Robins & such

I know, I know – it’s been a while!  And I have absolutely nothing to show for it!  Doing my bathroom cleaning – just hanging out in the Tetons!  Yup – it’s gorgeous!  People come and go through the park – the family groups are fun.  They are usually very tidy and respectful.  They play family games like the one involving an Oreo.  You put it on your forehead and try to get it into your mouth by moving your face and eyes.  Umm – Emma and I tried it – NOT so easy, although I’ve seen people do it – one gal even did it twice!  Talented facial muscles. 

Right now I have a family group from Utah, a guy from Pocatello who is here because his son is at the Boy Scout camp next door, and has a broken arm….. My other campers have 5 little MSR backpacking tents.  Although they arrived in a car with Montana plates – it’s a rental – they are from New York and South Carolina.  Intrigues me that out of a group of 4 men and 1 woman – Nan is doing the driving!  Gotta love it! 

I’m attaching a series of pix of my robins – this morning I woke up to an empty nest.  It feels kind of odd!  A week ago I woke up to find that one of the babies had disappeared.  I guess this is Mom’s doing – she winnowed out the one she considered the weak link – kind of creepy. 

Mark had planned to be here next week, but Richey’s, in Corvallis, called him on Monday and asked if he could work.  At this point he can’t turn down two months of $10 an hour.  So – he’s staying put.  My back has been getting steadily worse since the mowing – which was some six weeks ago.  I’m going back to Bend mid September, with my rig in tow, to spend a couple of weeks before my hearing.  I think it would be judicious of me to go see my Rheumatologist and my Orthopedist.  Ugh.  I’d like to forget all of this stuff, but it won’t let me.  Sleeping has been a problem but last night I used one of the features on my cell phone which is basically a white noise creator.  I actually chose the sound of a train running along a track and you know – it actually helped!  Fewer drugs, and more sleep!  Would have been even better if Katy hadn’t decided to get up at 1AM and Spencer at 4!  Like having babies again………

So, that’s it!  I’m enjoying the simple life, and poor Jim and Charlene are going to have to mow, and if any tables get painted this year, it won’t be by me!  Oh – Jim built benches up at their campground, and a lovely display table, and last Saturday night, for the first time in some 30 years, we had an official ‘campfire’ up there.  Well, no fire actually, but a bear presentation by two specialists.  Pretty cool!  My contribution was a Tupperware pitcher for fruit punch.  :)  Charlene even made homemade oatmeal cookies – yum! 

Haven’t seen any moose in a while, saw a very small doe in the meadow the other day – and no, I didn’t get a picture of her – the dogs started barking at her and she departed.  I have been big on mouse eradication lately – oh boy, is that fun!  NOT!  OK – so someone who reads this blog suggested I use mouse poison – something about how the always take it back to their nest and said person has NEVER seen a dead mouse.  Yes, well, I humbly disagree.  I’ve been using poison in the basement of the rig, and have now had to ferret out a total of 9 dead bodies.  I’ll be really graphic and tell you that one had been visited by flies, who had laid eggs, and yes, I had maggots crawling all over.  SOOOOOOOOOO!  No more mouse bait!  I took everything out yesterday – I would bet there are more little bodies behind the paneling that creates the basement, but I am NOT going to tear the trailer apart – they can sort of mummify on their own.  I did get the rest out – God I hate that job!  Everything is cleaned up – and I’m intermittently going to put the kind of trap in there that lures them in and incarcerates them and then you throw the whole trap away.  Unfortunately the traps are 3.50 each and not in my budget right now.  Mark loaned me money to buy this ultra-sonic thing for the trailer – you plug it in and it makes an inhospitable environment.  I know I’ve had brief little visits during the night – but instead of having mouse poop all over the living room, and such, I only have a teensy amount by where they come in.  So – it seems to be doing it’s job.  One night last week (before the device) I was watching a movie mostly in the dark – with a dog on each side when they just stood up barking like mad.  This poor little mouse had ventured in – and as I know they do – ran along the kitchen wall, across the back wall and then, in desperation, diagonally back to whence it came.  The dogs were on that spot and just going crazy.  I put some poison on and found the poor baby outside the next morning.  I will say – I am totally over dead mice.  I actually don’t mind them in their own place – they are really cute and pretty much harmless, although they like to try to make nests out of TP I’ve discovered.

OK – now to the pictures!  Sorry I digressed so much, but you might as well get the whole scene up here!  And I repeat – poisoning mice in a somewhat enclosed environment is a TERRIBLE idea!  LOL

The babies at about 4 days

About a week

About two weeks

Suddenly there are two

Getting bigger

Standing on the nest, flapping their wings and snatching bugs out of the air - yesterday

And now, today,  they’ve flown the nest!

