Living on the Edge

Wolves in North Idaho

This is my favorite picture from the past few weeks.  

The girls and I did a girls day out together this week.  There is this place in North Idaho I've been wanting to take them to for quite some time now.  It's called Wolf People and it's in Cocolalla, Idaho.  The name of the town is fun to say...it kind of rolls off your tongue...

Each day they are open they bring a couple wolves from their wolf refuge.  These are wolves that they use for education.  They will go and visit schools and teach children the truth about wolves...to help educate everyone on what is fact and what is fiction.

It was amazing to see them up close.  They are much larger than I thought they would be.  I guess I thought they were more the size of a coyote.

Q might be the animal whisperer, but CC has a way with dogs.  They love her.  She is our dog girl.  Both wolves licked her hand and greeted her.  (Our dog Buddy is the same way...she is the only one that he will lick/kiss!)

The male wolf loved having his back scratched...they were working on shedding their winter coat big time!  It was just a little unnerving to have your kids scratching a wolf's back.  But like when we were in Alaska and the girls got to feed the reindeer, it was a chance of a lifetime!

Yes, the gate was open!  Nobody got away!

They were a little wary, but pretty easy going....just don't go near their bones!

Wolf People is a pretty important place now that the government delisted the wolves.  Wolves can be hunted now, which is sad.  Their numbers will drop dramatically and all because people fear them or fear what they think they might do.

A Belated Mother's Day

Well, this is the third time that I've started typing this post.  If you are reading this it means that MSN didn't fail and send my typing into far nethers of webdom.  Of course if you aren't reading this you won't know that I am screaming and throwing my laptop across the room in a fit of frustrated web-psychosis.  Actually I wouldn't dare throw my laptop...because it's my friend now.  I'm not sure how I got along without it...mostly because it's off limits for the kids...so I know if something isn't working right...I messed it up!

We celebrated mother's day a week late this year because DD had to work.  The girls planned a special day for me. They whispered about it all week. They were so excited to have a secret that I didn't know.  It's fun that they are old enough now to actually keep a secret.

So Sunday afternoon we headed downtown and ended up at Riverfront Park.  The falls are incredibly high right now with the extreme spring run-off. So a favorite spot right now, for tourists as well as the local population, is the Riverfront Park's Gondolas.  It's normally a great photo opportunity, only made better by the river's high flow.

The gondolas take you down and over the river.

 

It was hot out, but the mist from the falls kept us cool.

It's not an incredibly long trip...but it's fun.  Of course Q was so relaxed throughout the ride.

Yup, that's her grip.  I don't think she let go until it was time to disembark back at the top!

She looks like she's having fun!  She is...as long as you don't make her let go of the railing.

This goose had a nest with a view of the river.  Our gondola went past her and her nest on the cliff.  I bet those babies have a short learning curve for learning to swim and probably for flying too.

This little troll was also there to greet us at the turnaround point  across the river.

Of course the girls knew that second to having a family day, my favorite part of the day would be the chance to take some fun pictures!

How about some spring...

Here are some friends that have come back this spring to life out here on the edge...

The marmots woke up.  They are a busy little critter, scurrying around the marmot mound.  They are like my kids' hamsters.  You just want to go up and pet one...until they mash their teeth into your flesh of course. Actually they are more likely to just disappear down into their den.

The pair of osprey that built a new nest next to the bridge are back.  They have a bit of work to do on their nest to make it egg-worthy.

One osprey looks like another which looks like another.  But this is a different osprey in a totally different nest.  This one is an older nest along the Little Spokane River.  There's actually two standing there, but she wouldn't show her face.  Apparently her left side is not her best which makes her camera shy.

The turkeys were making their way through the woods behind our house.  They are teasing all the hunters that live in the neighborhood.  Though the boy turkeys have something more important on their minds right now....

impressing the girl turkeys!  Men...only one thing on their mind!

I love this picture.  Can you find the critter in this picture?  The dove blended in perfect with the rocks in the backyard!

No critters here....well maybe some chilly fish...but the falls are flowing...really flowing with the combination of snow melt and rain/snow fall this spring. 

Well, I need to get my other daughter off to school.  It's raining today so the critters will be laying low.  That's ok, because I've got walls that need a fresh coat of paint....lots of paint.

Bald Eagle Hotel

I'm always entering things into the event calendar on my SpokaneMama website. Every time I hear of something, or noodle around on the internet and find something I make a note of it and add them to the calendar.  I had heard of this event before the website was up and running last year.  So I knew this winter, I would make sure and post the dates for it as well as drag the family out to do it!! 

