Saw a bull moose on the road about two miles from the cabin. He took off into the woods before we could snap his picture.

Me and Andrew

Me and Anna (our youngest grandchild).

I have the top sewed to the bottom.

Sewing the sole to the upper.

David and Jonathan

I tree in a tree.

Two nights in a row when the temperature got down in the low 30's so we've been covering most of the garden with old blankets, sheets and plastic.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Good thing we covered the garden last night. It was down to 36 degrees this morning. The covers need to be removed before it gets too warm out. After breakfast, feeding the dog and chickens and making sure the goat had water it was time to wash dishes. Our oldest daughter and her husband and four little ones are coming to day to look at land to buy. It was a long day with five hours in the car looking at different properties. Susan and I bugged out with the boys on the last place. By then we were only about five miles from home (on the road, one mile as the crow flies). Prices have come down on land in the last year. I barbequed some hamburgers for supper. Susan made chocolate cake for desert. Kevin and Tristan went out to shoot some gophers but they were all in bed by then. I set three traps for gophers before they got here in the morning. Didn’t catch any. Amy and I made patterns for a set of moccasins for her. I cut the leather out and I showed her how to stitch them up. She’ll have to take them home to finish them up. We ran out of time in the evening. Susan covered part of the garden before bedtime.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010
It was 34 degrees this morning. Susan got up during the night and covered more of the garden. We fired p the woodstove to take the chill off. After breakfast and feeding critters I measured patterns for a pair of moccasins for Susan and worked on them for a couple of hours. I got the tops sewed to the sole of the first one. I broke two needles doing it. I have one left. We’ll see if I get the next one finished before I run out of needles. I started on a raised bed for planting Jerusalem Artichokes. I got three logs cut down (two 10 footers and one 8 footer that will be cut in half to make two 4 footers. They’re green logs and too heavy for me to carry without risking injury so I rigged up a cart I started on (but haven’t finished yet) awhile back to carry the logs. It worked very well but needed two people in some of the rougher places in the woods. I just got them over to the right place when Susan found where gopher (Columbian Ground Squirrel is the correct name) had tunneled under the fence and into the garden. I stopped work on the raised bed to set some more traps. As soon as I finished that we headed into Fortine to mail a package and check the mail. From there we went to the Fortine Merchantile and bought some ice cream and sausage. Both were on sale. When we got home Tristan and I went walking and capped off two more gophers. By then it was time to eat. After supper we watched a movie on the DVD/TV. Afterwards I checked my traps and had two gophers to dispatch. One was at the tunnel under the fence but I saw another one near there duck down a hole so I reset the trap after dispatching the first one. Now it’s getting late. After I finish this blog I’m going to bed.

We haven't named it yet. I suggested that we name it "goat" but that didn't seem to get a very high approval rating.


This is a good mosquito. It's one of the few that I just killed and didn't totally crush beyond recognition. My aim must have been off just a little.

this is our second youngest grandchild. I think she was eating a cracker and forgot to let go.

Susan cutting up peppers from our garden. Some of them went into the omelettes we had for breakfast.

The dog and goat meet for the first time. Neither one seems too impressed with the other.

Sunday, July 11, 2010
The kids got here late yesterday afternoon and spent the night. Sunday morning had omelets for breakfast. J and I shot gophers in the late morning. Had a lot of shots, many of them were off-hand at fast moving gophers! We went to a different spot this time but they’ve been shot at before. The survivors learn quickly. Susan made dinner using the solar cookers (one store bought and one home made.)

