A happy holiday

The camera didn't come out until the kids had disappeared and Grandma was in the other room, but here's a skeleton crew of diners at our Thanksgiving dinner at Sally's.

We got to sample a pit-cooked turkey for the first time. Grandpa Kelly said it was the best turkey he had ever tasted, which is quite a tribute to the cook.

This year's special guests were Barbara and her three well-mannered girls. She stirred up some yummy gravy and brought tasty pumpkin cookies, too. Momma's rolls were perfect as usual. Another great and grateful Thanksgiving.

Pretty scary

Oh for funny grandkids. After Cord got his Halloween treat from grandma, he quickly found something scary to do with the two foil-wrapped chocolate eyeballs.

That's his mother's fingers, holding his ears back???

What would we do without Halloween and the silliness it breeds?

Cats at rest

What we have here are three cats taking some nap time, all in their own cat ways. There's Gray Cat, sleeping on her mat on a shelf above my computer. She's nearly 20, so napping is what she mainly does besides eating, and the shelf is her main downstairs bed.

Then we have Cletus, who is asleep on the couch with his tongue hanging out. That's how Cletus sleeps when he's serious about his nap. Often he's also on his back. Just not today.

And of course Baby Cat likes the empty warm dryer as she is the arthritic, heat-seeking cat. Anywhere she can find some extra therms is where she will lay her weary hurting bones. And you better not disturb her for photos, as you can see by the nonlook here. We love our cats at rest.

Lee's grizzly

I don't know how often we have driven along the Ashton to Flagg Ranch Road and watched for wildlife, particularly for grizzly bears. They live in the area, and it's fairly remote, so the chances of eventually seeing one along this road have to be better than in most places in the forest.

Lee's lucky day came last week when he was on his way to cut firewood. He saw this grizzly about 9:30 a.m. rambling along near the trees in a meadow.

Seeing a grizzly is rare even in Yellowstone. But seeing one outside the park in the forest is often one of those once in a lifetime deals. Lee thought fast enough to get this photo of the bear with his little camera. The first shot indicated how excited he was as seeing the critter. It was a bit out of focus. Needless to say, I was disappointed that I was working that day, sitting in a meeting while he was witness to this.

The visit

All week these two little girls have been staying at our house with their parents, Erin and Kris. Mayanna, the 4-month-old is so sweet, quietly draining big bottles of milk, burping and smiling. Isabella. 20 months, is full of 2-year-old independence. She's learning how to put sentences together and doing a good job of it. They are busy and keeping Erin and Kris very busy, too. It's going to be very quiet when they leave and we'll miss them all a lot.

The Meridian grandkids

Suzanna's two boys have been in the area for the past 10 days, kicking around with their Aunt and Uncle Mylers and with their Granpa Jim and Sandee and with us. There's probably few things those kids missed doing in their time in eastern Idaho. With us, they went to Yellowstone and Jackson, went camping and fishing (between them they caught 13 fish in two days) with Grandpa E, walking the greenway, running through the sprinklers, making jam. They also are known to have watched parades, plays and rodeos and God knows what else.

We did have fun. We read books and played games and drew pictures. We talked and they made up songs and dances. We had them run relays around the house and pick raspberries. They did everything on there list except see Mesa Falls again. Next time.

Cletus

It appears Cletus has decided to keep up, despite our subjecting him to being neutered, having numerous innoculations and various examinations and such.
He's still a tom cat at heart, though, spending some night prowling around, doing we don't know what. But so far, he has shown up for breakfast, or lunch.
He has the disposition of a prince, and the handsomeness, too. Though his paws are huge, he is agile and quick, and quick to chase both of the other cats and even stage ambushes for me and Lee.
We like him and hope he stays with us.

Yard tour

When I took an ice cream cake to dad for Father's Day he had one request before I left. He wanted me to take a photo of the beautiful lilies and the fluorescent dark pink geraniums. He also wanted to get the peonies documented, but they are on the other side of the porch and not in this photo.

