Homesteaders music

I decided to leave the highway in Montana and explore a remote town. It's strange. They built the town quite a ways off of the highway. Like they didn't want to be bothered by people driving by. It's almost scarry in a way. Of course I took a few pictures.

And no western town should be without a recording studio. I'm feeling some country twang coming on...

I retain the rights to all of my photos.  Please do not use without permission.

It might be genetic

All of the old ladies who lived in the valley looked the same. They all looked like my aunt. It was a regional look. I always thought it must have been because they all went to the same beauty parlor, but now I think it might be genetic..

On Sunday they all went to the same western themed restaurant with chandeliers made out of wagon wheels that hung above each table. Where you got a dinner salad with every dinner meal on the menu. Everyone went there for the salad dressing. They had a special Thousand Island dressing with extra salt in it. Potato chips were served with hamburgers and French fries came with the French dip. But what I liked was the paper place matt that had a map of the state and cartoons on it that I never seemed to tire off. In the lake there was a fisherman in a boat catching a fish. A cowboy on a horse over here and a logger in the forest over there.

My aunt looked like an old school teacher and had a chain on her cat eye glasses for hanging them around her neck although she always had them on her face. For all I know she really was an old school teacher. I don't think she ever went anywhere in her white Ford sedan without a white sweater and a large string of matching plastic beads. She had a white Angora cat named Sissy who made its way around the room behind the furniture and slept behind the fuel oil stove that was up against one wall in the front room of their house. When we came over my aunt would bring out a bowl of Chex Mix to serve us, an exotic delicacy for me. Something we never had at home. While my mom and aunt would visit I'd roam around outside behind the house where the fuel tank that supplied the stove sat out of view.

My Uncle had a shed back there where he made things out of wood. Over the door was a plywood fish. He made lamps that looked like covered wagons, and lamps that just looked like pieces of wood too short to make anything else. They just consisted of a piece of varnished plywood for the base and and upright piece of wood. I always marveled at how he got the cord to go up the inside out of sight. He made cribbage boards out of deer antlers, and crude duck decoys painted with whatever paint he had left over. His wood working varried in skill level. He seemed to produce lots of decoys and it looked to me like he didn't spend a lot of time on them. I'm sure if you put one in the water it would float upside down. He spent a lot of time on on the wagon lamps however. Not so much time on the regular board lamps.

They had a coffee table with a piece of glass on it with which they sandwiched old yellowing photos of family members that sort of matched the yellowing varnish of the table. If the conversation ever slowed down you could always resort to commenting on the photos. "That was George before he had his operation. He takes a hand full of pills now." "He hasn't been well for years." "He can't have salt."

Now when I return to that valley, the old women still all look the same. It must that beauty parlor.

Strange dream

I had a strange dream. I had to drive my car up a very steep road up a hill to where there were some houses. But I couldn't remember where I parked my car. So I was looking around for it and when I found it in a parking lot, it was more like a go-cart than a car. But since I found it and had to go up the steep road I got in/ on the car and up the road I went. When I got to my destination I parked the go-cart and looked down to the next house where one of my professors from art school was rolling around in the grass. He'd stop rolling and lay there motionless on his back with his arms and legs up in the air. That's strange,.. I thought. So I asked a guy who happened to be standing there, "Say, I think that's my professor." I said, "What's wrong with him?" He always does that, the guy responded. He has a drug problem. He's overdosed again. What!..? My Gosh! How horrible, I thought... We can't help him, the guy said.. So after watching him rolling around for a while, I got in my go-cart car and drove back down the hill.

I've posted this picture of Jake before but this is what my professor looked like in my dream as he rolled around.

Bigarm Bay

Here's another picture of Bigarm Bay from the set I took a few weeks ago at Flathead Lake. It would have been a nice morning for a paddle in the canoe. It's about time for me to edit the Flathead Lake photos on the side bar.

I retain the rights to all of my photos.  Please do not use without permission.

Forest sunrise

I took this picture yesterday morning while hiking to where I wanted to hunt before it got light. Actually this guy drove past me and then turned right into where I was headed and parked, keeping me from going down the road I wanted to hunt and claiming it for himself. I had walked a long ways to get there. He just edged me out of it. Pretty uncool of him I thought.

I've been in the mountains for a few days hunting. No luck... And if hunting is a skill, then no luck using my skills,... :) I'm happy not getting anything anyway. I hate killing animals, even fish.

There are a lot of ethical issues surrounding hunting these days. The whole gun thing, and all of the other rules, you can't do this you can't do that. There are those who would say nobody should be allowed to even own a gun. Then there are those who hunt who say this is ethical and that isn't. You can't shoot this way and you can't shoot that way. I've even been criticized by other hunters for having more than one box of shells. I've heard and seen it all when it comes to hunting ethics I think.

