Headwaters of the Yellowstone Bed & Breakfast

First Yellowstone Bison Calf of Spring! (and Fox Kits and Bear Cubs...)

Bison calves have been seen in the park for a few weeks now, but I've been so busy refinishing chairs and getting ready for the summer season that I had yet to see one.  I set out this afternoon determined but was waylaid by a red fox on Swan Lake Flats who spent the better part of an hour moving three small kits from one side of the main park road to the other.  She was bleached almost white across her muzzle.  Beautiful creature. 

Imagine my surprise when I returned home from picking up the kids at school and found that there were two bison AND a calf on the low bench just across the Yellowstone River.  They were soon joined by two rangers on horseback who made sure that they headed back towards the park.  Not the greatest pictures, but certainly an exciting rodeo! 

Last night we had a late night call from our neighbors who reported a sow grizzly and cub in their backyard and heading our way.  We stood out on the deck in the gathering dark and tried to spot her but she evaded our efforts.  The wind and rainy day erased any sign of her by today.

IT IS SPRING! (kinda)

Never mind.

    

Yellowstone Spring Day

  

Today we finished taking down the last of two sheds that we relocated in the last week, colored Easter eggs, listened to speculation about why the Easter bunny wasn't very ambitious this year, put together most of a basketball standard, and took the ducks for their inaugural swim in the Yellowstone River.  It was a very big day.  

The sun shone, the grass looked green in most places and the trees were starting to get that hopeful yellow-green mist that will magically turn to leaves when you forget to notice.  

The ducks were an interesting experiment.  We put all seven ducks in a carrier and took them down to the river.  Tim released two ducks and they initially seemed kind of freaked out about the idea.  Then, they seemed to have a sudden realization that this was THEIR kind of place.  ("Hey, we can swim!") and then it was clear that they did not want to come out.  Maybe ever.  

After lots of observation (and some stress when the kids realized that their parents had not a clue how to teach ducks how to come OUT of the river), I threw a rock in the river just beyond where they were swimming and, in a flash of preprogramming, the came right out of the river and were easily herded up the hill and into the garden.  Tim and I maintained our cool (as if we knew this would happen) and the girls faith in us was restored momentarily. 

In short, this blog is now officially the home of a much less whiny person who got just enough sun and just enough optimistic progress in her life to declare - HAPPY Yellowstone SPRING!

More snow, duck house and the chicken palace

It's still snowing today.  The wind is blowing, Electric Peak is completely obscured, and the sun has only flirted with appearing.  I'd love to say that I've risen above this external circumstance that is clearly beyond my control...but it would be a lie.  

It's days like today that I think of when our summer guests tell us that they would love to live here.  We earn every one of those idyllic, low-humidity, green summer days in late spring.  It can be a struggle to maintain a positive attitude.  Many of my extended family members are gathered in a warmer spot to celebrate my grandmother's 90th birthday. (Happy Birthday Grandma!)  If she can do it for all these years, I guess I can too.  Even when it is snowing and it's April.   

I went for a walk this morning looking for  signs of spring and did find a few.  Buds on the lilac bushes, strawberry plants in the garden and early spring moss painting the junipers by the river a fluorescent yellow.  

      

Tim has spent all week constructing the chicken coop.  It's based on a chicken tractor design that will allow us to move it when needed.  The chicks arrived on Tuesday (Murdoch's in Bozeman sold 700 chicks in ONE day last week) and we are enjoying their quiet peeping and their rapidly growing feathers.  

The chicks are 6 days old today; it will be about a month before they will be able to live outside no matter what the weather.  Until then a heat lamp in the garage makes for the perfect 90 degree weather.  We have 10 different kinds of chickens - I have no idea what any of them will look like as adults.  Some are quiet, some are bossy, and some are content to sit in the feed dish all day long.  When they fall asleep they stand and wobble for awhile, slowly bow their heads, and then rest their beaks on the floor in a sort of chick tripod until they are jolted awake by one of their nest mates.  The chicks are all pullets (girl chicks) and layers; if all goes well we'll have fresh eggs by the end of summer.  (And no roosters to wake you up at 4:30 a.m. - really!)

