Windy

Tuesday the wind blew like I hadn't felt in a long time. The weather forecaster said the peak gust was 45 mph in my part of the Valley. It gusted to over 60 mph in the NE part of the Valley. And when the wind didn't gust, it blew a steady 15-25 mph. If I enjoyed this wind (and I don't!) I'd move back to southern Minnesota or North Dakota. That is what the wind today reminded me of.

Apparently it worse east of the Divide. East of the mountains they had a blizzard today.

In the afternoon I decided to clean up some of the tree branches I had cut earlier this month. I picked up two heaping pickup loads of branches. No fun in the wind.

I also dug around two more tree stumps for burning at a later date. With the strong wind and cool temperatures (40s F) I only planned to quickly check the gopher traps. But I can't help myself when going by some of the tree stumps. Eventually the grass will grow obscuring the stumps and I'll move on to other things.

I also worked more on fixing my cattle feeder trough.

Burning

Last Tuesday I burnt my ditches and along some of my fence lines. The weather was good with sunny skies and temperatures in the 70s F. I hadn't burned the ditches for a few years now and the dead material begins to accumulate. Come August with the typical dry conditions I worry about someone tossing a cigarette butt out their car window as they drive along the road.

I called the air quality hotline and it was ok for burning on Tuesday and Wednesday. They were encouraging people to wait until Wednesday for burning as it was suppose to be a little breezy Tuesday afternoon. I am glad I didn't wait until Wednesday as that day was seriously windy - too windy for safe burning.

I burnt along my hayfield fences, half of the west side and all of the north side. The east side was taken care of when I burned the ditch. I didn't burn the south side as my neighbor had tall dry grass on his side both on his lawn and in his pasture. Even though the wind was mostly favorable for me, the wind also can be variable and I didn't want to chance the fire escaping into his property.

Of the ditches I first burnt the ditch north of the driveway. In the very corner of the property is a pine tree with long needles and lots of pine cones. It doesn't take much for these dry needles to burn and when they do, they burn very hot.

The wind was light but it tended to want to push the fire into the pasture so I severely controlled the size of the fire and first burned along the fence as a firebreak and then burned the ditch. In addition to the breeze vehicles passing by would whip the breeze up adding to the unpredictability of the wind direction and strength.

But I had no problems with the fire. After burning this ditch, and as I was walking to the south ditch, a sheriff's SUV drove by. He didn't stop. I later heard on the news that a number of volunteer fire departments around the valley were busy by the yahoos who let their fire get too big and get away.

The south ditch had no pine needles and it was easier to burn. Still I burned in a manner where the fire had to burn into the breeze. It takes longer to burn but is easier to control.

I also let the fire burn my front yard. Eliminated the need to get the lawn mower out. Between the cattle and burning I seem to seldom mow my yard.


Here is an example of where I burnt along the fence lines. The second photo is an example of where the old dry posts caught fire and smoldered. I had a pail of water and after burning I walked along the fence and put out the posts that smoldered. Yesterday I noticed where I had missed one of these posts as all that is left of the post is about a foot and a half where it is attached to the top two strands of my barb wire fence.

Snow and soft ground

I woke up to snow this morning. The grass was white and the roads were wet. The snow did melt within an hour or so though flurries briefly made an appearance later in the morning. Today was a cold dreary day. And the wind blew creating a chill. The rest I could have taken but the wind was no fun.

At least I didn't get as much snow as Peter and Edwina in their part of the Valley.


The forecast for tonight and tomorrow is for a lot of snow in the mountains and Glacier Park.

I ran an errand uptown, this time driving my pickup. Today was not a day to bicycle. I visited Bob and Jan and their cat and new puppy. The puppy is growing great guns and was excited to be outside and to get attention from me. So excited that she peed on the sidewalk all around my shoe as I pet and rubbed her. At least I didn't notice anything wet on my shoe.

I did go and check my gopher traps late this afternoon. Another two gophers and one pocket gopher caught. An empty trap was sprung in the new 'village' area and all the holes I had closed there were reopened. Maybe tomorrow I'll get that gopher.

I dug around two more tree stumps. Notice I did not say "out" as the stumps has some big roots going deep. I dug deep and if the stumps burn down to where I dug that will be deep enough. One stump was a 'shark fin' as that was all that stuck several inches above the ground. That was about 1% of the tree stump.

