Heart Lake Weekend - Part Two

Good Morning!

This is what we saw on Sunday morning...well, pretty much nothing. We were shrouded in fog and mountain clouds. We could barely see the edge of lake water from the tent when we woke at 7 a.m.

Brrrrrrrr. It was so cold in the morning!


A good camp fire always helps the morning chills.


Our camp in the morning, with Heart Lake hidden by the drizzling fog.


I wandered out to the lake edge and snapped a few pictures soon after I woke up. The fog was really thick, you couldn't even see halfway across the lake, only to the point just down the shoreline. It was around this time that the hikers became split in what to do--hike out the 8 miles to the trucks today or wait it out in the rain all day by the lake? Eventually the boys won out and we packed up our wet belongings to hike down the mountain. We all donned our rain jackets and covered our backpacks with rain flys and started on the trail once again.


A few hours later as we packed our gear, the fog lifted but the low clouds still stuck around. We could see most of the lake for the first time in hours! Once the fog lifted it started a continual rain. I still love the colors of the lake in the rain, it's so beautiful!


Ryan, George, and Brittany have matching rain flys on their Vaude backpacks. Mine is the only blue one. This makes good photo ops for me! This was near the same spot we had seen the marmot the day before.


Brittany, George, Mandie, & Ryan at Sawtooth Creek before we hike up 1700 feet in two miles back to Sawtooth Saddle and our trucks. We decided to document it before climbing for a seemingly endless amount of time. The trail just keeps going up, up, up!



Looking back down the trail and back towards the Heart Lake area.


Clouds above the mountains.


A chipmunk that became interested in me as I slowly went up the switchbacks.


A sage grouse that wouldn't move off the road as we left Sawtooth Saddle.


The view on our drive out of the Mallard Larkins Wilderness.


We drove down near the Red Ives Ranger Station and found a great place to camp at Line Creek Stock Camp. We already had our mattresses in the backs of the trucks from our night at the trailhead, so we parked the trucks as close to the camp fire as we could and spent Sunday night next to the St. Joe river. It was nice to listen to the river every time I woke up during the night. We pretty much had the whole campground to ourselves, there was only one other camp with stock at the other end of the campground.



The St. Joe River around 6:30 a.m.


It was very cold that morning.
Time for a fire!


Boiling water for hot morning tea and breakfast oatmeal. That always warms me up.



Daisies!!!



Bye bye stock camp! In the post below you can see the videos of Ryan and George exiting our camp site. It was an adventure!


The foot bridge near Turner Flats that Ryan jumped off a few years ago. Alas, it was too cold for me to jump off this time. ;)



The magnificent St. Joe. I am in love.



Near Moscow again. The fields are harvested and things are begining to don their fall colors. It is beautiful but I'm sad to see summer leaving us.

In the year ahead we have many exciting events in store. I'll be posting about many of them. Hopefully one of them is a lot more time in the forests next summer!

xoxo

Tough Trucks Break Camp

Here is the video of Ryan driving his truck out of the stock camp we camped at next to the St. Joe river on Sunday night of Labor Day weekend. His F150 is quite a bit wider than George's Toyota, so he had to build a little boost with river rocks so he could make it back up the embankment and over the giant rock in the middle of the trail. The Toyota just fit through the opening in the trail, so the silver truck glided right on up. The video of George's truck making it back up to the "real" parking area is below, showing off the brand new tires!!

First Planting Bed & Organizing the Garage

Now that we've been in the new house for nearly 2 months things are starting to come together. Tonight I planted a pretty garden bed with shade-loving ground cover plants! The planting bed is right next to our front porch, along the sidewalk and right in front of Andy & Jaina's living room window. Because it's in front of their window I didn't want to plant anything that would block their view so I decided on some interesting ground covers.


Ryan has been working on getting the garage organized. For weeks now he has been sorting, hanging up peg boards, shelving, and building his new work benches. We want to put my car in the garage this winter so we don't have to scrap ice & snow off the car every time we need to go somewhere...I am looking forward to it VERY much. I've never had a garage that my car can actually go in before so this is quite the exciting prospect!

The SueBee will sit right here warm and cozy when it's all white outside.

Ryan's work side of the garage is coming together too. The big machine is on it's new table, peg board is up for small tool easy access, and the snowshoes are safe up on the high walls! Eventually the new work benches will go along the wall as well.

Front view into the garage. The light in the back that was abandoned here is working out pretty well next to the back peg board. It'll be awhile before I know where things belong in here but I'm loving the way it's looking now!

Now....let's move on to my beautiful plants! :)

Here is the front of the house. It looks so much better than it did when we started this project. I found so many weird things in the dirt: nails, roofing pieces, legos, mini matchbox cars, christmas lights, guitar picks, beer caps, and more! Hopefully by next summer the ground covers will have spread over all the dirt and all you will see is GREEN!!

Closer photo of the rows.
The rock border is made up of river rocks Ryan and I collected. The cinder block trail to the hose storage area is made from remnants of Ryan's old "cave man style" book shelf that he had for years at the Cherry Street house.

Row #1: Hens and Chicks, a succulent plant that does well in dry, sunny conditions.

Row #2 & 3: Thyme, an herb as well as a ground cover that blooms dainty little pink or white flowers. The light green is "Variegated Thyme" and the darker green is "Woolly Thyme."