Coeur d'Alene river

Here's a picture I took along the Coeur d'Alene River in north Idaho a couple of weeks ago. You can sort of see the fall colors through the morning fog. Click to see bigger.

Bighorn sheep photos

Now I've done it...I've added some of my Bighorn sheep photos to the side bar.

To be honest, I'd rather photograph women,.. But this being Montana and all,..

And no, the sheep is not smoking a cigarette,... It's grass,..

Red state reactions

I usually listen to radio in the mornings on my vintage Zenith Trans-Oceanic. (no home should be without one) I like to listen to KOFI out of Montana as I get local Montana news when I'm not in Montana. Before the election, and before I got the e-mail from Park City, there was a story about a farmer in a small Montana town who parked a trailer full of manure in front of an Obama campaign office with a sign on it that read "Change we need, what a load of crap." Good Grief! I thought... So that probably had an influence on how I took the e-mail header.

Gosh I hope I didn't get someone in trouble down there for something as harmless as that e-mail header. Some poor person just trying to do a good job. I really wasn't offended.

And BTW, I really like Park City, it's a great place to ski. It really is beautiful there, and the nice thing is that you really don't need a car to get around there due to a really cool bus system that was free when I was there. Just fly into Salt Lake, and take a van (you have to pay for the van) to Park City. It's really slick. And they are 30% friendly to democrats,...( I'm just kidding! )

And on the subject of Obama getting elected and reaction in red states like Montana,.. I heard a story out of Montana this morning on how there has been a run on the gun stores for fear that Obama will take away guns. He's said he won't do that but he could appoint a judge who might be against 2nd Amendment rights. I guess you could look at it this way, gun sales are up and that's good for the economy...

And on the subject of guns and hunting, A friend of mine came to stay this weekend and hunt in the mountains behind my place. I was going to go but it's really socked in and raining and I'm sort of getting over a stuffed up head. Don't really want to get my rifle wet. So I'm going to put some chili on in the slow cooker and perhaps drive my truck back there this afternoon.

Bitter waring tribes

David Brooks was on the Charlie Rose show last night and said this; The conservative movment has been broken up into bitter waring tribes. Something like that. He reflected on the 1980s when the conservative movement was "flowering" and then pointed to a few events that served to divide the republican party and conservative movement. Taking on government, contract with america, and the religious right. But in a way his complaint was about the dumbing down of the right. The conservative movement of Buckley and the thoughtful debate of Firing Line, which I used to watch and enjoy, had somehow morphed into the the mocking rant of right wing radio to work the "joe six-pack" crowd into a thoughtless frenzy in a period of about twenty years.

I remember Rush Limbaugh once saying, Don't read the news, I'll read it and explain it for you. How small minded. It really is time for a change.

Three million to study bears in Montana

I wish John McCain would stop using the three million dollars to study grizzly bears in Montana as an example of wasteful pork spending. He did it again Thursday. It makes me glad I didn't vote for him. McCain didn't bother to come to Montana this whole campaign. Obama on the other hand went there 5 or 6 times.

Now I realize that the republicans have no interest in science, but you'd think they'd have some interest in creation, and you'd think they'd understand that a lot of money is generated when people come to Montana with the hope of seeing a bear or a bighorn or perhaps just to fish for trout. There was a piece on the News Hour tonight featuring trout fishing in Montana and global warming.

Well it just so happens that trout fishing in Montana is a three hundred million dollar a year industry according to the piece on the News Hour. Trout die if the water gets above 78 degrees. There has been a 5-7 degree rise in river water temps in Montana since the 1950s. We wouldn't know these things if we didn't study them...

A couple of years ago we had a German couple who were touring the west stay with us at our cabin. One of the things they wanted to do in Montana was they wanted to see a bear. So I asked them through an interpretur,. "Don't you have bears in Germany?" No.. "What about that city?" I asked,.. "Don't you have a city named after a bear?". I guess they killed all of their bears a long time ago.

Well The Grizzlies are pretty popular in Montana. As a University of Montana alum and former Griz I take issue with John McCain. Most likely his wife has a wardrobe that cost millions. I noticed some pretty serious bling too. Palin has only been in the picture for a couple of months and the tab was $150k for her wardrobe. Now that's wasteful spending... John....

Do me a favor. After you loose the election, don't move to Montana. Go to Wyoming and hang with Cheney. Just don't go hunting with him.

Bighorn Ram

Ok Curt.. this Bighorn picture is for you! :) Click on the picture to get up close and personal. It seemed that everywhere I went in Montana Sunday I ran into Bighorns! I'm not kidding. This one was about 50 miles from the others in my last post. I'm pretty sure you know where this is Curt, but we won't tell anyone else... None of these rams were like the one I saw on Wild Horse Island though. That BIGHORN was a monster and one of the biggest Bighorns I've ever seen. I got really close to that one too.

