UPDATE

We have been pretty busy the last few days.  We have 2 lame horses that have been to the vet.  Baylee has a stifle joint problem and Joe has an abscess in one of his bulbs of a hind foot.  Joe's prognosis is good, but Baylee's is not.  She may just end up as a pasture ornament and a horse for little kids to ride around the arena on.  Of course Connie is a lot bummed out about that.  We have had a couple of very warm days - today it hit 90 here at our place.  We need the warm weather right now as we have hay down that needs to dry so we can bale it this week and get it stacked up. 

Connie has also been riding her young horse Peg.  She is doing pretty good and we have high hopes of her being Baylee's replacement.  I have a few pictures of Connie working her.

Making her carry a tarp around and that way she is not scared when you ride her with a slicker when it is raining.

Making sure she will give you her head and move her hind quarters.

Starting her making turns.

If you click to enlarge, you will see a deer that strolled by the arena while we were down there.  She stopped and watched for a while also.

Making her stand on a pedestal.

SUMMER IS HERE!

The weather has certainly warmed up and we have not had any rain in 4 days.  In fact, we had to start watering our lawn.  It was in the 80's today and Connie is loving it.  I prefer low 70's.

Rode the last few days with my brother Gary.  Got to see some elk and deer. 

A few pictures from the last few days.

Gary and Connie by some natural mineral licks that we usually see deer or elk by when we ride up in this area.

Gary riding DJ and Connie is on Bill.

We have quite a number of turkeys hanging around the meadow.  Here two toms are trying to impress on hen.

Mushrooms in the parking area by the barn.

RANDOM PHOTOS

Thought I would put up some random photos.  We are getting a little drier around here - even had some good sunshine yesterday morning.  We still have rain in the forecast for a few days, but none for a couple of days now.  Been riding everyday.  Still seeing a few elk and lots of deer.

Snow on the peaks the other morning.

A few flower shots.

We have some big mushrooms around here after all the rain.

The two "kids" hanging out together.

Turkeys in the meadow with horses.

The old Tom sure liked showing off.

WET AND COOL IN MONTANA

We have been pretty busy around here lately.  Our friend Di came up from southern Utah to visit for a while.  We did some hikes and she got to ride a horse for the first time in years.  Weather has been really wet.  In fact, there is snow on the mountains this morning and was only 39 degrees when I got up - it is over 100 down in the St George, UT area so Di is a bit cool.  Summer will be here soon we hope. 

Vaccinated and wormed our horses the other day.  We are always glad to get that job done.  Went pretty well actually.  Still seeing some elk and a few calves.  Gary called last night and there were 22 head just below his place with 9 calves among them.  Would sure like to see more calves, but will take what ever we can get.

Di on Baylee and Connie on Bill.

Vaccinating Peg.

Rippy in the stock so she can be vaccinated and wormed.  She does not like either so it is much better to put her in this so she does not have a fit.

A couple of Bitterroots on our horse path.

NICE DAY

We really had a nice warm day on Saturday.  The wind blew a little, but overall it was just great.  Busy trying to get some work done around the place and ride horses to get them in shape to move cattle in the next few weeks.  We are seeing elk every day we ride. Ran in to a dozen cows yesterday and there were no calves with them which is a little troubling.  Maybe they just haven't calved yet, but predators may have gotten them.

Quite a lightning strike on this old tree!

These are the elk that did not have any calves with them.  They were also moving in broad daylight which we usually do not see.  And this is in the sagebrush flat area not very far from our place. 

WILDLIFE

Poured out .3 inches of rain this morning out of our gauge - that puts us at 2.5 inches in the past 10 days or so.  Everything is wet.   But we did not have much rain today.  Went for a nice ride and got to see quite a few elk.  We rode in some areas that neither Connie or I could remember if we had ever been in these little drainages before.  A few pictures below.  Also we are seeing a lot more birds around our place this year than in the past.  Maybe it is because cat May is getting old!  Still a little cool though.  Had to ride in jackets all day. 

Connie watching a cow and calf.  Click to enlarge.

This old cow was not a bit scared of us.  She watched us for a while then went back to eating.

