Happy New Year!

So I just wanted to take a minute to wish everyone a Happy New Year. I would love to expand on this a bit but frankly I just don't have it in me since I've spent the last 16 hours in the hospital. But please everyone be safe in your celebrations and ring in the fabulous new year in style! Love you all.

Snow Day!

I used to only associate snow days with going to school in the winter in Wyoming but apparently they are much more encompassing. I awoke to over 3 feet of snow this morning and a call into my boss that said work was cancelled for the day. Talk about awesome! Normally 3 feet of snow wouldn't hinder any of us rough and tough Montanans but the stuff is still falling and we literally have a white out going on. I can't see out 10ft past my bedroom window so its understandable not wanting to make the folks from Noxon and Thompson Falls drive into work in those kinds of conditions. The local weather station is predicting that we get another foot or so before the days end and then the day after tomorrow we're supposed to have another big storm. It definitely looks like its going to be a white Christmas after all. Woo hoo. Boy do I love winter! And you should note there is not one iota of sarcasm in that statement... I really do love winter. So if you are curious about this picture this is PRE current snow storm at one of my higher elevation study sites. I took it after the first snow storm we got down here in the valley and there was about 7 feet already up at the site that I had to snow shoe over. The tops of most of those trees you see are probably covered completely now and will stay that way til at least March. So for you Cali folks thinking about moving to Montana... you might want to reconsider!

The Doty's Are Coming Horrah Horrah!

Kami and Kenny are coming down from Kalispel Saturday morning to spend the weekend with me and Mace and I am sooooo looking forward to the visit. Not exactly sure what we are going to do but it will most definitely be the same ol "up to no good" game plan that we usually succumb to. Just kidding. Our time is probably going to used wisely by cooking together, catching up, and just being happy together. Its been way too long since I've seen the two of them. And out here in the middle of nowhere, visitors are a super big deal, especially ones as nice and sweet as the Doty's. As you can tell by the picture above they are a couple of wild and crazy kids. That's why I love em!

Something is not right... something is quite wrong!

So here I sit in my office today thanks to management meetings that go on adnausium once a month on Mondays and I realize something just isn't right. Anyone want to venture a guess what it may be? Stumped? Well today is December 1st and I'm looking out my window on a bright clear sunny day and its nearly 50 degrees out! This is just messed up. Now as some of you know already I'm am the ultimate winter baby. I love snow, I love cold, and I even dig the shorter darker days during winter that most people bitch about. So having this sunny warm weather on the 1st day of December is just nuts to me. I keep hoping that one of these days I wake up to about 3 ft of snow on the ground so that my winter field work can get underway. Its hard to snowshoe into a study sight when the snow keeps melting on the tops of my mountains. Its slushy and slippery and flat out dangerous to work in. I'm just praying for those days of nice firm, compact snow that I can troop over the top of in my Alaskan Guide Series snow shoes. That's right... my office actually decided to go high tech this year. The snow shoes that I have been using would make any Eskimo say "what the heck?". So maybe I just want to get out and try the suckers out I don't know but I need some snow to make it happen.

On a more personal note. I didn't shoot any deer this year. I shot at one yesterday on the last day of hunting season but missed. I actually pretty mad at myself though I'm not sure there are too many people out there that could have made the shot I was going for. I was up on a ridgeline and saw a doe running across the powerline about 400 yards away. I cranked up the power on my scope and started leading her as she ran but she stopped dead in her tracks the second I pulled the trigger and I knew it was a miss since I was aiming about 6 inches ahead of her hoping she'd keep running. I cranked another shell into the barrel and hoped to have gotten a second try at her but she had already ducked into the timber. Smart deer! Oh well... a couple of the guys I was hunting with got some does so it wasn't a complete loss and of course Mace filled his deer tags but no elk for any of us. Oh well some seasons are better than others and the warm weather and lack of snow didn't help any. All I have to say is Bambi better watch out next year *jokes*

