Archive for ‘June, 2015’

Bear saves us again

Thankfully, we needed none of the above.

BUT, they are the only photo, albeit after the fact, that I have of the “adventure”.

Sunday morning…6:15 a.m….we all blasted out the front door to enjoy a bit of cool before the forecast record breaking 101F day! It was 67F at the time, which is still a bit warmish for morning, but in “all is relative” world, felt grand.

Bear and Auggie went their respective ways and I headed for the well head and sprinkler duty. I got water going and then I noticed that Bear was standing at the edge of the turnaround, looking intently to the northeast. When a beardog looks intently, a beardog’s person MUST also look intently!

I walked to Bear and looked in the direction that he was focused on. I saw Auggie leap. And I saw a fluffy black and white tail about 3 feet from Auggie.

And since the only fluffy black and white tail that I knew was “safe” was on alert next to me… GAH!! Skunk. And Auggie was stalking the skunk.

I roared to Bear to go inside which he did immediately and I think, happily. I ran in and grabbed the 2 bottles of Skunk-Off, the pepper spray and a large towel. Back outside Auggie and the Skunk were doing a kind of dance of face to face with the skunk stamping, then turning with tail high. Auggie was cautious but giving chase when the skunk turned away. When he got a bit close, the skunk turned to face Auggie and stamped the ground.

They did this dance thing with me on the chase and calling to Auggie and throwing sticks between Auggie and the skunk to startle and stop Auggie. Seriously, I absolutely NEED !!! to buy a GoPro video cam !!!

We did the run, dance, stomp, tail in the air thing ALL THE WAY out onto the state land with me all the time thinking that Auggie was going to get sprayed. Finally, the skunk went one way and Auggie the other way and then Auggie rolled over for a stomach rub and I threw the towel over him…

At one point, I thought I detected a spritz of skunk, but Auggie had no smell on him. He snuggled into the towel and dripping sweat, I walked back to the house.

Inside, still no skunk smell – hoo… I say HOO-RAH!!

Bear was waiting and I gave him high praise and extra breakfast and an extra Greenie and told him that he saved the day! Without Bear’s alertness, I never would have seen that Auggie was challenging the skunk. And I do not for a moment think that would have turned out well.

Beardog SAVES THE DAY!

“I could have taken that stinky ole skunk….”

EDIT: Sunday Evening:

We broke the all time record of over 100F in June in Montana. First time, I’ve seen 100F since I moved to Montana in February 1994.

Staying home

I work from a home office. Except for groceries, I do most of my shopping online. I do not belong to any organizations.

I am home a LOT! And I love it. My little house is not perfect and there are things I’d like to do inside and out, but it is comfortable and the few things I have, I love.

And I love being here with Bear and Auggie. Bear loves Jeep rides and I am so happy to take him along with me. We have our spots for walks. But, we are both happy to return to the house and to Auggie, who is often waiting and watching from a window spot.

Anyone who has read this blog for any time, knows that I really do NOT like hot weather and hot for me is 80F. Still, I hate “wishing away” days and I don’t like to waste energy being too grumpy … especially about the weather! I’ve tried various tricks through the years to reduce the amount of whining and complaining.

Last week, when the weather folks started talking about the record breaking heat this weekend, I decided to approach this like I’d approach a Winter storm. I made sure the pantry was full and the frig and freezer were stocked with good things to eat. I’m used to being home so the idea of staying inside, which I enjoy during a Winter storm … not a problem.

The main difference is instead of sitting in front of the woodstove, I’m sitting in front of the fan!

Mornings are still beautiful, even if not quite as cool as usual.

We take a long morning walk while the sun is low and there is a lot of shade.

Then some time in the yard together while I run sprinklers, check the motorhome and water the fuschia.

And while fushia might not be typical “cut flowers”, I trimmed the plants to hopefully make it easier on them through the heat and brought the cuttings inside to enjoy during our heat wave hibernation.

As usual, it is often about attitude and perspective: making the best of a situation, looking at the bright side, counting my many blessings – all of that!

I don’t know that I can honestly say I’m enjoying the heat wave. I worry about the animals, both wild and especially livestock like the angus (black) cattle. BUT – I can only take care of me and mine and so I do that. And I enjoy being in my cool and comfortable house … relaxing, reading, doing a bit of work and being excused by weather from even thinking about outside chores :) !!

AND … having homemade peach ice cream for breakfast!

Staying home.

Friday!

This week really flew by…REALLY! Between various things with work and new computer and prepping for the “HISTORIC HEAT WAVE” … the week evaporated.

But, we started with the Summer version of the morning kitchen snuggle with Auggie.

I’m a bit more upside down than normal timewise…to bed 6:30-7:00 p.m. with a midnight-ish up and about to open up the house and take Bear down the driveway…and then a 3:45-4:00 a.m. get up and enjoy the dark and the cool before a 6:30-7:00 a.m. work start. It might not be everyone’s “cup of tea”, but it works for me and the boys in this odd early Summer heat thing.

This was 3:15 p.m. or so on this Friday. It was 89F but not that bad in the shade.

