You can dress 'em up...

This morning we would like to present a new, never before seen version of The Upscale Joshua, soon to be a Red Rock High School graduate.  Yea, verily, he appears ready to be set loose upon the world at large.  This is Joshua as he appeared last night before driving his vintage diesel Mercedes off to enjoy that arcane teenage ritual known as "the prom."  Very suitable and fitting "get up," don't ya think?  Congratulations, Joshua, we're all rising now to give you a hearty round of virtual applause!!!!

It's been raining lightly here for over 12 hours.  Temps are mired in the mid-40's.  Our region has many names.  The most common is "Intermountain West."  Some people call it the "Inland Northwest."  Well, today feels like a typical Seattle day--drizzly rain falling through chilly gray air.  Brrr....we're running the central heating system and our little electric heater, too.

Yesterday, we attacked our dandelions with classic vengeance using both a stabbing device and targeted blasts of poison to their yellow faces.  We massacred most of them but those strange weeds are incredibly tenacious and there will be more.  They are the proverbial seven-headed hydra of urban lawns.  Meanwhile, the gentle rain has been the perfect way to soak in the fertilizer applied Thursday.  The yard is in the best shape its been since we bought this place in September 2007.  Summer croquet, here we come.

We got a nice phone call from a long lost friend, Meg L.  She's in 29 Palms right now and will be traveling all over America (except here) until she returns to India in August for a five month sojourn. It was great talking with her.  It's nice to know Meg is reading this blog.  Thanks and Happy Trails, Meg! Meanwhile, we learned our neighbor Danielle is an LBR!  She had some very nice things to say about the blog and we really appreciated her words.  We've been in one of those comment droughts lately.  There's been only four comments since April 29--one of the longer droughts we've experienced in many months.  We suppose that's because we are writing about truly mundane and boring stuff.  Hey, mundane happens!

We went out to the Far East of this area yesterday to met with a local HAM Head.  He tested our Yagi antenna.  Oddly, the little thing works like a Voodoo Magician yet its "numbers" are way off.  He suggested I mess with it but, hey, it works, so I'm leaving it alone.

Today's one of those days when there are few real alternatives for doing stuff outdoors.  So, it looks like we both troop downstairs to the basement and log some hours messing with our stuff.  It's kind of a penance, actually, or perhaps the equivalent of spending time in limbo or what the Catholics call purgatory.  Our feet shuffle around a dark, cool, walled-in basement while our hands shuffle stuff from one resting place to another.  It's an age old ritual, a never ending cycle of human futility.  That's why they call it the Stuff of Life.

Have another great day and Many Cheers!  jp

Mother's Day "Mom-isms"

Susun jump started her Mother's Day celebration by posting some of her many "Mom-isms" on the fridge Saturday night.  Normally, this appliance is covered with photos but its early in the season so there's still room for some words of wisdom from Mom.  Seeing these soundbites makes me wonder if there's a compendium of such cliches out there someplace.  Maybe we will go looking around on Amazon. 
Happy Mother's Day to One and ALL Moms!

She's in Her Element Yet Again

This shot was taken less than an hour ago.  Susun found a place out of the wind and the pitter patter of the rain to pot her pansies.  Yep, she's in her element again.  Maybe we should rewrite that Gene Autry classic "Back In The Saddle Again" to be "Back In Her Element Again."  Instead of "totin' my old .44," it could be "planting my pansies again."  Ain't nothing like watching Miss Susun when Springtime rolls 'round.  She's DEFINITELY in her element again!  As I wrote this, she just came in the room and bragged, "48 pansies in an hour and dinner, too!"  SHE ROX!

Chuck

 Chuck's our neighbor.  He's a piper.  He's totally on top of his game today.  He and his buddies--the Eagle Rock Pipe Band--went down into a 30+ mph wind and dedicated a new Farmers Market at Snake River Landing today.  We were there.  It was C-O-L-D!  Chuck and his fellows never flinched, they never showed the slightest indication it was freezing anatomy cold this morning.  They fired up their pipes and marched off in tune as if it was a mid-80's July day.  Chuck is a mentor to the young people in this band.  We could tell they dote on his every word and every note.  He put in a full four hours down there in the rip snortin' wind and when he came back he was all smiles.  Congratulations, Chuck, you represent everything that's right about this Country we call America.  God Bless You and Carry ON!

Miscellaneous

For some unknown reason, we both got up at 5 am this morning.  Susun rested up all day yesterday.  She declared a phone and TV free day and took long naps, too.  That's probably the root cause for being up at 5 am today.  I didn't leave the house until nearly 1 pm yesterday.  Thursday was way too much work for retired people so we made up for it yesterday.  But 5 am today?  Hum....maybe we are out of sync with our sleep cycle.

There's not much to write about this morning.  The weather's "bad" so it's going to be a brief visit to the Farmers Market this morning.  Those hardy vendors really have to grit their teeth and tough it out during the early part of each year's season.  Today will be another brutal, windy, rainy day for them.  Our neighbor, Chuck, will be performing with the Eagle Rock Pipe Band at a new Farmers Market starting nearby at Snake River Landing.  We plan to go watch him perform in the raw weather we're having.  The NWS dweebs say parts of Eastern Idaho could get as much of three inches of water out of this storm.  One to two inches is a lock.  It's going to be wet for days.  We're loving our cozy, warm little bungalow during weather like this.  At least we got the lawn under control before this round of rain began.

As a result of having nothing much to discuss this morning, we roamed El Net reading various newspapers and blogs and so forth.  Wayne Ranney posted a fine description of his trip to Toroweap.  Click here to read it.  Goatherder has a slide show on cooking corn dogs.  If you like look at boiling grease and carb-coated sausages, it's fun to look at.  Click here to check it out.  Spudboater's been on a blog break since her fine post on the chicken coop.  Speaking of blog breaks, The Drewster hasn't posted anything on his Geek blog since mid-November last year and on the family blog since late February.  Kirsty has a fine post on May Day at her Momedy blog.  For our part, we put up our first post on a specific golf hat last night.  You can click here to read it.

Down in the Salt Lake Tribune there's a large, substantial article that compares this spring with the famous 1983 floods.  If you love watching snowpacks and rising rivers, you will love this article.   There's some real serious snowpack happening out there, folks.  While the Mississippi is getting all the limelight now, beware that the white heat of national media attention could soon turn to the Wasatch Front and Eastern Idaho, too.

We checked in on the Flagstaff newspaper, too.  Death in the Grand Canyon is common and there's articles about two recent fatalities.  Surprisingly, there's an article about some moron who drove his car over the south rim of the Grand Canyon and survived.  His car plunged 200 feet and luckily got hung up in a tree.  He climbed back up to the rim and sustained only minor injuries.  He told authorities he "accidentally" drove over the edge of the rim.  Now, tell me, how can anyone "accidentally" drive off the rim of the Grand Canyon?  This is why we have given him  Moron Of The Day Award.  You can click here to read the article.

