This Mama Mallard has 9 babies! Busy, busy, busy ..

I think this blog has gone to the birds ...
It seems I've been taking nothing but bird shots this week. Oh well, there are worse topics, I guess.

I must have the only Hummingbird feeder in 3 miles or so, since I've got about 5 of them fighting a constant war over it!

Every now and than they share, but they're feisty little things and will break out in a fight at any moment ..

This Tree Swallow that I mentioned in a previous post, has a nest, dangerously low (Rosy!), in a fence post in the meadow in front of us.

I had to stand out of sight behind a Pine tree, to have them relax enough to continue feeding their chicks ...

    

 There's at least 4 or 5 in there, maybe even 6!

The wildflowers of Spring have made room for those of Summer, and the hills look so pretty everywhere you look ..

This next one is a Sagebrush Mariposa Lily:

 

The one on the left below here is a Deerhorn Clarkia (I can see antlers in that one!) and the one on the right is a Showy Larkspur ... I think ..

        

Last Friday we went to Grangeville once again. James was missing a part to continue working and we were both up for a little break.
So down the (bloody) hill we went again ..



This time though we took a different route, Center Canyon Rd, which made a huge difference in 'scary-ness' .. !

The route is the same until about halfway, just before the 'front' one becomes hair-raising (for me), but by than we turn onto a much more gradual and slightly wider road, that slowly eases it's way down the canyon following Center Creek, and eventually ends up in Cottonwood.
It's a much, much, much better road to take the RV down this coming Fall! I'm so relieved! 
It's like a heavy weight has been lifted from my shoulders! 

Life is good!

 

OK, 15 miles past Cottonwood we than pull into Grangeville.
It's a typical country-town, not much cutesyness about it, but it has everything we need and I start to like it.

It's basically just main street with a few side streets, almost all of which turn into gravel about half a mile in.

On one of those side-streets we found this jewel of a coffee shop:

O my goodness, it's so cute and quirky and funky, it could easily be somewhere in any big city!

The coffee is excellent and the pastries even better!

Guess where we'll end up whenever we'll be down here?

We also went for another round of golf, had a nice lunch at the (only) Mexican Restaurant and did groceries but I didn't feel like taking any more pics .. hey, I had the day off!

One of these mornings we woke up to mooing .. mooing? Yeah, mooing! 

A small group of cows, and a few bulls, had knocked down a fence somewhere and showed up in the driveway and yard, right next to the RV.

Of course that's not supposed to happen, but fences are knocked down over here on a regular base.

Roy, the Peruvian ranch-hand here, is on a never-ending quest to check and repair fences.

Since the ground is very rocky they can't put posts in the ground, so he builds a small platform against the fence pole, which he than fills up with (very heavy) big rocks:

Nice job!

Talking about nice jobs, James has moved on to the guest quarters in the basement.
He has build a new wall to create an extra bedroom, which makes the recreational room a lot smaller, but it is still very usable.

As you can see they flooded last winter, and the bottom 2 feet of the drywall has been ripped out and will be replaced.

The bathroom will get a new shower and toilet, and all the floors will get new carpet and/or vinyl.

   

Still a lot to do, but he's nicely on schedule, and on budget, after this first month of work. 

(Yes, we've been here for a month already)

Great job hon!