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Friday afternoons are usually fairly lazy around the Leo house (as are all days). So we decided naps were in order. I was woken up by a small sound outside. I rolled over to look out the sliding glass door (4 feet from our bed) only to see a full grown moose about 1 foot from the window looking in. YIKES! “Jenny,” I whispered in an urgent voice, “Look out the window.” Jenny gasped and started sliding out the other side of the bed and I followed closely behind. We scrambled for safety in the closest door to the bed… So, here we are crawling into the closet when the moose started walking away (probably laughing). She was followed by a very young (only 6 feet tall) baby moose. Maybe she was just a proud momma showing off her newborn to the neighbors. Someone is going to have to teach her some manners.

Here’s momma coming around the house. Mind you the floor of the porch is 9 feet off the ground.

I got a shot of baby from our guest bedroom window.

Here’s a shot of them in the yard. Baby is on the ground and momma is playing hide-and-seek with the cameraman.

17 Years! That’s how long we lived in a townhouse. And as everyone knows, you don’t get to do stuff to your yard that might “disrupt the harmony of the neighborhood” (A phrase I remember well as President of our town home association). But here, anything goes. If you want to rip up your yard and put in a little walkway, fine. If you want to take two months to finish, fine. Thankfully, I haven’t left any engine blocks in my yard yet. As our first official landscaping project, we needed a walkway to our back door. Digging the trench took a long time because I had to do it with a pick ax because of all the rocks that hide just beneath the surface (these are the rocky mountains after all). We bought the bricks on line and got over twice what we needed for $100 less than retail. So, with the left overs, we’ll be making a circular fire pit next spring along with several other projects.

Outside of Idaho, it’s a little known fact that lake Pend O’Reille is a government submarine test facility. Once a secret, the Navy actually created rumors of a sea monster to quell the locals who saw “something moving really fast through the water”. They’ve been testing subs here since 1942. How would you like to be fishing when this thing pops up?

The “Seajet” is only 133-feet long. One quarter scale prototype of the final stealth vessel that it represents. I’ve yet to see any subs in action, but the locals near the navel station have. Hmmm, I wonder if they give tours?

It’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to do much design work. I did get to exercise a little creativity designing our church sports logo. What a shock to show up on game night and all the team players had my design on their uniforms. Here’s what the logo looks like along with a very nice shot of the girls volleyball team.

Turkeys aren’t what they used to be. When I was growing up, dad and other hunters had stories about turkeys being a very challenging animal to shoot. There was almost a mystique surrounding the idea of seeing a wild turkey. Not so with the “Sevens”. That’s the last name of the turkey family that has taken up residence on or near our property. We named them that a few months ago when a momma turkey and seven little ones began roaming our property foraging for food. Over the last few months the little puffs have grown into rather large beastly ravenous creatures. We now see them about twice a day. They have a particular appreciation for clover. In exchange for pooping on our walkway, they do a great job of clearing out all the clover that has grown up between the rocks that decorate part of our yard. It’s clear that Thanksgiving is in November right about the time when Turkeys are full grown. We’re not sure if they’ll survive Thanksgiving, or even the winter, but we’ll be watching.

The white stuff started falling in the higher elevations on Nov. 5th. We didn’t actually get any on our property until November 11th. All of which is now melted and gone. The last task was getting Jenny’s studded tires on her car for the winter. Hopefully this winter will be a little easier than last.

Looking out off the deck you can see the yellow larch trees. These trees lose their needles in the winter. If you’re not careful, you’ll mistake them for dead as many newbies to the area do.