We toyed with the idea to go snowshoeing tomorrow.  There's still 32 inches of snow up in Harriman State Park.  And we do have usable snowshoes here (as well as in Arizona).  However, the specter of gas prices has finally caught up with us.  By the time we pay gas (even in the Nissan) to go up and back and buy our day passes and so forth, we'd be out close to fifty bucks.  That flat out ain't worth it.  We're going to be pretty judicious in how we allocate our travel money this year.  Day trips are far down the list.  If we spend the gas money to get someplace, we want to stay there for 2-3-4 days--it helps lessen the blow to the wallet of the sticker shock at the gas pumps.  Besides, it might be a blizzard up there tomorrow.  Blizzard in May, you say?  Yep, very well could be, it's that kind of year.

Well, this morning's wind is only blowing a steady 26 mph with gusts to a mere 35 mph, ho hum, just another Idaho Spring Day!

Have a great Saturday & Many Cheers!  jp



 

Grass Attack

We unleashed a blitz attack on our lawn yesterday--the most intense one-day campaign ever mounted on our lawn here.  First, we slogged our way through way too many stoplights out to the Ammon Ace Hardware to rent a monster power rake.  The darned thing weighs 154 pounds and sounds like a self-contained tornado when it's ripping dead thatch from the grass.  We somehow covered the entire lawn and had the thing back to Ace in less than an hour so the total bill was a mere $15.  These weird machines actually sell for almost $2000 (see this link) so it was a special treat to be able to use one for less than one percent of its purchase cost.

After taking a break to write the post on hobbies below, we then went back to the front lines and fired up the MLS (Monster Leaf Sucker) and sucked up over five bulging 39 gallon lawn bags filled with dry, dusty, dirty, dead grass thatch.  What a filthy job--clouds of dust everywhere!  At that point, we realized to also needed to actually MOW the grass, too.  So, we fired up the trusty lawn mower and went over it yet again--making the third time in a single day we covered the lawn with a gas-powered machine.  We harvested yet another 39-gallon bag full of clipping from the mower.  Then we cut open that 50 pounds bag of fertilizer and used our small hand spreader to sift a healthy dose over the entire yard.  Whew, by the time all of that mayhem was finished, we were plumb tuckered out and nursing a wrenched left shoulder to boot.  It was about all I could do to take a shower and go shopping at the WINCO Spa & Relaxation Center.

Meanwhile, Susun was right in the thick of things after her lunch with Teresa.  She continued working well after I retired behind the lines.  She finished her long day by watering in the fertilizer.  She logged all of her tireless work, we might add, after a strenuous morning workout at the Apple Athletic Club.

When Happy Hour finally rolled around, we both wearily admired the results of our handiwork.  The lawn looks great and we imagine it is very happy being freed of all that choking dead thatch.  Now the grass has some room to grow and green up when the warm weather finally (one of these days or months) reappears here in Idaho.

Yesterday was actually the warmest day of the year so far here with an official high of 71 degrees, five more than predicted.  Now, it's back to the future in the 60's and even 50's next week after a pretty stout round of rain storms Sunday through Tuesday.  Today is a gray day and the wind is blowing pretty good in the teens already this morning.  After such a strenuous day, we're moving low and slow this AM.

That's about all we have for Friday.  Have a great day & Many Cheers!  jp

PS--Yep, he's playing with his food again.

Hobbies

We've had some discussions lately about the idea and concept of hobbies.  Everybody probably has at least one hobby.  Most people have more than one.  Lots people have too many hobbies and SOME people have WAY too many minutes.  We fall into the last category.  We have WAY too many hobbies.  The trouble is that we love them all and can't eliminate any of them from the list.  Here they all are with a little explanation under each one:

1.  Volunteering
Is this a hobby or a retirement career?  We like to think it's a hobby.  You be the judge.

2.  Day Hiking
Even though we haven't been indulging this hobby lately, it clearly deserves to be near the top of the list.  If there's one thing we wish we were doing a lot more of--it's day hiking. 

3.  Camping
This is kind of a "duh" sort of hobby.  Camping is a lot like breathing and I don't suppose anyone would call breathing a hobby.  Breathing is life for everyone and camping (while breathing) is life for us.

4.  Outdoor cooking
Outdoor cooking is part & parcel of camping but it's also something of a hobby when we are living in a real house (straw or otherwise).  Outdoor cooking a a great hobby and we'd recommend to anyone.  Most people know it as "grilling" but it's so much more than a simple grill.

5.  Suzuki Samurai's
Hobby or addiction?  There's a fine line between the two.  When we are really indulging this hobby as we did this winter, it just "seems" like an addiction.  LBRs will note we've had very little to say about Samurais lately.  That's because we've been focusing on other of our hobbies.  The nice thing about having a lot of hobbies is you never get bored.

6.  Driving Back Country Roads
We did get in a few trips this winter but nowhere near enough to satisfy this hobby.  This summer (depending on gas prices, of course) we plan to indulge this hobby far more frequently.

7.  River running
This was once a lifestyle but it's infrequent enough now to call it a simple hobby.  Luckily, we've had some patrons and benefactors who've helped us with the expenses involved in this hobby.  River running ain't cheap!

8.  Flat water Canoeing
We put this one in as a separate hobby from river running because the two are distinctly different.  Floating around on a lake or a pool above a river dam is totally different than river running.  It is a unique hobby in its own right.  Think "On Golden Pond."

9.  Golf
This is a newfound hobby as of late last summer.  The adoption of this arcane activity elicited many groans from LRBs but it has proven to be quite fun and also quite cheap in the pantheon of hobbies.  We sure wish all our other hobbies were as cheap to indulge as golf!

10. Pistol Target Shooting
This is a really fun hobby but it looks like it's going to be a winter time hobby.  We've found no good place to go shooting here in Idaho Falls.  The closest range is 7 miles west of Rexburg and costs $5, plus about $10 in gas round trip, plus the ammo.  We're talking a pricey hobby, folks, so pistol target shooting is going to the back burner until next November.

11. Bicycling
We are definitely looking forward to ramping up our bicycling once the weather clears here in Idaho Falls.  We have "all the right stuff" and it's maintained and ready to roll.  It's a great hobby anyone can adopt.

12. Thrift Store Shopping
We are actively trying to keep this compulsive hobby in remission.  We are avoiding t-stores and doing our dangest not to buy anything when we set foot inside one.  We're trying to adopt a "window shopping" aspect of this dangerous hobby.  We do not recommend anyone take up this hobby, it's far too dangerous for the regular public.

13. Blogging
Once again the question is: "Hobby or addiction?"  Let's go with Hobby--it sounds so much more friendly.

14. Croquet
We didn't get in anywhere near enough croquet games this winter and we are in a croquet deficit.  We hope to make up for the lack of croquet games SOON.  This is a great hobby and essentially free once you buy the set of thingies you need to play the game.  Anybody can play and nobody really cares who wins.

