Spring Break Retrospective: Prelude

We got a little distracted over here when a gigantic tree fell on our trucks on the day we arrived home from Spring Break 2009. (Spring Break means nothing unless you or yours are in school. Since Jon is still enrolled in Boise State's nursing program, school breaks are our only opportunity to take a lengthy vacation together.)

To back up even further, I was in California the week before Spring Break with these juice box junkies while their dad was cavorting working in Germany. The best and worst part was that my company's headquarters is nearby so I was able to work during the week while in California. I didn't have to use my vacation time, but I got a good taste of what it is like to be a working parent in the San Francisco Bay area: stressful. Commuting sucks.


I played Mr. Mom, a.k.a. Dad, a.k.a. Auntie, helping my sister-in-law out so she wouldn't have to be a single parent for the week. We split up the drop-off and pick-up duties (two different schools), meal preparations, discipline, and bedtime stories. I wiped noses, wiped butts, wiped floors, and wiped out. It was all together one of the most exhausting and gratifying experiences I've ever had.

I also got immense satisfaction from turning the tables on my brother: telling him all the insanely cute things his kids were doing instead of the usual other way around. I can understand now why people like to talk so much about their kids! It was so fun and I miss them so much now!

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.

Surfacing

The search is over, the vigil and memorial in North Carolina have passed. Nancy's family has returned to Canada for a few days and I guess this is the time when many of us will try to create a degree of normalcy in our lives.

Sunday was the first day that I didn't think about Nancy, her death, and her family incessantly. Monday, yesterday, was the first day that I didn't wake up thinking about Nancy. For days, I would wake in the morning and realize that I had already been thinking about her before I even realized I was awake. At times my grief was paralyzing and at times it felt distant because of my geography.

Life and death roll on.

Our friend Mike, who we met in Boise and who later moved to San Francisco, visited us in Bridger for a long weekend. We explored the reaches of nearby natural wonders in Yellowstone National Park and the Beartooth Pass.

Our Montana neighbors lost one of their dogs; Kathleen went to check water near the highway and her deaf dog wandered into the road.

Our work on the ranch continues with the realization that we will not finish the little house this summer and the conversion of an old lambing barn into a new bath-house.

Tucker supervises the electrical work on the bath-house (if only he had thumbs).

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.

Toys!

New toys are the greatest, aren't they? Well, this one is more of a necessity than most of our toys. After months of deliberation about how our summer was going to play out, we decided that living in a tent at the ranch over the summer wouldn't be that much fun. We looked around Boise and found a reasonably priced camper and after a few days of negotiating we purchased a Jayco Tent Camper. It's going to be great to have; aside from living in the tent trailer this summer, we are already planning camping trips in the fall! Here are a couple of preview pictures. We can't wait to go camping with you!

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.

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.

Happy Thanksgiving

Sorry for the delinquent nature of our blog posts, there really is no excuse even though much has happened in the past few weeks. We've had family and friends visit our new home in Boise. The last two weekends we've made trips to Bonneville Hot Springs to soak ourselves in the soothing mineral water of central Idaho. We forgot to take pictures the second weekend but here are a couple of shots from the first weekend.



The hot springs are a great time and they are sure to be a hit with all of our visitors!

We had our first North Carolina visitors last weekend! We hit the Hot Springs, explored downtown Boise, chilled out on the couch watching football, and celebrated birthdays. Great times, we can't wait for the next visit!


Monday we drove from Boise to Billings in a blizzard. The drive isn't bad at all in normal weather, typically it takes less than 9 hours. It took us 12 hours this trip, 6 hours of slow driving in 4 wheel drive on the I-90. We sure were glad to pull into Billings! There are about 6 inches of snow on the ground from Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. There will be no plum jelly parties on this trip!

Happy Thanksgiving from snowy Montana!

Keep Santa Cruz Weird

We hung out in Santa Cruz, California over the weekend to celebrate a birthday in the family. There are stickers and t-shirts everywhere you look in Santa Cruz proclaiming "Keep Santa Cruz Weird". No problem, I doubt there will ever be a problem keeping the weirdness intact. It is a great California city, and weirdness might just be centered here. I didn't happen to snap a picture of the strangest sight in Santa Cruz, but thank goodness for other bloggers.

