Welcome Back!

Hello everybody!

I hope your Thanksgiving break was awesome! Your teachers and I have decided that there would be no new assignment this week so that you can catch up with the blog. I hope your are enjoying creating your own mini-national park. I have also be researching Casey Anderson who Mrs. McGee told me about. Casey Anderson raised a grizzly cub through adulthood. The grizzly, named Brutus, weighs 800 lbs! Anderson works for an organization called Montana Grizzly Encounters, a grizzly bear rescue and educational sanctuary. Anderson has raised Brutus since he was only a week old and could fit in the palm of his hand. Brutus has become part of Anderson's family and has inspired Anderson to research grizzlies in Yellowstone National Park. The documentary, funded by National Gegraphic will air early May. I will get back to you on the date in case you are interested.

Here is how my week has gone:

Tuesday, I met Jeff over at the hotel at 10 am for a long day of work. First we started by shoveling snow...INSIDE. The hotel is very old, so snow comes in, flake by flake, through cracks around the windows and doors. We carried a garbage can, shovel, hammer, nails, and strips of carpet around the hotel to make the temporary repairs to keep snow out. I shoveled the snow into the garbage can while Jeff nailed strips of old carpet to the doors to close up the cracks. One of the doors on the second floor had blown open a couple of days ago, so there was lots and lots of snow in the room. We noticed something was up because it was lightly snowing in the lobby of the hotel. It was strange! After putting up the snow barriers, we headed upstairs to start painting. Most of the rooms in the hotel need painted, so Jeff and I will be quite busy for a long time. We painted all afternoon then headed home to relax for the night.

Wednesday morning I had an awesome time skyping with Mrs. McGee's class. The wanted posters were awesome and so was the Thanksgiving play. I was very impressed! After skyping, I unfortunately had to go back to reality. I washed a couple of loads of laundy, baked bread, baked dinner rolls for Thanksgiving dinner, and baked a pumpkin pie. I also cleaned up the cabin and readied it for our two guests who will be arriving on Friday.

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a great time with family and a great feast. We had a great feast here! We mostly relaxed all day, but we did get some wood chopped. It was a very nice day in the lower 40's. The ice on the lake began to get slushy, and the snow drifts melted quite a bit.

Friday was a wonderful day. Jeff and I had two of our friends come vistit. We went over to the hotel at night and did a bit of exploring. We still haven't seen any ghosts, although it is a bit creepy in there at night. The weather was a bit chilly, in the lower 30's, but there was a rare clear sky. Our friend, Victor, is a great photographer, so he took some amazing pictures. He is going to fix them up a bit, but when I get them I will post some pictures on here for you. After we got back to the cabin, we were preparing the Thanksgiving leftovers when Jeff heard some wolves calling outside. We drove up the road a bit to get closer. We couldn't see them because they were up beyond the trees on the hillside, but it was amazing to listen to them. John Waller, the wildlife biologist, was telling me that if you call to the wolves, they will call back because they are very territorial. We tried, but none of us were very good at mimicking the calls. We listened to them for 30 minutes before they moved on.

Saturday, the four of us took a hike out to Red Rock Falls. It was about 30 degrees and very windy. Red Rock Lake is completely frozen over, so we were able to escape the snowy trail for a while and walk on the ice. When we got to the falls, we blown away by how beautiful the falls are. They are probably at least half way frozen. It was beautiful, and we even saw a weasel run across the hillside. We hiked back, with the wind at our backs, and then took our friends out the gate. The rest of the night we relaxed and ate more leftover turkey. We still have so much!

Sunday, we had a relaxing day watching football. Then, Monday, we returned to work. We are still painting and will be for a very long time. The weather was very cold (34 degrees) and windy and the snow stung when it hit me in the face. We have a bit of a snow squall coming in tonight, but I think it is supposed to clear up tomorrow. Welcome back to school!