to most extinctions that we are witnessing. Such things as climate change, sprawling development, pollution, deforestation, and over-harvesting on nature's gifts are the main contributors to the problem.

Species are being forced to migrate because of habitats being destroyed by human activities. But many species don't have a place to go. Think rabbits in suburban yards. Rabbits attract coyotes, and mountain lions. Even bears find mountain homes an easy place to get a meal because houses are taking the place of previous food sources. An oil drilling operation takes up more space than the just the derrick itself, for example.
 
There are around 2 million different species on our planet. In rough numbers then that means between 200 and 2,000 extinctions occur every year. "Extinction" means there are no more...never, no offspring, none to take the place of the ones we let die.There can be little debate that there is, in fact, a very serious biodiversity crisis.

The birds were first seen by Portuguese sailors about 1507 The birds were first seen by Portuguese sailors  and were exterminated by humans  The dodo was extinct by 1681, The dodo is frequently cited as one of the most well-known examples of human-induced extinction and also serves as a symbol of obsolescence'    

Who Adopted Whom
Rachel wanted to adopt an older dog that came from a bad background to give the dog some years of a happy life, She and Curly (name changed to Finnegan) met at a shelter where Finnegan had lived for three months after being transferred from another shelter and no one had requester to meet with him. After he spend five of his seven years in a holding situation so not having contact with humans was not new to him.

It would be nice to say Rachel and Finnegan got along famously from the beginning. It was not so. Finnegan sat in the corner of the fenced yard and barked and barked non-stop for hours at a time. Rachel admitted she was ready to give up when she met with a dog behavior expert. Rachel gave it one  more try. Slowly Finn came around. He started wagging his tail when he saw her and accepted treats from her hand.

Rachel said, "I'm so proud of his willingness to trust humans again. Every day he is less fearful which makes me happy to see."  Taken from Dumb Friends League "Pet Tales" Summer 2022

.Fishing From the Bank
Fishing from a boat or raft in the river is fun and often productive. As long as you stay in your watercraft there is no problem in Colorado. The problems arise when one fishes on foot from the bank. Do the owners of homes and property along the river have the right to put up "NO TRESPASSING" signs, in effect keeping fishers away from the river?

This is a complicated question with arguments for and against. Federal law states that beds of navigable rivers belong to the states. Navigable rivers is defined as waterways once used as highways for commerce.
In 1912 Colorado Supreme Court declared that the states waterways were "nonnaviigable" because rivers were rushing, steep, and canyon bound.

Land owners and companies came up with an unofficial agreement that declared a person(s) could float through private lands if their boat or raft did not touch the bed or bank of the river. One group of rafters was convicted for their raft occasionally scrapping the bottom against the bed in shallow spots of the river.

A fisherman who prefers to fish on foot has sued (2018) a land owning company and the State of Colorado saying the Arkansas River has been used as a highway of commerce and has records of items of commerce that were shipped on the river to Pueblo,  Colorado. The case has been transferred from court to court and is due for a decision soon. If the fishermen wins it will open up several rivers to recreational use by the public in the future.

1776 Dance
In 1776 the most popular dance was the Inpendent - dance

The biggest jokester in George Washington’s army was Laughayette.
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Was the Declaration of Independence written in Philadelphia? No, it was written in ink.

Mountain Men
In between the Spanish explorers and the Gold Rush there was another step in the development of the mountain west. The Mountain Men or Fur Trappers who came into unexplored, un-mapped and newly acquired territory that the United States added through buying the Louisiana Purchase.

Heroes such as Christopher "Kit" Carson, John Colter, Jim Bridger, Jedidiah Smith, James Beckwourth, and Joseph Walker are examples of the adventurous men who contributed to the settling of the west.

These men and many others like them. came west for one thing. It had been discovered that beaver pelt made  good hats. Many people did the trapping themselves, but most people traded manufactured goods, like iron tools, and glass beads, with the Indians for furs.

A system developed where buyers of pelts and sellers of pelts would come together in the spring/summer each year in a trade fair and social party called the "rendezvous" at the confluence of the Purgatoire and the
Arkansas rivers in the vicinity of where Las Animas, Colorado stands today. At rendezvous much drinking and gambling took place as well buying and selling furs.

The significance of beaver and other animal furs in the development of Colorado and indeed of the U,S. west can not be emphazied enough.

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The Hat Jokes Are Over My Head
When beaver became scarce because of overtrapping, hat makers turned to silk threat. Men stopped chewing on their wooden pencils.
Everybody in the town admires the barber. They always take their hat off when visiting his shop.
These hat puns are beanie-th me.
What do you call a sad hat? A somber-ero.
My boss went into work with a hat, and I guess he is my super-visor.