Got a call from a neighbor in the evening. There’s been a mountain lion hanging around the neighborhood. He’s been seen by several people over the last week or so. Once he was crossing the road dragging a full grown deer. This time he was at their house. They sometimes have deer in the yard and the cat was stalking one. They let the dog out and the dog treed the cat. He got some pictures then they put tied the dog up and chased the cat off. The only problem is that while it shows no aggression towards people it also shows very little fear. It would only run about 50 yards then lay down until they got closer. When they’d get within 20 yards or so it would take off again. Normally they should run and run and run. You shouldn’t be able to catch up with one. If he makes it to hunting season I’m sure there will be a guy with hounds coming up. (I have his phone number.) It’s a full-grown male and appears to be quite healthy. He may have been forced to hunt close to people by wolves or a larger male lion. They’ve also been logging in some prime mountain lion habitat about a mile from here and might have forced him out of there. Whatever the reason he’s a little too comfortable with people to have him around for long.

Susan went to a neighbor’s place to see their new goat. They just got a milk goat and had made a milking stall for it. She came home with a quart of goat milk for us to try. I’ve never had it before and am looking forward to it.

Not much else happened over the weekend. I got the go-ahead on another article query.
Watched three episodes of Top Shots on Hulu. Now I’m caught up with it.

Monday, July 12, 2010

After breakfast I finished up all the extra stuff to mail the article. I cut some wood and took pictures to go with the article. Then I culled them out to those I’d use in the article and labeled them. Next I wrote up the photo caption page and made two copies of it then burned the article, spread sheet, photo captions, and photos onto a CD, wrote a cover letter and addressed the send envelope and another for returning the materials if the article doesn’t sell. After that I put a new battery terminal on the pickup and cleaned the other cable real good, load tested the battery and tried it out. The truck started just fine which didn’t surprise me since it usually does … cold! I’ll have to drive it until it’s warmed up good to see if it’s fixed. I suspect it’s got a bad starter. The problem is only apparent when the engine is hot.

I’ll pick up a thermostat later, For now I’m just going to take the old one out and drive it like that. I didn’t fix the tire yet either. It’ll have to be done later also. We needed to get in town to mail the envelope and go on into Eureka to get dog food and a goat.

When we hit town we filled up three water jugs before going to the post office. After picking up the mail and mailing the manuscript package we stopped at the green boxes (dumpsters) and unloaded our trash. From there we took the highway into Eureka and stopped at the bank to deposit a check (payment for an article) and go to the grocery store. They were out of the stuff they had advertised that we wanted so we ended up just getting a big bag of dog food. From there we went to some friend’s home and they gave us a goat to take care of. They raise and sell pack goats. They gave us a three-month-old kid as long as we promised not to eat it. That sounded good to me. I just hope we can keep the mountain lion from eating it. It was less than enthusiastic at the idea of leaving it’s mother, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, great grand parents, etc. and coming home with us. We had to pick it up and carry it part way. When we set it down it decided it didn’t like that idea either. So, when we went to load it in the back of the Cherokee it laid down on the ground. It took two people to lift it up then and load it into the Cherokee. I was already there waiting to keep it company, which I did for the ride home. We were good friends before we got home. (Now that didn’t sound quite right!!!!) Anyway, it’s new home is the dog kennel. We’ll be taking it out to graze every day and hopefully it will keep some of the undesirable plants in check. I’m hoping to get it to actually do what it was designed for and have it carry stuff when we go backpacking. We’ll keep you posted.

By the time we got home it was late afternoon. We had leftovers for supper and I took some more allergy medicine and will probably be asleep soon. I’m hoping it will rain tonight and clear the air some. The wind has been blowing all day keeping the pollen stirred up.

The packrat that came to visit.

One hundred yard target shot with my Browning 22 lever action with open sights.

25 yard target shot with my Ruger 22 semi-auto. These two are the best I've done in years due to the eye exercises suggested by Zengunfighter. I was almost to the point of giving up on using open sights on anything.

My shooting bench this morning. (And more guns to clean this evening.)

The back side of my 25 yard target backstop after this week's shooting sessions.

Susan cleaning house in preparation for a visit from some of our kids.

