VOC - Parkfield Restoration

Since I'm still busy living life and sorting my thousand pictures from DC I thought I'd put together a quick post from Boq's latest adventure in assisting with a Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado project for Arbor Day. This time it was over in the Montbello area doing restoration at Parkfield. Boq's team planted five trees and worked on about 50 yards of trail.

Arriving at the project site.

The project site near the beginning. Sadly some parts still look like this.

The group overlooked that they had to untie the rope around the tree before it was ten feet up. The knot was too tight for Boq to assist with so they brought the tractor around to help.

The crew leader is a young lady from Philadelphia doing this project as part of her time in the Peace Corps.

Boq is sitting in the middle of the"moat" built around the base of the tree to hold water in.

Hanging out in the tree.

Since the project finished up sooner than expected Boq helped with the loading of the truck.

It's amazing how much they can pack into a truck.

DC Trip 2007 #1 - The Trip Out

Shadowowl had a trip to DC to help train the new help desk. We got up nice and early to go to DIA. Girlzoot was kind enough to drop us off and take this first picture.


We're in the airport about to head down to the security checkpoint.

Stopped to take a look at some of the sculptures in the airport.

We had the polar bears on the tail of our Frontier flight.

The Reagan International Airport has a lot of floor art.

These are just a couple samples of the many mosaics on the floor.

Brass inlaid butterfly in the floor.

And a dragonfly especially for Shadowowl's friend Lady Dragonfly.

Shadowowl likes to try to take pictures everywhere, including the taxi. This shot of the Jefferson Memorial as we drove by didn't really come out.

Boq at Planet Toys

A few weeks ago we went to Planet Toys, a toy warehouse store, so Boq could look for some toys.

Lord of the Rings

Star Wars

Boq didn't find what he was looking for but we did find Lex while we were there.


Boq valiantly tried explain to Lex how cool these toys were.


I don't know that he was successful but he sure was enthusiastic in his attempt.

Layers Meme

So Gage the Bunny tagged me for this meme. I don't often do memes but I thought it could be fun.

Layer ONE - On the Outside
Name: Osgood Owl
Birth Date: September 1st
Current Status: Single
Eye Color: Brown
Feather Color: White
Righty or Lefty: Ambidextrous
Zodiac Sign: Virgo

Layer TWO - On the inside
Your Heritage: Snowy Owl
Your Fears: Claustrophobia
Your Weaknesses: Ice Cream
Your Perfect Pizza: White Pizza

Layer THREE - Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
Your thoughts first waking up: Huh, what's going on? (I sleep pretty hard.)
Your Bedtime: 2AM
Your most missed memory: If I've missed it doesn't that mean I don't remember what it is?

Layer FOUR - Your Pick
Pepsi or Coke: Bleh! Neither.
McDonald’s or Burger King: McDonald’s
Adidas or Nike: I don't wear shoes.
Lipton tea or Nestea: Again. Bleh! Neither.
Chocolate or vanilla: Chocolate
Cappuccino or coffee: Apparently I'm quite the non-traditionalist. I like cocoa, not coffee.

Layer FIVE - Bad Habits
Do you Smoke: No
Curse: Sometimes

Layer SIX - In the Past Month
Drank alcohol: Never
Gone to the mall: Yes
Been on stage: No
Eaten sushi: Not in the last month. Sounds good though.
Dyed your hair: No

Layer SEVEN - Have You Ever?
Played a stripping game: Um... No.
Changed who you were to fit in: Not really.

Layer EIGHT
Age you’re hoping to be married: I hadn't really considered it. Perhaps I will find the right partner.

Layer NINE - In a Girl/Guy
Best eye colour: No preference.
Best hair colour: No preference.
Short or long hair: No preference.

Layer TEN - What Were You Doing
1 minute ago: Watching the news and thinking about dinner.
1 hour ago: Watching episodes of "Angel".
4.5 hours ago: Watching "Crash".
1 month ago: Looking at statues.
1 year ago: Looking at statues.

