Weird Winter Weather

It's been awhile since I felt compelled to post here. Probably because the last few months have been pretty much routine, which I guess means we're settling into routines as we enter our 6th year here in the woods on the side of our mountain in Montana. I know I "promised" a post about dealing with the wildfire threat, evacuations, etc., but I just can't seem to want to sit down and focus on gathering the photos together and writing about them. It was frightening, sort of surreal, and, let's face it, damn inconvenient. THAT part of 2017 was anything but routine. Here's hoping it stays anything-but-routine.

It seemed to take a long time for the snow to come and stay. A couple times we got some inches, then a week or so later it would be gone. Then we also had some freezing fog which wasn't too bad for road conditions that we noticed, but was very pretty to look at for a few days.

We learned a new word!
Pogonip: a meteorlogical term used to describe the uncommon occurrence of frozen fog. It was coined by Native Americans to describe the frozen fogs of fine ice needles that occur in the mountain valleys of the western US in December. 

December 24-25 brought us up to a good foot of snow in some places. It was very pretty and also pretty powdery, so not that challenging to plow and shovel.

The first week of January decided to warm up: rain, freezing rain, sleet, melt-and-refreeze, wintry mix, you name it. If my Facebook feed is any indication, I'm about the only one I know who wants it to stay below freezing! Like, until sometime in March or April. Snow is one thing, but ice is a whole other hassle. A dangerous, dangerous hassle.

Plus, you know, we need that snow pack for water next fire season.

Whose Poop is This Anyway?

You've all been so patient waiting for more pictures of Mystery Poop and I want to thank you for that.  And to show you how much I appreciate you, here are three (3) pictures of Mystery Poop!  You lucky dogs, you.

Taken (deposited?) in the lower pasture in late April.

Found in the front yard in early May.

Found in the front yard near the road, mid-late June.

We think they were dropped by bear.  Any one know better?

Spring Forward

I guess this is what March in the Bitterroot feels like.  The driveway is free of dangerous ice, the property is mostly bare ground and the sun is warm on us when we're out in it.

The thermometer didn't read high, but we were able to sit in the sunbeam on the upstairs balcony in basic cool-weather clothes without getting chilly.  This is what we saw when we looked up from our seat on the deck boards yesterday.

No wonder Delia will spend the whole day trying to wrangle the local squirrel population.

REMINDER: For those of you who do, don't forget to set your clocks ahead tonight! 

Lost

A few weeks ago, I was in the next town up the valley to hit their hardware store and saw this posted on a lamp post.

I still haven't gotten used to 7-digit dialing for phone calls.  Not that I can, since I have kept my Portland cell number; the hard part is remembering the Montana area code.  Yes, there is just one.

I love living in a place where someone has at least a glimmer of hope that an expensive tool that they lost will be returned if only they let people know where it belongs.

Suddenly Surrounded by Faux Taxidermy

Thanks to the gift-giving savvy of some special people* in my life, we're really starting to get our domestic surroundings in the swing of mountain life, our style.

Check out these fantastic magnets hand-crafted especially for yours truly by my deer friend (see what I did there?), Cinda.

Plastic animals, heads separated from their bodies and be-glittered, on real wood plaques!  Currently mounted on our kitchen fridge (faux bois makeover here)

I've had a Lite Brite on my list for a few years and this year my Beastie Grrrlz came through!  Today's models are not what we think of when we say we want a Lite Brite, but the cube idea is growing on me.  Now I'm scouring ebay for more pegs.

You can see why I need more pegs; this poor deer looks like it has mange.  E and I are debating painting the white and green plastic to class it up a bit, too.

But wait, there's more!  Look what the BGs got me for my birthday!  GAH!  Dinodermy!

I'd like you all to meet Ramone.  He's mounted in our stairwell and I imagine will be sporting some natty duds now and again.  I think we'll attach him to a plaque to give him the taxidermic presence he deserves.

Look how Ramone's tongue brings out the pink in the wall color! [cringe]  All the more motivation to get that painted.


*I don't know about your dogs, but my dogs are people.

Wildlife Watch V

There we were last night, sitting in the living room each minding our own business when I looked up to see one of the bird feeders swinging wildly.  My first thought was, "Boy, it is windy out there."  Then as the bird feeder swung around to show the other side I saw what looked like a squirrel or chipmunk.  Its face seemed different and it was not the same color as the others we occasionally see around (and thankfully it's only occasionally as we still haven't gotten over our distaste of squirrels from living in squirrel-infested SE Portland where they were at times actively chewing on our house).

