MORE SNOW HERE IN THE BITTERROOT

We woke up this morning to fresh snow and it snowed most of the day.  Hopefully this will mean a great "Powder Thursday" at our ski resort.  It snowed most of the day and is forecast to continue through most of the week.  A couple of pictures from today.

The snow just falling.

Baylee begging for food.

ACTIVE DUTY RECONNECT 3

On the second full day the soldiers were here, the Bitterroot Ridgerunner Snowmobile Club took them out for a ride on snow machines.  I was not there, but they said they had a great time and the club people really treated them nice.  This is another example of local Bitterroot people donating time and machines for this endeavor.  Plus they furnished lunch for them.  Great people.  Below are a couple of pictures from their day.

Chris, Caroline, Milly, and Carson.

The snowmobile club and soldiers.

ACTIVE DUTY RECONNECT 2

The soldiers first day we took them skiing and boarding.  Some took lessons and others skied on their own.  Everyone seemed to have a good time.  We had quite a few legion members there to help out also.

Just starting out.  In the background and center of the picture you can see John in a green jacket helping out a youngster who was having trouble moving around with skis on.  John is always helping out.  And I did not get any pictures of Carson who was off boarding with some of the Legion members.  He did NOT need lessons.

Chris skiing along pretty good for his first time.

Chris and Caroline getting ready to hit the slopes.

Caroline looking pretty good.

Chris burning up the hill.

Caroline, Connie, and Milly.

Here we are having dinner at the Rocky Knob.

The soldiers:  Milly, Chris, Carson, and Caroline.

ACTIVE DUTY RECONNECT 1

The Corvallis American Legion Post sponsored 4 soldiers from Ft Lewis, WA to come to the Bitterroot Valley for a few days off.  We had the commanders of the units there select the soldiers that they wanted to reward in some way.  We got the community involved and received rental cars, rooms, some meals, and the flight over and back as donations.  Now that is great that our little community helped us sponsor this endeavor.  We also received good discounts on ski passes, rentals, and ski and board lessons at our local ski resort Lost Trail Powder Mountain. The Bitterroot Ridgerunners snowmobile club also took the soldiers on a snowmobile tour in the mountains and this was all donated.  I am very proud of our community here for doing this.  The soldiers are really grateful and this helps them reconnect with the civilian community who they are fighting for.  And many folks have thanked them for their service when learning who they are.

Taxing out to the runway here in Hamilton.

Climb out to our cruising altitude.

Bryan the pilot is a local guy and graduated from the same high school I did but a lot later!  I really enjoyed flying with him and it was the first time I had been in a fixed wing cockpit in years!

Breaking out of the clouds with the runway lined up for landing.  Good job Bryan!

The soldiers.

I must have moved when taking this picture so it did not look focused.

The aircraft at the Tacoma Narrows airport.

Starting our decent and approach back here in Montana.  Notice the ground speed is 326 knots and we are a little over 11 minutes from landing at the airport.  The avionics they have today is just amazing.

One of our members has a hanger at the airport and this is where our legion members met the soldiers and we all had a little to eat.

John(the owner) making coffee.

UPDATE 20 JANUARY 2017

Been pretty busy around here with piling snow and doing legion things.  Also skiing in some great powder one day and doing groomer runs another day.  No pictures of the powder day but a few of the groomer.  And the big news is that it got above freezing!  What a relief that was but it sure made the roads slick and the snow slip off the roofs. 

Me and Zeph coming back from pushing some snow down in the meadow.

The snow sure has settled in this warm weather.

The outside temp is 35.7, the warmest it has been in weeks.

Here I am presenting an old school chum Bob Baily his induction into the American Legion.

Dell doing what she does best - sleeping on the bed in the sun.

Blue skies and warm temperatures.

A little road work.

Still some fog down in the valley though.

Clear blue skies up here in the trees though.

This is the snow that has been slipping off the roof.  Had to get the tractor and clean it up.

Ike looking good in his telemark turns.

Connie with her hair sticking outside the helmet.

Brenda and Ike at the bottom of Lightning run.

STILL COLD FEEDING

Took a few pictures feeding the horses.  Will be cold for another day or so and then it is supposed to warm up.  And they are still forecasting that freezing rain.  It hasn't shown up yet as they have been predicting.  We will just have to wait and see.

You an see the exhaust steam coming from the pickup.  Single digits, but above zero!

You can see the inversion down in the valley.

Dell really likes sitting on the window sill and watching out.

STILL COLD HERE IN MONTANA

It is still cold here.  I seem to be spending more time in the house than out of the house.  But I did take my camera for a walk and try and catch a few pictures of the frost that has built up on the snow.  There is a lot of it down in the valley where it is colder and the inversion layer helps build up the hoarfrost on trees.  We are just getting it mostly on the snow.

Snow covered rocks covered with frost.

This picture shows how the inversion is laying in the valley.

The little bird house looks cold.

Sunny but cold afternoon.

Of course the dog and cat had to go with me on my walk. 

I ended up carrying the cat back - her feet got cold.