Saundra has been gone since last Saturday to Portland with Tenell, Greg and our newest grandson Kade. Kimber and I have been walking, working on the border around the rock beds - cementing in a mow strip. Jake and I went 65 mile son the four wheelers on Monday up Jens, to Gold Creek Lakes - over the top of the game pass to upper Rock Creek (the Deerlodge Rock Creek - not the bigger one by Clinton) over the pass to Boulder Creek to Altoona Lake and then over the Boulder, Little Gold Creel Pass back to Gold Creek and finally to Jens. It was a rough ride, lots of huge rocks, both four wheelers got dents on the wheels and look like they have been through a war. Next time I am going to do a little gold panning. There are tons of mines all over that country.
Today Kimber and I went up 9 Mile and got some rocks for the yard, then went on a 1 1/2 hour walk in the main 9 mile valley, worked on the borders again.
Mom will no longer eat the Meals on Wheels and so I bought them Marie Calendar dinners, the RN suggested it, they haven't tried them yet, their freezer is full of things they will probably never use unless someone goes there and cooks it for them. They still buy things like Miracle Whip in the big containers when it is on sale? Thins spoil or out date before they can use them, but we keep trying to deal with it. Dad is still a little unhappy that the Garbage people wrote a letter that their route would be picked up Tuesday morning beginning at 6 am and they don't get there until the pm - he thinks they should be there at 6 am - oh well, that's one of the things he frets about - why I don't know. He wants the garbage put out and dealt with just right, he wants me to use the wheel barrow when I take it out and I tell him it is easier for me to carry the bag. I cut the grass out from under the gate so it would open and I am not sure he likes that (he told me he had just done it a while ago - I think his while is a few years just like the gas at the lake when Saundra and I got stuck in the lightening storm. I love them to death (probably a bad choice of words - I love them as the great parents they are) - but it is still a circus even at that.
Flint Creek Range
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Heaven on Earth
Well, it looks like baby Kade Elias Dietzman is about to enter the world. Tenell called this morning and after her appointment with the Doctor she called us, Saundra has a ticket to Portland for Saturday pm. A couple weeks after that I and puppy will head for Portland in the car and visit a while and then come home. We (Saundra, Bonnie and Ron) have a trip into scheduled to the Sperry Chalet in Glacier for mid August and then kids are coming home to go to the lake for end of the same week.
Saundra and I took puppy for a walk to the dog park on the river by the University (Jacobs Island) and then by mom and dads to see how they are doing, we (Saundra, Howard and Ladene are going to eat at mom and dads this evening. I got another summer hair cut and prepared my talk for Ronan this Sunday. I don't know where the time goes - every day fill s up with something. I hope to get some yard work completed while Saundra is gone and take puppy back in the mountains for the first time since her going to jail (the pound). The electronic collar seems to work we tried it out at the lake this past week, I'll see how it does in the trees etc.
I checked at Costco while we were there about work and they are in a hiring freeze so even if I wanted to go to work there - that is not going to happen. We do need to do something, 1st preference is to sell Lolo even for less than we have in it and salvage the lake. 2nd is the lake - it would be nice if we could establish the lake as our primary residence before and if we sell it but that would take renting our home or selling it and moving to the lake for 18 months or so, but that would sure cut the taxes - as is if we sell it - after realtors fees and taxes we will just pay off Lolo - would be much easier to wholesale Lolo even at a reduced price so we didn't have the tax burden - we have more equity in Lolo than we can sell it for and than we owe on it. The Lord will bless us - He always has and what is best will work out. Beautiful day in Missoula today - one of those days that makes you so happy to live in heaven on earth. (western Montana).
Saundra and I took puppy for a walk to the dog park on the river by the University (Jacobs Island) and then by mom and dads to see how they are doing, we (Saundra, Howard and Ladene are going to eat at mom and dads this evening. I got another summer hair cut and prepared my talk for Ronan this Sunday. I don't know where the time goes - every day fill s up with something. I hope to get some yard work completed while Saundra is gone and take puppy back in the mountains for the first time since her going to jail (the pound). The electronic collar seems to work we tried it out at the lake this past week, I'll see how it does in the trees etc.
