Big Mountain photos

Here are a couple photos I took Thursday morning from my pasture. The forecast was for snow and clouds. We got neither. The recent weather has put snow on the mountains. The view is of the Big Mountain (Now called the Whitefish Resort) ski area. My telephoto is nice.

Cactus Flower

My indoor cactus plant is flowering like mad.

More on threes

Another day and improvement...

1. My mother. The docs did a number of tests and found she has one artery 98% blocked and another one 90% blocked. Due to her weak condition surgery is not an option and the docs plan to try something else to unclog the arteries. Being in Montana I am getting the diagnosis second-hand so it is not completely clear to me. Mom does sound better and is eating more now. I am trying to get stuff wrapped up here and prepared for my being gone a while over winter.
   
   
2. My car. I can kind of shift it now. With the car turned off I can shift it into all gears with no problem. I found the oil level for the clutch was below the minimum. I added oil and now can kinda get the car into gear and shift into all the gears. I test drove down the road and used all the gears. Shifting is still tricky and not "right". But this will last me until I return next Spring. (I plan to take the train to North Dakota and not drive.)
   
   
3. Snow. The predicted snow and wind missed us as it split and went around. We only got a very light dusting of snow and not the 2 to 5 inches predicted. Another snow event comes through Montana Thursday but it predicted to pass south of us. I know we need the moisture desperately, and the ski resorts want snow to open, but I prefer the snow to wait until I have left.
   

With no snow I am still using two traps to go after pocket gophers. I have gotten a gopher each of the past two days. The top of the ground may be frozen, but they and I can still dig. I have one gopher that still buries the trap.

I have dug all of my beets, and the carrots I want, from my garden. The beets weren't too bad to dig out of the garden as they are short and fat. The carrots on the other hand took a long time to dig as I had dig down below the frozen ground taking care not to break the carrot in doing so.

I filled two 5 gallon pails and one two gallon pail with carrots. I left five to seven gallons of carrots in the ground. I covered them with tarps and placed lots of rocks and heavy objects on the tarps so they won't blow away over winter when the wind blows. Keeping carrots in the frozen ground is a good way to store them to eat later. As long as I dig them up early Spring and do not let water get on them as they thaw. I lost most of my ground stored carrots this past Spring because I didn't get to them in time.

Comes in threes

Life is a series of ups and downs and it looks like a down stretch started today...

1. My mother entered the hospital today. Apparently she fell last week, then lost her appetite for a few days, then got very, very weak. She had her regular scheduled visit from a home health nurse this morning and the nurse recommended mom to go to the hospital for tests to figure what is going on and get her strength back. Apparently a full day of tests today with no answers. More tests tomorrow.
   
   
2. My car's clutch started acting up today. I have trouble getting the car into gear as the gears keep spinning and don't stop when the clutch is pressed. Cold weather apparently can bring out problems in clutches. Finally got the car into gear and fortunately only had a short drive from the neighbor's house as shifting to another gear would not work. Supposedly the car's transmission may need to be taken apart to fix the problem and can be expensive.
   
   
3. A winter snow storm is coming tonight and tomorrow. Snow predicted even in the valleys: 2 to 5 inches after midnight tonight with 1 to 3 inches tomorrow. Lots more snow in the mountains. Probably enough snow that it will last all winter as global warming is over and the temperatures are below average. It started snowing lightly a short time ago. Today I dug the few remaining onions from my garden but was not able to get to my beets and carrots. I covered them with tarps to keep the snow off so I can dig them later.
   

I checked my pocket gopher traps with plans to bring the traps in for the year before the snow arrives. A couple days ago I had trapped four pocket gophers. I debated on placing the traps again. The top layer of the ground is frozen now which makes digging a new hole difficult. I preserved and placed the traps and was fortunately to find the tunnels without too much digging. It paid off as I got two more pocket gophers this morning.

Two more traps were covered with dirt so I decided to leave them after removing the dirt and then recheck them later in the afternoon. I brought the other four traps in. I was busy and didn't recheck the traps. I'll have to dig them out of snow later. With the cold temperatures the pocket gophers freeze solid after death and were difficult to remove from the traps today. I got soooo close to the fence at the end of the hayfield to clear the hayfield of pocket gophers.

With mom's health woes I may have to go to North Dakota earlier than planned. The problem is I will be leaving for a few months over winter rather than a few weeks else wise. More needs to be done to prepare the house for an extended absence over winter. Hopefully I will know more tomorrow.

Joyce's birthday

Joyce's birthday is not until Monday but we celebrated it with a dinner Saturday night. Joyce's daughter, Kristan, and Kristan's husband planned and held the dinner at their house.

