WINTER – The Sequel

Well, things have cruised further into winter here; however, so far it's not so bad. The snow comes and goes, but as the weeks pass it takes more time for it to melt. Snow from the last storm is sticking around a lot longer. We have had several sunny days lately, but it has not gotten overly warm. Doesn't even reach the fifties, and the nights are in the twenties. Still, as long as you dress right it isn't too bad. Of course, the horses that have to dig through the snow to get at the grass may have a different take on it. Which reminds me of something I read recently. In the winter of 1886, when cattle ranchers lost about a quarter million head of cattle because of a particularly hard winter in the northern plains states, the cattle that survived were ones that followed horses around. Apparently, cattle either do not paw through, or else are not very good at pawing through snow and ice. Therefore, the cattle that followed horses were able to get at food and water the other cattle could not get to. Interesting if true. As they say, "Dog may be man's best friend, but it was the horse that built civilization".

There was a night a few weeks ago (I don't think I already wrote about this) that was very foggy, and the temperatures were below freezing. The next morning, after the fog lifted, there was the most beautiful scene to behold. All of the trees were covered with ice. Not long, hanging icicles, but tiny crystals of ice. I walked out among the trees to photograph it, and found the stirring of the air was causing thousands of these little ice crystals to float down from the trees. It looked like silver glitter floating through the air. With the glittering trees and shimmering air, the whole thing was like some scene from a fairy tale movie. I've never seen anything like it. I video taped it, and it looks okay, but still doesn't convey the scene to its fullest. You can only see the floating ice crystals that are close, you can't see them stretching off into the woods like you can with the naked eye. I did take a couple of stills which are below, but it still isn't quite the same.

We have some pretty strong winds here on a regular basis. Two weeks ago we had one that lifted the dog kennel and hurled it about 150 feet from the house. It was completely flattened. The panels were stretched out over the ground, the gate was bent, the roof frame connectors were bent pretty bad, and several grommets were ripped out of the roof tarp. It took me about an hour to disassemble. "Disassemble, Stefanie" (that's a reference to the movie Short Circuit for those who are going, "Huh?"). A few times while I was carrying the panels back to the house I was hit by gusts of wind that actually stopped me in my tracks. Fortunately those gusts only lasted a few seconds, and I could continue on my journey, but I couldn't move until I had been dis-gusted. I know, that was 2/3 of a pun; p-u.

The other interesting thing about the kennel being transported from the house, was that it couldn't just blow away and partially wreck the kennel. No, it had to come just close enough to the house to shear the arm off the satellite dish for my internet service. I thought that was a particularly cute little trick. When I called my internet provider I was informed that I would have to pay for the repair because this was considered and 'Act of God'.

Act of God??? It made me wonder how they go about proving that. Has anyone ever challenged that? I mean, how could you possibly prove something was an act of God? First, I think you would have to prove there is a God. Then you would have to prove that God actually committed that act. How on earth would anyone do that? Maybe in heaven, but not on earth. You mean to tell me that God has nothing better to do than smash my satellite dish? Was he feeling a bit capricious that day? If so, why did he single me out? What did I do to so provoke God? I had no idea I had that much influence over God's actions. If I do, perhaps I should see if I can get that energy put to more constructive uses – like ending war, hunger, sickness, death and a few other of the minor annoyances in life.

Obviously, I have gotten my satellite dish repaired. Another interesting part of this story is that I was charged a $50 Service Fee, and $50 for travel expenses. Isn't a Service Fee supposed to cover travel expenses? Isn't that like saying we are charging you a $50 Service Fee, and a fee of $50 for our services? Yeah. Okay. I'm schizophrenic – and so am I.

In other news...I have two cats, a terrier mix, and a German Shepherd. Which one is the best mouser? The cats! No. The terrier! No. The GS. The cats have one mouse to their collective credit, Pippa has none, and Mahkwi has at least four. She has killed one in the mud room, two out in the woods, which like all good pets she brings to the house to share, and one in this very room where I sit using the computer.

A funny coincidence it that Mahkwi has been trying to catch mice out in the woods for ages, and been unsuccessful. Then one day recently I watched Never Say Wolf. I hadn't seen it since it originally came out on TV. If you remember, the guy in the story found the wolves were surviving on mice in winter when there were no caribou around. The entire time I was watching this movie Mahkwi was laying by the couch dozing, and perking her ears up while staring at the speakers when the wolves whined. After the movie was over I let the dogs go outside, and within about twenty minutes Mahkwi had a mouse. I had to laugh. It was like she had been watching the movie and said, "Oh, that's how you do it," and went out and got a mouse. She got another one the next day.

