UPDATE 25 AUGUST 2014

We have had some rain here for the last week and now it is clearing up with temperatures returning to normal for this time of year.  The nearly one inch of rain was welcome although it made putting up hay for our neighbors hard.  And the big thing is that it pretty well shut the possibility of local forest fires down for the year.  And that is good.  We have had some smoke in our valley, but it was from states to the west of us.  But we have not had any fires locally that have put smoke in the valley to any degree. 

The cooler temperatures have also brought the elk back though.  We had so many tracks going through one of our gates to the meadow, it looked more like a cow herd going through that some elk.  And lots of tracks can be seen while doing our morning walks.  Oh well, the elk are just something we have to deal with.

Connie and I took a nice ride on the horses the other day.  And no dust!  Carl and Deb were here for a couple of days on their way to a new job in Helena.  Carl has worked for Boeing in the Seattle area for many years, now will be working for them in Helena.  We are all happy he and his family are close to home again.

Connie riding Bill with Zeph in tow.

We found a flower to the east of us that we had not seen in this area before.  Will have to look it up and see if it is a native.