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.

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!

Mountain Pornography

Posting some more pictures of the Sawtooths because they were so breathtaking. These shots were taken while riding down Fourth of July Road outside of Stanley, Idaho.

Shepherd Camp with Hobbled Horses

Fire Damage from 2007

More Fire Damage from 2007

Stole this solo-bike-in-photograph staging from Jill Homer.

Weekend Update

Hello out there in the blogosphere! Kate and I have been busy working and commuting from Bridger (Jon) to Boise (Kate) during the last week. We spent last weekend in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho with our nephew, a bunch of mountain biker/hiker friends from Boise, and six dogs. The cabin was south of Stanley, Idaho, on a ridge just a few hundred yards above the Salmon River; breathtaking.

Saturday there was hiking or biking for everyone, and rumor has it there was also a bit of swimming for Troy. Kate went to mountain biking camp in Ketchum, Idaho on Saturday and the rest of the boys rode the Sawtooth Mountains. The ride really took the wind out of my sail. After not having ridden in a month, I really bit off more than I could chew. We rode all 19 miles of the Fisher Creek loop from 6700 ft to 8200 ft. It was brutal for me, but worth every minute of it to check out the scenery.

On Sunday, some of us decided to ride from the 4th of July Creek Road, elevation 8720 ft. We had to work with the Forest Service guys to clear some trees from the road to make our way to the trail head.

Jon, Kate, Troy, KJ, and Ryan
(not pictured: Molly, Erin, Jim, and the dogs)

We eventually had to turn back because there was way too much snow. What an experience!


The following week, we headed back to Montana separately. On Wednesday, Troy and I made the drive in 11 hours and Kate made it in 10 hours on Thursday. It sure is nice to be here on the ranch. Upon our arrival, we found that someone out there ordered a nice gift for the residents of rural southern Montana.


Thanks, we enjoyed it here in the Clark's Fork Valley.

Spring Break Trip Report #1

Spring break seemed to be over just as it started. School work dominated a couple of my spring break days because three of my professors scheduled exams during or immediately following spring break. I had one take home exam due promptly at the start of class Monday after spring break, one exam Monday at noon, and a lab exam on Tuesday at 8:00 am. Oh joy! Thankfully, the exams are in the past now and my GPA didn't suffer as much as some of my classmates.

I completed a few projects around the house during the first few days of the break so we were able to head for the hills on Wednesday. Remember, the time of year is late March and this is spring break for Boise State students.

Spring in Eastern Idaho

We drove north on US Route 20, a very scenic highway through the Targhee National Forest in Idaho, and then into West Yellowstone, Montana. The weather, as you can see from the picture above, didn't resemble spring by any stretch. It sure looked and felt like winter! The road was ice and snow covered from Rexburg, ID all the way up to Island Park, ID. The plows were out and working hard but they were severely out-gunned by ol' Mother Nature. The bad roads didn't slow us down though; we made it to West Yellowstone by 3:30pm to find what was to be our sleepy little mountain get-away for the evening. Unfortunately, someone opened too much ether. The town wasn't just sleepy, it was comatose! It was a ghost-town because the annual snowmobiling events had ended the week prior. Our options for dinner were Arby's or McDonald's!

We decided to move on, checked out of our hotel, and hit the road heading north again on US-191 aiming for Bozeman, MT. The drive through Yellowstone Park treated us to some pretty stunning scenery.






That was the first part of our trip, we'll finish the trip report soon. Stay tuned!

Snowshoeing: Banner Ridge

Everybody, git yer shoes on!

On Sunday, we went snowshoeing again, this time with our new friends Mike W., Roxanne, Erin, and Mike H. Some of the snow we enjoyed last weekend at Whoop-Em-Up had melted, so we drove further up the mountain to the Banner Ridge Park-n-Ski area.

The view is not too shabby.

One of the Mikes brought a GPS, so we knew exactly how far we went: 3.4 miles. I have decided that 3.4 miles on snowshoes is a pretty good hike. I woke up in the middle of the night and my legs were screaming.

Right from the outset, we saw lots of animal tracks.

I am enjoying learning how to identify animal tracks: rabbit, fox, and coyote were the most common. About halfway through the hike, we took an off-trail detour and Jon spotted wolf tracks. They were enormous and stunning. You could see the outline of each pad-- the paws were about as big around as my hand.

Living out west has forced me to think more often about the tension between ranchers, hunters, livestock, and wolves. It used to be that wolves were just the bane of livestock farmers, but now hunters are citing anecdotal evidence that wolves are the cause of a decline in elk and moose populations, as well. I won't go into this in detail, but I found numerous sources that negate this, including from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. (If you want more information, just Google "idaho wolves elk population".)

The wolves in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming are considered a "non-essential experimental population" but they are still protected under the Federal Endangered Species Act. Early this year, however, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced a proposal to remove grey wolves' endangered status. In preparation for the status change, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game is trying to determine how the populations will be managed and to what extent. Idaho Governor Butch Otter wants the wolf population culled by hunters from current numbers around 800 (source) to 100 animals, or 10 packs. Ten packs is the minimum number of wolves before the animals would be considered endangered...again. Anyone else see the lunacy in this idea?

According to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game Commission, delisting could occur as early as February 2008. At a hunter's rally last week, Otter spoke about the issue:

"That management includes you," Otter told the approximately 300 hunters, many wearing camouflage clothing and blaze-orange caps. "I'm prepared to bid for that first ticket to shoot a wolf myself."

Anyway...

Another interesting thing we saw on our snowshoe trip was the remnants of a burn. At first we thought the rising smoke was steam from a natural hot spring, but closer investigation revealed that it was actually tree wood still smoldering.

Winter burn.

Why are the maps are so high? So they aren't at your knees when the snowpack is three feet!

Once again, I tripped myself by stepping on my own shoe and ended up face-planting in the snow. I wasn't hurt, but as I pulled myself up, my entire group stood on the hill above me laughing with their cameras poised on their noses. Evil. (I admit that later in the hike, when Erin tripped, I was actually hoping she would fall and she totally busted me by the excited look on my face. Nobody wants to be the only clutz.)

On our way back to Boise, we stopped at the Idaho City Ranger station to alert the staff to the burn and they called out a fire crew to investigate.

It was yet another beautiful, if tiresome, weekend in this winter paradise. I doubt we will get on our snowboards until after we return from Christmas holidays in Florida but I certainly look forward it!