Bear relaxed and so did I … Auggie was sleeping inside… Friday!

Wake me up when it’s over

It is VERY rare to see the NOAA “HOT” icons in my (Northwest Montana) forecast…

Holy cannoli!!

So, I am a bit hopeful that since NOAA has made such a BIG deal about this forecast…that like Winter Storm forecasts…the bigger the deal, the greater they are likely to fizzle … this is one forecast, I seriously hope is WRONG.

To help that along, I have gone overboard on preparation. My thinking is that if I have prepared to the max, then via Murphy’s Law, the max will not happen…

So yesterday (Wednesday), I went to the grocery store and bought like a Winter storm was forecast. I bought fruit and veg and meat and all manner of supplies so that I could hunker down and wait out the heat wave.

I have roast, shredded chicken in the freezer.

I have turkey meatballs in the freezer. And bread and rolls and hot dogs and cooked sausage and cooked bacon. And salmon and halibut. I have canned salmon and canned tuna.

I pickled a mix of onion/cucumber/radish, I made a veggie-chicken broth, cold brew coffee, cranberry salsa and pickled jalapeno.

You might think the broth is a bit of a head scratcher, but a brothy soup with a bit of whatever else…it can be a light meal on a hot day…especially with a bit of that chicken or a couple of turkey meatballs!.

Foodwise, I am ready for good meals that do not require the stove or the oven.

Example: cold, roasted garlic broccolini with hard boiled egg for breakfast.

Bear and Auggie practice staying in the shade…

Last night, it clouded over which meant that it stayed warm overnight. Fortunately, it stayed cloudy this morning so took longer to heat up.

But, it did heat up … to 92F.

The chairs said they were glad to be in the shade.

The A/C is on in Wild Thing. She is our backup if I can’t keep the house cool enough.

The first day of HOT and Auggie headed for the cool of the porcelain.

WHAT??? I keep it clean :)

Wake us all up when it’s over…we do NOT LIKE the HEAT!

Still Pleasant

We are to have one more day of low 80’s before the weather turns on the heat.

It is warm in the afternoon: 82F today, but a light breeze and pleasant in the shade.

I am amazed everyday at how well the fuschia are doing and how many blooms they have! I may even have to move them to larger baskets. I hope they do ok with the coming heat but they are in the shade except for early morning.

Meanwhile, we enjoy the still pleasant weather and hope that NOAA is wrong!

Weekend catchup

I got the new machine completely set up in a record 2 days. AND, it wasn’t even all of the 2 days: 3 hours on Saturday much of which was downloading which didn’t require me to be sitting at my desk … 4 hours Sunday for my work environment which is a kind of tricky “do it in order” thing of primary tools and plug-ins … but again much of that time was downloading. No glitches, no pulling of hair or swearing or rending of clothes. This was by far, the easiest setup of a new machine that I’ve ever had. Maybe it feels so good because it took me 4 months to transition to the Acer two years ago.

It wasn’t all “new computer” stuff over the weekend. The “Auggie tree” was moved …by the Jeeper! (Auggie Tree)

It used to be there…

The Jeeper dragged it over to the firewood staging pile.

So much fun! Auggie was safely in the house, but Bear was in the Jeep with me and seemed fascinated as we pulled it onto the driveway and then over to the log pile. It is the first time I’ve used the Jeep for a chore. I did manage to scrape the corner of the garage so ended up doing a bit of touch up painting, but even that was fun.

A bit of baking happened also. I’ve been make these whole wheat rolls: hoagie buns, hot dog buns and hamburger buns, for several months. They are Mel’s Kitchen Café’s Fluffy Whole Wheat Rolls and I nearly cried for joy the first time I made them. I have been experimenting with various mixes to get a sandwich bun that I really liked and these are it! If Mel sees my photos, she might cry. Mel shapes her rolls to perfection! I am a LOT more casual. The key to using mostly or all whole wheat (white whole wheat) flour is to add vital wheat gluten. This dough is easy to work with and makes wonderful fluffy buns that stand up to burgers, hot dogs and subs. They freeze wonderfully – I let them cool, then into the frig overnight and then a repack for the freezer so no freezer burn.

Although we’ve had no rain since June 2 and it is scary dry, especially for this early, the days have been sunny with temps 74-80 daytime and 45-55 overnight … kind of perfect. NOAA says that will end this week as we warm up again to the mid to upper 90’s by the end of the week. Blech. So, the other thing we did this weekend was enjoy the relatively cool and pleasant temperatures before we need to retreat to air conditioning later this week.

It was a great weekend with much accomplished and also some relaxation in the shade in the quiet of a Sunday afternoon.

***NOAA’s exact words:
Next weekend through early next week, dry conditions prevail as the
ridge strengthens quickly and high temperatures move well into
the 90s for the weekend. Next Monday currently looks the warmest,
with Missoula and Kalispell forecast to break 100. Kalispell has
not seen 100 in June since record-keeping began. We will continue
to keep an eye on the exact numbers, but the overall message
remains the same: Prepare for multiple days of peak summer heat.