I realized that now is the time to dig. The ground is moist and soft but come Summer the ground dries and gets hard. So probably I should spend more time digging and worry about burning the stumps later.

Stump work

I don't like days like this. I get stuff done but I don't think I get enough stuff done.

My day started off lighting a fire in my wood stove. I hadn't done that for a number of days and the house was getting on the cool side. After making pancakes for breakfast I called and talked with my brother for an hour. I read a magazine and then sewed up my torn pants.

Then I finally went outside around 2 pm. For some people the day would be half over, but not for this nite owl / late riser.

I decided to work on a few tree stumps as open burning season ends May 1. I planned to dig around a tree stump near the corral so it would be easier to burn. As I dug around part of the stump I realized I could remove part of the tree trunk by using an axe to sever some side roots.

The more I removed and the more I dug the more I found I could sever roots. Yup, this was another one of those trees without a tap root. I had planned on removing part of the trunk and burning the rest but I ended up digging and cutting all of the stump.

The stump is now gone but I spent over two and a half hours on the project.

I went inside for a late lunch.

Then I gathered up some small rocks I had uncovered when I had cleared the manure from the corral and when I had dug up the tree stump. I filled 2/3 of a five gallon pail with the rocks.

I checked my gopher traps (caught another one). I also found a new "village" to the SE of the other villages. 'Bad' in that I have another village and new holes to watch. 'Good' in that I am putting pressure on the gophers. This new village is in an area I did not drag a harrow over and therefore has a little more grass for cover and may be why one or more gophers moved there.

I also seen a few other 'villages' where the holes are being reopened. And a few other holes were opened/reopened near existing traps. Some gophers are catching on about the traps.

The gophers are not going down without a fight.

All told I spent an hour and a half with the rocks and gopher checking. I had planned on fixing my cattle feeder trough today as the cattle last year had broken the bottom of it out. Instead all I got done was to remove the broken bottom, then it was time to watch one of my favorite TV shows, "The Amazing Race".

So I didn't get several tree stumps dug around or any stumps burnt today or the feeder trough rebuilt.

It is raining now and the forecast is for cool and off-and-on rain for the next few days. We need the rain but I have stuff I want to get done and am feeling a little stressed about it.

Here are before and after pictures of the stump. In the first photo I had already removed part of the stump when I took the photo. You can also see why the stump remained undetected until I ran over it with a harrow as it was at ground level to a touch below.

The pile in the second photo is the parts of the stump. In the photo it is hard to get a scale of the hole's depth or the height of the stump parts.

Late to the dance

After eating a late lunch on Saturday I walked the pasture to check my gopher traps. I caught another one and found another trap sprung with no gopher. And I heard one gopher chirping a warning.

My trap check usually lasts an hour but I got distracted. I somewhat filled in an old area where I had burnt out a tree stump a few years ago, looked at the river now that the flow is above 500 CFS, dug around another tree stump for burning later, and discovered the strong winds from a few days ago snapped off another pine tree. It wasn't a massive tree, but - dang! - another tree down. And I haven't finished cutting the limbs off the previous fallen tree yet.

When I got back to the house I was a little surprised to find it to be 7 pm. Oh no! The folk dancing started at 7 pm and I still needed to shave and shower.

I was 45 minutes late to the dancing. There were only 10 of us dancing. Roger and his wife, now newly married, were there. Don and his wife made some cookies - which served as my supper as I hadn't time to eat before arriving. A few new people since last time. One woman was from Georgia and she was driving around the United States. I didn't talk with her much so I don't know why or her destination. She is into folk dancing and decided to attend our get together this week.

I danced most of the dances. Or tried to as the steps are harder than the contra dance steps. There is a pattern to some of the dances but I'm still not getting it. The sudden reversals in some dances throw me off. Some dances get into a pattern then the last third of the dance introduced a new pattern, which also throws me off.

But I joined the line and watched the others footwork and tried to emulate their steps. Since there wasn't enough people to form a circle I tried to be near the end of the line so as not to screw up the people after me in line. But everyone is really nice and are encouraging me, even if I feel like I have two left feet.

