Casazza

August Montana Sights August, 2015	Back to Home Page

Fires, fences, and critters


Two views of the same smoky sunset one evening


One evening we watched this fire grow on the mountain in front of our house, I believe this is called the Barnaby Fire.	A few days later it had spread out in area, but lessened in intensity

This is much a bigger fire on Mount Marston that we can also see from our house. It has burned 1500 acres as of August 20, 2015.
	One exciting day a helicopter used the lake in front of our house to fill his water tank for dropping on the forest fires.


This is a Forest Service picture of the Marston fire at an active time. Eric and I saw it like this when we were driving to Kalispel very early one morning.	This is the fire lookout station on top of Mt. Marston - where did they get so much aluminum foil?! I don't know how that propane tank on the left side will survive a fire. I got this picture off the Forest Service site too.


One last picture from the Forest Service, of Chinook Helicopters working the Marston fire	This beautiful picture of the Marston fire at night came from The Daily Interlake newspaper - such power!

It has been very, very smoky here for a couple of days. This is the sunset on 8/19/15.	Full "daylight" on 8/20/15 - it feels more like twilight outside than daytime & it stinks!

This tree is completely weighted down with birds. It's a game for you to play, "spot the birds."
	My attempt at being crafty with a decoration for the powder room. Right after this, my sister sent a picture of a truly beautiful, creative thing she had made which reminds me that I should leave the creativity to the creative people! J

Hungry deer - A pictorial story -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Baby deer walks behind mother deer, crying, "Mom, I'm hungry!"	Just then, twin brother deer comes running down the hill crying, "I'm hungry too!"


"Oh thank you Mom, that really hits the spot!"	"What, that's it? You're just going to walk away before we're full?"


"Oh Mom, can't we have just a little more?" Mom says, "No." Then in response to their continued whining, "Because I said so, that's why." The moral of the story - kids are the same, even in the world of deer! - The End	Here a large group of deer walk past our barn

This is a funny picture - one deer (toward the right side) is doing some funky leap, I imagine him singing, "Do the Hustle!" You can also see our pet skunk just to the left of the center of this shot.


This is the first time either of us has seen the geese in such a straight-line formation. I imagine they let the most controlling of the geese be in charge that day.

Zoomed in on part of the single-file goose procession
	Hawk in the tree outside my window


We get a lot of beautiful sunrises here, just amazing	A group of turkeys as seen from our barn. I wonder if they are the near-adult versions of the chicks I took a picture of last month?


Great progress is being made on the house at Pigeon Bridge - two rows of logs are in	The daylight basement is very nice - Dan Jr, Jeb, Mark, Dallas, and Dan Sr all worked on it


A small snake I saw on our road one evening during a bike ride	The turkeys in our yard one morning, with one feeling particularly good about himself

Our Fencing Project -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is a pallet of 16-foot long fence rails that I stained during June and July - that was a job!	These are fence posts we pulled up and hauled up the hill by hand so that I could stain them for use in the fence around our house We have put my little car through SO much abuse since moving here.


One of Eric's first acts upon learning how to drive the Skid Steer was to drill fence post holes 10 inches from our sprinkler system. We dodged the bullet for most of the fence, but ended up hitting the sprinkler lines eventually. Thankfully our installer fixed it quickly, no problem.	This is the progress of our first day.


We made it almost half-way before Eric had to go back to Oklahoma City for two weeks	This shows the fence as it extends around the front of the house


A view of the partially-completed fence, and the screened porches. That fence was hard work!	The house and environs as seen from our little hill behind the barn.



Very blurry shot of an elk walking by the house one early morning	I already shared this on the "Latest Pictures" page of my site, but seeing a bear is worth sharing twice!


Much progress has been made on the Pigeon Bridge house this month	All three stories are in place, next comes the roof


Rose, enjoying the sound of the river flowing by


Two shots of a beautiful sunset viewed from town one evening


A pair of swans hanging out on the lake in front of our house	I was heading to the post office when I met Mark on his combine with Rose as his flag man


Eric takes a peek into the grain bin, Mark has it filled nearly full	This is a shot of the first grain bin they got assembled this summer. The second one is assembled up to the 3rd level.

Grain elevator
	Mark's fancy solution for getting the grain in - he bought huge jeans from the thrift store and cut out one of the legs to use as a funnel.


Work began this month on our front porch, patio, and sidewalk. Step one was this load of gravel being dumped right outside my office window. It made me nervous!


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