March first!

I can’t believe it’s already March. March came in like a lamb, if you consider the first day. It was 21 at my snowmachine, and it started hard. We met Jim McLellen at the locked cattleguard. He beat us there. We were done feeding about ten thirty thanx to his help. We stopped at the Game and Fish to leave Bob’s feed report. We went to Verla Sommer’s funeral out at the Boulder Community Center at two o’clock. It was quite a crowd. Then there was a dinner at the Stockman’s. Michael, Brian and Dino ate with us and we had an interesting visit. We visited until the last dog was hung, as my mother would say. It was a good time. Many thanx to Jim for helping us feed.

A note on the funeral...when an old timer dies, it brings together many of the others, and you see so many who are the backbone of our county. Such was the case today. It was beautifully done, with an in depth obituary. Unlike my dad's funeral, you certainly knew who you were there to honor. Her dog was there too.

Darting Day at Scab Creek

It was 18 above this morning. This was the second of two days of darting our elk. You may remember the one last time where one third of our elk died. I should say one third of those darted...three of nine. Hopefully today will go much better. We were to meet Jerod and his crew at my snowmachine at eight o’clock this morning. We got there about fifteen minutes early, and when they hadn’t showed by eight, we left. We had the sled half loaded when six snowmachines and twelve people showed up. Our elk got excited and did a lot of running around. When we drove in this morning, most of them didn't even get up or quit chewing their cuds.

Floyd Rodifer came over to the stack and helped us load. It was another day of things gone amiss, however it was nothing like two weeks ago. They had darts to do ten elk. Jerod missed with one that he knew of..they found another in the snow, but only had seven elk down that we found. What happened to the other darted elk? I guess if she dies, we’ll know when the scavengers show up. They also darted a bull instead of a cow in one case. They bled him and wrote down his ear tag # and gave him the shot to wake him up. A couple of the elk came close to bloating, but they made it. I mentioned that there were only seven of the nine darted being worked on. Turned out they found a dart that missed a second one, but we never found the other elk, or perhaps just a dart.

I got lots of pictures, and we were done about eleven o’clock. After lunch I started my tax preparation. Had just started, when Dino showed up. He needed a hair cut. I did both he and Bob. Dino stayed for dinner. It’s always a pleasure to have Dino. A neat guy.

The Olympics

I think the 20th Olympics was so beautifully presented this winter. NBC is to be congratulated. So is Torino. What a gorgeous city. I'm sorry to see it coming to an end.

On other notes...what about this warm weather. February can throw you anything. It's a pleasure. But with that pleasure...on our little feedground, we are losing sledding up there. Too many elk on it...