Last night was full of bad-assery. Yeah, that’s right, it was so bad-ass that I made up a word to describe it. After a cold spell, temperatures quickly rose into the 80’s yesterday making for a hot and somewhat muggy day. The conditions were ripe for evening thunderstorms. As I arrived home, I heard reports on the radio that there were some severe storms just west of Orofino. But looking around, all I saw was sunshine and blue skies. The storms were passing to the south of us. As I was washing my car, dark clouds crept in over the field to the south of us, but the skies overhead remained sunny. I heard thunder and the wind was picking up, but still the storms remained to the south. I checked the radar online and saw that Kendrick was getting hit, but we were in the clear for quite some time. I could still see lightning strikes over the horizon.

But then, everything became much more dramatic. The skies to the south began to glow orange, as if they were on fire. It wasn’t quite time for sunset yet, but then the fire spread to the rest of the sky. This was too good to miss, so I grabbed my camera and set up to shoot the sky with the best available foreground I had. The colors just got more and more intense, I caught glimpse of a rainbow in the distance but it was soon washed out by the glowing clouds. This whole time lightning was still striking in the distance and I thought, how bad-ass would it be if I captured a lightning strike in the midst of an already bad-ass sunset?

Unfortunately, I wasn’t quite that lucky. My exposures were reading 20 and 30 seconds, long enough for a lightning strike  to occur in the frame by chance, but after each shot, there was an equally long delay from the long exposure noise reduction. Often, this is when the lightning would strike. Just my luck. So when the intense colors faded, I was left with blue clouds over a green field and I decided to keep trying my luck at getting some lightning bolts on frame. Well, the lightning did strike, several times. I thought that lightning was so bright that it would pick up no matter what the exposure settings. I was wrong. After recording a few really nice strikes, I would review the picture only to find no sign of lightning at all. This is a skill I must perfect because when it does storm around here, it’s a pretty spectacular show.

The storm eventually moved on top of us and by then it would have been dark enough to capture lightning for sure, but I also wasn’t comfortable sitting out there with the camera. At some point during the night, everything had cleared and we had a great view of the stars. By morning, another storm cell had appeared on top of us, spitting down some good-sized chunks of hail. It seems that the storms have finally passed.

The result: It’s no longer a balmy 85 degrees out there, but a brisk 60. I had to wear a jacket to work today. Nevertheless, last night was bad-ass.

It’s been an eventful week, and I should have posted more often, but I’ve been busy and tired and uninspired to write. So I’ll give you the update on the past week, and then some.

Last Monday was our actual anniversary, and even though we celebrated the week before with a getaway to Oregon, we still wanted to make the day special. We decided to drive up to Spokane, spend some time at REI, and have a nice dinner. For the longest time, I’ve been desiring a GPS unit for the trail, in part because trail maps for Idaho are scarce to none, and in part for the pure geekery that comes with having a GPS. I’ve always wanted to accurately map my route and overlay it on computer maps such as Google Earth, keep track of trip statistics, play with geographical data, and get into geocaching. Erin decided that her anniversary gift to me would be a GPS unit, so with the rather large dividend we earned from last year’s purchases, I got a Garmin Oregon 450t. Suffice to say, for the past week, I’ve been playing with it and having some fun. It’s nice because I can now feed back more detailed trip reports when I come back from a hike.

While in Spokane, I wanted to have a nice romantic evening at one of the scenic parks. We went to the botanical gardens at Menito Park and walked around for a bit. It was a lovely evening and the gardens were in bloom. We walked through the lilac garden and then through a section of native wildflowers. Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time to walk through all of the gardens, so a return trip is in store. Spokane has surprised me with its awesomeness: a big little city… or a little big city.

This weekend, we drove out to Elk River with the intent of hiking the North Basin Trail and stopping at the giant tree. To my surprise, the road was blocked with snow, despite being at less than 3000 in elevation. The snow line was definitely higher. I just wasn’t expecting the road to be impassible that low down. So, instead we played closer to town and let the dogs swim in the river. Rusty and Shadow flew in after a stick and floated 100 feet or so through a rapid before coming out. It was cute. We also found a few geocaches near town and then finished the day with a hike to Elk River Falls. It sure is different with the river flowing at full force.

