Big Horn Ram

 

Buffalo shedding his winter fur

 

Sunset reflected on clouds at Renner Wildlife Management Area

 

Mammatus clouds

 

Near Red Lodge, MT....redux

I drive by this same spot today and snapped a pic with my phone to illustrate the difference the moody skies provided.

White knuckle drive

This may not look like a white knuckle drive....but it was. This was the road from Red Lodge back Eastward toward Billings yesterday. What made it white knuckle- for me, anyway- was the 7% downhill grade, the coming hairpin turn, and the fact that the road was as slick as snot!!  Made it back down without incident. Thank goodness there was no other traffic!!

Near Red Lodge, Montana

I'm exploring this southern part of Montana for a couple of days, and this is the first time I've been to Red Lodge. It's a beautiful town that reminds me somewhat of Telluride.  In this cell phone photo, both the sun and an emerging snow fall are battling over this scene. The road leading into the mountains here is someone's private road. Can you imagine that being your driveway??

Just your average weekend...

Cloud Peak...from the front deck

I'm not sure if I'll do this daily, but I'm somewhat sad to see the snow receding up into the Cloud Peak wilderness. This may not look wonderful from a cellphone camera (and zoomed), but Cloud Peak is the snow-covered dome just left of center.

Yeah, about that "imminent update"....

So, exactly 4 months ago I posted a short note that an update would be imminent.  I think that pretty well demonstrates how committed I am to this blog.  We've had some great history, and it's always just kind of there in the background, but I have been neglecting it.  Mostly because of facebook.  I forget that some folks follow just the blog, and I'm in the habit of micro-blogging every day....sometimes moreso.  That means sometimes it feels redundant to write out what I've been doing here.

What I think might be a better approach for me is to use this as a photoblog - maybe not so much written content, but a regular posting of snapshots.  This will be easy because I've got a pretty ok camera on my phone, and I take a good dozen or so shots a day.  The beauty is the Blogger app, which allows me to upload photos (along with commentary) directly from my phone.

For a basic run-down of what I've been up to over the last few months - I'll see if I can't recap that here.  First off, I've moved.  I'm still in Hyattville, but I'm now at a log cabin next to a creek and a beaver pond and  some cow pastures.  It's down a 2-mile long dirt road.  At first, I was worried that it would be too remote.  Since then, I've removed all the window coverings and really love being able to sit on the front porch in the morning in my PJs and not be concerned that anyone can see me.  I love seeing the beaver build his dam at dusk, and there is a mated pair of sandhill cranes that sing-up the sun every morning down by the creek.  Life really probably couldn't get any better, but it has.

Since December, I've been able to help out on a few ranches nearby - for sheep shearing, calving, and cattle moving - and some of this by horseback!!  The hardness of the water (I suspect) has really helped my nails - formerly as strong as wet newspring - not only grow, but strengthen. If you've ever seen my nails you know what a big deal this is.  I've been working with the state's economic development forum and small business administration - and have been enjoying some guest-lecturing spots with them as well.

My company is officially a company, too - Paintrock Consulting Services, LLC.  I know, I have a lot of LinkedIn updating to do.  While I've bought the domain name, I haven't built the website yet, either. Oh, and I finally went ahead and bought a Verizon network extender - so now I can use my cell phone at home (aka, "the cabin") - provided that the internet or electricity don't go out on me.

All right, I think that pretty much does it for updates for now.  I'll be sure to post some snapshots tomorrow.  Thanks to those (all 5) of you who still read this blog and prompt me from time to time to keep it alive!  I'm glad it's here, I'm just bad about giving it the attention it deserves.

Golden Hour

The close view is South from my deck...the long view looks East. Daisies, citrus mint, lemon balm, and found feathers make a great windowsill during the Golden Hour.

Update is Imminent!

Recently I have been doing a bit of exploring nearby towns in Wyoming, in a bid to determine where I want to live ultimately.  Currently, the home I am renting in Hyattville is perfect, but it is a home base from which I can hunt for more permanent housing.  So, I've returned from spending some time in the Big Horn mountains, driving through a snow storm, visiting a ski lodge, getting to know Sheridan and Buffalo better, and incidentally finishing all of my locally-sourced Christmas gifts and shipping.  Now that I am back in Hyattville, I've got a number of photos and other items to go through  - as soon as that's done there will be a more substantive post here.  Stay tuned!

Bountiful Baskets, Indeed!

I don't think I've blogged about this before, but if I have and this is repetitive, let me know.  I recently joined a Co-Op called Bountiful Baskets.  It's a participatory, all-volunteer effort to source reasonably priced produce and breads every other week.  Because the money is pooled by the Co-Op, the prices are unbeatable.  You opt in whenever you want.

