April 4 - Living at Elevation

Our little cabin at 8200 feet.

Living in a pine forest usually means living at higher elevation. Ponderosa Pine, which is the dominant tree here, doesn't grow much below 7,000 ft. above sea level. We are just under 8,200 feet.  High and dry.

 When you live at this altitude,  you deal with two issues. A short growing season, and really extreme temperature fluctuations from night to day.Often it can be 40 degrees. This makes growing anything a real challenge. Add in the poor topsoil, and volcanic pumice that makes up most of it, and you're left with trying super human feats just to get anything to grow.

So I am really excited when anything DOES grow.  

 The strawberries I planted last year, survived the winter, and are making their appearance.  I get probably more happy about this than most people. But I work like mad to coax life out of the mountain hillsides, so humor me.

 Strawberries!  Yippee!!!