17 days until Spring

I'm not going to bore you again with more hiking pictures with the exception of the one below.

I will say, however, that we did take Mary hiking last weekend which wasn't the best decision.  It had snowed on Wednesday and we went hiking on Saturday and the trails were muddy and I mean really, really muddy.  Our planned 2.3 mile hike turned into 1.2 miles just so we could get off the trails.

These two have become quite the little snuggle buddies.  Lately we've been finding the two of them curled up together.

A few days ago it was the seventh anniversary of when we picked Maisy up off the side of the highway after she had been hit by a car.  That means she's about nine years old already.  She was so lucky that we drove by when we did and she lifted her head up off that payment so that we could see she was still alive.

One thing Irv and I love doing during the winter is watching the webcam at the West Entrance to Yellowstone.  Usually you only see snow mobiles and guided snow coach tours going through in the morning and then outbound traffic in the afternoon.  A couple mornings ago there were a couple vehicles out there.  The one on the right was definitely stuck.

Now, keep in mind that these are the signs posted at the end of the road making it pretty clear that no vehicles are allowed.  Only an idiot or a privilege, entitled person would think it's okay to go past them.

Obviously, that car was trying to sneak in at night when the gate is closed.  I sure hope he got hit with a big fine and a big bill for getting towed out.  When I last spoke with my boss she said there was four feet of snow on the ground there.  It's snowed quite a bit since then so it's probably five feet by now.  Will I even be able to get my 5th wheel into a campsite in May?

After the hike we went and checked out a new brewery.  It was a beautiful afternoon so we wanted to sit outside, but all the tables were filled. We were able to to get a table inside the tent which was really nice. 

The beer was delicious, the food was wonderful so this will be one of my new favorite places.

Next week I'll be wrapping up this painting.  I decided to make some changes to the background which will take another layer to cover up.  Then I'll put the detail in the eye and it will be ready to dry for a couple weeks.  The eye is my favorite part because it's what brings an animal to life, both in paintings and photographs.

Sad day in our house yesterday.  For quite some time my girls have been asking me to take down their high school graduation photos.  I totally understand that request.  I used to cringe whenever we'd visit my MIL because she had 30 year old pictures of all the grandkids on the wall.  It's important to stay updated and fresh.

"Tatanka" (Lakota for bison) has taken their place.  He does look pretty good hanging there even if I do say so myself.

This week I added Google Analytics to my blog so I could see where my visitors are coming from.  I have very few people I've allowed access to and one day recently I had 40 hits on my site so I wanted to know where they were coming from.  It's kind of interesting to view all the reports Analytics provides.  I can't see specifically who is viewing my blog, but I can see what city their ISP is in.

That's all for now.  How was your week?