Elk near our house - our welcoming committee. We were driving to our new (to-us) house when we saw these elk. They were such a pretty sight!

"Wow, it really snowed last night! Isn't it wonderful? Everything familiar has disappeared! The world looks brand new! A new year ... a fresh, clean start! It's like having a big white sheet of paper to draw on! A day full of possibilities! It's a magical world, Hobbes, ol' buddy ... let's go exploring!” - Bill Watterson

A young cow elk in our neighborhood.

We made several trips to move our things. This trip was more fun for me because I got to ride my Dakar. No since loading it when you can ride it.

We installed new flooring in one of the rooms with laminate found on sale at a big box store.

We built these storage shelves for our garage.

Sunset, from our picture window.

Who would have imagined a snake could make such great pet? We love our Ocotillo

Full moon at sunrise, from our picture window

Snow

Lots of hiking in our neck of the woods. Like, a hundred miles in any direction

We're following an elk-made trail leading to a whole bunch of sheltered elk lays

Coyote tracks near our house. Notice the direct registering. And the rabbit tracks

Moving in to our new (to us) house, we discovered bees in our roof. The standard advice was to not allow them to nest there, because the damage they might cause to the house. So we built a set of bee boxes and frames (from a kit) for them to move into

We built the hive boxes in the dead of winter, and again the standard advice was wait a few months for the daytime temperatures to warm up enough before opening the roof-hive. To open a hive in the middle of winter could kill the bees, they say, because of the cold. We even phoned a beekeeper and his advice was to wait. So against strong urges, we waited for the next two months - a huge mistake that we later regretted. In retrospect we should have opened the hive right away and fed the bees; for we now think they were starving. (A feeder on the outside of the hive would not have worked, because bees do not venture outside their hive in the dead of winter.)

Sunset from our picture window

Riding a bicycle around here is a real workout, as the terrain is so hilly. Seen here is a flat section, but notice how the road seems to disappear on the right side of the photo - as the road drops away steeply

A snowstorm seen from our picture window

Our Grandfather juniper

Poppies during one of our moving trips

Cleaning the mistletoe out of a grandfather Juniper in our front yard. This sort of tree is called a "grandfather" because it is much larger and older than the surrounding trees. We estimate this one to be somewhere around eight or nine hundred years old

The first warm day, it was time to check on the bees. The roof of the house is a little too high above the ground for safety, should a person fall off the 24-foot extension ladder; so I drilled an anchor bolt into the outside wall and had Jenny belay me from a nearby window

Opening the plank on the eves, we found beautiful honeycomb but also dead bees by the hundreds. The previous owner might have tried to exterminate them through a hole he seemed to have whittled in the adjacent inside wall. Or maybe the bees died of starvation, for the cells were all empty. In either case, we were looking forward to relocating these bees, and were very sad to find them dead. We gathered them up then spread them under the Grandfather Juniper and planted wildflowers there, in their honor

During the winter and early spring we see elk in our front yard most mornings. Sometimes the same ones, but usually different

Yet another pretty sunset

We worked for two months pruning the mistletoe out of our trees

Check out these old pair of clippers. Actually they are only three days old, but used for 15 hours a day by a person with 2X-L hands (glove size) and a vice-like grip - for removing mistletoe from trees. The blade finally snapped, but the good company replaced the tool in only a few days

The dogs love it here

Re-wring the garage to better suit our needs. We striped the conduit and wires, installed re-routed Romex, and re-wired the breaker box

Out for a ride. This is my custom hot-rod 650 BMW X-Challenge. I don't recommend buying one of these unless the person is a very experienced rider. Unlike my other bike - a 650 Dakar, which is easy to ride - the X-Challenge has way too much power for its light weight; so can get a inexperienced person into trouble.

(Previous year) Working on my hot-rod.

The first blossoms of Spring

Sunrise out Jenny's shipping room window

Neotoma albigula. Cute!! They are called "Wood Rats" but also "Pack Rats" because they take things - hence the name neo-toma. Toma in Spanish means "take". Jenny's cell phone, for example; dropped during a hike and disappeared forever. :)

The cattle have gathered in hopes that we have a load of hay for them. No, just another old midden headed for the soil conservation ditch. And by the way, these middens (woodrat's nests) are a pain to dismantle because they are full of cactus spines. The woodrats feed on the beavertail cactus then line their dens with spines to ward off snakes and other predators. The process can go on for decades; the millions of little spines are remarkably slow to decompose; and even thick leather gloves are wholly ineffective

