Hay fields around Grangeville

It's August already, and about the hottest time of the year here!
The grasses are all brown now, and the hay has been harvested almost everywhere. 
The meadows are covered with those big rolls and trucks are driving off and on, stacked to the top, to deliver them at farms all around the valley for their winter feed-lots.

We went down the hill for our weekly golf and coffee R&R, followed by a grocery and material run.
James had to pick up some rope at Wet gulch where we also found a lot of the Blackberries ripe for picking!

Let me tell you, a sleeveless dress is not the right picking attire! Those berries are nasty!



We ended up covered in scratches, and berry stains (!), but also with 2 big containers of berries!
I froze some (for crisp/buckle/cobbler), and the rest we ate with cereal and ice-cream. Yummm!

Summer is also bug-time and although we're very happy that we don't have any mosquitoes, or flies, we do have a lot of Paper Wasps.
They've made many nests under the eaves of the house. These are two of the bigger ones:

                

The one on the left isn't covered with 'paper' yet.

We also have a lot of large grasshoppers, I think this is a Two-striped Grasshopper:

And of course, as I said on my Facebook page, and as I have said before .. every paradise has its snake:

I almost stepped on this one, which would not have been good, it's a Western Rattlesnake!
It was early in the morning and he was laying very still and in the shade, I suspect he was still asleep or trying to warm up.

Remember these cute little ducklings I photographed in July?

It looks like she lost two of them but the other seven have grown a lot in the last four weeks .. 




What else? I finally finished another puzzle, which has been on the table for weeks!
It doesn't look too difficult, but those chickens in the hay and all those people are quite a puzzle .. ha!

On the building front, we had quite a flurry of activity this week.
Ronnie, our 'boss', and Sam, the owner, were back from Louisiana, and had brought 3 friends with them!
They're all Pharmacists by the way, except for Ronnie, and are here for their yearly reunion/get-together and camping/hiking trip.

They brought some building materials up from Boise, helped unload and than move two stacks of drywall to the suite in the back. Nice!

They also helped installing the last part of the furnace-exhaust on the roof.
James had done all the prep-work and custom made a base for it:

        

But he needed a few more hands to lift the large and heavy top part, to place it on the base ...

                          
                                                   Success!
 
Ronnie helped us the rest of the day, by putting up dry-wall on the ceiling in the bedroom-suite!
We had it all insulated and covered with plastic ..



Just waiting for the drywall to go up ..

The master (Ronnie) at work ..

There was a lot of joking and chatting going on ..

It's so much easier, and more fun, to do this with two or three people!
It would have been quite a chore for just James and me, but now we knocked it off in one afternoon!

Afterward we were invited to join everybody for dinner, which was prepared by the rest of the guys.  
They made Elk-burgers and fried potatoes, and I added a Caesar salad. It was delicious!

All in all, it was a very enjoyable day with good company, good food and a lot of hard work being accomplished!
They all left for Montana the next day to go on their camping trip, so we have the place to ourselves again.

Not a very spectacular sunset but a very peaceful one ..
Life is good!

We've been here for 6 weeks now and I finally ran into my first Elk!

I actually almost literary ran into them, since they were nearly invisible where they were laying in the grass, and they didn't notice me until I was right in front of them either.

But they finally got a whiff of me and although I crouched down immediately, I managed to hit a pine-cone with my shoe and off they went!



It wasn't until than that I noticed many others, it was a big herd, at least about 30 of them!

I only saw one male, the one on this pic, but many cows and calves. Cool!

Although I felt very guilty about disturbing their rest .. I try not to do that with any animals I come across ..

At least these birds were not too bothered by me:

  

The one on the left is a Western Meadowlark and the one on the right an Eastern Kingbird.

And this Hawk wasn't so much worried about me, but more about that feisty Flycatcher that tried to chase him away from his nest/territory.

And he succeeded!

  

I finally finished my back-(b)log of our travel adventures from Florida to here! Yeah!

It's amazing how much time that frees up, and I've picked up several things that I hadn't done for a while, like Tai Chi and spinning ..

The weather is as steady as it comes, just beautiful warm summer weather (80-85F) and I spent most of my time outside.



Unless I'm baking raspberry scones of course. James insists that I  keep those pastries coming!
OK, he works hard for it, I guess .. he's now a part-time farm-hand too:

Here he's scrubbing out the water trough, under the critical eye of a super-visor .. we've got 5 horses in the pasture now, instead of the one when we came up here.
They're fun to watch and they add a lot to the laid back 'country-vibe' around here!

Talking about country, a couple of days ago I opened the door to see this ..



These are only a few of the 25+ steers that stood in the yard, enjoying the nice green lawn, one had even climbed in the flour-bed!

We thought we could wrangle them back to the road they came from by walking up behind them, but the only result was that they spooked, which caused them to stampede (!), and they ended up busting right through the wire fence into the horse pasture! 
Oh well, we're not exactly cowboys are we ..

I don't have much else for this week, here's a few pics of the sun going down at the end of the day. Which is getting noticeably earlier already!

It was a toss-up this week (who'd become my 'header' picture) between a Chip(munk) and a Chick(adee). 
The 'Chip' won .. isn't he a handsome dude?

But I think the 'Chick' is equally cute.

Look at this fluffy feather-ball, with that 'bandit'-stripe over his eyes ..

They were both yelling their heads off while I was standing there taking their pictures .. they definitely wanted me to move on and get away from their territories/nests!

These pretty moths were quiet .. of course .. The first one is a Sphinx Moth ..

              And this green one is a Small Emerald ..

 

The meadows are full of flowers and the grasses are standing very high.

We saw a doe one evening, with what appeared to be a fawn behind her, but it was so well hidden by the tall grass that I couldn't get a picture!

These two does have been hanging around 'our' meadows for as long as we've been here.


One time, when I was sneaking up on them, they started to stamp their feet and snort at me! Yelled at by a deer .. that's a new one!

Also well hidden is Mr. Wile E. Coyote!

Always reason for frantically locating the cat .. oh good, he's inside, phew!

Smile for the camera!

James had some help .. well, for as long as it lasted ..
Miriam's brother Nathaniel had arrived from Florida, and was supposed to work for James throughout the summer.  
He seemed like a nice enough guy and a decent worker.

But after 5 days he determined it was too remote up here and he quit! 

James managed to get at least some of the two-men jobs done while he was here, like replacing the chimney pipes on the roofs.

He also got all the water-damaged drywall patches downstairs done.

Too bad,  I guess this place is not for everyone!
He might be back later in the season when his sister moves up here too. We'll see ..

We got a lot of the appliances and bigger materials in this week.

During another trip down the hill we got the doors:

And Home Depot delivered the tub, the toilets and the showers ..

See, James is putting the doors in ..

And I installed the insulation (fiberglass, brrr ..)

 And instead of one window above the tub ..

 

We now have two!

Sam and Pat were up this Wednesday, they drove their camper up from Louisiana, and they were very happy with the progress!
They thought everything looked very nice, also at Wet Gulch (they had not seen the barn or cleaned up shop yet). 

In fact, they're so impressed with us, that they already offered us a place to stay for free, anytime we'll be in the neighborhood in the future!
Always nice to hear, and it also means that we're definitely hired for building the new house at Wet gulch later this year, and through the coming winter!

Cha-ching! $$$ in the bank!