The dinner was to start at 6 pm and I was 20 minutes late and the last person to arrive. I arrived as they were about to call me to ask where I was. (I had to stop at Ace Hardware as the cashier on Friday had given me the wrong rebate form.) I missed out on the tour of the house (built last year) but Kristan gave me a tour at the end when the party broke and the guests were leaving. A nice house; a large house; a unique house. The house had a high ceiling in the main section and it appeared they had cut a Christmas tree from their property as the tree was 10 to 12 ft tall with room above to the ceiling.

Everyone and their spouses (if they had one) but Gary from the hiking group were there. Peter and Edwina were also there so that made a dozen of us at the two tables put together.

The food was excellent and so was the company. Sue Ann is a pastel artist - having made her living at it recent years before being eligible for social security - and she gave Joyce a choice of one of a half dozen of her smaller (16 x 20 or so) paintings. Joyce chose a nice one of a mountain lion.

After the meal some of us played the Skip-Bo card game and others retired to the living room for conversation. A nice relaxing evening with friends.

As I drove home down the mountain Flathead Valley and Kalispell lay lit up below. A pretty sight.

Black Friday

There is one way to ensure you get up early in the morning... drink lots of water before going to bed. I woke up shortly before 6 am. That was after the 5 am opening of most stores, but plenty early for me.

Out into the cold early morning darkness I drove. Initially I thought I was the only one on the road in my area but then two cars driven by women came from the other direction. They must have gotten what they wanted already.

The cars were all parked at the stores. Lots of people at Best Buy so I wandered over to Target. Lots of people there also. I thought about getting the "300" movie DVD and some batteries, but then I thought "I've seen the movie twice, and I think I do have some batteries still.. do I want to stand in line at the checkout?" The answer was no.

When I walked back to Best Buy the last of several tents has been taken down and packed away. Those kids spent a cold night sleeping on the sidewalk.

At Best Buy I asked about the Kodak Z712IS camera as I didn't see any out on display. The Z812IS camera was out but that wasn't on sale. I was curious if the store sold out and asked an employee and he said none were left. Later I talked with the head employee for the camera department and found they did have a number of the Kodak Z712IS left as they were stored elsewhere.

Researching cameras on the internet late the night before I discovered I didn't want the Kodak camera after all. Several reviews mentioned it had a poor battery life. The number of photos it took on a battery was about 100 less than comparable cameras. And while the camera can use AA batteries or other lithium batteries, an employee at another store that sold Kodak cameras told me the performance using those types of batteries was worse than using the Kodak battery. The camera apparently doesn't come with the battery, or a charger for the battery and that was about $30 extra. The employee at the other store told me he encouraged customers to go with a Canon or other cameras than the Kodak his store sold. He was tired of hearing complaints from people who bought that model of Kodak.

At Best Buy I found a "King Kong" DVD. Then I saw the checkout line. The store had some young kid standing and holding several purple balloons where the the end of the line for the checkout was located. The line wrapped halfway around the store. "I ain't standing in that line!" and I left.

Home Depot was nearby and I decided to wander over there. I hadn't seen their ad so I had no clue as to what they had on sale. There weren't many people there. I found they had some good items.

I bought:

• a cordless drill
• a set of 120 drill bits and accessories
  
• a set of tape measures
  
• a set of mini flashlights (to put in my vehicles)

I have a mis-mash of drill bits and I don't think they are all that good. Also when my uncles were here and we installed the cattle head gate, I had to string a number of electric cords to be able to use a drill. A cordless drill would have been nice. This drill is not a heavy duty drill, but should work fine.

I stopped at Borders and briefly looked at their DVDs. I didn't browse their book selection as I haven't read a book in years. I am tired of buying books only to have stacks of them to read. Between being outside most of my time and struggling to keep up with a stack of newspapers and magazines, I have no time for books. Unfortunately.

Then I drove to Ace Hardware. Yup - more tools.

I bought:

• a small cordless screwdriver (free after rebate)
• a combination US and metric wrench set
• 50 ft tape measure
• a set of screwdrivers
• utility knife
• a set of 110 drill bits and accessories

Yes, I know I just bought a drill bit set, but this set was much cheaper. I later took the other set back to Home Depot for a refund.

At Ace Hardware they had free donuts and coffee for the customers. I scarfed down three donuts as I hadn't eaten breakfast yet that morning. I hadn't seen donuts like these since my IBM days. No wonder I weighed more back then.

My next stop was Sears. At Sears and Home Depot my goal was to check out their small chest freezers. Sears is a small store but they had plenty of customers and I didn't wait to get an employee for help. At both places I found they didn't have as large a selection as at Rex's, and the prices of the freezers were higher.

