Last night’s buzz was that there was a pretty good possibility of seeing northern lights, which is something I’ve been wanting to try to shoot for a while now. I’ve also wanted to try shooting some star trails, so here are my first attempts…
The bright green glow from the northern lights…
I thought these were pretty fun to do and can’t wait to do some more the next clear night and throughout lambing season. 🙂
Our family had such a great time a couple weekends ago, hunting Christmas trees and hanging out with some friends of ours while enjoying the snow…
Tug-of-war…
Sled rides…
Playing in the snow…
Looking and searching for that special tree…
My husband with our bush of a tree, bigger around than it was tall…
Pulling our trees back to the vehicles…
Some of the kids put up trees in their rooms…
A little fire was built to help warm in the kids and cook supper… 
Jetboil apple cider to warm up with too…
Cutting hot dog roasting sticks…
Little Emma’s feet were wet and cold…
Roasting those hot dogs…
Emma’s new slippers! A pair of gloves to keep her feet warm…
Loading the tree up…
The beautiful misty, foggy sunset in the forest that evening…
Awesome day spent with great friends…
Last night we had pouring rain and 40 degrees, sometime in the night it changed to snow and wind. This morning it was brisk -30 degrees Fahrenheit! I don’t mind the cold or snow but sure get hard on critters when we have wet conditions and then gets really cold. I was happy to see every one fared the night alright and were anxiously awaiting breakfast this morning…
Teigen feeding Thor…
Even though he has a cozy little place to hide out in, Thor has to hang out with his guys…
Horse raspberries…
Waiting for breakfast…
Frank’s a bit frosty too…
Hayden giving Frank some love…
Hauling bales…
At least some one is happy outside…
The sun even tried to break through…
The kids found several of these little frogs in a lake we visited this summer. They had so much fun trying to spot them in the water among the rocks and found over 10 separate frogs….
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These bighorn sheep are beside a naturally turquoise lake formed by glacial rock flour…
Blue, frozen glacial ice…
Got Milk?. . .
The beautiful turquoise color shown in the photo is the true color of the water. Sometimes called “glacial milk”, the unusual color is due to the presence of “rock flour”, which consists of tiny clay particles formed as rocks stuck to the bottom and sides of a glacier grind against bedrock. This abrasion reduces some of the bedrock to a fine powder that looks like the flour used to make bread. As the ice melts this rock flour is exposed and transported away by meltwater, often into a nearby tarn.
They won’t settle down! . . . .
Meltwater also transports pebbles, sand, and silt into the lake, but these larger rock particles quickly settle to the bottom of the lake. In contrast, the much smaller particles of rock flour remain suspended in the water until the fall when the meltwater stops flowing or the lake freezes over. Only then does the water become calm enough to let rock flour settle to the bottom. A core sample from the middle of the lake would probably reveal alternating layers of silt and clay called “varves”. . . . One layer of each (varve) for every year the lake has been in existence.
Why so blue? . . .
Sunlight includes many different wavelengths of light ranging from the longer “reds” to the shorter “violets” (ROYGBIV). A white T-shirt is white because it reflects all of the wavelengths, a black shirt is colorless because it absorbs all of the wavelengths, and a red shirt is red because it absorbs the OYGBIV and reflects the R (red wavelengths). Apparently the tiny particles of rock flour suspended in the lake are just the right size to reflect more of the blues and some of the greens than any of the other wavelengths.
Information from formontana.net
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To our new friends the Anderson’s from North Carolina whom we met while taking pictures of this beautiful moose. She knew who I was and that I was the author of this blog. Blew my mind away! 🙂 We had a great time visiting with them and then when we ran into them at St. Mary’s Lodge we had a wonderful supper together. Later that week they visited our farm, family and sheep. Wonderful people! You’ll never know who you’ll meet in the middle of no-where.
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The ocean view at Tulum, Mexico…
And a little visitor…
I’ve already shared about my jellyfish encounter, just in case you missed it you can read about it here…
These pictures were taken our third day in Cancun. I was very proud (and nervous) with myself for venturing out without my hubby and just going with one of the other wives that were down there. Both of husbands work for the same company, so while they were stuck in meetings we went out, got a bit of sun, and a whole lot of adventure!
Lori and I being goofy…
My husband gifted me with a waterproof camera for Christmas to use on our trip…
The water that day was very rough and we had a pretty good wind blowing too, so things were stirred up a bit…
We did see a Barracuda though!
Then our trip was rudely interrupted when something hit my arm and it instantly felt like it was on fire! It felt like someone had taken a curling iron to my arm. It took quite a while for arm to even turn red. I think everyone thought I was crazy! I have given birth 8 times and this was ranking right up there on the pain scale. I was trying not to cry and wig out! By the time we got back to shore, we could see the streaks on my arm and found out that it was indeed a jelly fish sting. My hand started to turn blue and I was really, really trying not to freak out, I just wanted my hubby to be there. However, Lori did an awesome job of trying to warm me up, getting a cab, and not letting me freak out!
The owner of the scuba place dept telling me how this was a freak deal because it was too cold for the jelly fish this time of year and that the resent storms and wind must have blown one in. When I we were back at the hotel, one place gave a statistic of your chances of being stung of 1 in 250,000 during the peak season! In fact, I had a better chance of dying in a car crash on the way to the airport!
The next day…
Despite everyone’s great advice about drinking lots tequila and crown, (hey, I was desperate and for a while, I didn’t feel much and laughed way too much! 😉 and I don’t normally drink a lot but we were in Mexico!), my arm was still in quite a bit of pain. (Duh! Right? It always seems like a good idea at the time…) I tried a bunch of different salves, creams and balms on my arm, but nothing seemed to work, but good ole time. We spent the rest of our vacation checking out some of the Mayan ruins, cenotes and on our last day in Mexico, my hubby still really wanted to go snorkeling. I figured it would be like being struck by lightning twice, right?!
We made it through unscathed, even after sea weed hit my neck…I about walked on water! And I was so glad that we did go, it was so beautiful! The water was much more calm and clear, and it was very fun to be able to try out my little camera. Best of all I was able to spend the afternoon with my hubby.
My arm got a bit better each day, until we flew home and then….
My body went into over-drive producing histamines! I started to blister all around my arm. I started itching like CRAZY, like I wanted to take a wire brush to my arm. I finally broke down and went to Urgent Care, of course in Montana they don’t take care of many people with jelly fish stings! They put me on 5 different drugs to bring the histamine levels down, stop the itching and a steroid to boot! About a week later I was feeling much better!
This is my arm as of today, 6 weeks after the sting…
No more pain or itching, just the marks and a fun story to tell about them! 😉
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"For heaven's sake (and for the Earth's), let's get it together. Get out there! Listen! The wild places will fill you up. Let them." Walkin' Jim Stoltz, 1953 - 2010
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