Golden Feather Press
Author's Update

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Since last March, we've been getting the mountain house ready to sell. Jim couldn't stay at 10,000 feet more than 2 days. Even on oxygen he became exhausted and nauseated. He's fine in Denver, but needs oxygen at night for sleep apnea.

Whenever we went up there to pack and sort through stuff, we couldn't use the toilet; we had water, but no place to drain it. The sewer line from the house to the first septic tank was frozen until May. We had no phone or TV. We rented movies and brought up our small 13" TV with a DVD player. Several times, we forgot the remote and ended up seeing the credits and previews 5 times before we could successfully manipulate the front buttons.

We've owned the two acres in South Park for 32 years and built the house from ground up, much of it without power tools. The dream of living permanently on our land and in our mountain home kept us going during many miserable jobs. We sold our Denver house in 2000 and moved up to our home in the wilderness. Or was it in 2001? Oh, well. When you get as old as dirt, you're bound to forget some of the weeds.

The first three years living in our mountain home were bliss. However, driving 26 miles to our part-time jobs or the grocery store began to get to us, and our wallets. We were spending $60 a week on gas, and that was when regular hovered around $2 a gallon. The winter whiteout ground blizzards, which sometimes lasted for days, were very scary and dangerous to drive through. Gripping the steering wheel and driving with the emergency lights flashing so we could be seen, became very tiresome. During the second three years, we realized we were too old to live in such remoteness. Our health was wavering and we missed our family, friends and doctors in Denver, 100 miles to the northeast.

Our prayers worked. We had the signing off on the house a few months ago. Many homes near ours have been on the market for years.

We are now permanent RVers and loving every minute of it. Never again will I ever buy a house. Jim said the same thing yesterday. We'll live in a double refrigerator box along the Platte River before that happens again. Houses are too damn much work.

We're staying in our RV in Denver until next spring, and then possibly traveling to the coast of Oregon...with our mobile house. We want to be by the ocean for awhile and hear the tide again.

As of November 8, 2007, we've been in this RV Park a year. What a great neighborhood! I love RVers. With few exceptions, everyone is helpful and loving. Nearly everyone has a dog or two, but mostly little dogs. Not like our two "ponies."

Our dogs, Dawson and Andy, have flowed with the tide. They love it here in the RV Park.

Dawson, our 9-year-old Bouvier, is a big, black teddy bear. He's loyal, obedient and extremely patient and gentle, especially with children. He loves other dogs and we sometimes have to restrain him from smothering the little tykes around here. We reduced Dos's weight from 130 lbs. to 100, not knowing he was overweight. His thick wooly hair masks the fat. Jim agreed not to give him so much cheese.

Dawson is a jewel of a dog. He's one to "ride the river with." However, he puts up with Andy's chewing on him and playfully slamming into him only so long. I've read a Bouviers' bite can crush a man's leg. Andy'd better watch it. On a leash, Dos is a formidable guardian. We have to keep him well away from other dogs and cyclers.

Andy is a purposeful breed of Great Pyrenees and Bermese Mountain Dog. He's bigger than Dawson, about 120 lbs. He was 150. He's a tan and white, long-haired beauty. Andy is a mixture of obedient "Yes, Daddy," and a sly brat as he purposefully snacks on goose poops or chases rabbits. Andy took on the job of ridding park of geese. They hang around all year and poop all over everything, including the children's playground. I think Andy wants the "green candy" all for himself.

Andy will be 3 on New Year's Day. He is the gentlest dog around women and children that I've ever known. A man kicked him once while we were in Fairplay. As time goes by, he's getting less terrified of men. However, if a man completely ignores him, Andy suddenly leans against him, forcing the guy to notice him. He's an affection con man.

Jim and I bought ourselves a HDTV for Christmas. It's a 26-inch, as big as our RV space allowed, and we love it. Besides, it weighs 60 pounds less than the old TV that came with the RV. However, the 13" analog TV in the bedroom caused stadium-like sound delays and echoes with the new TV on the same channel. It drove us nuts, so we had to get an HDTV for the bedroom. Sigh! It never ends.

Jim and I spent Christmas Eve at my sister and her husband's huge elegant mansion in the neighborhood of the late Ethel Merman. My sister had just opened their expanded kitchen that had taken 9 months to build. Our entire RV would fit where the loveseats and fireplace is now. It is a magnificent kitchen and gathering area. We had a wonderful evening with several families. Everyone laughed during the "gift exchange-steal-trade" that we do every year. I ended up with a Macy's gift certificate that I traded for a crock of German wild berry preserves and a jar of Tired Old Ass Soak bath salts.