We learned a Scottish dance (I believe called 'Skinning the lamb') that seemed to be a cross between a folk dance and a contra dance. We stood in lines of two and had a partner and then danced with another couple. But instead of everyone dancing at once, the active (top) couple moved down the line dancing with the other couples one at a time until reaching the end of the line.

It was slow going for me as none of the steps were steps I had learned from contra dancing. I had trouble with the part where we passed right/left/right/left with another couple. Sometimes I did the lefts correctly and other times not. I was confused as I didn't know what I was doing wrong - or right.

When the dance was over they helped me practice that move and finally we figured out what I was doing right and wrong. When I was the active couple I did the lefts correctly and it was when I was an inactive couple where I did them wrong as I was starting in a different position in the foursome and I had to turn a different way when moving left. I know - clear as mud - but one doesn't always move around the person you are passing but moves in a way that forms a circle with the other people in the foursome.

Learning folk dancing is harder than contra dancing but I plan to stick with it for a while and see if I eventually catch on.

During one of the breaks between dancing a few people spoke about the national folk music festival in Butte this July. They spoke about their experiences there last year and where they stayed or camped. This is looking more and more like what I may do this year as it interests me.

Bird, manure, and work

Today has been a day of little projects. The weather had improved and our temperature now has reached 50 F. Woo hoo! After the near 80 degree temperatures earlier this week a cold front came through and our temperatures plummeted. Thursday we had a temperatures all day in the low to mid 30s. And snow. It snowed a few times and it stayed on the grass. It was gone by mid morning Friday. From the upper 70s to the 30s. A big temperature change!!

Yesterday I rode my bicycle uptown to run errands. I also signed up and joined the local CHS (Cenex) farm coop. I had never thought of it before but I do qualify as I am a farmer/rancher.

While uptown I met a large SUV when I came to an intersection. My one foot didn't come out of my bicycle's toe clips fast enough as my shoe snagged on it. (I fixed the toe strap when I got home). Down I went and I ended up sliding on one knee. A nice pair of pants now has a tear in the knee. And I have a skinned knee. It is on the knee I use when I kneel on one knee. And every time I kneel to work with a gopher trap I forget and use that knee. Ouch!

Today I straightened (for the most part) six of the bent metal posts I salvaged from the broken hayfield fence. Either the posts are getting tougher or I am getting older as I found it difficult to bend some of the posts back to be straight.

I also moved a stack of lumber out of the corral. These were old fence boards from the corral that I replaced last year. It is getting closer to my getting cattle and I wanted to clean up the corral a bit before then. I have hopes of getting cattle next week. We'll see... I read today that ranchers in SE Montana have lost several thousand cattle (lots of calves) from the two blizzards they had in late March and early April. I am not sure what impact that will have on cattle availability or prices in western Montana. Dan was at the Missoula livestock auction last week and they were plenty of cattle and plenty of buyers, and the buyers were not just the regular cattle buyers. Prices are trending upward.

I also cleaned up the rest of the manure in the corral from a few Springs ago. There was a circle of manure around the cattle feeding through. I had removed half of it last year and today I hauled out eight heaping wheelbarrow loads and dumped them on my garden area.

I also put a rag under my roof eve. Several times some weeks ago I noticed a bird fly off from this area. Today I noticed a bird in the area and I got a ladder to look. The area under the eve was stuffed with grass and may be a nest. The rag will stop this from being used. I know... I'm a meanie - but I don't want bird droppings all over this area.

In the photo the area I am talking about is the little gap right of the light between the eve and the awning.

Second contra dance

Last Saturday night I attended my second contra dance. I had spent the day dragging a harrow around a few of the pastures, took a shower, grabbed a quick bite to eat, then rushed off to the dance.

I got there a little after 7 pm and found a little over a dozen people there. People were still assembling. I left the requested $3 donation in a basket on a table by the entrance. This was to help pay for the rental of the place.

The organizers were thrown off a bit: there were more men than women there to dance. That apparently never happens. Because usually more woman than men want to dance it is customary to have a box of loosely tied ties for some women to wear when they dance as the man in the dance. There wasn't anything in the box for men to wear to be the woman partner in the dance. But, ya know, us guys wouldn't go for that anyway and instead would sit out that dance.

