October Morning

I took this picture looking south from our back yard.

An October walk in the woods

October 18th, I went for a little hike up Bass Creek. 

The creek below is Bass Creek

Everytime I go, I see something new or different.

These mushrooms growing under the fir trees were pretty colorful.

I wonder if they are edible?   not going to try them....

The different flowers that show up at diffferent times of the year are fun to find.

Below is some dewy clover.

These trees below are so picturesque. lol

I seem to take a picture of them everytime I go by them.

They are on a road that takes off of Bass Creek Rd. on the way up to Bass creek. 

Bass Creek Road

Beautiful fall day in the Bitterroot Valley

Daly Mansion Trees

The Daly Mansion has an annual Craft/Boutique fair in the Fall.  This year Dave and I went and the trees were so lovely.  The colors were wonderful.  I took this picture with my cell phone as we were entering Sat. Nov. 5th.

House Warming Gift

My Friend Patricia gave us this rug as a house warming gift.

It fits just perfect in front of the fireplace.

We think it is an elk hide, Patricia's Dad thought it might be reindeer.

Either way it looks really good.  Thanks Patricia

Sunday Drive- Oct 9th

Dave and I wanted to go for a drive and see the fall colors.  More specifically we wanted to see the Tamarack (Larch) trees.  We figured that since the larch trees on the Bitterroot Mtns were starting to turn yellow, that they should be in good color up near Sealy Lake.  Well not so much.  In fact they weren't turning color at all.  But it was a nice day for a ride and we had lunch at Sealy Lake in the Littlebird restaurant.

These 2 pictures were taken between Sealy Lake and Swan Valley.

We also stopped in Big Fork, but they close up the town at 1700 on Sunday and since we got there a little after 1600 we didn't spend much time there.

Flat Head Lake below.  We drove back home on the East side of the lake.

After we got back to Lolo, we stopped to have dinner at the Lolo Steak House.  It is the best steakhouse.  I love how they cook the steaks over wood.  So good.

Saturday Morning-Oct 8th

The view from our front yard Saturday morning.

As we were leaving to go to the farmers market Saturday, I had to stop and take this picture. 

The morning fog is still lingering behind the trees.

FIrst Friday- Scarecrow Contest

The first Friday of every month, the local towns have activities and the shops stay open longer.

October's First Friday in Stevensville was the Scarecrow Contest.

Dave and I went to Stevensville for dinner at the Blacksmith Brewery (BB) and met our friend Shari.

On Fridays BB has BBQ catered by Longhorn BBQ. Besides brewing beer, they also have homemade root beer.  It is really good.  It reminds me of the root beer my family used to make.

After dinner we walked down the street to see the scarecrows.

It was a brisk evening.  Fall was definitely in the air.

The scarecrows were set out along the road on the way into town.

 

 

 

The one below was called "Monsters like Girl Scout Cookies too"

One of my favorites,

The scarecrow below was called Matilda. 

Shari enjoying her hot chocolate

The one below was sponsored by the Forest Service, Stevensville District

It was called "Trout Wrangler" 

 

Another one of my favorites is the one below.

It is called "Pooh in the Garden".  It was sponsored by the Stevensville Garden Club. 

After we looked at all the scarecrows, we got to vote on 3 that we liked. 

There were about 30 scarecrows.  All were pretty fun. 

Riding the Hiawatha Bike Trail- 2nd time

October 1st, 2011

East Portal-the beginning of the ride.

The first tunnel in the back (tunnel 21 is 1.7 miles long)

This time I went riding with my friend Shari.

She had not done this ride before and this was the last weekend of the season that the shuttle buses are running.

 It was a little hazy from the prescribed fires in the area.

 Below the Kiosk that explains the grave is of a Gandy Dancer. 

 It is always kinda freaky to look down from the tressels.  Especially this one that is so high up.

The trees from this perspective look sureal.

  Some of the flowers this time of year include the purple asters and some white daisies.
edited later-Apparently these purple flowers are spotted knapweed, a noxious weed

The Indian Paintbrush was really vibrant

edited later-the ohter flower/seed plant is Queen Anne's lace

I'm not sure what the cute purple flowers below are.

edited later-I was told that they are in the mint family

A previous tressel in the back.

 The end of the Trail at Pearson waiting for the shuttle ride back to the top.

 It was a fun ride and a great day.

Great Falls via Helena Weekend

Dave and I left Missoula around 11:00 and headed toward Great Falls, MT. on Nov 11th.

