tessa dog

tessa the wonder dog passed away peacefully this week with me scratching her favorite place under her chin. i could not have asked for a more loyal, loving, protective companion. she has scared away everything from bears to packrats from our campsites over the years. she was the queen. moving to our land 4 years ago was a dream retirement for the old girl. she took great pride in scaring the deer away from the house.
you will be missed old girl. you ARE a forever dog. cannon beach oregon

nothing like the bond between a boy and his dog.

13 years old

always a gentle playmate

tessa at our mountain top wedding, she was the ring-bearer.

following bob around the state

here is a stream restoration project near lincoln, montana.
saurkraut creek runs through a beautiful little valley about a mile long and a half a mile wide. it was heavy with gold at one time and was mined so that the entire valley floor 20 feet deep was excavated. when they left, the creek was just an unnatural straight line. trout unlimited paid bob to put in a meandering stream with downed trees intact with large roots to stabalize the banks. now there are waterfalls, oxbows and trout habitat.
the only bad part of the trip was our treasured old dog tessa had to be put to sleep. she was the best mountain climbing buddy that evolved into a wonderful babysitter.

big toys.

bob did a job on flathead lake, that's wild horse island behind them. it was really fun taking him lunch here! quite the drive from eureka.

throwing rocks, nothing more fun for my kiddos.

prince family visit

MOUNTAIN MAMAS!
here's our hiking girls on top of webb mountain. great day playing with the princes.

logan, after a nosedive in the deepest mud puddle on the journey.

logan is mud loving boy.

melt down because i pulled him out of a puddle!

a great hug from elle, my new hiking buddy.

twodot, montana

bob won the bid to rebuild part of an irrigation ditch in twodot, montana. he was gone for a month, but we were able to go support him for a week of the job.

this was his campsite. our new camper was purchased just for the occasion, i'm sure we will get a lot of use out of it, great bathroom and kitchen, mama's happy!

he dug it out and installed a 3 part liner system.

wind is the biggest resource here. logan couldn't even play at the playground one day it was so strong. poor little tyke was being pushed over every time he stood up!


daddy working with the crazy mountains in the distance. named after an early settler woman who became lost and destitude here. they found her here, a "crazy woman".

where in the hell is twodot?

well, its the gographical center of montana and the windiest place i've ever been.

first and the biggest windfarm in the state are here.

also where bob has been working for the month of april.

we missed him terribly, but we enjoyed our visit.

twodot is named for twodot wilson, a cattle rancher, who had two dots for his brand, on the the hip and shoulder. not a lot more than cattle ranches and windmills in twodot. the town was 2 blocks long and 2 blocks wide.

baby moose

mama moose had a little one in our backyard this weekend. see the little one under mama?
just after mama moose charged max, he hustled for home then!

cleaning her new baby.

mud puddles and dogs

we adopted a new dog named maximus, an airedale, to be our guard dog.
airedales are bred to be tenacious hunters of bears and lions. most importantly, gentle with little ones and protective. perfect combination for camp cuffe. been raining here for weeks, mud puddles have been our passion lately.
mistie and simon visited to join in the fun.

max, doing his thing. he circles the clearing around the house a couple of times an hour. gives an alert bark to let us know if he sees anything.

max is always close by keeping an eye on the action, checks on each of us individually.



max's favorite perch.

eureka riverwalk

it was 70 degrees in eureka today!
we took jo's trike out for a cruise and logan waddled along.
took us 2 and a half hours to go 1.2 miles.
a great day was had by all.

thanks for the fleece gigi and aunt carmen.

jake's handmedown bear hat, i believe.

thank you!