15. Cribbage
Susun and I go way back with cribbage.  We're looking forward to playing it again.  Maybe we should start today, eh?

16. Chess
It's great to be back where I can indulge this hobby.  I love chess--always have, always will.  What a great game and what a great hobby.

17. Digital Photography
Goatherder says we have a camera grafted to our anatomy.  He's right.  We never saw a picture we didn't want to take.  The more the merrier.  Most of the time, the hobby is simply the act of taking the photo.  Once in a while, though, we actually USE the photos.

18. Producing online videos
It is debatable if this should be on the list as a hobby since we do it so seldom.  let's say this one is on probation as a hobby.  It's probably going to get eliminated.

19. HAM Radio
The focus of all of our obsessive energy for any given hobby is laser-beamed right now at HAM radio.  We've put in ridiculously HUGE amounts of time on HAM since March 13 when we began studying for our exam.  We can feel the compulsive pull beginning to slack off now and expect this hobby to recede into the background soon.  It's likely there will be occasional outbreaks of our HAM obsession now and then but, hopefully, it will modulate itself and become just one of the "regular" hobbies.  The key word here is "hopefully."

20. Happy Hour
We saved the best hobby for last.  Ah, Happy Hour, let me count the ways I love thee!

Many Cheers Today! jp 

Opps, almost forgot--COLLECTING!  Every old retired guy has to have a collection.  We wanted something to collect that met all these criteria: A) Something we could actually USE; B)Extremely low costs; C)Zero theft or insurance worries; D)Colorful, esoteric and arcane; E)Takes up minimal space; F)lightweight and easy to transport; G) Easy to display to other geezers, and H)Easy to find anywhere.

And the answer is......GOLF HATS!!!!!  (Cue wild laughter in Blog Reader Land.) Click here for My Golf Hat blog.


PS--writing this post has been a fun way to procrastinate today.  I just rented a 154 pound power rake--easily one of the most monstrous lawn power tools I've ever used.  After wrassling that thing around the yard, I need a break in which I discussed NOTHING about lawns, power rakes, thatch, aeration, fertilizer, grass seed or dandelion herbicides.  Writing about these hobbies has been very therapeutic.  Now it's back to mano-y-mano out in the yard.

PPS (Added hours later)--The more I have reflected on this topic, the more intriguing it becomes.  Naturally, whenever something reached critical mass of "intriguing," it gets its own blog.  Click here for the one born a few minutes ago. (It's brand new but it's gonna get a LOT of work on it in the next few days.)

Wednesday

Susun volunteered at the Habitat for Humanity "Restore" yeswterday from 10-2.  That's going to be a regular weekly gig unless we are out of town.  She really enjoys it and next week we will take her photo in action.

The better part of my morning was spent with my old employer--EICAP in their temporary new building over by the airport.  We spent 90 minutes there visiting with our friends and also planing Debby's retirement party.  The A Team Ladies were there and they agreed to help me with the party planning for Debby's May 20 departure.  We will be visiting EICAP frequently during the next two weeks to get ready for Debby's party.

After Susun returned from The Restore, we went off and played our first round of golf on the kiddie course this year.  It's hard to be so much fun for a mere $6.50 for two people.  Susun wasn't paying attention to her score she was just out on a lark.  Here's what I noticed about her game.  Last year, she'd get on the green in two strokes and then takes 4-5 putts to put the ball in the hole.  This year, those roles are reverse.  She two putted every green and we won't say how many strokes it took here to get on the green but you get the picture.  I scored a 26 for the six hole short course.  That's about my average for last year.  It was fun.

Upon our return home, we scurried about getting ready to go to Rachel's Place for a Cinco De Mayo party.  She went all out for this event and it was great!  We will create a separate blog post later today with photos and more detail.  We're a tad pressed for time this morning.

I left the party about 7 pm and headed over to the EITC campus, arriving on time for the May meeting of the Eagle Rock Amateur Radio Club (ERARC).  It was the most fun meeting I've attended in a long time and I didn't get home until 10 pm.  I learned all sorts of neat stuff, some of which I really needed to know.  You can read about it on the HAM blog by clicking here.

This morning Susun took off early to go to the Apple Athletic Club.  We've been encouraging her to rejoin.  She enjoys her best results when working out in some of the many classes Apple offers. She loves the club environment--it really is a first class operation. You can click here to check it out.  Susun's been concerned about the weight she gained this winter.  We're sure she will shed those pounds in a New York minute after she gets back in her work out routine.

Today's a day we're going to attempt to tackle some overdue yard work.  If you dilly dally here, a lawn can get way ahead of you and that's what's happening even as we type these words.  Green grass don't wait for nobody.  When it comes time for that surge of sudden spring growth, that grass comes on stronger than Jumpin' Jack Flash.

Have a great day & Many Cheers!  jp

PS--Looks like we might have the warmest day of the year here so far--a temp of 66 is predicted.

Deja Vu for Deano

This blog is entitled "The Daily News."  Sometimes news relating to one of our Dear Friends & Loyal Blog Readers far surpasses any of our own mundane meanderings.  So it was yesterday when we received the Big News from Deano B. over in neighboring Oregon.  Rather than try to summarize his email, we asked for permission to print it verbatim.  Here 'tis:

"Well it looks like I'm a river guide once again... A while back I found a Craig's list add and I jumped right into a big old hoop, got all mixed up with a 15 page application (nuts), 45 min phone interview and wham I just got off my river trip interview, a 4 day rain, sun, sun, rain river trip where the owner (Peter Grubb) gave me a hug as I dropped him off at the airport.

So its  "ROW Adventures" out of good old I-Dee-ho. good god they have rivers all over the place, Middlefork of the Salmon ta boot. Its a ruff life as its a lodge to lodge 3 day trip, no sleeping bag, tent, kitchen, pooper, just lawn chairs, lunch and wine (some beer) and their clothes. good god this mite just ruin me,ha ha ha ha. the trips start at the end of the month, then June, July, August and a few camping trips in September. looks like I go up for some 3 day interpretation training in a few weeks at the  "River Dance Lodge." What a trip... Welcome back to home sweet home, lots of love, Deano."

Congratulations to Deano!  He and his Loved One, Lora, together probably crewed well over 100 Middle Fork trips "back in the day" and who knows how many Grand Canyon trips.  They are Old School river guides and Deano will be a real mentor for all the young pups coming up in that free flowing game.  We look forward to row-by-row reports on his exploits. Hey, Deano, maybe you need a blog, eh?  Contact Blogs R Us for help.

We went back to the drawing boards yesterday morning and decided to reach out once again to Sawtell Peak.  Even though the wind was gusting into the mid to high 40's, we went out onto the flanks of Iona Hill and actually reached Sawtell at a distance of 73 miles.  You can read all about the nitty gritty on our HAM blog by clicking here. 

