My eyes are finally adjusting. Instead of taking in the wide sweeping vistas around the cabin they are focusing in on a more closed-in view of trees and heavily wooded hills. The trees are just starting to turn here and there. There’s a touch of Fall in the air and we are expecting quite a bit of rain throughout the night tomorrow. Our annual mushroom foray is planned for Sunday (we just got word) but will depend on Sunday’s weather. I hope we don’t get rained out!

We had two cords of wood delivered yesterday. Yes, it’s that time of year again. Last year we didn’t use the full two cords so we have some nicely aged wood to begin the fire season with. Instead of trying to stack it as I went, this year my goal was just to move it off the grass so it wouldn’t kill it first, then slowly work on stacking at my leisure. See how much I got done yesterday by chucking it piece by piece onto the gravel.

Not bad, right? As I worked I heard a rustling noise in the woods. When I turned around I saw three deer walking the fence line. They came out of the woods and crossed our driveway. I went to the gate to get a better look. Each deer as it crossed the drive stopped to look at me, tails flicking with trepidation. I spoke softly to them: I won’t hurt you beautiful things, it’s okay. They stood there looking at me for a few minutes longer, then went on their way into the front yard and I got back to my wood chucking. I felt like a Deer Whisperer or something!

Here is the progress after today’s work:

Almost done! My arms gave out so I stopped. I’ll have Rick help me with the rest tomorrow.

What I wouldn’t give to have this wood at the cabin! Look at that lovely hardwood! Funny how we have this same chore at the cabin—putting up wood—except that there we have to actually cut it ourselves instead of having it delivered to us already split. I will still have to split some of the pieces with our little splitter, but mostly it’s all good to go.

This was also going on around my house today. The big question mark in the sky seems to be asking What? is going on here?

A big air show is going on in our town this weekend and this stunt plane was practicing his maneuvers almost over our house. I took these photos from the back yard. I think he was mostly out over the lake.

And upside down as well.

He was fun to watch. Noisy, but entertaining. I’m sure we’ll be seeing (and hearing) the whole air show almost as if we had a front row seat. After all, we are close to the airport. It’s fun to watch the big old WW II bombers fly over. They shake the whole house and are so magnificent in their vintage-ness. It’ not going to be quiet around here this weekend. Au contraire!

Added as an addendum: Dryer update! The motor is gone ... boo hoo ... so I’ve been hanging laundry on the line (gasp! My neighbors hate this!). Instead of opting for a new one we decided to just replace the motor in this one. Our twin washer is still going strong (both Maytags and never one day of service before this) and pronounced healthy by the repairman, so we hope it hangs in there for a few more years. Hopefully this coming week we’ll have a dryer back again! Not quite the same as pioneer laundry at the cabin, but almost.

I told you I was sure more moose would show up. Look what I found in the drawer the other night while trying to find something in our limited collection of things for setting a table.

Another place mat and matching napkin avec moose ...

... and this napkin holder.

The best though was on our evening drive right at sunset last night. Take a look!

Isn’t he grand? I walked right out into the meadow where he was standing with my telephoto to get this picture. I could have gotten closer because he was not spooked by me at all, but another car (filled with hunters) pulled up while I was taking photos and he spooked.

Finally, the real thing!

Warning! dead animal photo alert ...

Rick and I laid in bed the first morning after our arrival and listened to the familiar sound of the furnace clicking on. We waited for the comforting whoosh! of the burner being ignited but nothing happened. For five minutes or so we lay in denial as the pre-burner fan whirred on and on. Crap. The furnace was not working. We got up and noticed it didn’t smell very good in here either. Rick checked all the things that he could but without taking the furnace apart, we were stumped. What we did know was that the smell was pretty bad. We assumed that a mouse or something had somehow gotten into the exhaust pipe and was blocking the air flow, hence the safety feature of our propane furnace was such that it would not turn on and asphyxiate us. A good thing!

Of course this was Saturday and the long Labor Day weekend loomed before us. We knew it would be Tuesday before we might be able to get anyone to come and look at it. The weather is very nice (70’s during the day) and not getting too cold at night yet, so all the heat we really needed was provided by the wood stove first thing in the morning to just take the chill off the room. We’re lucky it’s not winter.

So first thing yesterday morning Rick was on the phone trying to find someone to come out. He wasn’t having much luck at first. Either they didn’t work on propane furnaces or were not willing to cross the Colorado state line (we are only 3 miles from the Colorado/Wyoming border). He finally found one company that said they could even come out that very afternoon.  We were thrilled. The last thing we wanted to do was leave the cabin with winter fast approaching with a non-functioning furnace.

When he arrived he felt certain it was as we had feared. Something had gotten in or fallen down the exhaust pipe and died. He started taking apart the furnace and the smell was becoming overpowering. He started to remove the combustion air blower (had to look this up!)  and turned to us and said “it’s a lot fresher than we thought, probably been in there only a week.” He had to get a mask for his face and then removed the blower. There, with its head stuck in the end of the blower was a squirrel.

Poor thing. Somehow, and we don’t really know how, he managed to get up on our roof and drop down into the exhaust pipe. He had no recourse but to follow the pipe down and ended up with his head stuck in the mouth of the blower. So bizarre. Our roof is slick metal, so I can’t imagine how he managed it. Maybe he dropped from the solar panel. We’ll never know. Thank you little squirrel for such a welcome home to our cabin. Geez. Sorry for the photo but I just had to do it. Hopefully it will never happen again.