The one she killed in here in the computer room, I, the true villain in this story, put her on to.

I was sitting here reading email when I saw some movement on the floor out of the corner of my eye. I looked over to see a deer mouse run quickly on into the room, go, "Yikes!", and run back toward the wall behind the desk. So, I called Mahkwi and tapped on the floor where I saw the mouse. She took a couple of sniffs, and immediately got quite interested. She pushed around through the obstacles leaning against the wall for a while, and then sat down and continued to stare at that spot. She stayed there when I left the room. She doesn't give up easily. About an hour later I heard a lot of crashing around and sounds of things being knocked about. So...

Away to the stairs I flew like a flash, or The Flash, ran down the steps and fell flat on my ash (not really, but it rhymes).

What to my blood-shot eyes should I see, but my computer room in complete melee. Items were strewn across the floor, I saw in amazement from the door.

The next sight my wondering eyes met, was Mahkwi saying, "It's here. Behind this cabinet!"

The hunt was on, I knew at once, for my Mother didn't raise a dunce (at least I like to think so).

Grabbing the cabinet I yanked it from the wall, and Mahkwi, like her ancestors, answered the call.

I heard a snap, then another and another. Then she was done, and I said, "Will the mouse recover?"

She didn't look up, just dropped her mangled prey on the floor, and as she left the room I heard her mutter, "Nevermore."

Wow! The mouse was Lenore?

I actually felt kind of sorry for the little mouse. They are cute little critters, and I know it was just trying to find a warm place to spend the winter, but I was told there is Hunta virus up here. Plus, they can destroy wiring, etc. At least its death was quick, but I couldn't help but feel a little pang of guilt when I saw its little eyes popped out of its head and belly split open.

Mahkwi was a good girl and did her job, but I keep thinking that the last thing this little mouse saw was...

The Demon Dog from hell!!!

I have done something up here I never thought I would do, joined a Volunteer Fire Dept. I have maintained throughout my life that, while I am deeply appreciative there are people who fight fires, they are crazy. Well, now I have proved my theory true. I have joined them. I used to have superpowers, but my therapist took them away.

Actually, I wanted to get back into mounted search and rescue, as I had done with the Sheriff's Posse in Yolo County, but all the mounted SAR people here live on the west side of the Rockies, and I am on the east side. I did find out that the Volunteer Fire Dept. here would be the closest thing to that. I also found out they are in dire need of EMTs. Since I was a Medic in the Army, and worked ambulances for a brief time after I left the service, I thought I could serve our little community here better by going back into emergency medical work. There are two ambulances at the firehouse, but they can not go out without an EMT. The EMTs they had moved or retired, and now ambulances have to come from Browning. That ads a lot to the response time which, as you all know, can be fatal. I am excited about going back in this field, and serving our community in an area of real need. It will be something new to learn and do. It's actually old for me, but things have changed a lot since I was in that field. I am sure there will be lots of new things to learn. I'm always up for learning new things.

So, I am now becoming a member of the Babb Volunteer Fire Department. They actually gave me a code to get into the firehouse at the first meeting I attended. I was surprised, and asked later, "Shouldn't I fill out an application, or something?" Imagine how amazed I was, being from California - land of the legal eagles, to be told, "No, we know where you live." It's nice to be trusted. I'm really looking forward to working with these people. They gave me a warm welcome at the meeting. It's hard to find nicer and more caring people than the ones you find serving their community voluntarily. I found that to be true in the Posse, and I find it true here also.

For those of you who are wondering when you will get to the end of this post, and where the new photos are, well, you are there and they are here.

Till next time, don't forget, to make your prayers come true, you have to get off your knees.

A snow day.

dawn over the mountains

Dawn on Triple Divide Mtn.

Grazing in the snow

A sunset

Another sunset

A frosty morning. Ice on the trees.

Ice encrusted trees

Ice rimmed aspen leaves

Moon over Yellow Mtn.

Sun shining through snow coming straight at you.

Incoming storm

Typical windy day

It's a standoff! Dog (protected by truck) vs. horse

And how do the dogs cope with the winter up here?

EARLY WINTER CONT'D.

