Of Moose and Cranes - and Snow?

The moose are back!  We actually see them off and on all year, but now is when we start seeing them a lot.

This guy got a flash in his eye.  Notice the antlers in velvet.  These guys were right out back by the water feature.

These are two of the three yearling bulls we've had hanging around for a couple months.  The other is out of sight in the bushes - but he's there!  We've also had a deer with triplet fawns this summer.  She's keeping them out of sight - pretty cautious with them, but we've seen them a couple times - once right in the back yard by the summer house.  Cool!

We have sandhill cranes every year and even have a pair that nests "out back" most years.  There's a lot of them that come to the valley, so it's not uncommon to see and hear them around.  They have a very distinctive song?

But this I've never seen before.  This morning we had two pair of them out front of the house!

See?  I told you!!!  Amazing.

The other thing I saw this morning was SNOW!!! in the mountains all around.  Oh, please!  I'm not sure we've actually had summer.

The Abundance of Summer

Walt flew out of Salt Lake on Tuesday, so I stayed with friends, Jim and Judy, and did some sewing for their kitchen nook.  Made the curtain panels and some pillows for the banquette.

Turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself.  Judy picked the gorgeous black main fabric.  Worked well with all the black accents in her kitchen.  It was a fun project.  I love taking hunks of fabric and using them to turn a space into a place that says 'welcome.'

So I left Salt Lake yesterday morning and as I was driving along I remembered I promised Ellen that I would bring her some tomatoes and peaches.  Fortunately, I was not past Pettingill's Produce Farm, so I headed in there.  They didn't have peaches yet - too early - but did have tomatoes.  So I bought a box for Ellen and a box for myself.

I now have 8 quarts of peeled, quartered tomatoes ready to go into the freezer for winter soups, stews, and sauces.  Will be so good.  And I saved out about a dozen tomatoes that I will be able to slice and slurp!  Love fresh tomatoes.  Nothing says summer quite like a big juicy tomato right out of the garden.

Montana Mountain Magic

Walt decided we should do something fun today since it was his last day at home before he goes back to work in Ecuador.  We've traveled this summer, but when we've been home it's been work, work, work.  (There's always plenty of that around here in the summer!)  So he got on the lawnmower and I harvested a huge batch of rhubarb, then got my camera to snap some pics of the house.  So beautiful!

It looks pretty darn good with nice green grass and beautiful blue sky.  And today has been a glorious day.

I know.  I know.  Most people have peonies blooming in May or early June ----- not mid-August.  Guess that's just a mountain climate for you!  We enjoy them whenever they come.  (Remember, you can click on the images to view them full-size - in all their glory!)

So, we're off.  Headed up into our backyard mountain playground.  The air up here is pure and clear and clean.  And the fragrance of the mountain pine cannot be matched.  Awesome.

We're up behind our house with a good view of the ski hill where we spend our winter free time.

As we traveled along the road, we saw numerous signs of bear hunting for grubs and insects.  They are hungry this year.  It's been cold and rainy and everything is late.

This is the steepest part of our trail today - the photo really tends to flatten it out, but it is steep and even steeper in the winter when it's covered with snow and we're trying to make it on our snowmobiles!  FUN!!

Along the way somewhere way up there on the mountainside,we found an old falling-down cabin and this very well-preserved little building.  I didn't explore, but assume it is something other than an outhouse.

This is the falling-down cabin beside it.  Not in very good shape!

Walt on his four-wheeler (ATV to some folks).

This was pretty high up, but not nearly as high as we sometimes go.  Nice view of the ski hill.  Maverick Mountain to be exact.

This is a view of the area where we live - picture I took as we were returning home after a glorious two-hour ride in our backyard mountain playground.  How magnificent.  And how blessed we are to live here - in the Last Best Place.  God's Country.  Land of the Big Sky. 

Guess Who Came To Dinner?

A few of our neighbors!  And we had a great time visiting with them and catching up on all their news before Walt heads back to work in Ecuador this week.  It was delightful evening - we have some of the greatest neighbors ever.  (Everybody else was in another room and I forgot to get pictures of them!)

Robert and Mary Marchesseault and Linda and Larry Yoder.

Barry and Joan Emge and Danny and Doc Romer  (and yes, you all know you will end up on Facebook!)

Thanks, Katie!

For getting my background back.  Magic, I say.

My Blog Is A Real Wreck

I can't get the old blogger to work anymore.  So I have to use the new editor and it is EXTREMELY annoying!!!!!!!!  I even printed out the instructions because I knew I was going to be ANNOYED.  And even the (blank) instructions helped not one whit.  And what's even worse is that I've lost my background and I can't get it back.  And, yes, I do know how to do it and I've done it umpty ump times and it still won't apply.  I even went to Katie's backgrounds and tried one of hers and it wouldn't upload.  It says I have it when I go to layout, but guess what -------- it ain't there.  Do you see it?  Am I just blind?

I'm royally annoyed. 

So I wanted to do a nice job on uploading all of Walt's pictures from his Alaska fishing with his brothers and it's a mess.  I can't get the (blank) captions to work either.  And the pictures just go in every which way and it says I can move them and I can't.  They just go wherever they darn well please.  GRRRRRRRRRRR. 

I'm TOTALLY annoyed.

Nice pictures, though, Walt!  Way to go!

Brothers Fishing Trip Alaska 2010

Getting ready for the first day's fishing.Ty wasn't taking the "snickers" bait!

Looks like a lot of work to me getting those hooks ready to go.

Ty's first catch

Flathead Cherries

The best in the world.  Really!

I think I see a pie in my very near future.  Yes!

My poor little puppy dog

This picture makes my heart break. Long story. Poncho has had health issues for the last six months or so. Finally figured out that L5 - L6 are completely crunched together and that has been the cause of his issues. So he is now on prednisone for the rest of his little life and probably won't be as active as he has always been and jumping up on the sofa beside me anymore. Unfortunately (or fortunately) in her examination she also found a lump in his anal gland which after she biopsied it turned out to be cancer. So this morning she did surgery to remove the lump and I brought him home this afternoon. He's pretty pathetic! And in considerable pain. My poor little puppy dog.