Tetonia 9/2020

 Sitting on the back porch of Anne’s original cabin. Beyond the ancient galvanized wash tub supporting two sun bleached moose antlers, the back acreage punctuated only with 3 abandoned sheep wagons to the north and a 40 ft kit cabin to the south. Dry grassland everywhere else. Over the roof of the nearest neighbor a quarter mile away the Teton range blue with Oregon smoke haze hides the horizon. Thru the cut that houses Grand Targhee ski area, the Grand rises majestically yet barely visible today shrouded in blue. Here in the valley the sun is bright and warm with a comfortable breeze causing the grass to dance. Herman is making his rounds chasing grasshoppers, digging for gophers, or hunting spirits. Anne and Sarah are going thru hoarded boxes of dusty coffee table books and pictures of long dead ancestors. The occasional private jet overhead taking the rich to Jackson. 

We left Boise late, around 11 yesterday driving the interstate across miles and miles of flat geology past solar farms; memorials to the trials, tribulations and massacres of the Oregon trail pioneers; museums dedicated to the versatile potato; and Yellowstone bear sanctuary (“Bear sighting guaranteed”). Gas and lunch of greasy Crispy’s Cajun chicken strips and instant mashed potatoes at one of the ubiquitous oasis truck stops. Arrived just in time to help/supervise(?) raising the kit cabin 3 feet onto cinder blocks with a hay fork front end loader in anticipation of it getting trailered off the property at some time in the near future. After requisite cocktails dinner of thawed out age undetermined halibut casserole. The only sound is the wind sweeping across the valley, the click click of the grasshoppers, and the occasion neigh of the horse with no name corralled behind a circle of electric fence wanting a pet but yet too cautious to come close for an offered hand. 

Spent the morning trouble shooting why Anne’s stereo won’t get loud enough and changing out the off/on knob for one of her 12volt lamps, a holdover from her previous life off the grid. Tonight supper planned around deer meat spaghetti with whatever leftover veggies from the fridge that can be chopped up and thrown in.