Thursday evening, from the front porch

I have had 3 rather intense work days. But, the work went mostly well and the deadline was met early this afternoon. I’m beat.

In the midst of all, we did not miss any walks or stomach rubs. The main thing lacking was a bit of sleep – for me. That will be rectified tonight!

In that arena of “why didn’t I do this sooner”, early in the week I searched our local “trader” paper and found someone to haul away the gutters, porch rails and rv steps that have been annoying me and taking up garage room. (see Damaging steps and Porch rails )

In that way of small town, small worldliness, Greg, who hauled the stuff away, works at the shop where I take the Jeep and motorhome (engine stuff). He didn’t recognize me. He recognized the Jeep, the red Jeep. Well…I like it too.

I finished work early in the afternoon. Karl and I headed to town for groceries, stopping along the way at a favorite spot for a walk. It was snowing lightly, but not very cold.

On return, after all was put away and a light dinner had, I enjoyed the rest of the evening…

…from the front porch.

And yes, there is a bottle of wine stuck in the snowbank. Turns out a snowbank keeps Chardonnay at the perfect temperature.

Snow squall

We set off for our afternoon walk in sunshine. By the time we rounded the last corner there was a squall moving in. The wind picked up driving the flurries sideways, then it stopped suddenly and the snow changed to giant flakes coming straight down.

Karl took his after walk treat and headed out to the snowbank by the end of the walkway which has become his favorite place to sit or lie and survey his territory. The snow did not bother him.

Meanwhile, Mr. Bob was inside warming his backside in front of the fire.

Montana moonset

This morning’s nearly full moon and just a few clouds were enough to entice me to jump in the jeep with Karl and slide down the hill to catch the moon setting over the northern Flathead Valley. I took coffee, a piece of coffee cake and sat and watched the show accompanied by my good dog. We shared the coffee cake too.

The really long walk

Karl and I “got back on the horse” so to speak. Although yesterday afternoon we did go through the area that caused Karl concern in the morning, it was still our “short loop” walk and we missed our normal midday longer walk. Back in the Woods post has the plat and Google Earth for our normal long walk.

Today, was again sunny and clear, so off we went.

The first loop, our short loop walk, is a ridgeline around a “bowl” to the west and a drop to a valley to the east. The “bowl” is protected enough that deer bed down many places there. A deer died either from a car or hunter near the tree branches in the foreground. The carcas was there Thanksgiving morning and gone by the afternoon. Karl has found bits down in the bowl so something(s) drug it down there. One walk, the ravens swooped down around us, apparently upset that we were too close to their “food”. One of my guesses about yesterday is that perhaps there was a fresh kill and Karl picked up a “vibe” or scent or ?. He made no move to go down in the bowl today and I prohibited it yesterday.

Above, Karl heads down from the ridge to a gulley area which is about the halfway point of our short loop and where I stopped yesterday. The point he turned around is just a bit further as the path starts up again.

Above – deer tracks which is all we saw other than our own.

Our path emerges from the gulley at the end of one of the lots in this large acre subdivision. Around the bend and dead ahead about 350 yards is the house.

For our long walk we skirt the northeast corner of my property and enter the 40 acre parcel of state land. The state land was logged several years ago and is a fairly open wooded parcel. It is mostly flat, but drops off steeply on the north and west edges to other properties.

Above is a typical view on the state land – open woods with glimpses of the mountains to the west, north and east. Karl and I have been able to walk parts of this land that we normally don’t. In the summer the high grass, weeds, piles of sticks and downfall force us to stick to game trails. With the amount of snow we had in December, that melted down, compacted and then froze, the walking and snowshoeing is easy and we’ve been able to explore areas we’ve not been before and then take the direct route home. Today, we took an hour and a half to take a really long walk.

By the time we returned, a rest in the shade felt pretty good.