We are having our third round of thunder, lightning and rain today. The sun has popped in and out all day and the hummingbirds didn't have time to dry out from the last rain shower. Right now it's just pouring down, a storm, not a shower.

There was an article in today's paper that to save money this holiday a lot of people in Colorado are coming to our national park and camping out instead of staying in cabins and motels. There are guests from Illinois staying at our cabin next door for the week, and with all this rain I'm sure they are glad they are inside.

Our other cabin was rented last night by a self-described close-knit family. There was a young couple, their newborn, and her parents from Indiana plus two large German shepherds. They were glad to be up in the mountains and the mother of the infant said 'Your cabin is so well-stocked, we didn't have to pack anything but the baby!' I thought that was cute.

The reason for telling me they are 'close-knit' was because it is my smaller cabin, not set up to provide a lot of privacy. When we checked on them, they acted thrilled to be there. They've gone back to Denver already - this was an quick trip for them.

I don't allow just any dogs in my cabins, but I'm glad I let these particular ones come along. One is all white and must have part greyhound in it, because of the long nose and sleek body. The other one is what the owners called a long haired German shepherd that was shaggier and more wolf-like around the face than I'd seen before. Neither dog has the characteristic shorter back legs and crouching walk you see in K-9 shepherds.

I hope these people come back some time, and bring the dogs.

I was waking up from a nap a little bit ago and heard a strange bird call in the woods behind my house. It was kind of a 'whoop-whoop-whoop' like I've never heard before, always in threes and with long intervals in between. No idea what it could have been, it didn't sound like an owl. I googled on the whoop-whoop-whoop and came up with Yeti sightings. I'm not buying into that.