2-8 July 2012 - Garden work, feed grinding, bike rides, and more ...

  Hope you all had a great Independence day.  We sure did.  The fire season is in full swing with several major fires on the Eastern side of the mountains in Montana.  Our youngest son is on one of the fire (truck) crews working on containing the blazes.  They have extinguished several smaller ones (under 100,000 acres) and are getting control of the major fires as well.  We've been fortunate in the NW corner of the state in that we've had lots of rain so the fire danger is relatively low here.  However, we have heavy growth from all the spring rain so if it dries out later this summer and catches fire we'll have some seriously hot ones going.

The wet spring has given the grass a real boost.  I used the power mower because ours was too tall for our reel mowers.  After that I trimmed around the yard and garden.  Our trimmer uses short pieces of string instead of long rolls.  You can buy the string pre-cut to length but it's a lot cheaper to just cut it from a spool yourself.  I always cut a large handful when I get ready to run the string trimmer.  I'd never buy another string trimmer that uses the short strings like this one does.

Susan got the first harvest from our garden this spring.  This is mint.  We're drying it to use primarily as tea although it has other uses as well.

My potato patch needed weeding so when the ground dried out I gave the hoe a workout.  I'll let the ground sit a few days then hill the plants.

The raspberries are looking awesome this year.  The wild strawberries are ready to pick but our domestic strawberries will be awhile yet.

I took this photo of the polar panels to show the rainbow behind them.

It looked much brighter in real life.

We had a couple of the kids come up on the 4th to help us celebrate.  We spent the afternoon shooting then had a great meal and shot fireworks later in the evening.  We went through a pile of ammo in about two hours of shooting.

Scott had mixed feelings about the fireworks.  He didn't like the noise but liked the colors.  Here he's looking over the trash left from the night before.  It was easier to clean it up the next day than to try to pick everything up at night.  It was late when we finished and the mosquitoes were thick and hungry.

After mowing with the power mower and trimming we do the whole thing again with the reel mowers.  Scott got his "mower" off the porch and helped us out a bit.

We're hoping to take a week long bicycle trip soon so Susan found all the parts to put one of the bike trailers back into its original form as a child carrier.  She found everything, put it all together then we took Scott for a short run to see if he liked it.  He did.

The next day we took off riding to Eureka.  On the way there we lost a nut off one of the screws but I had a replacement in my bike bag so we stopped along the highway and I put it on.  We can't keep a helmet on Scott.  He's figured out how to remove it himself and won't leave it on.

He does like the trailer better than the bike seat.  He has more room to relax and play.  It has pockets where he stashes his bottle, books and toys and when it's nap time he just rolls over and goes to sleep.

He woke up when we stopped at the grocery store in Eureka.  We let him out to stretch his legs and he immediately climbed into the bike seat, pulled my handlebars over and tried to operate the controls.  All during this time he was making his "motor" sounds like it was a motorcycle.

It was hot (upper 80's to low 90's ... which is really hot for around here!) so we stopped for a break at a creek on the way home.  Scott took turns sitting on grandma and grandpa's laps.

I wet my bandanna in the creek and wiped it over my head to help cool off a bit.  The creek was almost back down to normal but the water was still just a little bit cloudy from snow melt and the spring rains.  Susan waded into the creek to cool down.  We rode about 26 miles round trip.

We parked the Cherokee at the Fortine Merc. and rode to Eureka from there.  When we got back we bought a couple of gallons of gasoline for the generator then stopped at the church for water and headed home again.  Scott fell asleep a mile from home so we brought him into the cabin while he was still in his car seat.  He slept for a couple of hours after we got home.

He and Odie are pals. Odie is very protective around him and enjoys the attention even when Scott is crawling all over her.

I needed to grind more chicken food so I got out the grinder and the beans, wheat and pasta, ground it all up and mixed it together to feed the chickens.  The pasta and beans are old and outdated so we needed to make room for some new food stores.  Chickens make great garbage disposals and it's a lot cheaper than buying regular feed for them.  I ground about 35 pounds of grain.

Susan and Scott playing the piano together.  Scott watched a movie with us last night that had a lot of teenagers in their own bands and now thinks he's a rock star.  Now he "sings" while he plays.

The first couple of times he played on the piano was while he sat in Susan's lap while she was playing.  I was just seconds too late for this photo today.  When Susan left to fix dinner, Scott got down and ran to get his bear.  He then put the bear in his lap while he played the piano.  He just took it off his lap a second before the camera took the photo.  (I truly hate that lag time!)

