Smoked Up in Sequioa

The long anticipated break from work has come and gone. Back to the Salt Mines for us! However, let me tell the story of our epic journey to land of fruits and nuts and back again...

Karren and I left home late that hot July day after performing an act of community service for a friend in need. We didn't leave until 3 PM so my goal was simply to get out of Dodge asap. The first night we opted for accommodations in St. George, Utah, at the local Super 8 Motel. It proved a wise choice, as the temperatures had risen dramatically with every foot lost in elevation as we descended out of the Colorado Plateau. By the time we reached Las Vegas, NV it was 106 degrees in the shade. People actually live there! The city is a weird oasis of concrete and electricity in a desolate void of sand and mesquite. We didn't stop and couldn't wait until we reached our first destination: The house of Sarah and Kevin Hopkins in Manhattan Beach, CA. Driving across Los Angeles was like a bad dream - just when you think you have reached the Pacific Ocean, there is yet another freeway to navigate. I have never seen so much development across a flat landscape. It is really odd to see such a large metropolis lacking vertical buildings.

Anyway, we arrived there to find the Hopkins' house was sandwiched in between other monstrosities, lost in a maze of development and sprawl. They are situated not quite three blocks from the beach, and the area actually has a slight resort feel to it, even though it is like living in the middle of a file cabinet. The salt air and humidity brings the beach into the home with its mild climate. Temps never got above 80 degrees, yet inland just 5 miles it was brutal. Here's a view of their period beach cabana, which has a period flavor. I would like to have seen it back in the day...

It is amazing that real estate there is priced by the square inch, not foot! Their place is deceptive in that it fills the entire lot from front to rear, road to alley, and features a wonderful courtyard. Their house brings me back to memories of beach houses on the Outer Bank of NC, until I walk out the front door and see the other stucco high rises that predominate the hillside. Here's a view from their front porch down to the water:

And watch where you step! The density of people is only rivaled by the density of dogs. Why do people have so many pets in such close quarters? I'll never understand the need for urban dog or (insert favorite pet here) worship, especially when there is no place for the critters to roam, bark, defecate, or otherwise antagonize others in high density living. I love dogs, but giant ones in the city? Really?! End of irresponsible pet owners rant.

After three glorious days of visiting Kevin and Sarah, we steered ourselves onto the drought ridden highways of California toward Sequioa National Park, the first stop in our NP tour. Sequoia is lovely and the roads are sometimes impossibly narrow, but they do not quite rival Mesa Verde in terror factor. The trees are magnificent.

It was there that we first began to notice the haze that was settling over the high Sierras. SMOKE!

Evidently there was a complex of fires burning in several places. I inquired as to where these fires were at the Sequoia NP visitors center. Yosemite!?! Why that's on our itinerary! Great... how bad can it be? Resolved to the situation being what it would be regardless, we continued our trek.

The trees of the sequoias are massive. The human brain does not register the immensity until hours have gone by. Then it really has an impact; these things are as big as ships! The trunks easily block half of your vista and have a feeling of ancientness and antiquity reflecting their age. After a while one begins to pick out the younger members of the species apart from "regular" pines and cedars.

Yosemite was mostly shrouded in smoke. Needless to say the views were not what we had anticipated, however we managed to find some clear camping above 8000 ft. This is the domain of the bears. These critters have their way with anyone foolish enough not to heed the warnings, which are pervasive throughout the parks. One night I woke to the sounds of an entire section of the campground being pillaged by ursa major and minor. The morning light revealed the signs of the struggle between creature and man. Total destruction of coolers and everything else that smelled of food that was not locked up in the bear boxes (provided). City dwellers - MEH!

Our time in Yosemite was tempered by the incredible press of crowds and vehicles. I will not attempt to enter the valley again in this lifetime, but will probably revisit the Tioga Pass area. Lake Tenaya is pristine and spellbinding. The entire eastern area of the pass is spectacular. So there we are, driving along in barely 60 degree temps and Karren says, "Stop the truck!" Within minutes she is daring me to take the plunge. You know a glacier feeds that pond don't you? A whole new meaning to the word "cold."

