Coultrin's Castle
Well, Sean & I have been down in “Fairbanks South” at Coultrin's Camp for about 3 weeks now. The house, or Coultrin's Castle is coming along nicely & we even have a bed in the bedroom, a kitchen counter, an island, a spare bed/couch for guests a makeshift table and a few canvas chairs.
The front view with the arch...Sean is working hard
Every day we wake up and marvel at the beauty around us, at the amazing sunrises and spectacular sunsets, the flocks of black throated sparrows, “our” covey of scaled quail that all come by each morning for the bird seed we put out and the water basin that we keep filled. Our other wildlife sitings have been 12 ibex by the road, 9 javelina by the house, 10 audad on the ridge above our place, an antelope squirrel, a coyote right out in front, the occasional ravens, many raptors and lots of little birdies whose names we don't know yet.
Sunrise view from the castle
Each winter that I am here there are new things to appreciate & enjoy. One of them this year is the house. Though I do miss some things about camping and our campsite, it is so nice to walk into a warm home in the cool evenings and mornings. I have to get out of bet and go outside to hear the “cheep cheep cheep” of the sparrows. “House hygiene” is also much easier than “camp hygiene.” The house is dug into the hill so it will stay cool when the weather warms up and it stays pretty warm through our cold snaps.
Our windmill and old truck
Another thing that I've been enjoying this year are the people in the area. Our neighbors Gary and Cheryl had a get together & what a wonderful group of people live near by. Sean and I visited one woman, Carolyn, in her beautiful adobe home. What a lovely person and a lovely house. It was built from adobe bricks that were made on site out of local soil. The next day we visited Virgil a long time local rock hound who is a friend of our good friends Pam and Ken. He's got a lot of knowledge pf the local history and geology. It isof course always wonderful to spend time with Pam and Ken. They have been very kind and generous to us. (fridge space, water tank, bed...) I shoul d also mention Margarete at the quilt store. Every time I stop in to say hello she gives me some new and good information.
Another great view
Our other fellow “Fairbanks Southers” Jim and Steve have been down on their property and last weekend we went into Big Bend National Park for a great hike on the Lost Mine Trail then a soak in the hot springs on the Rio Grande. The moon was out and it was a great soak. There was even a camp fire on the Mexican side, other folks enjoying the night.
This fall has been very dry with no rain since August. All of the tinajas up Coultrin's Canyon are dry. We took a hike up Well Creek, a bit south and west of our place. It's a dry wash this time of year. We hiked to a place where we saw springs last March, nothing but dry. We continued up the canyon then stopped at a side canyon with a 4 foot pour off to have a bite to eat. After about 5 to 10 minutes a bee started buzzing around. We thought that it was strange how fast the bee found us and I thought there must be some water nearby. We headed up the little side canyon and after about 400 yards we saw some green shrubs and trees. Sean was up ahead and yelled “Water!” There were a series of water holes filled with water. This little canyon must have tapped into some underground water and was providing water to the wildlife in the ares. We saw many tracks in the mud and bees were buzzing around. The only human tracks though were our own.
Just about every walk or hike we take Sean will exclaim, “We're seeing something cool everr 3 to 5 minutes!” Even for a short 2 hour hike, that's a lot of cool stuff. My most exciting thing on a hike was falling into a cat's claw bush, leading with my face. Only 2 visible scratches on my face, many on my arm (I should have kept my long sleeved shirt on) and one thorn I had to pull out of the inside of my upper lip. If It hadn't broken off I'd have been hooked like a fish!
Needless to say we are enjoying ourselves, our friends and looking forward to the other folks who are planning on visiting us in Big Bend Country or coming down to their place in “Fairbanks South”.
A panorama in the Chisos Basin from the Lost Mine Trail, Big Bend National Park