Gobble Gobble

Ahhh Thanksgiving! Today is my absolute favorite day, let along holiday of the year. I awoke, as I do on may days, when the sun hadn't even thought about coming over the horizon yet. The house was quiet and gave me time to reflect on everything I am most thankful and grateful for. I let the minutes tick by and decided to see if I could catch the start of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on Satellite and by golly I could. So with my feet kept warm by sock monkey slippers (a great gift courtesy of Kami from a few years ago) and a fleece blanket wrapped around me I sat in the living room next to the crackling fire drinking coffee with cocoa enjoying the same parade I've always managed to watch year after year since childhood. There was something very comforting about watching the festivities. I can remember always getting up early as a child to catch the start of famous parade and an hour or so later mom and dad joining me down in our basement with their own mugs of coffee or cocoa. Its a tradition I just can't get past. It definitely made me miss spending Thanksgiving with my family though, but I'm trying to stay lighthearted today so I wont go there in this post. So as I'm typing this I have a break in cooking. The stuffed turkey is in the oven. The pies are already baked and cooling (apple, pumpkin, and mince meat... I couldn't resist). Jello salad is setting up in the fridge. All I really have left to do is mashed potatoes and gravy and green bean casserole. I am definitely a traditionalist when it comes to Thanksgiving day meals. Mom and I would always go all out even if it was just the three of us having the meal together that afternoon. We couldn't help ourselves I think. Each time we'd start to plan out the menu we'd remember things we liked and would just keep adding to it. Cooking would take hours but it was so much fun and so rewarding in the end... not to mention the weeks worth of left overs that always resulted. So if you can't tell today is a happy day and I do sincerely hope that you are all enjoying it where ever you are as well. Love and God's blessings to you all.

New News on the Dad Front

Well I'll be buggered. For those that didn't know already dad is back in the hospital for like the billionth time, or at least so it seems. The docs were still worried about how much weight he'd been dropping so they admitted him yet again and started up a pump that runs 24 hours full of a nutritional suppliment called TPN. I'm sure its not the best tasting stuff in the world so its a good think they are running it through a Pick line in my Dad's upper arm. He ended up having a series of X-Rays the other day with Barium contrast and they found that his intestine has a nice kink in it which could be part of the reason that he still isn't able to keep any food down that he's tried to consume. If its not one thing its another. So how are they going to deal with this. Well thats a fabulous question actually since it hasn't really been long enough since his last radiation treatment to do surgery they are kind of tentative about their plans. Obviously they need to get the kink out and as soon as they can at that. Soooooo the skinny is that on Wednesday afternoon his surgeon is going to put Dad under anesthesia, make a small incision and see how things look. If dad reacts poorly to the incision and look about, the doc will sew him right back up and they'll try again in another 10 days or so. If things look good he'll continue on with the surgery and unkink the part of the gut that needs unkinked (is that a word???). So if you have a few extra minutes on Wednesday and the thought crosses your mind, please keep my dad in your prayers and hopefully things will start getting better for him after everything is said and done. Have a great week folks! Love ya.

Skating anyone?

Okay I know that I was begging for snow in my last post so this one may come as a contradiction, but I ABSOLUTELY HATE ICE!!!! We've been having a ton of rain lately which means there is a lot of standing water on the roads, both paved and dirt. Well I had to drive up to Kalispel for a meeting yesterday which typically is no big deal and I usually enjoy the 2 hour drive going up through Plains then cutting through Hot Springs where I generally wave at the town since Scott still lives there (I think). I really should stop one of these days when I'm off the clock and see if I can hunt him down to say hello. Anyway I digress, I got out of Kalispel around 5pm which again isn't too bad except the rain had slowed down, the temp had dropped like crazy and all the standing water on the road was now just a sheet of ice. If you ever take the short cut between Plains and Polson, remember not to do so on an icy day since the road is about as curvy as a coiled up snake. Lets just say that it was a long, dark, tense drive back home and I was happy when the day was over.