This is the comic book hero maneuver it used to escape into the night, narrowly avoiding Eric's villainous clutches.
[photo source: http://www.dianshu119.com/index.php?doc-view-603.html]

I notified Eric who turned to look, but by this time its face was hidden and by "hidden" I mean "buried in the birdseed."  Eventually the feeder swung around again so the invader was out of view, so Eric went out to try to get a better look.  He gingerly poked the feeder so it would swing around and we both got a fleeting look at the creature then it flew off the feeder and into the night. 

[image source: http://www.mnh.si.edu/mna/image_info.cfm?species_id=105]

When Eric came back in, I said "I think it was a flying squirrel!"  Then, I looked it up on the state Field Guides site and sure enough, we live in their range and it looked like the photos I found.  We had no idea there were flying squirrels here!  Or that they were nocturnal bird feeder invaders.  Maybe we need to leave the porch lights on more often.

The Real Deal

Our first Real Snow* in Montana!  And the first time that the road was plowed by the neighbor the road committee hires to do such.

A couple of inches fell on Thursday and a few more on Friday giving us about 6 inches total. 

We have 2 birdbaths; the other is heated to 40 or so degrees with a special device on a loooooong extension cord left for us by the former owners.

A rare still moment for the dogs who respond to snow like it is dognip.

So much for my fancy new Montana license plats.

One of the small trees near the driveway.

These are WAY better than icicle lights.  Not sure what, if anything, we're supposed to do about icicles on the eaves.  There are no gutters for them to tear off, so...

Eric's first plowing of the driveway was a success!  There's a learning curve, but he's starting strong.

This is how the Beastie Grrrlz usually look in the snow.

There was no snowfall again until Sunday night and it didn't melt off or ice over like it probably would in Portland.  We woke up Monday to another inch or so and the forecast is for more this week.  I think that there is less build-up on the valley floor and in Missoula, but we'll see when we go out for some holiday errands either today or tomorrow.

*This was verified when we ran into our neighbor yesterday afternoon/evening while walking in the woods and he referred to this as "real snow."

License (Plate) and Registration, Please

We drove down to Hamilton, the Ravalli County seat, on Tuesday to register our vehicles.  Get this: it was kind of fun.  For reals.  What is essentially a trip to the DMV (although it's actually part of the DoJ here or something) was a pretty good time as bureaucratic endeavors go.

There are currently about 130 different license plates to choose from in Montana.  There are supposed to be about a dozen more coming out before the end of the year.  Really.

Now, this is not for drivers licenses, just vehicle registration, but get this: there's no take-a-number machine.  You just wait on a bench until they call next.  There were about 3 people ahead of us and we waited about 5 minutes.  I barely had time to take a photo of that poster before we were called in!  Also there in the line was a TV set up on one of those tall rolling carts like they had in schools (maybe they still do) running a loop of a bunch of animals that are available for adoption from the county Humane Society.  It's like they knew we were coming.

A fond farewell to our Oregon plates.  Someday, we'll hang them in the garage.
Seems like people always blur out license plates in photos, so I decided to do it.  Just in case.

Then when we approached the window the lady working there was friendly, helpful, funny, engaging and patient.  I was able to register Bert "permanently" because she's a senior citizen, but that also means that I didn't get to have a plate that supports a cause or team* that I like.

Eric went as basic as possible while waiting for the Bitter Root Humane Association plate to be issued.
I liked the bison skull on this version of the standard plate.

Eric's car is an unnamed young adult of undetermined gender, so he was trying to decide which of the pet welfare type organizations he wanted to support so asked her where Gallatin and some other place is.  She figured out what he was going for and told us that our local Humane Society was coming out with a plate soon and if he wanted he could get regular plate and then when the new ones come out, just pay the difference for those.

The plate E will get eventually.  Not the best looking, but better than a few of the pet groups and you can tell what it's about.

We learned that it costs the organizations $4000 to get a plate, so they must pay off even though there are SOOOO many to choose from.  One thing that must help is that vehicle registration is annual and every time your renew you pay a donation to the organization (of which gets 100%).  The donation is usually between $10 & $25.  There is a bi-annual registration, but I don't think that effects the donation or maybe you can only do biannual with basic plates.

