Daytrip adventure

About a week and a half ago we had a nice bit of weather come throuh. Thought that it might be worth a drive up to Idaho City and above for some touring. As you can see it looks pretty good. Took the dogs up with me thinking we'd put some miles on our legs. The parking area had over a foot in it. Hmmm, go fast and stop on the downhill that way we won't have to chain up and shovel :) I hope. Didn't have to, we backed out. This first photo is on the highway headed up to Moores creek summit. Interesting driving with one hand looking at the camera, getting it turned on, watching for traffic and finally taking a shot. Yep, you don't want to meet me coming the other way.

A mile or so up the trail (road). Halle with the noble mountain dog pose. She is a Greater Swiss Mountain dog after all. Loves the cold, the mountains and the snow. Good dog.

And the bunny man Echo. He also likes the cold, the mountains and the snow. Although the snow sticks to all that furry long hair. The burr magnet and snow magnet. Good dog.

Nice of those silly snowshoers to break trail for us all the way up. They make a nice wide packed track. The dogs seemed to appreciate it. I couldn't help but think that it must really suck to walk all that way up and then have to walk all that way back. Geez if those shoes would slide like my skis they would be back in less than half the time. And it's fun! Good thing we don't all like to ski. More lines for us that do.

The snow was deep enough almost. Did manage to find the bottom a few times. Could feel it on the skis. Don't know if it was a rock or just brush. Didn't feel like looking at the bottom of my skis. They are the rock skis after all, so anything goes for snow depth. Halle is about 28 to 29 inches tall at the shoulder just for an idea of how deep the snow is.

No work in Fairfield for a while other than putting up some more interior doors. Still waiting for more snow. We need a lot more snow. Gonna have to do the snow ceremony again I guess. We did find a nice big piece of quartz to use for the next one. Maybe that'll help with massive amounts of snow! So stay tuned and see what is up for the next adventure. sp

wow- almost a month!

hard to believe the last post was october 18! it's been a while since we've been to fairfield for a weekend. nice not to HAVE to go up and work, and it was nice to be able to go up this weekend & spend some time exploring & enjoying.

we drove up friday night- grateful that we are only 1 1/2 hrs away so that's an easy thing to do. another beautiful sunset, dinner & the end of the boise state game at the imi.

saturday morning steve wanted to get some doors up- bought 4- one for each bedroom & for 2 bathrooms. a moment of concern as to whether the guy at home depot sent the right ones, but they all worked, except the one that's 2 inches too big. reading the internet directions- which helped quite a bit. the downstairs bathroom now has a door!

as does the master bedroom. the other 2 will go up next weekend.

then we all piled into the jeep & went exploring. this is the back side of the mountain we hiked up in september.

we saw wolf tracks on the road. no mistaking them- they are absolutely huge- as big as steve's hand, as you can see-

just a few inches of snow when we got higher up, but it was beautiful

this is the remains of an old mining town- carrietown- that steve wanted to find. i loved the animal tracks all headed for the building.

on the way back out, we stopped at some hot springs. there are several pools set up for soaking, there was a couple headed for one of them when we got here. the pools we checked out weren't especially warm, but can probably be adjusted with judicious rock movement.

beautiful blue sky day, as you can see.

and another lovely sunset. cooked at home, then down to the imi for a little socializing. the joint was jumping, which is good to see.

and back to town this morning, as i had some work work to do. playing with my new smartphone- lots of fun & funky photo apps making the drive look more interesting than it sometimes is....

steve is headed back up next weekend, so more then.

october 17 & 18

the obligatory happy romping dog photo- haven't had one of these for a while....
while the dogs (and marianne) were getting some exercise it was work work work for steve...... getting the shed and the rest of the trim on the house painted while it's still warm enough..

steve also got the shelf & rod up in the master bedroom closet- more opportunity to get organized...

there's less snow than there was last weekend- it was in the 60s and sunny- beautiful weather for working outside.

color coming on

we headed over to the imi for dinner before sunset- steve was hungry after working so hard, and it didn't look like the sunset was going to be anything special. boy was i wrong! it was beautiful, bright pinks and reds..... luckily i had the little camera & caught some of it.

we had a good dinner (as always) and there was live music! woo hoo. pretty good band called sound county from twin falls.

got up sunday & headed up to the ski area for a hike with the dogs.

this is the second lift- you ski into the building to catch the chair-

looks like a fun little area, and we're looking forward to checking it out when there's white stuff on the ground. the new lodge is coming along nicely. lots to do still inside, but it will likely go quicker than our house :)

heading back to the house, we got behind these folks moving their cattle down.

and that's it for this week.

work, work, work

Big work weekend for Steve this weekend, while Marianne plays on the Oregon coast with her girly friends. Just to show how the mountain looked as I stand on the back step, we'll start with a photo from Saturday a.m.



