I went up to Freezeout Saddle with some photo club people to pick huckleberries. As I expected, they were still ripe, and very plentiful. But the problem with huckleberries is that you can pick for an hour and still not get very much. I think I came home with maybe a pint of berries.
I brought my camera up as well to get some photos of the area and of us picking only to find out that I left my card in the card reader and my extra card in the sack that I take backpacking. oops.
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…
Since we finished the interior of the house, it was time to clean up the garage and start moving everything back inside. This was also a good time to start tidying up the yard before winter hits. Last weekend, we took down an old dog house that we were using to raise chicks in since the chicks are now old enough to roost in the main hen house. When we picked up the structure, we found that the chickens weren’t the only ones using it for a home. And now for some other cuteness:
The latest rage in Moscow, Idaho is the sighting of an immigrant that shouldn’t be here. A Northern Hawk Owl (Surnia ulula) has been spotted in Moscow across Rt. 8 from the Safeway parking lot. The earliest sightings on eBird show that this individual has been hanging around since Tuesday, reliably in the same spot. This is an exciting discovery because the Northern Hawk Owl isn’t supposed to be seen this far south. It’s native range is exclusive to Canada, and visits to the United States are few and infrequent. It’s unclear at this time how long the owl will…
Because I was laid up and out of commission for much of the spring, I wasn’t able to work on expanding our garden much this year. Last year, I built a third 4×8 foot box and a 2×4 foot box which were meant to be tiered for planting small annual herbs in large quantities. I never got that box filled with dirt, so that will have to wait until next year. In the mean time, we’ve planted our usual array of crops in the two 4×8 foot boxes with limited success. Erin had bought some tomato plants in April, and…
When life prevents you from going out and adventuring, you make your own adventures at home. My latest adventure is making sourdough. Now, I could go out and obtain or buy a starter from a local bakery, but what’s the fun of that? It’s so easy to start my own from scratch, and now I have one that I can truly call my own. My guide for making the starter and baking my first batch of bread comes from King Arthur Flour’s Sourdough Baking Guide. This all started about 3 weeks ago. I had some whole wheat flour sitting around…
It’s been over a week since a Northern Hawk Owl was spotted hanging out across a busy street from a shopping mall in Moscow, Idaho, but the bird is still here and reliably seen in the same locations. I’ve now seen the bird four times and may continue to watch and observe it until it is no longer a novelty. Of course, that might be all winter, and the owl might actually leave town before seeing it is no longer exciting. Today’s viewing was special. The sun came out and temperatures finally rose above freezing, making it bearable to actually…