This tiny bird with a huge personality is one of my favorite birds. They express happiness and energy in everything they do. Whether it be sitting still on a tree branch, which isn’t for long, or hanging upside down looking for a snack or pecking on a sunflower seed grasp in its feet. I have several that hang out in my yard, which is filled with pines, oaks and aspens. They seem to manage just fine during these cold, windy and snowy months.
It was very surprising to receive a notification on our front porch camera showing this beautiful Mountain Lion as it walked across the front of the house. It looks big and healthy.
This video was captured back in November and we haven’t seen it since. I read that they like to roam around in the early morning hours and at dusk. So taking Riley out before bed every night feels just a little bit different these days. (I apologize for the Nest Cam advertising.)
I truly didn’t realize it has been so long since my last post. Time sure seems to fly by. I would like to get back to posting and decided to start with this post.
I want to share a significant change in my life. After thirty-nine years in Colorado my husband and I decided to move to Spearfish, SD.
As snow-birds, since retiring, we have traveled in our RV to many states, mostly in the south and west. When we decided we wanted to leave Colorado it became a question of where – Texas, Florida, Arizona, Wyoming, Idaho.
After many discussions and observations along our travels we decided that the western part of the United States suits us best. Since we both grew up and lived in Louisiana until 1986, we hold a deep fondness for the south. We have family and friends there and we will continue to travel and enjoy our time with them.
Why Spearfish, SD? We visited the Black Hills a few years ago and liked the area. We returned about two years ago to again look around and get a better sense of the area. After considering a move to Wyoming or Idaho we thought we would again go stay a while in Spearfish, SD and look at homes.
Colorado is a beautiful state and we enjoyed our time there. We have many happy memories of spending time with our wonderful friends, and enjoyed many types of activities in the Rockies. Colorado is where I met my birding mentor and developed my fondness for birding. However, it was becoming much too crowded for our liking. So we were ready to move.
This past July we purchased a home in Spearfish on 4.5 acres with lots of Oak, Pine and Aspen trees. Love them! It is about four miles from downtown Spearfish in an area called Eagle Ridge. There are only 33 homes on this mountain, which makes it so nice. One way in and out.
This area supports Wild Turkeys, White-tailed Deer, and even a Mountain Lion that we captured on camera right out side of our front door. Yikes! It was huge and appeared healthy. I will post vids of the Turkeys, Deer and the Mountain Lion in my next post along with a few of my South Dakota bird friends.
The western vibe of Spearfish with only 12,000 people simply speaks to my heart as Loveland did when we first moved there. If you would like to learn a little more about Spearfish go to the web-site below.
Getting our Colorado home ready to sell was arduous to say the least. Many trips to give items away, take items to the dump and even harder deciding what to keep and pack up. There were times of feeling sad and questioning if this was the right decision. Those thoughts were probably expected and didn’t last too long. We had a great realtor and a great moving company that made the experience better and the house sold in 1.5 days.
One of the couples that viewed our Loveland house wanted to do so around 8:30pm. I believe they wanted the experience of seeing the night view, the city lights of Loveland from the deck. I took this photo before leaving the house so they could take the tour. We turned on all the lights.
I am going to miss our view of Loveland from our hill and the Black Bears that came to visit every fall. And, the full moon rising over the city. But, I don’t miss living in a tri-level home on a hill. We lived there since 1987.
We are pretty much settled now in Spearfish and decided not to travel this winter. Since being here we have experienced a warm couple of summer months, a gorgeous fall with all its brilliant colors and currently a beautiful white winter.
~Summer
Summer view of our drive-way, which is about 100 yards.Summer view of our back deck and a portion of the back yard.Here we are last summer, prior to buying the house, riding our e-bikes along one of many trails in and around Spearfish. We stayed at the Spearfish City Park in our RV. It is a very beautiful and popular park with Spearfish Creek running through it.
~Fall
Fall colors of Aspen and Oak trees.
~Winter
My Keeshond, Miss Riley Ann is loving the cold and snow. She wants to be out on the back deck when it is snowing and even when the temperatures are in the single digits. We closely monitor how much time she is out there and only went we are watching her.
Love this girl!
And, we are loving the small town atmosphere, and the slower pace of life that comes with a small community. Not that our lives in Colorado were fast paced. 🙂
So, as I said I want to post more and look forward to sharing more of the Black Hills area with you.
I found this quote the other day and thought it fit. Moving decision made and looking forward to going forward.
I would give credit to whom ever sketched this, but I don’t know.
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