Elk Hunt Scenes, Day 2

This day was not as damp as the previous one, but there were still no elk. The pond at the right is the lower pond on the upper place. Now, I realise that means almost nothing to most of you reading this, and I totally understand. However, I was told emphatically, this is how it is designated. The scenery up on the ranch is amazing. Steve and Jon have done a great deal of hiking this month.

Jon always manages to be in the back looking for great pictures. The area is full of expanses of green and gold and incredible acreage. Although, they did not see an elk, they did see sign that there are elk around. The tip of Jon's shotgun is quite near the 'sign'. Steve did see an incredibly nice buck, which is normal. It just stood there regal and quiet, looking right at him, before it calmly walked away.

The guys did get a load of wood, so something was gained besides exercise and gorgeous footage. Thus, another day ended very early (daylight savings time is hard on all of us!) and in a blaze of glory.

Elk Season or Just Scenery

First day. To me, it just seems odd to actually hunt for an elk. In Tillamook elk were yard ornaments. Granted, they were voracious, huge, destructive yard ornaments, but they hung out everywhere. We saw them spar, rub their velvet off on our apple tree, and bugle at each other as they forded the river. Although, I will over look their ornamental value if one is brought home for the freezer.

The guys left with the chance of rain following them around.

However, Toll Gate had snow and bad roads. This semi carrying a chip truck had slid off, the semi was already gone and they were unloading the container. They didn't have to stop, just slow down.

The first photo is rather clever me thinks. Jon took a picture of his gun toting shadow. All the rest of the pictures are of the area around Black Mountain. This area is where Rod used to hunt. They did see the spot where the 'preacher's camp' used to be set up. However, someone else is using it now. Although, Steve did say it looked pretty much the same as it did 30 years ago. The snow did not stick up there, by the time the guys left, most of the snow had gone, too.

They didn't see any bulls, but were impressed by the amazing world we live in. Spectacular, is it not???

Am reading Twilight..finally. Finished half of the Pellinore series by A. Croggon. That one is super wonderful and well written to boot, and I am waiting for the rest so I can finish it.

Pumpkins!

Steve decided we had better carve the pumpkins or they'd go the way of last years..uncarved, unlit, and unfun. (actually, those were my words!) So, Jon grabbed the large orange one and left Steve the greenish one. After they drew on their faces, it took forever to get them open and once they did, we say why. Look at that rind!!! Wow!

During the carving, Jon decided he wanted the seeds this year. And he even said he'd eat them..not like the last however many years of seeds we have cooked and eventually given to the birds. Well, we'll see! As you can see, Jon prefers the Greek method of carving. Steve prefers the artisitic method, thinking hard about his design and then applying it to the rind. I, liking Leah's pumpkin this year, asked for a cat. He obliged me by patterning it after Moses. Well, they are both orange!

Jon's turned out pretty good, eh?

And here they are waiting for the 31st. The two next to the kitten pumpkin are not carvable..they are soft and so are being used as basic fall decor!

This last shot is one I wondered if I could do. It is 'From the Eye of a Pumpkin". Looking up to the sky..or actually, it is the edge of the railing on the deck. Now, if I could just paste in a cat....hmmmm.

Falling temps and leaves and pears

Well, I realised I had not put up a photo of the addition with the siding all done. Note the strange color variation? We are not sure why there is a difference in the blue and green pieces. They all came off of the back of the house. We are thinking it may have been a fading thing. Which is why when people wanted to look at the house no one knew if it was green or blue. Go, figure. (note, I may have mentioned this in an earlier blog, but it is VERY strange!)

The youth in our church went to a corn maze in Walla Walla. One of those things that says fall is truly on the way. Jon thought it was tame because they had paths to follow. I thought it was rather long, myself! And another part of fall is the falling leaves. Here we have Moses who has been liberated of his hated collar and was decorated with locust leaves. As I crouched to take the picture, he decided he wanted to see what I was doing. He had been sitting there in the sun for several minutes and was looking very cute!

