Animal Cruelty

Happy Holidays! Love, Kermit

Study Break

I took a slight respite from the monotonous droll of studying this weekend to drive down to Paradise Valley to shut our cabin down for the winter. Our road had 4 foot snowdrifts, so I had to drive through an adjacent field that had two feet of snow. Luckily I bought chains for my tires and had a shovel with me, cause I got stuck. Anyway, here are a few pics. I saw a herd of at least 200 Elk, a bunch of mule deer, and a fox that Moose scared off. I also took the dogs for a walk along the icy banks of the Yellowstone. Yes, I said "dogs". While everyone else is popping out kids, we're increasing our brood of animals. His name is Gus and he's fitting in well. He's some sort of blue heeler/aussie shepherd mix. You can visit him in K.C. in a couple of weeks.

I love "trash"

As most of you know, it snows here. For the past two winters I have relied on my technical shoveling skills to move the powder around. Well, the hard times are over. Two weeks ago, while walking home from university, I noticed that my neighbor had put their snowblower out for the trash. What?! For one, it's made of metal and plastic, so she could have at least recycled it. Second, donate the thing or get it fixed. We all need to stop buying new stuff every time we think something is broken. (I will stop lecturing now) SOOOOOOOOOOO, I politley asked if I could have it, asked her what was wrong with it, and was given the kind reply, "I don't know. I just bought a new one. You can take it. Good luck." Well, good luck indeed. I drained the old fuel, cleaned out the carburetor, adjusted the throttle, and brought this baby back from the dead. And just in time, too. We received 10 inches over the past two days.

The Exciting World of Rocks

No, I do not have a microscope "app" on my phone. These are pictures of rock thin-sections taken with the aid of my phone. (A thin-section is a piece of rock that has been attached to a glass slide and then ground down to 30 microns.) I have to look at these slides each week and learn to identify the constituent minerals that form the rock. I know how excited you must be just thinking about it. After staring down a microscope for hours on end, I then "get" to draw a picture. My drawings are on sale for a reasonable fee. Hopefully I can get a showing at a local gallery to help subsidize my education.

This is a sandstone. Notice the quartz, plagioclase, and volcanic lithic fragments.

Behold, an extrusive volcanic rock, better known as a clinopyroxene, olivine basalt. This can be found far off the coast of Alaska. The large, colorful easter eggs are olivine.

Plagioclase, quartz, biotite. (biotite rhymes with "dyn-o-mite")

Artist rendering of slide 2. Start the bidding at $1.

Archaeological Dig in Sandbox

I had the pleasure of hanging out with my nephew, Jack, this past Friday. We spent our afternoon unearthing buried treasure in my old sandbox. Among the many finds were: micro machines, army men, matchbox cars, and one Mr. Burns figurine.

My hobby..

I know you are enjoying the photos of my bike riding husband, but figured I would add a couple photos from my own hobby that I have revisited while living here in Montana. Here is my horse, Kermit. He was originally a therapeutic horse where I teach lessons and they decided it best to retire him, as he had been there 4-5 years. He is a sweetheart (well, most of the time) and I spent last weekend riding him around country roads enjoying the scenery.
He likes to show off and will do nice poses for the camera making it appear that I am a better rider than I actually am :)
Dad will be proud that I always wear a helmet, even if it makes me look like Darth Vador.

Fall, not Winter

This time last year the city of Bozeman was under six inches of snow. Our late season tomatoes suffered from the cold and more importantly, we were unable to go mountain biking. However, this year we have been blessed with an amazing fall. I went mountain biking three times last week alone, aside from my daily commute to school on a pedal powered machine. I suggest everyone ditch your car, grab a bike, and hit some dirt.

En route to the Madison Range.

A view to the East of the Gallatin Range. The peak on the far right has been trodden upon by me and many of my compadres.

Riding Buck Ridge with Lone Peak looming in the distance.

First Yellow Mule Trail: 7 miles, all downhill. Grinnin' ear to ear.

Ousel Falls

Grow-A-Dragon

I "grew" my own dragon this past month. My friend Kelly was nice enough to send me this wonderful trinket. Unfortunately, he/she did not reach his/her potential. The package specificaly says that it will increase in size by approximately 600%. Look at the evidence. The fire breather was 1 1/2" prior to saturation and, as we can see, not even 3" post-saturation. That's not even double the size. Kelly, I hope you kept your receipt. I'm sending it back.

Bikes + Pubs = Bike Pub Crawl

A few of us celebrated the end of summer in fashion by cruising around town and rigorously testing a variety of libations. No one was hurt (seriously), and since we started at 5pm we were all in bed by 11:00. Here's to getting old.

Big Sky

My talented brother created a video by pulling together over 2,000 photos from his trip to visit us in Bozeman. During that trip, we also went to Coeur D'Alene to one of his friend's cabins. Of course, it wouldn't be a full visit without starting with Moose... Enjoy!

Big Sky from Adam Bennett on Vimeo.

A Weekend in the Crazies

This past weekend was spent at Sunlight Lake in the Crazy Mountains. Ten Bozemanites and six dogs made the trek into one of the more isolated mountain ranges in the area. We left Friday evening and made a quick stop at the Bank Bar in Wilsall for some pub 'n' grub. After the last pitcher of beer was finished we headed to the trailhead to camp for the evening. Our impatient animals awoke us early the next morning. After refueling and packing our gear, we finally set off with wind at our backs and the sun in our faces. The hike was relatively short (4 miles) but the vertical gain was over 2,000 feet. Everybody's dogs were barking when we got to our final campsite for the night.

Seriously. It's an old bank.

This tent is not big enough for the three of us.

Ready to go.

Altitude sickness has set in for Molly.

Hanging out at the saddle.

It's always a good time to stop and fly a kite.

The many lakes of the Sunlight cirque.

High plains campground.

Eating in style.

That is one massive inclusion.

Tent City

Moose patiently waiting for something to fall on the ground.

Ready to go.

The trek home.