Posts from the ‘Pets’ category

Friday morning

Ending the week as we started with an early morning walk by Echo Lake.

I have been pounding the keyboard all week. The nights and following mornings have been deliciously cool and crisp with days of warm sunshine. Today, the end of the work week, is a bit more relaxed and I will finish early afternoon and run some errands. I have it on good authority (Russ, my UPS man!) that the chip sealing on the highway is complete. The weekend is supposed to be warmer, maybe even hot by MT standards, so I will do all of my out and abouting today leaving the weekend free for lazing about mostly…the darn floors and such are dusty again and I cleaned them not two or three weeks ago…

A happy and joyful Friday to all!

Echo Lake on a summer morning

My driveway has a curve to the west as it meets the road. West on my road leads to Montana highway 35 from which I go most everywhere. This week MT Hwy 35 is being chip sealed 4 miles in both directions from my road. I plan on avoiding it until they are through.

But, my road is also a road to Echo Lake, a medium-small lake that lies in the foothills just a few miles away.

This morning, I turned East on my road.

Looking between the bug splats on my windshield, you can almost make out that the road changes from asphalt to gravel. I am thankful to live on the asphalt part!

Along the road is mostly thick forest but there are beautiful meadows in some spots.

That is Blackies Bay to the south along the road. There are a number of small lakes/large ponds in this area.

The lake was quiet when we arrived. Karl puttered along this access and then we walked a road that borders the end of the lake and a marshy area.*

As we returned, an early morning water-skier approached. I was ready to take a photo of the geese taking off as the ski boat turned…

…but they were unfazed by the boat and it made the turn without getting too near them.

On the drive home, with the sun behind me, it was easier to see into the woods and get a glimpse of some of the cabins and homes. Every once in awhile I would see one that seemed so appealing to me.

And then I turned into my own drive and caught the first glimpse of my home…

…and it looked so very nice to me. It looked wonderfully nice to me and I had this overwhelming feeling of gratitude that I have this place to live, in this beautiful woods…

…a good dog to walk with and a good cat to come home to.

* Below are links to posts with Echo Lake photos from Fall 2008

Echo Lake Fall

Echo Lake 2

…it started out with a bang

July 4th, 2009…not fireworks, just excitement…

Sometime just before 7:00 a.m. on the 4th, Karl started barking, Bob came roaring inside…

I tore outside, stopping only long enough to grab my can of pepper spray.

Karl was doing his “woo-woo-woo” something up a tree kind of noise. As I rounded the motorhome I saw Karl and the coyote. The coyote looked so small that my initial thought was “young” coyote.

They were squared off.

As I came into view, the coyote looked at me, turned and took off to the East – our loop walk. Karl moved a bit toward, keeping up the “woo-woo-woo” and then, somewhat spastically, nose to the ground, alternatively barking, sniffing – following the scent around the area, but not giving chase.

I let Karl do as he needed. He was all over the scent, stopping occasionally to look East and bark.

Time to keep watch…

Watching…

Bob was watching also…with the occasional low growl.

July 4th, 2009. It started out with a bang.

Wake us up when it’s over

I’m talking about July. Around my house, July is not a favorite. July starts out with the 4th of July holiday. The Independence day part of that is fine. I love the USA! The fireworks part we do not love so much. I love the pretty stuff. It is the noisy stuff… You can probably imagine how Karl feels about that.

And it gets hot…ok, relatively, but to us it is hot.

I turn into a bit of a curmudgeon from now until early August…our Summer – six whole weeks of it. No real excuse for it, just not my favorite time, but I seem to do better acknowledging it and laughing about it. In years past I did things like put houses up for sale, buy motorhomes – life altering kinds of things. Fortunately, this year the work schedule is very busy so I can stay in my cool little house and work away. Karl comes in about 10 in the morning and does not venture out again until 6 or 7 in the evening – after this first week of noise when we don’t go out until 1 or 2 in the morning…

Bob sprawls on the front porch like he’s melting…I think it was 79 when I took this photo, humidity about 19%…honestly, HOT!

My blog posting gets irregular in July. Photography-wise I don’t like the bright summer light excepting early morning. I’m usually not out (actually, not up) late enough to catch evening light. There are moments, of course, and I love the light in the woods through the trees…we’ll see how it goes this year.

July…wake us up when it’s over.

Blue Bay

South of Bigfork, along the east shore of Flathead Lake are Woods Bay, Yellow Bay and then Blue Bay. Blue Bay is on the Flathead Indian Reservation. The campground and day use area are owned and run by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. The entrance and part of the day use area are visible from the 2 lane highway. Every time I’ve passed I’ve said that I should sometime stop and see what all is there.

This morning started at 42F with a forecast for mid-70’s…Karl and my version of “warm enough to spend the afternoon in the cool house”. We headed to Blue Bay early this morning while it was cool.

Beautiful! The camping area is no frills. There are a number of spots to “park” or pitch a tent along the lake. A few places with electric are located on a bluff slightly above. Grass, trees, the lake views and absolute cleanliness of the spots made it appealing despite the fact that the campground was nearly full.

After driving around the camping area, I parked and got Karl out for a bit of exploring of the day use area which includes a beautiful swimming area, boat launch and small marina.

Blue Bay on Flathead Lake.

An evening with Brownie

aka “Karl almost gets a baby sister”…

May we have an “awwww…..”? – AND look at the size of those paws!!

So…Friday: 6:00 p.m.ish and a white van pulls up to my house – up the nearly 200 yard driveway to my house – not typical. A man and a 6-7 year old girl in the van. Karl and I go out…oh, there is a puppy also. Man says that the pup was at the end of my driveway and he was worried it might be hit on the road and was it mine? “No”, but the pup had a tag and phone number and I offered to take the pup and call and the man VERY gratefully agreed.

Earlier in the week a woman had come in the driveway looking for a pup. It had been found, but this pup matched the description… Same pup! Turns out the Mama dog, Daisy, appears to want to lose the pup – takes off with pup following and then goes home without poor Brownie.

As I got the info later, Daisy had left home early this morning and returned home at 2:00 this afternoon. So, Brownie puppy (11 1/2 weeks old) was out and about a very long time!

She was pooped! And glad to see a friendly human person…and a bit intimidated by Karl although he wanted to be her best bud. These photos…I wish they were better but everyone moving and me trying to make sure all were ok with each other…

And then I saw Bob’s face…

I wish it was in sharp focus, because Bob’s face was clearly saying: “Don’t EVEN think about it!!!”

Brownie had a tag with her phone number AND I had the family’s number from earlier – match! They were all out looking for Brownie.

Dad and girls arrived first, Mom just a bit later. Brownie was happy to see all and all glad to see her.

Karl and I had mixed feelings but after they left as I was doing minor chores and happened to glance at the motorhome…the thought of Karl, Bob and a puppy….

An evening with Brownie was full of fun. The joy of Brownie’s reunion with her family, even more so!