Just Pretty Stuff and Bolting Cows

Bill said he caught about ten cutthroat last night.

He fished in a pond up the Trout Creek Road, which takes off from HWY 200 in the Pack River Flats area. 

"How big were they?" I asked when he came home.  At the time, I was sitting here at the computer downloading photos, some of which I had just taken along the Trout Creek Road east of Sandpoint. 

He said they averaged seven or eight inches. 

In my early evening wanderings, I did not go as far up the road as Bill.  No good reason for that; I simply decided to turn around and head home before the sun sank in the west.

The motive:  to catch a few more evening photos, and that did happen as I drove home on Selle Road. 

My photo captures often depend on the amount of traffic on any given road.  

If those folks who sometimes might ride my bumper can be seen in the rear view mirror, I just keep on driving, lamenting the loss of that unique roadside scene which is absolutely perfect at that very moment. 

Well, happily, last night the traffic along Selle Road as I was returning home was pretty light, all coming from the west.  So, it was okay to stop the car and grab those photos on the Pratt farm and just west of the railroad tracks. 

I enjoyed the same luck along Colburn-Culver while driving south along the farmland where I believe my friend and editor Helen lived as a child. If she didn't live there, she was mighty close by. 

Those pretty beef cows in the field immediately took my eye.  I had never seen them there before and immediately wondered if a new cattle rancher had moved to the area. 

Maybe someone reading this post can tell me the rest of the story about those cows, their breed and who owns them. 

Anywho, with no traffic behind me on that relatively busy road, I was able to click a couple of nice photos, one of which reminded me of one of my favorite Steve Martin stories "Renegade Cows."  

I don't know what spooked them, but suddenly, and pretty much in unison, they all stopped their grazing and bolted off to the east. 

It seemed appropriate to see this scene on what I believe is a part of Helen's childhood farm because I'll never forget the night I read "Renegade Cows" aloud to Helen and some friends who had happened by my classroom at Sandpoint High School. 

There were tears aplenty and not cuz we were sad.  

In fact, I think some of the visitors almost got down on the Room 4 classroom floor and rolled from the hilarity of hearing about the renegade cows who had entered Steve Martin's apartment, gathered around his bed and stared at him. 

Crazy stuff, but not too far off cuz cows can do crazy things, including staging a nice photo for an old lady driving by their pasture. 

Life is moving along nicely on these spring days.  Yesterday I brought home some big bags of potting soil, some of which was used for a major deck flower bed project. 

When pine squirrels bury their seeds and nuts all around the deck, they leave a distinct scent.  When Liam comes along and sniffs that scent, he dives into the deck bed and sometimes turns on the digger gear. 

He's done that a few times because the pine squirrels did a lot of burying and digging of their own this past winter. Squirrels and dogs have had a great time but not my flowers.

So, yesterday I purchased a couple of larger perennial shrubs and gathered some of my volunteer columbine and stuck them all in the huge dog-made trench in the flower bed. 

After throwing in a bunch of potting soil, I, without funds from Mexico, created a "wall" of big flower pots along the deck above the flower bed. 

Time will tell if I win over Liam and the pine squirrels, but I'm thinking the barricade may serve as a deterrent to further destruction or invasion from species which are undocumented and alien to the deck flower bed. 

You see I'm taking lessons from the rhetoric I see on TV. There will be no melting pot of species in my flower bed!  

I just wish that Mexico would pay for it all.  If they did, I'd send them some Lovestead pine squirrels to maintain equity in our trade agreement. 

Today, my dear friend Chris is coming for a visit.  We're gonna play with little CB and probably do some catch-up----on the deck.  

For at least that period of time, my newly planted shrubs and flowers should be safe from invaders.

Happy Wednesday.