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Just under two years ago we climbed to the top of Mount Aeneas, a well-known local hike. Today’s weather looked great: a little cool (50’s at the trailhead) and a cloudless sky. We donned our trail runners and headed up the path.

The trail basically goes up non-stop for three miles. It’s not terribly steep until the top, and with the effort it’s nice to see progress as you’re ticking off the steps. There are great views of the Flathead Valley:

That’s Echo Lake on the right, Mud Lake (unfortunate name) on the left, and of course the massive Flathead Lake in the distance.

As Pepper and Kyra were complaining about how tired their legs were, we crested the ridge that provides a view of the peak in the distance. It’s always more motivating when you can see your goal on a hike, so we continued upward with renewed vigor.

The view from the top is spectacular. Here’s a shot looking southwest at the lake (that’s not my pack– it just seemed to go well with the picture).

And here are the ladies looking east toward (barely visible) Hungry Horse Reservoir.

From the peak you can see much of the Jewel Basin area, Glacier National Park in the distance, the Swan Valley, and tons of lakes all around. It was cool but comfortable at the top, so we had a nice lunch and just enjoyed the view and the sun for a while.

This was our second summit here, and I feel like it’s going to become an annual tradition. It’s a great hike and a great experience.

Since moving here, we’ve heard about the old Spanish mission in St. Ignatius. It’s basically an impressive brick church, built in the 1890’s, with a few outbuildings. Anyone is welcome to wander the grounds, so today we did.

As with many churches of that era, the inside is covered in murals.

Here’s an artistic shot of a set of stained-glass windows:

It was interesting to tour it, and now we can check it off our List of Montana Places to See. (And frankly, we don’t feel a strong need to return…)

This evening we were driving past Swan Lake after the sun had set, and I couldn’t pass this up:

This was taken with my phone, so it’s not great. Trust me, the colors were even better than this!

NASA just released the first deep-sky image from the Webb Telescope, and it’s a stunner.

Look at all the galaxies! It’s amazing to think that as we look at the night sky and see countless points of light, those aren’t just stars. Most of them are actually hundreds of billions of stars organized into galaxies. Awesome.

This is the time of year when many of the local farms are raising rapeseed. The flowers are a brilliant yellow, and look amazing as they stretch for acres. As we were driving home today, I saw not only the yellow fields but a towering thunderhead building in the distance.

Although the name sounds unfortunate, rapa is Latin for “turnip” and is the base for rapeseed.

Our cherry orchard has aphids.

I didn’t think they were a huge deal, but looking at the trees “infected” with aphids, it turns out they are. They cover the leaves in some cases, and their sheer numbers can cause serious damage to the trees. On the advice of a few people, I bought some ladybugs.

Three thousand of them.

They come in bags of (apparently) 750 ladybugs each. I didn’t count them. It was kind of fun to watch these little bugs scurry around inside their bags, just waiting for some juicy aphids to munch on.

I spread some around the bases of the trees…

… And sprinkled others on the leaves directly.

I have no idea what to expect from these little guys; will they take care of the aphids within days? Are 3,000 of them enough?

These two need to stop chattering and get to work:

I feel like every few months, we have some crazy new adventure at our house. From chainsaws to raking gravel to v-bar chains, it’s anyone’s guess what disaster will befall us next and require us to learn some new Montana skill.

Step one: let the clover grow out of control, until it’s so bad you can’t ignore it any more.

Step two: spray the patches of clover with a solution of vinegar and dish soap, which supposedly kills it.

Step three: observe how the vinegar indeed killed the clover… but also all the grass around it.

Grrrr.

Tonight’s forecast calls for “severe thunderstorms” and even though it’s been a beautiful day, the thunderheads are building in the west…

To celebrate Independence Day today, we headed downtown to the annual Fourth of July parade.

It wasn’t the most impressive parade I’ve seen, but it was still a good time. After the last classic car and Congressional candidate had passed us, we headed over to our friend George’s office for a barbeque. There were probably thirty people there, none of whom we knew (other than George, of course). Still, they were friendly and energetic and we had fun. Happy Fourth!

During Mom and Dad’s visit, there were a couple of beautiful summer nights where the stars shone in all their brilliance. The moon was new, so once the sun had (finally) set, after a while everything went to black. I snapped a few photos.

Here the Big Dipper almost gets lost in all the other stars. The lights on the horizon are what’s left of daylight (at eight minutes after midnight!) with some of the glow of Kalispell far to the north.

And here’s our house, with the Milky Way spanning the sky overhead.

This sort of view makes me feel very, very small.