We left the high country to descend into Mono Lake and Nevada. That state is a jewel. I think most probably see Nevada as a barren wasteland but I see the solitude as a gift. Mountains that no one is climbing, high lakes that see few visitors and roads that beg for traffic.

We ended up staying the next night on top of a mountain near the north end of Nevada at Angel Lake, a nat'l forest campground. The weather was windy and wet, and the mosquitos were fierce, so we ducked into the tent quickly for the sanctuary. This CG was above 9000 feet and the road up is not for the faint of heart either. I had to take a five minute break on the way up to get my breathing squared away because it rose so rapidly from the desert floor below.

The next day saw us taking in the sights at the Golden Spike National Monument in Promontory, Utah. A wonderful exhibit and two actually working steam locomotives made the visit memorable. Then home. Trying to get the blog moving so on to the next post!

Mesas and Buttes and Hoodoos, Oh My!

So a brief note about my vacations this summer for those of you who might have absolutely nothing else to do other than surf meaningless blog rants.

A whirlwind tour of the canyon country was made by Myself and daughter Lauren in early July. Taking two weeks off from her work and busy schedule Lauren made her second visit to Idaho. Her first was when she assisted in the mammoth move from Virginia back over two years ago. After picking her up at the airport (Dad, that cowboy hat looks ridiculous!), we spent two days adjusting to altitude here at Streagle Ranch (4800 ft.). After that it was off to our first stop, Canyonlands National Park. A favorite of Karren's and mine from our 2007 world tour, we made the trip in about 6 hours to Moab, Utah in the hopes of finding an empty campsite at the park (there are only 12). I could only chuckle as we headed for the dry desert when Lauren kept taking pictures of various canyons, mountains and rock formations - what she would soon see would blow away anything she had encountered yet.

What luck! With only four or five sites taken we had the luxury of choice! I especially appreciated the upgraded sites a la the pole shelters added since my previous visit. Having a way to get out of the sun is an essential tool to surviving the high desert in the summer. I love to visit these places that are higher than 7000 feet during the hot months because they keep high temperatures moderate (80's to low 90's). Even the slight drop into the valleys and desert floor results in temps averaging 100 or better. Sleep is much more comfy when in the 50's or 60's as well.

Canyonlands continues to remain my favorite Nat'l Park. If you want to know why I just have to say, "Go there and find out!" The views are superior to virtually anywhere else in the lower 48. Here is a shot of Lauren and me at Mesa Arch, a rather picturesque photo op. It's nice having other tourists around for those times when you want to capture the whole group:

Hard to tell but those mts. in the background still have some snow! We ended our tour of the Moab area after a couple of days that included Arches N.P. and Zack's Pizza (and Laundry) by setting our sights on Mesa Verde, a four hour jaunt into southwest Colorado. We arrived and had absolutely no problems getting a site at the campground. It has over 450 sites and was less than half full.

Mesa Verde is a wonderful place. Lots of history, ruins, terrifying mountain roads, and a relaxed pace that most parks don't come close to matching. We toured all four available (ticketed) ruins over a two day period and managed to avoid the bear that happened to be cruising the campground during mealtimes. We did see him, but he was on the mountain road doing his business - I really mean doing his business (obscure scatological reference).

I have more pics of us in the ruins but here is one that I took of some guy hamming it up in Cliff Palace:

I think those early Americans must have had an issue with completion? Anyway, it is a spectacular place that we spent two days visiting. Here is Lauren pointing out yet another hidden ruin to her rather clueless father:

That's quite a happy expression for a woman that has had one shower in the past week! Water is at a premium in canyon country, but MV has the best shower complex of any N.P. I have visited. Be sure to take advantage of it - we did!