The rest of the day was various errands.  We found a place to buy lawn fertilizer right from the source.  It comes in a plain, totally unmarked white sack and is thrown into the back of your truck by a burly bubba for a mere twenty bucks for fifty pounds.  The blend of ingredients is perfect for Idaho Falls.  Now that the wind is laying down, it's time to get serious about rejuvenating our lawn.

After running errands hither and yon, we went off and bought yet another netbook from Wally World.  We've lost count on how many of these things we've owned.  This one was the least expensive, by far, at a mere $198, plus tax.  It's a nice blue model with the usual power and storage for the little things.  It's going to be our answer to e-readers and tablet computers.  E-readers are cool but they don't process photos, allow blog updating, enable seamless email and their keyboards aren't much bigger than a cell phone's.  Numerous e-readers are at or above the $200 price point.  Since we can download BOTH Kindle and Nook for PC, why should we buy either one of them?  At least that's our current thinking.  If the netbook is remotely close to being fairly competent at our normal daily tasks, we will keep it and make it our GOTO traveling rig, as well as a casual e-reader here about the house.  Netbooks are a whole lot easier to lug into a WIFI hot spot than the Big Ol' laptops.

Susun had a Girls Night last evening.  Several of her friends came to the bungalow to squeeze into our tiny office to watch and hoot at DWTS.  For you uninitiated, DWTS means "Dancing With The Stars."  The series is a real hit with those of the female persuasion. Anyway, that meant I had to get outta Dodge so I left about 6 pm and enjoyed half a Subway sandwich for dinner.  Then it was off to Barnes & Noble for Tuesday Night Chess.  I've been missing out on this weekly ritual since early last summer.  I banished myself from Chess last summer after I tried to checkmate some guy's QUEEN.  That was so embarrassing that I dared not show my face there until my exile had been properly completed.  By last night, everyone had presuably forgotten about the FQCI (Famous Queen Checkmate Incident) and I was able to resume play with some new faces who knew nothing about the FQCI.  Naturally, I got my anatomy kicked again and again until I actually won a game from a pretty good player.  Considering I hadn't played chess since last June, I felt pretty good about my performance last night.

Well, Barnes & Noble now closes at 9 pm instead of 10.  I guess that's a concession to the recession.  That meant I had to find ways to chill until after 10 pm so the girls could wrap up their Tuesday party.
(Astute readers will question how the party could be centered around DWTS since the series runs on Monday.  Susun taped it and nobody minded one iota that it was a day late but not a dance short.)

Well, that's all the news we can think of this morning.  Have a great day and Many Cheers!  jp

Blustery Tuesday

Idaho's where winter and spring always get into an argument.  Spring will get up on top of the tussle but then winter wrassles its way back on top and they roll around like two kids fighting in the dust of a playground.  Back and forth it goes while us paying spectators roll our eyes and shake our heads and mutter, "when will they ever stop fighting?"  Today, spring has taken a slight set back as a medium stiff wind sweeps across the Snake River Plain.  It rained a little while earlier.  We guess that's a good sign, at least it didn't snow again.
Sometime between now and July 4th, we will know the winner of this annual game and our bets are on warmer weather, at least within a couple of months.  By the way, it's mostly in the 90's down in the low Arizona deserts.  We'd take this cold weather over the 90's any day.

Yesterday went pretty much according to plan.  We spent the morning doing Type A stuff with our Yagi antenna.  We went out and tested the antenna on 122 and 80 mile distant repeaters.  No luck.  You can read about our failures here.  Undaunted, we shall proceed on again today.

We studied up on lawn fertilizers and various lawn-related stuff.  Exciting, huh?  Susun had a fine lunch with Kris and continues to enjoy her new found love of texting.

The Parks & Recreation meeting was pretty routine.  I didn't utter a word, just listened.  Several people came up and welcomed me back after the meeting.  That felt good.  About the only other productive thing we did yesterday was buy our invasive species sticker for the boat.  If you wait until close to Memorial Day, all the vendors will be out of stickers.  We learned this the hard way last year.

Today's another pretty normal, routine day.  Susun took off early to meet with Dina to go to Delbert's and talk about Hilda Garden Stuff.  Even though the flower planting there is weeks away, they must always pre-plan with Delbert LONG beforehand to make sure they have their flowers reserved and will be in the city's good graces yet once again.

Welll, ya'll have a great ol' day and Many Cheers!  jp

Coop Comparisons

Not far down below, we put up a blog post on Peter and Sarah's new Cadillac Coop in Vista, California.  Well, The Spudboater has been slaving away building a Coop De Fowl, too.  You can see the mostly finished product above.  The actual backstory behind this coop is way more fun than the photo.  If a photo is worth 1000 words, well then this photo is an invitation to read those 1000 words about how it came into existence.  You can click here to begin your reading.  Congrats, Spudboater!  Ya dun good!  Cheers, jp

Mile Marker

Some days or events serve as mile markers along the annual highway of life.  Today is such a day.  It's the first Monday of May and, therefore, time for the May meeting of the Idaho Falls Parks and Recreation Commission.  This meeting serves as the lighthouse that draws our ship to safe harbor from points afar.  It is a calendar date around which we plan our seasonal cycle.  Without it, perhaps we would still be adrift on the waves and currents of the sea of opportunity.  As it is, we wish to remain a "member in good standing" and so we dutifully return to Idaho Falls with plenty of time to get situated and ready for the May meeting.  Frankly, it's amazing to us that the city AND our fellow P&R Commission members cheerfully allow our absence for five straight meetings during the winter months.  But they do on the condition we show up for the May meeting.  Hence, this date becomes a major mile marker in our travels.  There's lots of fun stuff going on with Parks & Recreation here.  We'll talk more about it all tomorrow.  It's great to be back and we're excited to rejoin the various intrigues that go along with any municipal commission participation.

We took a long afternoon walk on the Greenbelt yesterday.  That place is so refreshing to our souls and spirits.  The baby geese are coming out in their fluffy yellow down jackets.  The geese here are lucky.  They have a protected island upon which to nest.  It's unreachable by all known natural predators and people rarely visit the island either.  You can see all the geese sitting on their large white eggs out there.  The males stand guard while the females tend to the eggs.  When the chicks are strong enough, they swim across a channel of the Snake to join their breathern on the West Bank's Motel Row.  They are an annual delight to watch as they progress from a fluff ball into an adolescent and finally, a mature goose.  There's a substantial flock of geese here that doesn't migrate--their free and easy life here is simply too good to leave.  They have an unlimited food supply courtesy of the daily scores of people who feed them.  Who knows how many generations of geese are represented in this year's hatch of a new flock of the honkers?

