Hardware Ranch 2009

Joe's family drove up to our house on Saturday and we went to Hardware Ranch (about 40 miles from our house) a wildlife management area east of Hyrum, Utah. There were over 600 elk in the meadow and we were able to take a sleigh ride, through the meadow and see the elk up close and personal. Morgan even witnessed one pooping and thought it was disgusting.

After we visited Hardware Ranch we hit Maddox for dinner and then spent the night watching the Jazz beat the New Orleans Hornets. The night was capped off when Morgan wanted to cook breakfast at 10:30 p.m.

Quent took a picture of us in the sleigh

A view of the elk from the boarding area.

The largest bull elk in the meadow

More Birds

Quent and I went to Farmington to have dinner with his parents and sister tonight. Prior to arriving at their house we went to Farmington Bay. Here are some of the birds we saw at the bay. We have yet to get a real good shot of a bald eagle, we've been trying but their just too far away. I'm trying to talk Quent into a zoom lens but as of yet no such luck! The last two pictures posted are of the bay facing Bountiful/North Salt Lake, I liked the reflection in the bay.












We are going to continue our weekend of picture taking tomorrow when we go to Hardware Ranch to see the elk.

The Hawk...

Quent and I went out to the Box Elder Bird Refuge today and spotted a couple bald eagles however they were too far away to get pictures. We were able to get some pretty close pictures of a red tailed hawk.

After we left the bird refuge, which by the way is closed for the winter season, we drove to the golden spike historic site and were able to see the famous meeting of the trains. On the way back to Brigham City we spotted some road kill on the side of the road that a raven, hawk and bald eagle were all feasting on. Quent took a picture of the hawk eating lunch.

Enough Already!

Quent and I woke up to about 8 inches of new snow this morning and it's been snowing ever since. Add that to the amount we received over the weekend and we're back up to a good 36 inches on the ground. Not to mention the amount that has drifted from the field just west of the hatchery. We've got snow piled up all around the hatchery and it doesn't seem to be letting up. Luckily the power came back on around 10 a.m. so we were able to have water and power.

The snow plow is broken and has to go to Salt Lake for repair so Kent, one of the guys that works with Quent, got in the tractor and started clearing off the snow with the tractor. We've got snow mounds 8-10 feet tall around our house and lining the hatchery fence. It's nuts.

The forecast calls for snow through tomorrow morning and then we're supposed to be clear until Monday...and maybe even warm enough for this stuff to melt a little bit. The pictures aren't great. It's hard to capture a good picture with blowing snow. But here's an idea of the snow mounds we've got up here in what the locals call Little Siberia.

Snow piled up and around the front fence.

The snow was so wet and heavy this morning, this tree branch broke off our 100 year elm tree in the back yard.

Valentine's Day

Quent and I spent a quiet weekend at home as he had to work all weekend. He did surprise me with flowers and a teddy bear and even had plans to take me to lunch in Brigham City. We had a fun night at home playing games and just hanging out. Other than Quent having to work, it was a nice relaxing weekend.

Note: the roses are in one of our pitchers as I'm not exactly sure where my vases are. Probably downstairs in a box somewhere.

It's now an obsession.

I journeyed down to the end of the hatchery again today to find not two eagles but three and in addition to the various magpie's and other small birds we've added two red-tailed hawks to our collection of birds that like to hang out waiting for the dead fish to be thrown out.

The birds have discovered that they can sit and watch the world about a quarter-mile away from me and not be disturbed. The minute the heard me coming today they flew up to the next set of fence posts, so that I the innocent bystander wouldn't disturb them in their quest for peace.

So I post more pictures from today. The sun is out and a much prettier day however the eagles are still just far enough away that my zoom lens is not quite strong enough to get a "real good" shot.

Here are today's pictures...

I decided to post the next three because it was such a beautiful day. I wanted everyone to see what I look at each morning from my front porch. (don't be haters now...I live in a beautiful place)

More eagle pictures

I attempted to get a few more eagle pictures today. They were both in flight at the same time, hopefully the pictures will be large enough on here to see. I'm hoping to get pictures on a blue sky day so they look better, but until then...gray sky eagle pictures.

And a token duck picture...these are the ducks I scared off the pond while I was taking pictures of the eagles.

Rick and Ash helping out!

Rick and Ash came up to help us on a few projects and of course the first one took a little longer than we had planned for so only one project was completed. The hood over our stove was removed prior to us moving in as it was the original hood and was 35 years and it didn't work. We finally got the new one in and luckily for us we were able to get one that didn't have to be vented so we could recover some cabinet space by taking the vent out of the cabinet above the vent.

To make a long drawn out electrical story short, Rick ended up in the attic three times to run the electricity to the hood as the last time the electrician was at our house he pulled the power line out of the cabinet.

While Rick and Quent were playing with insulation in the attic Ash and I worked on a rag quilt table runner for her mom and for her brother. Amazingly enough I had BYU fabric so Ash decided on a BYU runner for her brother and a Valentine's Day runner for her mom.

Saturday night we played some games and just hung out talking. A big thanks to Rick and Ash for all their help with our house.

Rick in action.

It's true, Ashley did sew the runners.