It was cool and calm until about 3 then that notorious Fairfield breeze started up. I was fortunate in that I only had to wrestle one sheet of siding in place while the wind blew. Managed to get the shed sided and the doors on by about 5:30 and even took the animals out for 2 walks.

Now I need to get the shed trimmed and painted.

One of the more painful things for me to do was to cut out a section of the deck for the snow grate. Of course after I placed it in about 5 different spots I decided this is where it will work best due to blowing and drifting snow. I want to build a smaller one and place it on the steps for the gravel to drop through, but that is going to wait until next year.

Busy boy this weekend, the old wood skis are hung, these aren't so different from the first pair I used. Felt really bad drilling some holes in them to put screws in so that I could attach some cable for hanging them. They really are in good enough shape to ski. Of course if someone is in need that bad, they can fill in the screw holes and let em rip.

So let's see, I managed to finish siding the shed, hang and finish the doors on the shed, place the grate in the deck, drain hoses and put them away, shut up the crawl space vents and place some insulation in them from under the house. I also hung 2 towel racks and the toilet paper holder in the master bath. Hung the clothes hanger rod in the closet and flipped the fridge & freezer door to open from the right side instead of the left. About the only 3 pressing items on my list that I didn't get done is to finish touching up some paint spots on the outside trim, paint the shed and put the ridge cap on the shed. But the weather needs to be 50+ degrees for me to do that. So maybe next weekend.

Here's a shot as the sun was coming up this a.m.

So after accomplishing all that, the dogs and I went for a hike at the ski area. Geez I should'a brought my worst pair of skis. Could have made a run on the north facing grass slopes. This is a quick shot from the car windshield looking up at one of the lower runs at the base. The lodge is coming right along. They have the roof shingled and were even working on it today when we were there.

Stay tuned, see ya next week. SP

The shed & weather

I added a couple of my favorite links at the bottom. One is a traffic web cam that is 20 to 30 minutes from Fairfield and the other is the state snow depth info site. Two of my favorites throughout the winter. I'll work on moving them up closer to the top when I have more time to learn.
Fall temps are here. Love the cooler weather. The big project for the weekend is to get the shed roof shingled and maybe some or all of the siding on. one out of two isn't bad. Here is a shot of half the shingles on (20 minute lunch break) and then we worked on the other side.

John came up Friday afternoon and started the roofing project. Which is good or we would have been at it all day Saturday instead of til 2. The jeep came in handy as it was used as our movable scaffolding/platform/extra ladder. Note the air powered nail gun, oh what a sweet tool. And to think that my siblings and I helped put asphalt shingles on our dad's house some 35+ years ago with only a hammer. But then when you have lots of cheap labor the time factor is probably about the same. Sad thing is I didn't retain much of what I learned about roofing from 35 years ago. Good reason for that I'm sure. That is where John comes in. He's our resident expert now. It went pretty quick once he got me lined out. I did the cutting and set out shingles while he placed and nailed them. As rain was predicted we felt like we were racing the weather all day. I hope it got up to 50, but if not it will next week according to the weather man. Need that to get the shingles tabbed together. Otherwise the neighbors may get some wizard of oz action. You know, flying shingles. Beats flying monkeys.

With the roof done and John having gone home, it was on me to do some siding. Decided I'd start on the front and the double doors. I did manage to get the front done and the doors about 75%. Yes I took this photo before that.

One boo boo in the back to be covered with trim. the guilty will remain nameless. Once it is trimmed and painted, no one will be the wiser. except for one other little boo boo or maybe it is an optical illusion. one is, two others are not. Not the end of the world and it'll be weather tight when finished.

I'm still debating if I want to move it further from the house. Only problem is to far and it interferes with snow removal and where I park the sled trailer. Probably go this way for a winter and then decide next summer.

Great to see the first real snowfall of the year. With more snow on the way today and the prediction is for 6 inches or more at the 7k level and above, it should look really good the middle of the week.

Made a quick run out to the ski area to see how far along the new lodge is and on the way stopped to take a couple of quick shots of the sky. Looks like the clouds are stacking against the hill. I'm sure there is a weather/meteorological name for this. If you click on them they may look a bit better. Can't say as my photo ability does them justice.

The lodge has jumped leaps and bounds from when I last visited. Don't know if they'll have it done enough to use this season. Originally they didn't plan on it being finished and thought they'd have something temporary to use for the ski season.

Late addition (lunch time Monday), news story here in Boise, says that the lodge will be done in time for the ski season. Dec. 7 or there abouts. And the snotel site this a.m., shows 25 inches at 7700 feet elevation (Trinity site)! Only a few inches at the soldier ranger station, which I think is at around 5700 feet. I know, it's early, but it'll be good for the ground and the base.

That's all folks until next week.