Colors and Critters

 Sunlight through plum leaves yet to feel frost

 Chokecherry leaves against Montana blue

 He thought he was invisible!

 Young rattler hiding his wounds

Box Elder bug

 Centipede

daily haiku

trees in their glory
against the rain-sodden sky
a golden pathway

More than halfway through October and fall colors are beginning to fade. The river that wove a golden path towards the Big Horn Mountains has now turned more bronze but is still beautiful even as it fades.  Plums and Chokecherries are shedding leaves and the Ash tree at my office in town, flamed gold, then in one night dropped all it's foliage.

Along with the colors come the critters. In the house, flies, wasps, box-elder bugs, spiders and centipedes roam freely.  There is a large spider that keeps me company in the bathroom. He loves the new vinyl floor and runs full pelt across it while I sit on the toilet in the morning. He's a real show-off! I am not quite as tolerant with the centipedes. They appeared about five years ago, everyone complained about them; that year we had dozens of them. Now, they just seem to appear one by one. Not sure if they are a different species to the large scuttling ones or whether they are babies that will grow larger later; they get picked up in a Kleenex and flushed. 

Outdoors the rabbits run freely again and I have seen a couple of snakes. A pretty young Bull-Snake 

disappeared into the rock wall two weeks ago and yesterday I encountered a young rattlesnake. I tried to chase it back into the long grass, but it was stubborn, and I injured it, so it may still be out there - I surely hope not - that is one breed I don't like to have around the house. As long as they keep out in the rest of the acreage they are fine. 

Tomorrow the furnace technician will visit. In October 2006 he disturbed a rattler lying on top of the door frame to the basement utility room.  He came running up the stairs yelling, left, and said he'd come back when we got rid of it. Our neighbor came up and obliged, and an hour later the furnace at last got serviced for the winter. We gave him the rattles to impress his friends at work!  Two years later we had another in exactly the same place, called our neighbor who dispatched it once more, and we all hunted, found where they were getting in, and plugged the hole. As always, tomorrow the furnace tech will delicately ask "Any rattlesnakes down there?" before he'll go to the basement and do his work!

Early Snowstorm

daily tanka

rain in the night

blanket of snow this morning

heavy and wet

possible power cuts now

thaw out soup get some dry logs

daily senryu

crashes and bangs

raccoon at the bird feeder

wish they'd grow wings

When I got up this morning I felt like writing on my blog - so I went with the feeling and am typing away in my bathrobe! The sun is shining, although the morning temperature was a chilly 25'. 

Yesterday was a stormy day. The past two days dropped about 1 3/4 inches of rain/snow on us. The snow in Birney mostly melted as it came down, but Sheridan to the south being higher, got over a foot of it along with power cuts.  

Power cuts were on my mind too, as wet snow often precipitates them in our rural area, so I decided to stack some dry wood in case I needed to heat the house in an emergency. I went to the wood pile and gathered an armful of dry wood from a lower level, went to put it in the house and the door was locked! Oh my. It is a combo screen door and storm door and has a little catch on it. I had a problem once before with the lock slipping and now here I was in the cold with snow coming down. I used my October allocation of swear words in one minute!

After determining that all the windows were locked and swearing some more, I remembered what my neighbor down the hill told me the time before when I banged myself up forcing a window open with a crowbar...... "Take the door off the hinges".  I looked at the door and indeed the hinges were on the outside, thank God.  So I hunted around and got a hammer and screw driver, got the door off it's hinges and unlocked it. But the worse part was getting the door back on again. It is quite heavy.

Once indoors I decided not to chance driving down the hill to get the mail, it was thick mud and while re-hanging the door I could hear drivers spinning their wheels. One adventure was enough for the day!

In the afternoon I ventured out and put the last of my birdseed in the feeder, thinking the birds would eat it before the raccoons found it. Not so! As I was checking my e-mail before going to bed I heard an almighty crash, knew what it was, and sure enough there was a big fat black body underneath eating birdseed! I swear they can smell birdseed a mile away.

There has not been much activity on selling my house recently.  So I face the fact I may need to winter here again.  At the beginning of this week I had a visit from my bluebird family; three males and a female. I think they were making plans for next spring and checking out the nest under the eaves. They sat on the fence and preened, it was a nice surprise. I had not seen any bluebirds for over a month and thought they'd gone south already. The bats are gone and one afternoon I did the odious chore of cleaning the shed of their guano for another winter.

The trees along Hanging Woman Creek are now bright gold and the cottonwoods along the river beginning to turn as well. Last night I dreamed I was talking to my cousin's wife.  It was only when I woke up that I remembered that she died this summer. Again I was reminded of all the friends and family I have lost over the last three years. So many riches gone. Like the trees they are dormant. I hope I see them again in the next life, when I leaf out in a new place. Meanwhile I'll enjoy winter in this beautiful and very rural area.