Winter's Fury

The temperatures have dipped low for the past couple of days, and will continue to do so through the weekend. But by Tuesday it's supposed to be around 23, which will feel like spring after the sub zero temperatures we've been having. We'll all be walking around in short sleeves!

There is a glimmer of optimism in this frigid hell; there is an obvious lengthening of daylight in the evenings. Driving home 5:15 tonight, there was still light over the mountains to the west - finally!! I swear that's the only thing that gets me through these long, cold winters.

On Tuesday it warmed up all the way to 33 degrees and melted a fair amount of the snow away. Unfortunately all of that melted snow froze solid last night and the roads were as slick as a skating rink. Driving home, traffic was moving at 20-25 miles per hour in a 45 mile zone. Most people were patient and driving very safely, although there were a few idiots who thought they could drive better - and faster - than everyone else. A few of them tried to take themselves out of the gene pool, as evident by their cars in the ditch alongside the road.

As I shoveled snow Tuesday night, for what seemed like the millionth time in three months, I noticed icicles hanging around the rim of my patio table, and looked sort of like a parasol with fringed along the edges.

I was certain that with the coming cold front, the birds would be gluttonous at the feeders, but I've seen no sign of them for three days. They usually leaves "scraps" of seed all over the ground, that the deer vaccume up at night. It doesn't mean they haven't been here, just haven't left any evidence. Perhaps they've gobbled up every little morsel to prepare for the cold snap.

The deer still come - they leave fresh tracks across the driveway every evening. Sometimes if I wake up in the middle of the night I peek out the window to see if they're in the yard. But I've never seen them. They slip in and out like shadows.

The forecast for last night and today was six to ten inches of snow in the valley, but fortunately (so far), we haven't seen any of it. I'm hoping it has either passed us by, or it's just too darn cold to snow. Since the first of October we've had 23.6 inches of snow. My driveway is 20 x 80 feet, or 230,400 square inches. So, I've actually shoveled 5,437,440 inches of snow so far this winter....

Spring arrives in 80 days!!!

Christmas in Montana

Very foggy yesterday morning, so much so that I could not even see across the road. By 10:30 however, it began to burn off and the sky was SO blue - it beckoned to me and I headed out for a short road trip down the Bitterroot Valley. The mountains reflected the bright blue sky and everything was crystalized by the heavy hoar frost. The cattails alongside the road looked like rock sugar on a stick. They were back-lit by the sun and so beautiful - unfortunately there was no place to pull over safely to take any photos of them. Too bad, would have been a great shot!

I turned off at the Stevensville junction, stopped near the bridge and got some photos of the Bitterroot River and the mountains. It wasn't too terribly cold, although I did have to keep my camera tucked inside my jacket periodically, to keep it from freezing up on me.

As the day went on, the weather actually turned out to be fairly pleasant. I think it got up to around 25 degrees, and with the sunshine, lots of the ice melted quickly. Walked around the destered streets in town for a short while, then headed back home.

On my way back out to the highway, I stopped at the gate of Fort Owen to get a few more shots of the Bitterroot Mountains. As I was standing along the fenceline (only about 15 feet off the highway), a guy came driving up on his "gator" and asked if he could help me. I told him no, I was just taking some pictures, and he sat there looking at me with a sort of suspicious look on his face, and I wondered if he was upset at me "trespassing". While Fort Owen is on private property, it is also a state park, and therefore has public access. Moron...

Heading back toward Missoula I saw several small flocks of turkeys along the road, and back into Lolo I was hoping the buffalo were near the fence so I could get some pictures of them in the snow. But they were not, so I continued on my way.

Stopped at Kona Ranch Road and pulled into the river access parking lot, parked the rig and headed down to the edge of the Clark Fork River. The pine trees were thick with snow, so much so that the branches were drooping heavily. There were small "puddles" of ice in the river, which was moving at a pretty fast pace. The bridge must have recently been painted, for it was a bright orange (sort of reminded me of the Golden Gate - at least it was the same color), and was a striking contrast to the blue water and bright white snow.

