Big Horn

Jax and I hike the course and then Linny calls on the walkie to say she's going over and clean the hogans so Jax and I catch a ride to the valley where we're going to hike in and do the boulder canyon uphill. But just a quarter mile or so into the valley we see four big horn sheep so switch directions so as not to spook them.

We head up the fire road above Last Hurrah to avoid the big horn but maybe be high enough up we might still be able to watch them in the distance somewhere.

I look over and Jax's nose is in the air and there's a little more giddy up in his step. He smells them and they are close by.

We walk over a ridge and there all four of them. The lead one appears to be male and has a tracker collar on it. The other three young females. I think this might be last year's nursery. They take off running straight down a cliff, land on a ridge, run across the valley floor and are headed up the rocks on the other side.

Jax was right behind them until they went straight down the cliff and I saw him packing brake and staring in amazement. Maybe some day they'll play with him.

Hiking Hurrah Pass

 Another warm day so we took off for Hurrah Pass.

The River

Another nice day so Linny, Jax, and I head out into the river and visited the big sand bar on the other side. 

Not hard to tell where the beaver have been coming ashore. The tail track is pretty unmistakable.

Pretty good day on the river. Going to have to find some more kayaks. You couldn't buy one last year to save your life. Hopefully the assembly lines are up again.

Fifties and Sixties

 We're getting some good hikes in and the weather is fantastic. It's hard to believe.

The disc golf tournament is just over a month away. Last year we had the tourney and the pandemic hit two days later when everything started closing down. This year we limited it to 75 players with 40 on the waiting list in three minutes. We'll see if we can sort that out somehow.

The two sharp shinned hawks were hanging at the lodge off and on for a couple days until I'd chase them off. Then a few days ago a raven showed up and went after the largest shapr shinned. There was quite a battle raging in the air that Linny and I watched through binoculars and then it moved to right above us. The small sharp shinned was nearby but stayed out of the confrontation until another raven showed up and drove that hawk off. Both hawks drove to the ground and once grounded the ravens left them and congratulated each other diving and swooping by the cliffs next to Hurrah Pass.

Finally got all the USDA paperwork done and now while there's a lot of work still to be done at least it's at my pace and not somebody waiting for it and needing it right away.

Stuff

Jax and I are taking a side by side in to get worked on, they're always getting worked on. Linny is taking the Jeep. We wait for her on Hurrah. I think this will be a good picture and when it comes out I look at my reflection in the side back window and see me compressed in the window. I can't be that fat. Then I see Jax below me also all stretched out and feel a little better. 

Linny and I are in the living room and hear a noise in the kitchen. Significant scratching. It sounds like it's coming out of one of the lower cabinets by the fridge. I open it up and it's full of bottles. Prior to my purchase the lodge was a bed and breakfast and they had a second sink to prepare food. When it was taken out the hose holes where the water came up from under the lodge to the sink never got filled in. I start emptying all the bottles in the cabinet out. When I take one of them out it fit almost perfectly in the former hot water line hole. then a head pops up. The baby skunk wants a hot dog. I feed it one, and it came back to the same spot a couple days later for another one.

First kayakers went out on the river a couple days ago. From the boat ramp I could see guests up at the far end of the island. There's about 15 cow turds down there so guess I'll have to get the big shovel out here shortly.

Rehab of all the rooms is in progress. Got most of the floor in. Beds are next. Then blinds are gone and curtains coming, then all the functional stuff for lights and fans and the like.

What is this?

Good Hike

Been cold last few days so we mostly worked on inside stuff. Linny is really keeping the place up and eager to work. Working outside today. It's nice to tell her physical stuff I haven't gotten to and then hear the door close and she's outside working on it.

I'm so buried in paperwork. Got the tax return done and submitted. The bank changed my loan from an SBA to a USDA saying I had too much vacant land so gave me a bunch of new paperwork a different government agency wants me to fill out.

Last time we went hiking Jax came back limping a bit. I couldn't find a sticker in him so with a couple cold days to heal we did a four hour hike today and he was so happy. Running around all crazy and wanting to hand fight. Saw a couple rock squirrels today so it's almost his time to shine.

Can it really be just a month or so before it's time to go pick up Kobae. I do miss him even though he's a lot of work and until he moves into his house somebody has to watch him when he's sitting out on the porch so he doesn't take off. He never has gone far in March or April but the first time you're not watching him he will. We leave the screen door open so he can come back inside which invites the rock squirrels in to try and raid the foot containers in the hall. Jax will sit out there with Kobae begging the rock squirrels to make a run for the sunflower seeds or cars in the parking lot.

I think everything I've ordered but another bird bath has come in. Nearly $1,500 in stuff. Got the walkie talkies, more canteens, more headlamps, the metal detector though we haven't had time to read the directions or use it, night vision is same story directions or opportunity to use it, and then the best box came in. Couldn't wait so had to get Jax a jacket in town but when this box came in Jax knew. Linny and I set it on the floor and Jax came running over. A box for him. His tail was wagging so fast. When I opened it up and the first toy showed up he grabbed it and took off running into the living room. Then there was a new jacket and more toys. For an hour he had to try them all. 

