Birthday Girl

 

Birthday girl with a grand nephew

Two of my father’s sisters are still alive out of a total of 12 siblings. The youngest was 85 last week. A family gathering was today at the “soddy”. Probably 30 people from four states representing four generations were present.

The place where my great grandfather homesteaded is now a Wheatridge, CO park. The sod house that was there when he acquired the property still stands as does a modern house he later built next door.

https://www.wheatridgehistoricalsociety.org/sites-1

Yesterday was the annual Cider Days gathering and our family had a reserved spot next to the soddy and away from the folk music, quilting, etc. that is part of the celebration.

Banner had a banner day with thirty different strangers petting him. How many treats he got behind my back he isn’t saying.

The face mask, social distancing, self appointed police were quick to confront me. Since a cousin has a part time position with the historical society, I refrained from profanity.  Instead I used my limited vocabulary to tell them to fuck off. Their feelings were soooo hurt!

Before urbanization, the area along Clear Creek where the homestead is located was a vast truck garden raising vegetables for the Denver markets. The water table is high and the native grasses were prairie tall grass while the surrounding area was short grass.

Prior to WW II a large number of Japanese settled along the South Platte River downstream from Denver and started raising vegetable for the Denver market. They were better farmers than the “whites” who soon found themselves in perilous circumstances compounded by the Great Depression.

The family had holdings 200 miles to the Northwest where Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming meet so several, including my father’s immediate family,  moved back to Cross Mountain. Their cattle herd grew much faster than the regular breeding practices that were the norm.

What made this a special gathering was, for once, we weren’t attending a funeral! Assuming 2021 is a “normal” year, we will gather again in Maybell for the Great American Horse Drive.

https://www.visitmoffatcounty.com/great-american-horse-drive.php

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63YIDYFz9cA&ab_channel=SteveWade

Dudes pay around $3,000 to participate. My sister and I moved horses with just the two of us and a good dog;  granted, not nearly as many.

The old family homestead including our private family graveyard is about 14 miles West of Maybell.

Roots

Spent the weekend going back to family roots. On our mother's side, my sister and I are fourth generation descendents of the North Park, CO Latham family. Stopped by the Walden cemetery to pay respects.

Most of the relatives are in the southeast corner.

Onward to Maybell, CO. Again, fourth, maybe fifth generation as some of the forebearers might have been legally challenged. Maybell was the scene this past Sunday of the Sombrero Horse Drive. Good excuse for us to get together.

http://www.sombrero.com/adventures/horse-drive/

My lodging (the small one)

My sister stayed at the Old Victory Hotel.

https://www.facebook.com/maybellhotel

When they are full, they don't allow pets. My sister's
schnauzer slept with me. OK guest, doesn't bark or snore  but wants his half in the middle.

Thirteen miles West of Maybell off Highway 40 is the old family homestead. Cousins have kept it in the family and a section is now a private cemetery. This year a cousin's cremains were interred. He had a disabling stroke some fifteen years ago. His family cared for him all that time.

His sister.

My father's grave. He hunted all his life and often said when he died, he wanted us to put him in a gully and cave enough bank over him the coyotes would have to dig hard. Close, there is a badger den in his grave.

He would be pleased to know there is deer scat all over the area. In the tree behind some branches have been rubbed by deer shedding the velvet from their horns. They were probably standing on the grave. That would really please him. My  sister had some venison sausage. She left a piece beside his headstone.

Some miscellaneous shots from the graves area.

There is one in every family. Man on the right is a 90+ year old heavily decorated WWII Pacific Fleet Sailor. For many, a favorite uncle.

He is also a rapist and a pedophile with many victims. He is alive only because his three sons are fine people. My sister had him arrested and convicted.

The problem with grubbing sagebrush is it grows back. On the road down to where the cabins once stood.

What was left of the cabins has been carefully dismantled and preserved. Loose plans to build some type of shelter using the old beams are discussed. We shall see. On the hill in the distance are two year around springs and corrals with a snubbing post for breaking wild horses, a one time family business.

One intact structure is the 100 year old privy. This was commandeered by the ladies. Men and photographs were prohibited. Takes a braver man than me to argue with that bunch.

Back on the Front Range and parking the trailer at a friend's farm took this picture of Longs Peak simply because it pleased me to do so. 

This is my adventure rig. Hoping to make a least one expedition a month this summer.

My desktop is in the shop having a year's worth of malware and viruses cleaned. I use utilities but the crud creeps in. Being a Latter Day Luddite I prefer to have the experts do it. Gives me a taste of how customers may have felt when buying a car from me.

Beyond The Digital Frontier

Off tomorrow for Moffat County, Northwest Colorado, where there is one only cell phone provider and my carrier isn’t in their net. No cell or internet until mid morning Monday.

Family gathering to bury cremains of a cousin in the family cemetery on the old homestead 13 miles West of Maybell, CO on US 40.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kY3sNqg9vg&t=454s

http://moffatcountytourism.com/calendar/sombrero-ranches-great-american-horse-drive

This weekend is the Sombrero Horse Drive so it is a good excuse for a gathering.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNGqZ5VKzp0

Good chance there will be more than last year, which was around 30. 26 showed up for supper. We are, as a group, known for riding the grub line.

• Grub Line Rider A kind of cowboy pan handler who hangs around a cow camp for free food until he is kicked out then proceeds to find another camp and starts over.

That remark will generate some static from the few in the family who read my blog.

COWBOY: An appetite riding a horse.

Please read the bloggers on the sidebar.  Will be back to bore you soon.

The header picture is my great grandparents, grandfather, and great uncle.

Aunt Nancy's 80th

Two weeks ago we attended our maternal aunt’s 100^th birthday. Today was a gathering in honor of a paternal aunt’s 80^th birthday. This post is for those family members who couldn’t attend but anyone is free to read it.

Wheatridge lies WNW of downtown Denver about twelve miles and is near Golden. Starting in the early 1900’s it was farmed in small parcels as truck gardens to supply Denver. Later, the area raised carnations. Today it is part of the urban sprawl.

My great grandfather bought land with an existing sod house and then built a fine brick house next door for his parents.

My grandfather homesteaded land West of Maybell, CO (Moffat County) around 1913 and there was a steady migrating back and forth between the soddy and the homestead.

These are photographs taken of the family gathering and the Cider Festival, an annual event put on by the Wheatridge Historical Society.

Here are some pictures of the ongoing development  by  cousins of another 100 year old house on what was once a truck garden. As you can see they are using shipping containers. Progress has been slow as they have paid as they built while upgrading the original house.

 For all you who couldn’t attend, know we had a grand time gossiping about you and telling lies. You should have come to defend yourselves.