From MV to Grand Canyon is another four hour trip across 3 states, so we left early. Along the way we encountered the highest temps of the trip at Navajo bridge (101 deg.) but immediately began climbing up to the high mesa for the North Rim. Temps there were 30 degrees cooler by the time we found our campsite! A quick camp set-up and we were off to the canyon rim for our visit.

Having seen GC before my comments were, "It's a big ditch with bright colors." You can see most of the North Rim in about two hours. Lauren actually had a similar reaction and we were finished ogling over the views before dinner. Here is an obligatory GC pic:

A beautiful place for sure, but we were off to other places, namely Bryce Canyon. Bryce is another good place to be when the summer heat is upon you, as it is up there at 9000 feet. That's cool weather altitude! We were able to find a campsite there as well although the place was PACKED! Once off onto the trails down in the canyons the crowd thins out and things get more private. I had a heck of a time hauling my large posterior out of said canyons and we ended up staying two nights there, taking one day just to relax in camp. Ruby's Inn certainly makes it more civilized with their lunch buffet and store. I attempted a cobbler from scratch and we stuffed ourselves - at that point I believe anything sweet would have hit the spot.

Then the all important question arises; It's been a week and a half of constant traveling. Are you ready to go to Zion or do you want to head back to Idaho? The consensus was taken and to Idaho we went. I will remember the shower I took when we arrived for a long while. Thus ended the visit of Lauren for this epoch. I will miss her greatly and look forward to the next time I get to spend some quality time together. You can't replace it and you don't like saying good bye either. (sniff...)

In the next installment you'll hear of the epic journey attempted by Karren and Tim on their very rare opportunity for a real vacation. What is work anyway but a bridge between hours of enjoyment?

Another World or Desperately Soaking Idaho

Have I been transported to another planet? This August here in Southeast Idaho has been a weird episode of frequent and powerful thunderstorms, totally unheard of in the high desert. For semi-arid this place is soaked! I haven't watered the garden in weeks and it could actually use a few days of dry weather to avoid any rot problems.

GAAACK!

A Year Later in an Idaho Garden

Yes, the blog took a leave of absence. That's what happens when life gets in the way of pleasure. Suffice it to say that a lot has happened since October of 2013 and we need to get on with the postings of random Idaho musings.

This one concerns our garden. Karren and I decided we were not happy with a small plot anymore so we tripled the size. Our neighbor Hal came over and tilled the square with his tractor (what a gift!) and we commenced to plant our crop. All was going well at first but we learned our shortcomings quickly. In a nutshell - WATER! Crops need lots of water to flourish and we had to divert much of our well use to the garden. Nothing was left for the lawns or trees.

Here is the state of the plot right before we left for vacation at the middle of July. We had watered enough to keep things alive but not enough to generate consistent growth. This is also after the great weed genocide. The weeds had struck our last nerve so we took the plunge and invested (that's what married couples call it when they buy something they both covet) in a rear-tine tiller. Notice the footprints in that dark Idaho alluvial goodness. Tilled soil is the bomb! Gringing weeds is soooo gratifying.

Next is the garden after we got back from vacation. Our friends the Mylers watered for us and showed us what can happen if things get the moisture they need:

That's progress! The zucchini could now hide a family of Cambodians with no problem:

That's my corn in the back, still struggling with enough water. But behold, a cloud arises in the background! For the last several weeks it has rained almost daily. Cool, drenching, sometimes all night rains. Gardens like that stuff. The corn got blown over, but I learned another lesson. Leave it alone! It will right itself and come back even stronger.

This has brought us to the next phase of the food cycle: Storage! We began canning some pickles of one kind or another and have now graduated into the full-blown pressure canner storage kitchen. Here is Karren trying her hand at Pickled beets for the first time:

After working with those red balls it looks like we killed somebody in the sink! Here's a rundown of what we've been canning so far:

Pickled Beets
Green Beans
Bread and Butter Cuc Pickles
B&B Zucchini Pickles (strangely tasty)
Dilly Beans
Sweet Pickles
Cherry Jam
Cherry Preserves
Cherry Pie Filling (the cherries were from the Dean's tree in Poky)

The above Dilled green beans were done using fresh dill from Hal's garden. He's a great guy and recommended the dilly beans. Check out the dill seed heads! A clove a garlic too.

