Category Archives: weather

Eagles and Coyotes

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IMG 0016 300x224 Eagles and CoyotesHow cool is this? The iPhone has a setting to determine the best exposure lighting, and it caught this eagle taking flight as three images in one photo –

This was the second eagle I saw this morning driving in from the cabin. It’s that time of year when all the wildlife is on the move. There were two cow elk behind the 2-unit motel building up at the cabin last night — one came out to graze in the full moon at about 10:30. We were peeking out the high window in the bedroom at her, grazing, maybe 10 feet from the wall. Then this morning, the little herd of cows and spikes was just up the hill, hanging out. We watched them while drinking coffee in bed (drinking coffe in bed is a luxury to me, but a necessity to my sweetheart, who does not wake up easily).

There was also a pack of coyotes — probably the same ones we heard hunting behind the motel two weeks ago. Just as I got out of the car, they started up yipping and barking up on the hillside. My poor dogs, it was leashes only for them I’m afraid. Between not wanting them to scare the elk and not wanting the coyotes to eat them, they did not have the most fun overnight excursion. Plus the windows are set high in the wall, so Ray can’t see out easily. I wind up putting him in the car in the morning because at least from there he can watch what’s going on outside, even if he can’t go chase things.

IMG 0012 e1298142620706 224x300 Eagles and CoyotesHere’s a photo of eagle #1 keeping watch over East River road. It’s not unusual to see them, but it was nice to have a safe place to pull over to try to get a photo.

Eagle #2, the flying one, was closer to town. Between these two and the Snow Geese I saw feeding on the Yellowstone last week, seems like spring might be on the horizon.

Sometime in May.

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Persephone on the Rebound

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It’s nearly six o’clock and not entirely dark outside. And although the wind blew so hard I had to change course halfway around the dog park, because it was blowing so hard I was stopped in my tracks, it was nearly fifty degrees today. I got the chicken coop cleaned out, the girls had a dust bath in the sunshine, and it’s that moment when you can start to feel the earth tilt back toward the sun.
I’m sure we’ll have more sub-zero weather, and more snow, but I can feel Persephone making her way back to the surface. Such a relief.

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Baby Cows

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IMG 0454 300x225 Baby CowsWhen I drove down the road from the cabin the other morning, what should I see but new babies! There were six of them hanging out in the shelter of the State section. At this age they seem far less interested in eating hay than in nestling in it — a wee cattle nursery.

I love this time of year in Montana. From now until summer there’ll be field after field filled with baby cows and baby sheep (and sometimes baby goats). We’ll also get to look forward to the bambis — who are beyond cute.

Of course, we were also awakened at three AM by a pack of coyotes chasing something just on the far side of the shed. A deer probably — I can’t imagine the bunnies were out tempting them at that hour, and there were a bunch of them, four or five probably. It brought out something elemental in me and I found myself hiding under the covers!

Spring in the mountains — aside from the fact that we got a foot of snow today, it seems to be on its way …

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Snow!

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IMG 0395 300x225 Snow!Winter has arrived with a bang here in southern Montana. That’s my patio furniture which is suddenly buried.

The storm came in yesterday, but the real snow seems to have fallen overnight. I shoveled yesterday, and it was a only a couple of inches of powdery fluff; this morning, nearly a foot, and a little heavier (but I think that’s because the ground was still warm).

IMG 0391 300x225 Snow!I don’t dare peek in the hoop house, because it’s supposed to go down below zero tonight, and I’m hoping the snow will insulate. We’ll see if anything survives. It’s slated to run a degree or two either side of zero tonight, and to be even colder tomorrow night. The experiment gets an early test.

Time to make soup.

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Storm Windows, Already?

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It’s supposed to go down into the single digits tonight, so this afternoon, despite the fact that it was only 25 degrees out, and snowy, I got the storm windows out of the shed, and put them up.

Every year I forget what a colossal pain in the ass they are. I replaced all the old windows in my house except for those in the living room. They’re really old double-hung windows, so old that the glass is wavy, and I just fell in love with them. So I kept the clunky old wooden storm windows that go with them, and there I was, on a ladder, cursing and banging at them with a hammer to make them fit. Ugh.

But now they’re up, and the storm-door insert is in my screen door, and the house is feeling all cozy and battened down for winter.

It’s supposed to go back up into the 60s next week, so I buried the garden in straw and covered it in plastic. I’m hoping to keep at least the hardy greens alive. I decided this summer that what I really love are the spring and fall crops, I’m not so much for the mid-summer heat crops, and I’d hate to lose all my greens.

We also got the chickens stet up with a (ridiculously expensive!) heated base for their water unit, and a 100 watt light bulb to heat the coop. They sort of hate the light bulb — it goes against their urge to roost someplace dark in the evening, so I ordered a red heat bulb for reptiles. However, tonight they’re going to have to sleep with the lights on — it was 16 degrees outside this morning when I got up, and 28 degrees inside the coop (I’m a little obsessive about remote-control thermometers). So if it goes down to 0 tonight, it’ll only be about 10 degrees in the coop, and that’s too cold. We’ll have to see how they do … I hope I don’t wake up to chicken-sicles tomorrow (or frozen eggs!) …

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