The day is OVER and so is our time at the cabin. The aspens are mostly FINISHED.  The wind over the past few days has basically DONE them in. And so another year at the cabin has passed for us. Not too many changes that we could note from last year.

No more significant number of trees invaded by beetles than last year. No more trees toppled over than normal. Not as many political interventions like last year.

We are ready to go “home,” yet not ready. We talked about staying one more day but we both decided that if asked and time allowed we would stay another week. Another day? It wouldn’t make sense. Maybe another three to four days if we could. But one day?

So we have made as many preparations today as we possibly can. The dog crates are loaded as are all the stuff that goes under the seats before the crates get loaded. The dirty laundry is stuffed into bags awaiting their time tomorrow to be loaded into the pod.

Leaving is sad. But we all had a good day including the long walk to Egger’s Pond this morning with the dogs. I will leave you with a few shots from that.

We’ll catch you on the flip side of our journey home! I will try and blog from the road, but not sure if I will or not.

Our day started with Sam and Ebay finding a mouse hiding in our utility closet. Sam was not about to let the mouse go. Cats can be so cruel. He only wanted to taunt it and play with it. Rick finally cornered them in the bathroom and took the mouse away from Sam after a half hour’s torture.





Alex decided he needed more attention and did a little rug work.












Silly dog!

Bella has her last swim.





And we have our last look at western vistas.



See you all back in New Jersey!


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Aspen Glow!

We only have two days left for our stay at the cabin and one of those is now mostly gone as I type this afternoon. It’s hard to believe that we’ve been here almost two weeks already. Time surely goes by fast.

Today I am posting aspen photos and dog photos. The aspens seem to glow from within. They are truly beautiful. And the dogs, well, their joy in being here shines through their cute faces. Enjoy!

This photo is the aspen grove on our adjacent piece of property (the one that the cabin is not on.)








Aspens right outside our bedroom window. These are all babies, springing up where our older aspens have died out. They are growing fast and a source of joy for us.




These aspen are in the bottom (as we call it) just down from the cabin and we see them on our walk “around.” These were taken just this morning.

A new perspective! Taken pointing up.

You can get an idea of how massive some of these really old aspens are by this one that fell down two years ago.

At the top of our driveway. I think you get the idea that it is truly a golden world we are living in right now.

Bella!











Alex!











Hailey! Not too many photos of Hailey. She usually doesn’t stand still long enough. Plus she was embarrassed by her poodle cut tail. (She had surgery to remove a growth about a month ago.)








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Just in case you wanted to see what a pack rat looks like. He still looks pretty good even though he was caught in our trap under the truck last night.

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Someone has been nibbling on rose hips on this stump.

Our time at the cabin is flying by. I shouldn’t be surprised by that, it always does. Days go by and we can’t remember what we did the day before. I have so many plans of sitting and reading or knitting, but somehow I don’t end up doing very much of either of them. I did cast on Rick’s new slippers but that’s as far as I got. Wrapping my head around the knitting pattern seems like too much thinking.

We go to bed early but still get up at the same time we always do. Partly due to the dogs and cats that won’t let us sleep any later than 6:30 a.m. Sam starts knocking things off the kitchen counters and mewing. The dogs start stirring and we end up with all three on the smaller-than-NJ-queen sized bed.

We walk. A lot. I think we are all finally acclimated to the higher altitude. Here is Bella demonstrating her mountain dog/rock climbing skills




The aspens have changed quite a bit since our arrival. They are late this year. By the time we leave they should be pretty much peak.








The weather has been sunny and fairly warm (low 70’s during the day). The first couple of days we were here it was much cooler with a little bit of rain. The cooler weather allowed us wood fires in the range, although as I type this morning it is 38 degrees F and I have a fire going to warm the cabin up.

It’s hard to believe that next week we’ll be on the road home. Time just goes too quickly when you’re doing not much of anything.

Our dinner last night: Swiss Onion Tart ... yum.

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We are now minus one pack rat. But not quite in the way in which we had intended.

Last night right after dinner we decided we were going to drive around and see if we could spot any elk or moose. We all piled in the truck (including Bella who hates these just-before-dark drives and we can’t really figure out why) Rick started the truck and backed up.

Eeeeewwwwwwww. What was that smell? All of a sudden Rick announced that the truck didn’t have any steering. What????? We knew what the stench was—pack rat—but why didn’t we have any steering?

We all got out of the truck that wasn’t going anywhere and I put the dogs in the house. Rick popped the hood and started scooping out a lovely nest made of ferny material and some black chewed on piece that used to be covering something in the engine. He peered closer. Yup, there was the “monster” (as Rick called it) pretty chewed up with guts and gore splattered everywhere in the engine compartment. He said “the belt is gone!” At first we thought the monster chewed the fan belt in half or had run off with it, but then he found it lying there completely off its gears or whatever they are called. Apparentely he got caught in the belt when we started the truck and it threw the belt off the heads.

We got rid of the pack rat carcass and stood there for a minute trying to understand just what this meant. Did we have to call a tow truck to come all the way in from Laramie? We saw a diagram under the hood that shows how to thread the belt back on, so Rick got busy trying to figure it out.

It’s not a simple thing to do since it’s not just the fan belt, but drives lots of other things too. They don’t call it a serpentine belt for nothing! It winds in and around all the little belt heads (don’t laugh I don’t know what to all them) in a rather intricate pattern.

Rick tried his best while I offered moral support and held the flashlight. By now it was starting to get too dark to see very much, so we gave up after coming very close to having it back on. Rick came in and went online, found a video of how to put it back on and now we feel pretty confident we can get it back up and running today. Good thing we hadn’t planned on going in to Laramie to shop until tomorrow!

So, therefore the score above: pack rat: 1,  us: 1. We got him but he got us too.

Traps were set everywhere last night: under the truck, near the entry to the fireplace where they had been getting in, by the canoe. One trap was sprung with nothing in it, the one under the truck netted one mouse.

So, if you are still thinking in the back of your head that pack rats are cute, maybe you’ll change your mind when you see the havoc they can cause.




Starting to change! Another post still on the way today with photos from our walks of the past couple of days. I need to catch up if only these dang pack rats would leave us alone!

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