A Winter Visitor

You just never know who will drop by for a spot of lunch. The deer LOVE the arborvitae shrubs, they must taste like candy cause every chance they get they nibble around the edges. This morning I had this little buck in the yard. We had quite the dumping of snow here, close to 8 inches on the ground.

Turkeys in the yard

I just got off the treadmill, too slick to walk outside lately :-(
And when I looked out the window I had a yard full of turkeys!.
The tom turkeys were all fluffed out like the typical picture of turkeys you see on all the Thanksgiving decorations. But in real life when they get all fluffed out they shimmy and shake and gobble alot trying to impress all the hen turkeys. It is cool to watch, so a ran to get my camera and when I got it set up they had decided to take a break and peck around for food instead. Fickle turkeys

Stuff on my blog page

If you all have checked in from time to time you have seen some new stuff added to the page as features.
I have a lunar moon phase chart, a NASA picture of the day, and a National Geographic picture of the day.
If you take some time to look, there are hotlink areas you can click to learn more about the photos shown. It is kind of interesting. Sometimes I don't know what the NASA picture is (can't guess it anyway) so I click the link and learn something new!
The picture it shows currently looks the the landscape of the moon, but click it and find out what it really is!!
And for all you readers, I have updated my reading list. What have you read lately? Check out some of the books that I have currently read if you are not sure what to read next, or maybe you are a murder mystery reader and just don't know what else you would like.....try a few different genre's just for fun!

Also at the bottom of my page is a jigsaw puzzle for you to put together. It is fun and there is a link there as well to the jigsaw of the day.

So when you come to check out what I have been doing, take sometime and browse around the site to see what may be new.

More Pretty Ice Pictures

I do love the sunshine on the ice. You can even see the stones on the creek bottom.



Another picture of the ice on Hunsacker Creek.

Nature creates a perfect circle of ice

We went for a brisk walk this morning in the brisk fall weather, and on Hunsacker Creek the water action on the freezing surface made a ice disk...cool huh?! I got my video camera out to share this wonder of nature. Ice is sooooo cool!! (I guess you can tell that I've lived in Alaska for too many years to be so excited about ice!!)
So all you math fanatics.....why the perfect circle? I know....do you????

Napping Practice....Check!!

Because Georgia is new...she really didn't know how nap time was to be done properly. So when Emily came home for Thanksgiving Break they did some practice sessions until it was well learned. This gives meaning to Three Dog Night. It has been cold here, between 15 and 20 degrees overnight. So they couldn't have learned at a more opportune time!

Pug-O-War!!

The beautiful fall weather

In October, the week of the 22nd to be exact. We had the most awesome weather on the river. Lori (the sister in Arkansas) usually comes home in October so we decided that it would be great to go salmon fishing down below Hells Canyon Dam. The fish were up and so why not.
This next pic shows Lisa and I out on the point trying our luck. Fishing was great, catching was impossible!!


The weather was great as you can tell from the sunshine pics, and the wildlife viewing was great as well. If you look closely by the waters edge (thankfully it was on the other side of the river) you can see a bear. He had come down the draw on the opposite side of the river and he did a bit of fishing as well.


Our fishing spot is about a mile or so hike down river on the Oregon side at Stud Creek. The trail to take to get there is a beautiful hike. Jeanne is posing, (mom is taking the pic, and Lori had gone by already) Lisa is next on the trail and I am bringing up the rear.


Jeanne ended up catching the only fish of the day, a bass. But at least she caught something!!
I caught a few Vit D's from the sun, and had a wonderful day anyway!!

Equal time for Hazel

Hazel got to stay with my mom while we were on the road trip. She had a good time but was excited to see us home. She is also posing pretty in the fall leaves.

Welcome to Oregon Georgia

We brought Pats dog home. And so far she has had a pretty good time learning how to be a country dog. She likes to be outside with whoever is doing chores etc. Here is a pic of George in the pile of maple leaves.


We rakes walnut leaves and then put down some grass feed. She is partial to Terry (now that Pat isn't here) so she follows him around and "helps".


Geo and Hazel are beginning to be buddies. Geo still doesn't know how to 'nap' yet, we are waiting for Emily to get home so she can get some good practice in :D

Hoover Dam and the completed bridge

This is a bronze statue dedicated to the workers who build Hoover Dam. It is an awesome piece of artwork. Very detailed and very lifelike.


The sign shop must have a sense of humor.


The view of the bridge from the top of the dam

The view of the dam from the top of the bridge.

One of my favorite Canyon Pics

Side Trips on the way to Georgia

We made a side trip to the Grand Canyon. I have never been before and it was spectacular. It was a beautiful clear sunny day. And you can see we were in our shirtsleeves.


