Spring

Three hundred and nine shades of green, and at least that for sweet smells attracting all manner of bugs and birds. Our little river rising, scouring the banks, sending more than a smidge of offal on its way.

Rain, sun, hail, snow (not too far up the hillsides), more rain, oh, and wind.

It's spring!!!!

Haven't seen any new fawns yet, but my cousin and his mom saw a big -- big -- black bear by their house. They're situated in the woods, and it's far easier for animals to stealthily get near their place than our "cabin". I saw the pictures, and it's pretty hard to imagine that critter has been sleeping most of the last seven months. It was huge and healthy looking.

I love the little zzzwzzwzzwzzwzzw of the hummingbirds. After we put the feeder up, we had two and three visiting within an hour. They'd come before to check out the windchime, but how do they sense there's food that quickly?

The river hasn't risen today, and I can say with solid confidence about every willow twig we planted last year and earlier this year: unless it's on the slope of the riverbank, it's gone. The river's up about 3.5 feet, maybe 4, from last fall. I'd completely forgotten the force of it against the bank when it's up like this... I had to tie down the willow stumps to keep them from floating away, and I know the skinny shrubs around which I tied the rope won't be happy if the current tries again. Serves 'em right for having 1" thorns (spikes, really) every couple inches.

This shot shows my Grandma's dock (steel cable from it around the apple tree). The foreground dock is usually ten feet from the water, but the slope's gentle here, and a little rise means a lot of encroaching.

I drove into town today for gas (yay Costco!), and the Flathead river near Kalispell is amazing. Its legendary green color is more a sickly brown-green, and it is high. Oh, and I'd forgotten my Costco card, so that was a worthwhile lunch hour! My lameness sometimes surpasses my own expectations.

The Wild Mile kayak competition on the Swan this weekend should be a blast. I've not been before, and this is supposedly one of the better short runs in the country when the water's up.

I've never understood how irises work. It's a long, flat leaf, there's really no stem, and from the long flat leaf flowers emerge. Amazing.

And you know what else is amazing? In the midst of stupid gas prices, a Long, Flat, Seemingly Endless Bataan Death March to the White House, and no permanent cure for simple allergies, trees and wildflowers and bugs are sticking to their schedule.

Monique's in California for the week, which means my diet has quickly devolved into cold Ravioli straight from the can, Sweet Tarts, and Rosauer's fried chicken. She's at a director's conference in Pasadena, and theater simple is performing there as well. It's weird not having her here, and this weekend for Memorial Day, it's gonna be weird not having any of my family here. Despite the holiday, I'm gonna try to go for a hike.

There's a log -- maybe 20 feet long and 10" diameter -- stuck against the big rock in front of the "cabin". It floated down sometime yesterday, and it's balanced perfectly. That takes some doing! The top is smaller and lighter than the bottom, so if it hit the rock in the middle, it would bounce off and float downriver. The rock face is definitely not flat, and the amount and force of water hitting the log is constantly changing.

This is a shot I took the other evening. Normally I like to hide buildings, power lines, etc., but I kinda liked the look of this, so I kept it in.

Spring... rebirth, regeneration, reawakening, hatching, cleaning, nurturing spring.

Ibuprofin and Tim Tams

Green's bustin' out all over. It snowed yesterday, hailed today, but dangit, it's spring. The raspberry canes we got through FreeCycle are in the ground, and so are the perennials from Swan River Nursery. We even scattered wildflower seeds today. Lots of work in this rocky, clay-dominant ground, and we got rained and hailed on, but it's good being outside.

Digging, raking, planting, planning, puttering. Our 4'x4' garden bed has plants in it. Beans, peas, and various other veggies are in.

That's the "ibuprofin" part... as for Tim Tams, they're just about the best dang cookie (or "biscuit") ever. Here's a previous entry of mine about them... http://freetimeproductions.com/ozalbum/feb04.html. Llysa brought them back from Australia, and Monique brought them back from Seattle.

I have one more pine to transplant this spring, a lovely little tree I promised the power company I'd move so they wouldn't tear it out. That'll probably be it until autumn.

And the other monster news here: the garage is in! The garage is in!!Tuesday was the big day, when the 24'x30' building arrived by truck, courtesy of Kinninburgh Construction. The first pic shows them coming on the property, apparently about to take out a few trees. In reality, I didn't have to remove any, and they didn't even run any over. The middle picture shows them moving it into place over the slab, and a Montana Highway Patrol car... seems when the guys were moving it over the Flathead River during a rainstorm, some yahoo decided to ignore the flashing lights, the "Oversize Load" sign, and the guy holding a stop sign on the road, flew by, and crashed into the cars that had actually decided to obey the law. The moving guys did everything they were supposed to do; morons will be morons.

The final pic shows the garage bathed in evening light and the end of its first day at its new home. I waited until Monique got home Thursday before putting either vehicle in there.

Thanks and thanks and thanks again to Bill and Yvonne for the garage!

It's ALL about timing

When I was a kid riding in our car, I used to wonder how the world would look if we'd left the house a minute earlier, if that stop light had stayed green another ten seconds. If that car that just passed us from Kansas had changed any one of a thousand points in its journey, I'd have never seen them.

I was reflecting on that idea this weekend, which I often do when I'm back in Spokane. Silas and Lucy, my sister's dobies, were in fine form Thursday and Friday, and this is a moderately rare photo... I actually got them to hold still close to each other. Silas (sitting) looks like he's winking, but it's either a half-blink or (more likely) Lucy spat in his eye to gain an advantage. Lucy's the alpha dog. She's also cute, sweet, demure, and a documented, unapologetic dirty fighter.

