Exhilirating and Terrifying

We had a family stop by after church today. They are trying to decide which puppy they want. They spent an hour or two hanging out, talking, and of course snuggling with all the cute pups. When the family left, we decided to put in an hour or so clearing scrub oak from our over-grown ATV trail. That stuff grows fast, tall and thick right before your eyes. Izzy and I grabbed some loppers, Ike grabbed a hand saw and MacGyver grabbed his trusty chainsaw. I jumped on the ATV and the kids jumped into the back of the truck and we headed into the woods. We cleared about 1/2 mile in about an hour and a half. Not bad. Along the way we spotted several piles of bear scat, some elk scat and some assorted pieces of skeleton. A leg bone here, several back bones there and we even found a piece of the jaw bone with about 12 teeth in it. We think it may be a bear after looking at the teeth! And the kiddos contemplated. What kills a bear? Other bears. What else? Moutain lions. I noticed the kids stayed a little closer after that. A little less adventurous. A little less wandering. We cleared brush, rocks, and even bones out of the way and made it up to the third meadow. Then we decided we were all hot, thirsty and getting hungry. We headed back down the mountain and back out to the road. Izzy jumped on the back of the four-wheeler with me and Ike jumped into the truck with his dad. They went up the road a bit to turn around and decided to take some pictures along the way. Izzy and I didn't wait around; we just headed home. I knew there were hungry pups that needed to be fed before we headed into town for dinner. As we were heading down the hill, I got about 100 feet from the cabin and thought I saw Tank sniffing around by the camper. I slowed down trying to make sense of how Tank had gotten out. Did the kids forget to put him up? About that time I realized it wasn't Tank. This thing was twice Tank's size. It was the mountain lion. And Maggie was headed straight for it! I called Maggie back but it decided we were too close for his comfort (or maybe Mr. Elusive just didn't like being seen) and started mosying right past our cabin into the pasture right in front of our house. Now by this time, my adrenaline was in full swing. I had stopped the ATV but was just sitting there sort of shocked. Izzy was holding on for dear life and hiding her head between my shoulder blades and my strong, protector of a husband was nowhere to be found. Remember? He was taking pictures? Eventually he made it down the hill and pulled up to me sitting in the middle of the road waving my arms like a madman. He had no idea what in the world I was doing, much less saying. I was trying to show him the mountain lion hanging out in the pasture, just standing there. As if. He hops out of the truck, looks and realizes it is still there. He reaches back into his truck to get his gun, right? Nope. The camera. What? Are you going to throw it at him? Who reaches for a camera? And then he takes off after it trying to get a shot, ooh, wrong choice of words...a picture. OH MY GOODNESS! And guess who follows? Maggie, me and both kids. Yes. Insane we are. Insane. All of us. I whispered to the kiddos to grab some rocks and instructed them if we saw him again to stand your ground, yell and scream and throw rocks at him. I think I saw Izzy's lip quiver. Wow! Supermom, I am. It eventually disappeared behind the barn and into the woods, but not before shaking up our nervous systems! Wow! Equal parts terrifying and exhilirating! We called the DOW guys that have been out here researching, tracking, studying their behavior. I couldn't tell if he was "their guy" or even if he had a radio collar on. My senses were on overdrive and I was definitely not taking notes for questioning later. He suggested we might have a fresh kill site, or that he was stalking for the next kill site. He said they will hang around for a day or so if they get a deer or up to four days if they get an elk or llama. Woah. It took us several hours to talk out the "I can't believe it...Ooh, that was scary...Do you think he'll be back...We saw the mountain lion...Do you think we should move the cat food...maybe we shouldn't leave cat food out for the little or big cats" and finally realized that was pretty scary. In broad daylight! And moved onto...I think he is stalking our dogs. They were all out just an hour and a half prior, running around, playing, doing pretty much what dogs do. And I'm sure he was just licking his chops watching and waiting for us to turn our backs. Shiver. Plus, when the puppies get going, they sound just like an injured animal with their high-pitched squeals. We set up outdoor kennels with lids just because of this very reason. It makes me feel justified. It's not out of the realm of possibilities. In fact, I think the stakes just got a little higher. I'll be double checking the gates as we close them up. I'll be more careful before I open the door and walk outside. Or let the dogs out. Or worse, send my kiddos outside on an errand or chore. Shivers. A friend of ours saw one sitting on his barn where he was heading to feed his horses. Another came home to find one asleep in his driveway sunning himself. The ranch behind ours raises cashmere goats. She's seen a mountain lion haul one of her goats over a ten foot fence. No kidding. And after tonight, I realize they are much bigger in person than I ever realized. Our new motto...Noone left behind. Catchy, huh? We stole it. It just isn't worth the risk to leave anyone out there alone or let the kids go and do whatever it is kids go and do in the woods...Freaks me out. And cool, all at the same time.

