Wonder Woman Dethroned! (already :( )

Emma and I were on the road just a hair past 7:00 this morning to make our last trip to Yellowstone.  And what a photographers dream trip it was!  In our 170 mile journey, we managed to be in the right spot at the exactly right time for some wonderful wildlife encounters.  :)   I bet I took around 200 shots today, and all of them were fantastic.  The view through my lens finder was all that I could want, and everything was in very sharp focus.  We saw a male bison swim across the Yellowstone River right up to us, and then wallow in the dirt and shake off all the water like a dog does. 

It is rutting season for the bison now, and we were in the car not five feet from a bellowing bull that was trying to impress the lady at his feet.  Then it was on to fantastic pictures of an osprey and a Swainson's hawk.  It was just one of those wonderful days where everything is perfect....

Until I got home to download the pictures onto the laptop.  I nearly fainted when I noticed that the 8GB memory stick was still in the laptop and not in my camera!  Ugh!  I almost broke down in tears.  That meant that everything I saw today was only etched into my memory, not that of the camera.  :(    How could I have forgotten to put that memory stick back into the camera?  So much for my last great trip into Yellowstone.

So, there are no pictures tonight, and after yesterday's high, I have fallen off my pedestal and am back down to earth.  Good thing I didn't buy that cape yet.  :)

Now the big question is, do I make another effort tomorrow to return and try again?  I had left the next three days in my schedule for packing up, but I may not cross this way again.  What do you think?

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later,  Judy

Wonder Woman…Ha Ha

So, here was the problem.  The top hinge on one of my kitchen area cabinets had pulled out, and there was no way of tightening the screws into the wood any longer.  My neighbor, Jim, suggested breaking toothpicks and stuffing them into the too large screw holes.  I took his advice,…
and this was the result.  A nice tight fit, and an even hanging cabinet door.  Wahoo!  It didn’t take me too long to do this repair, but I did have to stand on a stool, and the screws were a full arm’s reach for me above my head.  I know you guys out there are thinking this is no big deal, but for me, it was an accomplishment!  Wonder Woman!!!  :)

Several days ago, while I was outside with Emma in the evening, a pretty strong storm came blowing through the valley.  I noticed my female neighbor across the way running around frantically, and trying to roll up her awning before the winds ripped it off.  She was also on her cell phone at the same time.  It turns out, she was trying to call her husband, who was fishing, for instructions on how to roll up the awning.  She had no idea.  Her teenage son was also nonplussed.  He went back inside the trailer.  :(   I went  over and asked if I could help.  In no time at all, we had the awning safely stowed.  I know there are “blue chores” and “pink chores”, but don’t you think both members of a couple should know how to do the other’s chores, just in case?  Her remark was “Wow, you must have done this before, thanks!”  My response was “No problem, just paying it forward.”

I’m really no Wonder Woman, but do you think it would be alright if I got a Lone Ranger type mask and a cape just in case?  :)  (Of course, you won’t find me walking around in brightly colored tights!…Ugh!)
I leave you tonight with the wonderful double rainbow from a few nights ago…thanks to the photographic talents of my friend, Jim Smith.

Thanks for stopping by….talk to you later,  Judy

Getting ready

Ok, so I made a list and worked on checking several things off as done today.  It’s not very exciting, I’m afraid.  So, this evening I decided to take a little drive to get some milk and check out the Island Park Dam to see what was around.  I’m still hoping to see a moose one of these days.
I drove through a pretty heavy rainstorm to get there.  I’m thinking that all these cormorants and pelicans were drying off their feathers after the downpour.  Some of these islands weren’t visible about a month ago when the water was higher.
 Along the shoreline was an osprey standing in the water.  I’m not sure what he was doing there.  When he flew off, he didn’t have a fish in his talons.
This poor great blue heron was really working away on feather maintenance.

As if getting everything done on my list for getting ready to leave wasn’t enough, another little issue cropped up last night.  As I was putting away the dishes, the top of one of my kitchen cabinets came undone.  The top hinge came loose, and the screws went flying.  I still have to track down one of the screws.  I thought I’d have to go to West Yellowstone to get some wood putty, but Jim, next door, suggested  this evening that I just plug the stripped holes with toothpicks and put the screws back in.  I’ll give that a whirl tomorrow.  :)

My friends, Gordon and Juanita Pierce, are staying at Red Rock all season, and Gordon reported in his blog that the biting insects have departed.  Ha!  He needs to come over to my side of the park and give a little blood!  They are still here!  :(

Well, that’s the Red Rock Review for today.