Layer ELEVEN - Finish the sentence
I love: art.
I feel: hungry.
I hate: prejudices.
I hide: my bad habits.
I miss: my youthful figure.
I need: go figure out what I'm having for dinner.

Layer TWELVE - Tag 5 people
Pretty much everyone I would tag has been tagged or is busy. Maybe Monkey, Peppermint, Negrito, Woody Rat, or Boq will do it.

Boq Opens Toys

My cousin Boq really likes action figures, especially the Marvel Legends figures.
The other day he found a few of the rare variants in the line and today was apparently the day to open them.

Boq gets into playing with the figures and had a rather active imagination. Here Boq faces down the evil M.O.D.O.K. in all his giant head-filled majesty.

Getting down to the business of opening some more figures.

This one is a variant of the Falcon that seems to have longer wings and a differently painted costume.

Aww. He's lifting the figure out like it's a baby. He takes good care of his figures.

And there the Falcon lies having been carefully extracted from his hermetically sealed packaging.

As I was saying, Boq enjoys playing with his toys. This Sentinel arm seems to have gotten a grip on Boq.

"Mawwkk!"

Cyclops comes to the rescue for which Boq was greatful.

The special variant figure that Boq was most excited about was the golden armor First Appearance Iron Man figure.

Here's the golden armor laying next to the Thor-buster Iron Man.

Woodcutting

Many weeks ago, right after the first snow, I went with ShadowOwl and his father and stepmother to help gather wood. The forest service periodically has these days where they need to clear out some trees and instead of just chipping the wood, or whatever they would do with it, they offer it to the public. This time it was in the Pike National Forest.

As the directions they gave were not the greatest we stopped to ask for directions at the information office/ranger station/gift shop. They had several fossils including a bee fossil. I like to get a lapel pin when I find one I like or go somewhere interesting so here I got a pin representing the bee fossil. (I'll have to take pictures of the pins and put them up at some point.)

When we finally found the site and arrived at a wood pile I could tell that it wouldn't be easy.

Wet snow covered everything but we just waded in and started hacking off the smaller branches so the chainsaw could get at the logs.

We worked for a while in one location but then decided to move to another location that had just been vacated and had much better logs.

We filled the back of the pickup to above the top of the truck sides when we decided we were done and needed to tie it all down.

It was tough work and we were all ready to be done when we finished.

ShadowOwl's father thought he was funny when he pointed to that tree and said, "One more?"

It was amazing how fast the snow had melted that day. On the way out much that had been entirely covered was bare with no evidence that it had snowed at all.

VOC - Red Rock Canyon

It's been a while since I've posted and I have at least a couple things to update. We'll start with this...

I took my cousin Boq to work with ShadowOwl on a project with Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado in the Red Rock Canyon Open Space in Colorado Springs.


Every year ShadowOwl and I do at least one project with VOC. We enjoy making the parks in Colorado better.

After hiking for about a mile or two we reached our section of the trail.

You get to see all kinds of things on these projects. There were several deer though I only managed to capture a photo of Boq checking out this track a deer had left behind.

One of the main aspects of our part of the trail was to build an armored berm.

This berm would allow for the trail to cross the washout area at the bottom of the canyon without getting washed out itself.

They, not I, for I am not so strong, moved several very large rocks to make this berm happen. Boq moved the smaller rocks into position between the large rocks to fill the gaps. He's very industrious.

Here's the finished armored berm. Boq was very proud of his part.

"Mawwkk!"

After the work was done they fed us chili and pie which we enjoyed in the beautiful surroundings of the park.

It's amazing how such a beautiful area can be so close to a downtown area. This open space park is just one highway exit South of the downtown exit for Colorado Springs. It's also a very popluar area for rock climbers and I can entirely see why. It's gorgeous.

They often give out little goodies for each project. A little something to take home to remember the project and to act as a thank you.

Boq could hardly wait to see what was in the bag.

Boq loved the candy. He surprised me though by talking about the project for the next week or so. He was so thrilled to hear that the berm he helped make would probably be there for a hundred years.

"Mawk. Mawwkk!"

As I said, excited. I like my cousin Boq. He's a good owl.