Fir Crying Out Loud!

Today was a work in the woods day. I chose to tackle a huge fir tree. I think it was more like it tackled me. The thing must have been fifty feet long and had  branches the size of small trees.

The uneven ground didn't do my sprained ankle any good that's a for sure. Hard to believe it's been over two weeks since I took the spill. I was hoping to be back to normal by now. It doesn't appear meant to be. The picture below is me getting frustrated and taking a break. Of course, my person is absent because I have to take the picture. Probably just as well.

I got the beast of a tree limbed up and chopped up until there was about fifteen, sixteen feet left. Then I gave up! Man not even one tree to my credit today. Crikey!

I'm going to have to come back and finish this bad boy off next work day. What a disappointment not to even get on tree finished.

Course then there's my helper who mostly naps in the shade whilst I toil away. I can't even get the turkey to take pictures for me!

But, in all my stumbling around I did stumble onto some very cool natural designs. Below is a photo of an insect or worm that worked on this old fir leaving behind an incredible artwork in it's wake. What you see are actually the tubes that the worms work around in.

This next photo the tubes have been knocked off leaving intriguing tunnel designs. This one looks to me like some science fiction creature with many arms and legs. Human artists would have a hard time making this stuff up!

The last beauty that I discovered was some kind of fungus growing on an old  moss covered stump. Looks like a big old clam shell or maybe some forest troll poking it's head out of it's mossy home with a smile on it's face?

It's hard to believe I have lived, worked and explored this land for eight years and still I discover things I've never seen before.

Awesomely, beautiful day today. Spring has sprung and the grass is turning green. It's great working in the woods even if I don't get much work done!


©Kinsey Barnard Photography

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JUST ANOTHER WEEK IN PARADISE

There were two major events this week, one kind of sad and one quite exhilarating.

The sad one was, Friday marked the seventh anniversary of my mother's passing. I was compelled to write something about my feelings on my other blog "Musings and Memories". I didn't advertise it because it was really just me indulging myself. If you would like to read it you can find it here ... REMEMBERING LADY JANE.

The exhilarating moment happened early Tuesday morning. It was a glorious summer morning. I could not resist taking Koty for a walk in our forest. One of the especially nice things about having acreage is you can walk a long time and never leave your property. To give you a visual of how much of a beautiful morning it was I took this photo of my "Walden Pond".

WALDEN POND

I call it Walden Pond because I am a very big fan of Thoreau and my time here kind of reminds me of his at Walden Pond. The big difference being he was only at his for two or three years I've been here seven and have no desire to ever leave.

Back to the "big" moment. Koty and I were walking along just enjoying being when I caught movement up ahead. Sure enough two cubs were scampering up a tree. My first thought was "Uh, oh, where's mama bear?" Bears with cubs are about as dangerous as moose and their babies. The grass was quite tall where we were standing and no sooner than I had the thought the mama rose up out of the grass right in front of us. That is the first time I've ever been close to a standing bear. I said in a quiet voice, "Pardon me, mama" and slowly backed away. She just stood there and watched us leave. It's a good thing Koty is always on a leash or the outcome could have been quite different. As it was, this was another moment never to be forgotten. The kind of moments we live for. The kind that let you know you are alive!

YELLOW SPIDER

We didn't take any particular trip this week. Too much work to do at the ranch and there's plenty of images to capture right here. I don't know what kind of spider this is but I thought it interesting.

WHITETAIL DEER

As usual there was a steady parade of deer passing by. These guys were standing just off the front deck and I was wanting to test my zoom lens just back from Nikon repair. Seems to be working again. Something had run acropper with the contacts.

TURKEY CHICKS

About two minutes after the deer passed by along came a mother turkey and her little brood. I say little because four isn't all that many. I have often seen mothers with a dozen or more. The coyotes have been awful this year and all mother's have had a hard time protecting their young.

TREE FUNGUS


TREE FUNGUS

I always find these tree fungus to be beautiful. It is a never ending fascination to me that something so mundane can be so intriguingly beautiful.

LOADING LOGS

Of course, we did have to make our obligatory trip to town to pick up the mail. There is no mail service here so we must to drive into town to get it. But, even a drive to town offers up interesting and beautiful sights. The above photo is of logs being loaded at the ranch below us. You may remember we had a nasty wind storm awhile back? Rumor has it this rancher lost over one thousand trees. And, lost is the appropriate word. Even though they are shipping them out they'll be getting bottom dollar for them.

CATTLE CALL

A little farther down the road I found this bucolic scene. I tell you it's tough not to experience beauty around here. It's simply everywhere.

And last, but certainly not least, the most beautiful wild thing on this ranch!

WILD THING

So, that was our week around the ranch. Hope you had a great week too!

©KINSEY BARNARD PHOTOGRAPHY

MAMA, LET YOUR BOYS GROW UP TO BE COWBOYS

We are now in Cortez, Colorado. The weather man was calling for stormy weather starting last night. But, nothing happened. So, this morning, we headed out first thing to survey the landscape. Good thing we did because this afternoon the wind is blowing a gale and you can't see two feet in front of you from the blowing dust. The sky is literally brown.

I am going nuts trying to keep my equipment clean. It seem as though we haven't been out of wind and dust since we arrived in Monument Valley a couple of weeks ago. Clementine (the RV) is nowhere near air tight so as we sit, bobbing and weaving, the dust just seeps. And, poor Shadow (the little tow car) well I think it is safe to say I could grow potatoes in her. The back roads in this part of the country are mostly dirt and gravel. And, it seems every time I get out of the car to try for a photo a pickup comes along going fifty and, oh well. And, of course, you can add to all that the non-stop shedding of Koty Bear.




