Playing in the Snow

Walter and I finally made it out for a little fun today. My snowshoes are still missing. I tore the house apart looking for them and the only thing I can think is that I may have set them on the top of the car last time and drove off with them up there. I dunno. Makes me scratch my head. So today Walter and I went out to the Fishtrap area and did some walking around in the snow covered sagebrush.

We walked south on the trail that goes above the lake for quite a ways. It was really foggy so I could not see too far. Walter was having a ball running and spinning in the snow. The snow was about 5-6 inches or so. The wind was also very cold. After about a mile or more we headed toward the lake and a clump of trees to have a little picnic. Of course it was a ham sandwich (We will never eat all the ham from Christmas)

and a thermos of really sweet mint tea. We hung out in the trees for a bit listening to the quiet and then meandered over to a cliff above the lake. I was sort of shocked to see the lake frozen and covered with snow. It just does not seem like it has been cold enough. There were some spots that were not frozen that can be seen in the picture.

After our little rest (man, walking in the snow and the cold wind really makes you tired), I brushed all the big snowballs off Walter's legs and we walked back through the trees along the cliffs over the lake. I like walking in these areas where I do not have to stick to a trail and fear getting lost. I was totally lost and alone it the woods when I was 11 and that inside terror is something I never want to repeat.

We had a good time. I think this would be an excellent area for winter camping and pulling in a bunch of warm stuff on a sled. But of course, given the freak that went through my stuff last March when I was camping out here, I don't think I will be doing it alone. Any takers? On the way home we stopped and looked at the buffalo. They are so cool.

Pictures: Walter the Poodle; two shots of our picnic spot; the frozen lake and cliffs on the other side; buffalo.

Winter Solstice and Other Things

It has been quite a while since I have put anything on my blog. Life has been a bit crazy and my normal pattern of existence has been unbalanced a bit. Since I last posted I have gained a new resident in my house. Two actually. One is a human by the name of Seth. Yes, my boy finally moved in with me after numerous invites over the past year or so. Ok, there is nothing weirder than walking into the bathroom and seeing your kid shaving. He came over to spend the night sometime in late September and has not left. I was in the process of working on Morgan's room anyway so I hurried up and finished it so he could move in. He is a bit too big for the little cell he used to inhabit when he was a wee child. I also had some hinky stuff with my internship this quarter so instead of finishing on the 15th of this month I will not be done until the 18th of January. It sort of screwed up my plans for having a job over Christmas.

This evening was the Winter Solstice and once again I sang with a Solstice choir. Pretty cool. I had a solo which was fun. I am not sure how many people were there this year...just guessing around 300 or so. We had way more last year though. It is always the highlight of my winter season. After belting out about 18 songs tonight my voice is pretty wrecked and I totally wound up.

Walter and I have not been getting out much at all. Pretty much the only thing we have done is house switch with Nancy. She has a cool cabin up in the woods and I have been going up there about once a week just to have some time alone and be in the mountains. Nancy and I went up there together today and cut down a Christmas tree. It is a total Charlie Brown tree that we got out of a cluster that needed to be thinned out. Only one side has branches. While I was there I shot some pictures because every other time I went up I had forgotten my camera. The last time I was there a big storm blew through and the electricity went off at about 4 in the morning. Because she does not have her woodburning stove hooked up yet I was sort of frozen by the time I got up. The time before that there was also a pretty big storm and I had a hard time getting down even with 4WD and big ass studded tires. But on the way down I saw a moose in the road, a bunch of deer, and some wild turkeys. She has had moose and bear prints in the mud outside her cabin.

Since my internship is with a school district I have a couple of weeks off. I am planning on getting some trim put up in the house and the paint finished in the kitchen. I might even go get some tiles at the Habitat store and replace the missing ones in the kitchen. I also hope to make it up into the mountains to have some snow fun. My snow shoes are still missing so I will probably just have to ski. Oh well. Or maybe I will just sit on the couch and do nothing. That sounds like a good plan as well.

So the pictures from today are: Mt. Spokane from Nancy's driveway...though you can't really see it because it was so snow covered and bright but it should be right in the middle between the parting in the bushes; Nancy cutting down the Charlie Brown tree; and the cute little cabin that has the wonderful fence that I knocked together from old fence scraps that someone got from someone who got them for free; Calvin aka Hugo the 500 year old chihuahua who seems to have claimed me as his own.