Mint and Oregano from our garden drying.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

I stayed up late last night writing until I got the final rough draft completed on the article I‘m currently working on. I went to bed around midnight then before I got to sleep I heard a bunch of activity outside the door. The dog was looking things over pretty good behind the refrigerator so I figured the cat was back there then the cat came around the corner so I did some more checking. I got down low just in time to meet a packrat face-to-face. We both jumped back. I went back in the house to get my rifle and a round of 22 rimfire - #12 shot shell. When I got back out I couldn’t find the packrat so I walked out to where I had the live trap set for chipmunks and got the trap. Susan saw the flashlight beam outside so she got up to find out what was going on. I had set the trap down and got down to look under the back porch where I saw the PR hiding. I went in and got my 22 again and was getting set up for the shot when Susan came out the back door. She almost stepped on the rifle as I was trying to get a good angle for the shot. I just said “packrat” so she stepped back in the house while I shot it. Then I had to get the stupid thing back out from under the porch. I had Susan take a picture of me and my trophy before she went back to bed.

We haven’t had too many packrat problems since they tore down the old mobile homes across the road but we still get one through occasionally. They’re kind of cute but they sure make a mess of things so we have a “shoot on sight” order out for them. We use the 22 shells loaded with shot most of the time. It kills the rats well and does minimal damage to whatever’s behind the PR. We had one in the wood pile when we first moved in here that carted away spoons, forks, a watch, and a couple of small pans before we found it’s lair. My poor dog got blamed for all kind of things she didn’t do.

Went through my article again and did a little editing and sent it to Susan to go over on her computer. She found a couple of mistakes I missed, fixed them and sent it back. I still need to get the pictures together along with a caption page and cover letter and get it in the mail. Should go out Monday.

After breakfast I took some 22’s down to the range and checked their sighting. My 10/22 was shooting a little high so I adjusted it back down. I decided to try my Browning lever action 22 without the scope so I took it off and did some shooting. It shot a little to the right and about two inches high at 50 yards. I left the elevation as it was and tapped the rear sight over to correct the windage. I went too far and had to take it back just a little to get it right. It’s still slightly off but close enough for the things I shoot at. I tried a few shots at 100 yards with it. More about that later.

I got my 22 pistol out and did some shooting with it too. It’s a little low at 25 yards with my current ammo but I’ll just hold the front sight up a bit instead of filing it down. Most shot with it aren’t that far away anyway. I mostly use it on the trapline.

In the past few years I’ve had a difficult time with open sights. My eyes just wouldn’t work well enough for a good sight picture so I was almost to the point of putting scopes on everything. I haven’t used my muzzleloaders much the last few years for that reason. At DT 2010, Zengunfighter did his class on vision and gave me some exercises to try to improve my reading vision. I’ve been doing some of his exercises and my vision has improved remarkably. I took pictures of the targets I shot and while I’ve certainly done better shooting in the past this is the best I’ve done in the last ten years and much better than in the last five years. Five years ago I wouldn’t have been able to hit the plate at fifty yards with iron sights. This one was shot at 100 yards. The same with the handgun. My “pattern” (not tight enough for a group) would have been all over the target. I couldn’t even adjust the sights because there was no “group.” In the short time since DT my vision has improved remarkably. I’m hoping it continues to improve. So, thanks, Zen.

After lunch I spent some time running the weed eater. Susan mowed yesterday evening so it was easy to see where the trimming needed to be done. She also washed clothes today and did some house cleaning. One of our daughter’s and her toddler and husband are coming today and will stay overnight.

This is the view from the tent. We made it to the ridge top but couldn't find the trail going down. All of the trail markers were buried in the snow. The peaks farthest away are in Glacier National Park. The snow below the peak was still about four feet deep and packed almost solid. The pictures are from a trip we took two years ago in late June. I was looking for staples in my desk and found thse and hung them on my wall. The pitctures here are pictures of the pictures.



This is why we no longer go backpacking in late June or early July and why we now check with the Forest service to see if the trails have been cleared before we go backpacking. These are trees downed by winter storms and avalanches.

This is a stream we crossed. In this photo we're on the way back down. There's still snow along the stream on the right side. The first time through I took off my shoes to cross. The water was sooo cold it felt like my feet were on fire. I wore my shoes the second time and just walked in wet shoes awhile. Susan took hers off both times.

