When the Sun Hits the Tetons…
When the sun hits those peaks…oh my heart sings! We had a wonderful two and a half week vacation camping in Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park. 
Life has been busy and full! Trying to get caught up on real life, farm work, and going through pictures from the trip. 🙂
Moose and calf…
In Many Glacier we are often blessed to be able to watch moose do their own thing. We get to watch them graze the bottoms of lake beds and watch them bring their baby calves down to explore…
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Rain!
Saturday night we received a bit of rain and awoke to smoke-free skies. Sunday afternoon we took a drive to through Glacier Park.
Watching the storm clouds roll-in on Avalanche Creek…
Clouds rolling across the valley on Going-to-the-Sun Road…
Soot from the Reynolds Creek Fire, running off in the rain onto some red rocks..
A quick rainbow over St. Mary’s Lake…
A black bear crossing the road in Many Glacier in the rain…
We ended up enjoying our day in the rain. Normally, we would have been a bit bummed to spend the day in the rain but with the wildland fires and evacuations going on, smokey suffocating skies and how badly we need the rain this year, it really was a great day. Kind of funny how a different perspective on things can change an attitude. Skies have been without smoke all week, even though we still have the majority of the fires burning and we are suppose to be getting more rain, maybe even some snow in higher elevations throughout the weekend. 🙂
Going for a Dip…
Wood Ducks are one my favorites! I was so excited when we spotted this guy…
Cool Facts
- Natural cavities for nesting are scarce, and the Wood Duck readily uses nest boxes provided for it. If nest boxes are placed too close together, many females lay eggs in the nests of other females.
- The Wood Duck nests in trees near water, sometimes directly over water, but other times over a mile away. After hatching, the ducklings jump down from the nest tree and make their way to water. The mother calls them to her, but does not help them in any way. The ducklings may jump from heights of over 50 feet without injury.
- Wood Ducks pair up in January, and most birds arriving at the breeding grounds in the spring are already paired. The Wood Duck is the only North American duck that regularly produces two broods in one year.
- For more information please visit here…
Linking up with Friends at…
Wild Bird Wednesday
The BIRD D’pot
Smokey Skies…
With fires surrounding us in NW Montana our days and nights are filled with smoke. Smoke so thick you can’t see the mountains, hills or even neighbors houses at times. The kids have been cooped up inside because of air quality alerts because of the smoke like the following…
Air Quality Alert
Air Quality Alert in effect until Sunday, 12:00 PM MDT. Source: U.S. National Weather Service
The Montana Department of Environmental Quality has issued an Air
Quality Alert for Deer Lodge, Granite, Flathead, Lake, Lincoln,
Powell, Mineral, Missoula, Ravalli, Sanders, and Silver Bow in
effect *UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE*.An Air Quality Alert means that particulates have been trending
upwards and that an exceedance of the 24 hour National Ambient Air
Quality Standard (NAAQS) has occurred or may occur in the near
future.Particulate levels from local and regional wildfires are Unhealthy
to Very Unhealthy across all of western Montana.When air quality levels are Very Unhealthy… the Montana
Department of Health and Human Services recommends that people
with respiratory or heart disease, the elderly and children should
avoid any outdoor activity. Everyone else should avoid prolonged
exertion.When air quality levels are Unhealthy… the Montana Department of
Health and Human Services recommends that people with respiratory or
heart disease, the elderly and children should avoid prolonged
exertion. Everyone else should limit prolonged exertion.For more information… visit the Montana Department of Environmental
Quality at http://www.todaysair.mt.gov.
We all have soar throats, coughs, sneezing, headaches, etc from the smoke. It’s been quite depressing and even claustrophobic in being in this blanket of smoke. While we are not directly in the paths of fire ourselves, there have been several mandatory evacuations in some the towns in NW Montana due to the wildfires getting close to homes and towns.
I have always tried to find the beauty in each day and lately it seems to be hard to find as everything is dried up, dead and smoke filled… but it’s still there if you look for it…
Red sun…
Red Moon…
Pray for rain and the safety of our wildland firefighters (my brother is one!)
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Skywatch Friday
Turquoise…
Anyone who has been around me for very long could probably figure out that one of my favorite all time colors is turquoise! It just makes feel happy. 🙂 Maybe it quite coincidental or perhaps it’s from natural influences…
At Grinnell Glacier…
Glacial rivers…
St. Mary’s Falls in Glacier National Park…
Looking down on Grinnell Lake…
Another view with the sun hitting it…
The view of Josephine Lake, Swiftcurrent Lake, and Lake Sherburne…
Our wedding bands in Cancun…
Glorious beaches and turquoise water…
Mayian Ruins and the turquoise ocean…
An old dock going out to the ocean…
Sunrise on a Californian beach…
Canadian Rockies and a glacial river…
Moraine Lake…
Glacial Ice
Lake Louise…
Hmmm…I’m awfully glad that world is filled with such vibrant color!