The most amazing part of this fall has been the plethora of pears! Our plum tree was pretty sparse this year, but the sink in the photo has just some of the pears that fell off the tree during yesterday's amazing wind storm. I don't know what to do with them all! No one but me eats pears~ And the teeny one came off of our other pear tree. It was too cute for words and I set it next to the teaspoon for a true comparison.

And last, but by no means least, is our dishwasher!!!!!!! The 25$ bargain we found on Craig's List covered by a piece of wood from Home Depot that was also a bargain (I think it was 6$ because it was broken on the far end.). Am very excited about this being up and running finally! And I have more real counter space now!!! Steve did a great job! (even if it is not quite finished exactly...)

Chem Lab!

Well, we didn't get a single deer. Very sad. So, deer season ended last Wed. This Saturday we did a chemistry merit badge at Whitman college. It was a great deal of fun and although Jon did most of the stuff at home, he did get to do some hands on experiments. We also got to see some pretty cool demonstrations of chemistry. Unfortunately, I am not very adept with my new camera yet and many of the photos were blurry. Sad, but true. So, here is what I got today.

These are of the mento and soda pop blow ups. They used these specially made doo hickey things to drop the mentos in the soda. It worked VERY well. The last two frames are of Jon's soda pop. The worst part of this was the boys were told they could NOT drink the leftover soda as the mentos had been in the chem lab. It is very bad to eat things that are stored in the chemistry lab. That rule made the Scouts very sad.

In this first photo the guys are making mini marshmallows grow and shrink with vacuum.
Here Jon was doing something with combining chemicals, they had to record their results in pen. It appears that pen is the preferred method of recording chemistry data and it is recommended that you use ball point as some other forms of pen react badly to certain chemicals. One young chemist told us about a lab partner he had who actually lost all his data when a chemical spilled on his paper and the ink vanished! (So much for the dog eating your homework!)

These last photos are of a couple of the experiments. The goo in the tube is called elephant's toothpaste and the young lady had already moved when I turned the camera to see what the boys found so amazing! The young man in the background is Nathan, the chem lab professor. The balloon has hydrogen in it and when it was lit on fire it well..exploded. The boys were VERY impressed with that one. The last one almost didn't work. The plant container on top had thermite in it. When it was lit on fire with magnesium the stuff melted and turned into molton iron that flowed into the bottom containers. It melted the top clay planter, too!

An amazing day in the world of Science!

Still no deer, but....

Jon caught this bug up at Grandma's...well, ok, it is a praying mantis and it was so creepy I had to use the zoom part of the camera on it. I don't mind snakes, but bugs just have too many legs. (shudder) If I am close to bugs, they better be in bug jars!

Later that day, we did see the most amazing thing ever. A young (it was a teen age kitty) cat was stalking a pheasant! We watched it for a long time, and it appeared the kit finally gave up. We really wanted to see what would happen when they met. The pheasant did look rather confused, though. It was too far away in the field for a video, so you just get the series of photos.

On Friday there was no school, so Jon and Grandpa went up in the Toyota. All day they wandered the hills in search of deer..and found nothing.

Finished Howard's End (very very very good book). Might do The Fairy Godmother by M. Lackey again..not sure.

Hunting season

So, far it has been just a lot of long hikes. I even went up with Jon after school one day (Monday) and it was lovely, but very cold. He wouldn't let me hike with him, though..he said he could be quieter on his own. He also is using gdpa's rifle...which is an automatic and so far he has not gotten his deer. Very sad, but kind of funny! One shot, one kill has bit the dust! Steve said he's a normal hunter now.

In the last photo there is a black dot...it is a bear. It was watching them! Except for the bird and the one of Jon, all the pictures are on or around a draw (or canyon) that they like to hunt in.

The robin is one of the hundreds of of them that are all over up at the ranch. We did see a grouse..Jon almost ran it over with the Toyota (he drove it, 3rd generation to do that!).