Month: May 2021

I left at 4.01 pm to go visiting. At 4.28 pm I had my own visitor.

The animals have officially woken up in the park, everything from the smallest rodents to the largest of bears. A couple days ago I spotted a large, very large, brown mass moving across the fields between Spangle and Gray Place. I located the moving animal in my spotting scope and watched him as he navigated downhill. A full sized bear, the largest I have seen in this park, was constantly licking his lips as he walked, rarely looking from side to side. When he hit the patch of snow remaining in the opposite valley, he started to run and run across the snow until he dropped into the depth of the valley, out of sight. I decided to stop carrying the 9mm outside and started strapping on the 357. Heavier and less comfortable on the hip, but far more comfortable on the psyche; my nine mil would probably just make him madder, were that scenario to arise.

Closer to home, and very much underfoot, the rodents are back for the summer, and making a myriad of underground tunnels that look like miniature cities scattered about what is supposed to be a lawn out here. Rodent fodder. That’s what it is. Thus far in 2021 only two managed to enter the dwelling and both were quickly snuffed out by what is in fact a better mousetrap.

I have two large male grouse that frequent my front yard. They seemed like brothers, friends, or mates of some sort, often wandering together, often one would follow the other out of familiarity or with a semblance of safety. The gist is, they seem like mates. Rather, they seemed like mates.

Yesterday morning a pair of young lady grouse entered the scene. The mates quickly went from bonded to rivals. With large red patches on their throats, tails in full regale, and strutting harder than the old Bob Seger song, one of these males chased, danced, strutted, bobbed, weaved, and courted the two ladies for ninety minutes.

On a tree, in the field, on my split rail fence, you name it, one of the ladies was coy, almost receptive, and then blushed and shyly flew away every time. I am not sure I’ve seen a fellow work harder for less effort, but he gets an A in my book for the relentless attempts.

It is a morning of darkness here upon my mountain. The middle of May is in full swing, but the seasons simply refuse to fully change. Awoke this morning with nearly 14 inches of fresh snow, and it’s still snowing. Nature might win this one. I love it here, the park, the land, the people who have become my friends, but I have now lived in this house for ten months. Nine of them I have endured multi-foot snow storms, and this is my fourth major snow storm in the month of May alone. Life is starting to feel too short to stay here, hoping for a spring or a summer.

I moved five hours south in Colorado, nearly to the New Mexico border but winter is now longer here than any winter in any year of my life thus far. I want sun. I want warmth. I want to walk around outside, without boots, hats, gloves, and a snow shovel. As it is, neither I, nor the guest visiting me this week, can even leave the property; we have to sit here and simply wait for the snow to melt before any vehicle in the lot can even move.

I am a strong man, a capable man, and a proud man. This is not considering defeat. This is considering that, nine continual months of winter, with drifting snow, shoveling and still feeding a wood stove I’ve been feeding daily since October, is simply not my next path. I want to be outside! I have yard work to do, repairs to make, wood to collect for next winter, but here we sit, fourteen inches of snow between me and the Earth.

I want to see the damned sun and feel a breeze on my skin. Instead, I am off to shovel paths for the dogs, another path to the wood pile, and we’ll hunker down inside and feed the woodstove, looking exactly the same as every day from November to March outside. It can destroy a man’s spirits.

We have seen strange activity from a young man riding around the park. At least one time, one of our members seemingly let the young man in, yet having entered one gate and exited another, it is also possible that he has access to a key if not a key of his own.

On his last visit, Thursday May 13, 2021, he was in the park less than an hour, entering the 160 gate, and leaving via the railroad gate. We do not know who he is, but he twice visited one of your neighbor’s houses. The first visit was seemingly to ensure no one was home, and the second time, he walked straight up to the house, and peered in the windows, careful not to touch anything. The property owner does not know, nor recognize, this young man nor his vehicle.

Please keep your eyes open and contact me or anyone on the security team if you see him. Please do not let anyone in the gate that, if you do not know, you have not queried as to their reason for being here. We have his license plate from the security cameras (captured at both gates), and we are reporting this to the Sheriff’s Dept. for review, but we need to look out for each other out here.

To my audience who might also own property in this ranch, notably those who have a dwelling upon it. Costilla County is up to something fishy, and we all need to contact them, and demand resolution. Property taxes are changing in this ranch, for home owners in this ranch, and seemingly nowhere else in the County.

My tax bill for 2021 is a 131% increase from 2020. I have checked several of yours, and heard from others – your property tax bill is more than doubling in the ranch in 2021, if, and only if, you own a lot with a house on it. Vacant lots, on the other hand, are going up an average of two percent.

The county representatives claim that we are selling land, selling houses, and property values are increasing, and thus our tax increase is merely a reflection of such. I will concur, property prices are rising all over the place, and vacant land and houses alike are far more expensive here than even a year ago.

The county also claimed that we voted to fund two new schools in Fort Garland, and the new ambulance service, so naturally, taxes will increase. All of this sound reasonable until you ask the following questions:

1. If land values have doubled in this county, why aren’t the taxes increasing proportionally on the vacant land lots (recall, a 2% average increase versus more than a doubling if you have a dwelling on your lot).
2. If my property taxes are increasing 131% this year to pay for Fort Garland improvements, why are most house lot property taxes in our neighboring Forbes Park set to DECREASE next year, or remain flat?. (Look up 191 Pascoe Lane in Forbes – property taxes are dropping $150 next year whilst my neighbor reports a 121% increase in his tax bill. Or, try ANY property on Andes Loop, one increases 4%, the rest are flat or decrease. There is no tax hike happening to home owners in the Forbes Park subdivision whilst yours more than double this year.).
3. Shouldn’t the county distribute the cost of the new schools, the ambulance service, etc. and spread the adjustments across the entire county, or at least with the illusion of fairness across the region? Why is the adjustment only to homeowners in this particular subdivision?

I now know it is not related to our agricultural status, but I do not know what it is related to. Please call the county yourself, and let me know if you get a different answer – the increase. selective as it is, cannot just be an increase for new funding – otherwise, why does it target only home owners in this ranch and nowhere around us?

Check your own taxes here – click this link below, and then click the County Assessor Property Search link to see how much your next tax bill will increase: https://costillacounty.colorado.gov/departments/assessor