Mountains and Crows

On Friday, a friend and I traveled to Rexburg, Idaho.  The drive over was so pretty looking at all the different views of mountains.  Most of the pictures were deleted because of blurriness from moving in the vehicle but I did get a few pictures that turned out pretty good.  Enough to see the beauty of the scenery.  I know, a lot of people would look at these pictures and think……what beauty does she see in this?…..looks like a lot of nothingness out in the middle of know where to me.  To my thinking, NEVER….there is beauty everywhere if you just look.

As we were coming out of Wal-Mart, there were a couple of crows hanging out in the parking lot grubbing on any bits of food that people had thrown on the ground.  This must have been one of their regular routines because they didn’t seem the least bit bothered that people were walking all around them, headed to their vehicles.  My thought was….crows….Halloween….yeah.  I love the Fall and Halloween season!

Snowy Mountains

Yesterday, we got a tiny skiff of snow on the mountains but today, it looks like the mountains surrounding our little valley got covered.  I’m hoping we still have a few more warmer days in the forecast…..if not, it’s going to be a long, long winter.  The last picture doesn’t have too much snow and those hills are the ones closest to our home.  Burrrr, even looking at all that snow makes me cold.

Mackay BBQ Weekend

Our nephew, niece and their four children came up for BBQ weekend.  They arrived late Friday night and then we stayed up talking till well after 1am visiting.  We got up the next morning and I was preparing IHOP pancakes (knock-off recipe) for breakfast when their baby spotted the chocolate chips in the pantry.  He kept wanting the chocolate chips so I thought……hmmmm…..why not, and I topped the pancakes with chocolate chips.  I’m sure plenty of people have done this before but it was new to all of us and they really tasted quite good.  We had some time before the BBQ so everyone went  outside while I stayed in the house cleaning up after breakfast.  Pretty soon, the girls came running in the house wanting a camera so they could take pictures of the cowboys…….real live cowboys!  After they calmed down a bit, I got the story out of them that there were real live cowboys coming up the road.  I got my camera and went to see what all their excitement was about.  They took me to the front of the house and showed me their excitement.  Our neighbors had been moving cattle and were headed back up the road.  They stopped and talked to us and asked the girls if they would like a ride on the horses.  I think the BBQ excitement just went out the window at that point.  City girls on country horses – YESSSSSSSSS!

Then, of course, they wanted to get a picture of the real-life COWGIRL.

When it was time, we headed to the BBQ.  The Mackay BBQ is an event the occurs every year at the tourist park.  People come from all over, just to get a free roast beef sandwich and enjoy the company and entertainment.  A fire is started the night before the BBQ in a big brick oven and then many, many roasts are put on trays.  After everything is ready to go, the roasts are wheeled into the oven where they cook all night long, ready for the big event the following afternoon.

That evening after dinner and everything had quieted down a bit, we headed outside for smores.  Instead of using graham crackers, chocolate bars and marshmallows, we did the cheat smores where we just added roasted marshmallows to fudge stripe cookies.  Fun, Fun, Fun!

Clouds Among the Sunset

Monday evening, my husband was sitting at his computer when he said, “there’s a cool picture of the sky if you want to take a picture”.  My husband knows me very well when it comes to photography….I take pictures of EVERYTHING!  I wasn’t disappointed though when I got to the window and saw a beautiful sunset with low lying clouds layered throughout the pink.

Sewer Service

Living in the country, you have your own septic tanks that needs to be pumped out at least every 3 years…..give or take a few years.  Last time we had it cleaned, we took out the old, heavy cement slab that covered the tank and put in a new system that just needed the area around the cap cleared from the grass, making it a much easier job to get to the tank.  The man that cleans out sewer tanks drives a truck with a slogan on the side of it that states: Yesterday’s Meals On Wheels.  The first time I saw this I thought, “Eewwww”!  But now, the more I see it driving around town, I see the humor in it.  Just one of those perks from living in the country.

Osprey vs. Magpie

Last Sunday, I was headed home from a neighbors home when I spotted an osprey sitting on the top of a pole.

There was also a pesky little magpie there hopping from wire to wire really bugging the eagle.

It wasn’t until I got home and loaded my pictures on the computer that I noticed why the magpie was pestering the eagle so much……the eagle had a fish under his claws.  Ospreys are superb fishers — fish make up 99 percent of their diet.  It would have been fun to see this eagle knock the magpie for a loop.  Can you tell that I don’t care too much for magpies?  They are a totally obnoxious bird……pretty, but obnoxious.