The hens have gotten used ot me stealing their eggs so know I just push them up and get the eggs from underneath them. The white eggs are fertile duck eggs we're trying to hatch out.

The other hen just got off the nest to go foraging in the yard. Most of the time they sit side by side. Now that the other hen is gone this one will probably steal her eggs and sit on all of them. The next time she gets up it will happen to her. The broken egg in the foreground has been eaten. When they sit on them they put some under their wings. When they stand up the egg often falls against another egg and breaks. The chickens then eat the contents and push the shells out of the nest.

Susan is doing some screen repairs in the upstairs window. It get hot there in the summer with the windows closed. If they're open without the screen the mosquitoes come in by the dozens.

This is one of our potato boxes from teh root cellar. The potaoes, despite all the growth are still firm and good to eat. I put them together from some scrap lumber we had laying around. There are small holes drilled all over to let air in. The holes are too small to let mice in and the boxes are all the same size so when they're stacked the mice can't get to the potatoes.

Susan is pulling the new sprouts off the potatoes we have stored. As long as the spuds are still firm they'll keep awhile longer. Most of them will get cooked then dehydrated and stored for long term or taken when we go backpacking or bicycling.

Thursday, July 8, 2010
Woke up at 4:30 this morning. My allergies have been bad this year and it’s really cut into my sleep. Decided to stay up and work on the blog and a few other things. We’ll have company today so we won’t get much done outside. It will be a good day for shooting though!

Wore our “outdoor boots” to change the hose over and found out the plastic shoes and wet bumpers don’t go well together. I slipped off the edge of the bumper and landed on the ground. Unfortunately my leg took kind of a beating on the way down. The drop hitch and trailer ball managed to stop my leg but they weren’t very nice about it.

I got the last barrel drained about the time our second oldest daughter (we have four girls and three boys between us) and her husband came up for the day. He brought his arsenal so we burned up a lot of bullets during the day. I’ve got a double-barrel, outside hammer “coach” gun and whoever shoots it always wants to fire both barrels at the same time. He was no exception. The difference was that most use field loads and he used magnum buckshot loads. Most people have the same reaction … once is enough. He was no exception. Anyway, we finished off my target holder (targets stapled to a round power line spool) so I’ll need to pick up another one next time we’re in town with the pick-up.

Susan made chicken and dumplings in the solar oven. They were very good (as usual). The solar cooker is great. We just began using ours and we’ve gotten to where we use it every day the sun is out now. They left for home around 5:30 because our daughter has to be at work very early in the morning at her job. She’s the dairy manager at one of the grocery stores in town. I did some more writing and research then went to bed around 10:30. Susan ran the power mower for awhile in the evening (it’s cooler) then wrote for awhile before going to bed.

We’ve had a lot of rain this spring and everything is nice and green which keeps the fire danger down low. Unfortunately, it’s also made it a very bad year for allergies.

Friday, July 9, 2010
Up early today. I awoke at 4:00 am and finally gave up on going back to sleep and got ut of bed at 5:00. Worked on an article until about 7:15 when Susan got up. We had our morning ritual mix of French vanilla coffee mixed with hot cocoa, talked a while then I had breakfast. My usual breakfast is a couple of eggs cooked sunny-side-up with fried potatoes. Susan got some of our Yukon Gold potatoes (last year’s harvest) out of the root cellar yesterday so I used one for my fried spuds this morning. They are my favorite potato but they don’t produce as heavily as the others so we don’t plant a lot of them. That makes them a treat when we do use them.

I went out to fed the dog at about 6:30 and when I scooped out the dog food three of the chickens came running over. I forgot to shut them in last night. The dog does not share her food so the chickens followed me back to the chicken coop and I fed them there. Of course one couldn’t figure out how to get in the pen and was running frantically back and forth along the fence so I had to pick it up and carry it to the door … a total distance of about three feet! After raising chickens and turkeys it’s easy to tell where the pejorative “bird brain” originated.

