Snow, SNOW SNOW!!

Woke up surrounded by the white stuff!   Can’t even see the little town of Belt – less than a mile away.  

Earlier, it was large, fluffy flakes, but now it has settled down to some serious snow – tiny flakes, but coming down furiously.   Unfortunately, or fortunately, however you want to look at it, the temperature is in the mid 30’s so it won’t last.   The earth is still too warm.

My nephew Rick, and his wife, Erica spent the night in Great Falls so they could start out early and see the countryside as they return to Wyoming – they won’t be seeing much for awhile though!!

Rick and Erica are taking a very fast trip through Wyoming, South Dakota and Montana (Erica has never been out West – they are from Michigan)  They’ve been to Mt. Rushmore,  the Crazy Horse statue, Crystal caves, Yellowstone park, and are headed back to Wyoming, stopping to see Custer Battlefield on the way.   In Wyoming, they’ll both get tattoo’d by Rick’s brother, Freehand Robert – owner of My Mother’s Tattoo Shop!  

Anyway while here – Rick wanted to revisit the site where they scattered his Dad’s ashes last year.   I rode along so I would know the spot also.  Rick brought along a bottle of my brother’s favorite Tiquila, to “share with his Dad”.   We walked about a quarter mile to a spot on Logging Creek which had been one of my brother’s favorite fishing spots.  Last year as Bob was scattering the ashes into the creek, the bank caved in, taking him down into the water, so they decided a better spot was up the side of the “hill” about 40 or 50 feet up.  As far as I was concerned, it could have been 500’ up – I slipped and slid up the hill – Rick came back down aways to give me a hand.  We sat there awhile, admiring the view and talking about my brother and his family.   When it came time to go back down, I found a good stout stick for support, that and the help of Rick’s shoulder got me safely down. (I have to add here – my brother always, always had M&M’s on hand – I looked in his pantry one time to see an entire shelf stacked about 6 bags high of all the different types of M&M’s -  Last year, his daughters scattered M&M’s into the creek!   What a neat idea!)

Last year, on the day of the scattering, Rick took a photo of the creek.   Later, while reviewing the photos of that trip, he chose one for his screen saver.   Even later, he happened to look at the photo and was astounded to find there was a figure in the photo – fishing.   There had not been anyone in that area when the photo was taken – but there it was!  Think what you like, but, well, we have our own ideas about it!

 At the time my brother passed, he was in Phoenix – he had been living in Thailand until he got sick.  He had a dog in Thailand  – a German Shepherd who had adopted my brother.   Upon my brother’s death, the dog started howling and continued howling for three days – the official period of mourning in Thailand.   He wouldn’t eat for those 3 days, and would not be distracted.   You cannot explain the unexplainable……..

On the way back to Belt, we spotted a couple deer crossing the road – looking to the right there was a huge herd – I counted between 40 and 50 deer.   Rick got out for a photo op – after a few minutes, the herd decided to vacate the premises – they jumped the barbed wire fence, leapt across the road and over another fence – it was such a beautiful site!

 I am going to curl up in a big chair and watch the snow -  after a few of these storms, I’ll be ready to pull the drapes and cover my head, but for now, I am thoroughly enjoying the first snow of the season.

Until next time

Bear Hugs

Luv ‘n Boots and Tucker, too

And don’t forget Little Bear

She believed she could do it, and so she did!