Then it was off to Shopko at the east side of town. Ace Hardware and Sears are on the west side. Everyone wonders how Shopko stays open as most days there are hardly any shoppers. The exception is Christmas time. Plenty of people. I got some Christmas cards and - changing my mind - some batteries.

I visited Staples and OfficeMax and got a 2 GD card for my anticipated new camera. As it would be a 7.2 MP camera the photo sizes would be larger than my current camera. I also checked Best Buy, Staples, and OfficeMax to see if they sold the Pansonic camera I wanted. Only Best Buy sold Panasonic cameras and they didn't carry the model I wanted.

Then I stopped at Vann's. They are a regional (Montana) electronics and appliance company. One web site that price compared cameras actually had them in the company mix. Unfortunately their web site sucked as I couldn't get in to see their ads, and being a regional company, their ads were not posted on the Black Friday web sites I visited.

Jackpot! Not only did they carry Panasonic cameras, they had the camera I wanted, and it was on sale Friday only at $199. That was much cheaper than anywhere I had found the camera on the internet the night before.

I bought it. The camera is the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8 Digital Camera. It is 7.2 Megapixels and has a 12x zoom. The Panasonic FZ18 camera is a 18x zoom with a 8 megapixels and a few more features, but it costs much more and was not in stock. Here are the stats on the camera. For an ultra zoom camera it is very light. Of course being an ultra zoom camera it is a little bulkier than most digital camera and won't fit in my shirt or pants pockets, but I think I can live with it.

Vann's also sells chest freezers but they did not have any models in stock in the size I wanted.

Then it was back to Home Depot to return the drill bit set. I stopped at Best Buy and there was no longer a line at the cashiers, so I bought the King Kong DVD. Between Best Buy and Home Depot is Bed, Bath, and Beyond. I had never been in the store but decided to check it out.

My first impression was the scent as the candle scents were very strong. Actually the store was kind of neat. They had some decorative wall art and I was taken with a wooden poster of a simple painting of a bear and Glacier Park. The image was done up in the style of the old, old style of postcards and ads. It was appealing, but the price was $99. Umm.. not that appealing.

I found a solid, heavy metal bull's head with horns. It was the head and neck and had a bell hanging below it. The size was twice my fist size, so a decent size. $14.99 which was reasonable. Bed, Bath, and Beyond sends out ads which I always toss. I asked to see their ads and was told the store didn't carry any. Odd, as most stores have extra copies of their ad. The clerk looked around and found me one. A good thing as the ad had a $5 off coupon on purchases $15 and more. I was one cent less so I shopped around.

I may have been one of only a handful or men in the store. What a change from the hardware stores I visited earlier! The estrogen must have been overpowering to me as I began to find a number of "cute" things to buy. Wait! Wait! I've spent a ton of money already this morning and I need to be reasonable.

I found a few decorative tiles. I guess one can hang them on the walls, and they may be useful other ways. I found one with the Chinese word for Happiness and another one of a chef riding a bicycle with wine and bread in the bicycle's baskets. Both were "darling".

It was an effort but I put them back. I couldn't quite picture where to hang them. My place - as pointed out to me by many people (women) various times - has the feel of a "bachelor pad", lacks a feminine touch, lacks style and class. These tiles would be out of place at my place as they were kind of classy. So I put them back. Why ruin my place's "ambiance"?

I did find a fancy nutcracker to put me over the $15 purchase threshold. Now that is something practical. And I can put the fancy nutcracker in a drawer so as not to ruin my place's ambiance.

The last place on my agenda was Rex's. There I bought an Avanti chest freezer. Both my mother and brother, and my neighbors Bob and Jan, have been telling me for a few years now that I need a freezer. Bob pointed the way to Rex's and their sale. And I could use a freezer as my refrigerator's freezer is completely full. I have pumpkins yet to cook into pumpkin paste which I then freeze until use; and I need a place to store my share of the deer meat. I downside is with the extra freezer space it will be very hard to resist the temptation to buy lots of ice cream. I have a serious ice cream addiction.

The freezer is 7.1 cubic feet which is a good size. Larger than the 2.2 and 5.0 cubic ft freezers, but smaller than the large ones sold. Rex's had it on sale for 20% off so I got it for $176. Again a price cheaper than anywhere found on the the internet.

Empty, the freezer is 97 lbs so I was able to easily move it about and get it downstairs into my basement.

On my way home from Rex's I decided to stop at the Army/Navy store. This past year they moved from downtown to my part of town. I've been meaning to stop and check their store out. It is good that I did. They had a 20% off everything in the store. Maybe it is me and not just being exposed to estrogen but I still had the urge to buy. This store was fairly equal in the male/female customer/employee ration. No, I don't need any more t-shirts no matter how neat the sayings and images are about Glacier Park.