 

26 June - 1 July, 2012 Book editing and webbed feet.

We're about to sprout webbed fet.  It's rained nearly every day which is whay the garden is waterlogged!  I check every night to be sure that we're not growing webbed feet.  So far the answer is no.

My editer at Paladin press has been going through my manuscript and we've been working at clarifying things.  That was 2 1/2 days of sitting at my desk but it was worth every minute.  He did a great job finding weak spots in the manuscript and mistakes I hadn't caught.

I have an article in the current issue (Aug/Sept) of Traditional Bowhunter magazine.  It's the one where I was standing on the ladder taking pictures.  (Shown in the blog awhile back.)  I still have articles scheduled to be printed in Back Home Mag., Backwoods Home Magazine, Backwoodsman, Fur-Fish-Game, and another one for Traditional Bowhunter.

The potatoes need weeded and hilled yet but the ground is still just a little damp!

These were planted late.  I'm surprised that they didn't rot in the wet weather we've had.

When you plant in straw it seems to take forever for the potato plants to come through.  These are up in my tires.  I have two tires stacked with straw and spuds.  We had frost the day after taking this and one of the plants got burned.  It should come back okay though.  Potatoes are hardy.

I hooked the suction pipe up to the water pump to transfer water from the main tank to the smaller ones in the garden.  We're still getting rain though so I may be filling barrels soon.

We had to run the generator to charge the battery bank after several warm, cloudy days.  When it's warm the refrigerator runs more and draws down the batteries so we sometimes need the generator to charge them back up.  While running the genny, Susan made waffles.  She made too many so we froze the extras and had them for breakfast a couple of days later.  We heat them up the same way we make toast.  We sandwich the waffles between folded auminum foil and heat them on the wood stove.

A friend on the forum here mailed some brass to me (Thanks Randy).  We were on bicycles when we rode into town to check the mail so I bungee-corded it to the rear rack on my bike and brought it home.

Our youngest son and his wife just bought and moved into their first house. They also acquired a couple of kittens who, like most kittens, are either sleeping or having fun. 

This one got up and moved into the "fun" stage, hiding and playing behind the couch.

This is the view from their back yard.

Another "pet" they inherited with the place!

While we were in town we stopped at the thrift store.  Susan didn't realize that Scott was doing his own shopping while she was doing hers.

Susan took Scott on a bike ride down to Dickey Lake (about ten miles each way).  The wind was up a bit and the water was kind of rough so there weren't many people out.

She fought the wind going but had it helping her on the way home.  It was about ten miles each way by the route she took.  We're hoping to go on a three/four day ride soon.  We're mainly waiting for a new backpacking tent (larger) we ordered to arrive and then we need a few days of decent weather.  We've been out in the rain before but would prefer nice weather with Scott along. 

Whle they were out I was home mowing the yard.  I used the power mower because it had grown so high while we were camping last week.  I've still go several hours of running the weed eater before I'm finished.

17-25 June, 2012 - Camping, fishing, horses, kayaks and bicycle rides. (Part two of two.)

Part Two

As I said earlier, some of the photos are not in the order they were taken!

Scott and I did some fishing as soon as the weather cleared a bit.  I thought he was taking a real interest in what was going on but after a few minutes he was sound asleep!  In this photo I'm fishing just above the first dam.  The dam is mostly rocks with some drifted logs and the beaver have plugged a few holes with mud and sticks.  It's spring run-off time and we've had a lot of rain so the creek is running high.

I did manage to catch my first brook trout here.  I used an orange twister tail.  This is one lure (in orange and white) I keep in my survival kits, BOB's etc.  It's worked on perch, trout, and pike which are the three most common species around here.

Our oldest son and his wife came by for a surprise visit on Tuesday.  It had rained constantly for a week or more and everything was soaked.  We finally got a fire started using newspaper for tinder.  Fire starters just didn't have enough heat to get the wood going.  We broke some dead limbs and twigs off trees for kindling but they were so wet that I could literally squeeze water out of them like a sponge.  I cut some larger stuff and split it but it was wet almost to the center.  We worked about 30 minutes and never got a fire hot enough to dry out even the kindling so we finally called it quits.  Birch bark and pine pitch would have been the best option but there were no birch trees nearby and most of the growth was new so there was little pitch to be found either.  We had the wood stove going in the camper so we did have a warm place to go if we got chilled.