We spent more time studying an e-reader yesterday.  This time is was the Amazon Kindle.  We still can't bring ourselves to buy one of them and now may not EVER buy one of them.  Why's that?  Well, you can download "Kindle for a PC" right onto your computer for FREE.  It has all of the same features as a standalone Kindle and doesn't cost a dime.  So, we might as well buy a little netbook that can check email, process photos and manage our GPS rather than a Kindle.  Netbooks are $200 these days and have a much bigger screen than a e-reader.  Yes, a netbook is bigger and weighs more but that's really irrelevant.  Yesterday, we put Kindle on this computer and downloaded a couple of free books.  Amazon's Kindle book store is a LOT more daunting to shop than they say it is.  They say they have a million free books but that's stretching the truth considerably.  They might be out there but there's no easy way to browse them and 99.9% of them aren't owned or managed by Amazon.  I did download Mark Twain's "Life On The Mississippi" yesterday and am enjoying a fine free read.   We guess if you travel a lot, commute to work,  or like to recline in a poolside beach chair at your posh resort, then a Kindle would be the way to go.  Otherwise, why not just put the software on your computer?  That's the route we're taking at this point.

We went out and tested the Yagi antenna one more time.  We're still not holding it correctly.  We use a tripod to take photos of our use of the antenna.  Our online virtual Elmer (An Elmer is a HAM mentor) then tells us what we are doing wrong (or right).  It's quite an interesting process.  We will continue our testing again today.

We didn't go play golf yesterday--it was too cold.  The temp peaked at 51 but it felt a lot colder than that.  Maybe today.  The 40's are just a tad too chilly to enjoy the game of golf.

Well, that's about it for today.  Have a great day & Many Cheers!  jp

Susun's functionality is feng shui

Well, we both waited with baited breath and swallowed hard and did it today.  We switched Susun's old cell phone to a new cell phone and STILL kept her old number.  They call that "porting" the number to a new phone.  It was a mini-soap opera getting it all done.  But it's done.  She is SOOOO excited to have her new phone.  It's the same as mine--identical model and everything--we can even use the same charger.

She can now send and receive text messages both inbound and outbound for free.  She can take photos and send them, too.  We both get a combined total of 3000 minutes and/or texts a months now for a grand total of $60 plus tax and weird-o fees.  I think that's 2 cents a unit.  Pretty amazing.

Susun just received her first photo from Daughter Sarah and she was so excited she was jumping up and down like her Old Cheerleader Self.  We've taught her how to text on her own with no coaching and she has sent messages hither and yon with gleeful abandon.  We've customized her greeting screen with a photo of the daffodils in the blog post below.  We've ever set her up with an online account so she can edit and add to her contacts list and synchronize them directly to her phone.  I guess you could say she is totally wired, eh?  She now knows email, facebook, google and cell phones, too.  Pretty amazing for a Career Luddite who clung to 35 mm film like a life preserver in a Class V rapid.

For grins, we even taught her how to text to an email address and to receive texts from anyone's email address.  If you know her cell phone number as many of you do, use this protocol to send her a text from your email:

1928399xxxx@tmomail.net

If you've forgotten those four "x'd" out digits, wing us an email and we will ship 'em off to you.  Don't use hyphens and be sure to put the "1" in front of the digit string.  Life is good!

Cheers, jp

Coop De Jour

The Taj Mahal of Chicken Coops is complete!  Peter poses with his handiwork in Vista, California.  Those chickens owned by Sarah, Peter, Van and Gage will be living high on the hen house in this Cadillac Coop.  Way to go, Peter!  Congratulations. Now tell them chickens to get the egg laying act together.

May Day

Happy May Day. Normally, people wouldn't ever associate the word "happy" with the words "may day." May Day is a universal distress call. However, today it's HAPPY MAY DAY! My Mom was named May as a baby. She's since changed the spelling to Mai. Anyway, it's great she actually has a day named after her. Happy May Day, Mom.

Yesterday turned out to be a wonderful day weatherwise. Clear skies, balmy temps and no w-i-n-d. Today promises another such day. Yippie, skippee, we're gonna go play golf! YEA!
(I can hear the groans out there now as LBRs read the above line.) Speaking of golf, we culled all our thrift store clubs yesterday and put them out on Craigs List. POOF, two BYU-I guys drove down from Rexburg and snapped them up for $40 and headed straight for the links. They were Happy Campers. Altogether we've sold $70 worth of clubs so we're actually just about even-steven now. In other words, the clubs we're using haven't cost us anything. That two dollar bag we bought Friday really sealed the deal for the buyers. It was a beautiful bag and had some shock and awe value. Houn' Dawg and Suzanne stopped by yesterday and that's how we hatched the golf plan for today--it'll be a foursome on the kiddie course. We doubt we will be doing much bowling here. Get this, one game of bowling costs almost twice as much as one six hole round of golf. ($5.75 vs. $3.25)

Susun turned her attention to the yard here and it now looks like a professional has visited the place. I don't know how she does it but she can apply a magic touch to landscaping faster than anyone I've ever known. Everything's finally unpacked and all the stuff in the house is finally hooked up. When you're leaving to go someplace, you have a deadline (more or less). However, when you get where are going, there's no real deadline for dealing with all your stuff. You can lollygag all you want.

It looks like we're buying another e-reader today. Amazon has partnered with a wide variety of retailers to bring the Kindle to local stores. So far this morning, we've seen ads for the Kindle in Fred Meyer, Best Buy, Staples, and Target. The prices are the same as Amazon charges online but there's no chance to return a Kindle to Amazon (unless it's not been opened). We're definitely buying one today from whoever has the most favorable return policy--probably Target. Kindle prices start at $114 and, naturally, go up from there.

Speaking of retailers, we read a CNN Money story this morning that quotes the Wal-Mart CEO as saying in public that Wal-Mart customers are running out of money. While our gubmint continues to insist there's no inflation, Wal-Mart's CEO says that higher gas prices are, in effect, taking all the money out of Wally's customer base. It's an interesting world out there.

We participated in the morning HAM "net" once again down in the Verde Valley. It's actually quite fun and we hope to participate every morning we are able.

Susun enjoyed the symphony last night. We're sure glad she got a chance to go before the season ended. Her friend, Jan, treated Susun to a ticket so the concert was free. Cain't beat that.

With the return of good weather here, Yard Sailors are out in force. Our neighbor across the street has a sale yesterday and we're guessing almost 100 cars stopped to gander and poke and sometimes buy. Getting out and visiting yard sales is a sure antidote to cabin fever.

We had a nice outdoor visit with our neighbors, Chuck and Lynn. Chuck, as LBRs know, is an accomplished bagpiper. He's part of a new music group called the Eagle Rock Pipe Band. You can click here to check their fine website. You can see Chuck in the band group photo at the top of the website.  He is the one at the far left in the back row.  Chuck also received his HAM license last year.  He doesn't much like his call sign: KD7IOU.  Well, at least it's easy to remember!

