School has started! All of the boys are doing pretty well. None of them really complain about the masks but it does seem that they stick to their small cohort and don't intermix with other students/friends throughout the day. I spend the school days working.
Spending the weekend away with a North Dakota friend. A slow paced weekend, with shopping and eating. We did go hiking! It was 7 miles round trip, but fortunately not a super hard hike, but made it back to a lake.
See what was on the trail?? A moose. I came around this corner and saw the moose, facing me. Probably 20 yards. We both startled each other. He had been scared by someone heading towards us, so he was coming down the trail towards us. As you can see, it was pretty tight and narrow. The moose was not sure what to do, feeling trapped. The moose turned his back to us but did not leave. We decided to scamper up a rock and get behind a tree. A few seconds later, the moose quickly took off and ran right past us! We kept replaying the incident and can't imagine what would have happened if we had not gotten off the trail.
On Friday a wildfire started in our valley. The first time I remember one in 21 years. Here are two pictures I got off of facebook. No official word on buildings lost, but assuming there are dozens of homes. Fortunately no lives have been lost yet. Three firefighters got caught and had to deploy their emergency blankets and were able to walk away. It is about 5 miles away from the ski resort so they are trying hard to keep the fire at bay. There is currently zero % contained. We have cooler weather with rain but in a few days, it gets hot and dry again. The firefighters have weeks of work. It has been amazing to see all the cooperation among all the emergency departments and all the help form the community. Lots of livestock were roaming free when fences burned and people showed up with trailers, etc. I believe it is currently just over 7,000 acres.