I spent the rest of the day working on an article. Susan went out to the root cellar and went through the potatoes and carrots we have left in there from last year. The eyes of the potatoes are sprouting so she picks them off, cuts up the spuds and boils them. (She’s using the solar cooker for that today.) After that she’ll dehydrate them so we can store them longer. She also checks the carrots for new growth and does them the same way.

I took a nap for a couple of hours this afternoon. Susan did some of her “witch doctoring” (herbal remedies) on the bruises on my leg. I’m starting to feel like a Mexican with my siesta during the hot part of the day. Of course anyone from the South would laugh at what we call “hot.” We start complaining when the temperature hits 80 degrees during the day. When it hit’s the 90’s we melt into a puddle of self-pity, whining like a bunch of pansies. You still need a blanket at night though.

She’ll fire up the power mower later this evening and I’ll run the string trimmer. I mowed about half the yard with the reel mower but the rest is just too tall and/or the ground is too rough.

We put a section of copper tubing in the hose where it lays on the tank's rim. Otherwise the hose kinks and the water can't flow through it.

Sunrise this morning. This was taken at 7:01 am. It's been light enough to see well since 5:oo am. It just takes it awhile to make it over the mountains and trees.

The mighty hunter with her first catch. I hope she gets a real blood lust and keeps the chipmunks and gophers in check.

I put a mark on the siphon hose so I know when the hose is all the way down to the bottom. Not far enough and it won't drain all the water out. To far and it will curl up and not drain the water out.

We haul six barrels (approximately 330 gallons) in the Dodge. When I use the S-10 I load three barrels. It takes about 45 minutes to siphon out one barrel.

When I put the hose in the barrel I have to take the hose out of the tank and drop it on the ground to start the water siphoning. We always store the hose with the ends above ground so that there is always water in the hose when we finish a barrel. That way if gravity doesn't start the water flowing we can go back toward the truck and raise the hose up to start the water flowing. I wait until it is flowing full force before putting it in the tank.

Good morning to me! I've alrady had to fix the same tire twice. Each time it was a new problem. Haven't had a flat on any other tire ... yet! I also need to replace the thermostat and ffind ot what's wrong with the starter.

We had an early morning guest behind the cabin this morning. (A doe.)

I cut the top off of an old pair of rubber insulated boots to keep by the door for quick trips outside. The top was split so rather than throw them away we decided to give them a new task in life.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

I washed dishes yesterday. After all the company over the weekend we had a stack of them! So, early this morning, I emptied a couple of 7 gallon jugs into the water barrel and refilled the reservoir over the sink using the 12 volt pump. Our youngest son took them with him and re-filled the jugs on his way back in from work this afternoon.

We both had writing to do. I did some research for one of the articles I’m working on. I needed to cancel some magazine subscriptions so I spent some time talking to a brain dead computer voice. It was one of those promotions where you get your choice of magazines (in this case, four) for a couple of dollar the first year. Three out of the four were garbage, the renewal rate was very high on the fourth one. So I called the toll free number of XEOS to cancel them. Of course cancelling one of those subscriptions is a lot more difficult than getting them. You go through all the nonsense finding your “account” then through the list of options. To cancel the subscription they ask if you want to cancel it so you say “cancel.” They then tell you that if you wait until the subscription expires you’ll be refunded your fee. Then they ask if you’d like to receive this refund in which you must say “no.” In the meantime you’re supposed to thinking that, “yes, you do want to cancel it” so you want to say “yes” but the proper response is “no.” If you say “yes,” (I tried it the second time just to see what happened) then they say the magazine will be renewed automatically when the subscription is up. In addition, they give you a couple of more options for great deals on other magazines before giving you the transaction number for your records. The first time they give the transaction numbers it’s done at warp speed. When you ask for them to repeat it (I always have them repeat it to be sure I wrote the correct number) they go at a reasonable pace. They then ask if there’s anything else they can help you with. If you say “yes” you listen to the entire thing again, BUT they can no longer recognize the magazine title when you say it so … you hang up and redial the number and go through the entire process again. It took me over a half-hour to cancel the four magazine subscriptions. Not once are you given the option of talking to a real person or given a web address to do it online.