The organizers decided to have the first dance be of trios: two men and one woman. We made up five trios and they had to have one woman dance as a man in order to make the fifth trio. That confused a number of us whenever our trio danced with a trio that had this woman in it. "Oh yeah... tie. You're a man!"

Also confusing was the presence of the fifth trio. The dance was two trios facing one another. I guess the fifth trio was waiting and ready to join when it was time for new trios to meet. At the time I don't remember them explaining that.

The woman in each trio danced the do-si-do with the man to her right in the other trio. Then they danced with the man to their left in the other trio. Then each woman selected a man and danced a swing step with them. The remaining man then had to walk around and when another couple stopped swinging, form a new trio with them and then repeat the steps all over facing a new trio.

This forming a new trio was confusing as people wandered around and not all trios were quick to form and often you had one trio ready to go and then they had to find another formed trio. I was happy when the women selected me to swing with as that meant I didn't have to find a new trio, only to find a man to join us two. Some women were not used to be the one selecting a partner and were slow at doing so which also provided confusion as then the men were unsure whether to immediately wander and start looking for a new trio or wait to be selected.

Most of us were learning so it was chaos at times, but it was fun.

By the time this dance was over more people had arrived and the ratio of men to women was closer, though there still was one or two extra men that had to wait some of the dances out. I was able to find a partner for all the dances except the three waltzes. Those I am not comfortable dancing so I took those opportunities to get a drink of water, eat some of the homemade bars a few people brought, or chat with people.

In addition to the contra dances we danced one of the folk dances I had learned the week before. That helped me pick it up quicker this second time although I had to not always take the clues from the woman across from me as she would get some steps wrong. This was the woman who had first asked me to dance a few weeks ago in Whitefish, and was more experienced with the contra dances. This was her first time dancing this particular dance.

The contra dances tend to follow similar patterns with a few variations in steps between the dances. I learned a few new moves: "boxing the square" and the "weave" among them. I don't think the caller described the "weave" very well as some of us were confused on how to weave. I was dancing with the Romanian woman at that point and she was just as new - and confused - as I. We muddled our way through it and were kind of getting it a little bit by the end. Another couple, who knew how to do the "weave", at the end of the dance took time to fully explain the move to me and we practiced. Now I get it.

There was another woman who was wearing a brightly colored long flowing dress that flared out when she spun around. And she liked to spin even putting a spin in when "do-si-doeing". She was fairly heavyset but very light on her feet. I first encountered her when she was a part of another couple and I would get momentarily distracted when she spun around. So I later asked her to be my partner in another dance. I figured I would get my fill of her spinning and become accustomed to it. It worked. And she was a good dancer.

I also liked swinging my partner and preferred dancing with the women who seemed like to swing. Some women seemed to like to spin and others were older and maybe more fragile or tentative dancers. So I had to learn and try to figure out and adjust the swinging of my partner. As one ends up rotating through the line when contra dancing one has to be nimble in adjusting when quickly meeting a new partner.

There was plenty of swinging in some dances and a few times I got a little light headed. But that may have helped my dancing as being slightly off balance at times distracted me from letting my head get in the way of my dancing.

A number of women - usually the single ones - praised my dancing, and when I told them was only the second time I contra danced, they claimed I was picking up the steps quickly. I think they were being overly generous with their praise.

Four or five of the people I had met folk dancing the previous week were there.

I met a Romanian woman who was a single mom of a three year old boy. Initially she danced with him. So when she became one of the couples in your little subgroup it made it a challenge when dancing with her as she was also holding on to one of his hands. Fortunately for most of the dances he wandered around the room by himself and usually didn't get in the way. When the last contra dance was about to start he was tired and he began to take off his clothes. He was quick at removing his clothes and was down to his diaper and about to pull it down and off by the time his mother got to him. She had to forgo the last contra dance as she had to dress him again. Everyone got a big laugh when he was doing this.

She wasn't dancing when I came back in the room for the final waltz so I chatted with her. I only had an opportunity to say a few words with her previously while dancing and I had a feeling she was from another country. She came from Romania to marry a man from Whitefish but that did not work out so she is a single mom now. "Me-HIGH-la" is her name - which is different and may be the reason I remembered it and few of the other names.