Christmas Day was spent with my editor and our dear friend Muriel (Mo) at the home of a large family who has adopted the three of us. As usual, it was a delight. Mo terrorized poor Matt, saying he was a pervert. "Putting Ben Gay in the crotch of women's panties is a SIN!" she yelled. It was all in fun and we laughed for an hour as the two of them went round and round.

It snowed all day Christmas Day here in Denver. Not a usual event, but it was beautiful. We got about 7 inches.

Since I wanted to close the year with news, I haven't edited any of this. Oh yeah, I love the new chapter of Book 6 about Jake and Wiley. It's coming along. I hope you've enjoyed Emerald Valley. Just to let you know, Jim was very angry with me that I made it so long. I hadn't intended to. But I had fun.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Dave Brown

Jim is doing exceptionally well at this lower altitude and does not need oxygen at all. He's also glad he doesn't have to carry around a hammer and screwdriver, or carry in firewood. He's even joined a health club and works out four times a week. There's a smile on his face when he states that he's "finally retired."

On December 11th, I had surgery on my back and no longer have any sciatic pain down my left leg from the herniated disk. I should have had it done months ago. There's a lesson here. My neuro-surgeon is a gay man and highly respected in Denver. If I had taken his advice and had had surgery last June, I would have been free of pain for over 5 months. Just because my dad had complications from lower-back surgery 20 years ago, doesn't mean it would happen with Mark operating on me. Shame on me. Out of fear of the same nerve damage my father suffered, I held off until the pain became excruciating. Thanks to Doctor Mark, the surgery was a success and I am totally pain free. After the surgery, Doctor Mark smiled at me and said, "I told you so." He laughed and asked, "Do you and Jim like sushi?" Jim stated, "Yes, but we're paying!"

Full recovery will be about eight weeks, but we have no plans to do any traveling right now. It was great to spend Christmas with family and friends without having to drive 100 miles each time we wanted to be with them. It was also nice to spend the holidays in our decorated RV.

The recent snows (7 in 7 weeks) with unusually frigid weather for Denver, has kept me from walking around the RV Park. The photo shows the beginnings of 43 inches of snow measured at the park. Since walking is the only physical therapy I'm allowed, Jim has taken me to Wal-Mart or a grocery store so I can hang on to a buggy until I get stronger.

We have gone back to the house in South Park several times to get things we left. With the phone and TV shut off, we felt isolated since our cell phones don't work there. We, and the dogs, were glad to be back in civilization and in our cozy RV. We have owned the mountain property for over 30 years, and built the house from ground up. The dream of living there got us through jobs that we both disliked. But, when we were finally able to live there, we found it was totally unlike what the dreams held. Going up on weekends, we overlooked the work needed inside the house. While living there on a permanent basis, the work on the house became an oppressive obsession and the miles to anywhere was a costly burden.

The work on the house is finished, but we need to move on. We have no regrets selling it. We love people more than trees, but we'll miss visiting the ruins of "Jake and Wiley's" cabin...and especially our friends in Fairplay, Jefferson, Como and all of South Park. Can a Republican ever be loving and accepting of everyone? Well, they are in Park County, Colorado. Even a tough and authentic rancher, picked to be a TV Marlbo Man, and his equally famous wife, both staunch Irish Catholics, were genuine friends of ours. We are still in contact with them and many of our close friends in South Park.

Chapters 9 and 10 of Emerald Valley are in place. Beyond that, the story is in my head, but barely written down because of our change in lifestyle. It's not easy transferring from a big house in the wilderness to an RV, but we've loved it every step of the way.

Please be patient. Emerald Valley will continue to be written as fast as I can. There's a surprise cooking in it that I'm sure you'll like. Who knows? It may go on forever.

Jim and I wish you all a very HAPPY VALENTINES DAY, 2007

October 22, 2006
Since 1995, South Park has been getting drier each year. The glorious expanses have been drying up enough to bring tears. This spring, we only got a few drops of moisture from February until June. There was no grass. No myriad of flowers. The ground was cracked and dusty. We were terrified to even start a fire in the living room stove for fear a stray spark from the chimney would cause an inferno for miles around. Aspen trees were dying of thirst. We kept the small pool filled for the birds and animals. Even nocturnal weasels came during the day to drink, and deer came.

All this time, I didn't pray for rain...well, maybe a couple of times. Rather, I looked out from my favorite second-story window and said, "Hey, this is your world, God. I'm interested in what you're doing to it. Go for it!"

