CHANGE OF PLANS - PARKED THE MOTORHOME BACK IN STORAGE

We have decided to postpone our planned trip to Vancouver Island for a bit.  We did think about going a bit east for a few days but the weather forecast isn't great for the next week so we decided to move the motorhome back to storage.

We had a fairly nice rain yesterday and were greeted with a very foggy morning.  Once the fog burned off, we had a gorgeous morning.

An Osprey across the river

The fog dressed up the spider webs

This is water drops on the end of Ponderosa Pine needles with the sun shining through from behind.  Can you see the miniature sunbursts?

Arrow-leafed Balsamroot

This mule deer buck somehow ended up in the irrigation canal.  Pretty hard to scale the cement walls but just downstream a little way there are some horizontal 2x4s which will enable him to climb out. 

Looking disgusted!

As the fog was dissipating 

Fortunate that we can park the motorhome off the road while we work on it

 

 

A COUPLE OF ATV RIDES

We took the RZR out twice recently.  The first trip we went somewhere quiet since it was a long weekend but we didn't get far.  The first sideroad we tried ended less than two kms in with a massive windfall that stretched 300 feet or more.  The second sideroad had too much snow.  We had chewed our way up but when we topped the hill and were looking at a downgrade, I quickly turned around.  Didn't want to get down there and not get back up.  The main road had some really icy areas covered with a dusting of snow so I had to be very careful coming back down the steep sections.  So, we managed just 11.2 kms that ride.

Today we went to a lower area and we had a great ride.  We still only put on 18.7 kms though.  We found a new trail, had lunch by a nice lake and did a bit of hiking around so a good time.  We were only away from the car about three hours.

When we got home, we parked the RZR and brought the motorhome up to the house.  Later this afternoon we started packing stuff out to the motorhome getting it prepared for travel.  We plan to leave Friday to go over to Vancouver Island for a few weeks.

The windfall on our first side road

Heading back after clawing our way up this hill on the second side road

Today's glorious morning

Looking up to a steep hill

At the top looking down it doesn't appear nearly as steep

Ruffed Grouse that didn't want to let us past

Ruffed Grouse

Today's lunch spot at Madden Lake

Trumpet Lungwort and Buttercup

Trumpet Lungwort

Ballhead Waterleaf

Ballhead Waterleaf

WE TURN ANOTHER CORNER

 

We have sold our property in Arizona. The sale closed yesterday.  What will this mean for us in the future?  We don’t know.  It was so nice to have the continuity of having a place to park for months at a time and enjoy all that we did there.  However, with all the uncertainty that Covid has caused, we made the decision to sell both the Polaris General ATV and the property since we hadn’t been able to use them for two years in a row.  I found it very frustrating dealing with things from a distance so this will remove a major headache for me.

We will certainly miss all the good friends we made over the years and the fun times we enjoyed.  Going forward, if we are able to resume travelling south, we hope to be able to visit the area and reconnect with friends.  We will probably do more exploring throughout the whole southwest.  Owning the property and spending so much time there reduced our ability to go further afield because it was just too comfortable to remain parked.

Another view up the creek from our deck

An Osprey with nesting material

A distant shot of the nest.  Not only is it across the river and up top of the high bank, it is at the top of a tall fir tree.

A tiny bird, the Red-breasted Nuthatch.

We watched this beaver at the dam this morning.

I was watching birds across the river when Aileen pointed this beaver out right in front of us.

I think this is a Tree Swallow.  There are lots of them right now but they are so fast moving that I had difficulty capturing one.

These Goldeneye ducks enjoy riding down the dam spillway.

A Mallard pair

The rest of the images are Goldeneyes in flight.  Very pretty birds.

Synchronized flight.

BALD EAGLE SEQUENCE PLUS MORE

 These images were taken on my walk up the river from home yesterday.

Canada Goose overhead

In my neighbour's yard

Male Merganser

Male Mallard

Female Goldeneye