I did buy a new book on hikes around Montana. The book I own is from the early 1990s. I also bought a book describing the climbs in Glacier Park. I have gone on a few off trail climbs this year and it is probably a good idea to get a book describing the routes to take.

And I bought a couple pair of blue jeans/work jeans. The first pants I have bought in years. No surprise if you see my pants. I like the look of patched jeans, but a number of my pants are really patched! Sue Ann has been giving me grief about my patched pants. You know women... they like things to look nice.

The store had pants in my size. One style had double material over the knee area. A little unusual, but very practical in work pants as the knees in my pants are the first to go. I bought a pair to see how they work. The pants have a loop to hang a hammer and other practical pockets. They even have a pocket for rulers or your "cell". Makes sense as I doubt any contractor goes without a cell phone these days.

I asked if they had "aqua socks". They didn't have any as they carry them during the summer season. I plan to buy a pair in case I ever have to cross an unexpected river on a future hike.

I got home at 1 pm. I had been out shopping for seven hours!! I couldn't believe that much time passed. I also spent a boatload of money. Well over $500. My shopping is done for the year. At least the money that burned through my credit card went for practical and useful things.

I cleaned the ashes out of my wood stove and lit a new fire to warm the house up. Then I had lunch. Finally food. After I finished lunch it was starting warm up and I fell asleep on the floor in front of my wood stove. It reminded my of my former cat Misty who would curl up in front of my wood stove when I had it going. I slept hard. The fire needed more logs when I woke up.

I didn't do anything else Friday. It was getting to be late afternoon when I got the sleep out of my eyes. The temperature outside was in the 20s - but it felt colder. Must be because of the inversion that hung around all day.

Thankgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all had a nice day, ate plenty of turkey, and are getting well rested for the Black Friday madness.

I had thanksgiving dinner with Bill and Marilyn, Sue Ann, and Jerry and Tiane. Jerry and Tiane are friends of Bill and Marilyn.

I made and brought a green bean onion bake. Sue Ann brought rolls, cinnamon rolls, and walnut cheesecake pie. Jerry and Tiane brought another pie, stuffing, and cranberries with spices (yum!) Bill and Marilyn provided the turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, and more stuffing.

All I did is follow the recipe but everyone complemented me on the green bean onion bake I had brought. The threshold is so low for us male non-cooks.

The food was all good and I am still full - hours later.

After the meal we watched part of a video of Bill and Marilyn's favorite opera, then a funny homemade video of Bill and Marilyn's brother canoeing on Lake McDonald some years ago. It was in the vein of "America's Funniest Home Videos" as they tipped over in the canoe.

Jerry, a retired surgeon, also hunts and fishes. Montana extended the elk hunting season in parts of the state and a couple of his buddies called him this afternoon to go with them tomorrow. Supposedly they know where a herd of "800 elk" are. It is possible the snow and colder weather in SW Montana (where they are going) finally drove the elk down from the higher elevations.

We also talked about hunting/fishing, Whitefish Lake - bicycling and walking trails and expensive homes along the lake, living in New York City decades ago, and traveling in Russia.

Because Jerry had to go home to pack and then get up early to go for the 4 day hunting trip we all called it an early night and left at 7 pm. We had met at 2 pm for the meal, so after 5 hours I suppose it was time to mosey along.

I plan to get up early also as there are a few Black Friday sale items I want that are on sale tomorrow morning only: mainly a camera and a small freezer. The other items that caught my eye are not "must have" stuff. Wish me luck as I am not a shopper and may get trampled by the die hard serious shoppers in the rush.

Fence, deer, gophers

I worked on my fence this afternoon when it "warmed" up. If you call 30 F "warm". Actually, first I pruned my apple trees. As pruning is not a 'non-stop' activity my hands got cold. That changed when I worked on my fence.

I completed the remaining 'major' work on the fence. I attached all the poles to the posts. I discovered that one post was not straight. When I initially built the fence I measured along the ground where to dig the posts. The first poles I attached between the posts were the top posts. Somehow one post was slanted a few inches and at the bottom the south pole did not reach all the way while the north pole was a few inches too long. *sigh*

I dug on the south side of the post. While the ground is now frozen, only the top few inches are frozen. I was able to dig down and then move the bottom of the post over to the correct spot using a sledgehammer.

On all the poles I cut flat notches on each end where the pole attaches to the posts. This way the pole will sit flat against the post and have little chance to 'roll' and have the nails loosen and come out. I put in two long nails on each end of the pole and I was in the process of putting the second nails in when Kelly returned from hunting. By the time we finished talking it was too dark to nail.

