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Some friends asked if we’d like to “do something”, which in Montana-ese means “something outside”. We suggested kayaking, and decided to head over to Loon Lake. It’s a (relatively) small lake near us that’s really quiet and still. As we got on the water, we had to navigate through a maze of lilypads:

But once out on the water, it was like gliding across glass. A few gentle nudges with the paddles, and we’d coast ahead. It was wonderful.

As we explored the lake, we spotted some turtles sunning themselves on a log. (There were quite a few, but when I edged closer to get a picture, a bunch of them slipped silently into the water and swam off.)

With such a peaceful lake, we were able to paddle around and chat. After a couple hours on the water, we packed up and headed over to Burgertown for some dinner. A great summer day.

Today I learned about the Dunning-Kruger Effect, which is a psychological phenomenon wherein people overestimate their competence at tasks where they have very little experience. This helpful graph sums it up well:

I particularly love the names of the different areas of the graph. And although it would be easy for me to say “Hah, that never happens to me”, I’d be lying. It happens to everyone. I’ve climbed Mount Stupid, claiming with confidence that I could do something when in fact I’m completely inept at it. When it comes to house projects, I feel like I live in the Valley of Despair. I have a bit of experience with things like electrical wiring, so I think I can take care of a “simple” project, and an hour later I’m throwing tools in frustration. Luckily there are times I’ve climbed the Slope of Enlightenment, recognizing my growing ability at something and increasing in confidence. And there are, I admit, only a very few things in my life where I rest on the Plateau of Sustainability…

Pepper and I have been going on some short hikes lately. We’re doing it for a couple of reasons: first, we just want to explore the area a bit, so we can seem knowledgeable about local hikes. And second, with a series of visitors coming this summer, we want to have some options in our back pocket, and know some different “levels” of hiking to suggest. We picked a lesser-known hike in the Swan Valley, and headed out.

It was so green. Grass, ferns, flowers, trees… everything was a brilliant green and damp from recent rain.

The trail wound through this tall grass. Kind of cool!

But things kind of went downhill from there. As we continued, the trail became much harder to follow. The underbrush grew thicker, the trail became narrower, and after a bit we were picking our way through huge plants.

And with all the water came the mosquitos. They were swarming around, and if we’d stop for even a few seconds, there would be a dozen of them on our arms and legs. We’d sprayed ourselves with mosquito repellant, but it didn’t seem to do anything at all. Even as we walked, we were slapping our arms and swatting at the little buggers flying around us. It was really bad.

Eventually we reached what you might call a “lake”, but I’d probably describe as a “muddy pond”.

It wasn’t exactly picturesque. As I stood there taking this picture, I was probably bitten four times by mosquitos. We agreed to hoof it back out, and made good time back to the car. I’m sure the little blood bandits were sad there was no one left for them to bite.

Oh, and we’re not going to recommend this hike to people who visit.

For a few days now, I’ve been wanting to take some sunset photos at the lake shore. Although I love the view from our house, there are always trees in the way. I was hoping to snap something on the solstice, but the sky was completely cloudless, and sunset photos tend to be better with clouds. Tonight was the night. I drove a couple miles north and hiked down to the shoreline, where I waited as the sun sank.

My timing was pretty good; when I arrived the sun was almost on the horizon.

I experimented a bit with lenses, and I like this shot of an old gnarled tree root at the water’s edge:

I managed to get a shot just as the last bit of the sun touched the distant hills.

And then it was gone. But the fiery orange light continued for a while, illuminating the clouds from beneath. A couple of boats passed slowly by as people headed home for the night. It was almost 10pm when this last boat cruised north:

It’s 10pm and the sun just sank below the horizon.

I love these lazy long Montana summer nights…

On our trip yesterday, we stopped at a rest area that had an honest-to-goodness pay phone. I thought there were only like three left in the United States, and apparently we found one of them!

Before we left, Pepper checked the coin change slot at the bottom to see if there was a quarter. Because that’s what you do with a pay phone.

Today we picked up our fun new ride.

