Exercise

Not feeling inspired this evening, way to much holiday cheer and go, go, go has finally caught up with me I think.  I have a few different shots than mk from last weekend, so though I'd just add them.  The wind generators just past Mountain Home always intrigue me.  So I had to take a photo as we drove down the interstate towards the Gooding exit.  These are actually just out of Mtn. Home.

My Saturday a.m. view of the mtns. from the house.

After our guests arrived we made it out to the ski area to see about poaching some runs.  The ski area is not open and rumor has it that it may be January 22 before they are able to open.  Various reasons for the delayed start.  The new lodge may be a large part of it.  They certainly have enough snow now.  With over a foot of new in the past week it is looking very good.  Below is a shot of Steve looking down as Steve comes up the ridge.  Nice thing about skiing with Steve I never get the name wrong.  :)

One advantage of carrying a camera is that I use it as an excuse or reason to stop and catch my breath.  Need to take scenic shots you know.

Some day maybe I'll get more education on how to take photos.  I was a bit slow in getting my camera out as the sun worked behind the clouds and looked like a ball, really cool then, not as good in the final product.

And now Steve is ahead of Steve.  I needed a drink and to take photos.

So after climbing to the top and looking around you'd have thoght that I would have some exceptional shots of us skiing knee deep powder, right?  Wrong.  Yes the snow was deep and fairly light on the north slopes, but one little problem.  Steep.  Not gonna happen today.  The snow pack is in such a fragile state that it talked to us all the way up to the top.  It just kept whumping and shooting cracks out 20, 30 feet away from us as the pack collapsed under the new snow.  As we worked our way up and across slopes it became obvious that skiing just anywhere wasn't to be the grand plan.  There is basically just this rotten base down below that doesn't act like it wants to play nice.  So we stayed to some low angle slopes (wasn't a lot of choice it's Soldier) and as Steve put it we wobbled a few turns down the hill.  Did see some fairly fresh elk tracks down near the creek.  Thankfully the other Steve didn't have a camera on him or we might have a photo of me doing my best impression of a full on face first trail inspection.  Hate it when I forget that my heels are unlocked, look over there more elk tracks, cool, oh crap I'm now flying forward and my skis are not.  Snow tastes good.  At least I got in a nice climb and some excercise.

happy new year!

the most direct route to fairfield was closed due to a snow slide, so we went up the long way on friday- about 1 hour longer, but it was a pretty drive,

and an incredible sunset

we got to fairfield, steve plowed the driveway & i did laundry, cleaned the bathroom & put new sheets on the extra bed in prepartion for friends joining us on saturday. then to the imi for a salad bar & a bit of football.

beautiful pink & blue sunrise on saturday. unfortunately i wasn't set up to get very good shots.

i am now though! wonder what the neighbors thought about me shoveling out this path to the back of the property. but now i can get in better postition to shoot sunrise & sunsets.

here's the snow that accumulated on the jeep overnight

the other project was hanging more photos. the wall is coming along.

Steve & Elena showed up around noon and after a bite to eat we headed out to soldier mountain. the ski resort isn't open yet, but there were plenty of people there to snowshoe, cross country and back country ski.

the steves headed up the hill to find a place to make some turns & elena the dogs & i headed off to the forest service road to snowshow.

it was a beautiful day- warm, sunny, blue skies. the snow was so light that you would sink all the way down if you got off track, as halle discovered below.

the dogs both love snow & had a grand romp. booties make life much easier for echo.

we had dinner & played some cards & drank some vino, laughed and had a nice evening. after breakfast steve & elena headed out, i hit the couch with my kindle & steve finished up a few things.

clearing snow off the storage shed & the porch roof.

checking the snowmobile, which did sputter & die, but is hopefully an easy fix.

there's been plenty of snowmobile activity in the field behind the house.

it was a beautiful day- great to be up playing in the snow in our snug house.

happy 2010! i'm sure that steve will post photos from the ski adventure too.

Sun Valley

First things first. Preparing for the upcoming adventure. If you look close you'll be able to figure out why my skis slide faster than most. It is the one secret ingredient that makes all the difference. But then again with the mess of a bench that I have who can really tell what all is in the vicinity of my reach. One thing for certain is you need a small amount of red wine to fully get in the zone for total ski tuning. Thought about trying the soybean wax I found somewhere last season, but I don't remember if I used it or not. One thing I did remember is if you drop enough wax on the concrete floor it gets very slick. Looks good too.

The great adventure for this past weekend was a trip to you guessed it... Sun Valley. First stop on Friday was made in another part of Boise to pick up a couple of friends. Who happened to have a couple of visitors hanging out in their back yard.



Next stop Fairfield so Steve (me) could plow out the driveway, with Eric's help. Eric wields a mean shovel. Best guess is we have over a foot of snow on the ground. Come on winter I'd like another foot this week.

The main agenda for the weekend was skiing Baldy and hanging out at the sun valley lodge pool, eating in Ketchum and just generally having a good time.

Who is that skier? beats me , just someone in the shot. Which raises the question. Can you tell it's a movie star when they are all dressed up in ski clothing? I doubt I'd recognize one even if he or she sat next to me on the chair lift. I have it on good authority that most of them are shorter than one might think. Even shorter than me. They really aren't ten feet tall, that's only in the movies.

The snow is a tad thin around Ketchum, but enough on the hill to ski and besides that the views are usually worthwile. Even without tons of snow, one saving factor is the 3200 feet of vertical that really can put the burn on early season legs. Pre season conditioning has been virtually null and void, so it's ski those legs into shape, again.

So now after we fried our legs all day, it's time to slow boil them in the hot pool at the lodge. The sun or something must of been really bright where Steve is.

It's a paper coffee cup, but I don't think it's coffee.

Another random stray mountainous view.

Hanging with the bear out front of river run lodge. Eric loaned him the hat and goggles for that festive look.

Eric and Patty. Nice of them to come along so we had someone else to torture for the weekend.
She might be a movie star, about the right height, but if we told you we'd have to do bad things to you so you'd forget. :)

great way to start holiday festivities!

december 12 & 13

we finally made it back to fairfield- drove up saturday between storms. not a lot of snow on the ground, looking pretty gray......

steve did get the driveway cleared- good to stay ahead of it. about 6 inches of light fluffy stuff. it came down steadily while we were there, but very light.

dinner at home instead of going out, which was nice.

the project this trip was to start the photo selection on the stairway, which we did-

so far (and maybe forever after) the theme is snow. imagine that! we have a few more to print out, but it's a good start.

steve got a call saturday evening that his mom had had a stroke. rather than drive down in the dark through the snow, we stayed and left sunday. she's still in the icu and it's wait & see. she did ask steve how the snow was in fairfield, i'll take that as a good sign-

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.