I checked at Costco while we were there about work and they are in a hiring freeze so even if I wanted to go to work there - that is not going to happen. We do need to do something, 1st preference is to sell Lolo even for less than we have in it and salvage the lake. 2nd is the lake - it would be nice if we could establish the lake as our primary residence before and if we sell it but that would take renting our home or selling it and moving to the lake for 18 months or so, but that would sure cut the taxes - as is if we sell it - after realtors fees and taxes we will just pay off Lolo - would be much easier to wholesale Lolo even at a reduced price so we didn't have the tax burden - we have more equity in Lolo than we can sell it for and than we owe on it. The Lord will bless us - He always has and what is best will work out. Beautiful day in Missoula today - one of those days that makes you so happy to live in heaven on earth. (western Montana).
Monday, July 18, 2011
Time Flies On Wings of Lightening
Worked on the irrigation pump and the trim around the garage door on the boat house today. A couple trips to town for parts etc. Jake, Holly, Landen and Reed came and spent the afternoon with us - was nice - Jake and Sari helped me put the seal trim and seal around the door. We had a great supper - taco's - the hot sauce mom and I made was a lot cooler after I used a spoon and picked the habanero's out I had smashed up and put in, seeds and all, a couple of days ago. I ate quite bit of it the other day and couldn't taste for a few hours.
They left this evening and we are getting to keep Landen here for the night, we will be home tomorrow. I took a shower and lay on the hammock eating peanuts in the shell and drinking diet pop as I read a book. Kimber came and began begging and She and I ate peanuts for quite a while before Saundra took her in. The next thing I know Saundra, Landen and Kimber came back from Sari's trailer and Landen proceeded to tell me Kimber had caught a mouse in the brush, up by Sari's and she had it in her mouth and them dropped it near Sari's trailer. It was about dead so they put it in the wood pile.
As I lay there in the hammock, my thoughts went back to the years past and this place. I remember we bought out first hammock not long after we made the lawn up the hill. We had it in one of the lower small lawns. I used to lay in it and watch the trees sway above me, that is what I had been doing tonight which brought back the past. I then began thinking of all the work we had done on the lawns, thinning and taking out trees, moving rocks, a couple of big ones took Saundra, the kids and I a whole day to move. I taught them about levers and used 3 or 4 poles along with a couple of bars to move the bigger of the rocks around. The biggest was about 3 1/2 by 3 1/2 by 4. It was heavy and we managed to move it from the middle of what became the upper lawn to the edge where it became part of the rock wall probably 15 feet away. it was a chore, but fun to show the kids how we could move that heavy thing. Then I thought about the day I cut three big trees down, each of which were leaning over the old trailer and when the wind blew it looked like they might fall on it. We pulled the trailer forward about 8 feet and fell all 3 trees. It was a full days work for all of us, Ike and Terese Landon, G & G Hughes and G & G Little, to clean up all the limbs and cut the trees into pieces small enough to move (to big for our current stove) they sat for several years stacked between and behind two trees above the road and then back up the hill, it was a good sized wood pile. Just a year ago Saundra and I worked on the pile until we cut all the pieces in two that were not rotten and either put them in the wood shed or burned them in the stove, the rotten ones we burned in the fire pit and down the hill on the road by the old cabin. The last of it was being cut and split the afternoon before Abby was run over, she chased a couple of deer that afternoon between the old trailer and Sari's, up over the hill above us as we worked. Then as I lay I thought of the old trail that came from our trailer to the lake and it crossed not far from where I now lay on the patio, through thick trees and down to the dock. I remember when I first started thinning trees by the lake - at first Saundra didn't like it - she loved that old trail (it was nice, green & peaceful). Then I thought of the first idea of a boat house to pull the boat up into and the further thinning and then removing the stumps and finally beginning to dig the basement and footing out by hand with shovels and a pick, slow work and little progress, finally helped with a borrowed backhoe from Stephen at the end of one of his jobs and then from a backhoe borrowed from Larry Palmer. Lot's of rocks and finally the solid ones which extend from the hill down under the ground, causing the final location of the boathouse/cabin to be where it currently sits. My mind wandered through the years with all the building, the scaffolding we had all around the building for a couple of years, adding the bathroom end one and the nail gun incident. The saw was sitting right where I lay and the scaffolding was up between there and the building, I remember trying to get dad's attention as he was sawing 2 x 6's for spacers for me and I finally dropped the tools down on the air hose and he looked up to see all the blood. I had to settle him down after I got off the roof and we gathered things up and headed for town. What the mind can remember as one lays and watches the trees swaying above. I wouldn't trade all those memories for anything. The kids helping haul water from the road with the trailer, a barrel, buckets and a a hose that we siphoned water out of the barrel to the lawn. Even further back - the day I cut the paddle lock off of the old gate about twenty feet from where I lay - once our offer had been accepted. "Time flies on wings of lightening" there is no stopping, slowing or changing it.
