Family visit part 2

 What a wonderful visit -done and gone in a blink of an eye. We'll miss you Anne, Jean, and Justine. Happy trails back to Seattle.

A grand hike behind our lovely neighbor's property. Access to public lands. So pristine and quiet. Lots of wildlife lives here (bear, moose, elk, deer) but our only sighting was a coyote. Something anyway. An amazingly close view of the Castles.

One spectacular meal at Soupcon. 5 course with wine pairing extravaganza. A perfect event for the last night of their visit. This memory will last a long time!

Haying season has been full on for weeks now. It's a major late summer event with the ranchers here. Some they keep for winter feed and some they sell, mostly to Kentucky racehorse farms. Our valley is renowned for excellent quality of hay. Something about the river water or the soil or the organic manure fertilizer - who knows.

Yep, the cows are still around for another 6 weeks. They've done a bang up job at eating all the Star Mt. grass down. I won't lie, it will be nice when the manure is gone, but wow, the summer has gone by in a flash.

Family visit part 1

Amazing family visit happening at Star Mt. this week. Anne, Jean, and Justine are here from Seattle. That's the famous Crystal Mill above which was a jeeping day trip for all of us. We're trying to cram in all things fun while they're here.

Zipped into CB after stopping at the magic spring first. The Stash was calling and there was a nice Sunday farmer's market as well. Anne was eyeing the oxygen bar too but sadly a note on door said closed and be back later.

The new patio is sure getting a lot of use. Great decision Mark! I get credit for the bug zappers although we haven't really had any bugs to speak of to zap - fun anyway.

Our day trip to Crystal and Marble was a big success. Jeeping up to Crystal Mill, Mark fishing a bit in Crystal river (that's Jean walking the river looking for Mark's location), and seeing the gorgeous marble that the town was named after was impressive. Lincoln Memorial and tomb of the unknown soldier both were made from that marble. And that's the first "no Drones" sign I've seen. The world is just a bit different these days...

Lunch was excellent at the only place in town - Slow Groovin BBQ. We put this up against most barbecue places we've been too. And of course we had to have wildlife along the way back. That's Jean's photo of the bear. He had a very long lens to snap the photo after Mark (eagle eye man) saw the bear from a good distance away. And lastly, a herd of sheep wandering all over the road to round it out.  All agreed a good day.

Next, lessons on shooting a bb gun. That bb gun of Mark's is ancient but still works just fine. We had some good target shooters in the bunch too. I was the only one who didn't participate but maybe next time. That's all for now folks. I'll be back with part 2.

Almont Triangle, Taylor River, and Soupcon with masks

All things truckin' along here at Star Mt. We have somehow marched straight into August - what? We are in between company and jumping out to explore on our own.

Did the trek up to Almont Triangle. More people than we usually see but that's become very normal for this year. Quite beautiful up there. There was a mystery building spotted also, what the heck is that? RMBL does science experiments (biology) up there, maybe connected.

As I deeply hoped would not happen, all our new plantings around the stone patio are being consumed by tiny creatures (chipmunks and ground squirrels) and larger ones (deer). We'll see if anything survives. Other areas of destruction are my daylilies, see photo above. This one is directly attributed to one of Flap's children. At least we think. She usually shows up to decimate the lilies which most deer won't touch. Big sigh here, but we really love all the creatures. Wouldn't change a thing...

Mark fishing in one of his preferred spots on the Taylor. I went as I enjoy this particular spot. A little camera action and some quick painting as well. What a gorgeous river! Also more crowded than we're used to. At least this spot was open.

A sight I bet you never thought you'd see. Our special gourmet restaurant Soupcon with masks. Glad they were able to figure out how to safely open but wow. Food was wonderful albeit a little different form- tasting menu choice only with outside seating added. Same chef, same great staff, which by the way, most came down with the virus in March. Our little area was hit hard. All fine now, thank goodness. What times we are living in....