I will finish with the story of our lawn. Back in April, we bought an old riding mower from someone in Orofino. Despite the age, it was in good working condition with a new engine and everything fixed up. In May, when the lawn had dried out some, I took it for a test and mowed a couple sections of the yard. In that time, the electric starter pooped out, though that’s not a big deal; it has a manual pull start that works just fine. I was able to mow the dry parts of the yard several times, but then a few weeks ago, the lawn mower just stopped working. I was in the middle of cutting the grass when it just shut off on me and I couldn’t get it started. So, unsure what the problem was, I put it in the garage until we could get it fixed. Problem is, we can’t take it anywhere because we don’t have a truck, and we couldn’t find anyone to come out and pick it up. So we decided to just eat the loss and buy a new one.

In the mean time, the lawn has gone almost a month without having been mowed, and it’s starting to look pretty wild. After doing some research, I went into Sears today and ordered us a new lawn tractor. Then I came home and decided to experiment. I was pretty sure that the engine was fine and I was beginning to suspect something wrong with the electrical system. So I jump-started the lawn mower. To my surprise, it started right up. So I spent the afternoon mowing down the jungle that had taken over the yard. It now looks respectable and once we rake up the clippings, I can go over it with another pass which will smooth everything out. I think I can finally have people over.

A few weeks ago, we received our federal tax return, and with the First Time Homebuyer tax credit, we got quite a hefty sum. The bulk of that money is going right back into the property with a few home improvement projects. But we took a small chunk and set it aside to complete the entertainment system. So I went ahead and bought a receiver and a set of speakers. What a difference it makes. I’m not new to the 5.1 surround scene. In college, I had a shelf stereo system that was actually an all-in-one theater system: a 3 CD/DVD changer, two boom box speakers, and three satellites (center and two surround speakers). This was a vast improvement over the TV speakers at the time, though the system wasn’t perfect. It only connected to the TV via RCA component cable and didn’t process DTS sound. The picture quality was sub-par as was the overall build quality. Eventually, it had problems and became more of a hassle than it was worth, so before moving out to Idaho, I finally got rid of the thing. It had been boxed up since my parents moved to Virginia 4 years ago anyway.

So here I am, finally with decent sound again. It really does make the movie watching experience that much more involved, and I can actually watch movies with the DTS track. But more importantly, I can listen to music once again, like really listen to it. Had I unlimited funds to spend, I would have certainly bought speakers and a receiver specifically for the music experience. But I’ll make due until then. What’s really great is that our Blu-ray player also plays Super-Audio CD’s (SACDs). A while back, I had bought a couple of hybrid SACD’s since they were the same price as the regular CD album with the hopes of someday having a system to take advantage of the SACD layer. All I can say is WOW. I’m not even sure how to describe the difference, but I really wish that the SACD format had taken off. Unfortunately, the audiophile is becoming a rare breed as we sacrifice sound quality for the convenience of the digital MP3 format.

Speaking of Blu-ray, we got a chance to test out the system with our firs Blu-ray disc. Erin’s favorite movie is First Knight with Richard Gere and Sean Connery. She lost her DVD copy in the move and has been bummed out about it, so when I saw it on sale for less than $10 on Blu-ray, I figured I’d make her happy. Those Blu-ray ads at the beginning of new DVD’s aren’t kidding when they talk about improved quality. The picture is crisp and clear, and the frame rate must be higher as it displays fast motion quite smoothly. The most important picture improvement has got to be the color depth and compression quality. Even though the DVD’s get unscaled to high definition, I can still notice artifacts and banding in gradient tones, all of which are seemingly nonexistent with the newer format. So, I think I’m hooked, though I will likely save my Blu-ray purchases for specific movies that I deem worthy. That leads to the question: will it be worth upgrading to the Star Wars original trilogy and the Lord of the Rings extended editions on Blu-ray?

So, now that I’ve got everything set up, it’s time for a movie night party.

Spring is officially here on the Palouse, as temperatures soar to almost 80 degrees and graduation season is upon us. The University of Idaho had its commencement yesterday, though I did not attend. This marks the end of my first year in graduate school, and so far it has been a success. But this summer, I’ll be finishing up some projects in the lab and really hammering out ideas for my own disseration. Of course, the summer is not completely for work. I’ll be planning a few backpacking trips and other expeditions to explore the landscape around me.

The real indicator of Spring are the wildflowers. Erin first noticed the flowers earlier this week on here way home from work, and I have since discovered them in every location. There are little yellow Lilies which I have yet to identify beyond that, Trillium, Heart-leaf Arnica, Ballhead waterleaf, Bluebells, a field of Grass widow, and many more. One of my biggest challenges has been to find a good wildflower guide for the west. In the East, I could use the Newcomb’s guide with great success. Unfortunately, there isn’t anything like it for the western U.S. In addition, the West seems to be broken up into several sections, and we sit in that over lap of the Northwest and Rocky Mountain regions. In the bird world, we have our swallow back. We’ve had tree swallows for a couple of weeks, but I saw my first barn swallow this weekend. The hummingbirds have also returned. I’m looking forward to a season full of warm weather and time that I can spend outside.

