Sunday, August 9, 2009

Sunday, August 9, 2009
The weather is windy this morning, with some clouds, but altogether nice. The low temperature this morning was 36.7 degrees, so it got cold last night. I had to build a small fire to remove the chill in the sunroom, but by afternoon it warmed up to the point I opened the doors to let the wind blow through the cabin.
I went online and discovered that I had won the auction and got the camera for $139.06! I had to pay that, plus shipping and handling of $12.90, so I did that online and hope to have the camera before I leave for Missouri, at the end of this month. The web site says delivery in 14 days, and I have a tracking number to follow it, so we shall see. I computed the cost of all my bids, added it to the cost of my winning bid, and discovered it totaled $367.86, but that is still cheaper than I could get it any other place. In fact the cheapest online price was just shy of $900.00, so I feel pretty good about that.
I managed to avoid working outside today, as Sundays are usually a day I take to relax and do what ever I want, even if it is nothing at all. In the afternoon, I had some visitors come by and stop for a little visit. It was Tom; one of the woodcutters I met went I first moved here. He comes by every summer just because he loves this area so much. Today’s trip was on his brand new ATV, with his girlfriend, her son, and three other guys that work with him.
He said he was keeping busy cutting all the dead trees around Helena, as the city is paying to have them removed. He said he would still like to come up here to cut wood, just because he can get away from the city and enjoy the forest more. I told him I had plenty of trees to cut and that he was welcome to come up get some. He told me he might do that before summer is over. He said he has a new trailer with dual axels that allow him to haul two cords at a time, plus what goes in his truck. I told him I would be working on the road so it would be easy for him to get in and out.
Writing, research, reading, organizing and playing with Zack finished the better part of the day. I had just finished playing with Zack and giving him his dinner and as I sat down to watch the news, I caught a glimpse of something trotting down the road near the garage. It was too small to be a deer and too big to be much else, so I grabbed the camera and went to the front door to see what it was.
Zack was upstairs sleeping off his dinner and didn’t alert to anything until I opened the door to get a better look. It was a dog, no wait, it had to have been a coyote, but wait . . . it was too big and muscular to be a coyote, it must be a wolf, but it couldn’t be because the government says we don’t have those in this area. Yeah, right. I stepped out onto the porch and hollered at the animal. He simply stood in the road and stared at me, or I should say glared at me. I snapped a couple of pictures but due the lateness of the day and fading light, they aren’t very good. I yelled for him to leave but he stood his ground and continued to glare at me. Zack started barking but wouldn’t venture out the door, which I wouldn’t have let him if he tried, and yet the wolf just stood like it was frozen, not moving at all.
Just like the bears, I needed to let him know he wasn’t welcome, so went in, put my camera down, grabbed my .22 rifle and walked back out front. He still hadn’t moved, so without aiming, I fired a shot in his direction. At first he didn’t move, but as I fired another shot, he jumped and then started moving up the mountainside, but stopped and glared at me again. I took better aim this time and fired, hitting near him and that got him moving further into the woods. I fired off several rounds in the general vicinity until I couldn’t see or hear him anymore.
This is only the second wolf I have personally seen in my area, and I am not sure what the law is about shooting them. I know that if they bother the cattle or threaten humans, you can kill them, but other than that, I’d have to do some research to see if there are restrictions. I know they serve a purpose in the food chain and I wouldn’t kill one unless it was threatening my animals, or me but I sure don’t want any “hanging around” the cabin.
After that excitement, I finished watching the news, took a shower, cooked a pizza and had my dinner, finally going to bed around 11:30.