Fact is,.. I think I'm going to put together a collection of my Bighorn photos on the side bar for all to see :) I've been thinking about that for a while now, as Bighorns are my favorite big game animal and I have quite a few photos.

Bighorn sheep photos

I call this picture, "bighorn behind fence". I'm just kidding... I actually call it "barbed wire and bighorn". Well not really... I'm afraid if I'd gotten out of the car the sheep would have skedaddled, and then I'd have to call the pictures "bighorns in the distance". :)

There were some bighorn sheep next to the highway in Montana today and they were horny. ( Sorry,..I couldn't resist) The rams were trying to cut out ewes for themselves so they were pushing eachother around. It was kind of fun to watch. One moment it was like nothing was going on and all of the sheep were grazing, and the next moment one of the rams would cop an attitude and spring into action.

Jesus freak

Our cars and trucks define us. I think the font choice is a little dark for this decal.

Needles and pins

I bought a couple of CDs today. I was running out of road trip music. I went to get Charlie Haden Rambling Boy and I also bought Lucinda Williams "Sweet Old World" as sort of an afterthought as they had a low price on it.

If you are reading Curt, you'd like the Rambling Boy CD. You'd like the Lucinda Williams too but I suspect you might already have that one.

If you click on the Rambling Boy link and have highspeed you can listen to the album as it just starts to play. Charlie Haden is a jazz bassist who plays with Pat Metheny but this ablum is sort of classic country/ bluegrass. It has several greats on it. Pat Metheny, Vince Gill, Ricky Scaggs, Rosane Cash, Bruce Hornsby, Dan Tyminsky on mandolin and Jerry Douglas on Dobro. But the real reason I bought it was because of Haden's three daughters, Petra, Rachel, and Tanya's three part harmony. Their voices blend in a very special way I guess because they are sisters.

In this recording Haden goes back to his family roots. I can sort of relate to that. When I was young we played music together as a family in the cabin. I'd play mandolin and guitar with my dad who played banjo. My mom played church hymns on an old pump organ. We'd have a fire going in the fire place and make popcorn. That's a pretty simple pleasure.

My mom was classically trained and my dad an old time musician. I was somewhere in the middle. Piano lessons and violin in orchestra.

I was repsonsible for keeping my dad's banjo in tune. It was hanging on the wall in a room I had to go through to get to my room. So every now and then when I went by I'd take it down and tune and hang it back up. Now and then I'd have to put new strings on it. I hated doing that as sometimes I'd break the high string on it and my old man would be mad as it wasn't easy to get strings for it. There was something about it that made it really tricky to get that high string all the way up to pitch without breaking it.

Talk about being on needles and pins tuning that string! tink..tink..tink.. BOING! :)

Flathead Lake picture

Here's another picture I took this morning as the sun rose over Flathead Lake in Montana.

Merganser picture

A merganser cruising the bay this morning.

I retain the rights to all of my photos.  Please do not use without permission.

Making up

Here's a picture I took tonight of the bay. It had been stormy all day and even as I launched my boat it was raining. Before it got dark the sky opened up as if to resolve a quarrel.

Christopher Buckley endorses Obama

Would the late William F Buckley Jr. be rolling over in his grave at the news of his son Christopher Buckley endorsing Barak Obama? I don't think so, but Christopher Buckley has resigned from the conservative magazine, National Review, that his father founded.

In a Huffington Post article by Jason Linkins, the young Buckley is quoted as saying this about the state of the conservative movement;

"I no longer have any clear idea what, exactly, the modern conservative movement stands for. Eight years of "conservative" government has brought us a doubled national debt, ruinous expansion of entitlement programs, bridges to nowhere, poster boy Jack Abramoff and an ill-premised, ill-waged war conducted by politicians of breathtaking arrogance."

What I find interesting about this is the fact that he left the magazine over his endorsement of Obama, and that they were quick to accept his resignation. It reminds me of when Bush said either you are with us or against us and the lack of tollerance for a "reasoned argument for the opposition". McCain's nomination and campaign is reflective of the situation within the conservative right, and this lack of unity is what will most likely cost them the election.

Country twang

I was sitting at my computer today with my headphones on listening to country music while I worked...

"Hey baby I'm a country man,
why don't you come and join me in my new deer stand,..."

Well,..I guess it wasn't as bad as, "I want to get you in the sticks and check you for ticks"... or however that goes.

And come to think of it, whatever happened to Wordpecker?

Tamarack Larch

I haven't posted any cyber trees lately. Here's a young Tamarack /Larch tree about to change color and drop its needles for the winter. I think the Tamarack is my favorite tree. This one was deep in the forest along a stream enjoying a bit of warmth from the sun before winter settles in.