People vs. Animals

Every time we come to the cabin in Colorado, I feel like we are alone. Of course, our family has sort of locked in one end of the area with its cabins, and my aunt is not often here. If we don’t venture down to the rest of the lakes, it is easy to imagine that we are alone with nature. And nature we have seen – a fawn, three deer, several duck families, a suspected beaver, a heron, schools of carp, rainbow trout, a bunny, thousands of ladybugs (literally more than I have seen in my lifetime, all in one place), chipmunks, squirrels and a BEAR (really!).

People sightings are always much more limited, and it always seems such a shame that this area isn’t full of families, kids, friends… Many of the families who have summer houses here are from Colorado Springs, which makes it both easier and more difficult to spend time here. When you are only 45 minutes away from home, small errands and social events surely intrude in a way that they don’t if you are an 8-hour drive (or a 14-hour flight) from home. And if you only have two weeks of vacation, or even three, it is hard to just “hang”.

This year, we are in for the long haul, and have been pleasantly surprised with neighbors! Of course, my family is difficult to keep track of, and we have also been happy to bump in to some of them here.

Our people sightings to date are:

• My cousin Diane and her friend Ann, on the way home from “market” in Denver


• My cousin LouAnn, Pieter, Petra and Chase (Petra’s boyfriend) who flew in for a short weekend


• The Smiths, who turned up on Sunday and provided Will, a perfect playmate and fishing partner for Benjamin


• The Reynolds (Jean and Don) and their great granddaughter, who took the boys fishing, and then – effortlessly – prepared dinner for us all, plus more fishing (Benjamin was thrilled).


• Two different club members, names unknown, who allowed Benjamin to use his net to “fish up” their caught fish


• And an upcoming picnic one lake over – very exciting!

I know it doesn’t seem like much for three weeks, but in comparison, it seems positively crowded!