My Journey

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

the deputy.....996 pages in the paperback version ! Wow ! Good luck with that......it very much reminds me of this book.....which I've yet to complete (it's only 600 pages).....



Regarding Tanner, several weeks ago he was out playing on the property and when I let him in, unfortunately he was limping. The following morning I checked him out and saw quite a bit of swelling on his ankle. I waited nine days before taking him to the vet. After x-rays, the vetenarian suggested that he see an orthopedic surgeon. There he was sedated, had more x-rays, and was diagnosed with arthritis. The injury was simply an injury. The good news was that it was not cancer and there were no infections. So life goes on.....and I'm $1,300 poorer.....and our planned departure date has been moved.....

You're post reminded me that it's been a long time since I've done a book report, so here's what I've been reading.....



K2.....Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain.....by Ed Viesturs.....

I loved this book but I would imagine that it's real appeal is only to the people that love to climb the mountains.....the author is someone that I highly respect and have done so for many, many years. I once saw him at a speaking engagement in Washington, D.C. and left even more impressed with the guy. He famously said "Getting to the top is optional. Getting down is mandatory.".....



Tigers of the Snow.....by Jonathan Neale.....

I struggled to finish reading this book.....maybe I didn't.....enough said.....



Looking for Alaska.....by Peter Jenkins.....

This is not a bad one but it took me a long time to get immersed in the story. The writing is excellent.....it was the story (or lack of) that often lost me.....



The Elephant Whisperer.....My Life with the Herd in the African Wild.....by Lawrence Anthony.....

WOW ! This is an incredible story.....very well written. I would imagine that anyone and everyone would love this story. When I put this book down for the last time, I found myself wanting to go to  Africa.....to be one with the elephants. He and his wife have written a few more books about their incredible lives in Africa.....those books are now on my to read list.....



The Last Green Valley.....by Mark Sullivan.....

This book.....I found it in my truck camper and I swear that I have no recollection of how it got there, but I'm so grateful that it did. This is one of the most incredible stories that I've ever read. I loved this book from the first page to the last. It was difficult to put the book down. Once I finished it, I mailed it to my son. And the ending.....it absolutely floored me the way it tied itself directly into my own life. Everyone should read this book in light of what the world is going through these days. Maybe it would help to open the eyes of those who are blinded.....



And of course I've got a book on my end table as we speak.....I'll share that one once it's completed.....

 

[Ace Brown]

I really liked Looking for Alaska and all of Jenkins travelogue books. His descriptions of bear encounters in Alaska were bone chilling.


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[the deputy]

Yes, after reading 'The Elephant Whisperer', it sadden me deeply to find out Lawrence had passed not to long ago. What a wonderful human being, too take on such a monumental unselfish task...and all for one thing...the herd. It's a very powerful read.

'The Last Green Valley' has been on my list to read for awhile. I'll add 'Looking For Alaska'. The mountain climbing in the cold...l'll pass...lol.

Wish l would have started 'The Terror' during the summer...l'm under two blankets, with two extra shirts and sweats, even cranked the heat up a couple notches...and l'm totally freezing to death...while reading about the horrible conditions there in the arctic.

 

[ghostdancer]

In 2011 my wife and I spent a month in South Africa. On our last day, in Capetown , we went to a street market. In a large pile of books I spotted “The Elephant Whisperer”. After spending 14 days in the Kruger, and being in very close proximity to herds of elephants, my wife and I developed a deep love of them. To watch them care for their young and interact with each other was truly remarkable. I think that at some point the definition of what constitutes sentience will be redefined, and elephants will be at the top of the list. We too were saddened by the news of Lawerence’s untimely death, but his wife is carrying on with his vision.

 

[Foy]

I first read Cherry-Garrard's book about his Antarctic adventures and misadventures around 20 years ago and have read it at least twice since then (typical for me when I enjoyed or was positively affected by a book}. Being both a field geologist (by undergraduate degree and a handful of years' experience) and a CPA (by a second round of college + 40 years of experience), I was dually fascinated by the geology, flora, fauna, and logistics involved with Antarctic exploration over 100 years ago as well as the economic circumstances into which Cherry-Garrard was cast by the English law of agnatic primogeniture. Suffice it to say, both exploration and tax law/estate succession law have come a long way since the late 1800s/early 1900s. As bad as it may sometimes seem, both fields are orders of magnitude better, for all, than they were 100 years ago.

