Mule Deer buck

I forgot to include this picture in last week's post, isn't it a beauty? 

Look at those huge ears, it quite distinctively sets them apart from the White-tails ..

I almost missed him, it was a gloomy, overcast day and he blended in very well with the wintry grey of the bushes, but than he moved and I spotted him ... and he me!

Here's another one I almost missed:

 

He (or she?) is a Woolly Bear Caterpillar and, according to folklore, if the caterpillar’s orange band is narrow, the winter will be longer, colder, and snowier, conversely, a wide band means a mild winter.

Yikes, it looks like we'll have snowy winter!!

There's not much wildlife around at the moment, too cold I guess. They're probably all hunkering down to stay out of the blustering winds that whip through the canyon, and I don't blame them!

Man, those winds are fierce .. and freezing cold. Talking about 'chill-factor'!

We also had another 'dusting' of snow last week:

It just doesn't get more beautiful than waking up to something like this, does it?

On Saturday we went for yet another Christmas celebration, this time in White Bird, a tiny town just 20 miles north of us.

We first visited the Crafts-show at the community center, which was about the smallest show we ever attended:

But it included a cookie-tasting/judging contest. Free cookies? Count us in!

After having a (terrible) drink at the pub and a (very good) hamburger at Red's, the local eatery, we lined up along main street (with all the other residents, which would be 91 in total, if all would show up) for the Lighted Parade.

My pictures didn't come out very well, most of them looked like this:

Or this one of a very brave dog, perching high upon on one of the floats, which was one of the better ones ..

                                  

It was one of the .. no, make that THE shortest parade we ever saw, maybe 6 floats in total, but it was fun!

Lots of candy was thrown, so the kids were happy!

And of course Santa made an appearance, although he wasn't very jolly, accompanied by a rather scruffy looking elf. 

I stole this picture from the web, from the Idaho county free press site and hey .. look at that guy in the background .. it's James!

After the parade there was hot chocolate and home-made chili and people meeting around the fires, and at 6.30 they started an amazing fireworks-show, put up by a local outfitters store.

  

It went on forever and was really very, very good, especially for such a small town!

At the building front there's still not much going on considering the new house, but there's now a local architect involved, and it looks like there might be plans soon.

There's no more work for the guys though, so today was their last day until after Christmas, although due to an injury and a different job, we'd already lost two of them anyways ..

Me, I've started my yearly Christmas-cookie-baking-frenzy! 

So far I made Hungarian Butterhorns (a must) and chocolate Crackle cookies (those of the horrible-sticky-dough).

The kitchen looked like a disaster-zone but hey .. I don't have much room!

                       

 

And just for fun, here's another picture of our outside Christmas tree. I strapped it down real good so it'll stay up in the wind, but so far it blew over already twice .. oh, well. 

It looks very welcoming though, doesn't it? (when it's up).

OK. That's it. I'm out of topics. Until next time!