Brian left

Last Friday Brian went to Glacier Park to take photos of the mountains at sunrise; or as close to sunrise as he could manage on a few hours sleep. I didn't go. Getting up at 5 am is a rare occurrence for me and seeing the mountains at sunrise doesn't count. Besides I have seen them at sunrise - just in the winter when the sun comes up at the reasonable hour of 8 am or later.

The electric company guys who are checking the power poles came back to let me know they would checking the ones along my southern property boundary. He kept his word that he would check in with me before they wandered through the hayfield and pasture.

Me? I didn't do much that day. Checked the gopher and pocket gopher traps and puttered around the place.

Brian returned after 5 pm so he had a long day at Glacier Park and the Hungry Horse Dam.

When we were outside in the evening we found two baby morning doves nestled together in the taller grass by my patio. I am not sure where their nest was, perhaps in one of the large box elder trees shading the patio. The two babies were nestled together just as if they were in a nest. The next day they were gone. Mom and dad must have encouraged them to fly away as I heard them around cooing.

Before Brian left I had to get some work out of him. Herding a stray steer a time or two doesn't count. I got Brian to help me get the chain link and wire fencing and the harrow that my neighbors gave me. It is far easier for two people to lift and carry these items than for one person.

Poor Brian, the mosquitos were out in force and whenever he had a hand free he was swatting at them. Unlike me his body reacts to their bites.


Saturday Brian left on his long drive back to Minnesota. Over 1300 miles. I got up at 5:30 am to see him off. Like I said earlier, I will get up early for special occasions.

Brian left 6:45 am and I went back to sleep for a few more hours. I did more puttering around that day as I was having trouble re-establishing my old routine. I may spend time pulling weeds, that doesn't mean I look forward to doing so. Also, it felt odd not to have someone else around the place.

At 6 pm we had a big storm. We had strong winds which meant any goat's beard weeds that were open to seed - the seeds were now dispersed. Even the tall grass wouldn't protect the seeds from this wind. Then we had a couple occurrences of small hail. Thankfully small enough and brief enough to not damage my garden. Just when I thought the storm would be all bluster the rain came in ernest.

We had a break in the rain for a few hours before it rained again before midnight. The second occurrence of rain came without the bluster of wind and hail.

All total we got about a half inch of rain. A good amount by Montana standards. We need the rain as it had been hot and dry the prior week. The soil where I am is sandy loam which means it doesn't have any clay to hold the moisture. A day or two of hot weather and it is very dry, no matter how much it rained earlier. July and August are our dry months and the later it rains the longer the grass will stay green and not turn brown.