The three hawks that are visiting periodically every day haven't gotten anything yet. The song birds and white-taileds are all really alert and I've seen nothing of feathers lying around with one exception. There has been a house wren hanging around on the porch for a month. As I was walking down the front porch a week or so ago I saw it jump down into the skunk hole where ringtails sometimes also hang out. Picking up the board to clean out the hole for old Kit&Kaboodle and any stinky dogs left around I found a bunch of short feathers and I haven't seen the house finch since.

Linny, Jax, and I started up Hurrah and just before the first sharp turn and drop off there is an old road cutting off to the left and very hard to see. We took that today, swung under the cliffs where Two Trains and Hurrah Pass are and followed them all the way out to join the road at Jackson Hole. Was a good hike and 44 degrees today. Tomorrow is to be 56 degrees and it's January. Pretty mild winter so far. At present the snow pack is 73% of average and second lowest of the last seven years. That means the snow melt won't be much at it's high point. For Base Camp the big sand bar beach will probably stay on the other side this summer but there will be plenty at the boat ramp and the mosquitoes shouldn't last more than a week or two before the bats and swallows have picked them all off.

Late January

The days are quiet. We see maybe one vehicle a day. We work in the mornings and let it warm up a little then head out with Jax for a hike mostly around the property looking at things we have to accomplish. 

Installing a fifth dish for wifi on the bathroom at the Last Hurrah hogans tomorrow. That comes out to nearly $1,000 a month for wifi. It's crazy.

 

A deep sink came in for the bathroom at the hogans so will have that installed shortly. Be much easier for hogan guests to do their dishes and clean cooking materials.

Usually when somebody doesn’t like something I’m doing, or not doing, and there’s no shortage of them, they send me some anonymous email or post on some blog or board I don’t even know exists and read it years later when it’s too late to defend myself. Then sometimes there are cases where you have to decide between doing something illegal because it's the right thing. Fortunately in the feeding the critters situation it’s not a choice I had to make. It's not often but at least a couple times a year somebody posts somewhere or emails me to leave the critters alone and not feed them and I've heard it's happened again so I'll go through it again.

When I moved here in 2007 I found dead house finches around the property. Usually one eye would be swollen shut and sometimes they’d have big knots on their heads. Looking it up I found the disease to be primarily with house finches but other birds can get it. Conjunctivitis spreads from a bad water or feeding source. I put a bird water bowl out front. It’s still there plus later I put one in the back. In time I began putting feed out for them spread on the ground in three locations. I think I saw one dead bird last year of conjunctivitis. Clearly it’s working. I’m comfortable house finches prefer a good food source and clean drinking water versus having their eyes pop out of their heads and walking around in circles looking for food because they can only see out of one eye?

I read nationally 50% of raccoons die of starvation before their first birthday. Most families that use to come to the porch had five or six babies. Now they have three or four because nobody dies of starvation. Mother Nature adapted to not so many of them dying young and they have smaller families now. You can read studies where they go to extinguish coyotes in an area and the coyotes have bigger families to compensate for it. I’m comfortable the raccoons prefer me messing with their lives versus starving to death.

I had a mouse and pack rat problem when I bought the place in the early days. After I fed ringtails that problem all but vanished as they hang around and kill the mice and pack rats as do the skunks. Ringtails use to be called miners cats because they used them for the same purpose. I’ve decided the lodge is better off without pack rats and mice. But that’s me. Maybe everyone doesn’t feel that way. 

In each instance of the critters that come to the porch there was a reason and if you’ve stayed here you know they all have their safe place to get fed so no one kills them and they don’t kill each other. The thing that surprises me and not much does anymore is that generally only the young critters hang out. Once they reach maturity and can fend for themselves I rarely see them anymore.

I too have read that in time they’ll lose their ability to find food on their own. If that’s true then why don’t the parents stay? How come now, in winter, when you’d think they’d have the biggest problem finding a food source do I only get one raccoon showing up periodically where I use to get a dozen every night when they were young?

I’ve been feeding critters well before I ever hosted guests at the lodge. Though guests now gather most nights in the summer and fall to see the critters come to the porch it’s been going on for at least ten years. I have no guests at the lodge for most of this month but I still go out every night and feed whoever shows up. Having guests see animals in their natural habitat is a bonus. But I don’t feed them just to entertain guests. The measures I’ve taken to feed have eliminated conjunctivitis, mice, and pack rats. Things that could prove to be a danger to humans.

I've heard  “and not to mention it’s illegal.” I’m glad they didn’t mention it. If they’ll go on the Division of Utah Wildlife website it will only take an article or two to learn it’s not illegal to feed wildlife. It is in federal parks, federal lands, some cities, probably California, and in some cases homeowner associations have made rules for feeding critters. Fortunately for the house finches, ringtails, raccoons around here and others like them, I’m not any of those. It’s not illegal in Utah and it’s not illegal on private property and I am both. Hope that helps.