Best moose sighting, yet!

This is a beaver pond on the north side of Montana Mountain. Don may recognize it from his jeep adventure tours.
We had gone there to rust-dye some fabric on that old compressor's engine parts that are lying all about. (see previous post) We had been there last year, but never got back to do the rust-dying. I knew about the pond, so I walked over there as Peggie was laying fabric. Even though I was hoping for a wildlife sighting, I neglected to take my camera. When I saw this young fellow, I had to go back to the jeep. Peggie was ready to come look, also. We were able to watch him eating for over twenty minutes. He was unaware of us. A couple of beavers were busy in the pond, and several ducks were also around. Our original view point was 100 yards away, but we were able to move around and get within 50 yards. His antlers are less than a foot long, and felted. He was eating from the bottom of the pond, completely submerging his head. While he had his head in the water, we felt safe to move around. Finally, he moved into the forest.

How's this for an idyllic vacation spot?

We had a great time. We'll tell you more soon.

Happy Birthday, Margie

It may not be polite to discuss a woman's age, but since you are my little sister I'm going for it.
60. Don't tell Mom, she may think she has to be old if her youngest is 60. The big 6-0.
Side note to Margie's children and grandchildren: she is 60 now, so you have to be very quiet and very nice to her. Help her do things like blow out birthday candles. Don't place the cake directly under the smoke alarm. Share the candles as they come out of the cake, when there are this many, (60) you lose a LOT of frosting if you don't lick the candles.
Be sure to call Dick and invite him to the party. He is 65 now, and probably can't remember things like his sister's birthday. You can probably fool him into thinking it is his birthday.

Follow-up report

The fireworks were amazing. We stood on the waterbreak at the small boat harbor. The fireworks were launched from a tug about 300 yards out. They fired a steady stream for a full half hour. ( a full half....) Then a second launch point on the dock joined in for the last 15 minutes and doubled our pleasure. It was cold and windy. And a bit surreal to see snow in the background of July 4th fireworks.
I did get to see the parade. It started an hour before my tour. It was shorter than usual (I am suggesting that usual is what we have seen the last two years) perhaps because many would-be participants had to work. Traffic was totally disrupted and I had to walk my passengers several blocks to get on the bus.
I checked with customs and they confirmed the killing of Friendly.
I checked with Spirit Lake and they confirmed that the RCGB I saw was their bothersome bruin. He had been relocated to Bennett which is 27 miles away and across the lake. So he had walked the 27 miles, but not crossed the lake.
I had great people on the tour. One couple insisted that I call them so they can have us to dinner when we visit San Francisco on our way home. The woman is a 70 year old Chinese American who went horseback riding for the first time in her life. She is a self described city girl and was nervous just being in such wide open country, much less on horseback. The man is an avid hunter/fisherman who promises to prepare some kind of wild game when we visit.

There is such a thing as TOO friendly.

Peggie and I went for a Sunday drive today. We encountered police (RCMP and Conservation) hightailing it south with lights and sirens. We were curious, as we had seen no emergency on our way north. We didn't know what the Conservation vehicle was until later. On our way back to town we observed two Mounties with rifles walking along the road. I put two and two together. This was the same curve in the road where I have, on numerous occasions, both this year and last, seen a bear I named Friendly. Why? Because he approaches vehicles in a very friendly way.
This is bad for the bear. Somebody who should have known better has fed this bear from a car window. Probably more than one somebody. Fools. Now the Mounties or Conservation officer will shoot the bear. Not its fault. We asked at Customs and, sure enough, somebody reported an aggressive bear. Well, at least it hasn't hurt anyone, yet.

Tonight we get our Independence Day fireworks at the harbor. Tomorrow, I will be driving to Yukon, so will miss the parade. Shucks. I like the parade. Anyway, Happy Birthday USA.

RCGB

On Thursday, I saw a new sight.
First, it was the first grizzly sighting I've had this year. Second, the bear was in a "non-grizzly" location. ie: not where anyone ever sees a grizzly. Third, it had on a radio collar!
Yep. Normal in that it was busily eating leftover dandelions, but wearing a radio collar. Questions arise. Why is it being monitored? Was it relocated as a problem somewhere else? At Spirit Lake, where we are taking our horseback riders this year, they recently had a grizzly relocated because it kept trying to get at the horses. I will have to talk with them to get a description of the bear.
Anyway, it was a different thing to see.
Of course, there is the remote possibility that this was a radio controlled animatronic device being operated by somebody hiding in the woods. (Pun intended, I couldn't help it.)

Oh, I forgot to post this yesterday, so Happy Birthday, Dick, a day late.

Comments Anyone?

I think I have fixed the comments problem that Blogger has been experiencing so if you've been having difficulty leaving a comment try it out. We miss hearing from you.

I read about the solution on a blog I read on a semi-regular basis. A simple change in the comment setting to "pop up window" seems to fix the problem. So if you've been missing comments on your blog, try the solution.