Tonight Sari talked to Bonnie, mom has not eaten for a couple of days and not gone to the bathroom for several days. Looks like it is a good thing we are going home tomorrow - who knows what is coming, sad enough, maybe relief enough, but difficult for all none the less. In this process as mom fades from mortality as her heart slows to a stand still. The process of birth into another life, one free of pain, sorrow, trials and difficulty. One where she will close her eyes here, to open them to her mom and dad, brothers and sisters, other relatives and friends. One where goodbye seems so hard for us all, such longing and seemingly endless as to time, yet so quick in the Eternal scheme of it all. One where she says hello to those who have proceeded through this veil of mortality to immortality. And all the while we have just watched another of our grandchildren come into this world just last month while another stands at the door waiting to see the likes of Portland. Who knows if these youngsters of ours conversed about their coming with one another and yet other unborn brothers, sisters, cousins, maybe even children of their own to be. How difficult might it have seemed as they said their goodbyes from one existence, the one of premortality to this one. Yet how exciting knowing that this step was so essential and so rewarding with a mortal body that they could learn to control and use, to move and to function with. So it is goodbye and hello, it is the way of mortality from Adam and Eve to the present and will be the way until this world completes its mortal existence and then also passes on to become a Celestial World filled with resurrected beings who have lived upon it and have earned a just reward to continue as families forever. So the goodbyes are just as essential as the hellos, if we but could see - I am sure they are just as exciting if maybe not more so.
Well, I have gotten into my inner feelings here, but I know that these things are true, that we didn't start here nor do we end here. My deepest longings are for the Eternal nature of the family, for the best of the relationships we could ever have had to be but the beginning of the glorious future. I also long to have a greater understanding of it all, the plan, the Atonement, the past and the future. The history of the world, and even more importantly the history of all creation, and the future of it all, to see it, to understand it, not as a mortal who could not understand it, but as a resurrected, glorious being capable of that understanding. To hold my Saundra, my children and their families, and future posterity in my arms with love and with the perfection of that affection which I already feel for them. To likewise be held by my parents and ancestors past, and above it all to be held and bonded with God the Father and His Only Begotten in the flesh and the Heavenly family from whom we all descend. All this makes any trials and difficulties we encounter here in this life seem of very little significance. So as it is "Time Marches On", but it is good to keep in mind that time is only relative as to mortality.
They left this evening and we are getting to keep Landen here for the night, we will be home tomorrow. I took a shower and lay on the hammock eating peanuts in the shell and drinking diet pop as I read a book. Kimber came and began begging and She and I ate peanuts for quite a while before Saundra took her in. The next thing I know Saundra, Landen and Kimber came back from Sari's trailer and Landen proceeded to tell me Kimber had caught a mouse in the brush, up by Sari's and she had it in her mouth and them dropped it near Sari's trailer. It was about dead so they put it in the wood pile.