On to the rest of the story … I updated my blog which took awhile since I hadn’t written anything for several days. After that I started up the generator and sharpened the blade on the power mower. It had taken out a few rocks and took a good bit of grinding to sharpen and re-balance it. While the genny was running I hooked up the pump and Susan gave the garden a good watering. She’d already watered part of it using the water can and refilling it from the tanks in the garden. I topped off the mower with gas and oil and it was ready to go.

On a side note, we haven’t bought a power mower in years because we can get running mowers from the dump. (We did buy both of our reel mowers.) The last one we got looked good and the motor wasn’t seized up so I took it home and dumped the old gasoline out and put in fresh gas. I primed the carburetor and pulled the starter cord and it fired right up. In a minute or tow it ran as smooth as a brand new one. I tried mowing with it and it cut like garbage. I shut it off the looked underneath expecting a dull blade. The blade was sharp but someone had put it on upside down. I turned it over and it works great. Most of the mowers we’ve picked up there just need fresh gasoline to start and run.

Anyway, on with our day. I filled up the water containers in the garden from the main water tank behind the cabin. I mowed some of the yard with the reel mower and she trimmed using hand clippers until time for supper. She’d made spaghetti using our solar cooker. When the spaghetti was finished she put cornbread mix on top and let it cook like you would dumplings. It was good but would have been better with the cornbread cooked separately. Cooking it with the spaghetti dried out the spaghetti too much.

We had lots of sun today so Susan ran the dehydrator awhile this afternoon and I ran the brass tumbler and another load of cartridge casings. Some of them are range brass I picked up where people like to shoot and take a lot of time in the polisher to clean them up.

A neighbor called and said she’d be running their pump and wanted to know if we needed water. Since the water tank behind the house was now almost empty we said sure. I went out to start the Dodge one-ton and saw that it had d flat tire on the front. I’ve had the tire off twice in the last year. Once the valve stem was leaking so I replaced it. The second time it had a very small piece of metal in it so I fixed that. I don’t know what the problem is this time because I didn’t have time to check it out last night. I just pumped it up with a little 12 volt tire pump. It started and ran well while I was pumping up the tire so I shut it off and got Susan so we could leave to get water. Then the truck wouldn’t start. I think it’s the starter now. We got our son to pull the Dodge and I started it that way. On the way to our neighbor’s it began to run hot. The thermostat was sticking. Fortunately it opened up and we made it the mile to our neighbor’s house. I parked on the slope so we could get it rolling to start it after we finished. We got their generator running to pump water from their well and Susan filled the barrels while BS’ing with the neighbor. (They have to run the well for about a half hour to clear it when they pump water. They have indoor storage tanks so the well only gets pumped once a week.) I grabbed my 22 and went gopher shooting. These were mostly young ones and pretty stupid. When I shot one another one would pop it’s head up to see what happened. So I’d shoot it too. I got eight total. Some 50-60 yard shots, some under 20. My rifle seems to be shooting high so I need to do some range work and get it back on target. Might be a new batch of ammo shooting to different point of impact.

We had some watermelon afterwards then headed back home. We had to roll the PU down the hill to start it. At the edge of my gopher shooting range another gopher was sitting up to have his picture taken. So Susan got out to oblige him. Then we saw turtle crossing the road for another photo opportunity. While she was doing that the thermostat stuck again so I drove the truck over to the crest of the hill and shut it off. She got back in and I let it roll down hill and restarted it. The thermostat opened up and we headed home with our water barrels (6) filled. The thermostat behaved the rest of the way home and I backed it up and began siphoning out the barrels. It takes about 45 minutes per barrel so I time it and go change over to another barrel every 45 minutes or so. By then it was late so I still have four barrels to drain this morning. When I go out the tire will be flat again too and I’ll still need to fix the starter and replace the thermostat. It’s a good thing it’s my wood and water hauler so I don’t have to depend on it to get me to work.