The next day I did some searching and found a dead, standing lodgepole pine and cut it down.  Even it was wet for an inch below the bark but it was big enough to split and get some dry wood from the center.  I cut it into firewood length, split it and built a decent fire outside.  I also cut a bunch up in short lengths for use in the wood stove.  My only complaint about using a 20 lb. propane bottle for a wood stove is that the wood needs to be so short.  It isn't a problem with a chain saw but if you're cutting it with a bow saw it's a lot of work!  I'd hate to depend on a bow saw for cutting our winter's supply of wood.  Cutting anything over three inches in diameter is a slow, labor intensive, process.

Two of our kids and thier spouses and thier four kids came to see us on Saturday.  It was a great day for company with good weather and lots to do.  Here, Kevin and Bryan are fishing.  They are both good at it (much better than me) and caught lots of fish.  Most were squawfish with a few brook trout thrown in.

Meanwhile the younger kids played in the kayaks in a shallow lagoon.  Scott's having some problems with his "swim suit."

In the meantime some of the adults are going on a horse expedition.  This is good horse country with lots of old logging roads to explore.  Amy brought one of her horses and Bryan and his wife brought three of theirs.  (Well, two-and-a-half horses anyway.)

Susan used one of Kristina's horses when she went riding.  Kristina (Bryan's wife - We actually have a Kristina and Kystina - Tristan's wife - in our family) is an expert when it comes to horses.  Her horse is one of the best trained I've ever seen.

After the long day of riding she took Bryan's horse into the lagoon to play in the water.  Naturally, when I had the camera ready he wouldn't do much but finally splashed up the water with his feet.  After I left he really got into it and stuck his hed in the water and splashed it everywhere.  It's the only horse I've ever seen that likes to play in the water.

With a toddler around the laundry never ends.  Susan is washing a batch of Scott's clothes in the bucket.  We dump the bucket away from the water when we're finished.

Anna had a blast as did everyone else.  Here she's running to the camper with one of Scott's toys.  The biggest hit though was a little car that she and Andrew must have rode down the camper's ramp about a thousand times during the day.

Jonathan giving his little sister a ride in the kayak.  The water in the lagoon was about knee deep and perfect for the kids to play in.

David in the closest kayak, Andrew in the farthest and Jonathan wading.  Ice (the dog) is in the water and those who took off on the horses are returning to camp.

Sunday morning we rode into Olney to buy some ice at the general store.  It's a pleasant ride about 4 miles each way.  Here Susan stopped to send a text message.  At this spot we had four bars of service.

Susan filled the cooler with ice then put it in the shade with an old bean-bag cushion over it to insulate it further.

We had just barely enough service at camp to send text messages if you held the phone up high eneough. Another daughter brought her Jet Pack (mifii) to camp and we could even hook up to the internet using it.  It may open up some new possibilities for us. 

Our middle daughetr and her husband came on Sunday. Logan is about two months younger than Scott and loves to play in the water.

So does his sister, Hanna.

This is our newest grandchild, Lincoln.

Scott did a nose-dive but caught himself.  In stopping his fall though he also splashed water and mud on his face.  This is kind of his "somebody help" face!  When camping, keeping the laundry current with an active toddler is a full-time job.

Justin and I did a little fishing.  We caught literally, hundreds of fish but most were squawfish.  We kept these six brookies for eating though.

And they were good fried in butter with a little lemon pepper seasoning.

Monday ... We took the bikes out for a ride to the Upper Stillwater lake.  The road parallels the train tracks for a while.  Since this is the only east/west line for a hundred miles it gets lots of traffic.  The wind was blowing and raising whitecaps in the open parts of the lake.  This is a bay towards the south end of the lake.  Note the beaver lodge off the spit of land.

We like to keep our eyes open for wild foods on our excursions.  This mushroom was well hidden in a patch of kinnikinnik with orange leaves.  With all the rain there are thousands of mushrooms growing.  Just prior to taking this photo I saw one of the largest puffball mushrooms I've ever seen in NW Montana.  Unfortunately I ran over it with the bicycle before I saw it.

Anyone want to take a guess on what kind of mushroom is pictured?

These are Thimbleberry bushes. They're like a mild flavored raspberry and are very common in our area.  They won't be ready to pick for another month or so but it's good to see so many blossoms.

The largest brookie out here yet!  I caught him on a Panther Martin spinner.  I went fishing one last time before we left and caught three more brook trout.  I was using ultra-light tackle so this guy was fun to reel in.  I startled a muskrat in one place.  I was next to the beaver lodge and the muskrat walked up out of the water.  When it was all the way out it looked over and saw me in my kayak about three feet away and it jumped back into the water with a big splash.  Muskrats are usually a little more discrete when they enter the water.

It was a great week camping.  We had 15 of our 20 kids and grandkids out there at one time or another during the week.