Bugling elk and getting stranded on the mountain

The rut is going on right now ( mating season for the elk ), so late last friday night Steve and I decided too go listen too them bugle. Steve brought his elk bugle call ( you blow into it and it makes the sound of an elk bugling ) so that we could call in the elk close too us. we sat down on a log and started bugling. There were so many elk ; we couldn't see them because it was so dark but we could hear so much bugling, it was awsome, it is realy one of the most awsome things I have ever experianced. We were able too get the elk pretty close too us too, there were a few that came within about 20 feet of us! The elk bugling is such an amazing pretty sound , its so unique and wonderful. We even had an elk bark at us, it was weird! Oh and we heard elk fighting too ; we could hear their horns clacking together, it was totally cool!

After a while Steve and I decided too drive too another spot too bugle, so we got in the truck and started driving. As we were driving our head lights were getting dimmer and dimmer untill they went out, and so did the battery. Steve and I hopped out of the truck and started walking up the dirt road hoping too get a signal too Steve's phone so that we could call someone too come help us out. As we were walking up the road we saw a truck coming toward us and we were realy hoping that they would stop and jump our car so that we could at least have enough battery power to drive us too somewhere that we could make a call. Sure enough they stopped and asked us if we needed any help and we told them about our truck. They jumped our truck and it gave us some more power, so we started driving again, hoping that the lights would stay bright and the battery wouldn't go out again, but sure enough the lights started too dim and the battery went out and we still wern't in an area that we could make a call. We were parked on the side of the dirt road and popped the hood to let people that drove by ( we were kind of worried that nobody would drive by because it was in the extremely early hours of the morning so there wern't that many people driving on the mountain) that we needed help. Not too long after we popped the hood some hunters came driving down the road in they're truck. They stopped and asked us what was wrong ; Steve told them about what happened and one of them offered too make a call for us when they got too where they could get signal. We gave them the information too make the call for us and then they started driving away. Steve and I just had too wait now, so we sat in the truck and ate some Licorice and then tried too get some sleep. It was pretty hard too fall asleep because we were pretty uncomfortable, but I did fall too sleep for a while, and Steve did too, but he got alot less sleep than me. Around 8:00 in the morning Steve and I woke up too the sound of a vehicle driving up the road , and we were so happy because it was Steve's dad and brother. They loaded our truck onto a big trailer so they could tow it home. Jeff ( my brother in law ) looked at the truck too see what had gone wrong, and he told us that our alternator stopped working. So Steve and I got into they're car and we got a ride home.
Even though we had all that car trouble it was totally worth it because the elk bugling experiance was wonderful!

If it's not a toy it's fun

Our cat stinker loves to play with random things. We bought Stinker a cat toy the other day because we felt bad that all he has to play with is random stuff from around the house. The funny thing is that Stinker still would rather play with the things that arn't toys than play with his toy, he hardly touches the toy! He loves to play with an empty firework box, a ball of tin foil, wrappers ( and its funny because most the time I don't know where he is finding crinkly clear wrappers and stuff ), and his current favorite is the loofah that we keep in the shower. Its so funny because we have a sliding door on the shower and I often accidentally leave it open, so Stinker goes into the shower and gets it. He has done this several times now so I might as well just let him keep it. I don't want a loofah with cat hair all over it anyway!

neat creatures part 2

I forgot to mention two more neat creatures in my last post so I will tell you about them now. I have seen alot of bats this year! Just the other day Stephen was outside in the front yard in the dark, and he felt something fly past him, so he went inside and got the flashlight. He went back outside and turned the flaslight on and saw hundreds of bats swarming our yard! He then brought me outside with the flashlight off and asked me if I noticed anything different about our front yard, and I said no. Then he turned the flash light back on and I noticed all the bats! We stood out there with the flashlight on for a very very long time and watched the bats. The moths were attracted to our flash light so they would fly realy close to us and the bats would fly down and catch them. Alot of times the bats came less than six inches away from our body's, maybe even closer sometimes! Every time a bat would come close I would giggle my head off because of the thrilling, excited, and startled feeling that would rush through my body. I was probably keeping the neighbors awake, but Steve and I were having tons of fun with the bats!!!! It was a blast! Its one of the big highlights of this year, because it was just so cool!! There were so many bats that night because it had been cold for some days before and so the bugs were not out for a while. Once it started to warm up again the bugs finally came out and so the bats were eating them like crazy. I have also seen alot more owls this year than usuall. There has even been an owl that was sitting on top of Steve's parents hill and the sun hadn't even gone down yet. Another cool owl experiance is when Steve and I were driving in the car at night and we looked out the window and saw an owl flying along side us not that far away.