As I lay there in the hammock, my thoughts went back to the years past and this place. I remember we bought out first hammock not long after we made the lawn up the hill. We had it in one of the lower small lawns. I used to lay in it and watch the trees sway above me, that is what I had been doing tonight which brought back the past. I then began thinking of all the work we had done on the lawns, thinning and taking out trees, moving rocks, a couple of big ones took Saundra, the kids and I a whole day to move. I taught them about levers and used 3 or 4 poles along with a couple of bars to move the bigger of the rocks around. The biggest was about 3 1/2 by 3 1/2 by 4. It was heavy and we managed to move it from the middle of what became the upper lawn to the edge where it became part of the rock wall probably 15 feet away. it was a chore, but fun to show the kids how we could move that heavy thing. Then I thought about the day I cut three big trees down, each of which were leaning over the old trailer and when the wind blew it looked like they might fall on it. We pulled the trailer forward about 8 feet and fell all 3 trees. It was a full days work for all of us, Ike and Terese Landon, G & G Hughes and G & G Little, to clean up all the limbs and cut the trees into pieces small enough to move (to big for our current stove) they sat for several years stacked between and behind two trees above the road and then back up the hill, it was a good sized wood pile. Just a year ago Saundra and I worked on the pile until we cut all the pieces in two that were not rotten and either put them in the wood shed or burned them in the stove, the rotten ones we burned in the fire pit and down the hill on the road by the old cabin. The last of it was being cut and split the afternoon before Abby was run over, she chased a couple of deer that afternoon between the old trailer and Sari's, up over the hill above us as we worked. Then as I lay I thought of the old trail that came from our trailer to the lake and it crossed not far from where I now lay on the patio, through thick trees and down to the dock. I remember when I first started thinning trees by the lake - at first Saundra didn't like it - she loved that old trail (it was nice, green & peaceful). Then I thought of the first idea of a boat house to pull the boat up into and the further thinning and then removing the stumps and finally beginning to dig the basement and footing out by hand with shovels and a pick, slow work and little progress, finally helped with a borrowed backhoe from Stephen at the end of one of his jobs and then from a backhoe borrowed from Larry Palmer. Lot's of rocks and finally the solid ones which extend from the hill down under the ground, causing the final location of the boathouse/cabin to be where it currently sits. My mind wandered through the years with all the building, the scaffolding we had all around the building for a couple of years, adding the bathroom end one and the nail gun incident. The saw was sitting right where I lay and the scaffolding was up between there and the building, I remember trying to get dad's attention as he was sawing 2 x 6's for spacers for me and I finally dropped the tools down on the air hose and he looked up to see all the blood. I had to settle him down after I got off the roof and we gathered things up and headed for town. What the mind can remember as one lays and watches the trees swaying above. I wouldn't trade all those memories for anything. The kids helping haul water from the road with the trailer, a barrel, buckets and a a hose that we siphoned water out of the barrel to the lawn. Even further back - the day I cut the paddle lock off of the old gate about twenty feet from where I lay - once our offer had been accepted. "Time flies on wings of lightening" there is no stopping, slowing or changing it.
Tonight Sari talked to Bonnie, mom has not eaten for a couple of days and not gone to the bathroom for several days. Looks like it is a good thing we are going home tomorrow - who knows what is coming, sad enough, maybe relief enough, but difficult for all none the less. In this process as mom fades from mortality as her heart slows to a stand still. The process of birth into another life, one free of pain, sorrow, trials and difficulty. One where she will close her eyes here, to open them to her mom and dad, brothers and sisters, other relatives and friends. One where goodbye seems so hard for us all, such longing and seemingly endless as to time, yet so quick in the Eternal scheme of it all. One where she says hello to those who have proceeded through this veil of mortality to immortality. And all the while we have just watched another of our grandchildren come into this world just last month while another stands at the door waiting to see the likes of Portland. Who knows if these youngsters of ours conversed about their coming with one another and yet other unborn brothers, sisters, cousins, maybe even children of their own to be. How difficult might it have seemed as they said their goodbyes from one existence, the one of premortality to this one. Yet how exciting knowing that this step was so essential and so rewarding with a mortal body that they could learn to control and use, to move and to function with. So it is goodbye and hello, it is the way of mortality from Adam and Eve to the present and will be the way until this world completes its mortal existence and then also passes on to become a Celestial World filled with resurrected beings who have lived upon it and have earned a just reward to continue as families forever. So the goodbyes are just as essential as the hellos, if we but could see - I am sure they are just as exciting if maybe not more so.