I want to see if any of the pictures turned out. Unfortunately, we left the camera in the truck and I am NOT about to run outside to get it. Not tonight.

Traffic

This past week was full of traffic out at our place. The "monkey village", monk retreat center, just south of us finally got electricity run up to their lodge and cabins. The electric company put up a new pole just outside one of our living room windows. I wanted them to move it four feet but they didn't want to spend the $10,000. What? Don't they know it blocks our mountain views? They were very nice guys, though. They let my kiddos go out everyday and watch them trench and set the pole. It was quite the highlight of their week. (We obviously don't get out much)!!!

A couple days later, a guy delivered a truck load of gravel so we could "fix" our road. I use the term "fix" lightly. There really is no hope for it. The very next day it rained so hard it created ruts the size of China in the places we didn't have problems. So much for that! Anyway, MacGyver went out to meet the delivery guy and show them where to dump it. I looked out the window (the same one that now has a huge pole in the middle of it) and saw a tire rolling down the road. Imagine the surprise! I had to laugh. And then they couldn't find it. It has truly become a jungle back here. The kids and MacGyver walked around and looked for it after coming back to call the guys' company to come rescue him. It's nice to know it isn't always our responsibility to save these people! Ike found it down in the creek so MacGyver hooked it up to the winch on the front of the four-wheeler and drug it back up the hill. I made Mac go take a pictures for me. I just had to! There's always a story to be told and it is even better with pictures! I guess I should have gone out and taken some pictures because I missed all the action shots. This is all I ended up with but it was worth the laugh! Evidently, he found one of those rocks in our road and smacked it hard enough to blow the tire and dent the rim. You would think being a delivery driver in the Rocky Mountains, these guys would be more experienced driving on the rocky roads! I was looking at our dirt the other day and realized it looks an awful lot like road base it is so rocky!

Nod to the Dedication

I have to give a nod to the dedication of the census people. I think "Through Rain, Sleet or Snow" used to be the motto of the US Postal Service. I believe it has been abandoned and adopted by the dedicated Census Bureau. But it might be a little more like "Through Rain, Sleet, Snow and Mud". And here is the rest of the story...