neat creatures

I have seen alot of cool and beautiful creatures this year so far. And hopefully Steve and I will be able to continue to live here in Washburnville so that we can continue to see these neat creatures and many others. So far this year I have seen the king snake which is covered in black, white, and red stripes, and is very rare (no worries it is different than the deadly coral snake that is very simalar looking ).
I have also seen lots of lizards, they are all over our yard. I saw one the other day that was
missing part of its tail. Steve, our friend Chris, and I went to a
lake on independance day and saw lots of
little tiny frogs ( it is very common to see toads in the evenings and at night but they are not the same thing as the little frogs we saw at the lake). I have seen some metallic blue wasps ( I actually don't know if they are wasps but they kind of
look like them) especially since moving to washburnville. When Steve and I were at Steve's parents house we saw a stick bug in his dads shop. At first Steve's dad ( Wayne ) actually thought the stick bug was a stick. some of my favorite creatures I have been seeing lately are actually the realy pretty moths. I have seen so many pretty moths this year! I have seen a beautiful pale green moth, moths that have black fuzzy heads with black leopard spots on their wings and pink inner wings, and I have seen moths with red fuzzy heads and brown spots on their wings ( these ones are larger than the ones with the black spots on their wings ). I have also seen lots of Scorpions this year, because me and Stephen's yard is covered in them. No, I would definetely rather not have any scorpions around, but I look on the bright side, at least we have a poisen that kills them well and they havn't been a problem for us, we have only had one in our bathroom and that is before we sprayed poisen. I am also happy that the scorpions around here are not deadly ( THANK HEAVEN FOR THAT ), it would only hurt realy realy realy realy bad if you got pinched by one and maybe make you ill for a while. They may be everywhere but they are not big enough of a problem that I even worry about Mandy and Stinker being outside. Mandy and Stinker havn't been stung bye one ( and if they have been stung I havn't noticed, but I think I would notice because they would probably be whining or crying or nursing the sting ) and I don't think they will unless they purposely try to piss one off, and I don't think they will. It is also a lucky thing that scorpions only come out at night, and sometimes Steve will go out at night with his black light and kill them. I do find it extremely extremely cool how they apear under a black light, they turn a fluorescent blue!!!!!!!

locked out

This morning I went outside in the backyard to feed Mandy and Stinker. After I had finished filling their dishes with food I went to open the door to go back inside the house, but the door wouldn't open! I had accidentally locked myself out of the house and all of the other doors were locked too! I felt so intensly panicked it was insane. I was locked outside with no key, no cell phone, and I was wearing my robe with no pajamas underneath , just underwear. I didn't know at all what to do, but I soon realized that I could just walk over to the neighbors and ask to use their phone. I walked over to the neighbors and rang the doorbell hoping they were home, and luckily they were and I hadn't woken them up, they were already awake having coffee. It wasn't to awkward or uncomfortable because they are a realy nice older couple and I had already met the husband. They were very nice and invited me in and I called Stephen who was at work ( and had arrived there not long ago) and asked him to come home and unlock the house for me. Steve came home and unlocked the door for me and then went back to work. It was all a very interesting way to start out my day!

Where is the toad!?!?

Shortly after Steve and I brought Mandy home to live with us, we discovered her obsession with toads. When Mandy saw her first toad she was very excited and curious. As time went on and she saw more toads she would nibble on them a little bit and the toad would pee out a gross tasting fluid in self defense. When she first tasted the gross fluid she didn't seem to like it at all, she would shake her mouth and head because of the strong taste, so we thought she would probably not mess with toads anymore and we were happy about it. Too are suprise Mandy still bothered the toads when she saw them and seemed to be less and less bothered by the disgusting fluid they release. Mandy now tries to eat them when she sees them ( its either that or she just thinks that they are like a living squeaky toy ), she has not chewed one up yet thanks to Steve and I stopping her, but then again maybe she has when we were not looking! Mandy actually goes and looks for them quite often. The other day Steve and I found a very strange looking toad in our yard, it was different than the others. This toad was covered in wet slimy stuff. Stephen picked it up to show Mandy, making sure that she couldn't bite it, but she did lick it. Steve and I are almost completely sure that it made her high, because she started acting psycho and kept madly chasing Steve trying to lick the toad in his hand again!! Steve and I wern't scared about it though because the toad didn't seem poisenous at all ( I don't even know if there are poisenous ones in Utah ).
The other day Stephen, Mandy, and I went to Steve's parents house so Steve could help his dad finish building his shop. We all went in the backyard and Mandy went and layed next to the garden where the toads often are. She just sat by that garden watching for toads and every once in a while she would get up and sniff around in the dirt looking for them. She excitedly started kicking around a dirt clump and nibbling at it trying to see if it was a toad. When she wouldn't find a toad in the garden ( it was not a time of day that the toads are usually out ) she would lay back down next to the garden and watch, and then get up and look again later. The pictures with this blog entry are pictures of Mandy laying next to the garden watching for toads.

A new house and a new cat

Stephen and I have finally moved into the house we are buying and we love it! Our house is a nice home, and we have a view of the entire valley and the mountains as our backyard, it is absolutely wonderful! I must also mention that I am very happy to finally have a dishwasher ( an exremely nice one ) , no more hand washing all of the dishes!
A few days before we moved into our new house, my sister-in-law Kriselle came over to help me box stuff up to get ready to move. That night when Kriselle was sitting in her car getting ready to go home, Steve and I saw a kitten sitting behind the wheel of her car ( thank heaven Kriselle hadn't drove off yet )! We got the kitty safetly away from Kriselle's car and she drove off. That following morning I heard desperate meow's outside. I walked out and saw the same kitten up in the top of a very tall tree and he was too frightened to come down. Steve and I kept encouraging him to come down and he eventually got enough courage to climb slowly down the tree. Ever since that he thought that he belonged to us. The kitten would run into our house every time we left our door open and he never left the yard. Since he didn't have a home we decided to keep him. We have named him Stinker because he acts like a little stinker, especially with all the trouble he got himself into! Stinker and Mandy love eachother so so so much! Stinker acts like Mandy is his mom and follows her everywhere, it is realy adorable. I love that they have eachother because they love eachothers company.