Stuff

Nice beach across the river, snow melted in the Rockies came down the river and the next day the beach was gone. River is already headed down and the beach is coming back. I don't think there are any beaches up river yet but I have guests in the river right now and will ask them when they get back.

When the storm took out the tree last year and it fell on both grills Craig built us a new one and it's become the song birds favorite place.

Kobae hangs out in his yard by the entrance to his house most of the time. I open the gate around three or four pm so he can come to the porch to eat.

The heat breaks around 4pm. The evenings are so beautiful.

Jax

As a puppy, when he got here, and two weeks later.

Courtesy Justin and Davina

Kaden, Courtesy Michael

Nightly Feeding

Each night on the lodge front porch is the little people feeding. Whoever shows up gets fed. Normally the east side of the porch is owned by the raccoons. The west side by the skunks, ringtails in the rafter, and the foxes, mostly grey, a red occasionally own the parking lot. Jax is the enforcer keeping each other from stealing the other's hot dogs. However there is a small rebellion at the moment. There are three baby spotten skunks that are unaware apparently of the 17 year nightly critter rules. They've been jumping up on the raccoon side of the porch and taking the raccoon hot dogs. Spotted skunks stand on their head when they spray so they jump up on the porch, stand on their head and when all the raccoons take off they take their hot dogs. The raccoon you see in these pictures is a professional mother. She's been coming to eat each night for as long as I can remember so when the baby spotted jumped on the porch and sprayed mother raccoon took her hot dog, washed it in the water bowl and ate it. She's seen it all.

The Flowers

When I moved here, currently in the 19th year, I didn't know much about nature. I bought Edward Abbey's book Desert Solitaire. Read it and then went out to see if specific things were true. Was easy, all I had to do was walk out the door and I could compare. Edward said, as I recall the first flower to bloom each year from him vantage point where he lived in Arches, maybe before it was Arches. He said was Indian Paint Brush. I went out and looked and here, it was the second. I no longer remember who was first. I realized at different elevations the results were probably different. Later learned our elevations weren't that different from each other. Paintbrush.

Sunflowers are early in the season. The cowboys tell me there are more and more sunflowers within a mile or so of Base Camp. They wanted to know if I was planting them? No, but I do feed the birds, chipmunks, and squirrels every morning and I don't doubt the birds have carried them to lots of places.

The Desert Willow that blooms on May 10th each year bloomed on May 10th.

The cactus only bloom for a week or two each year and it has happened.

The River is Rising Slowly

Hope is it will take the log jam with it.