Just a short post about our Thanksgiving.

It was a cold day (mid-20s), windy (gusts up to about 30 mph at the cabin), but sunny. We took the dogs for a short walk, then started meal preparations. Somehow, we survive in our tiny kitchen. The main problem we have is counter space.

All burners going!

We had fresh turkey from the Butcher Block in Laramie. Stuffing. Mashed potatoes with gravy. A cranberry/apple relish. And, a new brussels sprouts recipe. It looks pretty good on a plate:

Everything was fantastic except we didn't care much for the brussels sprout recipe we used. We'll use our old standby next time.

We took time to talk about what we are thankful for: friends, family, our health, and the opportunity to live our dream at the cabin. We also took time to think about those who are not having the Thanksgiving they probably hoped for, including our neighbor who spent the day in the hospital.

We are also thankful that dinner got cooked. We've been having a lot of problems with our new appliances. We love the mechanical designs and functionality. But, their quality suffers. I am becoming quite the appliance repair guy. The oven had been "acting up": at first not starting at all; after replacing a toggle switch it would start but would then go off after some time; an adjustment fixed that but left the oven unable to regulate the temperature; backing off the adjustment seems to have fixed it. We were able to cook several items in the oven and it performed well.

The refrigerator is another issue, and a good topic for another time. After all I want to stay positive and thankful in this post!

It's been a good couple of days for viewing wildlife. I think we are all glad that hunting season in the high country has come to an end. Yay, no more orange!

The pronghorn antelope herd that has been living just over the hill from us is pictured above, obviously before our last snowfall. We never know when we are going to come across them. There are about 30 of them as near as we can count. 

On Thursday when we got up it was still snowing with about three inches on the ground already. When I pulled open the curtains and looked outside, there was a big black moose standing just inside of the Ewok Forest at the edge of the meadow. At first I thought it was the big black cow that was hanging around so much throughout the summer. Then it started to walk into the meadow and HELLO — it was Big Boy honoring us with a visit, not the cow moose I had orignally thought. It was truly hard to photograph him because the camera kept focusing on the snow coming down! Look at those paddles! We keep hoping he sheds them somewhere where we can find them. In fact, we are thinking of buying a kit that teaches a dog how to find and bring back antlers. Destin has such a great nose that we think it would be fun for him. Good luck and haha, right?

We were glad the dogs had already had their out pretty early on because Big Boy decided our meadow was a good place for an early morning nap. Photos just don't do him jusctice. He is HUGE.

Here he is when he first laid down and then a little later on. Funny how the snow seems to fall in a blanket on his back instead of covering him all over.

Big Boy you are welcome any time!

As far as our feathered friends are concerned, we've had some sightings there as well. Going in to town we sometimes see eagles, both bald and golden and lots of different hawks. We have missed several great photo opportunities lately, one being two mature bald eagles sitting together on a rise. No cameras! So now every time we go into town we both have our cameras with telephotos lenses at the ready. We went one week without seeing any big birds at all, which we chalked up to having our cameras with us every time.

Wednesday we had to go in to get eBay's food from the vet and we got lucky a few times.

We are pretty sure this is an immature bald eagle because of the mottling of the underside of the wings.

A little further on we came across this golden eagle sitting on the post of a cattle guard. Pretty head!

On the way back from town we took a different route since we had also gone to the feed store to get a couple of bales of hay to put out for the deer and elk. There is an eagle's nest in a big cottonwood tree and we see the pair of golden eagles that live there once in a while. 

This time instead of seeing the eagles by the tree we found this hawk (unsure of identification) sitting in the cottonwood. Hawks came be so hard to identify. My best guess is a ferruginous hawk. He blends in well!

And finally, a golden eagle just down the road.

Sitty pretty.

Lift-off!

Stupid pole, but you can see the huge wingspan.

We never know what we are going to see either here at home or on the road!