A short walk along the river bank and I headed up toward the road and out across the bridge, where it was tricky footing. On the other side in the beaver pond, a flock of about 40 or 50 Canada geese were resting. The sun warmed the icy cold water, creating a light steam that rose behind the geese, and a few deer wandered along the bank. Looking south I noticed some heavy clouds closing in on the sun so I headed back to the car. By then the temperature was beginning to drop considerably and I headed home to my warm flannel "jammies" and a bowl of hot soup.

All in all a good way to spend Christmas day!

Winter Beauty

Yesterday was the Winter Solstice, a full moon and a full lunar eclipse. Those who practice Paganism definately had something to celebrate! I don't recall anything like that ever happening before, at least not in my lifetime.

I did not stay up to see the eclipse, as it occurred at around 2:00 am Mountain Time, although I would have loved to try and get photos of it. I thought about setting my alarm so I could get up and see it, but I'm sure if I had, my dog just might start waking me up at 1:30 every morning. Damn thinking dogs...

TWO whole minutes more of daylight today! Hope everyone had a chance to enjoy that.

The past few days have also provided six inches of fresh snow to add to the ever growing berms on either side of my driveway. While shoveling last night, I noticed a very narrow "trail" across my neighbor's yard that apparently crossed my driveway and continued on the other side. The deer have been attracted to the bird seed and suet spilled from the bird feeders by over-zealous woodpeckers. Their small, pointed hoof prints revealed that, rather than detour to the snow-free sidewalk, they relentlessly follow a habitual trail, which may have possibly been set down well before human habitation cluttered up the landscape here, and they stumble over the piles of shoveled snow. To help them out a little, I shoveled out a narrow path through the berms on both sides. This morning I noticed that they had avoided the snow berms and had filed through those paths on their way to - and from - the bird seed.

Sometime late last night, a thick, heavy fog rolled in and settled. That, combined with temperatures of between zero and five degrees, created the most beautiful hoar frost that attached itself to everything. The pine trees on the hill behind my house are coated with it, looking like heavily flocked Christmas trees. With the frosted pine cones, red berries, rose hips, dried leaves and a host of other "leftovers", why in the world would anyone want to decorate store-bought trees when Mother Nature has already provided them for us.

BRRRRR!

Winter blew in with a vengence! After several days of below zero weather (think wind chills somewhere in the neighborhood of -20), with blowing and drifting snow, we finally settled in to more normal patterns of snow, sunshine, melting, snow, sunshine, etc. Two days ago the snow was blinding in the sun, with almost spring-like temperatures, yesterday was warm but overcast, and today is cold, gray and stormy over the mountains. Typical Montana; if you don't like the weather just wait ten minutes - it'll change!

If you're not a skier or snowmobiler, you may think of winter in Montana as a huge inconvenience. It's cold, the roads are icy and it's a toss of the coin whether or not your car will start. And those days when the sky is a bright, clear blue and and the sun is shining turn out to be incredibly deceptive when you step outside into biting cold air that almost literally takes your breath away. But winter only makes us that much more appreciative of the warmer weather, even though it usually arrives way too late and departs way too early. It always seems that just as you're on the verge of a serious case of "Cabin Fever" spring suddenly peeks out and says "Gotcha!!"

My only real complaint so far is that I've had to shovel my long driveway several times already - by hand. Every year I ask Santa for a small, manageable snow blower, but apparently I haven't been good enough during the year...

I try to take winter on face to face (and yes, sometimes it's a real stretch). I still enjoy making snow angels and snow sculptures. I say 'snow sculptures' because anyone can make a snowman. I prefer to try my hand at other "critters" like dragons and dolphins. It's a little bit more of a challenge because the snow needs to be packed much tighter to hold the sculpture in place, but if you pack it too tight, you'll crumble the entire thing!

Photography during the cold winter months can be challenging, but well worth the trouble.