We had a fun family day on Lake Coeur d'Alene with some friends.  Next winter we will bring my parents to do it when they come up for Christmas. (Don't worry mom, the inside is heated and has big windows)

Coeur d'Alene Resort Eagle Cruise

in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho  1-800-365-8338

This would be the resort.  Two things cross my mind as I placed this picture.  With the boats in the foreground it looks like it's literally on the water...kind of reminiscent of an airforce carrier carrying a hotel on top.  The second thing is....does it look like it should have flags flying from the turrets up top?

It's actually an awesome resort. Very lavish with an amazing view of the lake and the surrounding mountains.  Just not sure what the architect was going for..middle age naval ship?  I'm standing on the top deck of the Eagle Cruise Boat...see the snow on the tables?...it will become future fuel for a skurmish between dads and daughters.

Part of the view from the dock at the resort.

More view....this was the view during the whole cruise...just sprinkle in a few dozen eagles, some ducks, a few flocks of Canada geese, and a great blue heron and this was our day.

So we went on a 2 hour cruise...(the theme song from Gilligan's Island just popped into my head!)  It was very chilly when we headed out.  Even the kids ended up coming back inside till we arrived at the bay with the eagles...

You can't tell, cuz we grabbed the corner table, but the boat was full.  I'm sure they could have fit more people, but unless you went outside there really wasn't a single empty chair left inside. 

This picture was actually taken after the girls ran 247 laps around the deck of the boat (after the first couple laps they said "hey mom, we met the captain!"--yuh think?!), had a snowball fight (started by a couple of unnamed fathers), played animal mineral and vegetable, spotted a few dozen eagles, and drank some hot chocolate and nibbled a couple peanut butter cookies.

We think they will sleep well tonight!

Here's who we were looking for. Not a great picture...next year I will win the lottery and buy my dream digital SLR camera that will do all the hard stuff for me!

This one turned out a bit better.  They just wouldn't turn their good side to the camera for me!

How about a fun summer place like this one?  Little chilly this time of the year though!

Well to end the day...as if on cue...we had an awesome sunset!  We hadn't seen one of those in quite a few days too!

Whose Home is it Anyway?

Well our friendly neighborhood moose has been traveling around the neighborhood again. She spent the afternoon yesterday running around, eating from the trees in backyards, and running between houses.  She surprised some people, excited a few, and amazed others as she appeared and just as quickly disapparated (this term from Harry Potter really fits) before our cameras could catch a good shot.

One minute she was there, the next minute she was gone!  Moose are magical creatures that on first impression are simply an awkward collection of gawky and gangly limbs.  But they actually have the agility and grace of a professional dancer, whether walking over fences or running from view.

Now, keep in mind, we live sandwiched between a river and a state park forest. We have deer, marmots, coyotes, fox, muskrat, quail, osprey, herons, mountain lions and now moose as our neighbors.  They have all been in our backyard at some point in the two years since we moved here.

Each year we battle the loss of our veggies, the stripped bark on our trees, and the destruction of our bird feeders.  It’s expected.  We just replant.  We share this neighborhood with the people as well as the animals that live here.  We moved here knowing this was the case.  We actually chose to live here for this very reason.

Apparently not everyone around here feels this way.  Personally I think they should move back to the city if they don’t like all their four-legged neighbors.  But instead they want the moose removed.  They’ve called the state park and other agencies trying to get someone to remove the animal.  They are calling her aggressive.  I think she is persistent.  She hasn’t charged after anyone though she’s done a lot of running around.  And if everyone keeps their distance, we can cohabitate until she decides to move on.

Besides, if she is moved, another one will simply take her place.  This is moose habitat!  Although I’m not happy that neighbors are calling to have her removed,

I would still love to have seen the face of the animal control person on the other end of the phone when my neighbor was complaining that the moose was “aggressively eating her neighbor’s plants in her yard”.  I wonder how many of these phone calls they get a year.

Moose on the Loose

Well, Living on the Edge brings another chapter to the Critter Chronicles.  Ooh, I like that name.  Think I'll have to keep it! 

Anyway, I have a couple pictures of the current beast plaguing our neighborhood.  Now let me preface these pictures with...they stink!  But it's the best I could shoot in the low light.  Believe me I tried every setting I could and this was the best I could get shooting into a quickly dimming forest.

Yeah if I keep the pixels small enough, you can at least see what it is. 

This female moose was our first Trick or Treater to stop by our house on Halloween morning.  Apparently she hung out around our house at 6:30 in the morning (so the first siting says).  She wasn't out there when my oldest caught the jr. high bus at 6:50, but apparently when my youngest walked down the hill at 8:45 she nearly ran smack dab into it.

