It is the season for tree removal. We had several issues. One was some trees along the power line, we had some birch trees that were blackened from brushing the power lines, so the power company came out and removed them.
Looks like the bucket arm is a bit close to the power line to me… (the top wire is live)



They sure did a good job of clearing my view of the neighbors house.
While the guys were here, they mentioned we should consider cutting down our 75’ hemlock tree. (they would not do it since it would not land on the power line, just my house.)




We have heard this before from a couple of different sources, so… we hired Rudy from Top Notch tree service to cut it down.



They limbed it as far as possible with the bucket,




then decided to limb it the rest of the way climbing the tree.




Below is a video of the tree having it‘s limbs cut off:


I missed the cutting of the top 1/3rd (batteries died in camera)



Then he cut the middle section.
Below is a video:


Followed by the bottom of the tree.
Below is a video:


Now we have lots of firewood for warmth this winter. :)

We saw this osprey on a telephone pole in Monroe the other day. It was so bright out we knew he had something, but did not realize it was a fish until I came home and took the time to look at my pics.


Sushi anyone???


Had I taken the time to look at what he had while there, I probably would have taken some video, and thought more about my focus settings... oh well someting to keep in mind, and look forward to since I know he lives on the cell phone tower in town.

Local bunny with a cute white mark on his forehead.

Dragonfly.

For some reason there were a ton of these dragonflies, but just on one day last week. At first I thought it was 2, but then I realized they were just bi-planes.

Tripod: This young buck was last years baby, he is missing a foot.
He seems to get around ok, when he moves slowly he actually steps on his stump.
see video below:


I did get a chance to see him run, and he does just fine on 3 legs.

We took a little drive up the Sky Valley (US Hwy 2)

Louis and his new friends:

Suzi's Weeping Willow Tree just after sunrise.

Our Calla Lily is in bloom:

Been getting daily strawberries lately. Gator likes them, but when I gave her a green one, she thought it was just a play toy and spent along time tossing it thru the air.
This is how she carried it around:

Meanwhile, Ginger had the right idea:

This is Harlo, she is a rottweiler that is visiting next door.

Gator and Bailey really like it when she comes to visit. Yes, Bailey is licking her in the face, somewhere along the way she decided this was the appropriate way to greet new dogs... it is amazing that none of the dogs she has greeted this way seem to mind much. And she does geet alot of dogs frequenting the off leash dog parks and all.


Anyway, Harlo is actually Gator's bliss, check out the video of them running below.

Just Sammy looking real cute after getting her nails trimmed.

The dogs were ready to go find a spot to run. We saw potential camp sites along the way. So we headed back down the road.

We found an area where it looked like it was 3-4 campsites, but was empty, so we pulled in.
I was getting level when a couple and their 2 dogs showed up. They had parked where they cannot be seen from the road, and wanted to make sure we did not block their way out. Gator had a blast playing chase with the 3 year old dogs. Ok, Bailey had fun too, but it was Gator's bliss.

We woke up early, (just after 5 am) and Suzi opened the curtains to be greeted by a 2 point buck by the back door. It was cold so I took a look at the temp. 32F... brrrrr... glad we were not tent camping! We decided to head out. The light was just starting to hit the high mountains when we left. We saw no traffic all the way down, but we did see numerous deer along the way.

We left Keechelus Lake and decided to check out some place new. We heard Teanaway River road was pretty with camping along the way.


We ended up on the Teanaway Road North Fork. The road was narrow for the camper, but it was a smooth ride with tons of spots to pull over.


It seemed like around every corner was another beautiful view.




We reached the end of the road at Gabriel trail head. There were 3 trails. and the view was breathtaking.

We went camping this past weekend. We started out at keechelus lake on Snoqualmie Pass.


As expected the lake was high.

Sunrise