The dancing ended at 10 pm. The three hours passed quickly. At the end Missy passed out some brochures about the national folk festival that will be held again in Butte, Montana this July 10-12. The festival is free. Missy and a few others attended last year and said they had a great time.

Rodenator

I recently learned about the "Rodenator" system to get rid of gophers, etc. It puts a mixture of propane and oxygen into the tunnels then ignites it. There is a video on their web site. The six minute video is set to rock music and shows lots of explosions of tunnels. All very exciting but it also gets the animal rights people in a lather. I believe they are complaining about this method even though it is a quick and humane way to kill gophers.

My problem with the Rodenator system is that it costs almost $2000. For that price I will stick to my traps.

Harrowing done

I finished my harrow work last Saturday. I wreaked havoc on the gopher infested areas of the central and north pastures. With the grass and weeds knocked down all their holes are in the open and easier for me to find. The holes with the dirt spread outside were always easy to find, but the gophers have more holes where they do not place dirt outside and keep quite simple and hidden from predators.

Then I went to work on the gophers. My count for the year is now 19 regular and 9 pocket gophers. Last year - with my late start - I only trapped 34 regular gophers. A hawk feasted on a leg hold trap gopher as I only found the leg in the trap and the trap out in the open. I have been trying to anchor the traps far enough out that I don't have to pull the gophers out of their hole after they are caught.

As I have traps across all of the "villages", and it is early in the season, I have confidence I may finally get rid of all the regular gophers this year, which will be quite the accomplishment.

My hayfield before and after the harrow work.

The north pasture in the middle of harrow work.


My neighbors had company over and were in their backyard so I decided not to harrow the section of the pasture near their yard.

When I finished my harrow work I found one of my three harrow sections had broken in two under the stress of the harrow work as the pastures are very bumpy. A project to work on another day. With my work done all I had time for was a shave and shower to wash the layer of dust/dirt covering me, and then a quick bite to eat before I were to the contra dance that night.

ND flooding photos

My friend Rod from Minot sent me a few photos that he took this past Saturday of the flooding east of Minot. Apparently Minot is fine, it is the areas around Minot that are getting high water (along with much of North Dakota!)

As you can see from the train track photos Amtrak is not running between Minot and Minneapolis. Bill's niece who was visiting from Wisconsin had to get an airline flight back home to Wisconsin last week.

Reconnected

My access number to connect to the world via earthlink was not working this weekend. I think I am the only person in Kalispell to use earthlink dialup (yes... dialup! ) as whenever they have a problem it is not fixed until I call them to complain.

Now, earthlink told me they would call me when the problem was fixed but no call. I gave it a try just now as it has been over 24 hours since I called them and - ta da! - I can connect.

It is good to be back.

Harrow in the hayfield

I spent Friday going in circles at 5 mph. And sometimes eating dust. Yup, I drug my harrow around the hayfield. Around and around over bumpy ground.

I had completed a little over half the hayfield when the harrow (actually several harrows joined together) began to come apart. Badly. I ended up taking everything totally apart and then reattached everything again. This took over an hour. But I did a better job with the chains this second time as everything stayed together for the rest of the day - and that includes dragging the harrow in two of the pastures which are very bumpy.

As the afternoon went on it got warmer, drier, and windier. Therefore I created more dust. And as I was going in circles I had to keep opening (for air on a warm day) and closing (to keep out the dust) the window.

I also didn't like the strong wind late afternoon blowing some of my dirt away.

While I would have liked to have done two passes over the field to make the ground even smoother, I didn't. Because,

• I had flattened the gopher mounds,
• I would have really torn up the grass and created more dirt to blow away, and
  
• It is over 35 miles to drive around the hayfield. (at 5 mph you do the math for the time)
  

So I decided to go over parts of the pastures. I had drug the harrow over the pastures once a number of years ago and it was time to smooth part of them again. The pocket gophers have started to move into the pastures creating dirt mounds, and I had dead weeds to knock over.

I did part of the south pasture and some of the middle pasture until dark. I went over half of the south pasture - which still took some hours. The priorities were:

1. gopher mounds
2. dead weeds
3. break up cow pies

Tomorrow I will finish part of the middle pasture and then do parts of the north and northeast pastures. The north and northeast pastures are relatively smooth like the hayfield so that won't be too bad. I just have to survive the middle pasture which is the roughest of them all.

