You are browsing archives for
Marty’s photos of the day #4480-4481: Deb’s and my house sits roughly in the middle of the 25-acre Essen Wildlife Refuge. A long gravel driveway comes in from the side, crosses in front of the house, and wraps around to our garage. A long raised porch runs across the front of our house, the porch […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4473: Today I have some photojournalism. I shot this picture last week, looking down from a mountain in a remote area of the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest. If you look closely, you will see the gravel road and then a bunch of 4-wheeler tracks going off-road in the foreground. I fucking […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4445: After 27 years of protecting our forested land as the Essen Wildlife Refuge, I really believe the animals have figured out that they are safer here than elsewhere. As proof, both the number of animals living around us and the variety of species are off-the-charts. Consequently, this summer’s theme […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4416: Deb and I built our house in the mountains of Montana back in 1996. Deb designed it, with a little input from me here and there. All these years later we still love our house, and even though it’s more than quadrupled in value, we wouldn’t sell it for […]
Marty’s photos of the day #4388-4389: Last week featured a couple of outdoor adventures for Deb, Nellie, and me. Early in the week we had to dodge a charging moose, and yesterday we put out a forest fire. One of the advantages of being “a local” in Montana is that even when the tourists arrive […]
Marty’s photos of the day #4383-4385: These photos are from Deb’s, Nellie’s, and my adventure last night. As we do every evening, we walked the path that follows the perimeter of the Essen Wildlife Refuge. We were on the far side, when this moose burst through the trees and cut onto the path―just in front […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4323: I bought a new Canon R50 camera and three lenses to go with it. I’m eager to fully test my new equipment, but the changeover from winter to spring in Montana is the worst time of the year for photography. The lighting is poor, the wildlife numbers are down, […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4297: A few weeks ago, I shared a story and photos of a bull and pregnant cow moose that were visiting the Essen Wildlife Refuge. Here’s another of the bull from that photoshoot. He’s a big boy! With any luck, I’ll be able to photograph the babies (moose often have […]
Marty’s photos of the day #4259-4262: We could have a baby moose at the Essen Wildlife Refuge this spring! Every morning my dog, Nellie, enters my writing room and stares at me until I take her outside to play. Yesterday morning we followed our usual routine. In addition to playing ball, Nellie thoroughly sniffs and […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4243: Sometimes even sweet Nellie can be a bad girl. Because we live on 25 acres of protected mountain forest (affectionately called the Essen Wildlife Refuge), we have mountain lions, wolves, coyotes, porcupines, skunks, and other animals around that Nellie shouldn’t mess with. And the only safe way for her […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4078: Here’s another moose visitor to the Essen Wildlife Refuge, 25 acres Deb and I protect around our house at the edge of the mountains in Montana.
Marty’s photo of the day #4035: It’s another good year for moose on the Essen Wildlife Refuge—lots of tracks, several moose out of effective camera range, and others documented in a somewhat blurry way by my motion-sensing camera. Since I don’t yet have a post-worthy moose photo from this year, here’s one of a moose […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4010: All the rain this year has made for spectacular waves of wildflowers at the Essen Wildlife Refuge, surrounding Deb’s and my house. A few weeks ago, the white flowers of the serviceberry bushes were everywhere; then they were replaced by the yellow flowers of arrowleaf balsamroots; now they are […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3974: Happy Mother’s Day! (Photographed on the Essen Wildlife Refuge, in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana)
Marty’s photo of the day #3889: Moose regularly visit the Essen Wildlife Refuge (25 acres around our house that we keep natural for wildlife). This moose visited a few seasons ago—all fluffy with his winter coat.
Marty’s photo of the day #3607: This photo is an hour old. Last night, Deb and I were taking part in our evening “porch” (our tradition of sitting on the front porch each evening with liquid refreshments, recapping the day’s events), when Deb spotted a black figure in the woods directly in front of us. […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3512: We got a foot of snow last night, so I spent the last three-and-a-half hours outside snow blowing our long driveway. That, of course, means that I am behind on all the other projects I had planned for today. When I’m in a hurry, a good way to make […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3502: This photo is from several summers ago—a young moose taking a nap in our “front yard.”
Marty’s photo of the day #3395: Mother and calf moose, hanging out on Deb’s and my property a few years ago.
