Yep, it's winter.

Opening shot, of course is of main street Fairfield, Idaho USA.  I guess Christmas must be next on the holiday list, from the looks of the decorations, aye?

Too lazy to walk out front of the house for a better shot.  You get the idea.  It was a tad cool and there was a little breeze.  How unusual for this fair land.

Better view from the house.  Soon, very soon, I plan on being up there. 

Went up this weekend with the intention of doing lots of work. Things like, work on interior trim, cut and put up the soffit on the shed, air up the sled trailer tires, plow some snow if needed and go climb the hills at Soldier.

Air up the tires, check, plow snow, didn't need it yet, maybe next week.  The wind can be a plus when it sends the snow on across town or wherever it goes.  I did manage to take a couple of hours and climb up a little way at the local ski area (not open) just to get some exercise.

Not much else to report other than the kite people are out.  Snow is about a month ahead of last year.  That's good, very good.

Winter is coming

Winter is coming, but it is still fall.   With a storm coming in and showers predicted for the day, it was time to go hunt fall color.

One of the first things needed for a hike is a hiking stick.  Halle likes just about any stick from time to time.  Especially one that someone else shows interest in.  I had picked this one up and then put it down, that'll work.

Up the Trail.

Getting rained, sleeted and snowed on.  :)

Along the trail.

Cloud trees.

After the hike we took a quick drive down the South Fork to look for more color.  We turned around at the Boardman trail head bridge.

Then back to the house for a nap and some work on the jeep.  I purchased some parts for the winch and wanted to get it ready for the winter ahead.
After the nap the coluds broke and patches of sun came out for some great photos by Marianne.

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There is snow on the mountains and more on the way over the next several days!

Click on the photo below to really see that snow!

On the way home we eye spied this small herd of elk in one of the fields along the highway.

Another nice weekend in a less busy part of Idaho.

Way lax on blogging

This is part of the reason for little to no work on the project or blog.  You see we decided that Marianne needed her own art work space besides halfway through the house here in Boise.  So due to the fact that the back yard is tiny, we decided to make it even smaller, sort of.  Now according to the city code, it is within code mind you, it is a storage building.  No more than 120 sq. feet., 7 feet in height from ground level to top of the walls, away from other bldgs. the required distance, ect.

Monkey in the window? 

So the story is, oldest son Jake did most of the framing and siding with my help and some help from other son Johhn.  I did the roofing, some of the wiring and most of the insulating.  Marianne did all of the painting to this point, except for the door.  I put the first coat of paint on it tonight.  The door has turned out as good as I could ever hope.  We bought it off of craigslist for 30 bucks, solid heavy wood frame, double pane glass, also heavy.  I cut off about 5 inches to get it to fit.  As you can see it swings out, Mariannes request, I have never built a door frame until this project.  Man did I get lucky, this baby is just about as perfect as can be.  With Mariannes help hanging it and  without any harm to either of us or the door, it fits and swings as good as any I've seen.

Lots more work to be done on this as we will be putting a miniture deck around it and raised garden boxes against the alley side, drip irrigation and so forth.  I have some fun design ideas to put in place with the deck and boxes to hide and utilize the blocks that are currently visible, but they won't be when we're finished.  I dare say it is nice to have a project right out the back door to work on versus driving  2 hours before starting work on it.  I'll post some other photos showing that it hasn't been all work on this and no play.

Later

sp

still blooming

steve headed up friday to do some exploring & some work on the house. i came up sunday evening, for the carole king/james taylor concert in sun valley on monday night.

the field behind the house is full of wildflowers

lupine

we took a hike monday morning. this is the same one the women went on last week- about 3.6 miles, good because there's water for the dogs the whole way.

there were butterflies everywhere- even on echo for a while

geranium and potentilla

 some sort of berry- we'll see in a month or so

cow parsnip

 halle enjoying the stream

horsemint

 not sure what this tree is, but it had a sweet fragrance 

skunk cabbage

 pentstemon

and then monday night,  a beautiful setting for a concert- and carole king & james taylor put on a great show-

sunrise this morning- hay being cut & baled all over the valley this time of year

steve stayed around today & got the door in the master bath hung and more baseboards painted, cut & attached.

back to work tomorrow, more to come in the next few weeks.

happy july 4th!

great weekend of r&r with friends.

there was a concert headlined by reckless kelly on saturday night, set up in the american legion ballfield & sponsored by local & area businesses. 4 bands, $25 per ticket, it was really fun & we hope that enough $ was made to keep doing it.

on sunday, there was lounging. then the guys floated the south fork of the boise & we hiked up soldier creek.  

a few of the natural sights:

this is a kingbird buzzing a swainson's hawk. don't know why. the hawk had youngsters in the nest. the kingbird actually bonked it on the head a few times & the hawk finally flew off after it.

currently blooming:

sego lillies

not sure

mule ears

syringa (idaho's state flower)

  

potentilla & forget me nots

crimson columbine

 another amazing sunset before the fireworks on the fourth

it was so nice to be able to share the house & the area with friends- look forward to doing more of that in the future!