Mother and Child, originally uploaded by Matthew Singer.

We had a baby.

And by We, I mean Erin.

And by Erin, I mean her horse.

Thursday night (Friday morning) around 12:30, we went out to check on Mae and turn in for the night, but we heard groaning and grunting coming from the barn. So, Erin rushed up to see if she had gone into labor, and indeed she had. I grabbed boots and the camera and headed up. At first, there was just a hoof sticking out from Mae’s behind. Then she laid down and gave a few pushes. Within a half an hour, the whole baby emerged. I spent the next hour or so documenting the the first moments of the baby’s life before calling it quits. Erin stayed out longer, but I had an exam in the morning and was not about to lose sleep. I went back to the barn in the morning just before leaving for school to snap a few photos in the daylight.

Over night, the, baby took its first steps and nursed. It seems that’s all the baby does now. It just follows Mae wherever she goes, falls over in awkwardness regularly, and naps often. Nap times on Saturday and Sunday were bliss with full sunshine and 60-degree weather.

And so it is, we have a baby, another mouth to feed, and another cute, expensive animal to take care of.

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 that feels right if you’re sitting at home in front of the fire place napping all afternoon while watching movies. Unfortunately, that’s not a feasible option five days out of the week.

The surprising property of these rains is that they almost always end before sundown. Often enough, I’ve walked out of school to find the sun shining on the western horizon. The after-storm glow is magnificent. It illuminates the tall, white silos of the grainery in town with the dark purple clouds in the background. It paints Moscow Mountain in a golden glow. Moscow Mountain, by the way, has an abrupt white cap, a specific elevation where the precipitation remained snow and stuck to the trees. The overall warmth in color tones ease the cold, wet day, a perfect blend of color and contrast. It is this point where I kick myself for not thinking ahead.

I wish I had my camera.

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 create this big of a pile beside the house.

Ironically, a week later, you’d have no idea that this volume of snow was dumped on us so recently.

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 + inches of snow. And it’s still falling. There are drifts from the snow falling off the roof that maybe reach 4 feet. The temperatures have warmed up a bit. Friday night’s low hit -10 in Moscow with a high of about 15. Since the snow returned, the highs have actually been above freezing, which is making this snow very wet and heavy.

All of this, I don’t really mind. Now that we have a snow blower, I’m not getting stuck on the driveway, and it’s about time to see winter return. But the forecast shows rising temperatures through the week, and the snow is to become rain. So we have a nice fresh and deep blanket turning this place into a winter wonderland, and by the weekend it’s going to be on the retreat. I  really wish the snow would stick around long enough to take advantage of. On the positive side, the ski areas are getting feet of fresh powder each day, and they should be retaining the snow as it warms up down here. So pherpahs I will get at least one more ski trip in before the snow wanes for good.

Happy March.

If you’re reading this on the website, you won’t see much of a difference. But I just upgraded WordPress to version 3.1 and upgraded the theme. The result is a better integration with the Gallery plugin. The galleries should now fit with the look of the site.

Enjoy.

I was in town today getting snow tires for Erin’s Jeep, and when I’m in town, I often head over to Hyperspud to look at maps, books and gear that I can’t afford. Today I was looking through the book Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills put out by the aptly named Mountaineers Press. They put out some nice hiking guides and how-to books for outdoor recreation. Turns out, this book is the “Bible” for mountaineers, and I want it. I also desperately want to get into mountaineering so that I may continue to hike and explore all year round. While researching a potential winter hike to Stevens Lake, I stumbled upon the idea of making for the summit of Stevens Peak just behind. At just over 7000 feet, it’s not a particularly hard peak to summit, especially in the summer. But it looks like it would be a good peak to try out winter mountaineering. Turns out, Stevens peak is used by several nearby mountaineering clubs as a novice peak. For now, I just want to get into basic mountaineering. I want to be able to summit mountains by basically walking up them. There are tons of options for the summer, but ice and avalanches are deterring me for just getting up and going. I got a pair of nice snow shoes for the holidays, so a hike to some of the lakes basins isn’t out of the picture. But the exposed slopes above treeline are where the extra skill come into play. I will eventually work up to climbs that require winter camping, ropes and other technical expertise. I’d also like to own an ice axe and a pair of real crampons at some point. For now, I can rent everything I need from the university’s rec center. Of course, before I can make any of this a reality, I need to find some people to go with.

