Ruminatin' - On Why I Love it Here

I complain a LOT about the weather here. I don't think you will find many people that live here that will disagree with me; the winter sucks. Sucks big. The sun disappears sometime around October and doesn't come back in force until the fourth of July. Oh it peaks it's head in for a couple of days hours here now and then just to torture us but for the most part it's a world of grey, grey, grey only enlivened by the white of snow. And this year was very, very snowy.


But there are compensators. There would have to be right? Why else would we all stay here? The scenery is stunning. Some of the most beautiful I have ever seen and thanks to a fair bit of traveling I have been fortunate enough to see many gorgeous places.


We built the yurt with a bank of windows facing the river to take advantage of some of that stunning scenery. When you walk into our living room the first thing you see is a wall of glass. Out through that glass is the Clark Fork River and the mountains across the river. There is a lovely flat on the other side of the river and last night the activity was far better than what was on TV.  I first noticed what was going on as I was setting the table for dinner.  A neighbor had mentioned a swan on the river but I hadn't seen it yet.

Lo and behold! There was the swan swimming with a pair of Canada geese. It was so beautiful but it seems to think it's a Canada goose. The rest of the flock came in and it stayed with them all night and is still with them this morning. I have to wonder if it joined them as a cygnet and thinks it really is a goose. Who knows?

Then I noticed the elk. A couple of weeks ago three elk were on the flat. Last night there were four.
The hubby said at least two of them were bull elk. I hope they come back in the fall with antlers!

Then came the white tail deer! There were about 8 of them all over the place. White tail aren't as prevalent here as mule deer so seeing them is still fun. Plus seeing them next to the elk shows just how big that elk is!

Some more geese flew in and startled the deer so the white tails went flying!

Then to top it all off a juvenile bald eagle flew onto a snag tree.

Some of the photos are a touch fuzzy I know. They were taken through the living room windows with a telephoto lens. We stood and watched nature's TV for over an hour. It was just fascinating. In addition to these animals we saw magpies, a kingfisher, a beaver, a flicker, mergansers and various other birds. I was sorry to see the light fade.  We finally ate dinner at 8PM but it was worth it.