The weekend was great, it's only an hour flight to San Francisco now instead of the day long trek it used to be. Our flight was a bit delayed, but uneventful other than that. Hope everyone else had a great weekend too.

Hi from Santa Cruz!

A Weekend Trip to Montana

Last weekend we were on the road again, this time headed east for Montana. The weekend plans included at least one day of hard work trimming century-old apple trees in the orchard of our family farm, as well as spending some quality time with family and friends.

We left Boise just after 3am Friday morning in order to make it to Billings for lunch with the grandparents. We were both surprised at how quickly nine hours of driving passes these days when compared to our cross-country drive in July. It is a pretty drive from Boise to Billings with many different types of scenery. Eastbound from Boise almost to the Montana border you see nothing but potato, sugar beet, wheat, and malt barley fields. Even during the flattest parts of the drive you are still surrounded by mountains on the horizon. The contrast of irrigated valleys against the dry grassland of the hillsides paints a beautiful landscape for the entire drive. The drive home was equally beautiful, but different; Sunday's storm rained snow on nearly every mountain range!

Saturday: The Ranch

We got an early morning start and headed out to the ranch, having done lots of research the week prior on pruning apple trees. It was a bigger job than anticipated; we were hoping to trim dead wood, prune rubbing branches and shape the treees. We quickly realized that we only had time to trim and stack the dead limbs. The family arrived just after lunch and helped stack wood and pick apples. It was an exciting foreshadow of what family adventures are to come once we have a place to stay on the ranch.

We also had to cut down one tree that we discovered was completely rotten inside. Benign neglect (no water or pruning) has killed many of the original trees, leaving nine healthy ones: Gano, Wolf River, and Yellow Transparent varieties. The Ganos were loaded with fruit, so Leslie and I took home about 20 gallons of apples. Once the irrigation ditches are reestablished, we will be planting new trees. I have been researching all sorts of fruit to add to the orchard; cherries, pears, peaches, mulberry, and more apples.

When I was in college, my friend Betsy came up with the concept of a "last first". We would get together in the courtyard of Cafe Gardens, drink pitchers of beer, and trade last firsts--what was the last thing you did for the first time?

This weekend I had several last firsts, one being my first time using a chainsaw. I had expressed interest in learning how to use one so Jon bought me a 14" Stihl.

Sunday: I Heart Plum Jam

We arrived in Billings at the tail end of plum season and Granny and Grandpa Dunn's tree was still loaded, even after the family had made over 50 jars of jam and jelly. Here I had my second last first: my first plum ever, plucked ripe from the tree to boot.

While picking plums, Granny told me the story of this tree. The tree that stands in the yard today is actually the second tree in that spot--the original tree is gone. Granny tells how, when Jon's father died unexpectedly in late September of 1980, she wandered into the backyard and stood under the original tree, contemplating. Eventually, she found herself standing under the tree, eating plums and "feeling sorry". Granny buried one of those pits that day, and the pit grew into a tree that eventually was big enough to replace the original ailing tree. Fast forward almost exactly 27 years--Jon's sister and I made roughly 40 jars of plum jam on Sunday.

Sunday evening: Red Lodge, Montana

Jon did chores for Granny and Grandpa on Sunday afternoon. That evening, after stopping first at the ranch, we took the scenic gravel road route through Dry Creek to the quaint town of Red Lodge for pizza (incidentally some of the best pizza I have had) with friends from the next ranch over from ours. A nasty storm rolled through, bringing much needed precipitation and some pretty spectacular views.

Here we are standing on Dry Creek Road looking to the west--about 3 miles from our place.

The picture below was taken about 15 miles from our place--almost to Red Lodge. This view is to the east-northeast. Our ranch would be in the top right corner.

Before there was Boise

We sold our home in Raleigh.

Emptied the house.

Stopped in at the Pancake Pantry in Nashville, Tennesee for the best-ever pancakes.

Continued on, bleary-eyed, through the hay bales of Somewhere, South Dakota.

Stopped for barbecue, hacky-sack and family time in Billings, Montana.

Toured the Beartooth Pass on bicycles.

Toured Grandpa Dunn's meticulous garden.

Spent some quality time with Granny and Grandpa, making sure to sample homemade plum jelly.