Dinner At The Reservoir

Evan (my husband) and I went to the Mine Hill Grill tonight, purchased a bacon chicken burger with onion rings and took it up to the reservoir to eat.  When we first got there it was a bit windy but the winds tamed down and we had a nice evening.  The scenery was beautiful.

We had a rainstorm today and if you look at the darker part of the sand in the following picture, you can see where there was water run-off that went into the reservoir.

There weren’t any boaters on the reservoir but there was, however, one guy in what looked like a small inflatable pontoon boat.  It was a bit chilly but it looks like he has ski wear on.

The pavilion we were sitting under is fairly large with (if I can remember right) 6 large tables.  It is surrounded with other small pavilions, making it a nice place that several people can enjoy.  Tonight, we had the entire place to ourselves.  An enjoyable evening, indeed.

Gorgeous Dandelion – Seeds and All

This is the one, and only time I’ve seen the beauty in a dandelion.    And yes, even looking at all the little fluffs attached to all those little seedlings, I see the beauty in it.  Just look at how the sun brings it to life, shining through all the layers of fluff and seeds.  I know, later when I am out spraying and digging all the pretty yellow flowers (ahem) out of my lawn and yard, I will be asking myself how I, at one time, saw the beauty in this pretty ball of fluff.

Bottled Peaches

Another busy day canning.  Today I finished up the peaches I didn’t get to do last Saturday.  Saturday I bottled fourteen quarts of peaches but I only ended up with thirteen because one of the bottles broke during processing.  The other half of the peaches were not quite ripe enough to bottle so I finished them up today.  All-in-all, I ended up with thirty-three quarts.  Happy Dance!  I love to eat bottled peaches with toast.  Mmmm-mmm-mmm.

Mackay Rainstorm – September 5th

 

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After the storm decided to quiet down a bit, we had large puddles everywhere.

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This is the most moisture we have receive in a long, long time.  It’s kind of a bitter-sweet moment.  We really need the moisture but then again, some of the farmers around the valley have their hay down.  After the rain had stopped, I went around the road to the other side of the river to see what the rain had done.  A few years back it flooded out a road to someone's home.  Not as bad this time around.  Lot’s of mud and debris in the road and the bar pit was streaming a good flow of water but as far as I could tell, there wasn’t any damage.

After arriving home, I went in the dining area and looked out the window and saw a dove sitting on our clothes line pole, one I use to hang my plants on.  I’ve never seen a dove sitting on that pole before and it made me chuckle a bit as the thought ran through my mind about Noah sending out a dove to look for dry ground.

Then, awhile later, another theme from the scriptures…………..the rainbow, how beautiful it was!

Moose, Moose, and More Moose

Yesterday, September 3, 2013, around 6:45 a.m., my husband called telling me that a bull moose was in our field along the highway but he was on the move.  We, my cousin and I jumped in the car and headed up the road.  By the time we got there, he was quite a ways off and then as we turned our heads for a short moment to watch some deer cross the road, the moose just disappeared.  We went back to the house and headed down our back lane to see if we could see him again.  We spotted him in the hay field and shortly thereafter, he jumped the fence and disappeared in the trees.

I told my cousin that maybe we could see him again if we took the road over the bridge and headed to the other side of the river.  As we were headed that way, we saw five more moose.  One bull, two babies, and two mamas.  It was really misty because of the rain and moisture in the air so I was only able to get a picture of one mama and one baby.

I was hopeful that if we stayed there long enough that the sun would burn off the foggy mist.  Guess what?………….It did!  By that time, the bull moose and one mama and one baby had moved off into the trees but this mama and her baby stayed.

After watching them for quite some time, I guess the mama moose decided enough was enough and she urged her little one to start moving and they ran off into the trees.

Panning For Gold

My daughter and my cousin came to visit this past weekend.  My cousin is big on panning for gold so we went to some places on the river and also a creek.  Even though we didn’t get RICH, we sure had a whole lot of fun.  Who would of thought that getting mud in a pan, swishing it around with water and looking for little gold flakes (more like specks) could be so much fun.  We actually found some flecks (or what my cousin would call – flour gold) of gold but they were super tiny and wouldn’t amount to anything but still, we sure had a great time.  Just being outdoors along the river and in the hills among the pines made my day.  Who knows, where I just retired from work, maybe I’ll find my fortune panning – Ha!