Tonight four bucks were out and about and no does. That is the way it works - have an "A" tag and the does come out. Have a "B" tag and no does. Of course I imagine the bucks were frustrated too. Kelly has a doe scent spray and he said he could see the bucks sniffing the air. That probably made the bucks even crazier.

Even though the top layer of ground is frozen the pocket gophers are still active. I trapped three today. I even got the 'problem' pocket gopher. For the past week this gopher kept coming out the other side of the trap then plugging the hole in the trap from the outside rather than go inside the trap to plug the hole. The other day I found where the gopher came out of the ground to do this and set a second trap there. Bingo. Got it.

Initially I thought of forgoing resetting the traps due to the frozen ground. But I looked at the area left to trap and I am getting close to the south hayfield fence. Another week to ten days (hopefully) and I may make it to the fence. So I found more gopher mounds/tunnels and set the traps. At least tonight I quickly found the gopher tunnels. Recently I have had to dig and dig before finding the tunnel. By now I am pretty good at finding the gopher tunnels but this area seems to be a combination of crumbly soil and gophers who seem to be digging exploratory holes/mounds of dirt and not an actually tunnel complex.

Auctions and corral fence

Saturday I attended another auction. This auction was a general consignment auction therefore it was made up of this and that. The audience was made up of auction regulars (i.e. second hand buyers and "bottom feeders".)

The auction was a hour and half old when I arrived. I doubt I missed much. I hung around and bid on a few items I "kinda" wanted and was out bid. I did get a box of miscellaneous: nuts and bolts, locks, and odds and ends. I wanted the nuts and bolts. I got a bonus as the box also had a plastic parking light cover. Back when I replaced the pole over my driveway, as I took the old pole down one end slid off my stock trailer and broke one plastic parking light cover. I now have a replacement. But, why they make blue covers is beyond me.

Saturday was a rainy day and other than the auction I didn't get much of importance done.

Sunday was a different matter. The weather forecast was for rain later Sunday and rain and maybe even snow chances much of this coming week. And colder. The predicted highs from Monday on were maybe a degree or two above freezing.

Now you all know how I always mention I need to fix fences. Well, Sunday appeared to be "now or never' this year. It wasn't raining when I got up early (for me) Sunday morning. I woke up naturally on only 5 hours sleep. I decided I would go outside and work on my corral fence. I could always rest when I started to rain later.

I went outside right away. I did not eat breakfast or take a shower. "Go directly to jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200."

What I was most interested in was closing the corral fence section I had taken down a month or so ago, or however long it was. I also wanted to get the new fence posts in as I expected the ground to be frozen after Sunday. Whatever I could get done before the rain started.

It never rained Sunday. I kept working until dark. The only food I had was a pear and a muffin. Too often I found that after having lunch it would start to rain when I returned outside, so I didn't take the chance that would happen again Sunday. Naturally by the time I made supper that night I was starving.

The old fence boards and posts were 8 feet apart. The last 4 feet of fence was barb wire and some odd boards. I had planned on making the old 4 ft section a walk through gate. But I found the poles were 9 ft 2 inches long. A foot was too small for a gate. But what to do with a foot of space. Hmmm...

Also the corral came east then went south. The new fence would be a foot more into the backyard. I didn't mind losing a foot of yard to more corral area but the problem was I used this part of the yard to swing around to park my pickup in the pole building. One foot less would not be good.

So to close the one foot "gap" and also not have the corner interfere with my pickup driving, I angled the fence slightly. No more 90 degree corner.

In angling the corner I decided to also move the fence post next to the water trough. More work I had not planned on doing. But I did it.

Of course the domino theory took place. When I moved the post by the water trough I ended up redoing the water trough. Another unplanned work item.

The water trough sat on some dirt and posts. As with most everything around here, this was old. The dirt was eroding away and the posts rotting.

Over the past few years I had patched things to keep the water through in place and level. Sunday I redid it all. I removed the old posts and dirt and got a couple of cement blocks to set the trough on. The effort was in making it all level.

I also decided to lower the trough slightly. Earlier when "patching" the trough's support I had raised the level of the trough. The better to drink from I thought. Over the years I realized that since cattle were used to putting their head to the ground to eat, they had no problem putting their head down to drink. In fact too high meant their neck would press on the top of the trough when the water level was low.

After "fixing" the water trough I pounded some short boards into the ground around the trough to hold it in place. I have found that a mostly empty water trough can be moved by the cattle.

Now that my water trough diversion was finished I started back on the corral fence. As it was not raining I ended up taking down all of the old fence that ran from the water trough to the hayfield. I was able to put in new posts for this section and the top pole between each post. I also was able to attach all the poles for one section before dark. This is all good as it now doesn't matter if the ground freezes for the year. I can always attach the remaining poles later.