The day started out beautiful. I actually broke out the old touring skis for the first time in at least six years, and skied around our place. The snow was incredibly powdery. It was light as finely sifted flour. At some points my skis were about three inches under the snow, but that's okay as a few times I was a little under the snow too. After not skiing in so long, it was, to say the least, awkward. I felt like a duck just learning to use it's feet for walking.

My dogs had never seen me ski before. Mahkwi was quite amused. For awhile she kept trying to catch the tips of my skis as they moved through the snow. Notice I didn't say unerringly through snow? She was trying to pounce on them, and grab them with her mouth; all the while wagging her tail. I laughed so hard. It was a good excuse to stop every few strides and re-orient myself.

I had fun despite how long it has been since I skied. Well, except for periodically having a hidden bunch of my old friend spotted knapweed, or clumps of grass, grabbing a ski stopping it cold, or twisting it under me. Well, that and the odd hole my ski poles found every now and then. It's an interesting sensation; planting a ski pole, expecting it to dig in at a certain point, and it doesn't happen until about a foot deeper. Especially when the other one digs in about where you expected it to. The other fun part was how that fine powder stuck to my skis like wet flour. Of course, it was only one ski at a time which allowed me to ski in circles if I had that whim – which I did not.

After skiing I shoveled a little snow off the deck and front walk, knocked icicles and snow off the eaves, and called it a day. Then about 4:30 p.m. the sun went away. Actually, it's more like it fled for it's life. This is what chased it away.




All for now. Just didn't want you to miss out on any of the fun.

WINTER

So, you may be wondering how we went from Near Fall to winter? As I sit here listening to LS singing 'I Ain't the One', I am wondering the same thing. Seems fall fell...through the cracks. The trees are mostly still green, and we have snow. We had our first snow on October 3rd. That all melted off by late yesterday afternoon. You would almost never know it had snowed. I thought, "Well, that wasn't so bad."

Then last night the north wind came up and it snowed with a purpose. I opened the front door to let my dogs out about 11 p.m., and got blasted with wind and snow. I think the message was, "Not so bad, eh? IN YOUR FACE, DUDE! (literally)". Pippa recoiled from the door in the face of this onslaught, as did I, and looked at me in a way that let me know she wasn't going out in that. She's a California girl. Actually, now that I think about it, she is blonde. Mahkwi, on the other hand, charged right out there. She is really made for this kind of weather. She is as frisky as she was when she was a pup. She lays around panting in 70 degree weather, so I had a feeling she would revel in the winters here. Anyway, note to builders of future homes in country like this; north facing door – bad idea.

So, now we are really getting into the transition from California to Montana. I am told by my neighbor this is more like November weather. I guess Old Man Winter was just eager to welcome us to our new home. How nice of him. In reality he is probably saying, "So, you think you can take the winters here do you? We'll, see. I'll give you a nice long one – and see how you like me then!

So far, it has just been beautiful. We'll see if I still feel that way about it in February. As I am now hearing 'Gold Dust Woman' the thought occurs to me, maybe I will be 'Snow Dust Man'. That may be all that is left of me at the end of winter. Not even a snow man, just a snow dust man.

So far the snow has not been deep enough for X-country skiing. I'm looking forward to skiing; however, it has been heavy enough to require my going out and brushing the snow and icicles off my dish before I could connect to the internet server. I have to admit that I never had to do that in California. Just one of the little special surprises of living up here in winter for me to experience.

Anyway, here are a few photos of how things have been looking around here during this first week of October 2009. As all my friends and family are enjoying the warm weather in California, all I can say is...eat your hearts out!

One thing that concerned me about moving up here was all the great informational and humorous emails I always received from friends and family when I was in California. I worried they would forget to send me stuff after my email address changed. Those emails have tapered off considerably, but a neighbor up here came to my rescue. Seems they have a widely published little newsletter here, I guess that is what you would call it, called The Pattiwagon. It is great! Lots of information and tips for living. Things such as 'Never take a laxative and a sleeping pill at the same time'. Now who would have thought of that? Another nice thought, 'Always remember you're unique – just like everyone else'.

Businesses in the area put ads in the letter also. My favorite is a towing company that advertises themselves as the "Cheapest hookers in town". As Larry the Cable Guy would say, "Now that's funny; I don't care who you are." Another interesting one is an excavation company that says, "Your hole is our goal." I'm not sure about that one, but I laughed anyway.

For those who may be feeling stressed – relax, turn up the sound, and enjoy. The resolution isn't great, but you'll get the idea. Also, excuse the dogs disrupting the serenity of the moment at the end.



