It was such a pretty evening last night that we decided to take the Ranger out for a short drive down to Bucky Beaver's. Bucky wasn't ready for visitors but we did see this cow moose, right where we saw the one yesterday morning, (same one?). She was camera shy and beat a hasty retreat.

The light at this time of day was wonderful! 

Clouds, always clouds!

Patient Rick waits as I snap some quick shots.

Poor us!

Little dog, big snow bank! The road to the bottom of the property is somewhere in there but we might not see it until July!

Bella has finally decided that Destin makes a pretty good playmate and vice-versa. We watch them closely because Bella is such a big oaf, but she is surprisingly gentle with him. 

Air Destin says ready or not, here I come!

And playtime commences!

Play position!

And for a fun comparison of snow depth, here is last year's photo taken the day we arrived which is the same date as now. Compare it to the top photo!

Saturday when we drove down to get the mail we saw this strange phenomenon in the sky. Not a rainbow, not a sun dog. It's called cloud iridescence and is caused by water droplets or small ice crystals scattering the light. I have never seen this before. Here is a closer look.

It was beautiful to see but it didn't last long. I'm so glad we managed to catch it!

There are many sights to see on the way to get the mail. This old root cellar belongs to a very old homestead.

Our postal journey also crosses through Chimney Rock Ranch were there are many strange and wonderful sandstone formations scoured by the elements. One in paticular that we have named Darth Vader for reasons that are obvious. At least we think so! Those staring eyes, oh so creepy and the helmet of course!

The day was so beautiful and the clouds were stupendous. At one point there was such beauty all around me that I asked Rick to pinch me. I kid you not. I have missed the west with its sweeping vistas so much.

Tiny arches are forming in this rock.

It's not a 25-minuate chore at all to get the mail. You never know what you might see. Today on our way out to town we encountered a cow moose at the Bucky Beaver's dam. She was standing right in the middle of the road and spooked when she saw our truck. She startled us by jumping right into the deep pool in the creek formed by the dam and swimming! Of course by the time I got the camera ready she was on shore and back in the willows. 

On our way back in there were two cow elk in the same spot that we saw the moose on the way out. They quickly made a hasty retreat into the willows to safety.

What do you see when you get your mail or on the way in and out of town?

No, I'm not talking about our beautiful new puppy boy Destin.

I'm talking about the new Polaris Ranger that we plan to use as our emergency exit strategy in winter.

It is called a UTV, which I think stands for Unidentified Type of Vehicle. We plan to put tracks on it along with a snow blade for winter. We'll do that in late October or early November. This summer, it will be fun to take fishing or site seeing on local trails, etc. Should also come in handy hauling wood and for other chores around the place.

I wanted to name it Kerr-mit after Chris Kerr. But, Lynne calls it Putt-Putt after Alfred M. Putt who invented the sound it makes. Putt-Putt seems like a wimpy name for a vehicle with 62 horsepower! But, I don't think Chris has 62 hp under his belt any more either. So, we'll need to look for another name.

Here is Destin, by the way:

The same day that a neighbor planted our mailbox at the Wooden Shoe Ranch, someone knocked it over with their car/truck. They probably were not used to it being there and hit it with a mirror or something. Anyway, that broke a hinge on the door. And, while it had limped along working well for a long while, the other day it broke. 

Of course, I used duct tape to provide a temporary fix, but realized I needed to get and install a new mailbox. Lynne suggested we get a larger box so it can hold small parcels. That made sense to me, so we bought a larger (but not the largest available) mail box at the ACE hardware in Laramie the other day.

The duct-taped mail box

Yesterday, I decided to install the new box. It is about a 25 minute drive from the cabin to the row of rural mailboxes. So, I wanted to make sure I had everything I needed. I charged the battery powered drill. I had studied the old mailbox enough to know how to remove it. I needed a hex driver for the drill. Then, I knew I needed to remove the old mounting board, and not knowing exactly how it was attached, I took an assortment of tools. I took several kinds and lengths of wood screws. And, since the new box is longer than the old box, I figured I might need to move the post, so I took my trusty post hole digger. Hammers, saws, drills, bits, screws...I was ready.

Lynne went with me. I got the old box off easily. The mounting plank also came off using a phillips head bit on the drill. I screwed some long wood-to-wood screws into the post here and there to tighten it up some. Then, I installed the new mounting board. 

It was clear that I would need to move the post back about 8". I don't want my box sticking out in front of everyone else's. It makes it harder on the mail delivery person, and increases the risk of it getting hit again. So, I took the post hole digger and began to chop away at the ground. It was as hard as a rock. Maybe it was a rock. I gave up quickly and decided to go ahead and mount the mailbox, even though it would stick out too far, and then come back with additional tools to dig a new hole.

I asked Lynne to hand me the new mailbox from the back of the truck. "What mailbox?" she says. Oh crap. All that preparation and I'd forgotten the damned mailbox.

So, I mounted the old one back on the new mounting board with a couple of screws hoping it would last another day.

Then, today, I borrowed a gasoline powered post hole digger from a neighbor. Equipped with that, I got a new hole started easily and then was able to finish digging the 2 foot deep hole with the manual post hole digger.

Various hole-digging tools

Luckily, I was able to simply pull the post from the old hole and drop it back into the new one. I filled and packed dirt around it, and am pretty happy with my job. I even "future proofed" the new post location, placing it further back than absolutely necessary so if we move to an even bigger mailbox in the future, I won't need to dig another hole.

So, it does definitely take a PhD (post hole digger) to move a mailbox.