I also feed the birds in the winter and my feeders are full of Flickers, Magpies, Chickadees, Ring-Necked Doves, Pine Siskins, Goldfinches (in their winter coats), House Finches, a Downey Woodpecker, Gray Partridges, and this year I've been treated to an Eastern Blue Jay! Tracks in the snow tell me that deer and mice also frequent the feeders at night to gobble up any seed left on the ground by the birds.

Winter Solstice is December 21, at which time the days begin to get longer - and there are only 98 days until Spring!!

BOO!

Every year around Halloween, Bannack Ghost Town hosts a "ghost walk". It's living history program with a twist; volunteers dress up as some of the infamous characters of Bannack's history, and tell their stories - at night, by lantern light. Everyone has their faces painted white and evidence of their demise, whether it was a gunshot, fall, or hangin'. I've been to this several times before, but decided to have a little fun with it this year, and took photos in sepia to make them look more authentic. On Saturday, October 23 a bunch of us went to chase the goblins around the streets of Bannack. It was drizzly, breezy and cold, but we were ready for it -- bring on the ghosts!

A couple of town drunks try to decide what to do with the body of Henry Plummer, the notorious road agent and self appointed sheriff of Bannack.
Two of the girls who worked at Skinner's Saloon.

The ghost of Dorothy, who drowned in a settling pond when she was nine years old. She is said to still reside in the Meade Hotel.
The ghost of the demented school teacher still casts a large shadow over the Bannack school house.

Changing Seasons

At 9:00 it was only 30 degrees and breezy, with heavy cloud cover and very chilly! The sun came out for a while at around 10:30 and made for an almost pleasant day.

Went out on the trail in spite of the chill, but nothing was moving except the creek and a few magpies. As they flew about with their tail feathers spread out, I suddenly realized how prehistoric they look - somewhat like Archaeopteryx. Interesting.

With the foliage dying back the rose hips and snowberries are much more obvious, and they’re everywhere – offering some sustenance to the deer and bears, as well as the few birds that remain through the winter months.

A lone fungus clings to the trunk of a cottonwood tree, seemingly oblivious to the close to freezing weather. And it appears to be a mushroom, and not a shelf fungus as I would expect to find there. I’ve never seen a mushroom growing anywhere but on or near the ground, but this one was about 15 feet up.

There are new mullein plants everywhere, and it seems like a strange time of year for them to sprout – but there they were, hugging the ground like small, fuzzy heads of cabbage.

A short time outside was all I could take this morning, and I headed back inside - content to settle down next to the fire with a good book and a cup of hot tea.

Thunder Lizards

Did you that the University of Montana in Missoula has a Paleontology Department? Yesterday (October 13), was the very first, official, "National Fossil Day". It was created by the National Park Service in conjunction with Earth Sciences Week. To kick off this special day, the UM Geoscience Department held an open house and invited the public to tour the paleontology facilities.

The Paleontology Department began in 1895 with a grant from the Smithsonian Institute, and originally focused mainly on fossils from Montana and Wyoming (they have since expanded to include global studies). The very first masters degree in Paleontology was earned from UM by Earl Douglas, who also founded Dinosaur National Monument in Utah.

1,500 types of specimins are housed here, including 25,000 species of plants, invertebrates and vertibrates from all over the world. The collection at UM contains over 100,000 fossils!

The first thing you notice is the T-Rex skull as you walk into the building. With seven inch fangs exposed by a gaping mouth, it's easy to see how the T-Rex was one of the most feared creatures that ever walked the earth.

Other displays show the snout of a wild boar-like creature that was as big as a large horse, also with impressive fangs; the femur of an emu-like prehistoric bird; examples of sea life (sponges, corals, shells and invertebrates), and mastadon bones and teeth.

We were given a tour of the prep lab, where bones and fossils are cleaned, reconstructed (if neccesary), and photographed for cataloging. Here they had a broken mastadon bone that was in the process of being repaired for display, some fish fossils and a large amonite, 12 inches across. One student was also researching microscopic life from an ancient coral reef off the Oregon coast.