Fortunately our neighbor saw CC and yelled for her to stop running (she was running just for fun--not from the moose). CC couldn't see the moose from where she was, but their paths would have met just before the bus stop!  Cranky female moose vs cranky 9 year old girl?  Not sure who would have faired worse, but fortunately we didn't have to find out.  Good thing too cuz I'm not sure if Aflac covers Moose accidents.  That's a question for BD (Big Daddy)....

Anyway, our neighbor gathered all the kids at the bus stop into her car and waited for the bus...thanks Jen!  And that was a good thing too, since the moose was cranky enough to chase along after the bus as it drove by her!

I got to hear this whole story twice when I got home from school.  My first thought was guilt!  I wasn't there to protect my baby, but my second thought quickly overcame it--I was so bummed to miss seeing the moose and catch a shot with my camera (that is practically attached to my hip these days for just such moments). 

So as I was thinking about getting up early the next morning to cruise the neighborhood in search of moose, my neighbor called to say it was down the street!  So the girls and I jumped into the car and boogied a quarter mile down our road, and there she was munching voraciously on the deciduoius shrubs with leaves she could find in the forest.  (Guess she needed a break from the ones around our house!)

One of these days the planets will align and I will capture a good moose picture!  So keep watching!

Animal Parts part 1

We spend a lot of times in zoos because our kids just LOVE animals. They are 9 and 11 and chose a trip to Yellowstone over a trip to Disneyland! What does that tell you...other than I raised them right!!

Little do they know that since they were little, I've been whispering in their ears while they slept... "Disneyland stinks" Disneyland is gross" Disneyland is boring".  The subliminal training must have worked!  I've got to start a new approach...."helping mom clean the house is cool", "folding laundry is fun", "picking up dog poop in the yard is a blast"....

Anyway, they've been to three zoos this year: Hogle in Salt Lake City, the Oakland Zoo and Woodland Zoo in Seattle.  The last one, in Seattle, was our absolute favorite.  I think it probably ranks at the top of the list of all zoos we've visited so far.

Animals are cool.  When I taught first grade, I always used animal pictures to get the kids to write with descriptions.  They have texture, color, temperature, voice...just see what I mean:

 

Well the pictures didn't all come out with the clarity I had hoped....but I didn't have time to mess with them too much.  But you get the gist!

Those Darn Ungulates!

Remember the picture I took of these beautiful flowers?  The one that I waited all summer to have bloom?

Well this is what they looked like this morning...

Some critter, either deer or moose, is destroying our front yard landscaping!!!  You should see our poor Aspens!  They are eating the leaves and rubbing on the trunks of the trees breaking off the branches!!  DD sprayed them this afternoon with that goat urine spray that worked so well on the fruit trees in the back yard.  So keep your fingers crossed.

Just Passing Through?

This is one of our neighbors.  During the summer we have A LOT of them around here.  Osprey around here are like Bald Eagles in Alaska.  You've seen one, you've seen 50!

The parents left at the beginning of August.  The young have been hanging out on their own for another month.  They disappeared just when I started dragging my camera with me everytime I left the house.  The past week I haven't seen any...until today.  Now this one is probably one that will either a) winter around the Spokane area or b) is just passing through in search of a warmer winter climate. 

Not sure which, we'll see if he/she hangs out long.  But when I downloaded the pictures, I noticed something that I didn't notice when I was getting the picture....

It was dinner time!  Check out the fish tail....and the long talons on that osprey!  The fish didn't stand a chance against this hunter!!

And the answer is...

MUSKRAT

He's an interesting looking critter isn't he?  Kind of a cross between a beaver and a rat...just look at that nasty tail!  I'd kind of like him if he didn't have that rat-like tail!  Bad visions flash through my mind of a cabin I lived in at a summer camp near Lake Tahoe...big rats scurrying across the floor when you turned on the lights to go to the bathroom at night and mice that pulled at your hair while you slept! Ick!

ok nasty flashback! I got the goose bumps just remembering that summer...

So this little muskrat somehow fell down the well outside our basement window.  It was the first live one I'd ever seen.  Now how do you get one out...not knowing if they bite and all??

So, here's how we did it:  Get a bucket, tie a rope to the handle, put a bit of straw or hay in the bottom and leave it on its side for a bit. Come back and the little fellow should have crawled into the bucket for safety. So we lifted it up left it on the lawn and he went his merry way back to the lake, we presume, since we haven't seen him or her since.

Muskrats, we discovered, are aquatic critters that eat frogs and bugs and such. Not sure how the heck he fell down there, but we are happy to have yet another critter NOT dig a hole around our house's foundation.