Well, I have gotten into my inner feelings here, but I know that these things are true, that we didn't start here nor do we end here. My deepest longings are for the Eternal nature of the family, for the best of the relationships we could ever have had to be but the beginning of the glorious future. I also long to have a greater understanding of it all, the plan, the Atonement, the past and the future. The history of the world, and even more importantly the history of all creation, and the future of it all, to see it, to understand it, not as a mortal who could not understand it, but as a resurrected, glorious being capable of that understanding. To hold my Saundra, my children and their families, and future posterity in my arms with love and with the perfection of that affection which I already feel for them. To likewise be held by my parents and ancestors past, and above it all to be held and bonded with God the Father and His Only Begotten in the flesh and the Heavenly family from whom we all descend. All this makes any trials and difficulties we encounter here in this life seem of very little significance. So as it is "Time Marches On", but it is good to keep in mind that time is only relative as to mortality.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
The Parable of the Camera, Mother Nature and Father Time
Well, I have been extremely lazy on this site so I guess I better get with it. We are up at the lake trying to get some things done, I am working on the boat door trying to retrim it out so we can finish the rock work on that end of the cabin. I finally got all the wood portion back up to snuff, Monday maybe I can finish the metal portion and we can start doing some of the rock work.
Just a few updates - took two grandchildren to Chico Hot Springs north of Gardner and then through Yellowstone, would have had some pictures but my estimate of the world as a whole decreased just a little when Saundra left her camera sitting on a shelf in the Yellowstone restroom for about 45 minutes and we went back to get it and someone had taken it, the ranger station next door said no one had turned in a found camera, nor had the store. This was at a little camping area on Yellowstone Lake, so I figure no more than 20 women went into the restroom and no more than 1/2 used the same stall, at least half of them would not have seen the camera on the window sill and that boils it down to 5, at least 1/2 of them would have been honest and either left it realizing someone would come looking or would have turned it into the lost and found. One of the remaining 2 1/2 women would have been 10 or under and would have showed mom and dad the camera so now we are down to 2 1/2 dishonest women and possibly one dishonest man. It the women and the man did not wash their hands like 90% of the men don't (hard to believe, but my own little study of noticing says that a good share of them finish their duty and had for the door), then we don't want the camera back again unless it is sanitized. Oh well! The grandsons who were with us were Issac (nearly 12 - Jared and Rebekah's) and Luke (1 and 1/2 Mark and Hailey's), Mark and Hailey went with us as well, we had a grewat time in spite of the camera ordeal.
We also went to Lewis and Clark caverns and enjoyed them as well. As is tradition Issac got to drive on a side road. A week and a half before that we were in Bozeman with Mark, Hailey and Luke and Mark and I went to Holter Lake and caught some walleye.
Another thought, while at Chico, we were unable to swim for a while because of lightening in the area, while we were waiting, a cowboy, in his tight wranglers, a large Stetson and his handle bar mustache controlled our actions - I decided Obama missed his chance for another noncabinet, nonapproved, high paid federal CZAR to control our lives - the COWBOY LIGHTENING CZAR. The only draw back to this appointment is that I am not sure this guy was a tax cheat or had broken several other federal laws to qualify for his appointment.
Got called into the Bishop's office this week and were called on a full time mission, I am not sure the Bishop (our new one) was aware of our family situation. Like other's it would take us a little time to get our affairs in order and that is possible (Saundra and I would like to and will serve), but the family situation with parents is such that we feel that is our current mission and we will complete that one first. We do not feel in the least bit controlled or restricted by the opportunity and blessing to have our parents with us here and for as long as we have. The only unfortunate thing about it is that time marches on whether anyone is ready or not and as a result age begins to catchup to us all. Glad for the blessing we have. Let Father Time march on and Mother Nature take her course, for that is a necessary part of life - we are grateful to participate in mortality.
Since beginning this new blog I have had almost no comments - so if anyone is there - say hi!