The pickles below are my favorite - Bread and butter pickles. We are averaging about four to six cuc's a day out of the garden, so the pickles are just getting started. We are going to eat so many pickles this winter we will die of vinegar poisoning! Death, where is thy sting?

I can't resist a parting shot of me in my work clothes, outstanding in my field. Notice the height of the corn now. This is Silver Queen and boy is it going to be good!

We have also got:

Cilantro
Pumpkins
Summer Squash
Butter Beans (kind of a bust this year and last - must be an Idaho thing)
Peas (the deer's favorite)
Carrots
Turnips the size of volleyballs - we eat the greens
Swiss Chard
Cantelope
Green Peppers
Jalapenos
Several different tomato varieties
Raspberries (previous owner's patch)
Strawberries
Radishes
Spinach
Golden Bantam Corn

So, what's in your garden? We are already making plans to go bigger again next year. I want to plant tomatillos for salsa, and more peas to distract the deer.

Check back soon for another installment: The Streagle's go to the driest place on the planet at the moment - California! Smoked out and stoked by the Sierras.

Ciao!

Fall in the West or Fall Off the Roof!

The Streagle clan in Idaho has been busy. Along with our continuous house efforts we have had a few domestic moments as well. Let me recap. Apologies for the iPhone picture quality - it is in an industrial case that gets abused. Lots of lint and pocket fuzz over the camera window!

Karren has been hard at it with her new obsession, canning! We now have our kitchen cabinets lined along the top with tomatoes, jellies, pickles, preserves, and applesauce. And not just one type of each, but several varieties. My favorite is the winesap applesauce. Magnificent!

Don't you just love the wall paper. All things in good time...

Speaking of the house renovation, we finally got the energy (and good weather) to finish the roof on the mud room. This had been hanging over my head like Damocles' sword. It took much of Saturday and Sunday but it is done! It always seems like any day that includes a visit to Lowe's gets shortchanged. I call the big box stores the "black hole of time" or "SLowe's." We got more Black Jack roof cement, Brown latex caulk, soffit vents, a gold-plated hole saw ($45!!!), and a roof vent. I stripped the roof Friday afternoon when I finally got done with being lazy. This is what lives under cedar shake shingles:

There was a disturbance in the yellowjacket force that afternoon as I killed the last remnants living atop our domicile. Good riddance! I went through 3 cans of bee killer but survived unscathed. Take my advice and DON"T GET CEDAR/WOOD SHINGLES! They are breeding grounds for insects and attract all kinds of funk.

I tried to take a picture of Karren on the roof but I waited until it was too dark. By the way, she did all the prep work and much of the actual shingling too! She was on the roof attaching the new sheathing while I cut on the ground. Here's a look at the roof we did. Doesn't look like much but small roofs are full of cuts, ergo a pain in the $%&#.

This little mud room is slowly detaching itself from the house and had a wide open crack along the house/wall intersection. After resheathing the roof we decided that we would leave the structure in situ, based on the fact that it appears it has not moved much in the past year since we moved in. If it collapses, it will not be a huge loss - it's just a mud room. Kinda cool actually, the way the whole thing is whacked. The door is a trapezoid, the roof is out of square, and the interior looks normal - just beat up. 

We also made an investment in our emergency preparations for our country estate: a generator! I had been shopping for the right genset for the last few months and one day in Costco, there it was! Love at first light.. er, bite! This baby is perfect for us. I expect to lose power often during severe storms. Heck, we lose power here for no obvious reason frequently. Rocky mountain power is, well, a bit rocky.

