In Between

I love the time in between sunshine and rain. The air smells so fresh and clean, and the colors are bright and beautiful. Saturday was one of those days. I just had to get out with the camera and spend some time enjoying the "in between". I had seen this old shack many times in my travels around the area doing inspections and thought it would possibly make a good subject for a photo at some time. Like my previous post, the sky was absolutely spectacular with dark clouds contrasting against blue sky. And with the help of a polarizing filter, the blue sky was darkened and the clouds detail became sharper to increase the dramatic effect of the setting. The shack sits off the road about 50 yards surrounded by roads and tilled ground and crops. By composing carefully, I made it look as though it were in the middle on nowhere. Just the shack and broken down fencing.

Montana History

In October 2008, Carlene and I had the opportunity to go to Montana with Pauline, Norms wife. We were taking a U-haul trailer load of stuff to Helena for her son Dan. After meeting Dan and his family and lunch (chinese) in Helena, we started home. The route took us through a little town called Boulder and past a little country church several miles south of town. I have seen that church in my travels from Chinook to destinations in Idaho my entire life. I even took some pictures of it in the early 70's. It was always a landmark for me. This time was different. Never have I seen that church, as near as this old man can remember, under the conditions as that afternoon. I just had to stop and break out the camera.

The church was built in the early 1880's by Irish settlers, and is one of the oldest in Montana that is still in original condition. The only thing different from the last time I saw it is the "In memory of" statue, the historical monument and the fence. Oh, the grave yard has grown some also. It was just a wonderful day to take some marvelous pictures. The overcast as seen in the picture, didn't last that way for much more than 15 minutes. I was lucky to get there and see it as shown.

OOOOH! What a Night. Day 2

Is it morning already? Did I actually get any sleep? All night long, every time I moved I could hear this annoying squeak in my ear. Guess I should have tried out the new inflatable backpacking pillow long before using it while camping. Oh, wait, I couldn't, I bought it the night before. Oh well, suns coming up and I'm hungry. Maple and brown sugar oat meal, yum. Devin's propane stove ran out of fuel early, so it was a good thing I brought my Swiss self generating stove and a bottle of white gas for it.
With breakfast over, Devin and Bryce took off to go fishing down along the south shore, Ryan, Gordon and I went up along the north shore. On the way out I was watching a moose with its head under water having breakfast also. I managed to get a picture of it as it was raising its head out of the water with water flying everywhere.

We hiked east on the trail until we found a nice spot down through the trees, on the shore, in a little cove. Gordon and I fished while all three of us visited. Gordon caught two fish, I didn't catch anything except some very nice pictures of the lake with the mountains reflected on the water.

One of the fish Gordon caught was injured too bad to return to the water so I suggested he have it for lunch.

While we were sitting there, we watched the moose walk along the shore heading east, while Bryce and Devin were heading west. Made us curious as to who would spook first.
After the fishing went south, we went back to camp to fix lunch. As I said, Gordon had trout for lunch. Lets see, no cooking oil or butter to fry it in and no salt or pepper for flavoring. He seemed to enjoy the boiled trout anyway. During lunch the discussion was: "what do we do next". The three amigos, Gordon, Bryce and Devin, thought it was a great idea to go swimming. I opted out since I didn't have a swimming suit and Ryan didn't either so we just watched and took pictures. Devin was the first to brave the cold mountain lake water and after diving in, stood waist deep just of shore shivering. Bryce and Gordon soon followed. Devin got on an old drift log and Bryce, with Gordon's help, launched him toward the island. Needless to say, he didn't get very far and ended up swimming to the island, taking the log with him. Once on the island, he went over to the makeshift flag pole and flag that had been blown down the before and stood it up, securing it better than it had been previously. Gordon followed Devin to the island, swimming over with his own piece of driftwood. After an exploration of the island, they both swam back. After a little more splashing around in the water, we all went back to camp, some to get dressed again, and all to discuss what to do next. Being extremely tired from lack of sleep, I decided to stay around camp, the three amigos decided to go climb a mountain, Ryan stuck around to keep me company.
While trying to take a nap, a new visitor to the camp provided some entertainment. He moved around camp without fear, although cautious in he movements. At one point he came up and was doing something on the bottom of my boot, while I was stretched out on the ground. As the afternoon wore on and we had wandered around visiting and taking pictures, the weather started to get bad. Soon we were in a full fledged thunderstorm that included rain and hail. My biggest concern was for the other three. It isn't too good to be up at high altitudes in that type of weather. Not long after the storm blew over, the three amigos got back to camp just in time to have supper.
The evening discussion was on what to do the next day. Our last day. The three amigos decided to take a twelve mile loop that would take them into some interesting back country. I didn't feel I could go that far and then hike out with a full pack the next day. As the campfire died down, so did the conversation, and tired bodies made their way to tents and a restful nights sleep. After letting some of the air out of my pillow, that's just what I got.