Boy, I love being back in cowboy country. Cowboys and country folk seem to be the last of what this country was once about, consideration, self reliance and integrity. The fellow in the above image is Kyle. I know this because he told me so.

I was driving down a back road and noticed a couple of cowboys saddling up. Using my telephoto I snapped a few shots out the car window. I moved on down the road where I took the photo of the yearling and foal. Whilst I was photographing the horses along comes this pickup pulling a horse trailer. It pulls up behind my car and stops. A cowboy gets out and walks up with his hand out to introduce himself and his son. He just wanted to say hello and wondered what I was up to. By the time we were done he had invited me to come visit his ranch any time I was by that way again. Only in the country.

I'll bet five guys stopped to ask if I was having any problems and could they help. They most likely don't see too many dizzy dames from Montana wandering around out there.



What an incredible landscape. There is an old saying and it fits me to a tee "You can take the girl out of the country but you can't take the country out of the girl." When I look at rolling pastures with cattle and horses in them I actually tear up and choke up. It's so, so very beautiful to me. Can you see the beauty that I feel? Maybe not. :) These are really tiny pictures but they are the largest this program will allow.



There are a lot of old buildings out in this countryside. For some reason the above scene seemed like something old so I decided to take it black and white. It could just as easily be a picture taken in 1909 as opposed to 2009. Isn't digital amazing? Press a couple of buttons and you can move from color to black and white in an instant.



I'm hoping to find more of these old relics. But, the weather is going to have to get around to my side. Gads, it has been a caution. Wind, dust storms and blizzards. Crikey! It's spring! Someone ought to tell Mother Nature!



The mountain in the background is "Sleeping Ute". Much of the land around here is Ute Reservation. If you look at the mountain from just the right angle it really does look like an Indian lying in the desert with hands clasped over his chest and you can even see his feet pointing up. Maybe I'll get a good shot of it before I go. If I do I'll post it.

Well, that was how we spent our morning and it really was a treat.

©Kinsey Barnard Photography

Alberta Trip Gets Cut Short - Koty Sees the Vet

Well, phooey! We had to cut our Waterton/Glacier trip in half. It's kind of my fault although I really couldn't help it. I went off my feed, which isn't unusual for the first couple of days of a trip but when it started to drag out mom got worried and I'm glad she did! I'm fine now but I was mighty uncomfortable I can tell you that. Turned out that some bones I had eaten had made kind of a calcium block in my intestine. Mom thought I wasn't pooping because I hadn't eaten but that wasn't the reason and I couldn't tell her. Lucky for me the block had worked it's way nearly to the exit and an enema fixed me right up. I guess that's more than you wanted to know but there it is.



Our last day at Waterton we went up Red Rock Canyon to the Crandall Lake turnoff. Mom wanted to walk along Crandall Creek and see if she could find some nice wildflowers. We didn't find any wildflowers of note but we did find this big black bear. He was just strolling along enjoying the day. No one's heart was in the walk so we headed back to the campground. That's when mom decided we were pulling up stakes in the morning.



Mom always likes to say every cloud has a silver lining and really it does. On the way home we stopped at the Crowsnest info station and discovered there was a really neat place to explore only 75 miles from home and after fourth of July we are going to do it! The photo is of Crowsnest Mountain.



We went straight to the vets when we crossed the border and after I got fixed up there we headed to the ranch. At the gate we were greeted by a Whitetail doe and her fawn. You gotta get a kick out of those whitetails when they go flying off!



So, we hung around the ranch for a couple of days and visited with our friends here. Mom chopped some wood and I played tag with a doe. It was really fun. I was in my enclosure and the doe and I chased each other round and round until we were both pooped out. Mom was too busy chopping wood to get a photo. She's got her work cut out as we had a lot of blow down this winter and there's nothing tougher to split, and she does it all by hand, than dead wood.



Yesterday we took a little trip down to the Stillwater National Forest. Wanted to check out Fish and Bull Lakes. These lakes turned out to be yawners. The bear grass is starting to come out and mom did get this photo of some lilly pads from a bluff overlooking a private pond. I was a nice hike anyway.

So, that was our week. Hope yours was great too!

Visit my mom's website to see her most recent photographs. Or visit any of her many galleries. Prints start at just $8.95.

©Kinsey Barnard Photography

More Friends Come to Call

Mom continues to try and get herself organized. I don't know what her problem is. I was settled in the minute my paws hit the ground.

The thing I missed most about our ranch was seeing all are friends. We have so many. It's a never ending parade and feast for the eyes. It would be a never ending feast for my tummy, if I had a death wish! So, I content myself with watching. :)

The big news? We were finally able to get Clementine up the mountain. I think mom felt only half way home until we could get Clem home too. Course, now there is the unloading, cleaning and what have you. I'll be supervising.

And, then there's getting the ranch equipment up an operational. So far she's got the four wheeler on line as well as the ranch truck. If she doesn't hurry up she's going to miss the open burn season which is over the end of this month. I have a feeling we may miss it this year. One of our ongoing projects is cleaning and thinning to manage our forest for it's optimum health. You should see mom out there with the chainsaw. She even splits our fire would by hand. Usually about five cords worth.

One of the many great things about our place is that when the workday is done we as often as not have a sunset like this one to relax with. Man it is good to be home!

©Kinsey Barnard Photography

Boo Hoo! Ranch Chores Today

OK, this is my least favorite kind of day. Mom did ranch chores all the live long day and I didn't get to go hiking. All, I got was a walk down to the gate to pick up a package. Big freaking deal!

This photo mom took of me pretty much sums up my feelings on the day.

Hey mom! The best nature and wildlife is out on the trail!!!!! I know she knows this but it never hurts to yell a reminder. :)

Well, that about tells you all you need to know about this day!

Hoping for a better tomorrow,

Koty Bear