Then, the other morning we found this little offering on the front door mat.

We knew exactly what it meant. Pack rat. Those pesky little wood rats that make their nests out of whatever catches their eye. We’ve had them in the past and they are nearly impossible to get rid of. We had one that used to live in Beastie (our old Ford pick-up truck with a plow that we used to keep up here) and every time we came up we had to clean out the nest from the engine. He not only built a nest but chewed on wires causing shorts in Beastie’s system, which believe me, Beastie did not need.  I remember one time the dogs had one cornered in an old hollow log and in the end they did get him. We had to pull them off him.

So, we were not happy with the gifts. Not at all. RIck popped the hood of the Suburban and sure enough, there were the beginnings of a small nest. A furled, fresh green leaf from the yarrow, two dried up dog turds, some dead grass and some other things we could not readily identify. He removed the nest and we set some traps last night using dog biscuits. This morning the dog biscuits were gone, the traps unsprung, and a new nest under the hood. We removed the nest yet again and went back inside to get ready for our trip into Laramie for groceries and gas.

We got in the truck, started it up and heard a loud thunk like something had come loose. We looked at each other and rolled our eyes. Rick got out and nothing seemed amiss, so we went on our way into Laramie shopping, getting the oil changed in the Suburban, etc.

After coming home we parked in the same spot and let the dogs out to pee. They thought the front of the truck smelled pretty interesting. We figured it was just the leftover smell of pack rat pee. Bella was sniffing something on the ground and she was kind of afraid of it, yet interested. I asked Rick who was standing right there just what it was that she was sniffing. He picked up something off the ground and said ” pack rat tail.” He still must have been in the engine somewhere when we started it up. On closer inspection under the hood we did indeed find bits and pieces of something. We have to wonder if the folks who changed our oil came across more bits and pieces and just didn’t tell us?

That pack rat may have met it’s demise, but I’m sure there are more. All part of living in the country but definitely not one of the perks.

Here are some snaps taken on our walk yesterday morning to the top of our other piece of land (the one without the cabin). We waited a few days to tackle the climb until we had acclimated more to the altitude.

Bull Mountain with the moon.

Hailey looking cute.

The dogs having a romp. (Alex and Hailey running towards me with Bella in the background; Bella)

Alex looking regal.

As is our custom, we took an after dinner drive last night. We had rain all around us but all we got were sprinkles. The sky did offer up this half rainbow that seems to explode as it “hits” the ground.

Sometimes we see wildlife, sometimes not. We did see several hunting camps along the way, something I can’t stand to see. Right now it is bow season and I think muzzle loading season just started. I think the animals know when it’s hunting season and make themselves scarce. And, for whatever reason, the moose seem to leave the area during August.

This bull elk must not have gotten the newsletter about hunting season. We had just passed a camp of hunters dressed in their camouflage when I spotted him at the edge of the trees. Look at the rack on him!

He was nervous about our stopping to admire him and walked back into the trees moments later. I hope he stays safe and those glorious antlers of his don’t end up hanging over someone’s fireplace.

The only other creatures we saw were cows (they don’t count), and this beautiful hawk perched in a tree right by the road.

There were too many clouds around to make for a perfect sunset but it was pretty anyway.

Today we are sticking close to the cabin since we have a furnace repair person coming. That is another story ...

I did take my long awaited walk in the woods the other day. I hadn’t been yet this summer and mostly because of the ticks. We’ve had mosquitoes too this year, which we haven’t had since we moved here. This year they’re bad! So, I sprayed myself down with Deep Woods OFF! and off I went. I contemplated taking one of the dogs with me but I knew in my heart they would not appreciate all the stopping I was hopefully going to do when I saw something to take a photo of.

A leaf decoupaged onto another from the heavy rain the other day.

The woods are lusher than normal this year with all the rain we’ve had. It was even hard to find the beginning of the trail it’s so overgrown. No thorns reached out to clutch at my clothing as I entered the forest as they have done in previous times. I can’t describe it, but the woods have a different feel to them. Almost more secretive.

The trail was boggy and wet and I came across many pools of standing water. At this point I was glad I decided not to bring a dog!

Of course, all this wetness means that it’s just the right kind of conditions for mushrooms to thrive. I found they came in all colors.

Bright orange.

Yellow.

A combination of colors.

Purple. (!)

Some were huge. These were bigger than they look. My hand could not span the top of these.

Some were ugly.

Some grew on trees.

Some were brown but interesting all the same.

Some had me fooled. (do you know why?) Look closely.

While others didn’t look like mushrooms at all. This one looks like it’s trying to disguise itself by looking like the surrounding mulch.

And this one. Well, anybody for a cheese pizza?

Remember the coral mushroom I showed you the other day? Seems they come in different colors too. Yellow and this lovely peachy color.

I didn’t take just photos of mushrooms. A few blooming things along the way caught my eye.

I walked all the way down to the pond which had a lot of visitors for the middle of the day during the week. An elderly man that was fishing commented to me that it was a nice spot for taking photographs, and asked me what I was taking photos of. When I told him mostly mushrooms he cocked his head, raised one eyebrow and said “Kinda strange, don’t you think?” I told him I didn’t think it was strange at all. I’m sure most of the people I passed on my photographic journey walked right past all those mushrooms and didn’t even see them. Admit, it: aren’t you glad I pointed them out to you?