Today, I had my pickup for my $25 food share order.  You can order the food in shares, or baskets, that are a grab-bag of produce - good quality, and usually a mix of fruits and vegetables. You can also select an organic share, or add artisan breads to your order.  This time, I decided to order one food basket, and one order of artisan bread.  It was listed as English Muffins, two savory loaves, and a baguette.  Well, the English Muffin bread is in loaf form - that's new to me, and it seems much more bread by volume than buying the 6- or 8-pack of English muffins at the store!  

At any rate, the pickup for these orders is 8 am sharp at the Hyattville Community Center.  Nancy does a fantastic job of managing the orders, dividing up the produce, having it ready for pickup, and overall managing the program for the town. 

Now, I was prepared for this week's haul to be lightweight since it's just before Thanksgiving, and because the previous order was so good.  The orders are every other week, so for a single person like me, that gives me enough time - if I'm really dedicated - to get through the whole haul in two weeks' time.  Except I didn't.  I still have two zucchini, two acorn squash, and some lemons from the last order.  

Today, I decided to walk the two blocks or so to the Community Center.  I thought it silly to start and drive the vehicle two blocks to pick up a grocery order.  I took my dog (of course), my regular sized back-pack, and just in case, a trash bag (to carry the bread).  Unfortunately, I was the last one to arrive to pick up my order - although the prior person was just leaving, so I hope I didn't make anyone wait on me. 

Imagine my surprise when I saw an entire produce box waiting for me - in addition to the breads!  Nancy and the others who were there were pretty doubtful that I'd be able to carry everything in just my backpack and trash bag.  In the end, I was able to fit everything in the backpack and trashbag, but Nancy insisted on driving my "haul" back to the house, since she was also dropping off Jo Ann's order at the Cafe.  I gladly accepted the hauling help!  

At any rate, here is the unloaded haul on the dining room / work table.  Remember, the squash, zucchini, and lemons are from the prior order (two weeks ago), but everything else is fresh.  Could you buy this for $25 or less in a store?

This week's rundown:

5 artisan bread loaves

1 honeydew melon

1 pomelo

1 pineapple

1 bunch of Romaine lettuce

1 bunch Celery

3 bags of full sized carrots

4 Russet potatoes

12 navel oranges

9 green apples

3 vine tomatoes

6 bananas

This haul was deceptively heavy, and I consider myself challenged to consume all of it, but I'll give it my best.  At $25, if the worst case scenario happens and something goes bad before I can eat it, my losses are very minimal.  

One new tool I've discovered to help with ideas on what to do with the food is a website called AllRecipes - particularly their search panel.  In it, you can enter the ingredients that you have, and be provided with a list of recipe options for those items.  A thank-you shout out to Karen C for the tip on the website! 

Snow Woes

First off, let me stipulate - I'm not complaining!!  But if I were, it might sound something like this:

Lately, I've been reveling in the snow, but it's starting to melt now - and the problems that causes are twofold.

One is that the underside of my vehicle is covered in what I affectionately call "road snot" - the partially melted, then re-frozen drippings of driving. The ugly part of that is when they congeal all up under the wheel wells to the point of rubbing on the tires during driving. I've asked around and the options are to either not drive in the snow, get the vehicle "lifted" (which I seriously might do, so it's as high as the 4Runner was), or 'bang it out with a long stick' (which is what I currently do).

The other issue that the melting causes is with my dog. I'm going to have to curb her off-leash activity at the ranch. The other day at the ranch, she rolled around in a slushy mixture of snowmelt, mud, cowpiss, and manure (oh, and oats). Now, the stream is too cold for her to take a dip into for rinsing purposes, and she is an anti-bath dog. My solution has been to buy cans of dry shampoo, spray her down good, let it dry, brush that out, then rub her down 2 or 3 times with baby diaper wipes. She seems to love that - even leaning in to me - but I'm not keen on doing this all the time.

Interestingly, when I let her walk off leash around the house, she doesn't get dirty - somehow, even though where I walk is mud 2 inches thick, she is able to find remaining solid spots of snow and walk on those. So, it's really only at the ranch that I have to watch her. Which means I probably won't be taking her to the ranch much when it's muddy. 

Shortly, I'm off to lunch with two of my favorite locals - Bret, the handyman from the ranch, and Mr D - at the Hyattville Cafe N Bar.  

I can't believe it's mid-November...

