Last year at this time there were 2 hens with 12 chicks between them and by Fall just 2 chicks at the nearly grown stage. Both Bob and Karl were inside when this group walked down the driveway. I confess to not being that fond of the turkeys. The males are beautiful when “strutting their stuff” – peacock-like with red, black and white plumage – but they are all loud and messy. Karl chases them off. I am not sure why they persist in coming so close to the house.
Yesterday’s overcast start cleared through the day and by evening the air was dry. Last evening was more than pleasant at 72F with a soft breeze in the trees. The night cooled into the upper 40’s – good sleeping! – and this morning is a perfect Montana summer morning. It is good that I went out yesterday as on a day like today my favorite thing is to linger over a cup of coffee on the front porch or my chair in the shade.
The smell of the clear, sweet air, the feel of the breeze as well as the sound of birds, squirrels and wind in the pines … Piney morning.
Back in March when I bought my Acer Netbook, I told friends and family that now that I had this cute little computer that fit in my purse, I was going to start going to a coffee shop several times a week to work for a bit – get out of the house, off the property, amongst other humans! Until yesterday morning, I have done that exactly 0 times. I have planned to on several occasions.
Last weekend while perusing the Mountain Trader, I saw an ad for the River Street Diner and Pub…in Bigfork – a new place. I cruised Bigfork on Sunday to find it. It is in the location of what used to be a bar and pizza joint. And, oh, the hours: 6:30-2:30 – right up my alley!
I was there at 6:45 this morning. That window in front with the pretty flower baskets on each side? – I sat in a nice little table right at that window and had an outstanding breakfast with excellent coffee while reading some technical blogs. So, my current plan, is to become a semi-regular here, once or twice a week. Wayfarer’s Park on Flathead Lake is a hop, skip and jump away so I can have breakfast and then take Karl on a walk in the park and still be home to start work before 8:00 a.m. – Yippy, Skippy!
Across and a bit closer to the river is Chris’ Tea Cottage. Even though the Open flag is flying, they open later. We’ll try and give them some custom every now and again but it is important to pick a breakfast spot and mostly stick with it…service, comraderie and getting your eggs cooked the way you like them depend on it!
I took the first few photos and turning to get in the Jeep, saw the theatre. It has just had a facelift. I think they bumped out the front to give more room in the ticket and concession area. The theatre is quite nice and has a nearly year round play going on. Thanksgiving is The Nutcracker performed by the Kalispell Ballet company – not sure that is the official name. It is always fun, draws a huge crowd and half the fun is watching the children mesmerized by the performance.
Almost directly across from River Street Diner is the Cultural Center and Library. The Cultural Center is host to the Montana Watercolor Show in the spring and other shows throughout the year. It was apparently being vacuumed this morning – not sure if the dog was helping or just having a morning walkabout.
Brookies Cookies is on the river and you can sit on their back deck with your cookies, coffee and they are doing some sort of breakfast and lunch thing also. I might have to get out more often…
Across from Brookies Cookies is La Provence. They have a beautiful sit down restaurant open for dinner as well as a sandwich shop/deli on this end in the photo.
And on the other corner is another new place. It used to be the Wild Mile Deli and is now a wine grotto and beer garden. Hmmm… But on the corner to the left in the photo is the Garden Bar, my personal favorite burger spot in town.
On we went to Wayfarer’s. It was just after 7:30, still cool but a bit overcast. We saw no one and it was cool enough to do my favorite loop which goes up to the highest spot in the park.
Beautiful! A tour around Bigfork, a walk in the park and home to work. Not a bad morning!
It’s casual day at BearDog Consulting.
It is not all mountain grandeur and pristine lakes and rivers in rural Montana…
Rural life includes a well and a septic system…not connected! – that must be maintained. The septic tank and drain field are down the small hill behind the house.
While there are no monthly charges for water and sewer as in the city, I do pay for the electricity to run the pump and maintenance on both systems. I have wonderful water from a well that has, so far, had no problems. The septic system is old but healthy and working. I am highly motivated to keep it that way. If it ever did fail, the engineered system that would be required as a replacement is in the $20-30K range – yikes! Yep, highly motivated. Ian from Shur-Clean Action Pumping drained and inspected the tank and system for me 3 years ago before I bought the property and today’s visit was scheduled maintenance, i.e. draining.
The outlet baffle needs repair and the guy that does that will be here tomorrow morning. You might be relieved to read that I will not post photos. I might add some notes to this post for future but I think this post is probably more than enough on septic. And for any who see an error in the title/expression, you are correct. It is not the tank over which the grass grows greener, but the drain field…
An unrelated note – the Chimney sweep was here yesterday. I spared the nice man that does the sweeping from a photo session…I did it last year: Chimney Sweep 2008
8/2/2009 Addition
Bill Morton referred by Ian of ShurClean replaced the outlet baffle. Exposing the outlet baffle, turned up a problem with the line to the drainfield. The original line is orangeberg, a paper-like kind of pipe that had deteriorated. About 8 feet of it was removed and replaced with PVC. The joint where the PVC connects to the remaining intact orangeberg is 11 feet from the center of the outlet baffle lid, at about a 30 degree angle from a line from the sewer cap to the outlet baffle.
There are several fishing access/day use spots around Echo Lake. Karl and I found a new one, on the way to the old one and it has become our favorite. Although fishermen and water skiers use it weekday mornings, we have been the only walker-putzers.
Echo Lake has many coves, inlets and small islands. From the parking lot, a trail follows the edge of the inlet by this particular spot. There are some short loops into the woods in a few places. In the morning it is shady most of the way around.
Also, very quiet. The skiers and fishermen take off for other spots.
Our normal mountain view loop from home has been too hot for a black dog with a heavy coat and now the neighbors are in residence for a few weeks so we have had to be a bit more inventive for our walks. In “it’s all relative” world, it is hot. And courtesy of several thunderstorms, it is also humid. Yes, I’m fairly sure someone from the southeast might think it quite comfortable here :)!
Just around the bend to the left is the parking area. At the end of the point on the right is where the following photo was taken.
There are benefits to walking along the water.