PACK RATS!!!!!!!!!

Okay, so I opened my kitchen drawer where I keep all my kitchen towels and stuff and guess what I found!!! 

I had not been in this drawer for a couple of weeks and I had to laugh at what I found! The pack rats had gotten into the drawer and started using one of my oven mitts as a storage unit! Gee, I wonder how much rent I should charge it! lolol  I really have no idea where it got into the sunflower seeds, unless we left a bag of them out open somewhere. It had to have been Michael because I don't remember leaving anything like that around! The cat food is easy of course. The bits of fluff is the inside stuffing of the mitt. That mitt was stuffed completely full!

Needless to say, I had to pull all of the towels and re-wash them and I burned the mitts, then I let Mowgli prowl around for a couple of days. I haven't seen anything lately but...

Mike says that it looks like the animals are beginning to store early, that means an early and possibly long, cold winter! Already at the higher elevations we are begining to get some snow. It's not sticking...yet. I have had to pull out all of Mike's cold weather clothes so he won't freeze at work.

I'm not putting any bets on it yet. I just hope Mike and I are out of here before then. That 5th wheel doesn't have a polar package on it and we are already starting to go through propane for the heater to keep it warm at night.

I'll keep ya'll up to date as things unfold!

The Funhouse

Hahahahaha.......Too much fun!!

There's an old house here in the ghost/mining town of Cinnabar. The last time anyone was in it was around 1957 or so and a lot of the houses have fallen over in the years. There is even an old hotel that is still standing and other buildings. Mike and I found a house that we liked so much we wanted to see about buying it, getting out of there, and placing it on the property out here in Yellow Pine. It sits at an extreme angle to the hill it fell down and believe it or not, every window and all but one of the door frames is perfectly level!!

Our friend, Joe Henry, an officer from the prison, and his kids came up for a visit so we decided to take them to Cinnabar and this is the kind of fun we had.

I was explaining to them that this was the house Mike and I wanted for the property and as I was talking I decided to go inside and have a look. Within just a few seconds I was feeling kind of funny and a little pukey. Then things got really fun! Here are some of the pictures we got from inside.

Look Ma! One foot!

Even Fionn got into it!!

Death defying!!!!!

I'm Mr. Cool!

 After we were done goofing off and getting queezy, we drove through the backside of the town in 4 low and slow, even had to back up on a couple of tight switchbacks just to get around a corner, talk about testing my driving skills but we made it and this is the view from the top.

The town of Cinnabar from the top of the summit

Definately worth the intense trip up!!

I have the coolest cat on the planet!

The other day when I was out repairing our road into the property I looked up to take a little breather and low and behold topping the rise was Bahghera. He had walked about a ¼ mile up the road to catch up to me and see what I was doing. While I was busy filling holes with rocks and dirt he sniffed around and explored the general area while the dogs ran around in circles chasing chipmunks. Even when it started raining really hard and we headed back to the property Bahghera trotted along behind the 4-wheeler trailer and was rewarded with a towel-down and got to stay in the camper fort he rest of the day in front of the propane heater.

Today I decided to take the dogs for a walk down to the spot next to the river that I found yesterday. It’s a really cool spot where a little creek branches off from the river during the high flow. It will probably be dry during the summer when the river drops. On our way out I was just looking around, getting my bearings, and saw that Bahghera was following us! This cat has no fear! He followed us around until the trail ended at an upslope and we headed back.

Today the sun is partially out and he has decided he wants to stay outside and sleep on the snowmobiles. Maybe he’ll catch another rat/mouse or two. So far we are not having anymore incidents of something nibbling all our toilet paper away inside the camper so I’m thinking he got the culprit!

Before we moved up here I was kind of worried about him because he has lost a lot of weight and he wasn’t looking so good but since we’ve been here, he looks like he’s filling out a little and seems to have a little more energy. I think this move has been good for all of us!

Just piddlefartin' around

Wow! We just had quite the storm blow through! I made to the Corner Bar and got under cover just in time! This is what I saw on my way in to get the mail.

Then it got progressively worse and the thunder started. It is quite the experience to hear thunder roaring down from the sky and bouncing back and forth through the canyons, the canyons amplify it really well! Of course, Jock hates it!

It's probably hard to tell from this picture but it literally started to SNOW!! Yes, with the right conditions, that can happen! I have pictures to prove it! It looks like there might be more on the horizon coming in too. Now the sun is out again and my 4-wheelers seat is drying off nicely. I really should be going to check on Jock. Mike isn't as sympathetic as I am about his sound sensitivity as I am. Besides, I have a little more exploring to do today, can't let a little rain stop me!  

