Closing it up.

I always hate the weekend when we have to shut the cabin up for the winter. It was really hard this time because the weather was so nice. We only needed the fireplace at night and in the morning. Jackets were perfect outside. I didn't even get cold on our four-wheeler rides. But we know that living in Utah the weather can change like that and it has. I've been wearing a jacket inside our house here to stay warm. We got out there Thursday afternoon and Steve wanted to go for a ride. I have not wanted to go on many rides lately so I said I would go. We loaded up on the green four wheeler and thought we would drive the loop. It had snowed the week before but most of the snow was gone and we thought that the road would be dry. Big mistake it was really muddy and the tires would kick mud every where. We decided to go the whole way and when we were almost to the bottom by the beaver ponds we saw this.
Two bull elks with their heads cut off. We were pretty mad that someone would do this and leave the meat behind. I'm fine with hunting as long as the meat isn't wasted. We got home and Steve called the poaching hot line. After describing to her where we saw them she hooked us up with the fish and game lady that patrols up there. She knew exactly where we had saw the elk. She then explained that these two elk got in a fight and their horns hooked and they ended up drowning in the beaver pond. So fish and game came up and cut off their heads. We were happy that it wasn't poachers.

Friday we went on some more four-wheeler rides and that night Steve went for a ride by himself. We have a theory that if we leave the camera at home then that is when we see moose, elk, bear and all other interesting animals. Steve had left the camera at home so of course he would see not one but three bull moose. He saw the first one across the valley so he took off in a hurry to see if he could get a closer look. He rounded a corner and right in front of him was this big old bull moose. The moose looked at him, but didn't seem to mind Steve that close to him. About ten minutes later another bull moose came through the thicket. They started playing around and were pushing each other with their antlers. Steve did have the state of mind to turn the four-wheeler around in case he needed to get away. He watched these two for awhile and then a third bull moose came into the picture. He was so excited when he got home and couldn't The next morning we got up and went to the spot where he saw the moose. I did bring the camera with me so therefore we didn't see any moose. I had never been on the pipeline trail and the view was awesome.

I couldn't resist doing another jumping shot. Maybe that will be the new thing I have everyone do in all our pictures. These crack me up, probably because we look so stupid.

Well now for the count down to when we open the cabin back up. Today we were trying to figure out the cost of running electric heaters all winter so we wouldn't have to drain the pipes and we could also spend winters up there. I guess it is pretty obvious where we like to spend our time. But we do have a trip planned to Kentucky to see Kevin and Heather and the girls in two weeks so life is still good. We will just try to stay busy until April and we open it back up.