That's about all for this morning.  Have a great day & Many Cheers!  jp

Last Day of April

Off to a slow start this morning.  Blame it on HAM.  We spent a lot of time yesterday messing with our Yagi Project.  You can read all about it by clicking here.  It was a fun experience and so we wrote that blog post this morning.  Then we decided to use Echo Link to join the morning gab-fest down in the Verde Valley.  Well, then the computer crashed and then we had to do a full System Restore and then some programs froze up and, well, here it is almost 9:30 and it feels as if the morning has escaped us.  Oh, well, that's how it goes sometimes.

Susun had a great day yesterday.  She flitted around town doing various Susun Things and then volunteered for Habitat for Humanity for 5 hours (1-6 pm).  She was FULL of Happy Stories when she returned from that cheerful gig.  Her glass was definitely a lot more than half full yesterday and we're not talking vino here.

We did go to that rummage sale at the high school and, yes, there were three items we couldn't live without.  Honest.  One was a two dollar golf bag.  Big whoop on the golf bag.  But the other items were these:  a set of LL Bean croquet mallets and an LL Bean wire container for the mallets and end stakes.  We scored each for a whopping one dollar apiece.  We left our extreme croquet set in Arizona and figured we would get lucky and buy another one up here.  Well, we got lucky yesterday so now we are back in the extreme croquet business.  We will have to buy some used baseballs at a thrift store and fabricate some wickets but that's really no big deal.  We're going to sell the golf bag along with a lot of surplus clubs we've accumulated.  I should have taken a photo of the total chaos in the high school gym.  What a weird scene.

There were lots of other nice little vignettes yesterday that we'd normally chatter about here but we're running way too late in getting a start on this, the last day of April.  Guess all that chatter will have to wait until Sunday.

Have a great day and Many Cheers!  jp

Welcome back to Idaho

Guess there won't be much golfing today, eh?  The weather has been rather wild all over America this year so why not Idaho as well?  It's what they call a "late, cold spring" here.  As you can see, it didn't stick to the sidewalks or streets and it will probably be gone not long after lunch.  However, there might be another similar dose tomorrow morning.  We hear it's snowing pretty hard over in Wyoming and will continue to do so for a day or two.  That means it's just heaping more on top of an already bulging snowpack. As Hank The Cowdog would say, "Oh, Boy!"

We actually enjoy the dawn of days such as these.  It's calm outside and the sky is a brilliant blue color that only seems to appear after a snowstorm.  The low angle morning sun is putting a million diamonds in the trees and a carpet of sparkles across what looked like grass yesterday.  We also enjoy days such as these because it gives us an excuse to work in the basement organizing our stuff.  Ah, the joys of retired life.

Yesterday was pretty busy for both of us.  Susun ventured forth from the coziness of our house to visit with several of her friends.  We both enjoyed a great lunch with Houn Dawg at that taco joint on First Street.  It's kinda weird that we can get better tacos here in Idaho than we can in the Verde Valley, doncha think?

I messed around on all sorts of arcane, inscrutable sorts of things.  Chief on this list of arcane-ities was Echo Link.  I won't bore you with the details on this blog.  Click here to read about it on our HAM blog.
We went to Barnes & Noble to study the Nook Color.  We're still not convinced that the available e-readers are worth the asking price so we will continue to take a wait and see attitude toward them.
Our morning meeting with Carrie S. was as fun as we hoped it would be.  Late in the afternoon, we went down and met with Dave C. at Parks & Rec HQ.  He's up to his eyeballs managing that Division of the city and I fear I only heaped more onto his already overloaded plate.  Oh, well, that's why he gets the Big Bucks.

We ventured into the city's downtown coin shop--it's the only place to buy and sell silver bullion here.  Most such places are rather sedate.  So, it was rather interesting to see a heavily armed coin shop owner bristling with pistols and ammo.  Not that I mind such a display, not at all--it's just something you don't see often, even in wild and wooly Idaho.  The current buy price for 90% silver is 32.6 times face.

Get this: So far, we've visited four thrift stores and have spent a danged dime.  That may be a lifetime first.  We've had some things in our hand but wisely put them down and backed our of each store with our hands up.  Hopefully, this refreshing trend can continue but it's unlikely.  Today's the day of the Idaho Falls High School annual rummage sale.  Imagine an entire gym filled with junk.  It's almost certain we will find something there we can't live without.

Another strange development is that I am avoiding grocery stores.  I am trying to shop only every third day instead of every day.  What's come over me? 

Well, this morning is gonna be interesting.  In about 30 minutes, we're going to join in the Verde Valley Amateur Radio Association's daily 7 am "net."  Yep, that's the magic of Echo Link--it turns this very PC into the equivalent of a HAM radio and I can connect to the Mingus Mountain repeater sitting right here in snowy Idaho Falls.  No kidding.  I will be able to "ragchew" with the Good Ol' Boys just like I was sitting down in Wimwok using our 5.5 watts ICOM IC V-8 hand held transceiver.  Ah, the marvels of modern technology. (Luckily, it's 8 am up here when it's 7 am down there.)

Well, that's about all for this morning.  Have a great day and Many Cheers!  jp

Benched

To be benched in sports is not a good thing.  It means you've been taken out of the game and "sat down" for whatever transgression you made on the field of play.  Sports photographers love capturing images of disgruntled players throwing tantrums or pouting on the bench.

Well, we're getting benched and we love it.  The second round of the Greenbelt Art Benches is coming alive in less than a month.  LBRs recall last year's long-running Art Bench Saga.  Carrie S. orginally planed 20 of the benches but the wounded economy only allowed her to find sponsors for ten at a cost of $3000 each.  Those benches were installed in September while Susun was in San Diego.

Carrie is a real dynamo of the first order so in the spirit of "Undaunted Courage," she proceeded on and found another ten people to pony up $3000 each to sponsor the remaining ten benches.  The artists have done their gig and almost all of the benches are finished and have been delivered to a city warehouse for safekeeping.  They will be installed prior to the formal dedication May 20th.  (Hopefully, they won't all be flooded away before then!)  The Art Bench project is easily one of the most fun volunteer projects I have ever been a part of.  It's exciting, entertaining and educational.

Carrie is currently the acting Executive Director of the local Symphony until the new guy comes on board.  She wants to meet with me this morning at 9 am down at Great Harvest bakery to discuss how to stage the dedication.  I chose Great Harvest because of the aromatherapy value of the place--the smells of fresh bread baking there are overwhelming and intoxicating.  I can hardly wait to hear what she has in store for this phase of the project.  You can click here to see the original blog she used as a sale tool to find sponsors.

If you ever get a chance to come and visit us here, we guarantee that we will drag you down to the Greenbelt for a variety of sensory delights there.  Besides the Star of The Show (The Snake River), the Greenbelt Art Benches now practically glow with attractiveness.  They've brought a whole new meaning to getting benched!

Cheers, jp

Getting resettled

Note that the photo above was taken from the mid point of the bridge below.

