Vacant lot, Critters and Critter Babies

As Paul Harvey would say now the rest of the story. Your favorite curmudgeon the Layz1 went walking around my new home town Great Falls Montana the other day and while walking by a vacant lot, I spied with my little eye a number of little creatures running around the lot. These creatures were some type of ground squirrel, just what flavor of ground squirrel I'm not sure. The ones I saw were very young probably out of the borrows for only the second or third time in there young lives. Mom and dad were not very good parents at the first sign of danger they went under ground leaving the young above ground to fend for themselves. They knew enough to get close to the borrow entrance but stayed above ground unless you walked towards them then they would scamper down the hole quicker then a hic-cup. They look bigger in the pictures then they really are, they are about the size of a week old kitten or a bit smaller. As cute as these little guys are you would not want them in your lawn that is for sure. They can turn even a small lawn into a twenty hole golf course in a heartbeat. The adults are only out of the borrows early morning and the evening hours they don't care for the heat of mid day, but the young are out all day long. Now that you know all you need to know about ground squirrels, and the fact that I am not paid by the word it is time for me to say goodbye to you till whenever.

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Another Great North Woods post already.

Will wonders never cease less then a month an another post. Layz1 the Great Falls Montana curmudgeon is working himself to death. I don't think I can keep up this hectic pace for very long I am after all four years older then dirt. The reason for the quick post is mostly because the weather here in Great Falls has not been very good the last five or six days and cabin fever is raring it ugly head and bitting me in the butt, and it has quite a target there. We have another small spring snow storm on the way to Great Falls for Thursday and Friday one to three inches of snow expected with temperatures ten to twenty degrees below normal till Sunday when we get back to the fifty's. However fear not this curmudgeon has learned to accept things that he can not change, so I shall survive. Now enough ranting it is time to post some of the pictures I took a few weeks ago.
I took these pictures on Bellview Road in Choteau Montana. The pictures are of two livestock guard dogs guarding a group of old goats in a large field. They will heard the goats away from trouble and sacrifice their lives to protect the heard even if it means going up against a grizzly or a pack of wolves. Wish I could have one of these dogs in my apartment this old goat would like that kind of protection

This is me saying goodbye to you till whenever.

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Long time no post

Hereyee, hereyee your favorite curmudgeon, Layz1 is finally posting to his blog. Wow! My last post was way back in December of last year. The winter here in Great Falls Montana was better then I had anticipated and left me with more time to get outside and less time to update my blog and web page. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. I took a trip way back, well not way back, more like a few months ago, well not really a few months ago more like a month ago to Kalispell Montana on the west side of the Continental Divide. On the way I passed through the Blackfeet Nations reservation and took the two pictures I'm posting with this update. If you want to see more pictures from this trip, if you are right handed you can put your index finger on your left mouse button and very gently exert slight downward pressure to the button while your cusser is over this layz1.com link. And if you are left handed you just need to///>>>>Beats me, guess you just can't get there from h ere. Sorry! Well it time for me to say, This is me saying goodbye to you till whenever.

Road trip to Lincoln Montana

Hi there, this is your favorite curmudgeon Layz1, welcome to my world, my world being everything Montana. It has been really cold here this week well below zero here most of last week. It looks like it will stay that way until this Thursday when the temperature will get back to normal for this time of year. Normal daytime temperature being around thirty five degrees. Normal night time temperature being, who the hell cares, I'm in bed early this time of year anyway. I am posting a couple of pictures I took on my first road trip in Montana. I took them on the way to see a big stuffed grizzly bear that got hit by a truck in Lincoln Mt. last year. If you want to see pictures of the bear you need to go to my web site layz1.com The first picture I am posting here is a picture of the said town Lincoln Montana. Don't be surprised if the pictures are not in the right order I have little choice as to how they get posted. The secound picture I took on the way home from Lincoln and is my first Rockey Mountain moose. Now let me say, Wait! Before I say that {and if you read this blog regularly you know what “that” is.} I would like to say this. I believe my new home state Montana is the ultimate place to be, why would you say that? You might ask. I say that because when you are in Montana every blink of the eyes is a new postcard......every tick of the clock a National Geographic moment. And now let me say this is me saying goodbye to you till, whenever.

Magpie

Well it looks like it has been over a month since I have posted to my Great North Woods blog. As you probably can tell from the title I plan to write about the Magpie for this post. For some reason this bird facinates me I guess it's because we don't have them back east where I 'm from. They are a member of the Crow family and like a crow they are capable of learning some human words. What I think facinates me most is that long tail, especially when they are in flight. I learned a long long time ago, I forget just where but I am sure it was from a very reliable source or I wouldn't still remember it after all these years that it takes four and twenty Blackbirds to make a pie. For a size comparison let me say it would take two and ten Magpies to make a Magpie pie. I am posting two pictures of the Magpie check out the long tail on them. I wish I could have got better pics but I can't seem to get close to them. They say that if you come in contact with the ones that are used to humans they act almost tame but all that I have seen won't let me in fifty feet of them. Of course I have not found any in the city yet they are the ones that would be used to human contact. If I get better pictures I will post them to my web site at layz1.com. Now it is time for me to say this is me saying goodbye to you till whenever.

A walk to downtown Great Falls.

Well this is me writing to you from Great Falls Montana once again. I took these pictures the other day while I was walking in downtown Great Falls. On this day I was walking on Central Ave between 8th and 9th street when to my surprise I spotted this cottontail rabbit apparently shopping for a new or used car at Bennet motors. I didn't actually see him kick the tires but I bet he did kick a few. Just before I took this picture he was starring at the tires with obvious interest. He must know that the tires are an important part of the ride. Maybe he is tired of hopping through the forest and now wants to ride place to place in style. I bet he doesn't even eat salads anymore and has switched to beef. Then again he might not have been interested in a car at all.
He could be one of those Montana junkyard watch rabbits that I have heard so much about. From everything I heard about them they are not something to mess with, they are said to be more vicious then a pit bull. To see more pictures of Montana go to my web site layz1.com And now the words you have all been waiting for this is me saying goodbye to you till whenever.

Another post from Great Falls Montana

Well I have been in Great Falls Montana for over two months now. Let me say right up front I am going to love living here. Out of the first sixty days I think there might have been two days that were a little cloudy and an evening or two that it showered. That's weather I can live with. I have done some biking, camping, hiking and walking. Great Falls is a nice small city of about sixty thousand people, about the size Manchester NH was some thirty years ago, just what I was looking for. It's centrally located with lots of wildlife to see in every direction. Just fifty or so miles from the rocky mountain front and the continental divide. Today I took a walk down to Gibson Park located right in downtown Great Falls and took pictures of sum water foul. I am not sure Sure what type of ducks and geese they are. I think they are some type of domestic birds that stopped in to say hello to some of the wild ducks and Canadian geese that hang out in the duck pond in the center of the park. I am posting a few of the pictures that I took to the blog and also to remind you to stop by my web page Layz1.com for more pictures I have taken since I arrived in Great Falls Montana. And now it is time for me to say this is me saying goodbye to you till whenever.