Stayed up way to late last night and missed out on posting anything for yesterday. Wasn't a whole lot to talk about anyway, but it was a fun enough day in any case. Went over to one of my sisters place around 10:00 and had a late breakfast/brunch with her and her partner. Had a really good time there just jabbering away with the two of them. Breakfast was terrific also, eggs, bacon, fresh fruit and some kind of really good cinnamon, something-something bread. Also got a look at a wooden shed she is building.

    Spent the afternoon running around doing errands. Picked up a couple pounds of fresh peaches so I could make a nice peach cobbler to welcome Tom and Donna back home again. Little did I know that they finished their 18 day backpacking trip a day early. So they are actually due back in town sometime this afternoon or evening. I am sure they will be worn out from driving all the way from Nevada today, but hope they will want to sit out on the deck later on for some cobbler and ice cream. Good thing I stayed up until 1:00 last night making it. Yum!

     Also had dinner over at Steph's last night. She wanted to take me out to dinner for my birthday and to thank me for taking her on the canoe trip. So we cooked up a couple steaks, some salad and assorted other little tasty bits. A very nice evening out on her back deck, good food, cold beer and wine and pleasant conversation. The two dogs also had a fun night of wrestling with each other.

     Have been cleaning and straightening up the house since this morning. It certainly isn't up to Tom and Donna's level of cleanliness, but it isn't too messed up either. It will have to do in any case as there are still way to many things for me to do before taking off in two days. Right now I'm just enjoying the cooler day we are having, sitting here in the kitchen nook with the door open and looking out on the lake below.

    Speaking of below; the photo's for today are from a day trip my friend Rima and I took a couple of weeks ago. We started out going south through Pueblo and then out to the town, Rye, my family lived in when I was six. Bishops Castle is north of Rye 25-30 miles. Started more than 30 years ago by Jim Bishop, he has been working on it pretty much by himself all these years. Open year around for free, you can wander around pretty much at will. He does ask for donations so he can keep going, and I always think it's worth a few bucks just to see what he has completed since the last time I was there. I highly recommend taking some time and seeing this place if you have a couple of free hours. I would hold back from discussing anything to do with the government, state or federal, police, dept. of transportation, the forest service, the building dept. and inspection service or any number of other agencies that can make a persons life miserable, especially if you happen to work for any of those agencies.

Bishop's Castle - Aug 2013

Travelling north from San Isabel Lake, you soon turn a corner in the highway and see the towers of the castle above the pines.

The front part of the castle as you approach up the entrance road. Note the wrought iron work and the dragon head mounted at the peak of the main gable. It will eventually be hooked up to a steam boiler so that it will spout steam from it's mouth and nostril's. For now, in the winter anyway, Jim Bishop hooks it up to a little wood burning stove for the same effect.

Looking at the south tower. I remember visiting this structure more than 30 years ago when the only thing here was an outline of the building structure and about 2 vertical feet of stone wall.

With a 14mm wide angle lens, this is all of the structure that I could fit in while staying on the property. Built by hand, pretty much by one guy, it is an amazing piece of work.

Looking up at the dragons head from the wrought iron balcony at the front of the castle.

Jim Bishops regular day job was as a metal worker specializing in wrought iron work. This is some of the stuff he has put up since the last time I visited. He is certainly a master craftsman as far as his metal work is concerned. That being said; it is a little creepy to walk out on some of the stuff he has put up.

Looking at the wrought iron bridge between two of the shorter towers. On the left tower is a structure known as 'the birdcage', you can evidently climb in and stare out at the passer-by's. I have seen a dozen or more people standing up on the bridge at one time.  It always make me a little nervous. There was no one there the day we showed up, might be because it was the middle of the week, or it might be, as it was pointed out to me by a good friend, that standing on an all metal platform a hundred plus feet in the air during an afternoon thunder and lightning storm might not be all that good for one's health.

A closer view of the bird cage. It really is like a fine piece of sculpture.

Inside on level 2? or 3?, depending on where you start, Bishop has started to finish off some of the interior space, at least to the point of installing windows.

The main hallway. What intrigues me was the use of wrought iron trusses to support some of the roof. About every 10'-12' or so a stone and concrete arch would take some of the roof load.

For a small donation, about $150 I've heard, you can have a pane of stain glass installed into west end of the main hall window wall.

Looking  up at the built in sky light section. Also note the stone and concrete arch section.

There are no limits to where you can climb on the structure as long as "you" take responsibility for your own actions. Or so the hand lettered signs say so. This view is from the tallest tower, but not the highest point by any means. Given the storm brewing outside, this was as high and exposed as I wanted to go.

A close up of the dragon head. I like how the sunlight was shining on the dragon scales.

Also new since the last time I was there; Jim Bishop has been working at digging the moat around the front end of the castle. Here is the new 'gate keep' that he has built, complete with a draw bridge, internal spiral stairway and metal gate.  

When I first started coming here about the only machinery they had was an old flatbed truck and a 1 yd. concrete mixer. It looks like he is still using his own ingenuity to move the thousands of tons of rock and other materials he has moved over the years. I still believe he is a bit on the loony side, but you have to respect what he has accomplished.

The end of a wonderful day. Must be another forest fire somewhere in the west.