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Ace.....I felt like the story he told was much like the YouTube videos that I watch today. He went out into the wilderness to have an adventure to write about, as opposed to going out in the wilderness to have an adventure that he wrote about. There's a fine line between the two.....I prefer the latter of the two.....

the deputy.....I too don't seem to care for climbing in the cold so much any longer.....so I go south.....

ghostdancer.....sounds like an amazing adventure.....I hope your current travels are going well.....

Foy.....yet we still long for the past.....



We're back out there.....we're on the road again.....


ON THE ROAD AGAIN.....WILLIE NELSON.....

On the road again
I just can't wait to get on the road again
The life I love is making music with my friends
And I can't wait to get on the road again.....

On the road again
Goin' places that I've never been
Seein' things that I may never see again
And I can't wait to get on the road again.....



On the road again
Like a band o' gypsies, we go down the highway
We're the best of friends
Insisting that the world keep turning our way.....

And our way
Is on the road again
I just can't wait to get on the road again
The life I love is makin' music with my friends
And I can't wait to get.....



On the road again
Like a band o' gypsies, we go down the highway
We're the best of friends
Insisting that the world keep turning our way.....

And our way
Is on the road again
Just can't wait to get on the road again
The life I love is makin' music with my friends
And I can't wait to get on the road again
I can't wait to get on the road again.....

 

[Arjan]

Tanner looks happier..
Looking to get some of those books.
Plenty time to sit in the kitchen and read a proper book as we have a new to us dog in the house and she needs watching. A 9 month Chocolate Labrador.... And she very much needed to be rescued..

Love the pics of your house.

Thanks

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Arjan.....I would recommend that you read the The Last Green Valley.....I feel like it would resonate especially with you since you are French. I know it got me thinking about my mother & grandmother and their lives in France during World War 2 and how difficult their lives must have been. I wish now that I'd taken the initiative to talk with them more about what they went through.....now they're both gone. I once saw a picture of their home.....the only house left standing after the Germans had bombed their neighborhood.....



Before I begin journaling about this trip (we left just 3 days ago), I'd like to journal a bit about the cabin and what I've been up to there this past summer and during the short fall season.....

First.....the garden.....



.....where there were some successes and many failures.....a farmer I am not.....



I've worked diligently on rewilding the property.....a friend came over with a piece of equipment and dug me a small pond.....



I added approximately 50 more Quaking Aspens so I must have now transplanted no less than 250 of my favorite trees.....



I've been gathering dead branches from the neighborhood to encourage the wild animals to come to my property.....it helps to provide screening (places for small birds & animals to hide).....the game birds just love it.....




I have quite a variety of birds that come to my property now.....the House Finches love the bird feeders.....





They hide in the Quaking Aspen trees and dart back and forth from the feeders.....recently I spotted a hawk hanging out in the Quaking Aspen stands.....maybe waiting for a careless House Finch to be his next meal.....



At night.....for the first time.....I heard coyotes howling along the canal to the east of my property.....and after a few days of the night howls, I spotted my first coyote at the back of my property.....

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

The perrinials that I've been planting over the past several years made a pretty good showing this year.....many doubling and tripling in size.....




I suspect that I've planted well over one hundred of various varieties.....the hearty ones seemed to have survived the brutal winters that we have here, but some just don't do well, probably not compatible with the harsh winters here.....and they have not made it.....




I once again mowed the field that surrounds the cabin and I've now started building islands filled with Quaking Aspens, some Norway Spruce, some native plants and some more perrinials as well.....



I gathered up a bunch of reclaimed lumber from the hoarders' property and have myself a nice stock pile in the barn. I completed the bedroom walls with reclaimed lumber.....now the cabin is nearly 100 % reclaimed lumber walls.....just two walls to go.....



I brought in more gravel and completed the floor in the barn.....that's huge as now the barn floor no longer turns to mud when the snow begins to melt.....



Friends and neighbors have been donating license plates to the barn wall.....so I keep adding as the plates fall into my hands.....



It always feels good to have projects to keep me busy.....God forbid if I run out of things to do.....I love that chair (as Tanner does too), but I much prefer moving than sitting still.....



I don't much care for television, so it's also good when I come inside dead tired and am ready to call it a day.....

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

October was the month for my Quaking Aspens to shine.....and shine they did.....



Then came November.....and the snow began to fall.....



It was too cold and snowy to do any more trips.....so we spent way too much time inside the cabin reading and working on a few projects.....



For three straight weekends a friend worked on my truck getting it ready for the road.....at 85,000 miles.....it seems to need a lot of stuff.....