Thanks for stopping by….talk to you later,  Judy

One of those days

Have you ever gotten up in the morning and just not wanted to do anything?  Well, it was one of those kind of days for me.  So, I indulged myself and did next to nothing.  :)  I think part of the problem is thinking about everything I have to do to get ready to move on down the road.  I’ve been here almost two months, so it’s about time, but thinking about packing up always gives me mixed emotions…excitement mixed with dread.  There are those two chores that I have slated for Saturday that I hate; checking tires and batteries.  Ugh.  I’ve been making small progress the last few days like cleaning up and packing the bird feeders (since no birds have been visiting anyway), and a few other things.

Quick change of subjects here.  Have you ever had a dog with a flatulence problem?  Yeah, so have I, but Emma hasn’t been one of them until just now.  OMG!  Pardon me, while I stick my head out the window and breath deeply.  :)

The author of one of the blogs I follow says he thinks you should always include some photos in your post so here goes…
Guess where these were taken.  I’m sure this is an easy one for you well traveled readers.  :)

I’ve decided that I’d better make a list of things to do tomorrow, so I don’t leave everything for Sunday.  Lists generally get me back on track.  Top of the list is getting the printer set up, and sorting through everything that has accumulated on my dining table for the last two months.

(To answer a question of Rick’s, my exported photos go to My pictures/Picasa/Exports.)

Thanks for stopping by….talk to you later,  Judy

Every day is different…

at Yellowstone National Park.  It doesn’t seem to matter how many trips I make into Yellowstone, I see something new every time!   The skies were a blazing blue when I headed out this morning, but as I topped the pass on the way to West Yellowstone, everything became enshrouded in heavy fog.  I suppose it was from the good rain we had last night.  As I drove along the Madison River, you really couldn’t see much because of it.  So, that changed my plans.  It reversed the route I was going to take.  At the Madison Junction, I headed towards Norris, with the usual construction delay.
At least this time as I waited for 20 minutes to get through the construction, I was entertained by the antics of several chipmunks searching for delectable seeds amongst the rocks.  (remember these guys for the end of the post)

But instead of heading for Mammoth Springs, I turned right towards Canyon Junction.  At Canyon, I turned left to go over Dunraven Pass to get above the fog. 
The slopes at the top of the pass were just covered with blooms.  There was a yellow hue everywhere.
I decided to take a side trip up the Chittenden Road to the summit of Mount Washington (10,243’).
It was a very rustic gravel road with lots of holes and washboard surfaces, but well worth the drive for these views.
Below me was all the fog that I had encountered on my journey to the top.  Don’t the mountains just seem to go on and on?

As I headed back down the 6 mile, 6% grade, to the valley, there was a jam up of traffic at one of the switchbacks.  I pulled over to see what all the commotion was about.
Down below us, on the slope, was a Grizzly mom with her two cubs.  I was happy to see, because of the terrain, no one was scrambling after them to harass them to get a picture.  :)

As I neared Mammoth Hot Springs, it was swarming with visitors, and the temps had risen quite a bit, so I just pressed on south.  I couldn’t leave Emma in the car with the rising temperatures.  We stopped shortly afterward to have lunch at a picnic area that we had been to before.  There were no mosquitoes, and no other people.  Just about perfect to stretch our legs and get a little relief.  :)

Just as we reached the turn off for the petrified tree, I noticed a blur to my right and slammed on the brakes.  A black bear was hot footing it across the road with two rangers in close pursuit.  The rangers were clapping their hands and hollering at the bear to get out of the area.  The bear took their advice and headed into the brush across the road.  It all happened so fast that I couldn’t get a picture, but was an exciting moment none the less.

I hit the construction on the way back just right and only had to wait a couple of minutes before driving through the one lane passage with about 150 other vehicles.  :)  As I headed out to the west entrance, I took time to take the Madison river drive.  I have taken this drive many times on my way out of the park hoping to see something special.  Today was the day…
There was a beautiful Trumpeter Swam floating along.  This lone fellow, or gal, has been along the Madison since I arrived two months ago, but has never been close enough for a good picture.  These birds mate for life, and I can only guess that their mate died over the winter, and this bird did not find a new mate for this breeding season.  :(  Aren’t they elegant looking?