Just a few updates - took two grandchildren to Chico Hot Springs north of Gardner and then through Yellowstone, would have had some pictures but my estimate of the world as a whole decreased just a little when Saundra left her camera sitting on a shelf in the Yellowstone restroom for about 45 minutes and we went back to get it and someone had taken it, the ranger station next door said no one had turned in a found camera, nor had the store. This was at a little camping area on Yellowstone Lake, so I figure no more than 20 women went into the restroom and no more than 1/2 used the same stall, at least half of them would not have seen the camera on the window sill and that boils it down to 5, at least 1/2 of them would have been honest and either left it realizing someone would come looking or would have turned it into the lost and found. One of the remaining 2 1/2 women would have been 10 or under and would have showed mom and dad the camera so now we are down to 2 1/2 dishonest women and possibly one dishonest man. It the women and the man did not wash their hands like 90% of the men don't (hard to believe, but my own little study of noticing says that a good share of them finish their duty and had for the door), then we don't want the camera back again unless it is sanitized. Oh well! The grandsons who were with us were Issac (nearly 12 - Jared and Rebekah's) and Luke (1 and 1/2 Mark and Hailey's), Mark and Hailey went with us as well, we had a grewat time in spite of the camera ordeal.
We also went to Lewis and Clark caverns and enjoyed them as well. As is tradition Issac got to drive on a side road. A week and a half before that we were in Bozeman with Mark, Hailey and Luke and Mark and I went to Holter Lake and caught some walleye.
Another thought, while at Chico, we were unable to swim for a while because of lightening in the area, while we were waiting, a cowboy, in his tight wranglers, a large Stetson and his handle bar mustache controlled our actions - I decided Obama missed his chance for another noncabinet, nonapproved, high paid federal CZAR to control our lives - the COWBOY LIGHTENING CZAR. The only draw back to this appointment is that I am not sure this guy was a tax cheat or had broken several other federal laws to qualify for his appointment.
Got called into the Bishop's office this week and were called on a full time mission, I am not sure the Bishop (our new one) was aware of our family situation. Like other's it would take us a little time to get our affairs in order and that is possible (Saundra and I would like to and will serve), but the family situation with parents is such that we feel that is our current mission and we will complete that one first. We do not feel in the least bit controlled or restricted by the opportunity and blessing to have our parents with us here and for as long as we have. The only unfortunate thing about it is that time marches on whether anyone is ready or not and as a result age begins to catchup to us all. Glad for the blessing we have. Let Father Time march on and Mother Nature take her course, for that is a necessary part of life - we are grateful to participate in mortality.
Since beginning this new blog I have had almost no comments - so if anyone is there - say hi!
Monday, July 4, 2011
Boulder Creek
One of the Two Most Beautiful Sites in Montana (read blog for other)
4th of July, Jared and family came up Sari and her family here had a good time good meal, gonna go watch the fireworks on the bridge in Polson. Beautiful Day near the 49th Parallel at Latitude: 47-53'15'' N
Longitude: 114-07'03'' W.
Mountain Memories:
Longitude: 114-07'03'' W.
Mountain Memories:
Day 27 Thursday May19th
Today I took a fairly easy walk and then stopped and talked to a forest service guy and a PAH along the road where I came off the hill. Interesting conversation about things going on in P burg ranger district and what the government wants to do. The forest service is considering any USFS land to be theirs like they are a corporation, they are beginning to no longer look at the forest as “Public land” but their land which they are trying to set up some guidelines that are going to be very hard to live with. The forest service guy said it is crazy what some of these people want to do and it is coming from the top down. He says they used to put out pubilc notice for things and they are going to do away with some of that and just do it. He said it is getting hard for an outdoorsman to work for them, because he can see the garbage that is going on. He hopes Obama will be out along with his cronies and that we can get some people in their who realize how much of the west is public land, belonging to the people not to the government. I found some rusted metal strips (100’s of them) near an old mine (Brooklyn) I found them on a side hill yesterday today I went back and got some for bird house roofs. Don’t know what they were for? Real thin and some 4” x 10”, some 6” X 12 OR 14”, some 4” X 16”. Many deteriorated beyond use, but as I dug down there were many good ones as well. I am getting a stack of things to take home, antlers, some juniper, some diamond willow, some metal, a rock from my camp site, good thing I had extra room on the trailer when I came. Plan to take a bath before I go to bed, I have counted my clothes and figure I can make it without washing them. The weather today was pretty good a little cool, but not too bad. It is forecast to rain the next few days I hope it isn’t when I pack up it will just make things harder. I am running a little low on some items, but I did pretty well on my planning. Read Mosiah 3-6 tonight, and some in my novel. I am going to go and write on my own book and then bath and head for bed.
