When I was evacuated during the flood, there were dirty dishes in my dishwasher. They'd been rinsed off, and in the rush to get to civilization, I didn't think about it. When I got back about a week later, I didn't have electricity, and the battery on my generator had run down, so I didn't have power for another 20 days.

The dishwasher door was closed all that time, and mold grew in there. It took a long time and lots of cycles with vinegar added to finally get rid of the smell. Lesson learned. Next time a 100 - 500 year flood comes through here, I am going to prop the dishwasher open before I leave, just as I did the refrigerator and freezers. If there are dirty dishes, I'll use some of those gallons of water I set aside when it started raining to rinse them off. Better yet, if it rains for a couple of days, I'll start using paper plates.

The other day, I found a small baking sheet with rolled edge in the flood debris. It's a little beat up, but still a sturdy pan with no holes in it. It didn't look like it had much dirt on it, so I washed it in the dishwasher. There must have been sand inside the rolled rim, because now there is sand all over the inside of my dishwasher, in particular on the little tracks that support the racks so they roll out. It's gritty. I tried spraying and wiping them, but still gritty, so it will be several cycles before it gets straightened out.

I hadn't been inside the Brown Palace cabin next door for several months - no reason to go start cleaning it up until I have electricity and water over there. Looks like a mouse, a rather large mouse, lived in there all winter and pooped a lot in the kitchen. There wasn't any food over there, but he must have been keeping warm. Pesky thing.


Any time you go to Estes Park, you'll see the elk herd. We don't see them down here very often, but one came through our yard last summer.