From there we were treated to a view of the collection room, where the public is almost never allowed. Here over the fossils are kept in a state of the art storage facility, and we were allowed to see - and photograph - several displays, including fish fossils so well preserved that you could see the scales.

Another up and coming field is Paleoforensics, the study of disease and injury of fossils. I've always thought forensics would be so interesting, and here it combines two areas of interest to me. If only I could afford the classes...

It was a fascinating look at these impressive creatures, and I also found out that the Paleontology Department is looking for volunteers - I've already added my name to the list!

Fall is in the Air

Autumn officially began one week ago today, and signs of the season are everywhere, filling the senses. The dogwoods are turning red, maples changing to brilliant orange, and the mountainsides are spashed with golden tamaracs. Along the creek, the cottonwoods are also turning gold. Their leaves dance and sing in a chilly breeze that coaxes them from the safety of the treetops, and they flutter gently to the ground, littering the trail. The newly dropped leaves crunch under my feet and there is a strong earthy smell to the rotting debris.

There is a definate morning chill in the air. Even though we are having daytime temps of 70+ degrees and I'm still leaving windows open at night, I wake up to interior temperatures of 48 - 53. No problem for me however, being half polar bear and all. Besides, it's somewhat reminiscent of camping weather, and for me that's a comforting feeling.

Many signs point to it being a long, cold winter; the deer came down early to lower elevations and geese were already flocking over a month ago, and most of the songbirds headed south early this year (although the last osprey didn't leave until early September). Hung what was probably the last load of laundry on the clothesline yesterday.

Finally re-lit the furnace :( Good-bye summer. Time to put away the camping gear and lawn sprinklers, and dig out the snow boots and flannel pajamas. Time to winterize - the house, the car, the dog kennels...

Dutch Oven Cook-off

On Saturday, July 17, Travelers' Rest State Park hosted what we hope will become an annual "Dutch Oven Cook-off". Several teams set up their "kitchens" and got to work preparing a three course meal (main course, side dish and dessert). It was interesting to see how each kitchen prepared their meals just a little bit differently than the others, while one team went all out and even dressed accordingly.

Once all of the prep work was done, it was simply a matter of waiting for the food to cook and the judging to inform us of the outcome (I volunteered to be a judge but alas, you have to have several years of Dutch oven cooking experience and be certified by their national organization - and no, they did not take on apprentices...)

While everyone waited for the food to cook, there was a very basic class on Dutch oven cooking, along with samples of what they were making for the class. Bob Dowdy and his wife, from Great Falls, cooked up a big batch of jambalaya and ooooh, was it delicious! The lady teaching the class made a breakfast by lining the Dutch oven with biscuits from a can, then topping it with scrambled eggs, bacon, and hash browns - never got a taste of it but it sure smelled good!

Throughout the day there were other demonstrations and activities, and there was a really good , steady turnout of visitors. And the nice thing was that every kitchen had copies of their recipes set out for the taking.

Finally the food was ready and the judging began. The judges had to taste everything and score each dish according to taste, originality and presentation. It would have been tough! But the best part was, after the judging was completed and awards given out, everyone - including visitors and park staff - got to eat all of this delicious food! There was cranberry pork roast, carrot cake, garlic sweet potatoes, stuffed pork chops, "Best Ever" corn bread (and it truly was), sourdough cheese bread, a four layer lemon torte, soups, stews... the list goes on and on. And it was all DELICIOUS!

The folks who competed and judged said they had a great time and talked about coming back again next year - and doing this as a fund raiser! One of them told me that at the Sacajawea Center they charge $5.00 for six tickets, and you use one ticket to "buy" a taste of food. And you can buy more tickets when you run out. Last year they made over $600 for the Sacajawea Center! If TR was to advertise it right, we could make well over that amount, and they're looking for another fund raiser besides the auction - so this could be just what they're looking for - food always brings people out.