Goodbye 2015!

After days of rain, wind, and snow, we are having very cold, but beautiful sunny days. What a nice way to end the year.

The second the sun comes out the jackets go on and we hit the yard or go for a walk.

This week I set up my new bird feeder station:

Sometimes Nim still looks so young.

He found the one area with rays of sun and settled in for some chewing.

I set up the chair and studied. I didn't last long. The second you stop moving it is pretty hard to keep warm enough for the hands to work well.

Unexpectedly this year has ended on a major note of sadness for one of the organizations I love http://www.blinknow.org/. For those of you that follow my Instagram, you saw that I recently reposted a photo of the young boy Ravi with a dog. Like many of their supporters, we find ourselves loving these kids from afar. I don't know the circumstances at this time, but a post went out last night that Ravi has died (definitely sudden). For everyone that followed his story from his extremely malnourished start to the boy he is today, it was a terrible blow. I know I wasn't the only one that cried about a boy I know only through the love of the people that shared him.

I don't know Maggie Doyne (BlinkNow founder) but I greatly admire her and she is definitely in my thoughts. I appreciate her sharing Ravi with me (really the world). She is going into the new year suffering a major and life changing loss.

Happy New Year's Eve to everyone. One way or another the New Year always brings change and promise doesn't it?  

Winter Solstice

I do love the Winter Solstice. In theory it is all uphill from here as the days start to get longer again. :)

Today we got snow. This is actually my second snow already of this winter, but the first really sticking snow.

As you can see, we literally got no sun today. Nim was actually happy when the downpour turned to snow and more willing to be outside.

Last week Jack and Nim hit the trail together. Jack's human is starting a great new job and had a rare weekday off before the job started so we got the boys out for hiking together.

It was truly a beautiful day on Cedar Butte.

Rattlesnake Lake is still low...but bigger than the puddle it was the month prior.

Settle in for the longest night...

Squirrel, Blue Heron, and Holter Monitor

The squirrels have taken to climbing the house below the window and looking in at me when they want me to put food out (I feed the birds...the squirrels benefit). The cats and Nim have been beside themselves. Sometimes the squirrel even do this in the middle of the night.

Since the creek is flooded the blue heron has been out daily. He is very disagreeable about being photographed.

The only time I see little fish is during the summer when the water is far lower and more still, but who knows what else got stirred up? He seems to think something is worth it.

Nim wore the holter monitor Wednesday to Thursday. Thanks to all the rain I really had to keep him inside most of the time, but because we were over a year since the last one I really wanted to get it done.

It is pretty amazing when you compare to this small digital monitor to the large cassette ones Odin had to use.

(Odin and Emile, November 2007)

Nim did pretty well with it. He really really doesn't like the electrodes coming off. I said last time I was going to set some adhesive release and I really think I need to do that. I don't remember Odin having this much trouble. Maybe I have forgotten.

Nim on squirrel watch. :) The vest is definitely one of the better ones I have ever used. It fits well and I didn't have to use the extra tape around all the wires under it. I had the strap a little too tight as I learned when I fed him, but otherwise I think it was more comfortable than some of the vests. Hard to say since Nim can't let me know, but I hope so.

December Storms

Hello December! Talk about stormy weather.

We did have a week of more freezing temperatures and like clockwork the pellet stove broke. There was round the clock electric blanket "sharing" after that.

This past week has been about the rain. Heavy rain. Unbelievable rain. Tuesday night I gave up trying to sleep at all and instead I read, storm watched, and watched Waitress for like the 100th time (gosh I love that movie) and the cats hid while it simply poured and poured. It was so loud and a little stressful. There was no sleeping through it.

The next morning creek on the property that was already too full became a new animal. Lots of new channels and expansions from this storm. I am not thrilled about some of the trees that are now surrounded by creek water, but we will see what happens when the water level drops again.

The view from the lower property:

View from the top:

Nim was baffled.

I took a couple of video which are actually fairly boring except to myself, but this one of the upper area might be fun to watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8rSdfSAj1w

 Less exciting, lower property:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10esKTFtGDo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAzHipSuyaY

It is raining again as I type this, and windy of course. I have power, internet, and nothing landed on the house. Many people were not so lucky. A lot of surrounding areas are in really sorry shape and some people have pretty serious damage to their homes. Hopefully things will dry out next week like they are projecting.