A Walk Around the Yard

When you live somewhere long enough and see the same scenery day after day, you sort of become numb to it. It no longer thrills you the way it did when you first moved in. That’s sort of how I feel. Don’t get me wrong, I love my house and its location, but it feels like I could have better scenery out my window living somewhere else. The scenery here is never actually dull. I’ve got a great view of Spud Hill, Deary’s local “mountain” that stands over 1000 feet above the town, and most evenings, we get great light that shines on the barn and the property. But as great as everything looks, I get into this funk where the view doesn’t seem interesting to photograph. This is certainly not true, it just becomes more difficult to find creative ways to display the scenery around the house.

The weather cooperated a bit today and I wanted to take advantage by going for a short hike up Spud Hill. It’s been ages since I’ve gotten up on a high overlook and I’m ansy to stand on top of the world. I also really want to get Erin up there to show her our local scenic view. But she didn’t want to go up there today. By the time we were ready to go, it was after 4:00, still sunny and warm, but that would change quickly. I would have still gone up to catch sunset. But the final winning argument she made was the snow. Although it had compacted and melted from the high temperatures and rain the past few days, it was still deep enough to make hiking a challenge. So instead, she took out her skis and I got out my snowshoes and we made a loop around the field behind our house. It was a drastically shorter hike, but the point was to get out, enjoy the nice weather, and give the dogs some exercise.

I brought my camera with the intent of capturing the scenery that is essentially our back yard. Just beyond our property boundary is a nice view toward Spud Hill (pictured above), which was looking quite nice in the late afternoon light. Then we headed down hill where a seasonal creek was flowing due to the snow melt (left). We crossed the creek, headed up the opposite bank and had a peak in the woods. On the other side of the trees, we have neighbors that live in a neat looking round house. It’s two stories with a dome roof and what looks to be a little observation tower on top. One of these days, we’ll have to go over there and meet the neighbors just to see what the house looks like inside.

We walked along the tree line for a bit before heading back down to cross the creek, this time where a snow bridge had formed making an easier path to cross. Erin enjoyed it enough to ski up the other side, turn around and ski back down the hill and up the side we came down originally. She was especially amused by Shadow’s need to run along side her. After taking a tumble on the return run, we called it quits and headed back home.

I have been back this way before, but on this walk, I realized just how big these hills are. The Palouse is full of huge rolling hills that look like they’d be great for sledding. But we actually have some great sled hills right behind the house. If we get any more winter storms, I’ve got to have people over for some fun in the snow. Although the current weather trends project spring-like weather in the near future, we’re not clear of winter yet.