While working on my fence one of my neighbors came over and asked if he, his son, and his son's friend could hunt deer on my land as the kids had a few hours before they had to return to the university in Missoula. While Kelly has yet to get his doe, he hadn't planned on hunting on Sunday, so I let the neighbors hunt on the ranch.

They were out there only a few hours and returned before dusk. The kids had to return to school. Too bad as this was the time when the deer were starting to come out. They did see a buck, doe, and fawn on the other side of the river on the ridge.

Sunday night I was tired. Work, lack of food, and lack of sleep caught up with me. I went to bed early and slept hard.

I woke morning Monday morning to a dusting of snow on the ground. It was good as the Flathead valley did not get the half a foot to over a foot of wet snow SW Montana received. Our white dusting was pretty and helped begin the process of thinking about winter and getting into the Christmas spirit.

The sun came out and where it shown the snow melted. Shaded areas the snow did not melt. I did garden work and miscellaneous other stuff and never got to working on my fence again.

Late afternoon I attended another auction south of town. This was an estate sale held by another auctioneer. It was held in a heated building which was nice. I found the auction to be antiques and collectibles and furniture. The furniture was old and antique and very nice, but nothing I was interested in.

There was only one item I had a slight interest in, a wood two dimensional scene of a buffalo and landscape. It was nicely done but I had no interest in waiting what appeared to be a long time before the auctioneer got to that item. The auctioneer didn't have a good speech as his patter was to matter-of-fact repeat over an dover the price he was asking for.

Several benefits of my new fence...

• I don't have to paint it
• it is stronger than my old fence
  
• it is higher than the old fence. The old fence kept the cattle inside, but I have seen cattle jump the old height of fence when they really wanted to do so.
  

Broccoli pulled

This afternoon I pulled my garden's six broccoli plants. We had a dusting of snow overnight and the forecast is for the high temperatures to be near freezing all week. The plants are doing fine and broccoli is still growing, albeit slowly. I decided to "pull the plug" on the plants. It has come to a point where the growth is so slow the effort to cover the plants each night is no longer worth it.

Still, this is the longest I ever had broccoli plants growing. Mid November!!! Who says global warming is all bad?!

I still have beets, onions, and carrots in the ground. Since it not super cold I am letting the outdoors be my "cooler" to keep the vegetables from spoiling.

Photo taken prior to pulling the broccoli plants. Photo 2 is of the beets and onions.

Pocket gopher milestone

I trapped three pocket gophers today and reached a milestone. I have trapped 212 pocket gophers this year and that exceeds 2006's total of 209. I am now in second place behind last year's total of 322 pocket gophers trapped. I'm not going to exceed that total, and that is ok.

I still have not reached the south fence of the hayfield. I am in an area that is thick with gophers and probably will be trapping them until the snow falls and the ground freezes. Still I made it further south than I ever have, and I take that as a sign of progress in my fight against the pocket gophers.

Tree stump on tank

A week or so ago I posted a couple photos of a tree stump I had placed up on a tank because I liked its looks. I took more photos of it, this time in daylight. I think it looks like a cross between an anteater and an elephant.

Long busy Wednesday

Wednesday was a long day filled with lots of work.

First off I got up early to meet the train in Whitefish. That had not been on my list of things to do as I spent all afternoon Tuesday cutting trees with a chainsaw and was looking forward to sleeping in Wednesday morning. However, Necia, the daughter of Tina, a former girlfriend, was passing through on her way from Oregon to Minnesota and she called me Tuesday night from the train to let me know.

Of course the train would be on time for once, arriving at 7:26 am. That meant getting up early. But I did even if the alarm clock had to wake me up.

It was a clear, cool morning with a temperature of 16 F. As she stepped off the train Necia immediately commented how cold it was. Ya... if you've been spending time in Oregon, 16 degrees would be cold. That explains why Necia has her hands inside her coat's sleeves.

It has been many years since I dated Tina. Since then Necia grew up, recently graduated from a university with a degree in International Relations and Communications, and is now making her way in the world. If anyone knows of a job where she could use her skills not working for a large company, drop me a line and I'll pass it on to her.

Necia has grown up to be an attractive, positive, and poised young woman. Tina did a good job especially considering Necia like many American girls have a rough time passing through their teenage years and are an annoyance to the adults around them during that time. And some like Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan, etc., etc. still have problems into their 20s.

Necia and I had a nice talk albeit much too brief as the train only stopped for 15 minutes and we had many years to catch up on.

I also brought a pair of cross-country skis to have Necia carry on the train to drop off to my brother in North Dakota. I found the skis easily fit in the overhead rack above the seats. The train attendant had a small concern with the ski pole tips as they were pointed but he allowed them as long as Necia keep them at her seat.