Jim, Allison and Dave at our bear talk

And last but not least – this picture of Katy, taken about 1AM, explains graphically why I sleep alone……….and why Emma complains there is dog hair in my bed – ya think!?

I’m back! LOL

Well – this was supposed to be daily, or maybe weekly – but certainly not monthly!  Things just got busy! 

Emma has come and gone – we saw the fireworks in Driggs on the third (the Fourth was a Sunday) and I saw the parade in Victor.  No pictures from the parade as I left my camera in the trailer!  A big oops.

I was surprised that all of the entries were from businesses – it was lots of fun, but I’m not used to that at all!  The parade I did for 7 years in Piedmont was all neighborhood associations and such – nothing commercial at all.  This was just the opposite – I especially liked the business that was throwing Otter Pops to the kids – I actually got one………:)

Emma was catering in Driggs so I got her after her job was over and we watched the fireworks from the truck.  Our politics will be ‘outed’ here – but we sat in the truck with the windows rolled up while Glenn Beck was speaking. I think I would have at least listened, but Emma refused and there are, as a parent, bigger battles! 

Emma’s visit was wonderful – I was truckless a lot as she was off and running!  When we were together we pretty much had fun!  She’s learned from dorm life that messy small spaces are disastrous to live in and has become quite tidy! 

We headed off to Bend on the 7th – going up the canyon to Stanley ID, through the Sawtooth Mountains.  It was lovely – Emma had wanted to see them.  Of COURSE – that was the day we never got lunch and it showed in Emma’s, um, shall we say attitude. We did find a place in Stanley to eat dinner, and ended driving down the canyon to Boise for the night.  Dinner was quite the experience and Emma sorted her mood out by buying herself a beer at the bar.  I have a couple of pictures. 

The memorial service in Bend was touching – I think my sense is that as I no longer own a house in Bend, and the generation of the family that is left lives in Ecuador and Belgium, that without their parents as the touch point, I am ending the second generation relationship as well.  I certainly hope not – and that sentence probably left a lot to be desired! 

My mover helper guy was appalled that I was just leaving all the furniture in Christian’s house – which now has a lock box on it.  He arranged for it to all be moved out – he’s going to sell it and we’ll split the money.  Bless Kevin’s heart!

The Teton Canyon news is that I am pretty much relinquishing my job as campground host here at Reunion Flat.  Mark is going to come and take over all of the maintenance, and I’m hoping to go back to being the trail head host.  I can do the bathrooms here, and certainly deal with the people, and the paperwork, but the mowing, and prospective table sanding and painting, my back just won't tolerate.

I mowed a month ago and still haven’t recovered.  This go round poor Jim and Charlene, my bosses, and the hosts up at Teton Canyon, are having to do it.  Jim kept wanting me to weed eat, and yes, it needed it, but I can only sweep for about 1 minute before I get wonderful back spasms, and I know I’d be useless with a weed eater.  I think this is the first time in my life I’ve needed help with a job, or had to give one up for any reason, much less a physical one. This was kind of a test to see what I could do, and unfortunately I’ve learned that answer is not much. 

I am going to keep my trailer where it is though – I’ll commute up the hill if they want me to go back to trail head host and if they don’t, I’ll help Mark with this.  He’ll just get to do all the back intensive stuff – and may I say, I am incredibly grateful to him!

I can’t possibly move my trailer!  As you’ll see from the last picture, my three little eggs aren’t little eggs anymore – the are three little translucent bodies!  I think they probably hatched on Tuesday – they were out Thursday morning.  When I first saw them I thought they were not alive as they weren’t moving at all – however, today, I could see them all breathing – it’ll be fun watchingthem grow!  My own little window into nature. 

Grand Teton before a storm – from my campsite

Waterfall you can see from Reunion Flat – in May there was a LOT more water!

The nest – guess I won’t be riding for a while!

Emma taking a picture from the outside – as I (obviously) took one from inside – poor Mama Robin!

Sunset on July third looking out across Teton Valley from Driggs

My only half way decent fireworks picture – Emma’s, however, were wonderful!

Emma making a chocolate cake – no recipe – no nada – baked it in a loaf pan – and it was WONDERFUL!  The ‘base’ was Bisquick – who knew?

The flowers in bloom on the hill below our first campsite at Teton Canyon!  Boy – have they grown – and, obviously, bloomed!

Stanley Idaho

Grumpy Emma before dinner – although the drink helped! 

The Kasino – the restaurant – opened for dinner at 6 – by 6:02 there was only one 2 top left open!  It was as if they only had one seating – I was fascinated!  Glad we had our dibs in early – we got a nice window seat

Emma after dinner!  That fresh Alaskan halibut did it I guess – I had blackened prime rib with blue cheese on top – how decadent is that?!

And last but not least – our three little babies!  Amazing how this works!  I would have loved to have seen them coming out of their shells….