Month: March 2011

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    Potlatch River

    Potlatch River, originally uploaded by Matthew Singer. There is a Forest Service hiking trail about 3 miles due north of our house, though it’s about 7 miles to drive there. Still, it’s close for those after-work getaways. The trail is a ~5mi. loop along the Potlatch River that takes you along the river and then up to the “rim” of the canyon. The first half mile or so is paved, but it then becomes a regular old trail through the woods. There are interpretive markers along the entire length. I have been down on the trail several times, but yesterday…

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    The Birds at our Feeder

    We get lots of birds in our trees in the front yard. This could be contributed to the source of food we are supplying to them. The list of winter birds is less than the summer residents. For example, I haven’t seen a bluebird in months, and most of the woodpeckers have left the yard too. And of course, the hummingbirds have gone since they don’t have the proper gear to tolerate the cold. But even with the few remaining species, watching the feeders has been a delight. In Idaho, we have the possibility to see four different kinds of…

  • I wish I had my Camera with me

    One of the properties of Moscow is a wet winter and spring. We’re close enough to the coast to get the rainy weather patterns, yet far enough inland to incur the effects of the Cascades rain shadow. Though I suppose being at the foothills of the next major mountain divide, it’s only natural for the moisture to build up and then drop before passing into Montana. The rain here is more of a constant drizzle than the short, hard rains we’d get in the summer in the Appalachians. The drizzle will last all day. It’s the sort of grey rain…

  • Snowstorm

    Snowstorm, originally uploaded by Matthew Singer. After last week’s post about the snowstorm that welcomed us in to March, I took a few photos of the snow banks to illustrate how much we had. So here’s one of those photos, from Tuesdsay, March 1. Now, to be fair, the total snowfall over the few days was anywhere between a foot and a foot and a half. What you see out the window is the snow that piled up as the accumulation from the roof slid off. But even previous storms that dropped a foot of snow or more did not…

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    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…

  • Happy March

    Wow, it’s March already. Yesterday, it began to snow. Let’s back up, all of last week, it snowed. We may have gotten a good combined foot of fresh, fluffy powder. We got a bit of a break over the weekend. Sunday it snowed a bit, but the accumulation wasn’t siginificant. But yesterday, it began to snow. In the course of the day, I probably blew 8 inches off the driveway, and the snow wouldn’t let up. This morning, I woke up to find that all my hard work of keeping the driveway clear was erased with potentially another 6-8 +…