At the end of the day both the pickup (inside and out) and I are covered in dust.

Photo 1: the start
Photo 2: starting to take it apart to fix

Photo 1: just the harrows
Photo 2: second time is the charm

Keeping busy

I don't think I've been working that hard... but I am more tired than usual. Wednesday night when I was watching the DVD's special features after watching the movie "Cloverfield", I fell asleep. And it was only a little after 11 pm - much earlier than my usual bedtime! Then after going to bed I slept till 9 am. Over 9 hours of sleep.

I trapped another mouse inside the house. That makes three since winter started with two of the times coming this Spring. You'd think in the Spring time they would want to stay outside.

Thursday I attended the monthly Prime Timer meeting at the Faith Alliance Church. This is the same group I spoke to about bicycling last month. This month Peter had Dave Rasmussen speak about his three climbs on Mt. Everest, the last being in 2007 with a British medical team studying the effect that low oxygen has on the blood and human body. Dave's occupation is as a cinematographer so the photos and movie he showed were excellent.

I have read and seen photos before of Mt. Everest but I must say Dave's photos and talk really connected the dots for me and made the elevation and mountain seem more real.

Wednesday I removed the fence that was broken by the semi truck this past winter. The impact had broke wooden posts and bent the steel posts but not one barb wire strand was broken. This was strange as the barb wire is rusty and looks old.

Thursday afternoon I got my old and beat up harrow and loaded some railroad ties and logs on it for weight. I drug it around my hayfield for a few hours to start to flatten the pocket gopher mounds. I didn't drag the harrow across the field last year so I have two years of mounds to flatten.

The grass is greening up so this is later than I want to be dragging the harrow but the window this year between the end of snow and the green grass was shorter than usual. Better now than next week as the forecast calls for temperatures in the mid 70s F the start of next week.

I also talked to Dan for a little bit Thursday. It turns out he had a heart attack last September and has now recovered. His shoulder still bothers him from his prior accident a couple of years ago. Even with the surgury and all the therapy it appears he will never get 100% use of his shoulder back. But he still has cattle.

Two trapped regular gophers

Over the weekend I had set out my 17 regular gopher traps as I had heard a few gophers whistling warnings when I was out in the pasture. I also found a number of holes I had covered up last year were recently re-opened.

Today I checked the traps and found I had caught two gophers, and one other trap was sprung but no gopher. And a few holes I had just closed with dirt were re-opened yet again.

Of the two gophers I had trapped, one was dead and the other alive (until I got to it). An unpleasant task but a necessary one. Not all gophers will go into a conibear trap so I use a few leg hold traps which tend not to kill them. They may have one leg caught but they have a lot of fight in them and I have to be careful. It is essential to stake the leg hold traps else the gophers will run away with them. As it is I often have to pull the gophers out of their hole as I leave a little slack on the traps when I stake them.

I haven't put the rest of my pocket gopher traps in the hayfield as I plan to drag the harrow over it soon. Of the two traps out there, no activity. I tend to find trapping pocket gophers slower this time of year as they have recently given birth and are not as active.

Easter meal

Joyce's daughter and boyfriend invited me to join them and part of Joyce's family for Easter dinner at their place. Generations ranged from great grandkids to great grandmas (depending on how you look at it). The kids were well behaved. I noticed all the teenagers had a cell phone. I guess that is standard now.

Lots of food to eat as a number of the wives, daughters, etc. brought food. Of course everything was homemade and delicious. Soup in a bread bowl, turkey rolls, ham, salad, and three or four different deserts. Even I was full by the end.

They like to play games and I learned how to play Upwords and Boggle. I had beginners luck with the first Upwords game but finished last by a few points in the second game. In Boggle I did horribly and only managed 7 points over three games - nowhere close to anyone else. I just couldn't find many words, much less unique words. Though for some reason I was the only person to find the word "lewd" in one game.

I spent all afternoon there eating, talking and playing games. When I left I was sent home with food. It was a fun time.

It was good to take a relaxing day off as I am nursing what I believe are bruised ribs on my right side from a fall while snowshoeing last week on a mountain. More about that fall once I get time to write up that adventure.

