A.M. Scott's Blog, page 10

A new member of Scott Space

Welcome our new pack member, Zoe!

Isn’t she adorable? She’s twelve weeks old and a bundle of energy. Zoe loves tug of war, chasing balls, digging and playing in the water. The water thing surprised us–none of our other German Shepherds liked water at all.

Since she’s still very much a puppy, my writing has slowed a bit, sorry! But she’ll only be a puppy for a short time, so we need to enjoy it now.

We got her from a Team Rubicon member. Her service dog didn’t like the puppy at all–she needed a new home quick. As a bonus, she was in Portland, OR, so I got to visit my sister (fellow author Julia Huni) and her family. We also caught up with some college friends in Portland, so it was a big win all the way around.

Here’s a video of Zoe and The Amazing Sleeping Man to brighten your day!

Too much snow?

When you get lots of snow, find a way to make it fun!

Who recognizes this scene?

Snow Sharks!

Yes, I’m totally proud of myself!

An Interview With AM…

Find out a few fun things about me on MR Richardson’s blog!

And check out all the other cool authors and MR’s Galactic Mandate!

Watching the Wild

This week I was lucky enough to go on not just one Wolverine Watcher’s hiking trips, but two!

Blodgett Canyon Wall

First, I went with my assigned group to check on the Fisher research camera up Blodgett Canyon. It was a beautiful bluebird day, a little chilly to start, but bright and sunny. We reached the site fairly quickly, only needing snowshoes the last mile or so. The camera snapped lots of Marten pictures and a few of a cantankerous squirrel who seemed determined to eat the camera itself. The return trip was a little slower. The snow softened up enough that we needed snowshoes the whole way back, which makes for a great workout. We also saw a moose on the way back–too far away for a good picture, sorry! But that’s a lot safer for us–moose can be very dangerous.

While the Fisher research is officially finished for the year, we replenished the bait and put a new SD card in the camera. We’ll go up and retrieve the camera and other equipment in April. You never know what else we might get pictures of over the next month.

Destructive squirrel!
Setting the bait

Rebecca, the State Wildlife Biologist conducting the study, invited me to come on Monday’s hike to retrieve the camera from the Fred Burr Canyon site. My house is very close to the Fred Burr trailhead, so this was an easy decision.

It was another beautiful day, but the snow was much softer. We ended up snowshoeing for nine of the ten miles up and back! My fitness watch said I burned 1300 calories. I was certainly tired.

Snowshoeing up Fred Burr Canyon
Fred Burr Canyon

We were lucky enough to see mountain goats and a huge avalanche on the canyon wall that went on and on and on. The Fred Burr camera caught some really great shots of a wolf, fox and a marten. Enjoy!

Marten getting a free snack
Wolf trying for the bait

Snowmeggdon 2019 Continues

And still more snow!

My own track!

But you know what Montanans do with snow?

We play!

So, behold, here is the cross country ski track I created around our property. It’s a third of a mile long, with just enough up and down to make it fun and a great workout.

The only bad part? I usually have to spend the first loop repairing it, because the deer appreciate a little help getting around these days.

Snowshoeing to the woodshed
A Slavering Beast is Eating My House!
Alpenglow — no filters!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In writing news, I’m up to 46k words on book 5.0, so almost halfway. Barring huge floods and other disasters here in Montana, it Lightwave: Circini Search will release this summer.

Hope you enjoy the pictures. Have a great day, everyone!

Digging The Root

Digging out, in more ways than one.

There’s a deck under there…somewhere.

It’s been an interesting week + since my last post.

First, THANK YOU to everyone who bought Lightwave: Lost, Folding Space Series 4.0. I reached my highest Amazon author ranking yet at #854/7000 in the Science Fiction category. While this isn’t best-seller territory by any means, I’m thrilled and thankful! I’m now digging out of the email, social media and writing I let slide while watching my sales charts obsessively for a few days. 

Along with the new release, the Amazing Sleeping Man had some minor surgery. No worries, he’s fine and back to snowboarding already, but the first couple of days I was pretty unproductive. More digging out of email, etc.

But I’m digging out of more than administrivia. Remember my notes about the unseasonable warmth in western Montana? Well, not anymore. Last week started with bone-chilling temps in the single digits F. Then, the snow started. And it didn’t stop.

So. Much. Snow.

AM demonstrates futile determination

“But AM, you live in Montana! Don’t you get snow all the time?”

Sure, we do, but not like this. I live in the so-called “Banana Belt” in SW MT, not up in NW MT by Glacier. Our temps are usually moderate and we get moderate snowfall.

Think we need the 4-wheel drive?

But not this time. Nope, by the time this storm was done, we had 31 inches on my back deck. Our wonderful neighbors came out and plowed us out, so we didn’t have to shovel too much.

Thank the suns for neighbors with snowplows!

Next, record cold has hit. Those new snowshoes are coming in handy right here at home, carving a path to our woodshed. Wish I’d remembered I had them before I took the garbage out to the can at the road. Wading through three feet of snow was a slow slog!

There’s an upside to all the snow. Skiing was epic last Thursday! What wasn’t epic was the drive time doubling due to blizzard conditions, full parking lot and the twenty-minute lift line waits. The longest wait we’ve ever had at Lost Trail. Also not so epic, the two-foot wind-driven snow roller I didn’t see, hit, flew through the air, and didn’t quite stick the landing. Good thing the snow was soft–nothing was hurt but my pride.

So, the weird-weather adventures continue. How’s your weather?

Stay safe out there!

 

 

Book Birthday!

Lightwave: Lost, Folding Space Series 4.0, is live today!

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MY9Z4JL

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/lightwave-lost

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lightwave-am-scott/1130335484

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/919373

Universal Link:   https://books2read.com/u/bo7YWp

iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/lightwave-lost/id1450133413/

The paperback will be available soon!

Colorado Cruisin’

Some of you may remember that the Amazing Sleeping Man (ASM) and I have Epic ski passes this year–we can ski at all Vail properties with a single pass. Vail is having a big anniversary, and to honor their beginnings, they gave a huge discount to military members and veterans. Since our lift tickets are so ridiculously cheap, we planned a couple of trips to take advantage of the pass. At the start of ski season, we went to Park City, Utah. This time, we headed for Summit County in Colorado. The first day’s driving was easy and clear, but the second had gale-force winds with lots of snowy whiteouts. But we made it there safely.

Sunrise over the Colorado Mountains

While we love our little Lost Trail Ski Area, the Colorado resorts have much longer runs, more terrain, and faster lifts. It’s great to revisit our old haunts, too. We stayed at a condo in Silverthorne and skied at Keystone, Breckenridge and Vail. At the beginning of the week, the snow wasn’t great, but the days were sunny, almost too warm, and the runs nicely groomed at Keystone and Breck. There were way more people out there than we’re used to, though.

A warm day at Keystone

We took a rest day and visited with some old friends who drove up from the Ft Collins area for the afternoon just to see us. It was really great to reconnect. Later that night, one of my brothers, Jerome, joined us for the final two days. The ASM and I are pretty decent on our boards, but Jerome is a real expert. We decided to hit Vail on Thursday, the day a snow storm was due in.

Eating cookies for lunch at Keystone

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Storm it did! Lots of snow and high, gusty winds made for bone-chilling chair rides and skiing in whiteout conditions. While the snow was good, you couldn’t see where you were going and froze on the way back up the hill. It was so cold, Jerome’s video camera mount broke! Fortunately, it happened while he was standing still and Jerome managed to catch it before it was lost forever.

After snowblasting ourselves all day, we came back to the car and found a flat tire! Fortunately, the ASM is very prepared and even though the ‘fix-a-flat’ was frozen, our small air pump worked and we got the tire aired up enough to drive to a nearby shop. Big O Tires in Eagle-Vail checked it out, found out it wasn’t fixable, put the donut/spare tire on for us and gave us directions to the nearest Costco (the tire was under warranty) all for free! Thanks, guys–you’re awesome!

So, rather than having a nice dinner at a cool restaurant in Vail, the three of us ate Costco pizza while they replaced the tire and drove back on snowy roads late that night. Still, it could have been worse.

Jerome, AM & the ASM

The next morning, we headed for Keystone but ended up in a traffic jam. A very nice man in the car next to us got our attention and told us the power was out at Keystone, so they weren’t running the lifts, but Breckenridge was open. We got turned around and drove the back roads to Breck, only to find they weren’t open either. They said they might open at noon. So, we had a good breakfast, bought some t-shirts, and checked back. Sure enough, they were open, but only the lower parts of the mountain and the lifts were running on diesel, so they were slower. And they were still charging the regular price for a half-day lift ticket! Yikes. Glad we had the Epic pass.

 

Jerome at Breck

Jerome still wanted to ski, so off we went. We had a great time, finding a few little pockets of fresh snow and zipping down unusually empty runs at high speed. We also had dinner at a decent restaurant in the cute little town of Breckenridge–hopefully, it made up for the warehouse-store food the night before!

We drove off early the next morning under bright blue skies. The Colorado mountains are a joy to drive in good weather–they’re so beautiful! Unfortunately, the weather didn’t stay good, and the last few hours we were back in a snowstorm. Rather than driving straight through as planned, we stayed the night in Idaho. While the next day was still snowy, daylight made the rest of the drive much easier. We arrived without any further problems, happy to be home. While we love exploring and going places, fourteen-hour drives that turn into two full days are not any fun at all. Still, I’m happy we’ve had the opportunity to ski places we haven’t skied in many years, to see old friends, and ski with family!

Here’s a little compilation video the ASM put together, including a few seconds at Lost Trail to round it all out. Click Here!

A Folding Space Prequel–Free! And Bargain Collections!

Who remembers Saree’s tazan silk dress from Lightwave: Clocker? Ever wonder how she got it? Well, here’s your chance to find out! Check out my short story, A Fair Trade, in Uncaged Book Reviews!

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here’s a couple of great bargain-read collections:

Discover!

 

 Blast Off With Sci-Fi!

Putting the Wild in Wilderness Research

On an unusually warm and beautiful (if windy) Bitterroot morning, I hiked up Blodgett Canyon trail with wildlife biologist Rebecca Mowry (Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks) and three fellow volunteers to maintain a fisher research site. This is a joint project between Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the Defenders of Wildlife. Volunteers from local area are helping to gather the data, allowing the scientists a little more flexibility with their schedules.

Hiking Blodgett Canyon Trail

What’s a fisher, you ask? Click here for a Wikipedia article!

Blodgett Canyon is one of the most popular trails in the Bitterroots, so the snow on the trail was packed down, making travel easy. There were some icy spots, so I kept my microspikes on. A few miles up the trail, we reached the jumping off point for the research site.

I was very happy I’d hauled my new snowshoes along, no matter how awkward they were to put on my pack. We crossed a wide, open area Rebecca said was a beaver pond. The snow was about three feet deep and there were several tricky spots, including an ice bridge across the creek. Fortunately, the winter sun doesn’t make it to the bottom of the canyon, so the ice bridge stayed solid. Even on snowshoes, Rebecca and I sunk into the snow. Our compatriots had a much harder time reaching the site, but we all reached it safely.

Crossing Blodgett Creek

There are eighty different sites in the Bitterroot and Sapphire mountains. Most are focused on wolverine research although a lot of data has been collected on many different species through this program. Rebecca had already set up this site, so our job was to gather the data and reset the bait and data gathering tools. Each site has bait, barrel-cleaning brushes to gather fur from animals visiting the bait and a motion-sensitive camera to take pictures of each animal.

Restocking the barrel brushes

The first task was to check the motion-sensor camera to see if there was any fisher activity. Unfortunately, our camera only caught a marten. Still, it’s pretty cool thing to see. One of my friends working a different site actually caught a wolverine on camera! Next, the brushes are collected and placed in individual envelopes so the DNA from the fur can be analyzed.

Next, the bait is replenished. In this case, a small leg from a deer, and a sponge soaked in some truly noxious attractant. It really stinks! To reach the bait, tree screws are used. They’re screwed into the tree, then a person can climb up on them. A safety strap is essential.

Hanging the bait.

After both baits are finished, new brushes are screwed into the holders and the motion-sensor camera is adjusted and tested. I got to play fisher, crouching down by the tree and waving my hands around so the camera could be aimed correctly. Hopefully, we won’t have to change the aim on the next trip, just replace the SD card.

Once complete, we packed everything up and trekked back across the snow. It wasn’t any easier on the return trip. The trip to the trailhead, however, was fast and easy. Weather was blowing in, so I got some pretty dramatic pictures. I hope you enjoy them!

Blodgett Canyon South Wall
Weather blows in