Although we are behind the average for snow this season,
Bridger Bowl has a better base built up than the previous
several years.
We have already had several days of "cold smoke" skiing.
One day we had 10" of powder and the slopes all to ourselves
–
apparently,
the
blue light
failed to alert skiers in town that conditions were good.
Sunrise on Bridger Canyon Lodge
Our home is in the lower right quadrant;
click on the picture for a close-up
In this report:
•
The Fire Department visits
•
Bugling elk
•
Open House
•
Moose are loose!
•
Burning slash
•
Elk hunt
•
Christmas is coming
The Bridger Canyon Women's Club provides dinner for the
Volunteer Fire Department on the evening of their monthly
fire fighter training.
They usually have the dinner at the fire station,
but for October we invited them to meet at our house before
training.
Many of them helped fight the fire that destroyed the
original house.
Appropriate to the occasion,
one of the smoke detectors sounded an alarm several times at
random intervals during dinner.
We think there are insects crawling in and out of that
detector.
In fact,
smoke detectors at the Carriage House had exhibited this behavior in
years before and were doing it again,
suggesting a relationship to the life cycle of an insect.
Blowing out the offending devices with compressed air
appears to have solved the problem
(for now).
One of our visitors this quarter was Claudia,
who posed with Pauline for the obligatory picture at Canary Hot Spring
in Yellowstone Park.
The spring has continued to take its toll on the walkway;
for a pictorial record,
see here.
We were treated to the sight and sound of a
bull elk bugling [370KB movie]
to chase off a smaller bull coveting his harem.
We were positioned behind the car door in case he saw us as a threat!
Claudia stayed long enough to help us host an open house for
people who had worked on our home.
About 50 people showed up over the course of the day.
The workmen don't often get to see the results of their
labors once a home is occupied,
so they appreciated the chance to see how things turned out
and to have spouses and children see what they have been
working on.
A moose cow and calf have been hanging around;
they bedded down just below the Carriage House one
mid-November night.
Caretaker Jennie spotted them when she started to walk down
the drive for the morning paper.
Dan called to let us know,
so we crept down from the Main House.
The snow was very crunchy and alerted the mom,
who stood up to look for a
threat.
We took a quick picture and retreated to view them from the
Carriage House.
Fall is a good time to
burn slash.
This Fall,
we managed to burn two of the smaller piles.
Snow made the burns safer,
but more difficult to get started.
Piling cardboard boxes on helped melt the snow.
Burns are easier now with caretakers Dan and Jennie to
alternate shifts with us watching for problems.
One of these small piles smoldered for over 5 weeks,
so we are not looking forward to burning the three
remaining large piles.
The
Bridger Canyon elk herdneeds thinning,
so when we saw a portion of the herd hanging out on our
property,
we called one of the carpenters who was interested in
getting some meat.
After stalking them around the property for several hours,
he managed to get a safe shot
not far
from the Main House.
Of course,
we get some of the cuts and Pauline is looking forward to
trying out
elk recipes.
Now that snow is flying,
Gary can realize a major benefit of the Main House:
a heated garage with a 10' wide door and deep enough for the
truck to park inside with the plow.
This means he does not have to spend 20 minutes out in the
cold cleaning snow off the truck and dealing with doors that
have frozen shut,
followed by working with hands on cold controls until the
truck warms up.
Getting the truck into the garage takes careful navigation;
with the rear bumper firmly against the back wall,
there is less than 2" clearance for the door to close.
Getting a large Christmas tree is not a problem.
When you have 100 acres of Christmas trees out your front
door,
it's easy to find one,
cut it,
carry it home,
set it up and decorate it.
Unless
you get overly ambitious and cut too large a tree.
This tree started at about 16' before we cut it down to 11'
so the two of us could manage to get it through the front
door and stand it up.
It was still too big for our little stand so we had to
run to town for a larger one.
Fortunately we have a 10' ladder to help with decorating.
It always seems that the elk hide whenever we have guests.
This time,
the morning after Marcus and Samantha arrived we woke up to
find a large portion of the herd bedded down just south of
the house.
Apparently they have forgotten the
unfortunate incident
at the end of November.
Four young bulls got together just outside the Master
Bedroom window to practice for the next mating season.
Coyotes have been spending a lot of time around lately,
and we were recently told a wolf pack is wandering nearby.
At an end of year party,
a neighbor to the north of us said that three mountain lions
had been hanging around the night before.
When
FWP
agents showed up,
the lions escaped to the south down Place Creek –
so they probably came right through our property and by the
Carriage House.
All these are good reasons why we keep the dogs inside from
sunset to sunrise.
