Winter at MPEC!

MPEC held its first Winter Festivity Day on Saturday, Dec 21, a very cold Winter Solstice Day. Santa, some fun games, and s'mores around the fire were a part of this next to last MPEC program of 2008 (we had a Solstice Drum Circle later that same afternoon). What a year it has been for MPEC - we started and completed Phase 1 of the Horseshoe Lodge Project while facilitating a record 322 program sessions for 7971 participants. Happy Holidays from all of us at MPEC!

Out in the Snow!!!

With the recent snows, MPEC's Earth Studies students have been experiencing our outdoor classroom decorated in its winter garb. This month we've been working on using a compass, so students got to find their way around with snowshoes strapped to their feet (a first for essentially every one of them). Winter has finally arrived, and one thing MPEC does with it is teach that it is perfectly OK to be outside when it is cold or snowy (a real eye-opener for many more of our students than you'd think). We teach them that as long as they are properly prepared with the right gear (we're using lots of our donated hats and gloves lately), being outside in winter can be wonderful! Here are a few photos tken over the past few days here at MPEC!

Horseshoe Lodge opens in a grand fashion!

A gentle warm mid-autumn day was the backdrop for MPEC's celebration of completion of the first phase of the Horseshoe Lodge Project. An estimated 300 people showed up to celebrate, enjoy some delicious goodies, tour the Lodge, and learn a bit about what comes next for MPEC at Horseshoe Lodge. Words of wisdom, story and insight were shared by Pueblo City Councilman Randy Thurston, MPEC Board Member Anne Warren and her son, MPEC camper Zach Warren, camper Jackson Reed, founding MPEC Board Member Tim Sandsmark (now Director of Lookout Mountain Nature Center in Jefferson County), Pueblo County Commissioner Jeff Chostner, and MPEC Founder and Director Dave Van Manen. A surprise visit by Dudley McFarland, a CCC worker who worked in Pueblo Mountain Park in 1935 (he's now 95) and a donation by the National Automobile Sales Association presented by Barbara and Bill Vidmar added to the day's delight. A few youngsters from our Nature Toddlers group cut the ribbon that officially opened the Horseshoe Lodge as MPEC's new home. The day was both a celebration of the completion of Phase 1 and a kick-off of fund-raising for the remaining phases of the exciting Horseshoe Lodge Project - which we already have quite a bit of the necessary funds to get Phase 2 - the overnight rooms in the west wing - started and completed! Click the ribbon-cutting photo on the right to see lots of Grand Opening photos.

October color in Pueblo Mountain Park!

October arrives with lots of color - from many flowers still in bloom and leaves as colorful as flowers in their autumn look. I finally have another camera (thank you, Helene) and have stolen a few moments to try it out. Here is some of what Pueblo Mountain Park has to offer these soft autumn days: Lots of members of the Sunflower Family, and, yes, that is poison ivy (the Sumac Family). The deer are very plentiful - I saw this one walking home from the office yesterday evening around 6pm right at the entrance to the park.

Mountain Park Alive with Nature!

This past Saturday, I was out along the park's trails doing some trail maintenance, and couldn't help but notice that the flowers are probably at their peak for the park, easily 3 or 4 weeks later than usual. Pictured in this blog are senecio, yucca, stonecrop, dwarf penstemon (p. virens), and mountain harebell, a few of the many wildflowers blooming right now. And at yesterday's birding hike, we saw several western bluebirds and at least a couple of western tanagers, two of the more colorful avian species found in the park at this time. It's a great time to take a leisurely hike in Pueblo Mountain Park to enjoy Nature's loveliness.

Birdwatching in Beulah on New Year's Day 2008

2007 ended with a wintry December in Beulah, with many cold days and several very cold nights, plus about 28" of snow. 2008, and the beginning of MPEC's ninth year, began with a chilly and sunny day. The birds knew not that us humans were acknowledging the turn of the year, but they were busy at the bird feeders. My son-in-law Erik took plenty of good photos of some of them, including a very hungry male hairy woodpecker, a loud but camera-shy Stellar's jay, a busy mountain chickadee, and a red breasted nuthatch that just wouldn't stay very still.