It’s been very cold, windy and just plain nasty for the last couple days and I’m afraid I’m getting a little tired of winter. That’s a bad thing as we still have at least 3 months of it left. But to make me feel better I’ve decided to show you some foggy pictures I took last November.
We have had a lot of fog in the last year. This is a good sign. For the last 8 years we have been in the middle of a drought so any sign of moisture is welcomed and besides – I love fog.
November 14th we woke up to this funky band of fog to the east of our house and the sun rise lit it up beautifully.
My husband calls this little hill in the center of our place ‘the saddle’ because it kind of looks like a saddle laid out flat. You can see the fog behind the saddle with the tops of the distant mountains peeking out over the top.
The saddle is a great place to pick rocks in the early spring (before the rattle snakes get active) and you can get quite a view of the place from on top. I even drive the pickup up the back side and gather rocks from the top for the flower beds.
I like to haul rocks – I know it’s weird but it’s what I do and for some reason God put a lot of rocks here for us.
Maybe so I could build flower beds!
And if the legends are right – in this country, a person could get rich picking rocks…
In 1878 the stage route went by here – just on the other side of Elk Mountain. On September 26, 1878 the stage was headed to Cheyenne, WY – transporting roughly $27,000 in gold bullion, some cash and a few diamonds and jewelry when it was robbed. Within a few weeks the law had rounded up the robbers and all but $11,200 of the stolen gold.
And as far as we know, that has never found.
Now remember, that’s 650 ounces of gold still missing figured when gold was valued at only $17.25 / ounce.
Let’s just say it’s worth a little more now.
Supposedly, the robbers had hidden the gold under a rock somewhere on Elk Mountain. Elk Mountain is huge, it runs for about 25 miles North and South along the SD/WY border – just behind our house – now isn’t that handy? The story goes that the robbers never told anyone where they hid the last of the gold because they planned on returning to get it once they got out of prison. Unfortunately, while they were behind bars, a forest fire swept through the area and burnt off the mountain – destroying the ‘marker trees’ that would have helped them find their stash.
It would be pretty exciting to flip over a rock and see the sparkle of gold – wouldn’t it? I’ll be sure to let you know if I find it.
Here’s some of our cattle with the fog hovering just over their heads. Notice the little calf in the stack yard. A stack yard is a fenced in area built to stack hay in. Hopefully it keeps the cattle, deer, elk and every other critter out till you feed the last bale of hay. There wasn’t much hay in this stack yard when I took this picture but somehow the calf had gotten through the fence and was standing there bawling for Mom.
Don’t worry, we did get him out and reunited with his mommy shortly after.
Foggy mornings are my favorite. They always bring the promise of moisture.
There’s a saying that 90 days after fog you will get moisture of some kind.
I just hope it’s rain and not more snow. At this rate by mid February I’ll be up to my eye balls in the white stuff.
Happy New Year!
RanchDaze 