Lake De Smet, Wyoming

Lake DeSmet is a beautiful long lake in northern Wyoming. We fish here every time we get out here. This time was no different. We spent several hours with our poles in the water. Afterall, we had $250 invested into our out-of-state licenses.

A mind often wanders, particularly mine, to things like loons, red rocks, and perhaps UFOs. Observe those individual cloud formations in the sky. 

Can you spot an "L", an "i", followed by a question mark? I found myself staring in wonder for longer than intended, as I was meant to be concentrating on the tip of my fishing rod.

A man, his wife's palm and a dog on guard. Hank can't figure out what happens to the loons when they disappear beneath the water. He'll stare in the same place, but they come up in a totally different spot. He gets fooled every time.

A little commotion and again my palm.

We caught one and kept it! Steve is demonstrating the size with his hands here. It's my fish! Although, I needed Steve to point out that my pole was wiggling.

I used a favorite herb and regular butter slices as you see in the above pic.

The meal was excellent, especially with the side of Broccoli Salad!

Looking forward to more fishing adventures!

One final, very important note:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RILEY!!

(Today is my son's birthday. :))

Out West

We hit the road from home a few weeks back and headed west. We stopped in Deadwood SD where Steve did pretty good at slots. Now we're settled in a log cabin at the foothills of the Wyoming mountains! 

We trailered to this parking lot. There is still plenty of snow up there so the three of us did some exploring. The snowy mountain in the middle of the picture has a road going horizontally halfway up the mountain. That is the road we will take to get up the mountain in our four-wheeler. There are no guardrails. It's mostly a one lane, though it is passable. You can see for miles and miles. There are no guardrails. It is the only way up. It is beautiful at the top!

Water break at the top.

Hank's dish is out, too.

So much quiet beauty.

Not a soul around except for this guy...

...and this guy.

And Me!

A wonderful day in the Mountains!

Now we have to go back down the road to our truck. 

 

Road Trip To St. Ignace, MI

Recently, Steve and Hank and I took a quick road trip to St. Ignace. Steve needed a vehicle part from an auto parts yard. It was a beautiful day, so I grabbed my camera and off we went.

We stopped on a Lake Huron beach. Out yonder is the world's fifth-longest suspension bridge - the Mackinac Bridge. The c is silent so you say mackinaw for mackinac. On the other side of the bridge is Lake Michigan. So here you can see two of the five Great Lakes in one stop!

I'm looking southwest. To the left is the lower peninsula and to the right (which you can't see and I'm standing on) is the Upper Peninsula. The bridge extends roughly 5 miles across.

Cars and trucks heading to the UP.

My Gang

Behind Hank are the islands of Bois Blanc and Round Island. 

You can barely make out the Round Island Lighthouse.

That huge white building is the spectacular Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island!! I've been blessed to stay there a couple of times with my mom and every moment is literally grand!!

There is so much beauty up here in the UP!

What's In Our Backyard?

 

In our neck of the woods, Steve has wildlife cameras set up here and there on our property. I thought I'd share with you our most recent pictures. The above doe doesn't know she's on camera, or does she? I think she's attempting her best left side profile pic.

!😳!

A snowshoe rabbit

Without the flash of the camera illuminating her eyes, she'd be incognito.

A Bobcat

This whitetail buck is a bit suspicious.

So is this Doe.

Hmmm...

I see all of you.

Wolf

Wolf

Wolf

And many more pics of wolves

that supposedly don't exist in the quantities

 that they actually do around our house.

You should hear them howl in packs.

Beautiful yet creepy.

A fox?

A Steve

A Hank on the trail of a what?

Freddy Fox Jr. was outside our window last night. 

He's a junior because his dad visits periodically. 

And yes, those are Christmas lights you see. 

No explanations or guilt-ridden reasons why they're still up. 

We just like 'em.

 And so do the Freddies.

Snowmobiling and Beaver Trapping

Last weekend our son and our grandson came up to check beaver traps. In between the checking, Eddie did some zoomin' around the house on his little snowmobile.

The snow was sparse and the temps warm. Little man got stuck on this little snow hill but Grandpa came to the rescue and gave him a push.

We took a jaunt to Hulbert for a burger and watched the deer chomp down corn and beets. On the upper left you can see a spike.

Back home and back out to the traps they went...

...and came back with a harvest of three!

The dogs get in on a picture.

But not Edison. He wanted to ride some more.

I sure am fascinated by a beaver's teeth and feet.

A Day of Sledding

We finally received snow just in time for our son and his family to come up for the weekend for some winter fun. Steve and Riley set Beaver Traps, we snowmobiled, the kids snowmobiled on their little snowmobile, we celebrated Edison's 4th birthday in our barn, and we went sledding down at our camp. Above is 6 year old Harper and her dad getting ready to whiz down the hill.

Harper and Edison getting help from Mom and Dad. They want to fly down the hill on their bellies.

And then they walk back up again.

Grandpa found his perfect perch and watched.

And me? I was taking pictures, of course!