I set my live trap outside the garden yesterday and caught a young gopher. I disposed of it and will be setting the trap again today to try to catch a couple of chipmunks who’ve taken up residence near the garden. Since our big cat disappeared we’ve been having gopher and chipmunk problems. The cat used to kill everything smaller than it was and kept them in check around the house.

When I went out to swap the hose to the next barrel last night the kitten had caught a mouse. We finally have a cold blooded killer on the prowl. Good!



Thursday, July 8, 2010
Woke up at 4:30 this morning. My allergies have been bad this year and it’s really cut into my sleep. Decided to stay up and work on the blog and a few other things. We’ll have company today so we won’t get much done outside. It will be a good day for shooting though!

Susan sitting by the fire in the morning writing on her computer. The mornings have been pretty cool the last week. We've had a fire every morning to drive out the morning chill. We've also had to cover some of the plants in the garden at night (mostly corn, tomatoes and peppers).

Susan mowed around the grapvines we planted. "Mowed" is used loosely since it's mostly low growing shrubs and small sticks on the ground.

These are some "cones" we're trying to make. We need some lightweight plexiglass but haven't been able to find any. These are made out of shelf lining but they're kind of flimsy so they need some support inside. Ideally they'll stand abut two feet tall when done right.

Friday, July 2 through Tuesday, July 6

The holiday weekend was a flurry of activity with kids, friends, and neighbors visiting. Today (Wednesday) is the first day we’ve had without rain. We picked up a guy at the airport on Thursday to bring him to Eureka to take part in a bicycle ride that will follow the Continental Divide from Canada to Mexico. He’s part of a group that’s been hashing out the details for almost a year. They took off and rode from Eureka to the border then back down to a campground in National Forest land. Susan and our youngest son went out to see them the first night. From there they took the long way around going east then south then west again to camp at Red Meadow Lake in the Flathead National Forest on Friday night. Susan and I drove out with a case of beer and a sack full of cookies to meet them there. It’s 18 miles from our cabin to the lake as the crow flies. It’s almost 50 miles by road. It took us 2 ½ hours to drive there over our mountain roads. About ten miles are on paved roads. The rest are classified by the Forest Service as “unimproved,” “seasonal,” “not maintained for public use,” and in places, “four-wheel-drive recommended.” When we got there about half had opted for an easier route to the next destination so only four were at the lake. (To be fair they covered some horrendous terrain that day over rough, mountain roads, lots of up and down, and in cold rain for part of the day.) They were so cold they didn’t even want the beer. We brought some things back to mail home for a couple of them. They’d met a couple camping there from out-of-state so there was a good fire going and the people camping offered to let them put their gear in the van for the night so they didn’t have to hang it from the trees. There was a lot of fresh bear sign around the lake.

It’s been interesting talking to them. One guy was surprised to see so many trees. He’s from the east coast and the environmental wackos had told him that logging had pretty much eliminated the forests in Montana. Most of the time the trees are so thick you can only see about 50 yards and they’ll be that way all through Montana. They’re scared spitless of bears as well. Of course they’ll be riding through some of the highest concentrations of grizzlies in the lower 48 but still they’ll be lucky to even see one.

We gave them the cookies and the good news that most of tomorrow’s ride would be downhill. If you ever plan a trip like that start in the late spring at the Mexican border and go north the rest of the summer. They’ve been riding alongside old snowdrifts and may be snowed on before they leave the state. We don’t even go backpacking until late July because we got tired of hitting snow in the back country.

Like a dummy I didn’t bring a fishing rod. It’s a good lake for trout. It was another 2 ½ hours driving home afterward.