This has been such a rainy, cool spring it's nice to see the bright-colored flowers. The weather has certainly been good for them.

Dad moved some of the day lilies from one side of the porch to this side last year. They are thriving. Way to go, Dad.

The yard looks great. Even the irises are blooming in the back.

Bearly visible

This was about the best I could do with the bears I had to work with on our recent trip to the park. But some of the other people at this Tower Falls bear jam probably had closeups. Those people who insist on getting into a bear's face are CRAZY.
This was a Memorial Day weekend trip, our first this year. We've been busy inside with multiple home improvements so we haven't been out driving around and viewing wildlife too much.
But now that the latest project is done - cross our fingers - we'll get out more.

Lucky again

Seems like our timing is pretty good. We decided to visit Suzanna on the weekend of Kaden's last soccer game of the season. He's 5, and is trying hard to learn his skills. It was pretty fun to see him run around.

We used to have great timing with McKinzie that way when she was playing soccer in Boise. And we've seen Jacob's games, too. It's just an added little fun.

It was great to get out of town and visit Suzanna and family. It had been months since we'd driven over there. The drive itself was interesting. We traveled the desert road through Fairfield, and the hills were tinted green. We saw antelope, a coyote and lots of hawks.

I guess we'll have to try it again some time.

Cat on a cool oak floor

The floor is finished. Gray cat approves. It turned out well. Alan and Lee did an excellent job. And it only took about three days. It's lots different than the old oak floor. It has micro grooves that make micro shadows that give the floor a bit of texture. The grays in the wood highlight the grays in the woodwork. The reds highlight the pink in the wallpaper.

Next big project is painting the ceiling. Yes, we know we should have done it first. But this way we get to use those clever drop cloths.

Everyone should come to visit now and see the new floor.

Construction zone

Our house has been a construction zone for the past few days. First we had new carpet laid on the stairway to the second floor and in a bedroom. That meant all the furniture from the bedroom had to be moved into the other tiny rooms upstairs. It was inconvenient, but the results look great.
We liked that so much we decided to lay a new hardwood floor in the living/dining/office areas.
This photo shows Alan standing on the boards he and Lee laid in an evening before the start of the first full day of serious nailing and gluing.
It took a week to slowly remove all the plants and furniture from the room, jamming them into every available extra inch of space on three floors. My desk is in the kitchen in two parts, computer wires half connected, printers in separate rooms.
The work should be done tomorrow. Before the furniture goes back I'll document the beautiful, pristine oak floor.
Anybody want some extra plants? Finding everything and putting it all back is expected to continue indefinitely.

spring in the desert window

Every spring, if we are lucky, for about two days at least one of the cacti in our kitchen window gives us a beautiful, delicate blossom.

It's like a visit to the desert after a rain.

If we aren't watchful the plants aim their blossoms to the sun so slyly we miss the bloom altogether.

We also have to be watchful if the cacti plants are too close to the window. The stems of the flowers grow quickly, like 3 inches in a day. If there isn't room, the blossoms smash themselves against the window, a pale pink smoosh.

Luckily, we found this blossom in bud, moved the plant out from the window and caught in with the camera before it faded and wilted away.

Isn't it pretty?

Kitchen help

By popular request, here's a photo of the project Lee and I have been working on for the past couple of months. Years ago I promised Mom I would sand off her kitchen cupboards and refinish them.

I think once I even promised to do it as a Mother's Day present or something. But I never did it. Then one day we were in the kitchen playing Hand & Foot with Mom and Dad. I just decided that we would take a few cupboard doors home that day and start the job.

We did that, and when they were done we took more. Soon the top cupboards were done. Then we did the bottom ones. Lee sanded off the old finish after removing the 50s copper knobs. His next step was to apply a thin 3-inch strip of poplar on top of the birch wood. He brought the doors to me, and I painted on three coats of clear finish.

Once the drawers went through this process, and wooden handles were added and finished on the bottom cabinets and drawers, our job was done. Dad cleverly added some wall-to-wall carpeting in the drawers as liners, and they put back all their stuff.