This tree is pretty unique as it has large branches growing very low.  Just under it is like a big tent.  We had just came up on a half dozen elk bedded down just behind it.  They would just move off into the thick trees and watch us.  

Still some snow in the high country.

We saw both kinds of bluebirds today.  This is the mountain bluebird and below is the western.

A finch that has really been hanging around our bird feeder.

NICE SPRING DAY

We really had a nice spring day today.  Clear blue skies most of the day and warm temperatures.  So much better than all the rain we have had in the past 10 days or so.  We spent most of the day outside - it was so nice.  Went for a nice long walk this morning and got to see a few elk.  Then went into Corvallis to vote and to Hamilton for a grocery shop.  Then it was a nice ride up to the east of us.  Got to see three mule deer and spent quite a bit of time watching them.  It is a treat for us to see mule deer as we mostly just see the whitetail.  One of the does actually came towards as we think it was just curious.  Did not go further up the draw we were in as we think there was at least one fawn with them. 

Spent the rest of the day working around the place and Connie worked her little filly horse.  Before we knew it, it was time to irrigate and take a shower.  Hope tomorrow is as nice.

Just  a nice day here in the Bitterroot.

The old cow on the left is definitely pregnant.  Lots of belly hanging down.  The younger cow to the right looks dry to me.

Click to enlarge and you can see a small calf running up to it's mom.

Connie is on the right edge of the picture and some elk over by the power poles to the left.

Three mule deer does.  

Me on old Jack.

A Bitterroot.

COOL AND RAINY

I think the high today was 55 degrees.  The forecast for tomorrow though is partly sunny and 72 - wow!  We are looking forward to not wearing a jacket all day!  It has rained over 2 inches in the last week or ten days.  We are pretty wet around here.  Went riding today and got rained on - again.  For us to get this much rain in June is pretty unusual.  But we will take the moisture - got to have it with the low snow pack we have in the mountains. 

Although it is cool, the flowers are starting to bloom pretty good. 

CATCHING UP ON THE NEWS

We have really been busy the last 10 days or so.  Connie made it back from the Seattle area and had a great time with her sister Wendy babysitting Maisy and Gus.  She got back the Sunday before Memorial Day and then we had the big parade on Monday - Memorial Day.  That went very well this year and the rainy weather gave us a break until the parade was over.  Sure glad that project is done for the year.

The flowers are really starting to bloom around here, both in our flower beds and out in the forest.  Although we did not have as many wildflowers as usual this year.  The Bitterroots are finally starting to bloom.  Usually we have quite a few by now.  The old saying was "the bitterroots are in bloom the first of June" was not quite right.  We did finally see one on the 3rd of June up in the sagebrush to the east of us.  But we have only seen that one!

We did get to see our first elk calves today though.  We were out riding and came upon about 15 head of cows and they had at least three calves with them and I am almost sure there were four.  That is not to bad of percentage for this early in the calving season considering that we only had 9 per 100 cows last spring overall in the valley. 

Nephew Duston graduated yesterday and we went over to Greg and Teresa's for a BBQ after the graduation ceremony.  That was sure fun and got to see some folks we have not seen in a long time.  He received a few rodeo scholarships and will be rodeoing for the University of Montana team next year.  But he has the Montana High School Finals and the National High School Finals to go yet.  We are all hoping he does well there.  He won the all around title for District 5 and is in the lead for the state all around.

We have had a lot of rain in the last week and everything is looking pretty green.  The meadow is really looking good compared to a couple of weeks ago.  But we are both ready for some warmer, dryer weather.

Wendy, Maisy, and Gus the goldendoodle.

Jack having a good laugh.

Connie riding Baylee by the big ditch.

An Irish in bloom.

We really have a lot of flowers on the lilac bushes this year.

Okay, this is a bad picture, we came upon a big bunch of turkeys today and all took off running except one old tom and a hen.  You will have to click to enlarge to see the old tom in center.  He was sure trying to get the attention of the hen to the right of him.  But she was not having anything to do with him. Fun watching this show for a while.

You will have to click to enlarge again, but you can just make out some of the elk and there is a calf just beside one of the cows.  We did not have a telephoto lens with us so the picture is not so good.