Monthly Archive for September, 2009

A little snow

Published on September 30, 2009 in Montana. 9 Comments Tags: .

It is pouring rain at my house. I know this as I just returned, with Karl, from the last walk of the night. And we walked in the pouring rain. Walking is an overstatement. We sprinted out to the edge of the woods where Karl did all that was needed with expediency and then we sprinted home.

30 days hath September… and on this 30th day, 9 days into Fall, after 7 1/2 days of near summer temperatures…it snowed! The above photo is from a midday walk on our normal loop. I thought it might be snow, but it also might be rain. It rained as I drove to Whitefish this afternoon for an appointment and visit with a friend.

But…

That’s Big Mountain…Whitefish Mountain, now. It was Big Mountain when I moved here almost 16 years ago. The name changed, but I doubt most of us will call it anything but Big Mountain.

Green – green – green = Go – go – go…Snow – snow – snow! I bought a frequent skier card this year. When I lived in Whitefish, I always had a pass. It was 18 minutes from my house to Chair 1 and I often went up for a long lunchtime ski. Since moving to Bigfork area in 2002, I have not skied more than once or twice a year having changed to snowshoeing with Karl for my winter sport. I thought I’d shake things up a bit this year and do a bit of downhill skiing. I believe that today’s mountain top snow is a good omen!

And on Columbia Mountain, too. Summer to Fall to Winter in 3 days – not bad, even for Montana!

Edit…about 30 minutes later…forgot to say, there is a fire snap, crackle, popping in the woodstove. A small fire, and it is not the first of the “season” as I had a small fire in mid-August when we had that cool, rainy time. But tonight’s fire is nice as it is really Fall and even though we are likely to have an Indian Summer week or so – it is Fall!

Let it be Fall.

Published on September 29, 2009 in Montana and Nature. 4 Comments Tags: , , .

The aspen and birch are starting their turn to gold.

That patch of gold on the mountainside might be the first of the larch turning.

Yesterday’s sun and warm lasted through midday today and then it started to darken and cool.

By 5:30, dark clouds and wind signalled the forecast change. If they are right about temperatures, tomorrow will be 30 degrees cooler than last Wednesday.

I’m ready – let it be Fall.

Oh, happy day!

Published on September 28, 2009 in Front Porch Musings. 5 Comments Tags: .

It is a beautiful day. The sun is shining. A morning that required a jacket for an early walk has given way to an afternoon where t-shirt and shorts are comfortable. Work is going well. Karl is napping in a cool corner of the living room, Bob on the front porch.

I walked into the kitchen to make a pot of coffee for the afternoon, felt the soft, warm breeze – all of the windows in the house are open – looked at the lowering sun turning the woods grass tops a glowing red…Oh, happy day!

A little moon, a little mountain

Published on September 27, 2009 in Photos. 3 Comments Tags: , .

The waxing half and a bit of the mountains just at sunset as we finished our evening walk.

Fire across the lake

Published on September 27, 2009 in Montana and Nature. 2 Comments Tags: .

Late yesterday, a fire broke out above Lakeside west of Flathead Lake. Homes were (are?) threatened and people had to evacuate. Somers volunteers were reportedly first on the scene and soon joined by all area volunteer firefighters as well as area department crews and Forest Service.

Rats! We almost made it here in Flathead County without a big wildfire. But it is crispy, scary dry. Thankfully rain and mountain snow is forecast for later this week.

A Good Work day

Published on September 27, 2009 in Front Porch Musings and Home Projects. 6 Comments Tags: .

The 4 man work party showed up half an hour early – at 8:30 yesterday morning. Excellent!

That’s Tanner dealing with the largest tree he took down – a nice larch that was standing dead nearly on my back property line. Tanner was wearing a sweatshirt that said “Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms….who’s bringing snacks?” – hee! **Please note that NONE of the work party mixed these items :)!

Meanwhile, Steve manned the tractor and loaded up the pile of “trash” – bits of wood, dirt and other flotsam that came from the area where the motorhome pad is.

That pile has been bothering me for nearly 3 years! It wasn’t big enough to warrant hiring tractor and dump truck. This work party was the ideal opportunity.

Greg, today’s “wagon master”, heading off to the county landfill with that junk – Hoo, I say Hoo-RAY!

Lunch break! Tanner, Barney and Steve…closely watched by Karl who made the rounds and charmed his way into getting a few tidbits. Greg was still on the run to the dump.

He scored big with Tanner who had chicken nuggets!

I mostly stayed out of the way of the work, but I did enjoy yacking with the crew over lunch. Steve is also a photography enthusiast and we discovered that we have some of the same favorite landscape spots. Steve’s work is on Flickr: Steve’s Flickr – along with his entertaining commentary.

Barney builds computers, repairs computers, prints photos, puts together photo-videos and has a motorcycle shop. He also has an iPhone and I got my first look at one – cool! Barney manned the wood splitter most of the day.

There was much trading of cards and info as we discovered we had things in common that we’d like to share. As Steve said later, “Who’d a thunk?”

Bob did not have as much fun as the rest of us. I kept him inside considering the tractor, truck, splitter and chainsaw activity going on outside. He was not pleased…

He finally gave in to the inevitable, although not quite with good grace.

This is my favorite part of the day.

And this, too – 2 plus cords for next year, although there is that larch in there that is dry enough for this year if I need it.

And no trash pile. The slash pile doesn’t bother me as one match after there is some snow on the ground and that will be history in short order.

A good work day!

Oh, Friday!

Published on September 25, 2009 in Front Porch Musings and Pets. 7 Comments Tags: .

Karl, taking a nap in the sun, sunny side up on a Thursday afternoon that felt like Friday to me.

But, we have turned the corner on the project that has made for the long work hours of late and this week worked a more normal schedule. And, AND!!! – my boss is taking today off and I am taking the afternoon off and stretching the weekend a bit.

Karl and I will head to town early this afternoon for a walk and some supply gathering. A crew of 3-4 men and various pieces of equipment are to show up fairly early on Saturday for some work in the woods – split and stack firewood, take down a few trees to dry for next year’s firewood, pull some stumps and clean up a bit of downfall. I intend to stay in the house and watch while I catch up on some hobby projects.

It is to be nice this weekend, although still dry and warm. NOAA says that Fall will arrive rather dramatically early next week so this work party is timely. My current firewood supply is a bit on the low side.

It has been a great week! We enjoyed pleasant walks in the cool morning and evening, good work days, still enjoying fresh tomatoes compliments of my neighbor and all is right in my world…but oh, Friday – yea!

and the skies are not cloudy all day

Published on September 23, 2009 in Montana. 10 Comments Tags: , .

But they are dusty and smoky. I believe all have their wheat in – September has been dry and warm and the combines were working furiously until about a week ago. In their place are tractors plowing. The smoke is from a fire south and a bit west of here.