The next day, June 26, 2006, I kid you not, it poured rain. Since that date, we have gotten over 10 1/2 inches of rain (as of my last reading for Colorado State University on September 30, 2006). South Park's yearly average is 12 inches. This year, we got 15 1/2 inches. Maybe God likes to be taken seriously rather than be considered an entity only to grant our selfish wishes.

Jim now needs oxygen all the time here at 10,000 feet. His heart and lungs checked out fine, but he needs to get to a lower altitude. I'm game!

We left our house in our new Chevy 3500 diesel truck, towing our 30' fifth-wheel RV on October 4, 2006, bound for Albuquerque and the Balloon Festival. Booking late, we literally got the last RV spot in Albuquerque for that week.

The first day of the Balloon Festival was very windy and many balloons inflated, then deflated. We were there. Many balloon fliers were brave enough to become airborne, and they zipped rapidly to the north and out of sight. The next few days were cancelled due to heavy rain and wind.

If it hadn't been for Al and Bill, an Albuquerque couple who Jim and I had only corresponded with for a year because of the books, we would have not had as grand a time in that beautiful city as we had. Bill and Al invited us to a party they gave and let us and the dogs stay with them the night before the Balloon Festival opening. We all rode a bus to the balloon field. They also took us on a day trip to the Jemez Mountains. Another day trip to the Acoma Pueblo, 50 miles west of the city, was as eye-opening as it was muddy. It rained most days, but we still had a laughingly wonderful time. I don't expect we will meet two more genuine and fun-to-be-with people like Al and Bill for the rest of my life. But I hope we do.

As of this writing, Oct. 11, 2006, we are in Santa Fe in an especially beautiful RV park-Santa Fe Skies (owned by the mother of the woman who ran Sister's and Brother's Book Store—Albu's only gay bookstore that closed a few years ago). Nestled at the north edge of the RV park, our windows in the back opens to a golden grassy field with scattered mound-shaped junipers. The Santa Fe Mountains, far to the northeast, are frosted from recent snow showers.

In Santa Fe, we found a small café on Rodeo Road named Castro's. After waiting 20 minutes for a table, we were served the most delicious Mexican food we have ever tasted. The bill, even with my beer, was $18.00. We went back another night.

I went to college in Santa Fe in the 60's. What a change! St. Michael's College is now the College of Santa Fe. The city is four times larger. Areas we used to go hiking back then are now inner suburbs. The Basilica of Saint Francis has been gutted of all old Spanish beauty. We heard that the people of Santa Fe were outraged by that. In the 90s, when Jim and I were through Santa Fe, the wall behind the altar was blank white. Now, the St. Francis Basilica has token Spanish "artwork" on the back altar. I have sung Gregorian chant in that church when it was untouched. I saw the bare back-wall in later years, and now the bastardized replacement of Spanish artifacts. I shuddered in horror.

We left Santa Fe to our house in South Park on October 17, 2006. The trip was uneventful, though we knew a snow storm was on its way into Colorado. We got to Buena Vista, CO and it was raining. As we went over Trout Creek Pass into South Park, we encountered a blizzard with icy roads and 50 feet visibility. It took us 2 hours to get home from there which was only 36 miles. Pulling the 30 foot RV, it was not enjoyable. When we finally got home, the snow was so slippery, we decided to leave the truck and RV on the road and not attempt the steep driveway up to the house. It was a long, cold trek up to the house. We went back down with a cart and brought essentials up to the house in the driving snow.

We had to go to Denver yesterday (October 20th). On the way home, we were met with another blizzard in South Park. Since the short-cut road home is closed indefinitely due to road construction, we had to take the long way home, in almost zero visibility. Driving, I said to Jim, "I think God is throwing these blizzards at us hoping we have no regrets about leaving here permanently." Jim laughed and said, "It's working."

We have booked space for our RV in Denver through January, 2007. Our house is again up for sale. As far as Dos and Andy are concerned; when we got home, every time the RV door was open, both dogs pushed by us and ended up on the couch or the bed.

More from Denver.....

We've been right here, at home. Our life-script has drastically changed, but later about that.

You all know by now that our dog, Winnie, is gone. Winnie was 14 and had cancer. Jim and I held him tight and wept during his grand mal seizures. He had quit eating and could barely walk, but Winnie adored life to the end. Winnie finally relaxed, with all of us around, at the Park County Animal Hospital in Fairplay, June 19, 2004. Our vet, Kerry, makes everything meaningful.

Winnie was an Old English Sheepdog/Lab mix. He had the Old English wit and clownishness, but was definitely a waterdog and retriever. He was of his own mind and totally addicted to chasing a tennis ball. When we lived in Denver, we'd take Winnie into the alley and toss the ball. His self-taught strategy: after the ball bounced once, he'd catch it in midair at a right angle. He was flawless at it. The neighbors would line up along the fence and yell, "Winnie, join the Colorado Rockies! They need you!"