I see all those soap flakes drifting down past my window again. I better get that guy the heck off my roof. That stuff went out with the 40's movies. I'm going to clue him in that computer generation is the way to go now. It's easier to clean up too. You just hit, 'Delete'.

Well, TTFN everyone.

NEARING FALL

Well, here I am again. Sorry it's been so long since I made a post. Initially I thought I would update this every day, but it hasn't seemed to work out that way yet. My last post was in August, and it is now late September. Which means...NFL time. Yes! Of course, to watch my favorite team I had to spend some bucks this year. In California it was free since they are a northern California team, but here they have other favorites. So, I had to get NFL Ticket. It's expensive, but how can life go on normally if I don't get to watch the Niners? Especially now that things are finally looking up for them. I suffered through the evil years, knowing we had almost two decades of championships. That's much more than many football fans ever get. I kept telling myself it things will get good again. Every year I had to be more convincing to myself, but now it appears patience has paid off before I got to be too old to see and hear the TV. So glad they had the sense to make Mike Singletary head coach. Well, on to my shenanigans around here.

Note: Did you know, according to Merriam-Webster, they do not know the origin of the word shenanigan? I always thought it was Irish, and probably of Celtic origin. Shows where thinking gets me. Dangerous pastime.

I've mostly been engaged in continual manual labor. I went to college when I was 33 so I would not have to break my back all my life to earn a living. Got tired of that. So, now, here it is 31 years later, and my brief interlude with easy labor is over. I guess the next 30 years is hard work again. The only change is this time I want to do the work. It is such a good feeling to see things looking better around here. All the piles of junk getting cleaned up. I realized at one point that I am cleaning up decades of other peoples stuff. Recently, I cleaned up a big pile of junk which contained several parts from an old car. My Dad thinks from the picture I sent him of the fender it may be a 1949 Chevy coupe, or a 1950 Nash. I figured it was early 50's at the latest, probably 40's when I saw it. What a difference in the way they were made. They used eighteen gauge steel I am told.

Anyway, I found and hauled out both rear fenders, a front door (which was further back in the woods) the gas tank, drive shaft and other miscellaneous parts. The rear axle I couldn't begin to lift, so that stays where it is for now. I also found the gear shift knob, but it was all rusted. At one point I thought I had found another gear shift knob still attached to the shaft for a floor shift, but when I dug up the rest it turned out to be half of a collar from a horse harness. The ball on that was shiny.

Here is a photo (taken with cell phone) of the fender for those who are interested.

Another interesting item was the small building that was collapsed on top of all the other stuff. At one point I uncovered one end of the roof frame. Judging by the size I thought it must have been a storage shed, or a smoke house. Then that little voice that sometimes, or frequently, speaks to us unbidden said, "Or an outhouse." That gave me pause for thought. It was close to the two old houses. Just about ten yards from one, and about 20 feet from the other. The next question was, did it collapse upon the spot where it spent its glory days? If so, how many of the boards partially imbedded in the dirt do I dare dig up?

It was nice finishing up that job. Instead of a big pile of wood, metal, glass, old clothes, etc., there is only a big patch of dirt in among the trees. Perfect place for weeds to grow next spring.

Speaking of weeds, burning spotted knapweed turned out to be not such a good deal for me. I burned a bunch of it in an old rusty 50 gallon drum with handles someone had conveniently welded on. The smoke didn't even burn light gray, or white, like plant material, but burned a medium tone of brown. Doesn't smell nice woodsmoke either. Had a little bit of a disagreeable smell to it. Plus, having to shove my arms into the smoke up to my elbows to feed more weeds into the fire caused my arms to break out in tiny, very itchy bumps.

I wondered why they call it "spotted" knapweed. I never noticed any spots on the plant, but I sure noticed them on my arms.

I had another mild surprise here. When I was working at UCD, our unit published a two – BIG – two volume set on the Weeds of California and other Western States. It took us about three years to put it together. It was quite an undertaking for everyone involved. I have a copy of it since I was involved, but never dreamed I would ever use it much. Well, I have been using it quite a bit here to identify weeds. It also helped me in my battle with spotted knapweed. I didn't realize we had it in California also. It is bad here in Glacier County, Montana. I found it very interesting that Glen County, California was successful in eradicating it. They must have jumped all over right away. They didn't here from what I understand. They say it got started here from a bale of hay that fell off a truck near the town of Babb a couple of miles down the road.