Are We There Yet? Father and sons backpacking trip. Day 1

The city, Pocatello, a clear beautiful morning. Now how was I to know that. My eyes were still glued shut, trying to find the button to turn off that @#$%# alarm. The sun isn't even up yet and I just want to sleep. Tired? You Bet! We spent the night before loading and weighing our backpacks and of course, stupid me, I loaded mine as though I were a pack horse. At around 50 lbs with my tripod, mine was the heaviest pack of all. Gordon took pity on me and carried my tripod. Still, over 45 lbs, what was I thinking??
I manage to haul my old, over-weight body out of bed and stumble around the house bleary eyed making sure the rest of the crew is up and preparing to hit the road. We manage to get our gear loaded and after a quick breakfast at McDonald's we are on our way. Destination-Upper Palisades Lake. We had to make a stop for fishing licenses on the way - well - two stops. The first place didn't sell them. Little did I know, until the end of the month, I had accidentally used my state credit card to buy my license.
At the trail head, we donned our packs and got under way. Did I just say donned? More like I managed to struggle into mine without falling over. Bryce and Devin led the way and most of the time were well ahead of Ryan, Gordon and I. We stopped to rest for awhile at a nice wide area. Looking around, we saw a small bird an a branch, and with binoculars, determined it was a hummingbird. I got my camera out, put on my long lens to take a picture just in time to see the bird fly off as I was raising the camera. What happened next was good for laughter all around. Believing the bird was gone for good, I started to put the camera and lens away again. I had it almost back into my pack when it came back to the same branch. Out comes the camera and lens again just in time to see it fry off again. Darn camera shy bird.
After what seemed like an eternity and on shaky legs (for me anyway) we reached Lower Palisades Lake. I was sure glad to be using my mono pod as a walking stick. It was probably the only thing keeping me upright. Bryce and Devin decided to try their hand fishing Lower Palisades while the rest of us trudged on. After all, the rate we were traveling, it wouldn't take long for them to catch up and again take the lead. The hike from Lower to Upper Palisades was, for me, the toughest part of the hike. The last 200 to 300 yard was absolutely excruciating. Selecting our camp site was determined by the best places available to pitch our tents. Me, I collapsed on a log and watched Devin and Bryce put up their tent and Gordon and Ryan put up ours.
OUR CAMP

Doe a deer, a female deer! Yes, we had camp company almost immediately. We saw the doe as we entered the camp site and it hung around eating, watching and just generally checking us out. After awhile, Devin asked if he could chase her off. With an affirmative, he ran yelling and screaming at the doe effectively chasing it out of sight into the woods. We all had a good laugh over the whole thing.
Who would believe a person with an innocent face like this would be so ---- .

Time came to go look around the lake, try a little fishing and just generally see what we had gotten ourselves into. Then it was time to try out our Wal Mart purchased dehydrated meals. Surprisingly they were very good.
Did I mention the rain? Well, it rained. Gordon didn't have a rain fly for his tent so we stretched Ryan's poncho over it to protect the interior as much as possible. Fortunately it didn't rain much.
As darkness fell, we sat around discussing what we would do the next day. Fishing in the morning was the first order of business. Then it came time for - Sleep, glorious sleep.

Fancy Flights!