When we were all younger, Jim and I drove east from our cabin in South Park and headed into Pike National Forest on a two-track road toward the Tarryall Mountains. The terrain is treeless rolling hills for miles before meeting the forests of the Tarryalls. We parked the truck and rode our bikes on a faint trail in that treeless, hilly olive-colored land. We biked for two miles in full sun, then had a water-cheese-apple break at the top of a hill under a few lone spruce by a chimney-rock outcropping. During that break, in between laps of water and chunks of cheese, Winnie barked at us the entire time. We were slackers! After the snack, we biked back to the truck. Winnie ran alongside the entire four miles. When we got home, Winnie leaped out of the truck, found one of his tennis balls and dropped it at my feet.

We have great memories of Winnie, and not nearly enough pictures.

Dawson, our huge Bouvier, was devastated by Winnie's passing. "Dos" adored Winnie. Without Winnie, Dos lost all direction. He refused to go out alone at night for three months. We wanted to get him a partner, but also wanted to let him develop his own personality.

Develop he did. Dawson became Fearless One. More than once, by himself and sometimes at night, he has chased away coyotes and bears. The echo of his ultra-deep bark booms around in the valley below. We love hearing it. One family, nestled in the hills a mile away, told us that when Dos barks they all listen.

After several unsuccessful trips to dog shelters to find Dos a partner (he ignored every dog we picked out), we saw an ad in a Denver paper about puppies that were a cross between Great Pyrenees and Bermese Mountain Dog. The mix is supposed to become its own breed, and one name on the ballot is Great Bermese. On the website, the puppies were unbelievably lovable. That's where we got Andy. Andy is a New Year's baby and turned one-year-old on New Year's Day, 2006. He is now taller than huge Dos. Like Dos, he weighs 118 pounds. "Will he get bigger?" people ask. My usual reply is, "He's only a year old. What do you think?"

Andy is a lover and his coat is luxurious. He also has several traits of Winnie. For one, he is continually hunting down and tossing around Winnie's old tennis balls.

Dos and Andy have become inseparable.

Okay, now an explanation of what Jim and I are up to.

Through the brutally cold winter of '04 and all last summer of '05, Jim and I worked on taping, texturing and painting all the ceilings of the house and putting up pine paneling in all the rooms. We got it done, but not without injuries. Jim fell off a ladder, broke two back ribs and fractured a vertebra in his neck. His recovery was long and painful. I hired two local carpenters to finish the rest of the work requiring a ladder.

As Jim reclined in his chair with a heating pad around his neck, he emphatically told the carpenters, "I want to finish all the inside window and door framing myself." Rick, Greg and I looked at each other, shrugged and agreed. Working at a snail's pace, Jim and I finally completed the framing the week before this past Christmas. Just so you know; I detest that kind of work and act as Jim's gopher. I wish Jake and Wiley had shown up to help.

However, if they had been here helping, I can see it now...

Before Jake climbed the ladder, Wiley drove spikes into the ground on three sides of the ladder's feet, holding them in place on the sloping land. While Jake painted, Wiley held the ladder as sturdy as his strength allowed, knowing he could never go higher than the fifth step. Wiley closed his eyes and gripped the ladder harder. He couldn't even watch Jake up that high.

Wondering to whom he should pray for Jake's safety, Wiley heard a dull clunk. He flinched when heavy wetness plastered over his right eyelid and splattered his shirt.

"Damn, Wiley! I dropped the can'a paint!"...

While Jim was being checked over after his fall, the doctor discovered he has sleep apnea and needs oxygen at night here at 10,000 feet. That did it for both of us. We had to do something to get to a lower altitude. We realized that our "dream home after retirement" got us through our long years of working, but it's not the right place for us at this point in our lives with the health that we have.

We've had the house up for sale for eight months. However, being so remote, we rarely had lookers. Then, my sister told us about reverse mortgage. That was perfect for what we've decided to do. This property is no longer for sale.

Jim and I are buying a new GMC diesel truck and just bought a 5th-wheel trailer that we will live in while on the road. We're going to live like gypsies for much of the year, but will still have the house to come back to. What a kick! Maybe we will visit you! We would love that.

