Sunrise on Flathead Lake in Western Montana

This beautiful photo of a Flathead Lake Sunrise is from The Nature Conservancy. This organization works to preserve our beautiful planet. As their mission statement says:

The mission of The Nature Conservancy is to preserve the plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive.

The Nature Conservancy's website is the 2009 Webby Award Winner and People's Voice winner for "Charitable Organizations Nonprofit" and it is well-deserved recognition. Like the Nature Conservancy itself, the website is well-organized and dynamic, and contains an incredible amount of substantive information.

Here is a link to their Montana page, and to their general website homepage. They also have a Dude Ranch, dudes! It is the Pine Butte Guest Ranch, here in Montana, and I have provided a link to that page as well.

The Nature Conservancy is an organization that is well worth our time to investigate, investigate their programs and successes, even contribute to the cause or volunteer to help.

Time to Remember Summer Fishing Days

There is no better time to recall the wonderful fishing days of summer than when we have snow falling outside. These photos were taken in the Sun River Valley on the east slope of the Rockies, northwest of Augusta, Montana, on a beautiful fishing day. (Sun River just below Gibson Dam.)All alone. In a great mood. Didn't catch any fish. Didn't care.

(Click on photos to open large size views.)

Kid Prints Remembered

I think most every Mom has received a special gift from the child that depicts a hand print, in one form or another. Here we have preserved a plaster print by digital photography; it is likely to last longer, don't you think?Finger painting was big in school back when I was a child, and I have sought to preserve this memory by framing under glass. It may deteriorate over time, I suspect, but perhaps some good digital photos would also be a good idea. I will have to take it out of the frame in order to avoid the glare, however.

(Click on photos to open large size views.)

Two Perspectives

Flossing

Compensating

Autumn Day along the Blackfoot River

This fella appears to be a fisherman, but mostly he sits and reworks his flies and line. Whether or not he had any luck that day, it was a beautiful afternoon on the Blackfoot River upstream from Johnsrud Park (Twenty or so miles northeast of Missoula, Montana, off State Highway 200.

Click on photo to open large size view.)

Metal Sculpture of Dog and Cat

These cute little creations "stand guard" by the door to my veterinarian's hospital.

(Click on photo to open large size view.)

Hard Freeze Ends Flower Season Too

(Click on photo to open large size view.)
This photo is called "Hard Freeze Has Its Way"

I guess the next step is to pull everything out of the pots and put the pots away in the shed until spring.

Probably, the sooner I can get this stuff out of my sight, the better my mood will become.

This is a sad time of the year for me. I feel no sense of "renewal" right now. That will come later, after I've adjusted to the loss of all our colorful flowers for another year.
I will soon have holiday events to plan for...and buying stuff again. Football and cross-country skiing, turkey dinners to share and a Christmas party to plan.

I have a birthday after the holiday season, in February, but I usually feel a year older by New Year's Eve.

Russell Gates Fishing Access Montana

The Russell Gates Fishing Access is approximately four miles east of Clearwater Junction along Montana State Highway 200. That is, about 45 miles northeast of Missoula, Montana.

There are twelve campsites, two primitive toilets, and an on-site water well. It is open year-around and also used as a hunter's camp. The total area of the access and campground is 41 acres. There is a fee for camping. Check out the link to Fish Wildlife and Parks webpage.

(Click on photos to open larger size views.)This is a link to the Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks page on Russell Gates Fishing Access.There aren't many photos of the Russell Gates Fishing Access on the internet. We stayed here the first weekend in October and it was pretty cold at night. Nobody else camped here on Saturday night, and the other two Friday campers left early Saturday morning. A few fishing rafts put in here during the weekend, and a couple took out here. There is pretty good fishing on the Blackfoot River, although I don't think this site is very productive. It is more for accessing the area downstream.

First Snowfall October 9th

(Click on photo to open large size view.)

Rain turned to snow during the night and left this light dusting of snow on the lawn this morning.

This is just our REMINDER that winter is coming and very soon. A light snowfall is all that we need to send hundreds of people to the tire shops to switch over to winter snow treads and studded tires.

With this little snow we also will be expecting overnight lows of about 8 or 9 degrees, or as the weather forecasters say, "single digit lows."

Blackfoot River at Russell Gates Fishing Access

(Click on photo to open large size view.)

This photo, fairly dramatic I think, was taken at the Russell Gates Fishing Access, about 45 miles northeast of Missoula, Montana.

Wild Turkey or Not!

(Click on photos to open large size views.)

See that "black" thing in the center of the photo above? After several turkey sightings this summer, we've come to expect campsite visitors. We saw this from our campsite and watched for a while....but it never moved. Ummmm.....
I approached with the camera, expecting it to take flight or at least to run off....you know how silly we now feel. The final shot below reveals the "wildness" of my quarry....
That's the campground water pump, secured for the winter. We were camping at the Russell Gates Fishing Access site about 45 miles northeast of Missoula, Montana, along the Blackfoot River. It's a great site at this time of year because about the only visitors are fisherman with rafts being dropped off for the float downstream. We camped in the motor home, but it is getting too cold for camping now.

There was a hunter's tent set up on Friday night, but they took it down on Saturday so we were the only occupants of the campground Saturday and Sunday.

This is a very pretty area, with some wildlife...we saw bear tracks in camp Saturday which spooked us somewhat. After that, every time one of the dogs would start to sniff the wind, we would be looking all around for black bear visitors. We did have a bald eagle perched across the river from us too. I think this was his section of the river.

Ponderosa Pine Firewood Stacked

If you click on these photos, very large files will open. You can really see into the grain of the end cuts on a couple of these photos, particularly the last photo.
Some may think these types of photos are just a waste of time, but if you opened any of them to view the large size, then it wasn't such a waste of time after all. Moreover, it is NOT a "waste of good film," which is what we used to say.
(Click on photos to open large size views.)

Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Headquarters

The national headquarters of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is in Missoula, Montana. A new building complex was recently built and features a big visitor center.This is a public sitting room in the visitor center. Very homespun, if you live in a million dollar cabin. The mounted animal heads provide a certain amount of "atmosphere."

This is the main entrance to the RMEF visitor center.
(Click on photos to open large size views.)

There are several dioramas that depict animals in their habitat. All of the animals are taxidermy products. There are several samples of fur and hide that one can touch.

More mounted heads. Several of these are Boone and Crockett Club world records.

Incidentally, the national headquarters of the Boone and Crockett Club is also in Missoula, having moved from Virginia in 1993.