After I returned home I ate breakfast and waited a bit for the temperature to warm to freezing.

Then I was off to collect the logs I cut the previous days. The weather forecast called for cold, rain and maybe a dusting of snow starting Thursday and lasting many days. Wednesday was clear and sunny and a good day to be outside working.

I ended up loading three pickup loads and brought them back to the back yard to be stacked. As I stacked the loads higher than the pickup's cab I should say "two and a half" loads as the third load only filled the pickup's box.

I ended up with a pretty good sized stack of logs to be split later and also a good pile of "chum" - pieces that are smaller, odd sized, broken, softer, bark, etc., etc.



Lots of lifting and stacking and lifting and stacking. *whew!*

Then it was a rush uptown to run errands before a few businesses closed at 5 pm.

A busy day. No wonder I slept hard last night and am taking it slow this morning. No rain so far today though I saw a very light dusting of snow on the ground this morning. The ground is remaining frozen and hard longer each day.

Well, I suppose I better get out and get stuff done today.

Later.

Trimmed tree photos

Today I took a couple photos of the tree I partially limbed yesterday. The trees are tall here.

Chainsaw and Mountains

Tuesday I spent all afternoon with my chainsaw. By the end of the afternoon the chainsaw's chain was dull. While I writing this I can tell I will be stiff and sore in the morning.

I cut three large trees into logs to be split for firewood. I also cut a little bit on two more fallen trees. This Fall, that makes it 5 full/long trees cut into logs with partial cuts on three other trees.

I have seven trees left to cut into logs. That will wait until next year. I already have enough wood split for firewood. Splitting the logs I have just cut will add to my large pile of firewood and the effort will take me into next year.

Photo 1: two cut trees: looking west
Photo 2: two cut trees: looking east



Photo 1: the third tree that I cut
Photo 2: one of the partially cut trees. This tree broke off this summer in a windstorm. I think it was a combination of not being used to the wind and some rot caused by insects.



I also cut a third of the limbs off another very tall tree that was uprooted during a windstorm this summer. I forgot to take a photo of that tree.

After 4 pm here is the view I saw while cutting trees. I can't complain about my life.

Deer Crossing photos

While I didn't get a photo of the buck Kelly shot, here are photos of where the buck crossed the river. As you can see the river level is quite low in the east channel. Still I crossed at another spot where the water level in the east channel is even lower.


In the wide photo the deer was shot just to the right of the building and the deer crossed where the gravel is on the right side of the channel in the upper left of the photo. The island is on the left.


Imagine crossing the river and tracking the deer in the dark.

Wind and chainsaw

Another weather front came through this evening. The previous weather front from a few days ago passed through by midnight, the skies cleared, and the temperature dropped. I am hoping the same thing does not happen tonight as it was far too windy to cover my garden. The last few mornings have had heavy frost and I wake to a thick white coating on everything, and it is not snow.

I dug all my potatoes today and picked the last cabbage. The broccoli are still growing so I cover them each night. The same with the beets and onions. Hard to believe it is November.

Late afternoon I grabbed my chainsaw and headed out to the middle pasture to cut up fallen tree trunks. My first stop was to cut part of the massive tree trunk I had tried to burn out. The stump hadn't taken to smoldering to completely burn the stump. I cut a few parts on the sides so I have a little less to burn next Spring when I try burning it again.

Then I went to where three tall trees had fallen the past few years. I cut on parts of all three trees with the end result of cutting the equivalent of one tree if I had worked on only one. The reason I split my effort was to cut the parts of the trees that lay directly on the ground.

Either my chainsaw chain is getting dull again or I am impatient at cutting through the trees as it took longer to cut each section than I wanted.

The temperature was in the low 40s F, the wind was blowing, and it was dusk. All meant cool weather, yet I was unzipping my coat and still was sweating a lot. Chainsaw work is hard work, or perhaps I was pressing the chainsaw hard against the tree to make it cut faster.

It was getting dark when I finally ran out of gas and quit for the day. Several hours of cutting with hours left to do.

5 by 6 antlers

Kelly shot a deer tonight. I was in the north pasture cutting dead tree branches.

Earlier I was cutting up an old fallen tree trunk using my chainsaw. I quit for the day when I ran out of gas. Even though I was in the north pasture and Kelly was hunting in the south pasture I didn't want to disrupt his hunting due to the loud noise the chainsaw made.

I was trimming some lower dead tree branches on a nearby tree with a pole saw when I heard the loud boom from his rifle. Only one shot. Then nothing. Nor did I see Kelly come out to get his pickup. I thought he may have missed for once.