The sad part was how easy it was, really, to get this kitchen job done. We should have done it years ago.

Glass class

So I've been taking a stained glass class from a very talented artist. She's also a very patient with students, otherwise she would have kicked me out the first night.

This is a class where I learned to use a sharp instrument to cut glass, a whirring grinding wheel to smooth the edges, a hot soldering iron that made lead and nickel melt whereever I let it drip and pliers, lots of different one.

And, I walked back and forth to the sessions with a bag of glass over my arm, only once slipping and falling on a thin sheet of ice, probably the only one left in town. The glass and I survived with no cracks or breaks.

This is a costly habit/hobby/art which I'm not likely to pursue rabidly. But it might be fun to use up the glass, solder, tungsten frame and sticky foil I bought,

Anyway, here's the sunrise I made.

Another adventure

Sometimes a person just gets lucky. Saturday was such a day for me. The self-assigned adventure involved covering a cross-country ski race at one of the more beautiful spots in the winter, Harriman State Park.

So, beauty combined with skiing combined with the drama of weather and sunshine to make another perfect adventure. Winter may be long and hard, so when the opportunity for adventure is presented, it's best to take it. Otherwise, the days inside can get suffocating.

A grand trip

A skiing we went, with me being the one to cry, "Wait for me!"

The grandkids Em and Cord, the daughter and the grandma headed east out of Driggs toward the Tetons, skis and other gear packed.

We got to the trailhead in mid morning and found a place to park.

Em and Cord take ski lessons and showed it. What troopers. They started a bit slow, but once under way and especially after some trail mix treats, they literally kicked it into gear. The daughter found her stride after a quick wax job on her skis. She, too, has been practicing.

As luck had it, the trail groomer was right ahead of us, making perfect tracks for us to follow.

We skiied past the Boy Scout camp nearly to the campground before time ran out and we had to turn around. It was nearly a race to get back to the start.

The weather warmed up and we were hot enough to steam up the car windows on the way home. Teton Canyon is beautiful any time of the year, but last sunny, clear Saturday, it was the most perfect spot on earth. Thanks Sally.

Cabin fever

No, we don't live in a cabin. And no, we're not sick.
But my-oh-my did we have a desparate need to get out of the place.
It's the sunshine that does it.
When the winds are howling and the skies gray, the choice is always to stay in the den. That's why they call it that, right? The den.
After a great snowshoeing trip yesterday in the sunshine, it was just too difficult to stay indoors today.
So we took a picnic lunch to our destination - Palisades Reservoir - and headed out, through field after endless field of bright, white snow.
Tracks occasionally broke up the whiteness, tracks of snowmobilers and of animals.
Swan Valley is famous for its winter deer herds and we saw lots of their tracks and a few of the actual animals.
The other plentiful sighting was of fishermen. Ririe Reservoir had about 100 with their tents and augers. They were set up all along the South Fork of the Snake. Palisades has a few and there could have been more, but we didn't drive too far along the shore.
Home now, we're both a little snow blind for looking out at the sparkling crystals on all sides for 150 miles, but it's better than that disease it cured.

Another round of winter

Another round of winter hit this weekend, giving us a nice few inches of snow and covering up all the ice and dirty winter look. I headed out along the greenway this afternoon in a snowstorm with my trustee snowshoes strapped on.

I've found the snowshoes offer a mobility option that skis can't. Even on warm days when skis would stick those shoes work fine.

It wasn't sticky warm today, though, with the temperature in the mid 20s. I ran into a couple of California people on snowshoes. They had thankfully and luckily made tracks so I could see some definition. The light was very flat. As visitors often do, the couple were praising the greenway and the recreation choices it allows. They visit both summer and winter, they said. And they like to use the walk.

The past few times I've snowshoed the train it's been just me and the swans, eagles and mystery tracks. So it was nice to see someone else enjoying it, even though it was snowing and rather miserable weather.