We had lunch in Helena and I took a few pics on our way out of town.

This skull sculpture is in front of the Art museum in Helena.

Below sculpture next to capitol building

Just north of Helena there is a ton of bug kill trees.  If you are looking from far away it doesn't look very bad, but...

 when you get closer it is pretty extensive.  All the reddish brown trees are dead.

Should make for intense fires.

 My first view of the Missouri River (near the Big Belt Mountains)

First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park

This State Park is where the Indians ran buffalo over the cliff.  It is located off I-15 at the Ulm exit 10 miles south of Great Falls.  Originally called Ulm Pishkun State Park the name was changed.  Ulm being the name of the town named after Billy Ulm a local rancher.  Pishkun is a Blackfoot word meaning 'deep blood kettle'.

You can see the cliffs in the back along the horizon in picture below.  Apparently they had used it quite often because there used to be large piles of bones and carcasses just below the cliffs.  They estimate that the jump had been used for over 2000 years prior to Lewis and Clark's expidition and there are the remains of millions of buffalo that had been "processed" there by the Indians.

Prairie Dogs Gallore!! 

On the way out to the cliff, there is a black tailed prairie dog community (town).  I was surprised at how many prairie dogs I saw!  Funny little critters. Chirping and barking at me when I tried to get closer for a picture.

I thought it was interesting that the area where they have their burrows has very short or no grass but around the community there is grass 1-2 ft high.  They all looked pretty plump, but I don't know what they had left to eat.

  

  

This is the view from the top of the cliff.

 Dave is standing at the cliffs edge.

 There were clumps of really tall grass on the path below the cliff.  Some of it was taller than me.

Great Falls Montana Nov. 11 2010

Our first stop when we arrived was the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.

 The "Great Falls"
Too bad most of the falls were ruined by dams that were put in.

 Nov. 12, 2010

The Charles Marion Russell Museum

 I was intrigued to find out that Charlie liked to draw little pictures on his correspondence to friends.  There were lots of letters in the museum that had little drawings on them like the ones below.  He even decorated envelopes of some too.

 This is a chair made with bison horns that he sat on in his studio.

 This was one of my favorites

"Fire on the River"

I love the colors in it. (Yes, I think there is purple in it)

He made his own Christmas Cards too. 

Goofing off in the kids section of the museum. 

This is Russell's actual studio below.  Located next to their house.  The Russell's had 4 lots in Great Falls located between 4th and 5th Ave North off of 13th Street North.  The museum is located behind the house and studio.

 This sign is located in front of the studio next to the sidewalk.  It is part of a retaining wall that was put in by the Russell's.

Inside the studio

It was interesting that the studio still smelled from stale cigarette smoke after all this time. 

He died in 1926 at the age of 62.

 

Giant Springs State Park

This spring is right next to the Missouri river and they estimate that 150 million gallons of water per day come from this spring.  Another interesting thing about this spring is that they say the water comes from the Little Belt Mountains 60 miles southeast of Great Falls and it takes a little less than 50 years for the water to reach the spring.

Next to the springs is a fish hatchery.

One last look at the Missouri River before leaving Great Falls.

We spent the night at Helena and went to the "Fall Art Walk" Friday (Nov. 12th) night from 6-9 pm.  

Most of the stores in the downtown walking mall had different local artist's work on display in their shops.  After the  Russell museum that morning and the Helena Art Walk, Dave declared that he was all "arted" out for a little while.

Saturday morning we took the truck to the Les Schwab tire store to get our rear passenger tire checked. We had gotten a low tire pressure light on the day before and I wanted to make sure we didn't have any problems for the remainder of our trip home.  Good thing we did because there was a piece of plastic stuck in the tire.  So after getting patched up, we are on our way again.

Valley of a Thousand Hay Stacks

On our way back to Missoula, we drove thru the Little Blackfoot Valley near Garrison, MT nicknamed "Valley of a Thousand Hay Stacks"

As you drive thru this valley on Hwy 12 west of Helena, you will see haystacks (like below) scattered thoughout the fields.

They use the catapult looking device below to stack the hay.  It is called a "Beaverslide".  It was invented between 1889 and 1910 in the Big Hole Valley.

The hay is pulled up the face of the slide area (see below) and when it gets to the top it drops off the back onto the stack. Apparently they are moveable, but I don't see wheels on any of them, so I am not sure how this is done.

Another Weekend Adventure of Fun!