June 3, 2019 Three Elk, A Bear & A Fish Fry

Our Saturday morning visitors.

My blooming lilac bush.

Wednesday 5/29 - Friday 5/31. More splitting wood, moving it, and stacking it.  We did our Spring garbage run Thursday morning.  Friday we cleaned and greased the tractor mower, getting it prepped for putting it on the tractor Saturday.

Friday afternoon JB saw a bear going west along the south ridge, but it was gone before I could get to the window.  He said it looks like the one we caught on the game cam.

The weather was hot with highs in the high 70's and lots of thunder clouds drifting over.

Saturday 6/1. Dinga became quite agitated this morning around 7:00 am.  JB got out of bed and looked out the window to find the three bull elk in our yard!  They were just grazing, not in a hurry to leave.  One of them made it over to the Pacific nine-bark bush and began chewing on it.  This is very close to my irises that are about to bloom, so I went out on the porch to take more photos and be sure he didn't start munching on them.  In a low voice, I told him to take it easy on the nine-bark.  He looked at me, then kept on eating.  He was getting awfully close to my irises, so I told him to be sure and leave them alone.  He looked at me as if to say, "Well, fine!  I'll just leave then."  And off he went.

We got the mower on the tractor, which is a very short sentence describing a very frustrating project, and JB drove it around to be sure it was all working okay.  Then I baked peanut butter-chocolate chip cookies for tomorrow's fish fry at Larry and Elsie's.

Our temperature reached 80 today, but we did have a cool breeze.

Sunday 6/2. It is 64 and clear this morning.  When JB woke me up at 8:00 am, he had already been out mowing and finished the top of the south ridge.

According to JB's figures, the girls gave us 33 eggs in May, and the temperatures had been well above normal.  The forecast is for cooler weather this week.

We were off to Larry and Elsie's just before 2:00 pm and the drive down was so beautiful.  Lots more lupine and sweet peas this year.  On Thursday when we drove down on our garbage run, the wild roses were blooming as far up as Larry and Elsie's, but today there were a few blooms scattered along our road.

There were 14 of us at the fish fry, six of whom were boys ranging from six years old to fourteen.  What a great time we had!  Elsie put out quite a spread and we all stuffed ourselves.  Good food.  Good company.  It just doesn't get any better than that.

We got home about 8:00 pm and our high for the day Up Here had been 80 again.  It was probably five or more degrees hotter down the canyon, but there had always been a nice cool breeze.

Monday 6/3. It is 52 and mostly cloudy this morning, so maybe it will be cooler this week.

Thought for the day: At the end of your time here, the world will either be more or less kind, compassionate, generous, funny, creative, and loving because of your presence in it - and you alone get to choose.  John Pavlovitz