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Yellow-rumped Warbler
WE had the pleasure of being by Fishercap Lake waiting for moose to come out when this handsome guy starting flying around. I wasn’t sure what he was up to until I took the following pictures of him feeding a spider to… I am not sure if it’s a fledgling or a female or ?? But he was pretty entertaining watching him flutter about and pick spiders out of their webs in the trees…
Cool Facts
- The Yellow-rumped Warbler is the only warbler able to digest the waxes found in bayberries and wax myrtles. Its ability to use these fruits allows it to winter farther north than other warblers, sometimes as far north as Newfoundland.
- Male Yellow-rumped Warblers tend to forage higher in trees than females do.
- Yellow-rumped Warblers are perhaps the most versatile foragers of all warblers. They’re the warbler you’re most likely to see fluttering out from a tree to catch a flying insect, and they’re also quick to switch over to eating berries in fall. Other places Yellow-rumped Warblers have been spotted foraging include picking at insects on washed-up seaweed at the beach, skimming insects from the surface of rivers and the ocean, picking them out of spiderwebs, and grabbing them off piles of manure.
- When Yellow-rumped Warblers find themselves foraging with other warbler species, they typically let Palm, Magnolia and Black-throated Green warblers do as they wish, but they assert themselves over Pine and Blackburnian warblers.
- The oldest known Yellow-rumped Warbler of the myrtle race was 8 years 9 months old. The oldest known individual of the “Audubon’s” race was 10 years old.
For more information please visit HERE
Linking up with Friends at…
Wild Bird Wednesday
The BIRD D’pot
The Boys and Their Lambs…
It’s always a busy time of the year when the kids pick out their fair lambs in April. The next 4 1/2 months are busy spent training, walking, washing, shearing, their lambs. This year they went to a 3 day camp in Bozeman to learn more about showmanship, lamb care, shearing with a jackpot on the last day. 
Kids walking their lambs…
Garrett shearing his own lamb…
Garrett helping some kids with showmanship…
Getting ready for fair…
Thank goodness for grandmas who will stop and feed the starving kids on her way home from work. The first couple days of fair are extremely busy and we generally eat really late but grammy had pity on us and fed us.
Practicing with his lamb…
Then show day!
Waiting for his turn to show…
This year at fair they worked very hard and Garrett and Hayden ended up being in the final round for showmanship
Even, Teigen did very well in showmanship for his first year.
Waiting for the “market” portion of fair.
Hayden even won a purple ribbon in market placing in the top 8 out of 60 lambs for market. 🙂
Then comes the last day of fair, the last day of the project. They have sold their lambs to local businesses and they have to load their lambs up on the trailer that is headed to the processor. There are generally lots of tears and sadness but the kids understand where their food comes from and have a deeper appreciation because of it. Something that is lacking in todays culture..
Immature Bald Eagle…
Cool Facts
- Rather than do their own fishing, Bald Eagles often go after other creatures’ catches. A Bald Eagle will harass a hunting Osprey until the smaller raptor drops its prey in midair, where the eagle swoops it up. A Bald Eagle may even snatch a fish directly out of an Osprey’s talons. Fishing mammals (even people sometimes) can also lose prey to Bald Eagle piracy. See an example here.
- Had Benjamin Franklin prevailed, the U.S. emblem might have been the Wild Turkey. In 1784, Franklin disparaged the national bird’s thieving tendencies and its vulnerability to harassment by small birds. “For my own part,” he wrote, “I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly. … Besides he is a rank Coward: The little King Bird not bigger than a Sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the District.”
- Sometimes even the national bird has to cut loose. Bald Eagles have been known to play with plastic bottles and other objects pressed into service as toys. One observer witnessed six Bald Eagles passing sticks to each other in midair.
- The largest Bald Eagle nest on record, in St. Petersburg, Florida, was 2.9 meters in diameter and 6.1 meters tall. Another famous nest—in Vermilion, Ohio—was shaped like a wine glass and weighed almost two metric tons. It was used for 34 years until the tree blew down.
- Immature Bald Eagles spend the first four years of their lives in nomadic exploration of vast territories and can fly hundreds of miles per day. Some young birds from Florida have wandered north as far as Michigan, and birds from California have reached Alaska.
- Bald Eagles can live a long time, with a longevity record of 28 years in the wild and 36 years in captivity.
- Bald Eagles occasionally hunt cooperatively, with one individual flushing prey towards another.
- For more info please visit here…
Linking up with Friends at…
Wild Bird Wednesday
The BIRD D’pot
