Good Morning Elk

What an awesome peaceful start to a new day.

"This is the day that the Lord has made; I will rejoice and give thanks in it." Psalm 118:24

Good Morning Wyoming!

The Wyoming Countryside

Steve and I decided to take a ride to one of our favorite Wyoming small towns named Arvada.

And we saw cows, many many cows...

and horses...

cows eating...

abandoned homesteads...

a holy cow alongside the road...

two turkeys crossing the road to get to the other side..(?)

A white faced cow. I like white-faced cows with the eye patch.

The start of a driveway to someone's ranch.

Two whitetail deer running away from us.

The Big Horn Mountains in the distance.

And an eagle and five magpies having lunch together.

The Neighborhood Snow Plow Guy

The 14-18" of snow left behind by the snowstorm of Christmas weekend here in Wyoming hasn't gone anywhere very fast. There were days Steve spent 4-5 hours a day plowing our 3/4 mile driveway. And then the neighbors would call exclaiming they've only had three snowstorms like this in the last 10 years and would Steve please come over and dig them out?

Of course he would.

We had a warm day about a week ago so we were hoping we were done with the plowing for awhile. But nope. The wind picked up last weekend and with 3/4 of the driveway being on flat ground the driveway filled back in - and so did our neighbor's. So last week Sunday, Steve was out all afternoon on the tractor (we barely made it out last Saturday) and on Tuesday he plowed out the neighbor's barn driveway.

There he goes to get the tractor out of the shop.

And when the driveway is plowed and the sun is out you know what that means - walk with the dogs!

All we have do is shout out, "Do you wanna go for a walk?"

Bear may be mouse hunting...

...but that doesn't matter. She takes off after us in a big hurry.

And Ike shows up from somewhere and off we go!

On a clear day like this we could see all the way to Pumpkin Buttes.

"Yep, we're coming Ike!"

Here we turn around and go back.

Almost there!

We had a beautiful week of sunshine and warm temps. Yesterday we sat outside on the deck in a t-shirt in the sunshine with a temp of 55 degrees. 

But we know how the weather in Wyoming changes.

Today we awoke to light lazy snow, but no wind so keeping my finger's crossed no plowing needed.

The snow didn't appear to bother the elk.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone! You can count on Steve and I watching football games this Sunday!

Go Packers and Steelers (that was a whisper)

Full Moon Ghost Birds

We had a full moon over the weekend and of course I was out on the deck with my camera trying to get a good shot. I don't take night pictures very well, something I need to learn, however I thought it was kind of neat how this picture turned out - Moon Ghost Birds? Something unseen to the human eye? Ha.

Big Horn Mountain Elk

I was so excited the other morning when I opened the bedroom curtains to find these two elk on the side of this hill. I ran downstairs for the binoculars and my camera then ran back up yelling for Steve to come see the elk.

Then four more came.

And they met up with the first two. We didn't make out any horns.

I searched for more but didn't see any so I went downstairs and made some coffee.

While downstairs, sipping my coffee from my favorite spot on the couch where I can see for miles and miles, these elk popped over the hill from a totally different direction.

And they kept coming...

I think the one in the middle has horns.

...and coming! Not just six elk anymore!

They went down into the valley by the river. We figured they were going to hunker down there for a while, but then we looked up the mountain and there they were - making their way to the top and out of sight.

And we haven't seen them since! It has been snowing for the past three days and very cold. I hope the elk find food up there. I'll keep you posted...