I took our dogs swimming about a week ago. The weather has been very nice lately. Mostly in the 80's. That is the warmest it has been all summer, although yesterday it only got up to the 50's (31 low) and rained most of the day. When the clouds lifted around 3 p.m., the tops of the mountains had snow on them. It was kind of like a magician whipping his cape off of a prop and shouting, "Voila!" Here are a couple of pics of Chief Mountain and Yellow Mountain from yesterday.

Yellow Mtn.

Chief Mtn. (Smoking his pipe)

To continue with the dogs, we had a nice time at St. Mary River. They both like to swim, and seem to have enough sense not to get out into the faster, deeper part of the river. That being said, at one point a blue heron landed on the shore about twenty yards from my dogs who were busy trying to flush a chipmunk from a log pile. Of course, whether to continue trying to flush the unseen, but I-can-smell-you-in-there chipmunk, or going for the huge bird in plain sight was a no-brainer for them. The bird flew before they got there (I know, you didn't see that coming, right?) and landed on a gravel bar in the middle of the river straight across from where it had been. Again, another no-brainer for them. They plunged right in and struck for the gravel bar. The river wasn't too deep there, but if the bird flew again and landed on the opposite shore I was afraid they might pull a real no-brainer this time and end up in deep water (pun intended). I called them back, which created great confusion. They stopped immediately, turned back toward me, then back toward the bird, then back toward me again. You could tell what they were thinking. "But, but, but...it's right there, Master! Do we have to?" When I told them, yeah, they had to, they were good girls and came right in. About the time they got out of the water, a small flotilla of mergansers came floating rapidly downriver. Poor girls, it was all they could do not to go in after them. The littlest one, Pippa, or Skweeks (her nickname) walked along the shore, keeping pace with the ducks, and alternately looking from them to me, until they were gone.

A wet Pippa-Skweeks

Pippa almost had another wildlife run-in this morning. I took them out about dawn to do their early morning relief work. Pippa immediately stuck her nose in the air and trotted around behind the house. She ducked under the fence onto the neighbors property, sniffed around, and started following the trail of something in the direction of our garage. I called her, but she ignored me this time. I could tell she was very hot on whatever she was trailing. Since there are a lot of coyotes around here, mostly heard and not seen - unlike what we were told good children were as kids, I went after her as this is the time of day they are still out and about. I had to practically scream at her before she finally came back. Our poor shepherd was cowering right next to me thinking I was mad at her. After I had assured Mahkwi (the shepherd) she was

Mahkwi – grande dame of the ranch

not in dutch, and we were back in the house, I hung up my coat, got a drink of water, and while drinking it walked over to the glass doors in the kitchen to admire the snow on the mountains. As soon as I looked out what do I see on the other side of the fence behind our garage? A coyote; standing there looking around, probably thinking, "Drat. I was gonna eat that dog too." Then it trotted casually across our little hill and off into the direction I usually hear them yipping and howling.

Mahkwi pulls sentry duty every evening. Hey, it's in her genes. She goes out on the deck around dusk each evening, and lays out there surveying our packs territory for a couple of hours or so. Well after dark anyway. Anything that comes near (near translated as anything within sight, smell, or hearing) gets warned away.

Mahkwi at the start of her nightly tour of sentry duty.

Another thing the dogs like about living here is their daily grooming. Before we moved, I groomed them about once a week; sometimes less. Here, they get it every day. Why the change? One word – stickers. Pippa comes in covered with stickers every time she goes out. Mostly stinging nettle stickers. They really cling to that wiry hair of hers. As an example, here is what I combed out of her hair after about twenty minutes of running around outside. The longer she is out, the worse it is.

stinging nettle seeds

Mahkwi doesn't get them nearly as bad, and they are much easier to comb out of her. The only problem with combing them out of Mahkwi's hair is that they don't really stick too well to it, with the result that they fall onto the floor and I have to pick up these tiny seeds. They are about 1mm in size. With Pippa some of the hair comes out too, so I can just take them off the comb and throw them out. The dogs don't care though. In fact, I've seen Pippa intentionally roll in the stinging nettle. I suspect she has figured out. She certainly seems to reach her Zen zone when she gets them combed out. Maybe I can write an article on it. Sticker Zen for Dogs.

