Elk At The Elks

We live in the largest Ponderosa Pine forest in the world. It covers 2.6 million acres, from the New Mexico state line to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. It is home to elk, mule deer, antelope, bear, and mountain lions. I have mentioned before that for weeks now we have heard elk bugling all around our house as the rut kicked in.

Our house is just a couple of blocks from the Show Low Elks Lodge, which also has a campground for traveling Elks members. The lodge owns a lot of property, some of which is forested and backs up to our own property, and some that is used for the campground, some for a baseball field, picnic grounds, and things like that. But I had no idea they had their own elk herd.

A couple of days ago, we were returning home late in the afternoon, and Terry spotted a big herd of elk wandering around the lodge property. It looks from this picture like they might be fenced in, but they are not. There are several open gates that they come and go through.

They are used to people and just ignore it when somebody stops to take their picture.

Tiffany and her husband Kenny were coming over, and they arrived not long after we got home. On the way they passed the herd, and Tiffany got a video of two bulls sparring. I took this picture from the video. They weren’t really going at it, more just flexing their muscles, I think. But the cows sure put up a ruckus during the action. We could hear it all the way at our house.

Sometimes we miss seeing all the deer that would come into our pasture at our place in Alabama, but having these huge critters around us kind of makes up for it.

Speaking of critters, yesterday I dropped Alli off at Classic Canine in Pinetop so our granddaughter Hailey could give her a bath and grooming. Alli loves this pampering and she loves Hailey. When Hailey dropped her off later in the afternoon, Alli was looking very fashionable.

In other news, Terry finished editing and proofreading the first six chapters of Big Lake Parolee, and yesterday after I made her suggested changes, I sent the chapters off to Judy and Roberta to have a shot at. I hope to crank out another chapter or two today.

The weatherman says we’re going to have a cooling trend over the next few days, and by the weekend, we might see overnight lows in the mid-20s. The forecast also says that by this time next week we might see a little bit of snow. Bundle up baby, it’s coming!

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. I don’t know what they’re putting in milk to make it last this long, but I have some concerns.

Thought For The Day – They say 60 is the new 40. I don’t think my knees or back got the memo.