Lions, auctions, pumpkins, video games... Oh my!

I know I haven't posted much lately on my blog but it has been because not much is going on.  It is that time of year where one waits for Spring. And I haven't felt like posting an entry with little to say.  So I have been saving up.

While I haven't been doing as much as I'd like to, I have done a few things.  I have cross country skied a few times and also gone hiking several times in the snow.  I am working on going through those photos and writing up blog entries about them.

I finally cooked the three small pumpkins I grew in my garden last year.  They were green when I picked them before the heavy frost.  They all turned orange and I finally cooked them now that I needed pumpkin paste for making bread and muffins.  They were just starting to get soft, but otherwise fine for cooking.  The pumpkins had excellent seeds, and after roasting them, I am munching on them now.

The icy driveway has now melted.  When I was back in MN and ND the snow wasn't shoveled and got packed down then literally turned to one large sheet of ice as it was in the shadow of the house much of the day combined with the runoff melting from the roof.  The temperature has stayed in the range of lower 30s to near 40 the past week and that finally took care of the ice.  I still have snow all around.

Today I went to an auction.  There was nothing advertised of interest to me as it was antiques, collectibles, flooring, carpets and firearms.  But it wasn't far away and I hadn't been to an auction in a while.  I arrived hours after it's 9 am start time.  Nothing of interest, though one item was a Defenders video arcade game and another was a Foosball table. 

Wyatt was at the auction with his girlfriend.  This was the first time I met her and she seems very nice.  Of course this then made me miss my girlfriend and had me wish that she was at the auction with me.

Wyatt also told me he has seen signs of a mountain lion on his property to my south.  He has seen tracks and deer caucuses from kills on his land.  He thinks it is a young to medium sized lion.

Good thing my other neighbor didn't replace her small horses after the previous (now deceased) mountain lion killed them.  And I suppose I'll have to be careful when out in the pasture until the lion moves on.