Slight Detour: BLUE Skies and Winter Wonderment

Twas a day for picking up poohs and watching dogs watch moose. As temperatures rise, those seemingly petrified brown deposits around the lawn are slowing loosening their hold on the ground.

So, a portion of yesterday's piercing and pleasant sunshine involved traveling around the house outside with the barn pick and removing a winter's worth of doggie do.

Some still remains in shaded areas, but I managed a good start on removing the soon-to-be squishy piles aka canine mines from the lawn.

Another highlight of the day came just after taking the three dogs to "Biscuit Time," which means they all come eagerly racing toward their run for good news and bad news.

Good news involves my doling out of those biscuits, in a speedy fashion so Mr. Liam doesn't steal a second helping from Foster or Kiwi. We've talked a lot about good manners, and he's gradually learning that Mom hands out one biscuit to every pup.

Maybe if he'd take time to chew his, his two buddies could get theirs before he takes a mad dash toward their treat.

Bad news for the doggies is that they stay in the 40 by 40 foot run for a couple of hours. That's a strategy employed for their safety (unfortunately, doggie roaming around their own farm remains curtailed since September). Time spent in the run also means that Liam can run and play without our worrying about his running off to the unknown.

Good news for doggies did come yesterday when a mama moose and her baby came strolling through the woods where their run is located.

When dog barks indicating that an invader had appeared on the place, I stepped outside and saw the baby, which was hanging out in the sun over near Kauble's place.

Later, I asked Bill to hand me my new point-and-shoot camera with its nice telephoto lens.

I snapped a few photos and then stepped closer and closer (a safe distance, of course) and kept snapping, prepared to retreat at a second's notice. While approaching the path leading to the woods, I quickly realized that Baby was not alone.

Looking to the west, I could see a giant dark figure with long, spindly legs. It was almost completely camouflaged by shade and heavy tree limbs. The creature stood there, not moving.

Happily, I could see by those four legs that it was facing away from me and that it was definitely another moose, not Bigfoot.

During this time, dog barking had pretty much subsided as they all lined up against the west fenceline of their run and simply watched. They seemed to share my wonderment at this amazing sight.

That's when I announced to Bill it probably wasn't a good idea to step any further toward the baby which was still soaking up the sunshine across a big opening in our woods.

Two two stood there for about ten minutes, barely moving. Finally, Mom turned my way and soon back to the west. She slowly ambled down the pathway as the baby stayed put.
A silent message between the two, however, must have alerted the baby that it was time to go.

They eventually walked out of sight, and their audience went back to whatever they were doing before the unannounced nature treat had interrupted their activities.

So glad to have that dog run where our trio of pups could take in the moose visit without incident.

In the afternoon, after Bill and I had finished our town errands, we took off for a quick drive to Paradise Valley, which is southeast of Bonners Ferry.

It's always a beautiful area and especially so yesterday. The muddy white pickup rolled to a stop several times for photo ops.

Winter in the Paradise Valley has more than its share of gorgeous rural sights, and summer, spring and fall up there aren't bad either.

Great afternoon drive.

I don't know what we have in store for today. The dark morning sky was filled with stars at 4:30, but now fog has set in. I have a feeling it will rise in a few hours, and the sun will continue its work of bringing us closer and closer to spring.

Happy Wednesday.

Roman Nose from Paradise Valley.

Pretty much every time we travel through the Bonners Ferry area, which is often, Bill likes to tell me about the geocaches on those three peaks. He and Willie planted the caches there a few years ago.

Yesterday the mountains were looking pretty amazing in their winter coats, and to think of the hike my hubby and son took to do their geocaching that day is pretty amazing too.