Walking the Big Woods or Who Needs a Bear Gun?

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I am in Northern Idaho, about 30 minutes north of Sandpoint.
We bought a small ranch here about 3 years ago (we call it Moose Run Ranch) and sadly it needs more time and attention then we can afford to give it so when I come here I get to do things I dont even do at home: wash windows, pull weeds and loads of clean up. I have been getting up early every morning and going for a walk with my bear gun. I was asked why the bear gun and this picture will give you an idea of what type of place I walk. My ranch is at the end of a private road and everything past us is either National Forest or belongs to a timber company so I have about the hugest backyard ever.

We have seen a black bear in our yard, know that grizzles, mountain lions and wolves are seen often enough to hold concern and my biggest fear right now is getting between a cow moose and her young. We have one here in the neighborhood who has twins. The mt. lion I would never hear until it was upon me. The others I would hope to hear first.


We got two elk shooting from that rock 2 years ago. One bull elk and one cow. The meat was downright awesome and so we are hoping to do as well this year. This is about 6 miles up the mountain from my house




This is where I walked to this morning. I am not sure yet how far it is- I have to grab the dirtbike and take a ride up to check it out. It is about the one mile mark from the beaver dam gate but I am not sure how far that gate is from my front porch.If you look in the middle of this photo you will see a sliver of brown and that is the road down where I would turn to go to the beaver dam gate. I decided this was the perfect place to talk with God this morning and so if you think of yourself as one of my friends you were covered with prayer today and from a pretty heavenly vantage point. I am thinking I need a bench there- a prayer bench. Does it seem odd to be saying prayers with a bear gun at the ready?

The first year that we came out here I refused to carry a pistol so I was told I could not go for walks. I pouted and then went to the end of my driveway and in frustration I began piling up rocks. They actually help us to find where to turn in the dark but now every trip out here I must rebuilt my rock people. I am thinking I need to find some larger rocks so that I can make some biggers ones. After having said this I have an image of one of those friends I prayed for today thinking all she needs to do is shake her head a bit and she will have all the rocks she could ever want to play with- geesh!

This deck is right outside my kitchen window. It overlooks two creeks that run through our property. The year I stood at my sink for hours and worked on elk meat God put a waterfall right where I could see it- it is overgrown now and I have not ventured down yet to see if it is still there. I do my morning stretches here before I walk. The water sounds so inviting.

This hammock was brilliantly bargined for by my daughter in a market in Honduras. It is below the porch. Yesterday I got in it and promptly fell out and rolled toward the creek. Grace is not my middle name but when you are Queen who would dare make fun of you- Oh yeah, most of those peeps I prayed for today.

Be blessed today as I am being blessed here. I will try to give you more, better, different, unusual or just downright cool pictures tomorrow but it honestly takes 2 medium trees and 3 really tired indians waving blankets and 10 minutes per picture to load them- stupid dialup.