The Art Bench Saga continues.  We will talk about it in the morning.

Below: "Ah, The Power & The Glory!"

Most everything we can think of is done--except for the unpacking, of course--why bother with that now--it's just sitting in the vehicles anyway.  Who cares?

Susun kicked back and didn't do anything today.  Well, she DID make plans to go to the last Symphony of the season Saturday night.  And she DID go to Sam's Club to buy her favorite face cream.  And she DID make a pot of chili tonight.  Well, heck, she DID go putting and she DID even go to The Falls to gander.  So, I guess I stand corrected---she did actually do some stuff today.  She herself says she didn't do anything so you be the judge.

Me?  I was all over the place running hither and yon and having a blast as usual.  I even paid to get a haircut.  Yikes!  I visited several stores but only spent money in my Mecca: Harbor Freight.  We left all our tools down in Arizona on purpose.  We decided we want to have two self-sufficient places so we don't have to lug tools back and forth twice a year.  What a pain!  So, whenever I need something, I have carte blanche to go buy a duplicate of what's already sitting in the dark down in Arizona. Cool, huh?

The Snake is running over 19000 cfs right now.  The Bureau of Reclamation is paranoid about the snowpack and is trying to drain Palisades Reservoir down to 8% prior to the onset of the runoff season.  This level is about as high as they can release without flooding people down in Blackfoot.  It's touch and go with the snowpack this year.  There's huge quantities of snow up in the Snake's headwaters in Wyoming.  We're talking 10+ feet with 4+ feet of snow water equivalent.  That's huge.  The BuRec is worried that if it gets hot suddenly it will all come down in a rush.  They want to basically empty the reservoir and hope for the best.  We wish them luck.

Anyway, when the Snake is running this big through River City, it's Show Time.  Tourists and residents go down to watch The Show.  We gotta admit, it's one heck of a Show!  Something tells us it's gonna get a whole lot bigger before it's all over in July.  If the Bu Rec guessed wrong, all heck can easily break loose in a hurry.  Only time will tell.

We checked out our local neighborhood bowling lanes today.  It's kinda pricey to bowl there but at least we can walk to the joint.  We've been pricing bowling balls on Craigs List and we talked to the lane owner about getting a new custom ball today.  If we're gonna start bowling again, we might as well stack the odds in our favor.

We didn't get to play a round of $3.25 golf but we did actually go to Pinecrest to putt for awhile.  Susun likes putting around.  So do I.  As LBRs recall, I bought a kid's putter in Mesa and it rox.  Susun's has some real nice putters here in Idaho and she picked out one today that has really did improve her putting game.  It was in the low 40's when we were putting but it felt tropical.  (Yeah, sure, Yonni.)

Ok, whazzup with los huevos?  Well, we want to eat real eggs here so we checked Craigs List and somebody out in Iona (Yes, that's a real place) who sells organic eggs for two bucks a dozen.  Luckily, they take them to Idaho Falls each day and sell them in a Kirby vacuum cleaner place.  Luckily, the vacuum cleaner place is only three blocks from here.  So, we might not have urban chickens or eggs from urban chickens but we have urban eggs cheep.  You can click here to read their CL listing.

That's about all the news I can write before I snooze.  There's more to talk about but we will save it until tomorrow morning.

Have a great evening & Cheers, jp

We're LIVE again

Hey, we got our groove back--The Cable Guy showed up practically at the crack of eight o'clock and, WHAM, BAM, we're LIVE again.  Luckily, The Cable Guy picked us first out of his 7 appointments today.
Our connection speed is MUCH better than it was before we left last fall.  It's also much better than the Qwest DSL down in Arizona.

Well, there's a lot to report and write about but no time right now.  Haven't even eaten breakfast yet.  Geeze.
More later today.  No mo Tweets now that we have Da Blog back.  Tweeting on that little phone is a real pain in the anatomy and was giving me carpal thumbnull.  It's great to be able to use a real keyboard again.

Cheers, jp

Thursday Travel Day

Well, we're off again today.  It's been a little over 5 months here and it's been great.  We're now looking forward to getting set up back in Eye-Dee-Hoe.  But first, of course, we must meandering hither and yon for the next week.  Tonight we will be roosting near Marble Canyon and The Vermillion Cliffs at Susun Kliewer's Place.  She's going to have a hoop-dee-doo for Easter.  Several other people we know might make the trek up there, too.

With any luck at all, we will be able to get SuziQ out on some backroads up there.  Sunday or Monday we will go to Kanab and run the Skutumpah Road again.  It's a 10th Anniversary thing.  We may or may not try to do something out in the West Deserts of Utah.  If we do, it will probably be from a base in Beaver, Utah, and we'd probably go up and up Frisco Peak in Milford.  That remains to be seen.

Once we leave Kanab we might morph into the "let's go home" mode.  We have an invitation from BTB to stop by his place in Salt Lake.  If the magnetic pull of Idaho Falls isn't overpowering by then, we might take him up on that.  We pretty much have to get back to River City no later than next Friday as we need to contact the city to turn on our water and electricity and so forth.

Our blogging will be sporadic for the week--maybe non-existent.  We know there's good public internet at Kanab and, of course, at BTB's.  We doubt there's going to be accessible inet at Marble Canyon but ya never know.  This high dollar fly fishing guys may have insisted on getting access some place so they can email photos of their trophy trout to breathless fans back home.  So, we shall see.

We're going to swap Twitters with the river guide blog.  Our cell phone is set up to Tweet to that account.  So, when you see the Twitter at left, bear in mind none of the Tweets there make any sense whatsoever in the context of this blog.  They will soon, however.

Not much to say about all of our rigging and packing and so forth.  It's just like it's has always been--a typical blur.  We did get a chance to go visit with Tom B. and passed along a copy of our Dad's book.  Then we went to 35 minutes of the local HAM club meeting.  There were about 30 people there and it's a very active and engaged club.

Well, Cherrio!  For a change, we're going to wish ourselves something we normally wish upon others: Happy Trails & Many Cheers!

Have a great day, jp

Congratulations to Joshua on his Senior Exhibition

Yesterday was a Big Day for our Buddy, Joshua W.  He had to present his red Rock High School Senior Exhibition.  Many months ago, Joshua chose the to study the impact of invasive species on river ecosystems with a special focus on the Colorado River through Grand Canyon.  As LRBs know, Joshua participated in a rafting trip there last summer.

Back in early January when we were just starting to get the Verde River Guide project up and running, Joshua contacted us to inquire as to whether he could help out on the project.  It was a perfect match.  Joshua was a very quick learner and really put his energies into understanding how tammies, reeds and all the rest of the villains mess with the native species and the entire river ecosystem.  He did an awesome job in every way.  Without his participation, the project probably still wouldn't be complete. He was a ideal canoe partner.

