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.