Row #4: Lamium, a ground cover with silvery white foliage and white flowers in the spring. It is very hardy in shade/part sun, and it drought tolerant so if I forget to water it it will be A-OK!

Row #5, next to the garage: Birch Hybrid Bellflower: Interesting new purple flowering plant that I just had to try out once I saw it at the nursery! It is also a ground cover, although it grows a little taller than the other I picked out.

In the back right corner you can see my "Sweet Mint Geranium" from last summer. It does not flower like other geraniums, but if you rub the leaves it smells slightly of sweet mint.

Closer view of my little river rocks & the cinder block trail.

Hens & Chicks: Pretty first row succulent.
Technically this is the "chick" of the Hens & Chicks plant. Brittany and George have a whole bunch in the garden beds in front of their house and kindly gave me some little "chicks" to start my own plants. Thanks Britt & George, the hens and chicks will look great next to the sidewalk!

Woolly Thyme.
When you get closer to the plant you can see the fuzzy leaves which give it it's name. They say once thyme is more established in your bed if you walk on it the smell of thyme fills the air, yum! When this one flowers I have a hunch they will be petite and white.

Variegated Thyme.
This type of thyme does not have little fuzzy leaves, but rather smooth ones that vary from almost white to light green. I believe this variety will have tiny pink flowers once it's roots are established. I only bought 6 plants of thyme total, but was able to plant 12 by separating the "pots" into two plants! The guy at the plant nursery told me that thyme is so hardy that you are able to split it like that without harming it.
Economical plants, yes!

Lamium or "Dead Nettle"
Another great ground cover that is hardy and spreads easily. These grow to be 5 or so inches tall, with leaves spreading as far as they can. My Dad & Gail gave me 4 plants when they moved out of their house in July and I found the perfect use for them! These also flower in the spring with colors ranging from white to medium pink.
Thank you Daddy & Mom!

Birch Hybrid Bellflower
I picked these two plants up randomly at Crossroads Nursery on the Pullman Hwy. They grow to be 6-8 inches tall so I placed them next to the garage wall where they will not block Andy & Jaina's window. I'm also hoping they will camouflage the gas line termination in the middle of the bed, it will look much nicer when you can't see the metal post!

My poor little mint plant that I bought at Renaissance Fair back in May. I wasn't sure that it was going to keep surviving in it's pot so I stuck it in the corner. We will just have to see how it does. You know what they say: it's hard to kill mint.

A few days ago I was able to re pot my half-price Hydrangea bushes into their large pots! The one on the left is a pink variety and the one on the right is a blue variety. So far I've seen a lot of flowers from the pink one and a lot of foliage from the blue one. In the middle of the Hydrangeas are my 2 year old chives!

My dinky little tomato plant. It is "100 sweet" or something similar, it is suppose to grow small, very sweet tomatoes in clumps. I started it in this pot pretty late in the season so I might get some tomatoes if I bring the pot inside once frost arrives (no, no! I did NOT just say that! No thinking about frost for the next 2 months!!!).

Beautiful tomato flower.
I may not like to eat raw tomatoes, but I love growing them!!

I think I'll set a chair out here and watch my little garden grow.


Oh wait, I have other things to get done around here? yes...

More plants, ground tilling and yard work on the way!!
xoxo

Humane Society of the Palouse: Wag, Wine & Woof Video

The first annual wine tasting and silent auction for the Humane Society of the Palouse took place yesterday, August 1, 2009. It was a great event for all involved. I arranged this video to play in the silent auction area for everyone to see.

Thank to for the donations by businesses and individuals, board members, and friends of the humane society.

And I want to say thank you to Ryan, who helped out with the entire event; set up, serving wine, and clean up. I love you!

Enjoy the video!

Fourth of July Fun!

I have finally had a free morning to go through the 4th of July pictures I took at Papa & Grandma's house, whew! It's been busy around here. Jaina, Andy, Noah, and Caitlin joined us for the celebrations, it was so fun to have everyone at the farm!


Trimmings from the pine trees by the driveway. Once we piled the branches in the pasture, the cows stampeded and smashed our once towering pile of tree clippings to a lowly little heap.


One of the stampeding culprits. MOO!


The back pond, you can see the big tire bird nest for geese.


Driving down the spillway.


Ryan and his chainsaw clearing the trail through Papa's forest.


Andy and Ryan with the wood we had just loaded.


Our wood, cows, and Schweitzer in the background.


The baby cows were running along with the four wheelers!


Andy and Ryan shooting in the pasture.


Papa, Jaina, & Noah watching target practice. Noah had his ear plugs in and enjoyed the show!


Ryan shooting his musket rifle. It's the loudest gun!!


I like to shoot it too!


Musket balls!


Andy and the glow sticks.

Corey and Caitlin watching fire works with Aunt Annie's pretty blanket.




The finale.


The back of the truck on the drive home...it was fully loaded with logs that will be our bed frame sometime soon!


Bye bye Selle Road! See you again soon!


Pend Oreille Lake from the Long Bridge on the way home.



Of course I can't go without posting silly pictures of the kitties! Here is Alvin after we got home from Papa & Grandma's house. He did not move for 5 minutes straight.

Cupid lounging on the awesome floor in the dining room.


Pretty orange flower that I later found out is a "weed," but it's so cute!

Until next time...