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:
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…
Fox sparrow Passerella iliaca White-crowned sparrow Zonotrichia leucophrys Northern cardinal Cardinalis cardinalis Today I took the camera out to photograph the birds. We’ve got a feeder in the front yard, but all the birds flock to the seed spilled on the ground. So I threw the dogs inside, scattered a can of seed on the ground, sat and waited. It didn’t take long for the birds to come in. Around the farm, I’ve been mostly seeing the usual winter birds: Cardinals, Chickadees, Titmice, Carolina Wren, Junco, Song Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, and some non-feeder birds: American Crow, Raven, Black and Turkey…
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…
For the longest time, I have been wanting to re-design my site to make it easy to update and manage content. At first, I thought a content management system would suit me, but I found them to be a bit daunting. Perhaps later I’ll re-visit the idea, but for the amount of content that I actually publish, a blogging platform would do me much better. I still have the photography up using Gallery2 and the main website is now using WordPress. I figured if I’m going to provide stories and updates, I might as well do it in blog form…
With the school year over and nice weather upon us, I’ve had some free time to get out and explore the landscape beyond Williston. I’ve been out on the prairie twice to discover the array of early wildflowers in the grasslands. This is the time of year when I feel like I could actually enjoy this place. Unfortunately, it doesn’t last very long. It’s said that there are only two seasons on the northern plains – a very long winter, and a short summer. Spring and Fall exist, but only for a week. All year round, the wind can blow…
For all intents and purposes, 2013 was a shitty year. Just when we thought things couldn’t get any worse, something else would go wrong. And, so the trend continued until the final months. The year started out pretty good. Though we’ve been struggling financially since Erin lost her nursing job in 2011, by the fall of 2012, she had a job and had enrolled at the University of Idaho to finally earn a bachelor’s degree to get her into a new career field. Â With snowshoes and a new (to me) pair of skis I acquired from the WSU swap in…