Elk Hunting 2012

Jimmy and Trent on day one of our elk hunting trip near Zortman, Montana

I'm carrying the lunches to insure that I'm not left behind! Ha!

Time for a lunch break.  The sunshine was glorious that day.

This is the day the Jimmy, Trent and I hiked 8 miles.  We didn't see a single
elk, but after a lunch break we started calling "Hoo-ti-hoo!" and we did
finally scare up about 5 mule deer.  They were very curious about the
strange sounds, but they didn't like the looks of us and
they went dashing across the hills.

Hey look, I think I see something.  

Towards the end of our hike we could see our campsite.  See those two
little white dots down below?  Our camper is on the left side.  We had
such a great time!  Trent and Cassie were there for a few of the days.
We had success on the last day, so we have elk in the freezer and it
only snowed a little bit on the way home, so the drive wasn't too treacherous.
And after being away for 10 days, it was lovely to get home.

Today's post is a tribute to Phoebe, our sweet "mutt" that we adopted out of the Mountain Trader almost 9 years ago.  She was always too happy to let us know if a skunk was on the property and she loved to play in the water like no other dog I've known.  If you had a garden hose in your hand, she thought it was purely for her enjoyment.  The flowers got watered only after she was drenched and exhausted.  I opened up a folder of pictures to look for one of Phoebe to share here and this is the first one I found.  Three years ago this month, our precious Morgan went to heaven so I like the thought of her being reunited with Phoebe.  I don't care what anyone else says, I believe in the phrase that "all dogs go to heaven".  As much as Morgan loved animals, I'm sure she's convinced the Father to let her have a menagerie, so Phoebe should fit right in.  Farewell for now, dear Phoebe.