Right now it’s snowing pretty heavily. Last night we got an inch or two of wet snow that promptly turned to slush. It started snowing again this afternoon and we’ve already got another couple of inches or so. In all, we’re predicted to have up to 6 inches which means more for the mountains. Time to find a good trail to use those snowshoes.

First Snow, originally uploaded by Matthew Singer.

On Friday, I woke up to find a light layer of white on everything. At first, I thought it was a heavy frost, but when I put my glasses on, the truth was revealed. We had our first snowfall. It wasn’t much, less than an inch, and by late afternoon, all was gone. It wasn’t the first snow of the season either, but it was the first to stick on the ground, especially at our elevation.

But Sunday night, it began to snow some more, and the accumulation was greater. It still wasn’t much, and in the tall grass, looked pitiful. But it was enough to make driving a pain. But, it snowed all night and when we woke up this morning, there was considerably more snow on the ground. It still wasn’t enough to really worry about. But it kept snowing all day. And by the time I decided to do something about it, we had measured 10 inches along the drive way. This storm is no joke. What was supposed to be 5-8 inches is now threatening to push a full foot of powder. I’m glad I had the forethought to buy a snow shovel a few days ago, but I now wish I had bought two, and I wish we had gotten a snow blower sooner.

That will be on tomorrow’s agenda. That and any other gear we may need to prepare for winter.

At least we have heat now. Saturday Night, the temperature dropped to a balmy 28 degrees, warm compared to the temperatures forecasted for the next few days, but cold enough to feeze everything outside, including a bit of water that happened to be residing in the fuel line. So, Sunday I went to town to get some supplies to melt the pipes and insulate them. Meanwhile, a plumber came out and cleared the line for us. We should now be good for a while.

I’ll get some snow photos in the morning.

I’ve got two new books available for purchase.

2010: The Year of Change, Volume 1 is a collection of photographs and stories from the first half of the year.

2004-2007: A Portfolio from the Archives is a portfolio from my first four years out of college. This book is more of a photo portfolio rather than a personal album.

2004-2007 by Matthew Singer | Make Your Own Book

2010 by Matthew Singer | Make Your Own Book

Havest Moon, originally uploaded by Matthew Singer.

I’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t been able to make any new posts. I wish I could tell you that I’ve been busy doing some sort of interesting research, but that’s just not the case yet. However, during my drive home this evening, I was given a nice treat.

My drive to and from school is about 25 miles, one way. This is a bit on the long side but nothing that can’t be done. I do sometimes envy those who can get up and walk to school, not using any gas while getting some exercise. However, my half-hour commute comes with great scenery as part of the package. I get to endure views of Moscow Mountain and the rolling hills of the Palouse in both directions, during the early light of the morning, and the warm evening light.

Tonight’s drive home, I got to stare at a very large moon cresting the horizon, and I wished that I had my camera in the car. And then I noticed something else. It looked like there might be a full moon tonight. As it turns out, I am correct.

I had beautiful light on the drive in, but as I said before, no camera on me. So when I got home, the first thing I did was grab the camera and the tripod and head to the back field to shoot the moon before it rose too high in the sky. Unfortunately, the moon was residing behind some light clouds, but the effect is still pure awesomeness.

As I finished up my shoot, I heard footsteps in the field, and in the distance, a large black blob slowly meandering its way to the road and to the next field beyond. I can’t say for certain what this beast was, but it was huge. I don’t think it was a moose because it didn’t seem tall enough, but perhaps a large black bear?

According to the Farmer’s Almanac, October’s moon is the Harvest Moon. However, other sources refer to the Harvest Moon as the full moon occurring closest to the autumnal equinox, which is in September. This year, we had a Super Harvest Moon, in which the harvest moon occurred on the equinox. How cool is that! Why didn’t I photograph that one? But by that naming system, this would be the Hunter’s Moon.

So Happy Hunter’s Moon.

I can hidez., originally uploaded by Matthew Singer.

We’ve been in and out of the Altoona area to pack up belongings in preparation for the big move later this summer. We usually stay with Erin’s grandfather who lives on a farm off of Rt. 22 near Williamsburg. He has some “stray” cats that he feeds, but won’t get spayed or neutered, so every so often we find a litter of kittens.

Two weeks ago, we were visiting and the kittens were out playing. I couldn’t resist a photo shoot. As cute as they are, we are not keeping any of them. We already have five and that’s more than enough, but I’m sure we could find them a good home.

Anyone want a kitten?