Blog Moving...

Hello!

This blog has moved to the following address:

http://www.nancypatterson.org.

Hope you follow along!

Nancy

And So It Begins....

I was sound asleep when the cries of a calf elk rang in my ears. "Oh great," I thought, "I know what I'm doing on rove: baby-sitting elk!" And then I heard it. A terrible, gutteral noise. The worse sound I have heard all summer (except for a little girl getting a splinter pulled out of her hand - yikes). The sound of.... could it be? A juvenile bull elk just trying to get his bugle on? Hm..... The sound was such a terrible bugle, I thought for sure it must only be a young bull just trying to call. I rolled over and out of bed and stumbled downstairs. Standing at the coffee maker, eyes half closed from sleep, I suddenly realized the terrible premonition, that horrid sound, was NOT a juvenile, but a full-fledged six-point MASSIVE BULL ELK! OH NO!

The bull had his head low to the ground, his antlers long and paralleled against his back. Any easy 800+ pound bull. He was chasing the cows and calves, attacking the poor spike bull, and acting like he owned the town. A bush stuck out from his antlers. With no one else to fight, what other choice did he have but to attack inanimate objects. He let out another rasping gutteral bugle. SERIOUSLY! UGH! What a TERRIBLE bugle! I could hear him panting as he trotted around rounding up his harem. What a disgrace... at least his rack was, well, pretty good, but the last point wasn't very pronounced.

Since then he's been acting like the head honcho of Mammoth, scaring the cows and calves into submission. What a bully. At least his bugle has gotten more dignified sounding. Just wait until the other bulls come to show him what a big old mean bull looks like. They'll put him to shame.

Founder's Day

Happy 93rd birthday to the National Park Service!

Pretty Rangers

A pot-bellied bus driver walked up to me yesterday on the pretense of discussing elk. After he told his story, he looked at me and said, "The Park Service sure is hiring pretty rangers these days. There sure are some pretty rangers here, easy to look at." I'm okay with that, I think. Maybe it helps people listen to me when I tell them not to approach the elk.

Snow on Washburn

Yesterday we drove from Canyon across Dunraven Pass back to Mammoth. In Canyon it was 52 degrees. It dropped steadily as we rose up Dunraven Pass to 40 degrees and finally warmed up to a whopping 55 degrees in Mammoth. On the heights of Mt Washburn, I looked up and saw a fine dusting of snow. Last night it froze at 7,000 feet. It might freeze in Mammoth tonight! Welcome, fall.

Elk Alert!

The elk were everywhere in Mammoth today! There were about 60 of them - a combination of cows, calves, and spikes. Holy elk! Just imagine in 2 weeks when the big old bulls roll into town! Jeebes! It's going to be nuts around here. I can't wait for the bugling though. That's always a good time.

Happy Birthday, Nancy!

I had a really nice birthday dinner party last night! Leigh Anne made yellow fin tuna, cole slaw, and fruit salad, Shari brought a green salad, Heidi brought a cake covered in rose petals, Chris brought limeaide, and Matt brought himself! Yummy food and good company! It was lots of fun to visit and enjoy a pleasant birthday party! I even got a pretty sweet Smokey Bear happy birthday hat! Whoop!