It was quite a bit later, and getting fairly dark, when he finally showed up. He said thought he had hit a buck, but it didn't go down right away. The other years when he shot deer they went down near where he shot them. He said he was only 20 ft away when he shot and couldn't believe he had missed. Tonight he thought he saw blood near the deer's leg but the buck went back to the river and crossed over to the island.

He waited as chasing a wounded deer just gets their adrenaline pumping and they run further. He hadn't been on the island yet so he came back to get me. He also didn't have a flashlight with him and I didn't have a very large one. He went over to his parents house and got a couple of lights and then I joined him to search for the deer.

I got my rubber overshoes as we had to cross the river. By now it was definitely dark.

Kelly showed me where he shot the deer and we searched for blood in the grass but found none. We traced its trail back to the river and still no blood.

The deer crossed the river where the east and main channel split. I led Kelly to the middle of the east channel where the water level is low and most of the gravel stream bed was exposed. The water only went half way up my boots as I crossed. Kelly crossed in his regular boots. Quickly as they were not waterproof.

The island is honeycombed with trails the cattle use. I led Kelly back to where he said the deer had crossed. I could see where the deer had dug into the moist ground as it climbed the bank, but no blood. Kelly kept saying he thought he had hit the deer. He was sure it was limping when it ran off. We searched the trails and was in the mid point between the channels when he found blood on the grass and leaves.

We followed the spots of blood and a short distance away found the buck laying down against a tree. We approached carefully. He was dead. It looked like after he got back to the island he found a "hidey spot" and laid down to rest, then passed away.

We flipped the buck over back and forth before we found the small exit wound. It was in the shoulder above its right leg. That explained the limping Kelly saw.

We gutted and cleaned the deer there. Kelly saved the heart and liver for his dad who really enjoys eating them. The bullet may have hit a lung as the heart was not hit. The deer didn't lose much blood which explained why the blood trail was hard to find. After the guts were removed we had to flip the deer to dump a large pool of blood out.

The antlers were 5 prongs on one side and six on the other. A nice rack. A good sized buck also. Kelly said the buck crossed the river on the trail of a doe that passed by Kelly's tree stand earlier. Just another male who got careless and in trouble because he had sex on his brain.

We drug the buck to the place where it had crossed the river. Kelly tossed the heart and liver across the river and they landed where the river bank and river met and did not "break" or get damaged from the toss. He then drug the buck across the river. After he crossed I took the one flashlight and went back and crossed the river where we had originally crossed it.

By the time we had drug the buck up to the higher river bank were his pickup was parked we were both getting tired. We didn't have far to drag it. I can't imagine hunters having to drag a deer a mile or two out of the woods. With some effort we got the deer into his pickup bed.

One less deer to eat my garden, shrubs, and trees. This was not the buck Kelly videotaped the other night. And he said there were several other smaller bucks roaming around. With all the does there will be plenty of deer next year.

Beating the cold front

The weather forecast predicted a cold front would arrive this afternoon with rain. I still have projects to do outside!

Right away after breakfast I went outside. It started to sprinkle just as I stepped outside. Great. The front is early. Shortly it stopped sprinkling. No matter, light rain or not, 40s F felt warm and I had things to do.

My projects aren't that interesting to write about. It was mainly straightening and organizing the back yard behind the pole shed. All Summer and Fall I had been "dumping" stuff to later work on: the willow tree branches and trunk, logs, posts, boards, wooden pallets, etc.

Even though it sprinkled off and on during the day I kept at it. I got most everything sorted, stacked, and put away. I cut more tree branches, trunks, and old posts. I split more wood. I pulled nails and took stuff apart.

*whew*

After a late lunch I checked my pocket gopher traps. It began to rain again. This time it was a serious rain. And the wind blew. I was at the far end of the hayfield on my second gopher trap and I continued checking all the traps. Then I ran home through the tall grass in the rain. Naturally it quit raining once I got home.

Kelly had arrived for deer hunting and I seen he took shelter out of the rain under a large tree. Later when he came in for the night he told me he had climbed out of the tree and his tree stand as the wind really blew. He had a video camera and he showed me a 4 point buck that he videotaped.

As we chatted another front came through and the rain started again and the wind blew harder this time.

The overnight low was forecast to be above freezing so I didn't cover my garden. Well... a short time ago I noticed the temperature was just above freezing. I went outside and saw a starry sky. No clouds. Great. That means it will freeze tonight. So much for the weather forecast. The only good thing about the lights from the RV dealership is that this late at night I have light to see to cover my garden. I only covered the broccoli and cabbage. The beets and onions are on their own.

You know, it is kind of crazy... here it is November and I still have a growing garden and am covering it at night. Usually I only make it to mid October at the latest.

32 degrees now. Yup, it will freeze good tonight. How much you want to bet it will be cloudy when I wake up tomorrow?