What a day June 14th turned out to be. Fun in the sun, sunburn, smoke trails against a clear blue sky all part of the Rexburg Heritage Flight Museum free air show. I took about 700 plus pictures at the airshow as did Lyle (gotta love digital). Most of the planes were military planes, and the flying was nothing short of spectacular.

Lyle and I made it to the airport just in time to see a B-25 bomber fly over and land a short time later. Upon parking, in a location where people could walk around it and take a better look, Steve Cannon from KIDK Channel 3 got off the plane to assume his duties as MC for the show. Now, I've known Steve Cannon for more than 25 years when he was the dispatcher for Jewel Electric, just before he went to channel 3 as weatherman. So of course I had to go give him a bad time about being a celebrity and getting a free ride in the B-25. I could have had a ride for the small pittance of $350.

The opening cerimonies included three skydivers landing at the airport with the National Anthem being played. The final skydiver brought in the American Flag.

It was quiet a sight, though not as spectacular as the skydiver coming down with a giant American Flag as found on U-tube. It still was a thrill to see.

The Russian Mig, owned by John Bagley of Rexburg, was one of the planes that caught my interest. It was also one of the few we could get reasnably close to for pictures.

There were three P-51 Mustangs at the show. Just picturing one of them.

Stunt flying was in abundance, including double loops and stalls.

This guy flying about 20 feet above the runway, up side down, cuts a ribbon held between two poles, with the planes tail.

The show favorite is the Jelly Belly plane. He was doing things in a plane I've never seen before. He had his plane rigged so parts would fall off while he was flying, such as part of a wing.

If any of you remember the old MASH TV series, there was a Korean pilot in the show that would fly a plane that would just barely stay in the air. This guy made the Korean look like a good pilot.

His most amazing stunt was landing on the shortest runway in the world. It took him two tries to do it, once done he would take off from the same runway. The biggest trick in landing, was finding the runway since he couldn't see it. The whole process was done by feel.

What a great way to spend a few hours on a nice bright saturday morning.

Mom's gift to me for Fathers Day!

Hi all! Carlene gave me a super nice fathers day gift this year.

She knew I was fond of black hills gold so this band was a great surprise. This is the first new ring I've had since the last band she bought me when we lived in Shelley and it was getting very thin after almost 30 years. Now that I don't have to work with tools as much, a band as nice as this one is great.

Squatters Frights

April 12 turned out to be an absolutely top notch day. Lyle and I went to Firth bright and early, before sunrise, to get set up to take pictures of a pair of Osprey. The first thing we saw were some pheasants disappearing into the brush. Lyle went looking for them later. There were a few ducks and geese on the river. The geese were taking particular interest in the raccoon on the bank not more than five yards from them.

The osprey were not in the nest when we got there, so we spent time taking pictures of the other birds we saw. They were, Red breasted Merganser, Common Merganser(male and female), Canadian Goose, and Wild Turkeys. As we watched and waited, we noticed the osprey would come into and out of the nest a quite regular intervals as they were adding to the nest for the females comfort after she lays her eggs. We also noticed they had favorite perching places all around within 200 yards form the nest. The picture below is one of the few I got with them both facing my way so I could tell which one was the female. Look closely at the one with the dark feathers on the breast(I call it a necklace). She's the boss. Her nest has to be perfect for her comfort after she lays her eggs because she won't move from there for the month it takes to incubate them. The male will provide all the food, only fish, for the whole month and for some time after the young are hatched.

Remember the two Canadian geese? One of them tried to take up squatters rights on the nest while both osprey were away. It was only on the nest for about half a minute when it decided to flee for its life as both osprey came after it in hot pursuit.

For about fifteen minutes after the goose vacated, the pair sat in the nest making sure there would be no more problems. They then decided they didn't like the geese swimming around on the river below them in such close proximity, so they both set up taking turns at aerial attacks on the geese. When this started taking place Lyle yelled at me to see if I was getting any pictures of the attacks. Fortunately I was even though I was laughing so hard it was difficult getting the camera on track to take them.

A short time after encouraging the geese to move a little farther down river, I saw a hawk flying up river, and as it drew closer the osprey flew up and urged it to just keep going. What a beautiful day, a lot of fun and some great pictures of some beautiful birds.