Rain, Wildlife & Another Weekend at the Property

After spending Saturday morning cleaning up from the flooding at home, I was exhausted.

Once everything was cleaned up (for the second time), I crawled into bed and took a much-needed nap. When I woke up around 9:00, I got ready and headed to the property to meet Greg.

He had stayed out there while I was dealing with the aftermath of the storm because we still had the excavator for the weekend, and he wanted to make the most of having it.

By the time I arrived, I could hardly believe how much he had accomplished.

The cabin pad had grown to nearly two or three times the size it had been before. He had moved an incredible amount of dirt, and you could finally start to picture where everything will eventually be.

Since Greg had everything well under control, there wasn’t much for me to help with right away.

Instead, we wandered down toward the creek.

One of my favorite things about our property is all the interesting plants that grow there. I found myself stopping every few minutes to photograph leaves, flowers, and plants I’d never seen before so I could identify them later.

Back at camp, Greg started a small fire, and we spent some time just sitting together enjoying the quiet.

One piece of good news…

The mice finally seem to be gone.

After weeks of trying everything we could think of—setting traps, stuffing steel wool into every tiny opening, and even placing fake snakes around the camper—we’re not entirely sure what finally convinced them to move out. Whatever it was, it worked.

Greg felt comfortable staying in the camper again.

I’m…not quite there yet.

I decided to head home for the night while Greg stayed behind.

Of course, almost as soon as I left, Greg texted me.

A nice-sized buck had wandered right through our property.

I was so disappointed that I had missed him.

The next morning I drove back out.

It was raining most of the day, but that didn’t stop us from getting work done. We worked through the rain, taking breaks now and then while I admired the way the clouds hung low over the mountains and the raindrops clung to every leaf.

I probably stopped more often than Greg would have liked just so I could take pictures.

Everything looked so fresh after the rain.

By mid-afternoon the showers had finally moved through, and we wrapped up our projects for the weekend.

As I was packing up my car, I caught something brown moving out of the corner of my eye.

The buck was back.

Thankfully, my camera was already nearby with my long lens attached.

I quietly walked over to the camper where Greg was and whispered that the deer had returned.

“Want to get closer?” he asked.

Of course I did.

We carefully worked our way closer without spooking him, and I ended up getting some of my favorite wildlife photos I’ve taken at the property so far. When I zoom in on the pictures, I can even see tiny raindrops resting on his nose.

Those little details make me smile.

After I had taken more photos than I probably needed, we finished packing everything up for the trip home.

Greg still had one more job to do.

The excavator needed to be picked up, so he slowly drove it about a mile down the road to meet the trailer. At excavator speed, that one mile took about forty minutes.

I headed toward home a little earlier than Greg, but I made one last stop along the highway.

On my drive to the property, I had noticed an osprey nest with a bird sitting in it, so I pulled over to get a closer look.

Sure enough, there was a mama osprey tending to her babies.

I spent several minutes photographing them before Greg finally caught up and drove past me on his way home.

Looking back, it was another weekend filled with hard work.

But it was also filled with rain-soaked leaves, mountain clouds, a beautiful buck, an osprey family, and quiet moments beside the creek.

The work is important because it’s helping us build our future cabin.

The wildlife and peaceful moments are what remind me why we chose this place in the first place.

And if I happen to come home with a memory card full of photos every weekend…

Well, that’s just an added bonus.

Before I left I went to say bye to the kids and Jayse was in his room putting his new fishing pole together. He was getting the line on it, he was using antlers in his room to hold the spool of line. Thought it was inventive.