Posts from the ‘Nature’ category

Cat tracks

Today, Sunday, was sunny and clear. Late yesterday afternoon we had snow, rain, a wintry mix and then some snow. It cooled to just below freezing overnight.

About 9:15, Bear, Auggie and I went out to play and walk in the woods … I was on snowshoes. I kept up a workout pace on my circuit of game trails while Bear and Auggie explored. As I got near home, I suddenly spotted some huge tracks. Feline, not canine.

A big cat.

I went inside for my camera and measuring tape. The tracks are almost 4 inches x 4 inches.

The snow was perfect for capturing tracks. I’ve seen mountain lion tracks before, but wasn’t positive about these. There was no tail drag which I’ve seen with previous sightings. When a mountain lion is walking casually, their long and heavy trail drags in the snow leaving a drag mark between the tracks.

These are Bear’s tracks, i.e. canine: a more oblong shape with nail prints. Bear’s tracks are not quite 3 inches long and a bit over 2 inches wide.

They looked small in comparison to the cat tracks.

After looking at my “Animal Tracks of the Rockies” book and measuring “straddle” … and realizing that the tracks were hind on top of fore print… maybe these were Canada Lynx tracks. The straddle and size of the tracks and no tail drag more closely matches the Lynx information.

So.

Still, a big cat.

And that’s how far away from the motorhome, garage and house the tracks are. The cat walked nearly a diagonal of the property from the state land to the adjacent property near the road. It is the first time I’ve seen big cat tracks on my property.

Fascinating! Yes, a bit scary, but the cats are nocturnal and unless sick or injured, deer are their food. Typically the cats want to avoid us as much as we want to avoid them. Bear and I do walk after sunset and before sunrise – several times a day – in the winter. We are both lighted – Bear wears his search and rescue lighted vest and I carry a large flash. I believe that makes us look strange and not prey-like, plus larger than we are and we are not small. So far, we live in harmony and that’s what I think about when we walk in the dark.

Treasured moments

Years ago, when it was Zack (part Karelian) and Gus (my first cat, a tuxedo cat) … they were both near me as I spent some morning quiet time before starting my day. Gus snuggled against my chest and hugged my neck. Zack lay on the floor near my chair.

Then Karl and Gus continued the pattern and when Bob joined the family, Bob took a spot on the ottoman by my feet.

Bear has mostly moved from his living room chair sleep spot to the bed when Auggie and I get up. But, occasionally he will join Auggie and I in the kitchen and it is a treasured moment.

All of us together: quiet in the early morning. I do not take these moments for granted.

Shortly after taking these photos, I read the following in a murder mystery book: The Thames River Murders (Captain Lacey Regency Mystery series) by Ashley Gardner.

… one never anticipates where life will lead. I knew that tragedy could follow hard upon happiness, and so I treasured the moment… I hugged it to me, and let it go only with the greatest reluctance.

Treasured moments of quiet and joy.

In memory of the fuschia

I brought the fuschia home on May 2. They had a wonderful late Spring – Summer and early Fall on the front porch. I have never had outside baskets that lasted as long or were as beautiful as these from this Summer.

But, then it was time.

In memory of the fuschia.

Golden Light

The larch still have enough needles to glow with golden light, even on a gray day.

But, many needles have fallen and are on the ground…

…lining our walk paths, sticking to our feet and magically letting loose of our feet once our feet get indoors. Kind of a mess, but I refuse to worry about it too much and choose to enjoy their color and light.

And speaking of color and light…

The Fuschia! A few blooms still and the greenery is beautiful. It is November 1 in Northwest Montana for heaven’s sake. We have not had a hard freeze at my house and I can’t see dumping them on the burn pile while they look so healthy. It has been a record breaking run for front porch flowers!

Inside.

We are to the point where it is dark when I have breakfast and dark when I have supper. I spoke awhile back about new kitchen light fixtures being on my list to change. They are some way down the list of things to do.

It is not that their appearance bothers me so much as it is that in order to get light to the counters, the overhead lights must be very bright. For early morning they are brighter than I’d like for making my coffee. And for supper, they are brighter than is cozy to enjoy my evening meal. But I need more than the chairside lamp to see my food when eating at the island. I did add stick-on under counter lights when I first bought this house and those are fine for soft light and for counter chores that don’t require reading small print or measuring precisely.

Last week, I thought to look for a small battery powered lamp for the island – just enough light to eat by. I found some, but the first I found were all white and modern looking. And then I found these candles.

Battery powered candles with a remote. Hee.

I kind of love them!

The flames dim and brighten so that it looks like candles burning.

They provide a warm light on dark, dreary days and enough light to eat by.

I am now having candlelight breakfasts and suppers!

Tonight, it was breakfast for supper: sourdough waffles with walnuts and maple syrup and bacon.

By battery powered candlelight.

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.

Scenes from Thursday morning

So the skunk visitations continued and even at our “normal” going out time of 7:00 a.m., I kept a watchful eye. This morning I had my camera set to take some video so naturally, no skunk. But as I was waiting and watching, I caught my neighbor’s motion sensitive light go on so kind of wonder if Skunk took a slightly different route this morning.

At any rate, it was another clear and sunny morning: beautiful, but the moisture situation continues on the unusually dry side and NOAA says:

Northwest Montana, however, will likely remain drier than usual for this time of year with no significant systems on the horizon to make up for the recent precipitation deficit.

Rats!!

Still, nothing to do but enjoy what we have and so we did.