Guess what I did today!!?

Look Ma! I still have all my fingers and toes!!

So Jock and I were on our way back home from town and as I was looking at all the trees and found a couple of them that are being eaten to death by Bark Beatles so I told Mike I wanted to cut it down with my new chainsaw. Through some bartering he wrangled a brand new Stihl Farm Boss for me to keep on my 4-wheeler while I’m puttering around just in case I have to cut any trees out of the roadway. So, just to humor me, he took a break from building our guest cabin and taught me how to use the saw before cutting (lol, no pun intended) me loose. I told him we had to get pictures because no one would believe me!

These are the piles of limbs left over from the top of the tree.

That’s a lot of wood!

I’m afraid of what my back is going to feel like tomorrow! I have been pretty much laid up with spasms since we got here. I can already feel the muscle over my right hip twitching. Not bad for a days work if you ask me! I think my daddy would be proud! I am very grateful for having a husband that isn’t afraid of teaching stuff like this. Now we can go wood cutting together and get twice the work done in less time. Well, got to make dinner. I worked up quite the appetite!

X-mas in June!!??!

Okay, so this is the mountain above our little piece of property and the white stuff kind of misting over the top of it is…..yes, SNOW!!!

It is June 17th and it is SNOWING at the 6,000’ level! And boy, it was ice cold rain at our level. I was riding on the 4-wheeler and took the picture from the bridge that is just before our road when it started coming down. When is winter going to let go??

In consolation, the week end is supposed to be sunny and nice. Maybe I’ll get to bring out the shorts again! It really stinks having to wear the same jeans multiple days in a row that your dog spilled sugary sweet coffee on when he tried to jump in the truck! (Thanks, Fionn) We don’t have the convenience of just throwing them in the laundry and washing them up, especially since I only have a couple of pairs. If the sun was out I probably would have washed them the old fashioned way and just threw them in the river and let the river wash them for me! I told Mike that once he started getting a paycheck from the drilling company that I want to start replacing my old city clothes with some heavy duty Carhart or Berne clothes! You can wear their heavy canvas jeans that are all reinforced with double wall knees and crap like that forever! I know a couple of people up here in YP that have pants like that and have worn the same pair for years and they are just starting to show signs of wear and tear! My only other choice is to wear my heavy duty bibs all the time. I guess they aren’t much different but it’s harder to undo all the hardware just to pee and then try to get them back on in a reasonable amount of time. Yes, I do sometimes have to pee in the woods! Fact of life.

Okay, gotta put the heater on high. My feet are freezing. I bought a pair of faux fur lined Crocs before we moved up here. They kind of remind me of little Dutch shoes except they aren’t made of wood. Anyway, they are super comfortable and the fur keeps my feet warm but I’ve had to take them off because somewhere I picked up some dog poo and dragged it through the camper. I was bent over, straightening the couch up and kept smelling poo. So I thought maybe it was the cats or something and decided to spray down the couch with some Fabreeze. I know, sounds gross but again, no easy access to a washer! Give me some slack! Well, thank goodness it turned out to be the poo on my shoe instead of poo on the couch so you can breathe easy now….

Two days of sun are great for getting stuff done!

I have been having a hard time deciding what I want to do today! We have had two great days of sunshine and I have been doing my best to get out in it and recharge my batteries. The best part of it is everything starts to dry out! When it is cold and rainy being by the river can cause problems; things stay wet and it is always at least 10 degrees cooler! Great for the summer though when temps get up in the triple digits!

Even though Yellow Pine is way up in the mountains and completely surrounded by huge monoliths we are actually a little over 4,000 ft. We went from watching the river completely swollen and tearing up roads and filled with so much debris and silt that the water ran milky white to having it drop at least a foot in two days and start running clear. From the top of our road you can look down (about 500 ft) and see completely to the bottom of the river. It is quite beautiful and very relaxing. I know that if you took Mike and my blood pressure we would be back down in the lower ranges. His actually rose at least 30 points working out at the prison.

Ah....Mike should be starting work on Wednesday up at Stibnite. I am really bummed that my old hard drive crashed. All my pictures of Stibnite were on it and I took more pictures when we were up there the other day but I haven't downloaded them yet. It was raining the whole time, sometimes hard, sometimes a drizzle. We went up and talked to a couple of the geologists to see if we could find Mike's boss but we were told he would be coming up with the drill and they can't bring the drill up until the roads harden back up. Apparently there is a weight limit when the roads are soggy. Makes sense.

Well, the laundry is almost done.