I'm so sorry. Book 6 has not yet been started. This past year was too much of a workhorse, and I was slammed with writer's block. I've been writing constantly since 1992, and never knew what writer's block was, until all of 2005. Writer's block is the worst thing that has ever happened to me. If Hemmingway did himself in because of writer's block, I can certainly understand. Bolstered by Jim and many readers' e-mails, and after seeing the new movie Brokeback Mountain several times, something has slowly reawakened in me that I feared I'd lost forever.

Book 6 has many notes. I'm as anxious as you are to find out what Jake and Wiley have been up to. I promise that we will all know of Jake and Wiley's whereabouts as soon as they check in. They're long overdue.

I also promise to keep you updated on Jim and my "gypsy" travels.

Right now, I would like all of us to give Cowboy Frank a big hand on making this website what it is. Frank has been trying to update it for over a year, but his suggestions fell on my distracted ears. There are new sections in the works.

Dave Brown

Where do I begin?

Since I last updated, I got Mo's edit back and made all the corrections. As I was saving the corrected book to a CD, a bolt of lightning struck close to the house and not only destroyed a 500-year-old bristle cone pine, it wiped out my computer. And yes, I had surge protectors, etc. Fortunately, I had the book on disks, but we had almost constant lightning storms for the next 15 days. I didn't dare plug in the computer to re-load the software during that time. I managed to re-load some of it at night, but we had storms at night, also. The only bright note about all this is that South Park is green for the first time in three years. The tree destroyed was not "Old One" in the books, but it stood right next to it. Jim and I think "Old One" is 2,000+ years old. My cousin's wife, Sally, works for the Forest Service. She plans on taking a core sample of "Old One" to see how old it really is.

Alone by the Window is now at the printer. The printer called me today and said the shipping date is October 28th. It usually takes a week for the truck to get to Denver. Sorry for the further delay.

Great news! Cowboy Frank has offered to take over my website management. Expect some great things in the weeks to come. Visit Cowboy Frank's website at CowboyFrank.net.

Dave Brown

Alone by the Window is still at the editor's. Windy has recently had serious medical problems, and has moved twice since she has had it. However, Mo asked for the manuscript and edited it. I'm putting in Mo's corrections right now. I'm cussing as I struggle to get the book ready for printing using Microsoft Word.

Best guess at when Alone by the Window will be out? Before September. Sorry about that.

Maybe Windy can edit my next book, which has nothing to do with the Jake-Wiley series.

It's been a year since I updated this page. I was reminded about it by a reader wanting to know the status of the fifth book. Thanks, David. Your humor is superb.

Book Five, Alone By the Window, is finally completed. Don't freak at the title. There can be other books. We have to wait for my new editor, Windy Newcastle to spend time with it. Mo retired with her finger pointing to Windy.

Windy has a PhD. in Creative Writing and is looking forward to doing the editing. She wants at least a month. Printing also takes a month. Sorry about that.

Rather than ramble on about why this book took so long, I'll just say that most of my time in the past two years has been diverted to circumstances beyond my control.

Thanks for all your emails of support over the past two years. I'm glad so many of you like the books. It keeps me going in the rough times.

I promise I'll keep you posted.

Dave Brown

It's about time I'm writing this. At the end of Pinkerton Partners I said Jim and I would be traveling, and I'd update you on the progress of the next book. Well, Jim and I haven't done any traveling except the hundred miles to Denver, sometimes three times a week for many months. Jim had major medical problems all summer, and my attention was mainly for him. Thank God he's now back to normal.

With the brutal drought and forest fires raging this summer in many parts of Colorado, several times we were put on alert to evacuate. No fires came close to us, however, but with us “city yahoos” invading the pristine forests, anything can happen. As the weathermen put it, this has been the worst drought to hit Colorado in over 100 years. Most of the fires were human set, which was more tragic than the dying aspens.

Book 5 will be out later than expected. I'm sorry. Jake and Wiley's story had to be put on hold.

Please be patient. We'll find out what's been happening as soon as possible, but don't look for the next book until sometime in 2003. It's still taking me time to resume listening to Jake's whispers. Meanwhile, Wiley and Jake have been splashing in the calf-deep remnant of their pool.

Look for photos in this website of Jake and Wiley's area. I'll get them on here as soon as possible. The ruins of Jake and Wiley's cabin, Bill's livery, the Silver Heels Bar. They're all real.

* * *

Wouldn't you know. I opened Pinkerton Partners the other night to refer back. There on page 186, I instantly spotted an error. "Harry grabbed his coat." It should have said "Bill grabbed his coat." And to think I labored over the final manuscript five times checking every possible error. Sorry about that. The Navajo purposefully put errors in their rugs so they don't appear perfect. Wish I could say the same.

Dave Brown

Email Golden Feather Press dave2@goldenfeatherpress.com