At the Watch Tower build in 1933

We got another tourist to take our picture. Isn't the scenery beautiful!


Almost on the edge.


The colors of the canyon walls are so varied, from purple to red and everything in between.

To Georgia and Back

We headed down to Georgia on Oct 28 from Boise. Our first stop was in Las Vegas to visit some dear friends, Gloria and Gilbert Mata. Gilbert stood up for us at our Justice of the Peace ceremony in Carson City Nevada many many moons ago! Gilbert, Gloria and Terry go way back to when Terry was stationed in Germany in the Air Force. It was great to visit with them. They have a new camper and I am hoping that they will pull it up north to come visit us!!

Several stops along the way, the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam and the Pat Tillman bridge, Flagstaff AZ, Shamrock TX, Tupelo MS and Marietta GA.
We loaded all of Pat's stuff, books, bike, dog and headed for home. Pat isn't done on campus until the middle of December, and he will be driving home and doesn't have rooms for stuff, so that's the reason for the trip. We did enjoy getting to visit and tour the campus at Life University.

Pat and Leigh share the apartment. They have both just been notified that they have been chosen to go to China in January for part of their internship work.


On the way home we stopped in Arkansas to visit Lori and Dennis. We had not seen the house that Dennis and Lori built. When you get off the interstate highways you can see some awesome scenery. Dennis took the day off and we hiked through his childhood stomping grounds and he showed us some of the prettiest places.


This is Lori and Dennis' home. It is beautiful as well as a work of art and heart! Dennis used timber logged from his families property and finished all the wood beams by hand. Inside it is gorgeous!!


We made it to Iowa. We spent a day and a half in Des Moines visiting Terry's sister Carol and her husband Ken. Carol and I went to a Holiday Bazaar that was huge! Bought a couple of cool items and had a great day. I actually got to see my first bright red Cardinal at Carols house. Ken had just put up the bird feeder and it didn't take them long to find it. Wow, are they pretty birds.
This picture is taken at Terry's cousin Deans farm place in Klemme Iowa. Dean had restored and painted up this old tractor and I took it for a spin around the machine shed.


In Des Moines, we visited Terry's Aunt Harriet and also Terry's cousins daughter who just had a baby. Sara is the proud mom of Cooper!! I got to hold the baby which was very special.


This is a picture of Lori and Dennis in Arkansas in front of their fire place.


More Arkansas pictures of the cool land formations carved out by the waterways.


This is a pretty purple berry that was growing in the underbrush in Arkansas. I will have to look up the name of it cause I have never seen these before.


In Iowa we had a fish fry. Byron and Millie and Dean and Debbie brought the fish and the fryer and we set up in Aunt Vivian's garage and visited with relatives and friends that just happened to be passing by.


This is Dean and Debbie and Gracie at their home in Klemme.


Card night at Vivian's house. Marian and Al and Kim and Dave and Vivian play cards on Sunday evenings. So we were in time to join them. We are playing Chicken foot dominos.

Apple Pressing Time Again!!

Another great apple year. We got apples from all over, even as far away as Hereford, OR.
We squeezed approximately 18 gallons on Saturday. We filled two carboys and a 6 gallon bucket, and we factored in what people drank as the day progressed. Not a bad yield.
Dan and Melissa taking a break from the squeezing.
Terry, Shannen, Cora and Seth working the press.
The girls, Cora and Leah were able to get some time to bob for apples.
Leah, proudly displays her apple!!
On "the line" is Jim, Diane, Rush, Eleanor,Kathy, Eric and Julie.
Shannen taking the girls for a ride. They rode the 4-wheeler back and forth to the compost pile as they emptied the squeezings.
Cody and Dan cleaning the hopper getting ready to squeeze another batch.
Leah is holding a frog we found.
Cora is helping Dad pick apples.
Leah is enjoying a cider break.
Shannen pressing the apples.
Leah filling her cup again with fresh cider.
More bobbing for apples.
Seth, Cutter and Hayden do their turn at the tub bobbing for apples. Alot of sputtering goin on.
We celebrated October birthdays, Jeanne, Lisa, Seth, Mark and Dan
Julie getting ready to light candles and cut cakes. Dan's Grandma Eleanor is looking on.
At the cake/food table
Cody and Miara and Shannen running the squeezing operation.
The "boys", Shannen, Dan, Brian and Rush.

Aren't the apples beautiful!
Apple picking

Dan's Dad Boone is helping to wash the apples before they go on the line to be trimmed and any "protein" removed.
Eleanor, Bob, Eric, Jim, Diane, Rush working the line.
We had alot of apples to process.
This is what it looked like most of the day on Saturday. People milling about, working, eating, drinking and visiting. It was an awesome day with awesome people, and awesome weather, and awesome fellowship!!