I spent the afternoon at my girlfriend's house in town and brought her son, who is my son's age, home to spend the night and possibly the weekend. They have big plans to dress in camo and scour the trees and hills for "the enemy" tomorrow and if it dries up enough, get in some shooting practice for 4H. On the way home, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up a "few" things...you know...milk and bread...which turned into a $74 trip with half of it being fresh fruit and vegetables. Can you tell what I've been craving? Oh. And also some yummy ice cream sandwiches at the prodding of some young boys. I know. I'm a pushover. It rained the whole way home aaaannnnndddd... my groceries were in the back of the truck. They got wet. Really wet. In fact, it has been raining for hours. Guess what my road looked like when I got home? Yep. Mud...Mud...everywhere! I actually managed to get the whole way home without getting stuck with only the minimal sliding sideways, downhill. And I had a visitor waiting. Yep. My friendly and very dedicated census worker and brand new friend, Wendy; who was stuck up to her front axle in mud. Her first words to me when I parked and walked down to greet her..."Don't be angry, don't be angry". Apparently she has been greeted by some not so friendly homeowners in her history with the Census Bureau. I surmised she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. So, I invited her in to call her boyfriend and get a cup of hot tea. Isn't that obvious? I'm Southern. Born, bred and raised. Plus, I felt sorry for her. Evidently, she had been trying to dig out for over an hour. She was wet. And muddy. And needed something hot to drink. Ike built us a nice fire. (I'm loving that mountain boy more every day!) It's a good thing we weren't out of town or made a spontaneous decision to stop at the theatre or go bowling. So, she shed her oh so muddy boots at the front door and washed up and we sat down for some Oranged Spiced Green Tea and chatted. She told me that while she was waiting she really had to "go" and couldn't wait any longer and felt bad that she had to tarnish the area near the "Sacred Ground" sign at the Catholic Hermitage (we call it Monkey Village). Cracked me up, it did! And, we called her very lost boyfriend, and guided him to our little island of paradise via the road that is not... and then it happened...HE GOT STUCK! I had to laugh. I lauged a lot. The whole things was a little unbelievable and so funny! He had a truck, with four wheel drive and even a tow chain, but he got high-centered on the logs lining our lower road. There was no hope. I have to give him credit, though...they are big logs. Like 24" in diameter. MacGyver cut them in sections with his 22" blade (the chainsaw blade, let me repeat, the chainsaw blade :-) was not long enough. Moving on. So, he got a little impromptu exercise and ran the rest of the way down the road to the cabin. And had a cup of tea. Really. We had a full-on tea party. Mike and Wendy. My new friends. He owns a big game guide service and a fly-fishing store in town. And has fly-fishing classes on Saturday. We have a date with a fly-fishing pole. It's always been one of my goals in life to learn to fly-fish. It's on my bucket list. It might be in my near future. Yeah! So, we got warm and I outfitted him. Ha! That's pretty ironic...and funny! Anyway, I outfitted them with rain jackets and mucking boots and we jumped into my truck so I could go pull Mike's truck out so he could then pull Wendy's Outback out of the mud. I tried to gently pull him out but the mud was having no part of that so I had to yank him pretty hard and with the first jerk was able to get him off the ginormous log and down the road to some higher ground and traction. And with a couple jerks Mike was then able to get the Outback out and to higher, more stable ground. And with a quick exchange of phone numbers and a quick explanation of where on the map she was, they were off with quite a story of their own to tell. I'm pretty sure he didn't think I had it in me and would just make a bad situation worse. I think he left impressed with this city girl turned mountain girl. MacGyver, you taught me well. And you would have been proud. You know, it's MacGyver's job, normally, to rescue the stranded, helpless, confused strangers, but today it was dropped onto my plate. And I became the hero of the day in Deer Creek Canyon! Sorry...no pictures. I was a little busy. And the truck needs a bath! Sorry.

"The Best Day EVER"

So, I did it! The warm weather must have gotten to me...I taught the kiddos how to drive the 4-wheeler today. It is a manual transmission so I thought it would take some time (maybe days) for them to get it but they both picked it up in less than 15 minutes! They are changing gears like the pros, now. What was I thinking? Mostly that if I ever needed their help (ie. got hurt), I wanted them to feel comfortable enough to jump on and take over. Izzy said this was the best day of her life EVER! We spent hours running around the mountain and even ran the gas tank bone dry. Luckily, we had just pulled up to the cabin and we didn't have to walk miles back home! Close call!

Christmas is 'acomin

We finished up our first semester today! Whew! I was beginning to wonder if we were going to make it! And while we were hard at work finishing up school, MacGyver jimmied up some brakes for the 4-wheeler since we haven't been able to find them anywhere. Strap on some 'ole chains and we might just be unstoppable! I still don't think the kiddos are old enough to run free all over the property, with or without brakes, much to their chagrin! So, in celebration of having a productive day and completing a successful semester still alive and breathing, we went out to dinner and drove through some of our "local" neighborhoods checking out some of the houses that were decorated for Christmas. We actually had to drive about 30 minutes away since the mountain folk (us included) all think there is no point in decorating your house if there aren't more than 10 people that pass their house to enjoy it. Driving around looking at lights is one of our favorite parts of Christmas, though, and we just couldn't miss out. We could definitely tell which blocks were competing for best/most decorated! Some of them even lit up their entire backyards! Way cool! Tomorrow's plan: run, read my Bible, put house back in order, watch a Christmas Veggie Tale with the kiddos, make a grocery list for Christmas dinner, run the dogs, work the colt, meet with G about him being gone over Christmas, and be thankful for a week off of school and that all my Christmas shopping and shipping is D-O-N-E, done!