Wowzers

(Bob) Yesterday evening this was our sunset. Last throes of pink daylight, moonrise, snow sprinkled on the mountains. And it was a very warm day, which is why there isn't much snow left.

Venus in the morning has caught and held my attention the last couple mornings, so bright and big in the eastern sky. As a kid, and thankfully still today, I wonder what the sky looked like before electric light washed so much of it away. It's no wonder people worshipped, feared, followed, and "read" the night sky.

Imagine: a strong meteor shower with no moon and no interfering light, anywhere.

A crisp, cold, winter night, and the full moon illuminating a valley.

A moonless winter solstice in upper Canada or Alaska, with the Aurora Borealis dancing for days.

Imagine (types the guy with more lights on in the house than he needs) what the night sky looked like just a few hundred years ago.

Oh, and yesterday on my river walk I saw a HUGE crawdad (is that the same as a crayfish?) eating a smaller one. There certainly won't be many days left this year where an hour-long walk in the water will feel as good as that one did.

Yesterday at lunch we moved Monique's granparents' rosebush from beside the garage on their old farm to just by the cabin here. It's about seven feet tall, and should thrive nicely in the sunny spot. I wish there was a way to save that property.

Contacted "The Guy" #3 about our windows -- he's coming out next Monday afternoon to take a look at the job. Please, please, please.

all in the family...

We got to visit with my Brother's family tonight...Sarah is next to me, Nicole is playing hide and seek and that handsome little fella on the left is Justin....what a cutie! It was great getting to see everyone and to hear Nicole chatter away (Basically trying to say everything that her big sister--light of her life--was trying to tell us), and to see how much Justin has grown. My other favorite thing was watching Justin taking everything in...and the special little moment between him and Bob.....

Hunting Season

(Bob) Saturday morning some bowhunters asked my cousin Tom for permission to track a young buck on his property; they'd shot it on a neighbor's property. He agreed, went with them, and after an hour they found the arrow had worked itself out, and the deer had crossed the highway.

It made me think about when I hunted vs. how I feel now.

Then, I was in my mid-teens, and hunting was a trip to Big Sandy, MT with my dad, to his uncle Ed's farm, the Blazek homestead.

Now, I'm a 41-year-old homeowner on land that's been in my mom's family for 65 years, and hunting means listening to shotgun and rifle blasts that sound pretty darn close.

Then, it was tracking mule deer near the Missouri River breaks.

Now, it's seeing big trucks and laden ATV's going after white tail deer around the Flathead Valley.

Then, it was me hoping for the opportunity to take down a big buck with my 30-30.

Now, it's me hoping "our" deer, especially the dork brothers Mutt & Jeff, survive to next fall so I can shake the apple trees and give them more sustenance for the winter.

Quick note: "shake the apple trees" is not a figure of speech or a metaphor. I mean, à la bears, literally shaking a tree so ripe apples come a-tumblin' down.

I appreciate that Tom let the guys on his property and went with them. And I appreciate that they were bowhunters. At 17, with my rifle, I was skilled and lucky enough to get a trotting buck from about 125 yards away. Had I needed to be 95 yards closer for a bow shot, it never woulda happened. Here in western Montana it's easier hunting with bow and arrow because there are so many places to hide. Out on the rolling open plains of eastern Montana, I can't imagine how much more difficult it is.

I love venison, and have no problem whatsoever with deer hunting. Play by the rules, act responsibly, respect the property you're on, use the meat, and it's fine with me.

I have zero respect for hunters who break the law, act like idiots, or only go for "trophy" bucks. My dad and great-uncle Ed taught me well.

P.S. If your soul, your self-respect, and your doodle are so infinitesimally small that you hunt on game farms, well, you're just a putz.

P.P.S. About 6:30pm, as dusk hit its stride, Jeff wandered by the deck, eating some bird seed on the ground. He looks good, and while I hope the arrow-wounded deer wasn't Mutt, it is that time of year, and bucks should head for the hills.

