A few of these guys back this year...hopefully more will find their way to our little valley and creek.  

And, the elk were back again last night.  When we came home from the Relief Society Meeting and drove down the driveway we could see them thick in the garden.  Grandpa thinks that the two groups have merged...that would make close to 16 of them.  Early this morning one was standing in the tomato bed eating the blackberry bushes and another one was on the lawn munching away.

Morning update on the elk situation....

Last night when we came home from the Temple we could see that the motion sensor light was on under the deck.  We pulled into the driveway and slowly drove down a little and sure enough, there was that big bad boy elk standing by the potato grow beds.  Then about 1:15 a.m. something woke us up.  We came in and the light was on again.  We looked out the living room windows and there was one looking up at us.  I was trying to get a picture and Grandpa said.."quick, come in here..."  We looked out the sun room window and there was another one with it's nose practically against the window.  The darn thing was eating the ivy down to a stub and bumping his horns on the stove pipe  and the house...that must have been what woke us up.  

 The grass is pretty torn up, but my ivy that I have babied and babied is nibbled pretty bad.....

Mary Ann stopped the "Johns" this morning and asked them it they had a tag....she has a bunch of cows and calves up at Love Lake playing around....(and "doing damage....") No tags available at this time of year----We need sleep.....will the saga continue?

Going out to play in the fresh snow...

This is sooooo neeeeet!!!

This little kitten has pretty much worked her way into many hearts...(Grandpa even lets her sit on his desk...)

 The sun room/office is beautified by paper chains and paper snowflakes....thanks to Tyanne, Trinley, and Talya....Thank you, lovelies...

 Grandpa took advantage of having a good helper.  Tarrik helped him trim some of the fruit trees.

 This little girl turned 7 on the 3rd.  She wanted oatmeal/raisan cookies.  (It's a little bit of a challenge to put candles in cookies..hee hee)

 These big and bad boys have been playing havoc with the neighbors over the hill.  We think there are about 9 in this group of 2-3 year old rag horns...they are tearing up trees and bushes in yards around the area.

 Some fun times at Discovery Park....

 Building a bear with these two cuties...

 Winner, winner, chicken dinner....

 "I think there's snow on them there hills......"

Early Monday morning I got up about 3:30 a.m. and the motion sensor light was on under the deck.  I just figured it was the cats walking around, but I should have looked out.  Grandpa came in and reported that it looked like the elk had eaten a good portion of the leftover apple peelings and cores from the juice making that he had left in the potato beds.  Then this morning I was up about 4:00 a.m. and looked out Carrie's bedroom window and what should I see, but a huge elk standing down by the tomato garden chowing down on the carrot tops and onion tops.  It was too dark for anything to show up in pictures, but I took this movie of them playing around in the garden.  This sounds just like those horns that Grandpa has that he can rattle around to get the elk to talk to him.  

The apple peelings and cores are almost gone...

 Nothing left of the carrot tops..

 or the onion tops...

 Leftovers from playing around in the garden...hee hee....

This is a different herd of 5 big ones...(we see them across the road in the mornings)...from the ones over the hill.  Big John says these boys probably have a hangover from the apples and bad breath from the onions...