*That's a joke, there.  I don't like any of your "teams" or your "sports"!  Bahahahahahaaaaaa!

It's Mavis!

It's surprisingly rare to come upon a branch of any size with any needles of consequence on it laying on the ground around here.  Nonetheless, Mavis has been pined.

She seems like a good visual representation of the change of seasons or the cycle of life or something eternal and meaningful with her orange and green needles arranged asymmetrically. [nod knowingly and reflectively here]

A Walk In The Woods

Trying out the panorama feature that came with the last big OS update on the iPhone. Anyone see the spooky skull lurking in the leaves?

Everywhere you go around here you run into "Tamarack"; street names, business names, organizations, etcetera.  We'd wondered if all the trees we thought were pines were actually tamaracks, but that was not the case. It turns out the neat thing about tamaracks is that they are deciduous coniferous trees that turn bright yellow in autumn!

From Wikipedia: Tamarack Larch, or Tamarack, or Hackmatack, or American Larch (Larix laricina).  The name Tamarack is the Algonquian name for the species and means "wood used for snowshoes."

Just a couple weeks ago we started noticing pointy yellow trees in the woods and up the mountains behind us and today E suggested we take advantage of the break in the weather to see if we could see one up close.

If you'll notice that my glasses are covered with rain then you'll realize that the break in the weather didn't hold.  We had worn rain gear and we were so recently Oregonians that a little rain wasn't much of a deterrent & it didn't ruin our hike.

This is as close as we were able to get without hiking down into the ravine where the creek was flowing at a pretty good clip this afternoon.  The Beastie Grrrlz were more than willing to careen down to the bottom, but we called them back, leashed them up and then tired to make them pose for pictures.

It's not all that easy to see in any of the photos, but we're all wearing safety orange tape.  E & I on our heads, the Beastie Grrrlz around their necks, because it's hunting season and we don't want to be mistaken for deer. We learned this trick from the girls' friend Bella.

One of the best parts about an autumnal walk in the rainy forest is coming home to a toasty warm house, changing out of wet gear & into warm dry comfort clothes and having a beer.  We did that, too.

No Rain, No Rainbow

We woke up to Oregon-style rain today, but unlike back in Portland, here we were up in the clouds.

The view from the deck, from under the overhang where my fleece socks wouldn't get wet.

We don't have gutters on the house, which is not atypical due to ice dams possibly forming and just tearing them off.  So, we had a good drippy stream of water across the stairs down to the yard from the deck.  The dogs did not like the look of that, not one bit.  It took Betty four tries (including trying the back door in case the weather was better there) before she braved the "torrent" to have her morning constitutional; Delia did it in two.

It was so much brighter in person and had a hint of a twin for about a quarter of the way.

We drove down to Hamilton, the Ravalli County seat, this morning to register to vote!  For some reason, I found it as exciting as the last time I registered in 1989.  We also found an optical place to fix my washer-mooshed spectacles and got to enjoy a big, bright rainbow on our journey home.

Maybe a little too bright: Eric didn't bring his prescription sunglasses and had to double-up to get us home. There are a lot of people retiring to the area and I thought her resembled an oldster driving a big RV with those giant sun shades that wrap around regular glasses.

The New Normal I

There are two things that I already miss about Oregon, things that are so engrained in The Way Oregonians Do Things that I keep forgetting that I'm going to have to learn new ways as I become an Montanan.

The view from the driver seat the last I gassed up before moving.  I'm not normally one to spot inconsistencies in movies, but years ago when I watched Old Joy I noticed a thing that people from elsewhere probably didn't: the main character pumping his own gas at a rural station.  The film takes place and is filmed in Oregon: GOTCHA!

Almost everyone I know who has moved to Oregon from elsewhere dislikes it, but I love not pumping my own gas.  Well, more like I truly dislike pumping it myself.  Of course, I've done it before on road trips to other states or in other countries, but I always forget how to do it so I end up standing there at the pump looking confused and probably dumb and sometimes even failing to accomplish a complete filling.