Self-portrait phone shot from the ranch  

I've really been enjoying the snow and the crisp, cool weather! So has Djinni (pronounced Genie, my dog). Yesterday I fed the calves/cows/bull in the corral in the morning and then headed off the 32 miles to the county seat for Big Horn County.  Basin is a small town with a gas station and a grocery store, but it's also the home of all of the governmental offices for the county.  I finally got my Wyoming driver's license - so I am now an official Wyomingite!  I took the time to look at a few homes in Basin, and also in Greybull - the next town north by about 10 miles.  

I enjoyed lunch at the historic Greybull Hotel - and the woman working there showed me the speak-easy downstairs (where they still have dinner service), some of the old bricked up tunnels, and let me go explore the rooms upstairs in the hotel. It is really beautifully cared for! And the lunch was pretty good too. Afterward, I came back to the house, changed, picked up the dog, and headed out to feed the calves later in the afternoon.

By this time, the temp had warmed up to about 40 - the first time since the snows that it got above freezing. Here in rural Wyoming, where most roads are graded / gravel / dirt, things can get pretty messy.  At the ranch in particular, it was a true slush fest.  There was no place that I could park my vehicle and be assured of stepping out onto solid ground.   By that time, I was committed - I couldn't just keep the dog in the car and stand to hear her cry. So, I fed calves, cows, and one bull while Djinni had a wonderful time. At one point, she even rolled around in a mud-manure-slush area. Oh. My. God.

In warmer weather I would have directed her to the creek to self-bathe - she's pretty good about that. She had no interest in doing that yesterday, so I did the next best thing: I gave her a snow-bath. The snow was dry, yet clumpy, so I was able to grab a handful and squish it into a ball. I used the ball to scrub Djinni's fur (until the snow disintigrated) and then repeated. I was surprised that this did as good a job as it did, and that Djinni stood there and even leaned into me to help out! Once she was clean enough to ride in my car, we returned to the house where I did my 2-step winter cleaning process that is great for dogs in cold weather.

I have a can of "dry shampoo" - basically, an aerosol powderized cleanser that you spray on and let sit for a few minutes before brushing it out. I hate how it works on me, but love how it works on my shorter and less curly-haired dog. After setting, you just brush it out. This leaves her coat shiny and salon-fresh, but I don't think that's a natural scent on a dog and I don't think she likes the smell either. I follow that by wiping her down with unscented baby wipes - they're thick so they grab loose hair rather than spread it around, and they seem to eliminate 'dog' smell and neutralize cleaning smells.  She stands still and tall for me to do this, and just as with a water bath, is left refreshed and extremely playful!

Animal wise, lots of deer continue to graze nearby, but the new addition this week has been a couple hundred geese! They have bedded down in the pastures. I've never seen them bed down in non-waterside areas. 

Logically, this is where I would insert a photo, but there is a story behind that..... The other day I did some exploring on the other side of Ten Sleep, with Djinni, and we saw hawks, turkeys, an eagle, a fox, deer, elk, and mountain sheep! I was so glad that I had my nice fancy camera with me (Canon T1i) and I was snapping photo after photo. It's a digital camera, so eventually, I looked down at the LCD display to check my work, and I saw instead: "ERROR: No SD Card!". 

Apparently, I had removed the memory card from the camera and inserted it into my computer - it's an easier way of copying images over than hooking up the USB cable. And, my card was still in the computer, back at the house. Which meant NONE of the great snapshots I just took were really captured. I think you could have heard my "Oh, No!" down in surrounding valleys!  I will have to make a return trip, and it's looking like this weekend might be a prime opportunity!

Also in animal news - I've observed the buck and 4-5 doe harem still hanging out in the side yard - apparently they enter where the fence meets a very old and....not quite straight cottonwood tree.  A portion of the fence is bent from prior cotton wood distress, and the deer can just step over the fence at that point. They bed down right on the other side of that tree, or further down the property in the brush closer to the stream. Two or three of them stand up when I take Djinni out at night - but they no longer run off. They stare, Djinni stares back, and I make a point to walk her in a different direction. At the end of our walk, we come by that side yard.  The thought on this is that the deer have had time to decide if they still want to be there or not with my dog and I roaming about nearby. Sometimes one or two will spring-bounce off when we arrive at the end of our walk, but the others stay put.

As for me, I'm enjoying exploring in the snow, but have been wandering looking at houses in the region. The next few listings of interest will likely be day-trips, so I'll want to plan out Kathman's food (so he doesn't eat it all at breakfast!). I've been virtually meeting other Wyoming consultants and entrepreneurs through the WY Business Development Council, and participating in some video conferences with them. I have put off incorporating until later in the year / end of year for tax purposes, but if I need to pull the trigger before then I can. I keep waiting for gloomy weather to knock some reading and research off of my list, but the weather hasn't been cooperating! Not that I'm complaining.  Happy Camper, indeed!