Doing some soil conservation work at the head of an arroyo

Garden Destroyers. :)

Relocating another midden and its erstwhile resident woodrat

Our bees rescue mission had been a disappointing failure, but it did get us interested in beekeeping. So having made the set of bee boxes, we mail-ordered a package of fresh honeybees. The package arrived with around 8,000 bees and a queen")

Dumping the bees into their new hive

The queen came with a little cage of her own

Bee-day #3, first inspection of the hive. Looking good

I grew-up on a ranch, and we always had chickens. They are interesting birds, they provide eggs and meat, and they are also a lot of fun! Now that we finally have room, the chickens were a natural addition. We don't eat meat, and very rarely eat eggs, but bought these chicks as pets. We'll figure out what to do with the eggs later

A Buff Orpington, an Ameraucana, and two Speckled Sussex

I'm replacing the oil pump on the chainsaw. In Oregon we heated our house with a wood stove for 15 years, so this chainsaw has seen a lot of use. And now that we are heating the new house with wood, I decided to rebuild the chainsaw with a new cylinder, piston, carburetor and so forth

Never in our wildest imagination would we have wanted a 4wd pickup truck; yet we soon discovered we couldn't hardly live out here without one. The snow can be deep, the roads - when muddy - are impassable without a 4wd, the access road has some very steep hills, and we are forever hauling wood, rocks, loads of dirt, and so fourth. We bought this truck for only $5k and have been using it most every day. Note about our access road: we haven't seen a car or truck for four months. Talk about remote!

Small early-spring wildflowers

Day-6: Its very early season, yet the bees are finding small wildflowers and bringing back pollen to the hive

Look out! Here comes that 74 year old kid on his hot-rod motorcycle. :)

Not dead or sick, only sleeping

Buffy (Buff Orpington) is growing fast

Preparing for rain. For some reason our dog Juniper likes to lie in the chicken coop. Might be because she spent a month in the kennel, and that enclosure resembled this coop. She came from an abusive family and the kennel was the best news ever

In our back yard, a yucca baccata in bloom (banana yucca or datil). The deer eat the blossoms down to the core, but not in our back yard which has a tall fence around it

The Connection. Every now then we forget to close our garage door, and then we might find birds in the garage. We had to move this female black-chinned hummingbird twice, so far. It lives in the vicinity and is a common sight at our hummingbird feeder - along with its mate.

Minor miscalculation - we ran out of shingles. The Home Depot & Lowes are a half-a-day drive, so the roof job will be on hold for a short while

Chicken coop: making progress

Working on the chicken coop while the dogs watch over the chickens

A few beavertail in bloom

A walking stick (Phasmatodea) found in our garden. In the background is a mystery tomato plant, one of three. "Mystery" because we have no idea where they came from. We found them growing in pots of other plants, and eventually we said "Hey, those little plants look like tomato!"

Building the hen house. We didn't want to buy paint, so used what we had on hand

The young chickens are now free-ranging in our large back yard, where they spend most of their time gallivanting around, hunting grasshoppers or just having fun. But sometimes they like to take a nap in the chicken coop. At night they still sleep in their box, in the house

Its almost like the chickens can't wait to move in. Anyway, they are not afraid of the power tools, even the loud ones. And they seem to prefer our company. So while working, we have to watch where we step

The final night of the chickens sleeping in the house. This box has been their home ever since we brought them home, when they were just a week old. And all this time, we kept the box in our house. But we love having the chicks around. They don't smell, and they are very quiet. And each one has such a unique personality

When working with the bees, we no longer wear protective gear, but work in regular shorts and t-shirts

The queen stands out from all the other bees

It's move-in day. We ran out of yellow and blue, so for the ladder into the hen house Jenny decided to use her oil-based art paint. Came out pretty wild

Morning lineup

We inspect the beehive once a week, looking for any problems. We take the hive apart and pull out the frames, one by one, and give them a good look over. I wear a magnifying headpiece so I can see the tiny eggs at the bottom of the cells. We're also looking for any signs of disease. In this photo, there are about 4,000 honeybees on this frame (2,000 on each side).

This rabbit is a wild desert cottontail (Sylvilagus audubonii). I think most of the students in our Connection classes might understand this photo. We taught a Connection with all things in nature - a Connection that seems to bring an understanding to the animals, and maybe a certain sense of peace in our presence.

We have now been seeing this rabbit almost every day. So we took it a bowl of water and a leaf of lettuce. It went straight to it and started drinking, as though it had been drinking from that bowl all it's life.