I put a lot of time into finishing up an article. It’s a common subject so it was difficult to get a slant to it that was fresh (and marketable). When I finally got the text finished I worked all day Monday on getting the photos taken and drawings made then wrote photo captions and the cover letter and put everything on disk with paper back-ups and got the package ready to mail. And all for an article that’ll probably pay $250.00. I sure am thankful for digital cameras. It makes my writing life here a lot easier. I have four more partially completed articles that I need to get done. Now that the planting is finished we both have more time to write.

We had kids up the fourth to watch and shoot fireworks. This is the first time I can remember when we didn’t have to worry about fires. Everything is green and wet. A neighbor came over with a new toy in the afternoon. He bought a Glock 45 automatic and I got to help break it in. It’s the first time I ever shot a Glock and they are nice. It’s the best double action trigger pull I’ve ever seen on a semi-auto. For someone who has so little experience with firearms he’s a pretty good shot. But then he’s the type of person who is probably going to be good at whatever he sets his mind to. It was a pleasant couple of hours with him and his son, with the smell of gunpowder lingering in the air. He’s probably going to start reloading also.

Our youngest son took off in the evening to help get the fireworks display set up where he works at a private golf course. We watched the display later in the evening then came home to shoot our own.

Monday was slow getting started which tends to happen when we stay up late the night before! I spent the day finishing up the article (as I already said). Susan got some work done in the garden, mowing around the new grape vines, planting more potatoes, turnips and beets and weeding.

We rode bicycles into town Tuesday to mail the article and pick up our mail at the post office. We decided to stop in at a new little eatery outside of town. The owners had a place in a nearby town (wide spot in the road) way off the highway but sold it and opened up shop on the highway. They offer pizza, pastries and a few other things. The pizza is very good but expensive and it’s not fast food. Each one is made from scratch. We were there over an hour. They have breakfast menus also so the next time we go it will probably be in the morning. We took our time and did a lot of “socializing” while in town. You get to know most of the main characters and usually spend awhile gabbing at each stop. We like life in rural, out-of-the-way places.

The final step! If these work out we'll probably add more next year. Then we'll have grapes for jelly, grape juice, and wine making.

We planted the grapes between the poles. I had to fill in the hole slightly with compost to get the plant at the right depth.

I'm tamping the earth (more like clay) around the post to hold it steady.

This is where we'll put out grape vines. I'll set three posts then we'll plant the two grape plants between the posts. I'll need to string some wire later to train the vines as they grow.

We planned on using new straw for mulching but can't seem to hit the fed stores at the right time. We've always been after they sold the last they had and before they got the next shipment in so we're using straw we've had around several years. It works but is more labor intensive. The straw's pretty crumbly with a lot of dust and mold. (Try not to breathe the dust!)



We used potatoes and carrots from the root cellar, home shot, butchered and canned venison chunks from the pantry and spices grown in the garden. Add in the free heat from the sun and it's the kind of thing we've been working toward these last seven years. Of course the clouds moved in after we set it up but it was still done by meal time in the evening.

Our first time use of a solar oven. We ordered this one last winter. We looked at several but this one had the best reviews.

These are the supports that will go on the ends. I ran out of spikes so I'll have to wait to finish it until we go to town again.

This is what it looked like after the initial clearing of trees and brush.

The future home of our elevated water tank. I've got a steel tank that holds between 300 to 400 gallons from the neighbor's place. We're going to elevate it and run some pipes to have gravity fed water for the garden. It will also increase our water storage capacity.

We ran out of the small vacuum seal bags so Susan cut some of the large bags into quarters and resealed the edges to use them at the smaller size. We'll get more next time we're in town. When the buckets are full we'll cache them.

These are some of the things we put in "Christmas Caches." We call them that because they're made up of things that might behard to find a few yeas after TEOCAWKI (should that ever occur). They contain "treat" items like chocolate, candy, gum, coffee, cocoa mix, etc.. Nothing essential for life but things that we'd miss if they weren't around. If we never "need" them and they're approaching their expiration dates we'll let grandkids do some treasure hunts to "recover" them at special times just for fun.