Independence Gold Mine
Winfield Scott Stratton had spent years prospecting for gold in Colorado and Utah during the summer and then returning to his carpentry occupation in the winter in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In 1893 he had two claims, the Washington and the Independence, in the Cripple Creek mining district. He had given up hopes of finding pay dirt in the Washington. He laid off the couple off miners he had hired and went back to carpentry, but in the 1893 depression nobody was building.

Stratton was urged to go back to Cripple Creek to try one more time to find gold, which he did. In Cripple Creek he met a man named Pearlman who represented a mining syndicate in San Francisco who wanted to buy Stratton's Washington mine. Stratton did not like Pearlman so he offered to sell him the other mine, the Independence, on a 30 day option. An unheard of $5,000 for a 30 day option and $150,000 if Pearlman wanted to buy the mine at the end of the option period. That deal for an untried mine was so preposterous Stratton thought it would chase away Pearlman, whom Stratton disliked from the beginning..

Pearlman didn't blink. He wrote the $5,000 check. Startton said he would clean out his belongings and turn over the Independence for 30 days. While cleaning out the debris in the mine, he discovered signs of a good vein of gold. He put all the debris back in place and sat on pins and needles for 30 days hoping Pearlman's crew would not discover the vein.

On the evening of the 29th day Pearlman said he was in a hurry to go back to San Francisco and offered to give Stratton back the paper the Option Deal was written on. Stratton pointed at the fire in the fireplace. Pearlman threw the option into the fire and a month later Stratton was mining $2,000 worth of ore a day from his Independence mine. The Independence was the biggest gold strike ever in the United States. 
Taken in part from Money Mountain

Grizzly Quotes
The grizzly bears that live in and around Yellowstone make up almost half the population in the lower 48 states, and now those bears are at risk.- Lydia Millet

Bears are very nice, as long as you are nice to them.- Karl Lagerfeld

I've seen a few wild grizzly bears, mostly in Alaska and British Columbia, and always from a distance. But each grizzly I've caught sight of was as fearsome and sublime as the last. You never get used to their raw power and massive bodies, or the mysterious intelligence in their dark, close-set eyes.-Lydia Millet

In Vancouver, you have to lock your doors - not for strangers, but for bears.-Sarah Goldberg

Grizzlies in the News
Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove grizzly bears roaming the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem from the endangered species list, a move that faces opposition from anti-hunting groups

Gordon hailed the success of the effort to restore the grizzly population in the GYE, with state officials saying the population has recovered from a low of around 136 bears in the 1970s to over 1,000 today.
.
"This is an extraordinary and monumental success story for species recovery and should be celebrated," Gordon said

"This outrageous request from Wyoming’s governor is the latest attack on animals like grizzly bears by states that see them as little more than targets," Andrea Zaccardi, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. "There is no science to back the claim that grizzlies no longer need protection.

The increase in population numbers was helped part by a change in mythology in counting bears.

Historically, grizzlies ranged from Alaska to Mexico, with at least 50,000 bears living in the western half of the contiguous United States. With European colonization, the bears were shot, poisoned, and trapped to the brink of extinction. - Lydia Millet  For these reasons there are no known Grizzlies in Colorado

Colorado Avalanche
The Avs have won the playoff tournament in the Western Division.. The winner of the Eastern Division is yet to be determined. In the meantime the Avs are getting plenty of rest, some practice time and most of all time for their banged up players to heal..

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Colorado Moose
In 1978 Colorado Parks and Wildlife imported a dozen a dozen male and female moose from Utah and in 1979, they added another dozen from Wyoming. Both groups were planted in North Park, near Walden, Colorado. Those two dozen, plus a few who have crossed borders from other states on their own, have grown to a population of  around 300 animals.

In the 1960s most Coloradans had only seen pictures of moose. About 25 years later, on a fishing trip to Chambers Lake west of Ft. Collins on the Poudre River, we had a interesting experience. Across a fairly large inlet we saw another fisherman. Shortly a female moose broke through the trees and came down to the lake about 50 yards down the shoreline from the fisherman for a drink. The fisherman saw the moose and hauled in his fishing-line and kept his eye on the moose at the same time.

The fisherman started to walk away, but when he decided the moose wasn't paying any attention to him, he went back to fishing. The moose got a big long drink and left the lake looking content. We watched the whole encounter from our side of the inlet.

