There I was, minding my business, and three big horn sheep walked across the road in front of me about two miles from the White Wolf Mine.
I was over at a neighbor’s house tonight and he said, “Yeah, they helicoptered them in last week.” Then I checked out the Internet and the story was here.
They choppered about sixty in and dropped them in groups of ten or so in different spots. The neighbor saw them bring the sheep in. So there are bighorns in the neighborhood. Will wolves eat them? Maybe. I haven’t seen any wolves yet.
We’re expecting more snow tomorrow. The sheep had heavy winter coats, and this is their historical range. So add sheep to the long list of wildlife you see every so often up here.
Nice. Must be a pleasant change from California.
It's different, LSP. There have been challenges with the move, some of which are continuing. Construction continues at a slow pace, primarily because of the weather.
Great! Once they are reestablished, that is a lot of meat!
Mutton!
I have interesting neighbors these days. The one who saw the sheep being dropped just down the hill from his place did 20 years in USAF, flying Phantoms and then another 17 as an airline pilot before he fled (as did I) to the mountains.
Have you spotted any wild hippies? They also exist in groups (called communes), and sport heavy hair and beards during the winter. Actually, all year long. In winter, they simply stop picking the food crumbs out of their beards, as it adds insulation against the bitter cold.
If you have a hard time spotting a hippie, there are ways to attract them: put a welfare check under a basket held up with a stick, string attached. Once the hippie wanders over to pick up the irresistible welfare check, pull the string and the stick will pop out and close the box over the hippie.
Yes, lots of wildlife in your neck of the woods, LL.
If those herds of hippies get too thick, you can thin their ranks by issuing hippie tags. Bag limit – no bag limit. Just thin away to your heart's content, but poisoning welfare checks that unsuspecting hippies cannot resist in picking up is not considered sporting.
There aren't many hippies living in this particular area year round. I'm sure that some arrive in vans come summer time because it's a big national forest and you can live free. The patent land is not cheap and most of the people I've met up here are white, over 40, mostly military veterans, armed to the teeth, and live in relative isolation. They're the sort of people who might send a hippie home to God and drop them in an unmarked grave deep in the national forrest.
There was a naturual hot spring near Cougar Reservoir in the Oregon Cascades back in my youth, not many folk knew about it, it was nice and clean.
Then the hippies found out about it, and wrecked it. They lived there year around, threw garbage everywhere, shit and pissed in the water, and generally were obnoxious about this natural beauty.
Their literature/pamphlets tout their belief in Gaia, but their actions bely their true nature – filthy, squatting free loaders. I learned this in my late teens, and have never forgotten this lesson on human behavior.
Later, in business school, the 'tragedy of the commons' explained this fact of life in much greater detail.
I'd host a "draw Mohammed" contest up here, but I don't think that there are any Mooselims around, and likely no 'survivors' who are dumb enough to take the bait. The same may be said for a bunch of watermelons and boxes of Church's Fried Chicken left as bait at the side of the road. The census reports of this area (before I moved up here) were 100% white. I think that they're pretty much the people Hillary considers to be deplorable.
Many of the people who have moved up here have put a lot of money into their places. It's not uncommon to see $5M+ dropped on a 'compound'. For the most part, those who own spreads don't live here full time. There may be 50 residences within 50 miles with full time residents. There are summer cabins and that's something different. There are also people who work "in the Valley – Phoenix" who come up for the weekend.
There is no sign of hippies up here. I'd like to say "yet" but they've had plenty of time to come up and foul the place. There are a lot of hippie types who attend the University of Northern Arizona (Flagstaff), but they don't venture that far afield, and not the 60 or so miles it takes to get here. There are Indians in Winslow and they don't like hippies either. Indians are likely to kill hippies not because they're white, but because they're obnoxious. When I visited the Costco in Prescott (1.5 hour drive to the west), a lot of the men there were wearing TRUMP baseball caps. I mean, a significant number. That's the attitude that hippies are up against. Better to be a bum in CA, OR or WA where the welfare system is tuned to their needs.
Bighorn sheep seem more intelligent than deer and elk. A herd lives along the I-70 corridor around Georgetown. They seldom get hit by vehicles even when grazing just off the shoulder.
They tolerate humans until you get above them. Also, if they are crossing a road, they panic if separated from their herd.
There are several YouTube videos of them jousting with vehicles.
Whoa! Hippie tags! Fredd, now you're talking. Hippies say they love the earth, "Gaia". But what do they do?
TRASH every bit of earth they land on. Actions speak louder than words, eh?
LL, I know you have a sound perimeter. That's important, given the influx of freaks from the coast.
Here's the thing — open season on hippies. No limit.
Crestone colorado near the dunes is where olde hippies go to retire and die. no bag limit, antlered or not. dig in. get in the san louis valley and enjoy. lots of elk, too. or were those hippies with tree branches stuck in their knit caps??
had ewes drop on top of my truck hood from the overhang at the south fork of the frying pan river two years ago. never fixed the dents. good memory. the herd came down the hill to drink.
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