Photos from Jonathan!

The Mountain ranch-I forgot what day this was. Lots of flowers and I didn't download the one of the goats up there. Yup, goats. A lot of goats that are out wandering around very goat-like. 

Steve took both dad's to June's Old Iron Show in Pendleton. Bill Egbert's Merc and Rod's Toyota. 

Fun, fun, fun!!!!!! 

And his dad's tractor!

 They saw a lot of interesting things, as usual, and both Steve and Jon enjoyed a great deal of conversation about the Toyota and the Mercury.

Not many words, I'll let Jon's pictures tell what they can!!!! 

Life and death out north-

It has been really pretty the last few days. I was super glad I shared that family of green winged teal in the last post, the mom has no one left. The last one was taken out by the loon on Saturday afternoon. The loon who is just here on our lake as a decoy for his own family which is elsewhere! The wigeon is below, he's been seen, but I also learned his mate isn't around. Many of the males tend to leave the mom after incubation. (the teal is another one of those) So, if the brood is all destroyed, unless the female finds a new male, her season of babies is done for the year. 

Below is Miss Kitty. She lives at the North Kenai feed store and is an absolute love! Unless you are a rodent and then you are history. 

This bleached carcass of wood intrigued me. I'm pretty sure this was a 'log' which had washed up nearer Arness dock. Now, it is a cut up root end not as close to the dock! Very cool looking, even with most of it gone. 

It was a gorgeous day out north on Saturday. I had gone to take trash to the dump and out by the pool wisps of fog were coiling in the trees. It was crazy. When  I reached the Spur, on the right towards town the road was obscured. On the left, out north, it was blue skies and sunshine!!!!!! 

 I was amused to see mom's sunflower seeds are growing. I always laugh when I read the seeds are sterile. This one won't get very large (maybe I should pull it up and try to grow it!), but it is growing!

There is a mallard creche on the lake. Or was until Saturday. As mentioned above, the loon has been taking out babies one by one. I went out in the kayak and the loon was on the lake and circling in the sky above were a full grown and an immature eagle. I don't recall which blog it was, but the author mentioned how bittersweet it was to see babies on the lake she lived on. Because she knew most of them would never grow up. I absolutely understand. I know it is the cycle of life, but the last years we've had few babies reach adulthood. 

I have yet to go out on Sunday and see how many she has left in her creche. I'm betting she's down to at least a normal nest size. Thankfully, mallards are ones who brood more than once in a season. We also don't have any golden eye babies yet. Although, to be honest, those moms are terrible! At least the teal and mallards tend to keep their babies to the shallow parts of the lake. The golden eye seem to let their go anywhere they might want to paddle! 

Photos of here and there

Most of these are sunsets. We've had some stunning ones the last few days! Some are growing things. Others might just be odd. 

Baby Pushki. 

Leech in the lake. I was a bit put out because where this leech was the ducks had been hanging out. I wasn't sure it was really a leech, because it appeared to have tiny legs. However, when I scooped it from the water (I was wearing gloves) the darn thing had babies! This was not the only one I found either. EWWWWWW. 

More Arness Dock sunsets.

For some reason there are a LOT of mallards on the lake right now. There are also Golden Eyes and one Green  Winged Teal family. 

She's already lost a couple of her babies. I hope this year at least one grows up to fly away. I'm really surprised they came back. The photo isn't very good because it was getting dark. I took this photo AFTER the two below. 

I believe this is a two year old cow. She's been hanging out in mom's yard the last couple of days and she does not have a calf. I reckon she the one who was around last summer, too. 

Almost done on the Pipeline! #11

Well, they are almost done with the construction part of the work on the pipeline by mom's house! This job isn't going to be completely finished for a while yet. 

I added the tractor photo from the last post because this is sort of ironic. Remember I had mentioned how mom's landline hadn't been disrupted in all of the work done? Well, the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, the tractor came past to smooth out everything and snicked mom's landline in half. (it wasn't buried very far under the ground and it was still marked, it was just an ironic accident) Well, because I  know pay GCI for the landline and the actual old line is owned by ACS, no one was slated to fix it. So, Peak came out to bandage it for the duration. 

Dan called in a few guys on a holiday weekend. I'm so grateful for them! 

Justin found the first half, the rest was dug up and thankfully still intact. So, Justin put it all together and it is now marked with a slight depression and two sticks in the soft soil to show where the mend is. Now, we need to wait for ACS to come out and completely fix it. 

The first Saturday in June was tidy up the Pipeline day. Tractors and Peak employees worked hard to erase the marks of man and move the last of the equipment further down the road. The entire line is 8 miles. I've not gone to the other end to see how close they are to finishing. I don't often drive on Island Lake, but since I started this series of posts over there, I reckon I should wander that way and complete the saga! 

I'm going to miss this. It has been an interesting journey to follow. I've met some nice people and learned a great deal about something that is literally in my backyard! I did notice the robin in the nest near where they tore up the road has her eggs hatched now and the moose are criss crossing the road easier. I'm also glad the line is laid for the ducks. About the time we have mid sized ducklings, usually one family walks down the road to the neighbor's lake. Make way for Ducklings doesn't just happen in busy cities, it happens out in the wilderness, too! 

Links to the other pipeline posts here. Inside each post are links to the other posts. Kind of like an onion, only no tears. 

The middle of a busy week! Pipeline construction #10

This week of May so much got done, it was hard to keep up! After the work was done one of the nights, I went out to see what had been done. This was just after the road had been dug up and put back together. Each side of the road was still open, hence the orange fencing. 

 The large tractor was following behind to bury the pipe. Some parts were still exposed.

 The yellow caution tape was laid down above where the pipe is so if anyone digs in that spot and finds the tape, they'll know something is directly underneath! So, in addition to the GPS markers on each weld, the well marked areas saying 'pipeline buried here', they also have a warning buried as well.

I went up the road a bit on the original pipeline road to Claire where the work was now taking place. 

 Looking down towards mom's driveway from Claire Road.

 This is a view of the Pipeline on the other side of Lamplight. With people already using it for their ATV fun!

 This tractor is the last thing that goes past. It smooths over the leftover mounds of soil and makes it all pretty.

Below the tractor is scooping the sandy soil into the ditch. It is a progression of big rigs and responsible people! 

In the photo below, the tractor had not quite reached mom's yet. 

Link to post #9