Playing in the Woods

I'm still getting ready for winter. Margarita and Don came up from the Paradise Valley (they live in the town of Pray) to help me cut firewood and brought a lovely curry dinner and peach pie. They know how to make themselves welcome! We worked in the woods for a couple of hours then ate dinner on the front porch watching the (almost) full moon rise over the Absarokas. It was a lovely fall day.

The evening before, the yard was a smorgasbord for a doe and her almost-grown fawn. These two have been hanging out around my place all summer. Early in the summer, this Bambi was a wobbly spotted little thing about 12 inches high. Nowadays he is about 3/4 the size of his mom and he's lost his spots.

Last week there was a weasel in the wood pile. I hope he is chowing down on the pack rats.

A chipmunk couple has been courting on the front deck. Courting seems to consist of his chasing her around trying to mate while she runs around trying to eat. It is pretty comical. But they are always together nowadays, so there must be something romantic in the whole thing. I imagine I'll be overrun by little chipmunks soon.

A Downy Woodpecker has been advertising for a mate every morning around sunrise by banging away on the TV antenna that is at the peak of the roof right above my bedroom. I don't even have a TV, so one of these days I'm going to go up there and take that thing down in the interest of peace and quiet. He also bangs on the house occasionally and it sounds like someone is knocking at the door. I guess he's run out of budworms to eat and he's looking around for something else to do.

A few weeks ago there were tracks and scat from a lone elk in the driveway. It is getting toward the season when they travel through here bugling up a harem. That is always magical.

Other than firewood, I'm mostly working on insulating pipes in the crawl space and getting the water heater installed. The propane guys came up and filled the tank today. That and the growing wealth of firewood make me feel nice and secure about the winter to come. But with temperatures in the high 80s and sunny blue skies all day long, it is hard to believe that winter could arrive any day now.