I probably spent way too much time staring out the window at the snow covered mountains and watching my birds feeding at the feeders.....




I've really have surprised myself.....the way that I enjoy the birds.....





I've also started to put seed out along the new pond for the game birds.....I'll see as many as twenty out there wandering around in the snow.....



And the deer.....well, they've been looking for me.....but I'm just not much for working in the cold & snow.....that's when it's time to travel south.....

And that's all I got to say about all of that.....

 

[the deputy]

You've surely done a lot, too make that place your own paradise in a short amount of Time. I'm surprised you even own a chair...for yourself. Stopped watching television 12 years ago (besides a DVD movie/mini series my wife might pick up at the library), haven't missed it one bit.

Side note..."The Terror"...was a total disappointment. Not what l was expecting at all...to much supernatural, fantasy, mystical creatures, poorly explained/developed clairvoyancy B/S for my taste. Was thinking it would be more of a fictional version of their struggles...basically filling in the unknown portions of the crews demise with mindful conjecture...not a Stephen King novel. After tearing it a new one (review), gave it 2-Stars on Goodreads.

Edit: forgot to ask how Tanner's doing?

 

[ITTOG]

The place looks beautiful. Great work on the house and the yard. I don't have that decorator trait like you. Wish I did.

Since @the deputy mentioned a book I thought I would mention what I just finished. I enjoyed it a lot. The book I completed was "Genghis: Birth of an Empire" and I loved it. So I began searching for more about Genghis. I bought "Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World" and "Genghis Khan: His Conquests, His Empire, His Legacy". While listening to one of the new ones, I discovered "Genghis: Birth of an Empire" was a five book series. So I bought the other four books and am listening to book two now. I am loving it so far. I don't usually read fiction but I am okay with historical fiction, which these books are.

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

the deputy.....I can watch Shark Tank & NFL Football.....that's about it for me.....

ITTOG.....it's just my man cave.....oil paintings that my son painted for me & vintage climbing gear.....a few items from my past international travels.....that's about it for me.....

I saw this graffiti at one of our roadside campsites a few nights ago.....I (we) couldn't agree more.....





It was late afternoon when we finally got out of town.....the plan was to head west for the Pacific Ocean, then south.....it's been way too long since I've seen that ocean but the forecast for the coast had been consistently looking bad so we drove east instead.....along Interstate 90. At Columbus, Montana, we left the interstate behind and next we drove on a few different highways.....finally ending up on Highway 120....now driving pretty much due south.....



We passed by the Beartooth Mountains looking to the west, and eventually the McCullough Peaks looking to the east.....we stopped along the Shoshone River to admire the stunning scenery.....





The highway followed the meanders of the river that had cut it's way through the mountains creating steep canyon walls.....we passed through several tunnels.....it was quite a scenic drive.....



We spent the first night camped along the highway just north of Cody, Wyoming. We awoke to an outside temperature of 47 degrees.....the only agreeable morning temperature so far.....



We continued south through Wyoming.....eventually passing through Rock Springs, Wyoming. Not too far south of town we stopped for a night as we now drove south along Highway 191.....





That next morning we awoke to an outside temperature of 8 degrees (and an inside temperature of 30 degrees.....I don't use the heater at night).....



We climbed a small unnamed mountain before continuing south.....it may appear to have been challenging.....it was not.....

 

[Ace Brown]

Eight degrees!! Id be hightailing right back to the cabin and hug the woodstove.

Slept in my new to me truck a couple of nights ago. Got down to 25 and too cold for me.


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[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Ace.....I've been freezing every day of this trip.....but still having fun.....




The highway south eventually took us into Utah as we passed through the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area.....



The change in scenery now.....those massive red cliffs that Utah is so well known for.....they really are absolutely mind blowing.....




We stretched the legs along the shoreline of the Green River.....at the Flaming Gorge Dam.....



The highway now climbed the mountain to the south of the river and we began to cross icy spots on the highway as we continued driving south. A sign along the highway caught my eye and a half mile down the road we made a U-turn and ended up taking a long hike.....



It was a Quaking Aspen forest.....just a beautiful hike and of course we were the only ones there.....it was a silent forest.....



We followed the trail deep into the forest and it seemed as though the deeper we went, the deeper the snow got. Eventually we hiked onto an ATV trail that led us to a Forest Service road that eventually led us back to the rig.....



That night was spent along the shoreline of Steinaker Reservoir.....



.....just to the north of Vernal, Utah.....where our real adventuring would begin.....



It feels so gooood.....to be.....