Tracks

We had a huge wind event here yesterday.  It howled all day, shut the canyon down and made life miserable for everyone.  Today the sun came out, the wind quit and the landscape was untouched.  I like these kind of days because I can go out and see what kind of animals are roaming about.  As I took Maggie for a run through Shundahai this afternoon I looked at the untouched snow.  There were few tracks, nothing had been moving.  The first set of track that I saw were familiar.  The wild turkeys were on the move.

I expected to see some deer or moose tracks but there were none to be seen.. I did see some tracks that indicate that spring is on the way.  Apparently a pine squirrel had come out of hibernation and made a foray to see what was around to eat.  Nothing, so it went back to the nest.

You know animals are sometimes hard to see but they leave their ttraces everywhere.  Come on spring.

Ice Art

Bear Lake has made a number of diligent efforts to freeze this year but to no avail.  I always enjoy watching the ice formation from my place seeing how it move, forms and melts,  Down by the lake you can see it stacking up. tearing up vegetation and doing all kinds of strange things.  One of my favorite is when ice of one hardness (colder) invades warmer ice and then refreezes.  "Ice Art"

Gill's

You know that I have always been a fisheries biologist concentrating on trout.  I do love to fish for panfish however.  Went to Mantua today and caught a mess of bluegill.  They are a pain to fillet but the meat is so sweet and good they are worth it.

Cisco Fishing

The first time I went cisco fishing was in 1963.  I will never forget coming over the hill as it was breaking light seeing the beach covered with people standing out in the water with nets attached to bamboo poles.  There was thick, black smoke billowing up from numerous tire fires on the shoreline.  There were campers, trailers and tents scattered along the beach and the Fish and Game had a check station set up on the road.  As we went down a scruffy bunch of fishermen in hip boots who had drank too much booze were swiping at fish.  Some fell in but they were all soaked to the bone.  There was no camo or Gortex to be seen.  In those days Bear Lake was one of the few waters open to fishing during the winter, there was not Super Bowl or video games to play.  The local businesses profited. They caught tens of thousands of ciscos and people worried that they would deplete the population.  The limit was 50 and "By God" they stayed until they got their limit.   No Parks and Recreation then so no fees or regulations.  Everyone ate what the caught because it was illegal to use cisco as bait on Bear Lake.  The "Rockpile" had not been discovered so there was no one there.  We all believed that cisco were only seen in January and went to the depths of the lake for the rest of the year.  The TV stations had a "cisco run" report on the news each night.  It was a huge event that was unique in the U.S.

How things have changed today...........

  

Where have the deer gone?

Last year during this time there was thousands of deer along the lake on the east shore.  No one could understand where they all came from.  There wasn't even any snow to push them down.  My personal opinion was that they could sense the record winter that was on the way.  A lot of other wildlife acted strangely also.  Well, I was at North Eden last week and this is what was there.  A pencil buck with a few does and fawns.  Maybe this winter won't be so bad or they all winter killed last year.

The wife is gone

You know it is interesting.  As an independent individual who rarely lets anyone know what he is doing or where he is going I have realized that I like to have Doreen keeping track of me.  When I slip out, do something maybe I shouldn't do or just be me it is not near as fun when no one is keeping track of me. I have all of these illusions of what I can do but when it comes to doing iut I lose interest.   I hate to admit it but I must be domesticated,  The only one that is truly happy is Maggie who gets to lay in the living room when I am around.  She still sleeps outside at night.  I miss you Doreen,

Left in the cold

I am sort of depressed today.  I thought that I would have plenty of time to take the mower off the tractor and put the snow blower on.  Well that did not happen.  Saturady came with snow and wind.  Mike and I had a great weekend planned with hunting and fishing that all went up in smake with the weather.  We still had a great weekend.  My place is a 1000 feet above Bear Lake we we got the 18 inches of snow and the lake got a skiff,  The blower is finally on and the deck is clear.  What a bummer.  I have lived here long enough to know that this snow is here for the duration.  La Nina is positioned in the Pacific so batten down the hatches, a long winter is coming.  It would be a little easier if Doreen was here to be depressed with me but she and Audrey and Ashley are in Aruba soaking up the sun.  Good for them, bad for me.