Random Thursday Thoughts

Hmm... maybe a smidge overexposed on the sun?

A nice foggy morning.

Bob here, typing away as the dark Montana night is diluted by a couple fluorescent bulbs on the river side of the house, and that #@*$ doorbell light on the road side. I swear, one of these days that thing's goin' away.

It's sadly ironic that people move to the country to get away from the city, then they can't stand the benefits of the country: quiet, dark, far from stuff! I have no problem with porch lights, lights for a driveway, etc., but please -- dual 300-watt pink mercury halogen spotlights to light your single-wide and the rusting '83 Monte Carlo you swear you're going to restore someday? I think some people are fundamentally afraid of the dark. The Milky Way is stunning.

Hey, speaking of less than dependable handymen, the guy who was supposed to replace our big 4'x5' double-pane windows last Friday didn't show up. It was raining, so I said Monday was fine. He called late Monday morning, noted that it was sprinkling in the area, and said "We'll play it by ear, but I should be out there this afternoon." Monday afternoon was gorgeous, all of Tuesday was stupendously nice, but no "The Guy." It's Thursday evening, and not a peep in response to the messages I've left. Plan B kicks in tomorrow (hint: it involves finding a new "The Guy").

One the deer missed
My sister Carla (fabbo zenamoon candle website here, nifty blogs here and here) had a birthday yesterday, and today as we chatted, she mentioned it's not the milestone b-days that bug her, but the in-betweens that drag you inexorably toward the next milestone.

Carla's now 44. When our parents were 44, Carla was 22 and I was 19. Goodness.

Recently I was introduced to the fun of facebook.com. I've found a couple pals from college, but when I looked for Shadle Park High School alum, there are only a few. Friends, friends of friends, networks, and there's something oddly rewarding about throwing a chicken at someone, giving them a pot full of candy corn, or naming them most likely to steal a car. Random, yes, but very fun.

This last photo is of my aunt and uncle's dock, which I found wedged on a rock upriver this spring. After freeing it, I Tom Sawyer-ed it down-river. Apart from a little list to the starboard, it's a good dock.

Time to go gaze at a few (million) stars.

In case there was ever any doubt....

of where I get my beautiful silliness and fun outlook on life....

One need go no further than this photo of my mother, taken at the quilt retreat for Glacier Quilts

Love you mom!

nuff said. ;)

THIS is rich

So it's late afternoon, and I'm out for a constitutional, during which I usually wander the riverbank and skip stones. I'm no Amelie, but I aint bad.

So I'm looking for stones, skipping them, watching them, listening to the river... basically meditating in a fidgety way, as I do.

So I rear back to sidearm a nice one, and somehow my non-throwing arm swings across my body and... I hit myself.

Yep.

Years ago a girlfriend missed the lake and hit me straight in the knee while trying to skip a stone, but I've never hit myself with a thrown rock.

Thank goodness it was small, and it hit the fleshy part of my index finger. I knelt down, dipped my finger in the cold river, and pondered this little hiccup in my athletic career. Then I noticed some very small snail shells and a translucent egg sac on the end of a submerged stick.

Life is good in spite of myself, and there's no bruise yet.

Here's a photo of Jeff from the other night, ambling past some of the taken-down-but-not-yet-stored drip irrigation hose; this weekend I'm going to try to convince him and Mutt to eat the tansy and knapweed. Nutty kids....

As Bob mentioned, yesterday we took a little 'field trip' (pun intended) to one of the many places we have not explored yet in the area.

I think the fact that I grew up in this area and still haven't seen a fraction of what it has to offer makes my head spin sometimes!

Walking over the water/wind aged logs and looking across the lake reminded me of how, as a kid, I would pretend that it was the ocean and not a lake.

...even though I think I have a pretty good imagination...our trip yesterday reminded me that you don't have to stretch too far to think this beautiful body of water never ends...How wonderful to visit its shores again

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