Day 28 Friday May 20th
Rain all night and then during the day, I thought about just building up the fire and staying warm, when it rained for 2 days Sunday and Monday a couple of weeks ago all I did was sit and try to stay warm. I decided I can’t do that today I only have few days left so I put in my rain gear and went for a walk, 1 ½ hours up below logging road on Royal Basin found one quite old antler, But I can use parts of it so I was happy. I came back to camp and decided I was already wet and may as well keep at it so I went back to a side hill that is steeper than a cow’s face, I was sure it had been walked but I had looked at it from the day I got here and was determined before I left to walk it so I did , it was steep and nothing 1 ½ hours up above into the rocks and almost over the mountain.. As I was up there I saw the Professional Antler Hunter from P-burg go by in his truck, he had found a nice five point just below where I had been walking yesterday and was still looking for the 7 point he had found the first half to a month ago., so when I come off the hill I drive Betsy up to where he was headed and see where he is parked. I had spent two days on that side hill and I thought well he isn’t going to find the 7 pointer there, then I walked a little below the road 1 hour on the way back. I found an old steel wheel (about 2 ½ ‘ in diameter), off a tractor or machine they had used to either log or mine with, I thought that would be cool at home or at the lake and I climbed down thinking I would pack it out of there. Hum, the dang thing was so heavy I could hardly stand it up let alone carry it out of there, as I was looking around I also found the hub, about 8” in diameter even it was to heavy to want to pack it out. I got back total 4 hours walking and was wet and cold. I started a fire and began drying myself and things out, 3 ½ hours later it is still not all dry, I was wet from head to toe even with rain gear one, I think some of it was from the inside out. I hear a truck coming so I dress and go out and it is my PAH from P-burg. He pulls into my camp and I go out, I say did you find it? He motions me over and he has 6 nice antlers in his truck one huge 6 point. I had just walked that last week, I walked below a skid road and he told me he walked above. I couldn’t believe it there was not that much room to some cliffs above and I inquired, He says that was the secret the things were right against the cliffs, he also found a few deer antlers and bundled them together and hd them he couldn’t carry everything. I talk to him more and gain more and more respect, he is a logger and in the spring collects antlers, he has done it for many years 40 or so. Raining hard out there right now, come one clear up! Anyway back to my friend I find His name is Bob LaTray, he has a garage full and a warehouse in Anaconda full and those are just the big ones, he sells all the 5 point and smaller, even 6 point unless big, I find out he finds 500-600 antlers a year and then buys more and sells them back east for chandeliers makers and other craftsman, he gives me his card “Antler Seekers” there is picture of a pickup full of antlers and his name. He has two gold claims, he owns a section of land just north of Yellowstone by Gardner and he leases it to an outfitter who rides it every day in the spring on horseback and gives all the antlers to Bob as part of the lease – he adds another 300 or so a season. Suddenly my 11 antlers seem a pittance in comparison. He tells me it gets in your blood, well it already is in mine, I think I had found about 30 deer antlers at the most in one year, old and new. I have found only 5 or 6 elk antlers other than pieces and some on skulls until this year. Now I have found 11 and I want to get back out there, It is raining right now 9:12 pm but tomorrow is my last walking day, I will stay Sunday and then Monday plan to leave. Monday is the 31st day, I miss my honey, if the weather was nice I would feel some disappointment, I wish I would have realized where I should be walking sooner, I have covered a lot of country where there were no antlers, Bob never goes home with noe, he travels to given places throughout the western part of the state looking, his average day is 4-7 antlers mostly new ones, he knows all the ranchers and people where he walks and walks on private and public land. I got a couple of ideas from him as to where I want to try. He put 2 kids through college on antlers alone, plus bought land etc, antlers 15 years ago were worth a lot, the Chinese were buying all you could find no matter what the condition as an aphrodisiac, I guess that has slowed down some must not have worked like they thought it should. That and bear spleens, I guess they were worth enough guys were shooting bears taking their spleen and leaving the rest – sad. I wouldn’t know a bear spleen if I saw one on the street. I shot a bear while this was a big deal and left the