near Aspen

We had a blowy snow storm to go through between Steamboat Springs and the I-70 corridor the next day. Once out there we found a Costco and decided to buy soy oil rather than have M have to spend a fairly clear day processing the veggie oil we are carrying. The bad news is that the 4.5 Gallon cubes of oil have gone from 2+$ when we first started running the truck on veg back in fall just over a year ago, to over 6 dollars a gallon! That option really isn’t feasible anymore but Costco did have a single electric charger in the lot….
We saw mule deer, elk, big horned sheep and a coyote today along the roads. All driven to the lower country by the need for food. It’s due to be one to eleven degrees tonight.
We skied the road between Aspen and Crested Butte, which is closed to traffic at the old Ashcroft town site. It was a bitterly cold ski up the road. I was comparing my sense of it to the 0-10 pain scale we use to assess perceived pain in others. OK, my face is 3 because I have my scarf over it but my fingers are a 7 because I just took this picture…

I came back before Michael. The Ashcroft Hut people were preparing two teams of Percherons to take 70 people out on a mile and a half sleigh ride. The warm muzzles, curious and gigantic beings of the horses were a balm to me along with the heated outhouse with this saying on the wall. (Sorry it doesn't show up better!)