Or you can just put your completed ballot in your outgoing mail, but these are nice if you wait until the last minute.  Photo from About.com

 The other thing I'm really going to miss is vote-by-mail.  Man, it is SO NICE to participate in democracy while sitting at the kitchen table with the Voters Pamphlet, a ballot, and a beverage appropriate to the weather and time of day.  Not only is it convenient, it helps me be informed by the facts about the measures, not just the advertising and aggrandizing.  Also, a voter can vote and mail it up to a couple of weeks before election day and stop paying attention to the ever-increasing ads for and against everything, because I-already-voted-you-jerks.

In other news: Eric has taken sick (as per usual when traveling) so our area adventures are diminished by that and its effect on dog care.  Also, I ordered our new washer and dryer yesterday from the local Sears store at the mall and they will arrive on October 6 and 26, respectively. I'm inordinately excited about new laundry appliances; I hope I don't end up missing the old ones we sold with the house in Portland.

UPDATE: I pumped my gas today!  Almost all by myself, too!  Baby steps.

The Big Move

Taken at the first rest stop on the trip.  It was dark:30 when we left my mom's house, after all.  Oof.

 We're here!  We spent an uneventful 10 hours and 45 minutes on the road, the dogs slept the entire way (Delia unaided by pharmaceuticals), and we settled in to the Staybridge Suites.

I kept trying to make Delia a tidy, little bed on the passenger side.  Delia kept reorganizing it to suit her napping needs.

We thought we'd get some kind of PODS style self-load moving container for the Big Move, but it turns out that of the 20 or so companies that offer this type of thing, only one delivers to Montana!  Too expensive.  After much discussion we decided on the 20' U-haul truck.  We picked it up Saturday afternoon and started packing boxes into it.  On Sunday "morning" Eric's dudes showed up to help move the big furniture and by 1p we had that sucker fully loaded... with 3/4 of our possessions. [cussing here]  So we picked up a 14' truck Monday morning and filled that to the gills and still had some stuff.  So we crammed both our cars and then convinced our moms to put some stuff in their garages. So much for my dreams of an organized and orderly move.

The only "nervousing" parts were in Portland, Tri-Cities, & Spokane.  I can't speak for Eric, but I forgot to even be nervous when we drove them over to the U-haul in Missoula to get the towing apparatus removed this morning.

We drove through 3 states (Oregon, Washington, Idaho) and into Montana.  Eric and I both found driving the trucks and towing the cars a lot easier than we expected.  We had good weather and minimal traffic the whole way.

State number three of the day.

Still, who's bright idea was it down at IDT to put a Missoula mileage sign every 2-7 miles?  If it was part of some devious scheme to make the panhandle feel wider, it worked brilliantly.  [shakes fist at (big) sky]

So now we have have to find all the digital device chargers.

How Can I Not?

By Big Mouth Toys

I don't dislike taxidermy, but I don't really want preserved critter carcasses looking down on me in my home.  I have, however, developed a fascination with it that I think will express itself as faux taxidermy in our new place and you know what that means, right?  A new pin board on my pinterest account.

Tapestry taxidermy-style work by Frederique Morrel

Man, I sure hope I can make some of the things I've pinned and that Betty won't be scared of and bark-y at them.  If you see fun or cool faux taxidermy on pinterest, please comment with a good ol' @Tara Fields.  Thanks!

All Kinds Of Downsizing

The ManFlesh and I are moving ourselves, our 2 young dogs, and Bigfoot from Portland, Oregon (pop. 593,820) to Florence*, Montana (pop. 765).  Our Portland life includes a 2800 sq ft craftsman bungalow within walking distance of tons of great restaurants and bars, a handful of grocery stores, two hardware stores, three pet stores and at least two tattoo parlors and guitar shops.

Photo from Trek In The Park 2010

Our Florence life will include an 1800 sq ft house within walking distance of our greenhouse, a too-be-determined formerly-chicken shelter, 1000s of acres of National Forest, some great-looking hiking trails, and the shed where our new-used ATV with snow plow attachment is stored.  We will drive into town to pick up our mail at the Post Office.

Photo from 50,000 Silver, Montana's Largest Gift Shop on I-90 in Haugen May 2012

Ahead of us is a month of packing, sorting, purging, selling, visiting and then moving across three state lines.  I think the blogging will really start when we get there and I hope to clean up the look soon, too.

*A 30-minute drive south of Missoula (pop. 67,290)