Folk dancing

Tonight, Saturday, I went folk dancing. I thought I was going contra dancing but I discovered after I arrived that they meet next Saturday. So much for the contra web site being accurate. Apparently the contra group has been infrequent this winter due to insurance concerns and other organizational issues.

The Saturdays that the contra dance group doesn't use the Salvation Army Church the folk dance group does.

The group is small, apparently around a dozen regular members. There were an equal number of men and women. Tonight there were ten people there. The group was all excited as last weekend most of them attended a folk dance class in Calgary, Alberta. So tonight they were going over many of the dances they had learned. That was good in that they went slow as they were learning/re-learning. And bad in that it was a bit stop-and-go as they were trying to figure out the steps.

For music one person brought his laptop computer with many folk dance tunes as mp3 files. Add in very good speakers and the music was great. A few times they replayed the song in order to do the dance over.

When I arrived they were in the middle of a dance and Marvin came over and talked with me and explained things. Marvin is a pretty neat old guy. He looks much younger than his age. He is 85 this year and looks and moves like he is 70. On top of it he recently had a stroke that weakened his right side but seems to have quickly recovered and is back dancing.

Also at the dance was the husband of the first woman I had danced with at the contra dance in Whitefish as few weeks ago. His wife wasn't there.

Everyone was very friendly and helpful and encouraging. After a bit I tried to join. Initially I would dance behind everyone so I could watch and mimic what they were doing. Usually I joined the half circle and tried to dance along while watching others around me. It was a bit tricky as I would be a half step behind everyone.

I still suffer from being left-handed. That is my explanation why I often want to lead with the wrong foot. Also, I am so used to being on my own and doing my own thing it is a challenge to tailor my movements to others.

The first dance I joined was tricky. There were two rows of people, and even after they taught me the steps, I found myself mimicking the person across from me when I needed to mimic the people beside me. I ended up doing part of the dance moving left when I should be moving right and right when I should be moving left. Of course it took me until near the end of the dance before I started getting the hang of it - and then the dance was over.

I learned (or am learning) a move used in a number of the dances: the grapevine. It is not a difficult move but for a person ''dance challenged'" I am still working on it.

Most of the dances this night were from Eastern Europe as the Calgary dance class was by a person who had recently been to Bulgaria. We danced a number of dances from Bulgaria, Albania, and Turkey. The dances seemed to be variations of one another and I think once I get the hang of it I will learn various dances quicker. Although the Israeli dances seem to have a sudden a reverse pattern that throws me.

We took a break halfway through to have cake and ice cream. It was Roger's 57th birthday. Also, he and another woman dancing (forgot her name) are getting married this coming Thursday. As we ate the cake and ice cream the group shared their various border crossing stories from when they went to Calgary.

They were all very encouraging and said I was doing good for my first time - even though I don't think I was doing that good.

The dancing went from 7:30 pm to 10 pm. I think I may attend a few other folk dance sessions and see if I can get the hang of this type of dancing.

100 inches

I wasn't kidding when I wrote about all the snow we have had this year.

As measured at Glacier Park International Airport, total snowfall has reached 100 inches this winter (including 65 inches since Jan. 1). The average annual snowfall in the valley is 53.5 inches.

The full story is located here: Flathead snow hits 100 inches

As I mentioned earlier, at Peter and Edwina's house up the North Fork, they have had over 170 inches of snow. So I shouldn't complain about shoveling 100 inches.

Creston auction

Last Saturday I went to the Creston auction. After an eternity of cold wet weather Saturday was decent. Sunny, light breeze and a temperature in the 40s. It felt like Springtime -- finally!

There wasn't near the amount of stuff this year. Friday, the day when stuff is brought to the sale grounds, was snowy, rainy, wet and cold. Most everyone believes that is why there was lots less stuff this year. Usually they have five auctioneers going simultaneously but this year there were only three active at once.

Usually I can find something that interests me, or something I could use if the price is right (cheap). Not this day. Not really. Well, maybe a couple items piqued my interest, but now that the auction charges people five dollars to just get a bidding number, I never bothered getting a number as nothing was 'must have'.

I checked out the vehicle and farm machinery to be auctioned on Sunday. Three small old beat up Ford tractors, a few plows, and most of the rest were cars and trucks. Nothing worth my interest so I never went back on Sunday, not even for the boat or bus.