Yesterday my youngest daughter and I built a duck house.  It's nothing like the palatial mansion that the chickens require...and, as Tim noted, there is not a square angle anywhere on it...but, it will work and keep the ducks warm at night.  It was an exercise in patience and quite a bit of fun.  According to our neighbor mentors, ducks don't need much more than a space that will stay warm at night and keep them away from the long list of predators that we have in the area.  If the weather will cooperate we'll set it up in the garden along with the run I built out of an old cast iron bed frame.  It's appropriately frivolous for the garden.  We'll let you know if it serves its purpose.  

If the weather ever changes, I'll get motivated and start on the gardening frames.  I'm planting a Square Foot Garden this year - 24 frames of vegetables and herbs.  The basic principal of the method is that you grow your plants in high quality soil in low, raised beds.  The size of the beds allows you to weed and water without compressing the soil and many of my neighbors have had great luck with it. It may be yet another disastrous learning experience or a huge success.  This time of year, all you can do it try to be optimistic and hopeful.  Even when it snows in April.  

"Bad weather always looks worse through a window." - Tom Lehrer 

Signs of Spring and Snow and Chai

     

It's been awhile since I posted...and, while I do have some great ideas cooking in my brain (and the most amazing recipe for Pistachio Apricot Cake EVER!), the weather has made staying on task difficult.  

It's definitely tricky here in March. 

It can be 60 degrees one day and 20 the next. 

The longer hours of evening sunlight can mean that, on those warm blue sky days, you find yourself out building garden frames and pouring over seed catalogs in the evening.  The mountain bluebirds are back en force - thanks to the visionary birdhouse planting of my dad over the last 40 years.  I even found the deck umbrellas and turned an old bed frame into a temporary duck pen earlier this week.  Spring energy has fueled the tiniest hint of green in the lawn and the yard if full of elk, day and night, trying to take advantage of whatever new growth they can find.  

I start hatching plans to make a growing frame for herbs on the deck to replace the many pots I've cultivated in the past.  I start wondering where my flip flops are and stopped cooking dinner all together in favor of quick sandwiches and pans of roasted asparagus.

Just in case the optimism overtakes me, however, Yellowstone delivers a whirling snowstorm that turns the roads into snow over ice with hypnotic, blinding visibility thrown in for good measure. The ducks, now three times the size they were upon arrival, huddle under the heat lamp all the day long, and I find myself terribly unmotivated as we wait for spring to arrive for real.  

Patiently.  (sort of)     

Until then, winter is back.  Time to break out the big pot and make some chai. 

The following recipe is based on a mix Tim and I used to buy at a health food store in Santa Cruz, CA - long before it became widely available in prepackaged boxes.  Newlyweds, we worked at Pinnacles National Monument - a jewel of a park tucked inland from the Monterey Bay coast.  You could buy the mix by the quart or gallon and the entire store smelled like chai on "brewing days".  It was strong - mine has grown a little milder over the years.   

A gallon of this mixture, stored in the frig, will make 2 gallons of chai tea (or more, if you like it milky).  I prefer chai this way; the recipe allows me to control the sweetness (which is often too much for me in coffee shops) and is certainly much less expensive than buying it prepared. 

Do take the time to collect the best quality spices you can for this recipe.  We buy ours in bulk at the Bozeman Community Food Coop or at Joe's Parkway but they can also be ordered on line. I put all the whole spices in a Ziploc bag (including the fresh ginger and the whole nutmeg) and smash it on a cutting board with my meat tenderizing hammer.  A perfect activity if you are frustrated with the weather.

 

Chai Tea Elixir

In a large pot, combine:

• 1 gallon of water
• 30 green cardamom pods
• 1 large piece (egg sized) of fresh ginger
• 24 whole cloves
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 1/2 tsp. fennel seeds
• 1 star anise
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns
• 1 fresh nutmeg (or 1/2 tsp. ground)
• 1/2 tsp. coriander seeds

Bring to a boil, and simmer over low heat for 30-45 minutes.  Your house will start to smell wonderful.  (Even if you have baby ducks living on your back porch.)