A diesel generator. Runs quiet(er) than a gas model, has a much longer life, and will run for exteded periods without strain. This is not just a luxury when you consider we have no water pressure without electricity to run the well pump. This will also power our food preservation and will run my 240 volt tools in the garage. And it will do it for half the fuel of a gas model. The Chinese are an amazing bunch. I really like the design of this unit: It has a digital control meter, an oil pump and filter, sound absorbing baffles that really work, and a lift hook for our chain hoist.

End of generator rant.

The wood shed is just about full of split firewood for the winter. We have already burned about one rack (1/4 cord) of wood in the stove and still have more in the yard to collect, but here is the look of our shed now:

That's ten rows of wood y'all! I think this much combined with what we have to take down in the yard will get us through. Notice the gas powered splitter and the road maintenance fashion apparel. Gotta love the survival ethic out here. It just gets into your psyche somehow.

Yes, we like the fall in Idaho. We miss the autumn colors of Virginia but we are not without our own beautiful scenery. Just wish the snow on Old Tom had stuck around a while for this shot of our driveway view.

So tell all the folks at home we miss 'em, but not enough to spend the dough to fly home yet. Gotta get our survival gear together first!

See you next time!

Karren and Tim

Uncle Tim's Cabin

There are times when I feel like a throw-back to the past. We heat with wood because we actually like the experience of providing our winter heat with the sweaty torture of obtaining wood from mother nature. Each to their own. We are not most people. It used to be that economics was the major driver of this wood train, and it has made a difference for us again here in Idaho. The permit required to harvest 4 cords of firewood in the National Forest cost only $25, which is a far cry from the $600 we spent for 3 cords last year. Most of the folks in these parts heat with wood pellets and that is also an economical avenue to take. We would need about 4 tons for the season, and that would cost about $900.

Who is that strapping, overweight, old man? Believe it or not, I have actually lost about 20 pounds since that pic was taken. Our summer diet morphed into a six month effort to put us back on the trail to good health. I have lost a total of 37 pounds so far, weighing in at a fine 240 lbs. as of Oct. 7. Karren has dropped 20 pounds in the same time, which kind of makes sense since I'm twice her size. Pic was taken at about 7000 feet on the back side of Bonneville Peak, north of Lava Hot Springs. That's four wheel drive territory.

We choose to drive into the mountains and scrounge for firewood. And that has been our life for the last 3 weekends. It does make one more fit and trim to boot. We have focused on finding quality scotch pine, fir and other conifers, because we found out last year that the aspen and cottonwood (common to this area) are relatively poor woods to burn for heat. We now have under our wood shed roof about 3 cords or more of firewood, about half of it split. Because this is Idaho and not Virginia it will dry in plenty of time to burn this winter. You know, low humidity and all.

A gas-powered log splitter is a lovesome thing! I forced the issue and bought a nice Cub Cadet splitter last month and she is a splittin' machine! It is pretty much the same machine marketed by several well known brands but the differences are in the warranties and the service availability. I will come to think of this machine as my own personal friend before the end of the season. No more swinging the maul - YAAAY! We also bought a riding lawn mower this past spring. When we did this it was important that we get one that will be large enough for a small amount of utility work. The Husqvarna model we found at Lowe's fit the bill: 25 horsepower, 48 inch mower deck which has a quick release feature, and a higher-quality Kohler motor with cast iron cylinder sleeves for long life. It also had a ten year warranty on the mower deck, which is what usually wears out first anyway. Here she is hooked up to a cart of firewood being shuttled to the front porch for stacking. The new woodshed is the back side of the barn, so I call this the pinewood derby route.

The mower included a special promotion: a free lawn cart/trailer. Perfect for the cash-strapped homeowner that can't afford a real tractor, huh? Well, It is getting a lot of use. We are loving the ability to move useless crap from one pile to another with minimal effort. Life is good. Until the tractor won't start. "Was that can mix or straight gas?!"