Turned out to be a good morning for wildlife viewing. After the coyote, about one-half hour later, two white tailed deer went bounding across our place. Actually got to shoot some video of them. It was through the windows, but came out not too bad. If I can ever figure out how to transfer the video on my DV tapes to my computer I'll post the coyote and deer footage to this blog.

The tourist season is pretty much over here. The traffic has slowed to almost nothing. The weather is warm again after the rain yesterday so it is still enjoyable. Some trees are turning yellow here and there. In fact, here is another shot I took while at St. Mary River with my dog posse.

St. Mary River - beginnings of fall

A couple of the restaurants and a store close this week. The store has a gas station, so unless the St. Mary Lodge gas station stays open, I will have to go to Browning (35 miles) for fuel. Better fill my 5 gallon can with diesel. When the colors really pop I'll post some pics. It is after noon now, I guess I should do some more work. I'm going see if I can pull up some wire mesh fencing partially buried under the dirt. It is perfect for horses to get tangled up in. I can't get it out by hand, and can not dig it up, so I am going to see if I can pull it out with my truck. You have to learn to use everything you have available to get things done around here. It's not like cleaning up your back yard.

Summer

Well, for those of my friends who asked me to start a blog so you can track my trials and tribulations through my first Montana winter and laugh at them – I apologize for taking so long. It was a busy summer. Relocating over about 1,200 miles is an effort. Makes you marvel how people move large armies over huge distances. I had my hands full with just this. Then needed to get internet on satellite as there is no DSL out here.

Some of you already know what I have been up to, so I will try to bring this up to the present as quickly as I can.

I'll just start with what I remember first.

Okay, so now that you are all up to speed, I will let you know what I am currently up to.

Just kidding. Here we go.

When we arrived on the first trip in June we were, of course, relieved to have reached our destination after three ten hour days on the road. Hey, we're not truckers; we're not used to it. So, imagine our amusement in finding the electricity off. We found the main switch was in the Off position. Hooray, we just turn it on. Right! Now, we just run downstairs and turn on the circuit breaker for the water pump. Done!

What's that sound of water? Oh no. There is a hole in the copper pipe running behind the water softener jetting water onto the soft water tank. It's spraying everywhere. Coises! Turn off the water pump. Okay, bummer, but we can deal, right? Right. Wrap the small hole with electrical tape, put a C clamp over it and tighten it down. All right. Now, turn the water pump back on.

I flip the switch for water pump to On, and voila! We have success. So I start to head upstairs and announce to everyone, "We, have fixed the problem ladies and gentlemen, you may now use the toilets." The only catch is, that as I walk past the wall of the downstairs bathroom, I hear the sound of water rushing in the walls. Hmm. Naturally, I stop and listen. Yeah, kind of sounds like a waterfall inside there, doesn't it? Don't suppose it's a walled up atrium with a waterfall? No. So, I head back into the basement where my Dad is still checking over our patch job. As I walk in and start to tell him it sounds like there is water rushing through the walls, and I don't think that's a good thing, I suddenly start hearing the sound of splattering water. I look up to find I can not only hear this waterfall, I can see it too. It's coming from an AC vent in the ceiling. Oh goody.

I will not take you step by step through the rest of this, but did you ever see one of those WWII submarine movies? You know the scene where they are being depth charged, and it shows the poor guys in the for-some-reason-always-forward-torpedo-room frantically trying to patch pipes spewing water from every conceivable spot? That's what our basement turned into.

By the time the forward torpedo room crew left, he had patched over nine leaks. Some of them looked like they actually may have been the victims of depth charging.

So, the moral is, even if you drain your pipes for the winter, and leave the heat set at fifty; it will not matter one bit if the electricity goes off and you didn't blow out the water lines with an air compressor. At least up here that is the moral.

We were without water for three days after we got here (plumbers are not readily available in a place like this. Actually, nothing is). My Dad's girlfriend left by the end of the first day. Never dry camped before, I guess. Didn't find it at all fun.

The water problems finally dealt with (all we have to do now is have all the holes made in the walls patched), the next thing we had to repair was the fence on the east side of our property because it was down from the winter and cows were roaming freely about our place. That took an entire morning.

All this and unloading a 27 foot Uhaul truck too. It was busy. Now, we finally have things more or less under control.