Meanwhile, his big Red Letter Day loomed and Joshua put just about everything he had into his Senior Exhibition.  We sure were sending him positive vibes yesterday at 5pm when he was scheduled to give his oral presentation.  It turned out great for Joshua and we are very happy for him and offer heaps of kudos and congratulations.

Here's an email we received from Joshua when the hoopla subsided :

"Hey, just got back from my (Senior) exhibition presentation. The judges told me how wonderful my subject was and your involvement helped tremendously! If you hadn't invited me along your journey, I would have learned nothing about paddling, or the ecology and river environment on our own local river. Thank you thank you thank you. I'm sorry you couldn't be there. (Attached) is a final copy of my exhibition paper.  JW

Josh sent along his 13-page paper and we don't think we or his Family would mind if we shared it here.  It's a gem of a high school project, that's for sure.  We'd like to close this blog post with Joshua's closing paragraphs from his written presentation. We think you will find these words as uplifting as we did.

“We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river to explore. What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not; what walls rise over the river, we know not. Ah, well! we may conjecture many things” (Powell 156). Mr. Powell knew better than anyone to stay steadfast and strong when facing an adversary. He boated down the full 277 miles of the Grand Canyon multiple times with only one arm. It is clear he never gave up his pursuit, or his struggle for understanding the Grand Canyon and the nature of everything having to do with the Colorado and Green Rivers. Powell is not only musing about what lies down the river, but musing on a strong metaphor for life, as well as a piece of advice for how to be patient for what is ahead.


While I rafted down the Colorado River, many hours were spent among our group by the water. Not boating, not washing, not talking. Not absorbed in smaller things about the outside world, but completely absorbed in the immense sound and force of the river; and it lent to us an understanding of something larger. Something simple, yet completely overarching: the metaphors drawn from this water that apply to existing. It paints a picture of everything, and everything to come; its canvas is our lives. Yet it churns and ebbs, indifferent to our own human struggle. The river will always remain a reflection of time, every infinitesimal drop of water ceaselessly traveling its own unique path, but being one with a whole. This body is completely different every second, much as the world we inhabit continually renews itself into a different reality, until we are left with only the idea that in order to move onward and progress is to change with this deeply shifting world.


This is the only way we may look into the future at the status of the Grand Canyon river corridor. Although we may see a source for fiscal opportunity in these rock halls, this ancient entity functions best through no change whatsoever, justified by bureaucracy or not. Before we can ultimately change the canyon, we must learn everything we can about its true, unexploited identity. Through education we can understand. Through understanding, we can love."

Click here for Joshua's 13-page paper he presented today.

Way to go, Josh, what's next?

Many Cheers!  Carry on.

jp

Au pair ready to roll

One big thing remaining on our list was a "test tow" of SuziQ with the new fancy-schmancy hitch.  I had been rather avoiding the "test tow" in case there was something amiss.  Well, time passed and we ran out of ample time to test the tow rig.  We finally got around to the test a little before 5 pm tonight.  Thankfully, everything worked like a charm and the Samurai towed like a dream.  Susun followed behind in the Nissan and we used two-way radios to consult on how it all behaved and performed.  There was no sway in the rig whatsoever. Everything's tight and nice and fits together like a hand in glove.  We both let out a big WHEW after our test.

Now it's time to begin to pack the Skamper and the Nissan and power down 2nd Chance Ranch.  Tonight's our last campfire of the season so we will make it a medium decent white man fire.

If you are reading this post soon after it was written, think positive thoughts for Joshua W.  He was scheduled to give his Senior Exhibition at 5 pm today so he's in the thick of it as we write this.  We sure are pulling for him.

The Tuesday Target Shoot was a real hoot yet again this week.  That's a really superb bunch of guys and gals there.  It's been great going there as often as possible.  I can hardly wait to come back and join the group again in November.  Thanks to everyone who made it so enjoyable.

This afternoon I spent way too much time learning to program my HAM radio as well as loading GPS coordinates of repeaters into our Garmin.  After way too much time, we have Navajo Mtn, Blowhard Peak near Cedar City; Utah Hill at St. George, Mt. Dutton near Panguitch, Frisco Peak at Milford, Levan Peak near Levan and the Kanab repeaters all loaded and ready to go for our trip.  That will pretty well covers where we might roam on our way home this year.  It sure is comforting to know we can reach out and communicate deep in MOAN Country.

April 18 was my late Dad's birthday.  I forgot to mention that yesterday.  Ten years ago on April 18 we did a great road trip out of Kanab on the Skutumpah-Cottonwood Loop.  As we were driving back to Kanab from the Paria River on Highway 89, we crested the high rise of the North Kaibab Monocline.  I looked in the rear view mirror of our '87 Samurai and there was a B-2 Bomber fully framed in the mirror BELOW us and behind us.  It looked like it was going to go out in the passing lane to get around us.  We jammed on the brakes and jumped out of the truck just as it flew overhead perhaps 200 feet above us.  We both saw the pilot staring at us.  Susun somehow actually snapped a photo of it.  As it headed west, it dropped down below us once again, hugging the undulating slope of the juniper-studded earth up there.  We stood quivering in awe of our nation's military might and skill on my Dad's birthday ten years ago.  After we leave Marble Canyon this trip, we think we might go hang out in Kanab just so we can do the Skutumpah Loop again as a Tenth Anniversary of that trip.

Life is good!  Many Cheers, jp

All cooped up

Contrary to what you might be thinking, this is NOT a playhouse for Grand Sons Gage (left) and Van.  Nope, it's a Rancho Delux chicken coop.  The kids only THINK it's their playhouse right now.  Peter has parts of three days invested in building this Taj Mahal coop.  It should be finished just in time for the upcoming Easter weekend.  The Family already has purchased some chicks and the birds will soon be moved into the stylish roost.  The Urban Chicken Movement continues to grow.  Maybe soon it would be good for Spudboater to blog something about her Boise chickens.  Goatherder has almost two dozen chickens but I don't know if you can cal them "urban chickens."  They are Cornville fowl.

We put up a post last night about early mammoth hunters.  We took it down this morning because we realized the photo was copyrighted.  If we get permission to use the picture, we will put it back up.  The gist of the post was simply that federal scientists believe the water flowing out of Montezuma Well (and across our property) fell as rain or snow at least 10,000 years ago on the Old Mogollon Rim that we can see from our campfire area.  Sooo...now when we look at that water, our imagination can visualize early hunters who visited the Verde Valley seeking what few giant mammoths remained here after the Ice Age.





Today's the last of my Tuesday Target Shoots until next November.  I will surely miss those weekly episodes.
Today's also just a regular go-go day getting more stuff crossed off Ye Ol' Checklists.  Checklists are a lot like weeds.  Just when you think you've pulled all your weeds, another new crop of them pop up.  So it is with lists.  When everything gets crossed one list, poof, like magic along comes 30 more things to do.  It's never ending.

Have a great day & Many Cheers, jp