Remove from heat and add:

• 1/2 cup loose black tea leaves

Seep for 7-10 minutes. Add:

• 1 cup honey (more or less, taste to decide)

• 1 tsp. vanilla (you can also use a bean, but it's sooo expensive..save the bean  for baking and use a good quality extract here)

Let cool and pour into your clean container.  This will keep in the refrigerator for a month or so.  To serve mix with equal parts of milk (soy, dairy, rice - whatever you like) and, if needed, add more honey.  If you want to get really fancy, you can top with some foamed milk and put in a cinnamon stick for fun. 

Enjoy the last gasp of winter.  Or the first warm days of spring.  If you are basking in the latter, however, don't bother sharing that news with me.  Grrrrr. 

Too Cold for anything but Hot Chocolate

It is far too cold today.  -18 degrees F by our deck thermometer.  The snow squeaks under your feet and no amount of warm clothing makes up for the bitterness.  I made the mistake of rolling down the automatic car  window to fetch the newspaper. Of course, it wouldn't roll back up again.  An hour later, in 2 inch increments, the window is closed, but I can no longer feel my hands.  

At this temperature, it is hard to have much to say.  The lowest temperature ever recorded in Yellowstone was in 1933 when, near the park's west entrance, it was -66 degrees F.  My personal "all time cold day" was in the winter of 1995 when Tim and snowmobiled from Old Faithful to Mammoth Hot Springs (50 miles) in -30 degree F weather.  We actually left the park for an OB appointment - I was four months pregnant at the time.  It took all day to recover...and then we had to go home later that afternoon. 

On a day like today, I thought you'd appreciate a hot chocolate recipe.  Besides the chocolat chaud that we slurped in Paris, its our favorite!  There are no hydrogenated oils in this mixture and you are in control of the sugar.  It is very simple but I don't think you'll miss the mysterious ingredients listed on most prepared mixes - or all the extra packaging.

Homemade Hot Chocolate

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Whisk together dry ingredients and store in an air-tight container.  When you are ready to drink, bring 1 cup of water per person to a boil and add 2 heaping Tablespoons of the mix.  Bring to a boil.

Add up to 1 cup of milk, cream, half and half, soy milk - whatever you prefer or justify.  For kids I don't heat up the milk mixture which seems to make the drink at the perfect temperature for them. 

Once the mixture is the right temperature for you, add a little vanilla (just a drip), a tiny bit of cayenne pepper (we had this version in the Yucatan) or...if it's -18 degrees F, a little liquor. Of course, whipped cream never hurts. 

To get a taste of Paris, visit our local French chocolate maker - La Chatelaine.  They sell their chocolates on-line and in two locations in Bozeman, Montana and I enjoy reading the owner, Shannon's, blog.

Winter walk by the river

   

It's a warm day today although the eastern part of the state is recording temperatures below zero.  The grass is confused as we are. There are little shoots of green feeding a small group of cow elk in the yard.   

      

The river is very low and quiet and the exposed rocks are white with some sort of mineral or plant deposits covering them completely.  In contrast, the dark rocks close to the willows look like polished glass.  The snow is mostly gone today with only crusty patches ringed with dirt in the shade.  

More textural variety than color variety - its just a palette of grey and brown.  Beautiful in a different way than summer - less dramatic, more subtle.   

The drip of melting snow from the crook of the juniper tree reminds me that bear spray is probably in order.  I head for home and a cup of tea.  

Blue morning

It is a beautiful blue morning here.  The peaks are covered with snow but the sun is shining and the temperatures today may get as high as 50 degrees.  The warm and then cold ups and downs have been extreme this winter.  All this really means is that there is a pile of every kind of jacket, hat, mitten and footwear combination known times five by the back door. 

Here's a link to an interesting article about the avalanche work being done in the Sylvan Pass area from today's Billings Gazette. 

http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2009/01/13/news/wyoming/18-avalnche.txt