This behavior brings to mind the wild gopher snake we adopted and named Spooky Noodle. He acted like someones long lost pet. Acted tame the moment I first picked him up.

Funny story about Spooky: He used to enjoy sleeping in the bed with me - until one night I rolled over on him. Talk about a rude awakening! Being suddenly woken up by a large snake thrashing under you, in your bed! But no harm done, and Spooky forgave me right away. I did, however, move him to his box for the rest of the night, for his own safety

Another funny story about Spooky: He was a large snake, and when I first brought him home, I carried him in the tank bag of the motorcycle. I often brought Jenny treats from the store, so unzipping the tank bag to see what I had brought this time, she got a real surprise! Visualize her running away screaming!! It took her a few days to even let me bring the snake close to her, never mind her actually holding it. That is why I named it "Spooky." In the two weeks we had him, Jenny was always badgering me to return him back to the wilds. Eventually I complied. But in a few months, when I ordered the baby snake from a breeder, Jenny fell in love with the new one. Today she is as fond of "Ocotillo" as I am

Ocotillo taking her weekly bath

Ocotillo is a harmless gopher snake, but this is not Ocotillo. This is a prairie rattlesnake, found on our property and relocated elsewhere. The markings and coloration can look remarkably similar between the two snakes, and that is one reason why gopher snakes are often killed. In the field, don't look at the markings; but instead look at the tail and the eyes. Gopher snakes have no rattles, and have round and friendly eyes. Look at Ocotillo's eyes, in the photo above - nice an friendly

In this photo of Ocotillo, notice the markings and color patterns on her mid-section - they are very similar to those of many types of rattlesnakes. But look at the tail - that's a gopher snake for sure

Out here, we get some great sunsets

The chickens have grown a little larger, and still come running when they see their fresh corn treats - which happens three or four times a day

The plant on the left was three inches tall when we dug it up from our yard, and had only one blossom. Since then it has been growing and blooming continually for three months - and counting. Its some kind of verbena

Removing yet another iceberg. We press down hard on the digging bar in order to lift one side of the rock a few inches, then we shovel dirt under that side. Then we relocate the digging bar to the other side of the rock, lift that side, then shovel dirt under that side. And so it goes until we have lifted the rock out of the hole

This rock weighs about 700 pounds. Its much too heavy for the wheelbarrow. We will use a come-along to move it out of our way

This rock weighs about 400 pounds. Its too heavy to lift into the truck, but at least we can relocate it away from the house using the wheelbarrow. The challenge is getting the wheelbarrow upright, and for that we use the digging bar - again as a leaver

Soil conservation with rocks we have dug out of our back yard. Shown here is three truck load's worth

There's some big rocks in this pile. Up to 250 pounds. "The Rural Life is easy," said nobody

Chickens in a tree

I (Ray) have been seeing this rabbit almost every day, in the early mornings and late evenings. I go near her area, and she comes to find me. She is totally comfortable in my presence, as though she likes being around me. Maybe for protection from predators, although this doesn't seem likely because I haven't seen any predators

I put water out for Ms. Rabbit every day, and a leaf of lettuce and a piece of carrot. She drinks some of the water, but hasn't yet eaten the lettuce or carrot. She is not very good at drinking water. She will drink continuously for two minutes, or so, and the water level goes down in her bowl by less than 1/4 inch. Yesterday she came to find me far out of her usual territory. She wanted me to follow her. So I did. She led me through the forest, straight back to her water bowl. And then she showed me that the bowl was empty. So I filled it, and she drank her fill. I think our experience with this animal is predicated on two facts: We have spent the vast majority of the last six months outside. And the weather has been extremely dry. So the rabbit is used to seeing us, and needs water

Rufous hummingbirds

Our honeybees are doing good. The two deeps on their hive are full of honey and brood. We will have to add an expansion super to the hive in a few days, to give them more room

These are my work gloves, size 2-XL, one of three pair

I have to tape the gloves fingers every other day

Then they come back from the field looking like this.. Note: this is not a one-timer. this work has been going on for a few months. Every other day, replace the tape

This is "Rabbit," my spiritual animal. I call her that because even though wild, she acts tame; and when I'm with her, she prompts me to look for a deeper meaning in everything I see in nature. She has been gone for three weeks while having little baby bunnies. But yesterday she came back and we spent 1.5 hours together

This land goes on and on, for endless miles. And it's mostly empty. Our county is the largest in the state, has one resident for every two square miles, and has no stop lights. I found this place during one of my Great Divide rides. Its so peaceful and quiet; so refreshing to spirit and soul