It’s important for me to emphasize that it’s our car, not my car. For the twenty-five years of our marriage, Pepper has always ended up driving the “practical” vehicle. She had the Eagle that we crammed everyone into, and the Odyssey for carting kids around on trips, and then the CR-V so we can haul our jet skis to the lake. At the same time, I drove my sporty little two-door Saturn, then my sporty little two-door Civic. So I had the “fun” cars (even though she hates driving stick).

Fast forward to Montana, where we’ve discovered that our driveway is nightmarish in the winter and simply doesn’t suit a front-wheel-drive vehicle. Since we plan to sell the Civic to Zaque when he returns from his mission, we started looking around for a new car. At the top of the list is all-wheel drive. I’d love to just get another Civic, but they don’t come with AWD. Nor do the Accords. The only Hondas with that feature are the CR-V and Pilot… well, we already have a CR-V, and the Pilot is a big lumbering tank. So I looked at Toyotas, another great line of cars, but I didn’t want a Rav (too big), and the Camry and Avalon aren’t really exciting.

With our imminent installation of solar panels, and a state with one of the lowest costs for electricity in the country, I started thinking about a Tesla. Of course they have a reputation for being pretty swanky and expensive, but the Model 3 is a little more affordable. With no Tesla dealerships anywhere in Big Sky Country, we had to test drive one in Utah. We liked it. A lot. So we ordered one. But with chip shortages and supply-chain problems and Tesla doing things differently than, well, everyone else, we wouldn’t be able to take delivery until September. Sigh.

But yesterday, on a whim, I called a sales guy at the Spokane Tesla dealership and asked if they happened to have a car with the same specs as what I’d ordered. They did! I asked if I could pick it up… immediately? Sure thing. So we hopped in the CR-V and drove four hours out to Spokane, spent literally five minutes signing two pieces of paper, and drove four hours back home in our slick blue electric car.

Remember: it’s not my car. It’s our car.

One thing that’s fun about living in a forest is there are wildflowers everywhere. They surround us, scattered through the forest… and there are also many “intentional” flowers planted in various places around the house. The previous owner really enjoyed flowers, and actually had a gardener who took care of the beds. (We’ve let them “go native” a bit, so it doesn’t look as nice as it did back then.)

Because it was such a pretty day, I decided to wander the property a bit and photograph the variety of flowers. Here are some samples.

Okay, the one above is probably a weed. But it’s still pretty! And I spotted a spider sunning himself:

While not technically flowers, I like the tufts of tall grass we have along our driveway. Flathead Lake is in the (fuzzy) background:

Finally, another non-flower but what I thought was an interesting photo. We have pinecones scattered everywhere in the grass… they’re a menace to the mower, which chews them up with a satisfying crunch and then spews bits everywhere.

On a whim, we bought a bag of wildflower seeds at Lowe’s the other day, and we keep telling ourselves we’re going to scatter them along the driveway and see what comes up…

I was cleaning up some files today and stumbled across an ancient gem: bonus bucks. These were little Monopoly-based bills that I’d printed, which we’d give to the kids when they did something good.

It could be as simple as being nice to their siblings, or helping with the dishes, or doing their homework without being asked. They could then spend their bonus bucks on “prizes” which ranged from staying up 15 minutes extra to having dinner out as a family. It was actually a pretty good system, and I remember the kids really enjoying it. It promoted good behavior, taught them about saving, and was a good mix of serious and silly. Good times.

It continues to be fun to see the wildlife that roams around our property. After our recent bear sighting (still a little too close for comfort) we’ve seen bears wandering into the courtyard several more times. One of them batted around an Amazon package sitting by our door, and then peeked into our bedroom window!

Well, we finally caught some elk on video:

Here’s the full clip of mommy and her little fawn:

A few days later, a moose was poking around the back yard!

We have multiple clips of this guy as he went around the house. We watched from inside. He’s definitely not full-grown; I figure he’s a couple of years old at best. Adult moose are considerably larger, although this guy was plenty large anyway.

I’m not sure what other animals we can expect to see. Most people tell us there aren’t any moose in this forest, but clearly there are…