Yes... that is a three foot fence you can see just peeking out on the left side of the photo. You can also see my "hail house" in the background.
The hail house performing its duties last summer |
And in typical Colorado spring storm fashion, the snow has pretty much all melted off. The only patches left are areas in the shade like this one where the neighbor's snow removal guy piles all of the snow from her driveway.
Anyhow, we seem to be in a pattern of weekly snowstorms now, pretty typical of Colorado in the springtime. Thankfully most of them have only left us with a few inches. The weather was nice this morning so I decided to take advantage of the soft wet soil, and relative warmth to go out and pull a few dandelions before the next round arrives this afternoon.
Whenever I'm out working in my yard, I like to think about the people who lived on this land before I did. A mere 150-200 years ago this area was populated by the Navajo, Apache, Arapahoe, Cheyenne, Kiowa and Ute people.
Ute encampment near modern day Florrisant, Colorado |
While I know it's not likely to happen, I can't seem to shake the fantasy of finding an arrowhead or some other artifact left by the previous inhabitants.
So anyhow, I plunged my trusty weed wand into the soft soil to break the roots of one of the plants deemed undesirable by modern society, and when I pulled up the weed with a clump of soft dirt, I noticed something a bit unusual. At first I thought it was an oddly colored root, but as I cleared off the dirt I discovered this little guy.
Not exactly the kind of "Indian Artifact" that I'm always hoping for, but interesting nonetheless.
Poor fellow seems to have lost his pony somewhere along the line - I dug around a bit but didn't find anything. I did bring him inside and clean him up though.
I'm not sure how old it is - I would guess 1960's or 70's maybe? I wonder if toys like this are still considered socially acceptable. I would hope not.
Errrr... Ummm... never mind - I just found these and hundreds like them for sale on Amazon - sigh.
It sort of boggles my mind that our ancestors were able to convince themselves that this was "empty land" - as if the people already living here were somehow invisible, or less than human.
I can't help but wonder what future archaeologists will make of the things our culture leaves behind. If some of the predictions are to be believed, the world might be a completely altered place 150-200 years from now. Will there even be a civilization then? What will they think of the things they find?
Strange object of worship? |
Flakes beginning to fall. |
So I'll leave you with the song that's been running through my head since this morning's discovery: