Droopy Things

While doing my morning walk in our Boise yard today, I noticed the number of plants abloom with hanging flowers. They are quite pretty. Their languid posture belies the fervor of spring.

These are currant flowers. Our two bushes are loaded with flowers this year, along with our gooseberry (we planted last spring). I had to move to Idaho so I could grow these -- they are outlawed in North Carolina because they are a possible vector for some pine tree disease.



This is our Harry Lauder's Walking Stick tree, also know as curly filbert.



We have lovely, massive bleeding hearts in our front yard.



Not a plant, but just as pretty. A Buddhist prayer flag that hangs in our backyard.

Spring: In Like a Lion

Jon and I raced home from Montana on Saturday to beat the impending winter storm. We were worried that it would compromise the roads and that we would get stuck or worse. We arrived in Boise on Saturday around 5 p.m. and after unloading the Suburban, we hopped into my truck and headed to the Tavern for dinner.

In the still-dark Sunday morning, I awoke to what sounded like a train whooshing by. I got up, looked out the window into the backyard, and listened as hail began to fall, eventually falling back to sleep. The next morning we rolled out of bed and headed out the front door to get coffee and a bagel (we really don’t eat every meal out, it’s just that we had no groceries in the house yet after being gone for over a week).

Turns out the winds I heard ripped this 50 foot beautiful blue spruce tree out of the ground and tipped it over onto our vehicles.

The trunk fell squarely on the hood of my truck, the branches of one side rested on the hood of Jon's Suburban.

Closeup of my truck.

Closeup of Jon's Suburban.

Our house and the bluebird house were spared.

Not Winter

I did an informal poll of myself to find out my favorite season.

Now in my second year here in Idaho, I have decided that winter is not it. Especially not this winter.

When we were in North Carolina, I thought the reason I didn't like winter was because there was nothing to do during the cold months. I admit I like winter better here in Boise than I did in North Carolina because at least you can snowshoe or ski. The snow conditions here haven't been that great though, and we haven't had much snow. The local mountain conditions vacillate between ice skating rink and slush. I prefer the other seasons because some of my favorite activities are done then, like biking, gardening, and pretty much anything outside.

One of this winter's favorite indoor activities is playing cards. Jon and our neighbors taught me how to play cribbage a few weeks ago and now the cribbage board is a permanent fixture on our dining room table.

Whenever we have the time, we play a game, which takes about 20 minutes. We keep track of the games and the best out of ten games wins. I am 0 for 1 right now, but the first tournament I lost by only one game. Not bad for a beginner!

[photograph courtesy of www.shepshedgames.co.uk/cribbage.jpg.]

Found Religion or a Table Rock Hike

The full, harvest moon was on Wednesday, so last night a friend and I hiked up to Table Rock to see the sunset and the moonrise. Table Rock is, as it's name implies, a flat outcropping of rock in the foothills surrounding Boise. It provides gorgeous views of the city and I thought it would be magical to see the full moon from that vantage point. Oddly, this geologic wonder also hosts a gigantic white cross that is lit nightly, as well as power transformers and cell phone towers.


Neither Steffani nor I had done the hike before, but we figured we would just start at the bottom and hike the trail to the top. We were chatting and quickly out of breath, so when we came to a crossroads with the Table Rock Trail, we followed it, without looking around to secure our bearings. Turns out we were hiking away from Table Rock. Gah! We backtracked and finally made it up just after sunset.


There were others at the top, including some cars as apparently there is a road that leads to the top in addition to the trail. We waited for the moon as it grew cold, but still no moon. Then a couple drove up in an SUV, rolled their windows down, and serenaded us with merengue music. What a buzz-kill. At that point, we decided to pick our way down in the dark. Neither of us brought lights, thinking the light of the moon would guide us.

The vile gigantic cross lit the way at first, but eventually the trail was just plain dark, rocky, and a little sketchy. I admit that "mountain lion bait" was in the back of my mind but I kept this thought to myself. We finally made it to the bottom just after 8:00pm. While on the trail, we saw a two-point buck and six large quail, and then saw a fox across the street from Steffani's house in the heart of Boise. The moon eventually poked it's head above the foothills on the drive home.

Broken Record!

Yesterday, on October 10th, we experienced the earliest measurable snowfall in Boise, ID. The previous record was October 12th. It was just a few inches of snow, but it was SNOW! I am already in the mood to bust out the snow board.


Having grown up on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona, Gus wasn't quite sure what to do with his first snow. Ducking the flakes was unsuccessful, so he decided that hiding under bushes was the best course of action. I hope he likes to snowshoe.

Sightings

Last night my friend Erin and I left Tony's restaurant around 9:30 after our first official book club meeting. This isn't your regular book club; after trying in vain to form a fully-fledged book club with a name, a Google groups page, and more than two members, we gave up trying to meet because the club couldn't agree on a date, a time, or a book.

Not to be deterred, Erin and I formed our own. We decided that for our first book reading in our new club, we would read the highly acclaimed Eckhart Tolle book A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose. We were both curious, but I personally was chagrined about the prospect of reading a quasi-self-help book. I was embarrassed about jumping the Oprah’s Books Bandwagon with the millions of other hapless readers looking for the answers to “life’s persistent questions.” I called Erin from Barnes and Noble to say that I couldn’t find it on my own and was embarrassed to ask for it. I was afraid to carry the book around for reading, fearful that I might be judged as just another cow in the herd of soulless Americans.

The book sat unread for months. Occasionally, we checked in on each other’s lack of progress, but last week we finally committed to a schedule. We met, we discussed, we have homework and reading for next week. We decided that even if we did occasionally fall asleep while being awakened to our lives’ purpose, it was a worthy exercise.

Anyway.

Last night we were standing outside of Tony’s restaurant, which also happens to be right next to the Egyptian Theater. I’m holding my Eckhart Tolle book in one arm while Erin unlocks her bike. A few performers stream out of the theater, the last one being this guy:

Photo © Mick Rock 2008

As he passes me, he points and calls out, "hey, that's a great book!" For those of you who don't know, it was Alejandro Escovedo. With his endorsement, all I could do was laugh at myself.

Time Flies, and Then It Doesn't

It seems like our summer at the ranch just flew by us and much too soon, it was over. When I left Montana in mid-August, I was ready to come back to my urbane Boise. I longed for easy access to fresh, local, and organic produce and dairy products. I longed for more than one option for my local restaurant. I longed to have clean laundry on a whim, without having to scrub it by hand or haul it into someone else’s home. I longed to have an oven for baking.

But, it wasn't long before I found myself, um, longing for the ranch.

Longing for what? The simplicity of life out there, the ease of having a clear idea of what to do with my time, and of what work to accomplish. Somehow, having a myriad of options is overwhelming to me: Yoga? Shopping? Cleaning? Farmer's market? Festival? Fishing? Gardening? Socialize? Bike ride? I have learned to appreciate the satisfaction of having clearly defined goals for the day. Wake up, get your breakfast, get to work. I like the idea of knowing precisely why something is being done and being able to see the results; you irrigate to make the grass grow so the cows have food to eat, the roof is replaced so that it doesn’t leak, the trash is collected because it doesn’t belong in the field. 

The joy and luxury of our own laundry machines has quickly worn off and piles of laundry sit in various places around the house, waiting to be folded. I find myself making multiple trips to multiple grocery stores because the recipes I want to make are so freaking complicated. At the ranch my spice rack consisted of six things: oregano, basil, parsley, salt, pepper, and garlic. Yesterday I went to the store to buy flax seeds, whole wheat pastry flour, soy milk, rice milk, and brown rice syrup. (Fortunately, I already had the agave nectar.)

Jon and I have talked occasionally over the last weeks about missing the ranch. Yesterday, we had this conversation:

Me: “I think we might be overdue for a trip to the ranch.”
Jon: “Overdue? Why do you say that?”
Me: “Well, we’ve both been talking lately about missing it and we’ve been away a long time now.”
Jon: “Kate. It has only been a month.”
Me: “Just a month? Really?”
Jon: “Really. It was mid-August when we left and it is now only mid-September.”
Me: “Wow.”

Wheels turning, a few minutes later I actually initiated this ridiculous line of conversation:

Me: "How long do you think it would take to get to the ranch if we had a private plane?"
Jon: "Well, it depends on the plane. How big it is, how often you have to refuel."
Me: "Like a small plane, just big enough for us."
Jon: "In a small, two-seater plane it would probably take 6 – 8 hours."
Me: "Hmmph. So it wouldn’t really save us much time then. And we couldn’t bring the dogs."

Quiet Struggle

This past week has been a tough one for me, more on that later. It followed an eight-day vacation and visit with my brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew which was fun, followed by fun, rounded out by fun. This was their first visit to Boise and Jon and I reveled in the opportunity to share our city.

Although having two extra adults and two toddlers in the house with our current count of three dogs led to a certain degree of chaos, it was welcome, especially now that they have gone. I won't try to pull the wool over your eyes by saying that there weren't mornings I awoke to a crying, okay occasionally screaming, child. There were battles over watching television and chocolate milk versus juice. There were disciplinary events highlighted by warnings such as, "Do not sit on your sister!"

My nephew, who is three and a half, discovered the joys of peeing outside while on a recent camping trip back home. He has not, however, learned the subtleties of when it is appropriate to pee outside. On several occasions, we lost track of him in the backyard, only to find him in various corners with his pants around his ankles.

It was fun to see the world through kid-eyes again. We turned over rocks everywhere to look for earwigs and roly poly bugs, visited three different playgrounds, and he learned how to fish with his new Spider-Man fishing rod. Every moment of silence was broken by, "Can I go outside and go fishing?" and "Where is my fishing rod?" After several days of practice while we camped on the Middle Fork of the Payette, he was casting like a champ. Thing is, he kept catching the same red plastic fish!

We caught lots of trout on our camping trip. My brother and Jon renewed their vows with fishing and we could barely peel them away from that river. I myself caught three fish and my brother commented that fishing is like gambling: "just one more cast." The fish were cooked and enjoyed especially by the kids who gobbled them down without hesitation.

After they left, the house was q-u-i-e-t and Jon and I had several "what do we do now" moments. But we settled back in and geared up for the school and work week.

On Tuesday, September 2nd, the search warrants in Nancy's case were unsealed.

I've kept a pretty tight check in the last few weeks on how much I delve into the media and my emotions; some might say too tight, but I felt like I needed a break. But on Tuesday, I poured over all of the available documentation; old and new scenarios danced in my head. On Thursday, I received a completely unexpected call from the detective on the case. The rest of the week was a grief-ridden spiral.

Things are a little better now, but I heard someone say on a radio show last night that grief is not a process. The word process implies a beginning and an end and belies the life-altering proportions of death. I have yet to know how my life will be irrevocably changed by this event, and that unknowing scares me.

Priorities

After more than 80 days working in Montana on our ranch I returned to Boise, and the many summer projects that need to be finished before school starts on August 25th. The list was very long a week ago, but we are crossing things off at a pretty quick rate. We've replaced a dilapidated screen door with a new Andersen glass door, replaced multiple door handles and deadbolts, power-washed the house and deck, repainted exterior doors and trim, built a bench on the deck, painted the deck, and done more yard work and weeding in the garden than one ever thought possible.

The trim repairs proved to be a bit more complicated than I expected. After removing the rotten trim I discovered a surprise; the old fascia boards were custom cut to fit together like a puzzle. To replace them would require a table saw. Off to Home Depot after doing some research on Consumer Reports. Creating the new fascia was a piece of cake with the right tools! We reevaluated some of the project priorities and decided that we needed a bench on the deck, and with the new table saw I figured I could handle it.



It was a chore to complete in the heat but we are quite pleased with our new addition!

Just as a side note, thinking of the ranch. Here's a picture of my 1965 John Deere 4020 with the loader. Althought it is nice to be home, I kind of miss the massive amount of daily labor that we managed to do every day on the ranch. I spent most of yesterday (and most of my next several days will be spent) catching up on my studies.

Coming soon...

I can't believe the last time I blogged was July 30th, and that I left ya'll hanging about the sheep. There are many more stories to tell about our summer that I'm sure we won't get to all of them.

I arrived back in Boise with Cash and Gus (the two sheep-marauding dogs) a week before Jon and Tucker and it is has been somewhat of a difficult transition for me and Gus. Per usual, Jon adapts readily but I am slower to ease into the old routine. I have been home for a week and a half and my suitcase is still sitting open and full on the floor of the guest bedroom. I find myself barely able to be inside the house. I find myself wanting for physical work on a scale that just isn't available here in the city; although, the backup of six weeks of yard work gave me a good run for my money. Gus quickly bored of the confines of our yard. He found a hole in the fence and decided to explore on his own. Fortunately, he didn't go too far and when I found him he was so excited that I had decided to join him for his adventure!

I am sure we will try to do some posts about a few more things from the ranch, but for the most part, life will move on. School starts at BSU on August 25th for both me and Jon. Just like last semester, my night class falls on one of the few nights that Jon doesn't have class. Arggh! But, a friend of mine will be in the class with me which will make it much more enjoyable. Jon starts his clinical nursing rotations so the semester should be very interesting and busy for him.

Summer is not yet over and I hope it has treated you all well. We will make the most of what remains.

Summer Photo Log

Finally home! I returned to Boise on Saturday evening after a nice 12 hour drive through Montana and Idaho. We chilled out for a night and then started our long list of projects we've got to do here at our house. Gardening and yard work were first on the list. There was also a good bit of laundry and house cleaning intermingled throughout most of the day. I've added pictures to our photo repository from our summer so far. You can see the mess our renters left behind, the clean-up effort. We got so many things done, most importantly the transformation of our ranch from a junk pile to a cozy place to stay.

I just installed a dog door for our 3 boys, they seem confused. I think they prefer having a doorman. We'll write more later, enjoy the photos!

Scratch and Sniff

Bet you wish you could! Our yard is in full bloom; the lilacs smell so sweet.

Spring is here for sure; we've planted tomatoes and peppers!

Duck, Duck, Mallard

This little pair of mallard ducks has been visiting our front yard for several weeks now. They discovered the bird seed buffet that falls to the ground from the feeder in the tree above. We really enjoy having them, but I worry about them hanging out in such an urban setting with all the dangers of dogs, cats, and cars.

I could, however, do without the Saturday morning 6:26 am wake up call I got today. Only the female was in the yard and she was quacking incessantly; our bedroom window is about 15 feet from the tree and feeder. I assume she was calling for her mate as he wasn't around. Should I be concerned?

Something Bad about Boise

I know all of our friends from North Carolina are tired of hearing how great Boise, Idaho is, so this post should soothe those bruised egos. Yes indeed, there is something bad about Boise.

Tortillas are essentially an entire food group in my pyramid, so finding quality Mexican food was high on the list of things to do when we moved here. To complicate matters, we had a really excellent Mexican restaurant in Raleigh, NC called Dos Taquitos. It was Mexican food with an inventive Central and South American flair. The service was great, the margaritas were made with fresh-squeezed juices, and as a side dish they served my favorite vegetable, broccoli, sprinkled with Oaxacan cheese and chipotle sauce. What Mexican restaurant have you been to that serves broccoli? To be fair, perhaps We were spoiled and our expectations were unreasonable.

I had read much about the breadth of Mexican food available in Boise, due to the large community of Mexican immigrants in the area. (I must say, however, that there are not nearly the number of Mexican immigrants here as there are in Raleigh.) I tirelessly read reviews of area Mexican restaurants and we soldiered to many of them in search of our Dos Taquitos. The latest and final edition in my search was Chapala #9.

Although the Chapala restaurants have received good, even excellent reviews, I had avoided them because of the #9. Most people would think, "with nine restaurants, the food must be good," but I was suspicious. Owning one restaurant is hard enough, let alone nine? I was convinced that with so many restaurants, the food could only be mediocre and Jon was wrong I was right. In fact, I would go so far as to say the food was terrible and the service was pleasant, expedient, and annoying.

Weirdly, the waiters and staff kept calling us "amigos". Somewhere along the way in opening nine restaurants, the owners got the idea that white people love being called "amigos", which is Spanish for friends. The phrase was tacked on at the end of every single question and every reply. By the end of the meal, it was so ridiculous that it was making me laugh out loud every time I heard it.

Oh, and when I asked if they had any chopped jalapeño peppers as a condiment for my meal, they served me a whole jalapeño pepper in a cup, stem attached. Thanks, amigos! For my next act, I will chop this jalapeño pepper with my dinner knife, which is about as sharp as a spoon. Can the chef spare a cutting board?

Here is a rundown of the other area Mexican restaurants that have tried and failed.

El Gallo Giro, Kuna, ID: This place was so highly recommended that we drove 20 miles to eat there. If only I had read this review first: "The fried doughnuts are not to be missed, and there's even a can of whipped cream if you so desire. "
Cafe Ole, Boise, ID
Andrade, Boise, ID
Los Betos, Boise, ID
Casa Mexico, Boise, ID
9 Beans and a Burrito, Twin Falls, ID
La Tapatia, Boise, ID: This is the only place that was slightly above mediocre in my book.

I am so absolutely done eating Mexican food in Boise. No mas!

You Go Girl!

Limits I say..... You've got to set limits on the things you do, when you can. I don't have a parking pass for the BSU campus so my limit has been set by default. I ride my bike to school, I'm limited from parking a car on campus.

This morning it is cold, bitter cold, and Kate was on her bike early heading to work. The paper said this:

Weather
Boise, ID
Currently 8 degrees F, sunny

Almost makes you want to ride or walk to work doesn't it? Luckily, we live close enough to our daily grind to ride a bike. It really does feel good to do it, and no it's not just a hippie thing!

Sorry, Guys

Image courtesy of http://www.ec.gc.ca/EnviroZine/images/Issue57/BeaufortSea_l.jpg

I started to get dressed this morning fully intending to ride my bike to work. Jon asked what the temperature was and I repeated what I heard on our local NPR station this morning. "Nine degrees, with a wind chill of -10." He told me I should drive my truck to work, that I had to set some limits. Perhaps.

When I think about whether I can ride my bike in frigid temperatures, I think about Jill Homer, the Alaska journalist who is training for the human-powered Iditarod race, a multi-day event in which she will bike across the Alaska wilderness in sub-zero temperatures. She chronicles her training in her blog Arctic Glass. Her reasons for riding are different than mine, but an inspiration nonetheless. When I fret about my 1.5 mile commute, I check Jill's blog to see that she rode 22 miles yesterday in 28 degree temperatures.

I console myself with the reminder that driving to work will give me the opportunity to sherpa home the large garbage bag full of empty plastic bottles I have collected at work so they can be recycled.

How to Help Slow Global Warming

Riding your bike to work or school, even when it is only 20 degrees F outside and the streets and sidewalks are covered with snow pack and ice is one way.

I wrote in this post about Boise bicycle commuters and my own limitations. Since then, I have taken to the streets on my bike, weather be damned! Unfortunately, the two days on which I have ridden my bike to work so far have been 1) during a snowstorm and 2) immediately after a series of snow days when the temperature was forecasted at 14 but fortunately climbed to 20.

I just kept telling myself to think of the polar bears and their melting ice sheets!

Honestly, it's not too terrible. Here is what I was wearing today:

winter biking tights
jeans
wool socks
cotton short-sleeved t-shirt
polypropylene long-sleeved shirt
cashmere scarf
my very toasty North Face jacket with quilted liner
polypropylene skull cap
wool took hat
bicycle helmet
biking gloves

By the time I arrived at work, my core body was overly warm, but my finger, toes, and face were very cold. I could have used my face mask (couldn't find it this morning) and some additional protection for my hands and feet.

New Beginnings

I don't plan to do much reflecting on last year, but instead just look forward to the coming one.

While in Florida for the Christmas holiday, we took an unplanned side-trip up to Gainesville, where several of my college friends are now living. We had less than 24 hours there, but we made the most of it. Citra Super hosted an amazing barbecue on such short notice with grilled steak, chicken, portabello mushrooms, and vegetable kabobs. We watched members of Holopaw and Elephant Parade duke it out on the ping pong table which sits prominently in the front yard. I saw Shena and Estelle's dad smile once again since losing Leila. In fact, we all smiled and laughed again, gathered together for happier times.

We were invited to stay the night with Sarah and Don and their new baby Dylan. Don made the fluffiest scrambled eggs I have ever eaten and served them with fruit and freshly baked biscuits for breakfast the next morning. He says you can learn alot about cooking from watching The Sopranos. Sour cream is the secret mafia ingredient.

We rounded out the visit with a stop at Burrito Brothers for an epic meal.

We said goodbye yesterday to our first Boise friends, Mike and Roxanne. They are off to try their lots in the big city of San Francisco. Jon and I met some new friends on New Year's Eve and we are excited about kindling new relationships in Boise.

After I wrapped up work yesterday, we drove up to our local Bogus Basin resort and I got to test out what I learned in my pre-Christmas snowboarding lessons. I was really nervous going up the lift the first few times, but I was starting to get the hang of the lift and the bunny slope by the end of the evening. I'm looking forward to staying active this winter.

As far as resolutions go, Jon and I are both trying to be more conscientious about our diets. I am adding more fruit to mine and we are both in general trying to curb our natural tendencies towards expansion by eating less and exercising more. One of the best things I have learned from Jon is that exercise doesn't have to be drudgery; it can be an excuse to get outside.

Personally, I am trying to reinvigorate my daily yoga practice. I forgot an important birthday this year and so I am also working on being mindful of important dates. And finally, we can all learn to practice more tolerance towards ourselves and others and I am no exception.

Shiver Me Timbers

Some Boiseans are serious about bicycle commuting. On a morning a few days ago, I sat in my truck at a traffic light on a snow-covered road with two bicyclists while the flakes rained down. Jon is no exception. He is committed to continue biking to school year-round and this is his get-up for riding in 19 degree temperatures. My heart swells with pride for him, but sinks just a little as I slide into the driver's seat of my truck. I'm still acclimating.

Grace

We have had lots of visitors over the past month, and lots of visiting.

My parents came into town for a long weekend. I was very excited for them to visit and hopeful that they would fall in love with Boise. No matter how old I am, I still want to know that my parents think I am capable of making sound decisions. My mom had been to Boise in the summer on an unfruitful trip to find some rental housing. Fortunately for us, the rental market was barren and we settled instead into our little home.

Having sworn off of cold winters since relocation to Florida from Ohio, I was worried that my folks would be terribly uncomfortable in the cool autumn mornings. They fared just fine, though, and I even caught my dad walking around town in just a sweater or long-sleeved shirt. Well, and pants, too. I know I enjoyed their visit very much and I think they did, too.

Overlapping my parents' visit was a visit from Jon's aunt and uncle from central Idaho, as well as cousins from Salt Lake City and Montana. There was a significant birthday event and we surprised the man of the hour with a faux-Halloween 50th birthday party.

Shortly after that, our friends Mike and Caroline came to visit from Raleigh. We met Mike and Caroline through our beloved neighbors Jer and Selina who we miss very dearly. No neighbors or friends will ever replace them--they are that incredible. I feel thankful that we never took our friendship for granted--meeting in between the yards at 5:30 every weekday to share the joys and sorrows of our workdays. We knew then that we would likely never find the same elsewhere and that is just fine.

So it was no surprise that we also became fast friends with Mike and Caroline. Mike and I both happen to be Scorpios, our birthdays two days apart. What good fortune that we were able to celebrate Mike's birthday here in Boise. I felt so blessed to have them here with us, and to celebrate the event I made, what else? Carolina pork barbecue. We talked and ate and laughed and while I miss them terribly now that they are gone, I am thankful for the blessing of their friendship.

The day that Mike and Caroline left for Raleigh, Jon and I also left for Billings. Unfriendly weather was on the horizon and as Jon has already recounted, we drove through a gnarly snowstorm. Having never driven in falling snow, I teetered between complete trust in Jon's judgement and driving abilities and a complete freak-out. It's a fine line, folks.

In the wee hours of Tuesday morning, I felt lucky to have arrived in Billings safely. We spent several days visiting and eating with family. For the first time in my memory, I didn't have to lift a finger for Thanksgiving dinner; I just showed up and ate. We even made time for the downtown Billings annual holiday parade. While I am still puzzled at this idea of dragging the entire town outdoors for a parade in 24 degrees on icy streets, I have to admit that it was fun.

Too lengthy too have shared at the Thanksgiving table, this is my grace.