Moose in the Algonquin Indian language  means "eater of twigs," and the most common place to find moose is where there is lots of brush for them to browse on. Moose have long legs, which allow them to traverse deep winter snows, and thick willow habitat types. An adult male  weighs between 800 - 1200 pounds. In the wild, they live around 20 years.
Much of this article came from Colorado Parks and Wildlife Department


We'll Have a High Time in the Old Town Tonight
The highest ski lift in North America can be found at Breckenridge Ski Resort, dropping skiers off at a very high 13,000 feet.

The Pikes Peak Cog Railway is the highest operating train track in the country, reaching the summit of Pikes Peak at 14,110 feet.

The road to the top of Mount Evans is the highest paved route in America. It reaches a height of 14,238 feet!

The 13th step of the State Capitol Building in Denver is exactly one mile above sea level, lending the city its nickname of “the Mile High City.”


















The highest suspension bridge in the country can be found in Cañon City above the Royal Gorge. It’s height is 955 feet.

The tallest sand dunes in the country can be found at the Great Sand Dunes National Park, with the Star Dune reaching the highest height at over 750 feet.

Pun Fun
A woman in labor suddenly shouted, “Shouldn’t! Wouldn’t! Couldn’t! Didn’t! Can’t!”
“Don’t worry,” said the doc. “Those are just contractions.”

Chaser the Border Collie
The 14 year old Border Collie lived in South Carolina with her owner John Pilley, a psychology professor.Chaser learned the names of 1,022 different things such as toys and stuffed animals. She also learned verbs that Doctor Pilley could use to describe those objects. No dog can match Chaser's vocabulary.
























Colorado Rockies

Our neighbors to the  north (state's name starts with a "W" not Washington) call hunters, fisher-persons, and tourists from Colorado "Greenies." Somebody from Wyoming finally told me that was because we all have green license plates on our cars. That is how they can spot us.

Now the Colorado Rockies have done one better. The new baseball uniform jerseys have a replica of the picture on our license plates as part of the Rockies' uniform. The new green unis will only be worn at home games on some Sundays.

Reel Funny
It is so easy to weigh fish because they have their own scales!
When listening to music while you are fishing, play something catchy.
At a school for fish, their favorite TV show is Name That Tuna.

Mother to daughter advice: Cook a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
But teach a man to fish and you get rid of him for the whole weekend.

For a purrrfect fish dinner, try a catfish.

Quotes

“I’m grateful for anything that brings me back to Colorado.” – Sheryl Lee

“After college, I moved to Breckenridge, Colorado, and went snowboarding every day. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew what I didn’t want to do. So I applied to grad school for writing, and I just gave it a shot and took it from there.” – Kaui Hart Hemmings

“Being from Colorado is, to me, very, very special. I’m just very thankful to be here. I’m also thankful to be a part of the history of this state.” – Dianne Reeves

“Growing up in Denver, I’m sure it started with loving the Colorado mountains.” – Gale Norton

Each year, millions of skiers come to Colorado to experience its superb emergency medical facilities.” – Dave Barry

Colorado Women
Clarissa Pinkola Estés, PhD Born in the dirtiest steel mill town in the USA, Gary Indiana, and of Mexican/ Native American heritage, Estés was adopted as an older child by immigrant Hungarians who were hard workers but could not read or write, or did so haltingly.She received her doctorate from The Union Graduate School in ethno-clinical psychology, the study of groups with emphasis on indigenous history.

She has been in clinical practice with war veterans and persons who are survivors of massacres and disasters, for 50 years as of 2020.As a specialist in post-trauma recovery, through Young Audiences and La Sociedad de Guadalupe, Estés served Columbine High School and its community for three years after the massacre.

Her books include Women Who Run with the Wolves, a manifesto of family tales and their psychological applications to the inner soul and creative lives of women. Translated into 42 foreign languages, this work has been hailed by Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, Wilma Mankiller and others, as a classic, a seminal work on the root nature of women.
Estis was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2006

Scenic Trail Reopen Open Soon
Hanging Lake Forest Service officials have announced that hopefully that the trail to Hanging Lake, near Glenwood Springs would be opened as soon as June 25. Last summer floods from above washed out the steep trail from Glenwood Canyon to the small but picturesque lake 1,200 feet above the highway through the canyon.
Worker had/or will remove debris and replace two or the seven bridge required to make the route passable. Funds for the work have come from Glenwood programs and the White River National Forest federal forest. 

Wish You Were Here
I was walking along a trail and ran into my friend named Nick. It was quite a see-Nick trail today.

My wife and I were walking on a trail and were lost. She was annoyed and threw the map at me, so now I know where I stand.

Our group was determined to finish the hike around the lake, come hill or high water.

.Why are mountains so funny? Because they are hill areas.