It's been a busy week with the freelancing. I've finished four of the five stories for Sandpoint Magazine. Just have to tweek/tweak (haven't yet decided how to spell that word) them and finish researching my birding story. Some folks have sent me some great stuff about their personal experiences with our many winged friends, and I've got more coming, so this features should be a fun story.
While on the subject of birds, I will complain this morning that a large herd of grackles showed up early to steal catfood from the front porch, so the dish has come back inside the house. The grackles have flown away.
From one story assignment, I've learned that the country duet, Bomshel, won't be coming to The Festival after all, as they had announced on K102.5 a couple of weeks ago. Turns out they were invited to the Wisconsin State Fair where audiences span to 40,000. Their manager/producer Chuck Howard told me the other day he figures they'll come to Sandpoint next year. Listen on your favorite country station Monday for that "Finger-lickin'" song cuz it's supposed to be released to radio stations nationwide that day.
Today we were planning to go to the Curless home near Dover where Kiwi would join a bunch of other pups in their sheep-herding kindergarten classes. You know---you've heard of those classes----"Little Lambs." I think we even have a "little lambs" school here in Sandpoint, but I think the kids are herded there, and they're the kind with two feet instead of four. Kiwi's gonna have to wait for her next kindergarten because we got too much snow yesterday, and Mayor Randy figures it would be better for the dogs and the sheep to play tag on bare ground.
Speaking of little lambs and big lambs and no snow, we saw about two dozen yesterday over west of Libby. Bill had to take some annual leave, so he came home after two hours of work. He also had a hot geocache to find in a spot along the Kootenai River. So, we loaded up several bags of chips, the dog and a variety of footgear to suit whatever walking conditions we'd find. We were pleased to find very little snow and mostly bare, dry ground as we started down a wonderful walking/biking trail.
It's at the Rocky Mountain Wildlife Management area at the end of the Kootenai River Road, which takes off to the left just after the bridge north of Libby. I loved the outing because of the gentle terrain, with the turquoise river on one side and several open meadows with dramatic rocky mountain backdrops. We also spotted occasional herds of Rocky Mountain Sheep high up on the ledges and down low in the openings. We even came across one group, which we figured was a family, hanging out next to the trail in a field near an old cabin.
As Bill and Kiwi continued to walk the trail along the river, I moved slowly toward them, snapping pictures with my Canon. They didn't seem the least bit concerned, just kept a safe distance away and posed for me. I'm hoping for at least a couple of good shots. The geocache was 1.7 miles down the trail at China Rapids, so we enjoyed a good walk. On our way back, we also saw some deer and an eagle looking over us from its perch in a Ponderosa snag.
It was a good day for the sheep because the Rocky Mountain variety look a LOT different from Kiwi's Folger's cans. In fact, she seemed totally oblivious of their presence. On hikes, our dog spends most of her time, making sure Mom and Dad are still finding their way down the trail by checking on each of us at least every ten seconds. So, it's apparent that Montana sheep of the Rocky Mountain variety had nothing to worry about with this dog.
I found it hard to believe when we returned last night that the weather could be so different in such a short span of miles. And, this morning as that piercing wind out of the north ensures that our five inches of snow will be hanging around for at least another day or two, Libby, Montana, and that bare trail along the magnificent Kootenai River seems like the place to be. Plus, the gas is about 8 cents cheaper per gallon.
Happy Saturday.
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