Fire and Floods

Thanks for all of your supportive comments. You all help me so much each time we get bad news about K's cancer. I know that it must sometimes be painful to read about our journey - but I am grateful that you are sticking with me through thick and thin. It helps more than you can imagine.

It's been a rough week in more than one way. Not only did we get the bad, but not unexpected, news about K but I got a very painful tooth infection and abscess. It was shocking how fast it progressed from a barely noticeable twinge to excruciating pain that prevented me from eating. I've been on heavy-duty medications, and I had a root canal today, and now the pain is screaming.

Regardless of my tooth pain, I've been getting out in the woods with K every single day. Today, K charged to me when I called her off a scent. When I see photos like this, I literally cannot believe that she is terminally ill. I think that I'll just try to forget for as long as I can.

And, we visited Hug Hill with foreboding clouds already enveloping the Divide early in the morning.

Later in the day, we got hard rain and hail, and it was wonderful. I can't remember the last time it rained so hard.

Believe it or not, in this land of fires, we had flooding after the rain. The areas that have been burned in recent years cannot absorb the rain and it runs off rapidly, creating flash floods.

Fortunately, aside from a few closed roads, the flooding wasn't too bad. I think that this is the definition of "global weirding", a term coined by Friedman.

On the wildlife front, bear mating season is winding down, as the bears head into the phase of the year when they eat all day and try to gain enough weight to make it through the winter. They essentially eat enough calories to survive the whole year in a couple of months of summer after mating season. I worry about them this year, with the lack of food due to the drought.

A male bear marked a tree a few days ago, either as a closing act of mating season or simply to mark territory. The tree is so much smaller than him that you can barely see it behind him.

He rubbed his back vigorously.

Then, he leaned his whole weight into the tree, before lumbering on his way. No other bears followed his scent, as I would expect for waning days of the mating season.

I've also been getting a lot of photos of a small band of bull elk with velvet antlers. Some bull elk stay at our elevation all year long while the cow elk go up to high elevations to raise their calves in the land of lush green alpine meadows.

Look at the size of this guy's rack, so early in the season! He also doesn't look too thin, which I'm happy to see.

Let's hope that it rains some more here and that both K and I feel well enough to play in the morning!