To answer a few reader’s inquiries, I now have a Canon Rebel XS, but had a Canon Rebel XT when I took the Missouri pics.  As for the Idaho mountain grass picture that I had for a header, I cropped the picture and used a slight tint.  The picture was taken shortly after dawn with a soft morning light, while I took Emma on her first outs.  I think I’ll tackle the comments from Rick and Al about uploading pictures tomorrow, as my mind right now is kind of worn out for the day.  :)
As the sunset progressed after the storm last night (from my new header picture), the colors did a dramatic change.  This was the most picturesque sunset so far at Red Rock.
                           THE END!  (hope you remember the chipmunk from earlier  :)) 

Thanks for stopping by….talk to you later,  Judy

Fiddling with Picasa3

Back about a year and a half ago, I decided to post a “Blast from the Past” every Sunday on the blog.  Each Sunday, I made a post of my travels and volunteering experiences from the time I hit the road fulltime until the time I started the blog.  I enjoyed revisiting those experiences, and including them in the blog.  I only had a couple of readers at that time.

As I was fiddling with learning about Picasa3 this afternoon, I decided to look at my photos from last summer.  I picked several of the photos out to see if I could upload them in a folder all concerning Swan Lake National Wildlife Refuge.  I wanted to be able to use Picasa to upload pics to the blog rather than “my pictures.”  I think I’ve figured it out, so I’ll do  a little blast from the past about Swan Lake NWR tonight.

Swan Lake National Wildlife Refuge is located just outside the small community of Sumner, MO.
Maxie, the World’s Largest Goose, is located in a park in the town of Sumner.  She also happens to be a weather vane that rotates around as the wind blows.  The funny thing about this being the goose capitol of the world, is that there are no longer any Canada geese here.  Some were imported from the golf courses of Kansas City last summer, to the refuge, to try to establish a resident population on the refuge.
I had plenty of interesting wildlife to view while I was there.  The raccoons really did a number on my bird feeders!
People also had an interesting way of displaying their catfish catches!  This guy was about four and a half feet long!  I don’t know why they nail them to the telephone post that way.  ?
Wildflowers bloomed, bugs bit, and the humidity was high!  I’m not sure I’d ever do another volunteer assignment in Missouri again for the summer.  :)
One of the local residents that came to give a talk on being a mountain man.  Not too many mountains in Missouri.  :)
Interesting billboard outside of Hannibal.  Missouri is an interesting place.  :)

I accidentally hit the publish button before I finished this post.  :(  I wanted to say that I think I've figured out  how to use Picasa3 to upload the photos I want to post for a blog post. 

Also, I was just thrilled today, when I took Emma on her first outs this morning, to hear an elk bugling in the woods across from the campground.  Both she and I stopped dead in our tracks in the early morning light!  How cool is that?

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later,  Judy

Mini rant about Lowe’s

So, yesterday while I was in Bozeman, I went to the Lowe’s store to purchase a 150 PSI air compressor.  The air compressor that I had for my old rig wasn’t strong enough to inflate these bigger tires.
I found what I was looking for.  Before I bought it, I wanted to make sure I could pick it up, so I tried lifting the display model (which was at shoulder height) up.  I couldn’t budge it.  Then a salesman came along and asked if I needed any help.  I told him I wanted to be sure I could lift the compressor.  That’s when he told me it was bolted down!  :(  That was a little embarrassing.  He picked one of the boxed ones up off of the floor and handed it to me.  I could lift it.

Okay, then I told him I wanted one of those gun like things that attach to the hose for putting air into the rig’s tires.  He got one for me.  I asked him if I needed anything else to use it, and he said no, I was all set to go.  Ha!
In the evening, I got everything out of the packaging and tried to put it together for a test run.  As usual, I read the entire owner’s manual first.  When you’re not especially mechanically inclined, this is a must.  Do you see the end of the blue gun thing?  It is supposed to pop right in to the easy connect end of the air hose.  It does not!  It has threads on it instead of the nipple type thing it should have had.  I was ticked, to say the least.  He should have known that it wouldn’t work, in my estimation.  Ugh!

Luckily, my neighbor, Jim, came wandering over and took a look at it.  Since he and his crew were going to Rexburg today, he said he’d get me the needed piece so it will work.  He knew right away what was needed!  The salesman should have also.

While I’m at it, I might as well put in a gripe about the accessories kit that came with the compressor.  Remember, this is a 150 PSI rated compressor.  Guess how high the included tire gage goes to….only 50 PSI.  And there is a little gun like thing included, but it’s labeled to be only good to 90 PSI.  All made in China, of course.  :(

Well, I hope it doesn’t all blow up on me when I use it!  The owner’s manual is so full of worst case scenarios, that I’m almost afraid to turn it on.  Doing the tires and checking the batteries are the two most dreaded things that I have to do in this full time lifestyle.  I wish I had one of those blow up male dolls that could be inflated for these chores!  Of course, then I’d have to get the air compressor out to blow him up!  :(  I can’t win…  :)

Thanks for stopping by….talk to you tomorrow,  Judy