I watched a few of the auctioneers. A few of my old favorites were there and a few ones too. I noticed the Amish auctioneer (see below) has toned down his Amish look. He also seems to have improved his auctioneer ability since I last saw him a few years ago.


Plenty of people were wandering around looking for deals. It seemed as most of the men had some sort of facial hair - and they weren't Amish. What's up with that?

I also saw a few maybe 20-something young Amish in the crowd. The women stood out more than the men. The young fresh faced sturdy women wore long prairie/peasant blue dresses and wore scarfs to cover their hair. On their feet were mud boots. The boots looked new and modern and didn't go with their outfit. But they were practical as the parking lot in the field was muddy/sloppy and I chose my route carefully when crossing it. Fortunately the auction grounds were fine.

The sheriff department had a man and women on horseback as part of security. I am not sure why there were so many officers for security as I have never seen anyone get out of hand at the auction. The auction claimed the reason for the five dollar bidding number cost was to pay for security. The auction is to raise money for the Creston Volunteer Fire Department but I guess not everyone cuts them a discount to help them out.


Here are some of the items being auctioned off:

If you were hungry, one of the food choices were fresh grilled hamburgers.


Here is the view of the Swan Range from the auction site:


All in all I spent maybe two hours there. A far cry from a half day to longer for their previous auctions.

Starter garden

The high temperature today at the ranch was 62 sunny degrees. Woo Hoo! It was nice today! No coat needed. The snow around the ranch is disappearing fast.

With the sun and warmth I have been putting my garden's starter plants outside during the afternoon. Actually during the day it is warmer outside than inside the house. When I am not in the house I don't have the wood stove going for heat and the house temperature is in the upper 50s to around 60. Better to be outside on days like these.

A few plants from the batch I planted a week or two ago have started to come up. A few cucumber, watermelon and cantaloupe plants. I also planted some pumpkin, sunflower and broccoli plants a few days ago after I bought seeds for them.

Here are some of my plants enjoying the sun and nice weather.

Gopher mountain view

I trapped my first pocket gopher for the year. Woo Hoo!

I had left three traps in the hayfield over winter, and now that most of the snow in the hayfield has melted, on Saturday I walked by one and checked it. The trapped was full of dirt so I cleaned it out and reset the trap. Monday morning I checked the trap and found my first dead gopher. I then checked the other two traps that afternoon and found dirt in both of them. I cleared the dirt from them and reset those traps.

The ground is getting soft but is still wet. I suppose I should get all my traps out and pick up where I left off last year in my never ending goal of getting rid of the gophers.

The weekend (and today) had great weather. Clear skies and temperatures near normal to a bit above. Yes! Our temperatures were in the 50s, and Monday it even got to 63 officially (though my thermometer said the day's max temperature was 59). Woo Hoo indeed!

Here is my view from the ranch:

Jan's new puppy

Friday afternoon I went over to Bob and Jan's house for my haircut. I've gone from a "hippy" look to shorter hair and looking 10 years younger according to Bob and Jan. It is nice to have shorter hair. As I've gotten older (and having thinner hair ) I've preferred having my hair shorter than in the old days.

Also while at Bob and Jan's I helped turn over the mattress and box spring on Bob's bed. As they are getting older they can't quite do it anymore. I helped Jan make the bed again and their cat Jade likes to play hike and seek under the sheets when Jan makes the bed. So we had to stop to play a short game of hide and seek.


Their puppy - now named Jasmine - is still getting used to her new home. She went from a small dirty box out on a porch she shared with her mother and 9 other siblings to a warm new clean home, but alone. Jasmine was still anxious. Apparently Bob and Jan got very little sleep the first night Jasmine was home as she would howl for her mom.

I tried holding Jasmine but she kept wanting to crawl up on my shoulders to look around.

Jasmine is only six weeks old and was not weaned or potty trained. Jan has to show her how to drink water and milk. She put dog food in milk to soften the food as Jasmine has only a few small teeth in the front of her mouth. A little young to be giving dogs away if you ask me. Or I should say "selling" dogs. Jasmine cost $200. 10 puppies at $200 each and the owners made a nice income.

Ladies and gentlemen... I present: Jasmine