spleen and the rest of the smelly guts where they were, like I said I wouldn’t know one if I saw it. Guess I could have figured it out, but whew smelly and … oh well Bruno is up at the cabin on the wall, no spleen there however. This has been a once in a lifetime experience,I think about it, by the time I am done typing I am ready for bed since I let the fire go out to save wood for a day like today when I can’t go out and get dry stuff. I lay down at night after my prayers, completely relaxed, usually read a novel for a while and then I am get tired put it, my glasses and my headlamp to the side and go to sleep. I have sometime awakened at night to a noise, often the wind, rain, snow, or mice and sometimes some other animal. I usually go right back to sleep, in the morning, I lay again thinking about home, about the day and finally get up, a little stiff but not bad, my legs and back have really not hurt a lot more here than at home. Some days like today my knee actually feels better, even with the rain and the cool weather. Bob says they old irrigation ditch, actually a canal for the mines that runs by P-burg and through Maxville is an excellent place to dig up a bucket of two of dirt to pan, the canal is dry, he says it is excellent, I would like to try some places around here, but right now I have antlers on my mind. I am where they winter, not a;; but there must be a bunch of bulls around because I know of 35-40 antlers from this drainage in not so bug of an area. I walked out of the drainage to no avail, I also walked to high in spots and up to many canyons etc, but I sure saw some wonderful contry and got some good exercise. I thought about it one day as I climbed a fairly steep ridge, up and up and I hardly slowed down, uphill has been better on my knees, side hill which I have doen a lot of and downhill which occurs every time you go uphill hurts them the most. Wind wise I have felt pretty good, another month and I might just beat Tenell and Holly, huh! Especially if I didn’t get any more food, I would really have to ration, but I do have left more than I thought I would. If I were to do it again, I would bring more juice, and a few more dried fruits and more talking rain, that is probably all. Oh maybe more sunflower seeds, and more peanuts roasted and salted in the shell., well it is still raining and I want to work on my book for a while so I guess I better quit. Rain is picking up, heavy big drops, couple weeks ago it would have been snow.
Day 29 Saturday May 21st
Not raining this morning so I got anxious to get out walking, went up Royal Basin again and walked up and around the end of mountain so I could see to Hall, back toward P-burg and over across to Henderson Mountain and Black Pine Mountain, beautiful area some parks, lots of rock outcropping and pretty fair timber around some big firs like this country has and lots of lodgepole. Great walk no antlers but well worth the trip. Later this afternoon I went up Wyman and got 30 or so more diamond willow, some of it so so but some of it pretty good. If the creek wasn’t so high I could have gotten to more, but the water is running everywhere. Loaded the 4 wheeler, the willow, a rock, the metal, the juniper logs and an starting to get ready to go home, pretty sad, except I miss Saundra and puppy, everyone else as well. Hard to believe I have lived a month of my life in the canyon, in this tent, have walked nearly every day but Sunday missed one because of extreme rain and snow. I will be interested in my weight when I get home. My pants are bigger, but that maybe cause when you wear them for two weeks they stretch, I change underwear and socks and shirts regularly, but my pants get so dirty walking through the brush and on the side hills, in the rocks etc, that they look worn 2 weeks on the first day. Tonight while I was loading the trailer, the three deer who have spent the whole time in my camp, tried to go in the tent, I talk to them every evening and they just look at me, they act like I am not here. They hear other noises and turn and look and walk a ways, but they don’t leave when I talk or move around, they are used to me. It’s a doe and two year old fawns. They are funny, they will walk right through the edges of my camp and then go the other way, they leave before dark, but I don’t think there has been an evening they haven’t been here. As much as I like them there really isn’t enough room for me, mice and three deer in the tent so I told them they had to sleep somewhere else, one must have been upset cause she tipped over my wood block I wash up on. They tried to drink out of my water bucket, I just filled so I can take a bath. Well, I will be short tonight and write again tomorrow, so I can write on my book.
The 2nd most beautiful site in Montana is Butte, Mt in your rear view mirror.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Holes in the Ground
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