The magnificent photo you'll never get to see

I rarely leave home without my camera, tucked in my purse or pocket. However the other day when Don and I were on our way to town, I noticed the camera had a low battery, so I plugged it in to charge while we were away.

It was one of those, "What can possibly go wrong?" moments. Don always jokes that the one time I'll leave my camera at home, we'll see Bigfoot or something.

Well, I left my camera at home ... and we saw Bigfoot. Sort of.

We were driving along a beautiful stretch of river and passed a small sandbar. An antlered bull elk was on the sandbar, drinking from the river. The dappled sunlit forest was behind him and the sparkling river was before him. It was one of the most visually stunning images I've seen in years.

-----> INSERT PHOTO OF GORGEOUS BULL ELK DRINKING FROM RIVER <-----

And. I. Didn't. Have. My. Camera. With. Me.

Arrrggghhh. I've been kicking myself ever since. It would have been a magnificent shot.

Cue the obsessive carrying of my camera with me everywhere I go from now on.

Elking around

Elk have been hanging around our neighborhood a lot. A couple days ago in the very early morning, I glanced out the window and saw a small herd of about six animals in the field across the way.

They were often blocked by trees so I couldn't see exactly what was going on, but it seemed the herd was trotting back and forth across the field quite a bit. It may have had something to do with our neighbor's horse. Horses generally don't like elk.

After a few minutes of this, the herd came up to the fence line by the road just below our property.

One by one, they jumped the fence onto the road.

This put them right at the base of our lower driveway, and they started walking up toward the barn.

 

Two of the cows were already up the driveway...

...when the rest of the herd noticed me taking photos, and became concerned.

The two elk near the barn jumped fences and trotted off, while the lower elk moved down the road and disappeared from sight.

Just another day on the homestead.

Hoof prints in the snow

We've had elk hanging around lately, always a wonderful thing to see.

While walking Mr. Darcy the other day, one hoof print was clear in the snow. I put my foot right next to it to compare sizes.

Now compare it to the hoof print of a deer, and the scale of size difference between the two species becomes obvious.

Trust me, elk are BIG.

Snow whomp + power outage

If I've been silent for the last couple of days, it's because we finally got our power back on. It went out late Tuesday night after we got a snow whomp. It looks like winter arrived at last.

I mean, seriously. While the rest of the country already had their snow whomps, we were mild and snow-free. Sure, we had some chilly temps, but otherwise bare ground.

All that changed this past week. At first it was just a soft and picturesque snowfall of a couple inches.

The cows didn't seem overly fazed.

Most of the snow melted off over the next couple of days. And then, overnight, WHOMP.

Unsurprisingly, we lost power during this blitz. Out here, the power grid goes down for seemingly any reason: a heavy snowfall, a wind, a Tuesday. We knew this was likely to happen and had everything prepped just in case.

The cows were a little more fazed by this snowfall. We decided to keep them in the corral for immediate access to shelter. Filet, our stand-offish formerly-range-cow Angus, is due to calve sometime in the next month (probably less), and we don't want to be chasing down a new baby in deep snow on the far side of the pasture.

I took a yardstick into the yard and measured how much snow fell overnight.

Twelve and a half inches of new snow, and we've gotten more since.

It almost came over the tops of my boots.

The effect was very pretty...

...especially after the clouds cleared and it turned into a strikingly sunny day.

The snowfall was an opportunity for every man in the neighborhood to climb onto whatever equipment he had available, and work to clear the road. I counted at least six different neighbors on six different pieces of equipment, not counting Don's efforts.

I kept the bird feeder filled, since I knew the feathered ones would have a hard time finding food under such conditions.

The quail had to literally break trails in the snow.

Since Older Daughter's side of the house isn't heated during power outages, she let Frumpkin (her cat) into the main part of the house (making sure Lihn the parrot was safely in her cage, of course). Frumpkin was fascinated by the activity at the bird feeder. Cat TV.

Toward dusk, we took Mr. Darcy for his afternoon walk and noted a large herd of elk, at least 25 animals, spread across a neighbor's field.

We lit the oil lamps and settled in for an evening of reading. Frumpkin was perched on Older Daughter's lap, looking quite pleased with himself.

The power stayed off for forty-eight hours, through clear sunny days and very dark nights.

Don used the back blade on the tractor to plow the lower driveway.

Frumpkin stayed in the main part of the house, looking very cute...

...while Darcy looked very worried. "That cat isn't supposed to BE here."

The power came back on early Friday morning and life got back to normal. And the elk? Well, they went strolling by right below the house. Gorgeous.

Mechanicking, country style

We had to take our old jeep in for some specialized mechanic work.

We bought this little vehicle five years ago, and it's served us well. However it needed some electrical work (relays, etc.) replaced as well as additional maintenance that were beyond the capacity of our primary mechanic (whose specialty is tires, but who does some mechanic work on the side), so off it went. Yesterday afternoon we got the call the car was fixed and ready to pick up.

The mechanic is a young family man, and he works in a shop on his property, which is located on a lovely stretch of road surrounded by broad meadows. Nice place to raise a family, especially since the dad works at home.

As Don and I crested the hill and crossed the meadow toward the mechanic's home, we saw elk. Lots of elk. Dozens of elk, possibly close to a hundred. I'd never so many elk in one location. With such a broad expanse of meadow, I suppose it's a natural place for them to hang out.

While Don paid for the vehicle, I crept to the edge of the lawn, peered through some bushes, and tried to photograph a few of the animals.

The herd was scattered over several acres, so I could only get a few animals into any single photo at a time.

The animals were calm and unhurried.

We've been in Idaho over 20 years now, and never have I seen such quantity of elk as we've seen around this place. It's delightful.

I followed Don home in the newly repaired vehicle just as the sun set.

Mechanicking, country style. Gotta love it.

The elk are back

Over the past few years, elk have been frequent visitors to our little valley. We noticed they tended to hang around during the cooler months, then migrate higher into the mountains in the summer.

But not this year. Their absence was a bit worrisome. Normally we'd start seeing them around September, but this year ... nothing.

Then day before yesterday, while we were chatting with Younger Daughter via Facebook Messenger at her overseas duty station, Don came into the house and said, "There's a whole herd of elk across the road on Bill's property." (Bill is a neighbor with a large pasture right across from us.)

Immediately I left Don to chat with Younger Daughter while I snatched my camera and went outside. Sure enough! A whole bunch, casually bedded down in the chilly afternoon sunshine.

Suddenly we're seeing them everywhere. I've counted at least 40 in the herd, which is much more than we've ever seen before.

Now it's almost like we can't even glance out the window without seeing at least a few scattered here and there.

When they move as a herd, there are so many I can't get them all in one photo.

They're certainly among the most picturesque of wildlife.

The herd showed up yesterday, once again in Bill's pasture across the road from us.

This freaked out Bill's four horses, which galloped to the other side of the field and then stood, watching warily. I've noticed horses don't care for elk at all.

About this time, something disturbed they elk and they moved en masse out of sight.

I'm glad the elk are back. I've missed them.