Beautiful morning in Montana

 

Old West RV Park, Reed Point, MT

 Normally this time of year we are shoveling snow, but this year we are raking leaves

The local wild turkey's made their rounds through the RV Park today

We counted about 19 of them.

Ear Mountain

 This is about 25 miles from Choteau Mountain View Campground.

Old West RV Park, Reed Point, Montana

 We took a quick trip to our other park, and as always found some cool stuff.

Some flowers at the front office are spreading, and the red and yellow seem to have created a new color, the orange.

Here is a shot of the new roof we put on the office in 2022.

We also came across this praying mantis on the cabin porch.

We took Boomer dog over to the fishing access for a quick romp and saw how when the Yellowstone river flooded a couple years ago they lost a lot of ground. 

 There is a new barbed wire fence, but they have an opening for easier access to the waters edge.

Tonights Aurora Boreals

 It was hard to see with the naked eye, but it was there

Sunset

 Been a beautiful fall so far this year, supposed to be awesome weather for at least the next 10 days!

putting in the water line

 The small mound of dirt to the left of the ditch is the completed sewer hookups,

The center ledge is for where the power will be put in.

The right ditch is where the frost free hydrants will be put in.

Sunset at Choteau Mountain View RV Campground

 

Choteau Mountain View RV Campground

 Beautiful day today, fun to watch the moon set during another great sunset tonight.

digging sewer ditch

 Digging goes a lot faster when you don't have live wires and water lines every where.

To the left is where the pull thru spaces will be, 

to the right is thinking of the future for more spaces to be repaired in the future.

  

the fly

 I saw something weird on the screen from one of the cameras so I went out to see what kind of bug it was.

Turned out to be a simple house fly.  It was getting colder out, so I thought maybe it was warmer on the camera?  

Phase 1 begins - putting in the new sewer hookups

 The digging should go a lot better now.  The only utilities we will be coming across should be broken and unused.

This area will be a straight line up the hill.  There will be 9 spaces here. 

making way for RV spaces

There was an old swing set in the area we are improving.  

The guys made quick work of cutting it up and pulling it out of the ground.

 

Sand Cranes - Eureka Lake, Choteau, MT

 Saw these Sand Cranes flying over near Eureka Lake this afternoon.

campchoteaumt.com

Fawns at Choteau Mountain View RV Campground

 These fawns were wandering around the park this morning before tunning up the hill to make their exit.

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Sewer update: tweaking the manhole

 They decided to move the uphill side of the pipe a little higher on the manhole entrance, so they had to grind the concrete away from the pipe and raise it a couple of inches.  They also added concrete to the bottom of the floor to make a deeper groove tor the 'stuff' to flow, and just in case there is a back flow and the manhole starts to fill up, they will slope the part where the ladder is so all the 'stuff' will slip back into the channel, keeping the spot where one might need to stand to stay relatively clean.  

The city came out and ran some water down it and the guys said it made a great whirl pool action.

sewer update: making the manhole work

 Now that the manhole is in place, and the pipes holes drilled out, they will concrete in the pipes, and put concrete in the bottom of the manhole with a grove in the concrete for the 'stuff' to flow around the corner.  

sewer line update: the new sewer manhole arrival

 It was exciting to see the big flatbed truck pull into the property with the new manhole on the bed.  

They had to grind out the holes the rest of the way for where they wanted the pipe placed. 

The pipe will be taking a 90 degree bend.  

sewer line update: past the 3 tent spaces, road and into the field

 When the guys were witching the area for power and water they could not figure out what was what, it was like there were lines all over, but when they actually dug they did not find anything, probably because the sewer pipe is so shallow.  

As soon as they got into the field they found water and unused electrical lines.  I saw it, but failed to get a pic.

They dug out 35-40 feet from the road and are ready to place the manhole in the ground.  the Y at the end of the pipe in the pic will be for site number 38.

The pipe is over 800 feet long from manhole to manhole.

below is a shot of the field where we are resurrecting the old broken sites.  Seems like a bare field until you start walking thru and seeing hoses poking up from old water hose bibs.  

 In the distance, the Swing set and rocks behind the swing set will be removed.  The rocks will be reused for landscaping, and the swing set is super old and not in good shape, so we will scrap it.  

Bald Faced Hornets

Ronnie was trimming the dead limbs off of one of the trees and found what looked to me like a paper wasps nest, but when we looked closer they were black.

Here is a back shot, at first glance, they are like a giant fly.  But look closer and you will see the stripes on the rear and the white face markings.  

Here is a shot of the face, the hornet is upside down.

I thought about hitting the nest with hornet spray, but we read that they are aggressive and smart, they will recognize a person and go after them when they walk by.  On one site Suzi was reading that there is no WITSEC protection program if you make them mad.  So I guess I will leave them alone.

Below is another hornet coming out for a profile shot. (it is hanging upside down)

Here you can see the stripes on the rear of the Hornet.

dog day afternoon

 My parents dog Guy came to visit for the day, he and our boomer dog just hung out on the bed most of the day.

sewer project update thinking of the future

 We are passing some water electric only spaces, no sewer hookups.  We decided to put 2, 4 in Y's along here.  

The one is between spaces  22 and 23, and the other is between spaces 21 and 22.

The vertical pipe is just a marker, and has metal tape on it to help find it, and is shallow so whoever is looking for it will know they are in the right spot.

Sunset - Choteau Mountain View RV Campground

 It was a beautiful day at the park today, rained last night and you could smell the fresh rain in the air. 

The day got topped off by a beautiful sunset!

Suzi got this great shot (below) while Boomer dog was walking her and Carol on the Soroptimist Trail between the Choteau Country Club Golf Course and Choteau Mountain View RV Campground.

sewer update passing cabin 2 and cabin 3

 Had better luck with not hurting the power lines this week.  

It was interesting Cabin 2's electric line is super shallow and inside of a piece of PVC pipe.  

Cabin 3's power line was a little deeper, but not much.

The sewer pipe is pretty shallow through this area of the dig.  

Notice all the super shallow pipes in the park, this is why we are not open in the dead of winter,

 not that many people are eager to stay in an RV in January and February when temps 

are occasionally 20 below with high gusting winds.

Guys doing the city water and sewer lines told me they put the 

sewer lines 4 feet below grade, and the water lines 5 feet below grade here.  

sewer update cabin 1 to cabin 2

 The electrician was here first thing in the morning to splice the electric line to Cabin 1.

Since it is Friday, they only dug up to where they need to start hand digging for the wire across to Cabin 2.    They also worked on making spaces 7 and 8 rentable.

Beautiful day at Choteau Mountain View RV Campground, Choteau, Montana