I also helped my folks prepare their new garden. It's a huge area, and a completely blank slate. We're still getting frosts here, so our starters are not ready for the great outdoors. They're ready, and we're ready, but the weather is not quite ready. Our little 4'x4' garden bed will be chock full o' green bits, when we can actually get stuff into it.

The world-famous Bloomsday race was Sunday, and it was a glorious morning. I wasn't able to get my usual perch, and had I arrived two minutes earlier, my second-favorite spot would've been open. I took a few pics of wheelchair racers warming up, and the start of the race for the elite women and men, and the wheelchairs.

Micah Kogo won in record time; in the photo below, he's number 103 (on the right). I've never been a runner. I could run fairly fast for a short period, but running -- jogging or sprinting -- has always been a painful, unnatural, un-fun activity.

I appreciate what good runners can do, and it's always fun watching someone who's genuinely gifted at their craft.



And finally, on the way home, I saw this lovely family. I won't say where I came across them, but as soon as she saw me, mama headed back up the hill and the triplets clambered dutifully behind.

Had I left Spokane five minutes earlier or later, I would have missed them. Had I not stopped at St. Regis (and I didn't need to), I would've missed them. Had I driven just a couple miles an hour slower or faster, ... ... ...

Timing.

Da Boyds

Yesterday at dusk I saw a bird's silhouette fly across the field. No biggie; there are lots of crows, ravens, and eagles around. But as soon as I saw it land at the top of a pine tree, I knew it was an owl. As it turned its head, I saw its Great Horns. Couldn't see color or any detail, but who cares?!? I've never seen an owl here at the "Cabin" before. How extraordinarily cool.

And this afternoon, amid huge snowfall and downpour, sun and wind, two good-sized toms came a-wanderin' by. We thought they'd be interested in the new black oil sunflower seed we added to the bird feeder (fondly remembering the pre-logging days of winter when several turkeys would hang out under or on the deck, waiting for bird seed). They passed on the food, but as they walked by the downstairs bedroom windows, the bigger of the two stopped, puffed out, gobbled, and challenged this usurper, this upstart, this... reflection. Needless to say, the brave bird was not in the least bit intimidated by his bad self.As he puffed and posed, he gave the window a few solid whacks with his beak. Then he and his turkey toady sauntered into the field, quite pleased with the big un's show of force and claim staking.

They're lovely birds, and super tasty, but not so smart. Not avian intellectual elites, shall we say.

Lots of robins about, Monique saw a dozen bluejays today, and yesterday I saw a golden eagle get chased up- and downriver by a raven that looked positively puny in comparison.

Birds are so cool!!

sweetmercifulheaven

The fellow currently spending part of his days occupying the Oval Office in the White House, whether you like him or not, is having a rough go.

I SWEAR I'M NOT GOING POLITICAL ON THIS BLOG.

One of the president's tasks is presenting the face of America to the world. Many people thought his "Awesome speech" comment to the Pope was folksy, down-to-earth, and sincere. I don't know, nor do I know what I'd say if I got to meet a pope or comment on his comments. Anyway, yesterday on NBC's prime-time gameshow "Deal or No Deal," Mr. Bush made a cameo via satellite.

The contestant, a soldier back from his third tour in Iraq, was cheered on by the president, and then the president joked about his low approval ratings. Considering why his approval is low, it strikes me as sorta callous to joke about it with a soldier.

Anyway, there's a keen picture on the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ The site is constantly updated, so if you go there and don't see the link, I'm sure you can use The Google to locate it.

It snowed today, though not the storm we were expecting over the weekend. Just snow, and wind, and sunshine. Our concrete slab is complete, and now the process of moving the garage can begin.

Our beans and sunflowers quickly grew beyond their initial peat pellet homes, so this weekend we transferred them to 5" peat pots. I do not understand the back of seed packets stating "plant indoors 6-8 weeks before final frost." The bean plants grew three inches over the weekend!!! Six to eight more weeks indoors and they'll be climbing the stairs!

We Got Slab!

Okay, ya know what? Actually posting something should be optional with a clever title like that.

It's true, we're the proud owners of a 24'x32' monoslab! Many thanks to the incredibly efficient, professional, and good guys at Gembala Concrete! (FYI, the little blue box in the lower part of the photo is a 4'x4' garden box under a tarp).

The first cement mixer arrived at 9:00 this morning, they began pouring at 9:15, and were done at 10:00. Luckily it was much nicer than the snow flurries and cold wind we've had the last couple days, and it helps the concrete cure more quickly.

Rod, John, and Shane work well together, and they most definitely know what the heck they're doing. I watched for a while, in between phone calls for work and rewriting an invoice posting routine I've fiddled with on and off for months.

Tomorrow the form boards get removed, and in a couple weeks the slab will be set thoroughly, and the garage can be moved into place! There's also rough plumbing pipe in place so eventually we can have a sink / toilet / shower out there, and we have a line on a couple different wood stoves for heating the building.

I'm learning a lot living here... not so much about how to do things like pour concrete or rough-plumb, but more about how these things are not rocket science. I totally and unreservedly appreciate professionals doing their job, and I accept without hesitation that I could not do what they do with anywhere near the speed accuracy, confidence, or skill. However, PVC pipe is just PVC pipe, and digging a trench only takes skill in avoiding other buried gotchas like the power line and making sure it's graded properly.

Rambling, rambling. My point is, I'm gaining confidence (mostly theoritical) that I, one of the least mechanically-inclined people EVER, can maybe do some stuff around the property. That's exciting.

Plus with the economy tanking and Obama and Clinton having their time wasted by Stephanapoulos Gibson last night on ABC -- most of those questions were not worthy of a candidate in their first pre-primary run for school board -- Maverick McCain might just have a chance this fall. But sorry, I don't talk politics in this blog :)

We're in for a cold, cold, snowy weekend, but that last couple evenings have been beautiful.