Summer is pretty different here. We have had quite a bit of rain and some pretty active thunder storms that have lasted for the whole day. Even been socked in with fog a couple of times. Looked like Davis in December. First it's foggy; then the fog lifts; then it rains; then it stops raining and gets foggy again. Repeat step 1. You know the drill. For a couple of days we had rain and temps in the mid-fifties. About the same time it was 100+ in Sacramento Valley. I felt sorry for all my friends and family there, but I sure am glad I was here. I'll take rain and 54 degrees any day over sunny and 100. Not over sunny and 85 though.

We have seen deer on our place frequently, and one coyote and one young black bear. The bear was walking across our place up near the house. When we came walking out to go to the store, that little bear took off like all the demons in hell were after it. It seemed so scared I felt sorry for it. I wanted to yell out, "It's okay little bear. You're safe here." Unfortunately, I was too busy screaming for my dogs who were already off romping in the general the bear was headed. My screaming probably took a few years off the bear's life. Anyway, it looked still small enough to be with it's mother, and I didn't see her behind it, so I thought she may already be where the young one was headed...and so were my dogs. I didn't need a dogs vs. bear event to deal with, so that's why I was screaming for my dogs to come back. They obediently did. Good girls!! Turned out there wasn't a mother bear around.

I've also seen hawks killing other birds. This past thursday there were two american kestrels (known as sparrow hawks to some) who were avidly chasing a flock of about six flickers around the aspen trees. They were relentless, too. They kept diving and diving at those flickers. I watched until I couldn't see them any longer. Don't know if the kestrels ever had any success. I saw a big red tail hawk laughing at them, though. Thought it was going to fall out of the tree.

We have lots of squirrels, gophers and badgers on the place. I can hear the badgers in their holes when my dogs try to dig them out. You can actually hear the badger breathing in the hole. Sounds kind of Darth Vaderish. I'm surprised none of them have charged out at the dogs. Maybe they figure it is a coyote pack or something. Plus, there is a...HUMAN! The most feared and notorious predator around. Although I hear, and have read, badgers are not particularly afraid of the most feared and notorious predator around. In fact, I understand it is prudent for the most feared and notorious predator around to avoid the badger people.

There are supposed to be wolves around here too, or so I have been told by a couple of different people. There are lots of American goldfinches and mountain bluebirds also, for you birders. Also had a couple of cranes flying around the house (outside) a couple of days ago. The bird kind, not the construction kind. I have seen osprey, and immature golden eagles. They were just so totally immature I couldn't watch (hair flick).

LOTS of swallows, barn, tree and cliff. Lots of bats. Hmmm, oh, lots and lots of bugs too until a flock of swallows took up residency here by the house for a couple of weeks. Now there aren't so many bugs. Between the swallows and the bats they really knocked them down. Isn't nature wonderful?

That reminds me. I found bear poop in my driveway by my gate. I don't know whether to call animal control, or just put some doggy clean up bags on the fence post with a notice to the bears. Later, the same day there was a young black bear on the road about a half mile down the road from our house. It was just nosing along checking out something on the road. When it heard the truck coming it stood on its hind feet and stared at it until I was pretty close. Then it dropped down on all four and ran off into the woods. I honked the horn to keep it going.

It is late August now, and the weather has been beautiful the past three weeks. Sunny, sometimes partly cloudy, temps mostly in the 70's and 80's in the day and 50's at night. A lot of the wildflowers that were everywhere the last three months are dying off. I guess that means it is summer now? Hmmm.

I'm getting good enough with a chain saw that I can probably hurt myself now. Hope I don't. I have a lot of dead aspen trees to cut down and cut up. Too bad we have a wood pellet stove. I sure have enough wood here to last a good while. Maybe I can sell some. I'm going to give some of it to my neighbor. He is a nice guy. He is a cattle rancher and is probably in his 80's. He has been a great help to us. Really a good neighbor, a thing he firmly believes in being.

Another battle we have here is with spotted knapweed. It is the yellow star thistle of Montana, but only in invasiveness and difficulty to get rid of. It does not have any spines like the star thistle. They had a "spray day", I guess you could call it, last month. You could rent a tank from the county for ten bucks and get all the free knapweed herbicide you needed. I used about 16 gallons of the stuff, spent about six hours spraying, and killed maybe half the knapweed. Not good. That stuff will take over and ruin pastureland for livestock and meadows for wildlife. I'm digging up a lot of it, but it is like a drop in the bucket. So, I concentrate on the areas that are not so heavily infested and look for "starter" plants in non-infested areas and dig them up. Maybe if I put more effort there, I will at least keep it out of those areas.

That's it for now. I'll write more stuff as I think of it.