The garden really had us in its grip for most of the season. This has been perhaps our most productive attempt at green-thumbing yet, and it really produced. Once we figured out that we had to provide the water, that is. A few dozen hoses later and the produce began jumping off the vines. Sweet corn was the most difficult to grow - we ended up with little dwarf ears that were good tasting but diminutive. Green beans easily became our favorite veggie du jour, with swiss chard growing like it was from some special irradiated test space vegetable. It is still growing out there even though it has frosted and frozen hard several times. Go figure - it's Idaho. However, there is one thing you just can't kill in this state:

Potatoes!

This is the land where the spud reigns supreme. When the garden was tilled we had tubers shooting out of it, all chopped up. I thought that would be the end of it, but NO! We witnessed the random ground breaking of perhaps 50 potatoes from the previous owner's efforts. Purple and red ones. What's more difficult than weeding potatoes? DIGGING THEM! Here is potato woman with her haul.

Well, I must tell you about the real reason I have not updated this page in such a long eon. I found a job. A real one. With benefits and vacation and sick leave and all the rest of the trappings of a gubmint boondoggle. Except this one is a STATE job. And that's a good thing in this day and age. IF you happen to live in a state that currently balances it's budget. Yes, I am a proud member of the Idaho Department of Transportation. That's IDT for those of you from VA. No common sense names here such as "I-DOT," noooo, it's IDT in this here neck of the woods. Managed brilliantly by human resource officers that live in caves under the state capital, it is a hugely understaffed and underpaid arm of the state government.

I had 60 days to obtain a Commercial Driver's License in order to keep the job. That entailed a complete month of study, practice and prayer that resulted in my passing each of three separate tests, all done without spending a dime (other than the exhorbitant fees for the license, tests, and examiner). It all turned out okay. I was able to practice driving the plow trucks and to use them plus a trailer from the shed to qualify for the road test. My examiner was the nicest guy in Idaho. He was also recently recovered from triple bypass surgery. That had me wondering about his health while I was driving...

This photo is interesting. Where are the drivers? Actually we are all waiting our turn at the "hot mix" plant. No, that's not a risque night club, but an asphalt plant. I typically carried 12-14 tons in the truck and drove to remote locations in order to pave roads no one ever sees. All the maintenance workers from the district and some from outside are recruited to haul the mix to save costs. Plus, we don't really have much of anything else to do, right? At least that is the public's perception.

This summer my shed repaired right of way fencing, paved roads, filled potholes, moved dead animals (large ones like elk are a pain), mowed grass (sometimes in the middle of a snowstorm), sealed cracks, and replaced highway markers. There's a lot more but I haven't the energy to list it all. Besides, the public doesn't care anyway, right? At least they certainly don't show they care as they blast by us at arms length at speeds approaching that of a rocket. Many one fingered salutes given and received.

Astronomy still plays an important part in my life and I have a new image to show off. This pic of M33, the Pinwheel Galaxy is one of my better efforts. It will be nice when I have passed my provisional period at work and I have a couple of extra dollars to throw at the hobby once again. I do so enjoy it. Karren and I attended the Craters of the Moon National Monument Star Party this past month. Glad we got to go before the "Shutdown." Cue ominous music. We were also able to attend the more relaxed Lava Hot Springs Star Party too. Both are fun events. Looking forward to the next one.

I promis to think about getting this blog back on a timely schedule. If it is not snowing I'll have more time to devote to it. If it is snowing, well, "See you next spring!"

Rhubarb Love

Woo Hoo!  Guess who?  It's me, Karren.  I am so excited about our rhubarb patch.  I love all things rhubarb and can't wait to start making cool rhubarb treats!  I plan to bake with it, make jam with it, and freeze it for yummy treats later in the year.  I have a feeling we will have rhubarb coming out of our ears.  Death by rhubarb.  Death, where is thy sting.  : )  If you get rhubarb jam in your Christmas stocking, you'll know where it came from.

You can see in the picture below that we have four healthy plants.  They are already as big around as a Miata tire.