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April through June, 2017

Vacation Time

We were gone for a substantial portion of this quarter, traveling to Peru, Chile and French Polynesia. We avoided Machu Pichu and opted instead for a week-long riverboat tour of the Upper Amazon. In Chile we visited the wine coutry and toured Valpariaso. In French Polynesia we went to four islands (Tahiti, Bora Bora, Rangiroa, and Fakarava), accompanying Dan and Kristy on one of their World Wide Diving Adventures tours. The trip involved 16 air flights in 31 days. In the future, we will do less flying!

The MSU students did not get any “new” pictures this year, just more pictures of elk, deer, coyotes, and themselves. The size of the class has grown to the point their field work has to be split into two groups. The number of cameras they place is so large now we have a hard time avoiding them on our walks around the property.


Sadly, Gary's mother passed away in April. We were on the road visiting family when she declined rapidly and passed away before we could get back. Details can be found here.

So far, this has been a bad year for deaths. Gary's stepmother Luvina died in February, followed by deaths of friends in Wales, in Colorado, and in the canyon, plus our neighbor Charlie Papke.

Sidebars

Our friends Rick and Cathy have lived in the Carriage House since fall of 2015 while their new home was being built. The house was finished in late June, so we were looking for a new caretaker.

We picked Claire Gower. We have known her for years because she was a friend of our original caretakers (Dan and Jennie). She has a PhD in Wildlife Management, having done her research on “Behavioral responses of elk to winter wolf predation risk in the Madison headwaters area, Yellowstone National Park.” She initiated and assists the yearly visits by the MSU Wildlife Management course, which has required her to hike all over our property with the class. She works as a wildlife biologist for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

If you meet Claire, you will think she is a Montana cowgirl from way back — until she opens her mouth to speak, when you will realize she hails from England. But her love of all types of hunting and fishing suggests she is unlikely to ever leave Montana.

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