We also toured the ranch property, making mental notes of a long list of projects.

The original house on the ranch.

The original out-house on the ranch.

Chokecherries abound on the ranch--jelly is in my future!

Another lovely view.

(New) home sweet home.

We interrupt this blog ...

... for a cross-country move Boise, Idaho. Things are changing so quickly; new city, new lifestyle, new house (we hope). We have misplaced the cable for the camera and have hundreds of pictures and many stories to share about our journey and our current state of affairs. It's been such a blur I am afraid I will forget if I don't write it down. I miss Raleigh-home, but love Boise-home.

For the past 11 days we (dogs, too!) have been living out of a Marriott Springhill Suites hotel. I have taken to calling it "the apartment" in my mind. The best things about it are the surprisingly yummy free breakfast and the hotel's proximity to the Boise River. Woe is the day I have to start making my own morning coffee again. Just about every day after work, we walk down to the river, take the dogs for a swim, watch all the people floating and fly fishing, and marvel at this urban gem. Yesterday after dinner we picked blackberries while we wandered.

We have a contract in on a little brick cottage and if all goes as planned, we will close on Thursday. The unplanned part is that we found an underground oil storage tank. Yes, folks, as if once in a lifetime wasn't enough, ring the bell for round two. The current owners are in the process of having it dug out right now and if there is no leaking or soil contamination, we will proceed with the home purchase.

Have patience with our blog as we rearrange our lives. Love and thanks to everyone who has supported us in this (ad)venture. We are off to the farmer's market!

Spectator Injury Update

It did hit the news today, and luckily the guy survived. Here is the link for the story out of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
I'm sorry he won't be riding a bicycle again, but glad he lived.

Road Trip Report

Thursday afternoon John and I left Raleigh on eastbound I-40 on our 1st annual Tour De Georgia Road Trip. I was thrilled at the thought of having no particular schedule, riding the circle, and of course seeing "The Pros." It was 1:40 pm when we got on the road and weatherwise it looked like we were in for a perfect weekend. After a few pits stops and about 4 1/2 hours in the truck we found ourselves in Hayesville, NC (on the north shore of Lake Chatuge). After taking a few minutes to eat BBQ we finished our day at the Georgia Mountain Fairgrounds campground. By design we were camping at the start/finish of the Saturday morning ride. Camp set-up and a couple of beers capped off what had been a great day of driving and hanging out.
Morning came early, and cold. It was 40 degrees at 6:50am. Our ride began at 8:00 am on a very sunny Saturday morning, a bit cold for a road ride but we managed. The 36 mile route for the Circle the Bald was perfect. Check out the elevation profile here, it was tough with one section rated at about 24% grade. It's not the 3 miles of punishing climbing (peaking at 27%) that the Brasstown Bald held in store for the Pros later in the day, but it was enough for John and me.
After the ride we cleaned up and hit Hardees for lunch prior to hiking up Brasstown in search of the perfect venue. We found it about 200 yards before the 27% grade, or The Wall. Walking was torture, absolute torture. I think it would have been less painful to attempt riding up the course, maybe next year!

Anyhow here are some pictures of the big guys. Don't forget to check out the rest of them on our photo repository.

I can't imagine the physical pain this sign brings for the riders


The man from Montana, Levi Leipenheimer! King of the Mountains indeed!


George working it!


Missed the good pic of Tom :(


Tyler, not lookin so fresh after this stage.


QuickStep rider.


BMC rider


CSC rider


The only crappy part of the trip was dealing with the sobering reality of life. On our way down Brasstown we saw way too many riders riding way to fast for the conditions. There were so many bicycles, vehicles, and thousands of people walking down the mountain. I guess it was inevitable. There was a crash, and it was a bad one. We were probably 2 minutes behind this crash and luckily for the victim there was already a doctor onsite and within another minute or so there were 2 docs working on him. I gave up a heavy shirt to try and keep the dude warm and cover some of the fluids that should've been internal. Two doctors began chest compressions and rescue breathing, the scene was organized chaos for a few seconds but we finally managed to get some riders to head back up and get the rescue truck for this guy. It was not a good sight, I'm hopeful he made it off the mountain alive but I'm not sure if he did.
Keep your feet in the pedals, watch for the other guys, ride safe, and most importantly always within your limits.