One sweet snowshoe!

a girl,
a dog,
some snowshoes,
a camera
and as an added bonus
a talented snowkiter
who showed up out of nowhere.












































The photos of the snowkiter just don't do him or the sport justice. You really need to catch a video or just watch them in person.

For myself I have to say after watching this guy for about an hour I want to go fly my own kite! Up the mountain, down the mountain, loop-de-loo! Some of the sweetest stuff I've ever seen on snow or off as the case may be! Check the video it's kind of long but right good stuff set to sweet tunes.

The Snow-Storm

The Snow-Storm

Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,
Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields,
Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air
Hides hill and woods, the river, and the heaven,
And veils the farmhouse at the garden's end.
The sled and traveller stopped, the courier's feet
Delated, all friends shut out, the housemates sit
Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed
In a tumultuous privacy of storm.
Come see the north wind's masonry.
Out of an unseen quarry evermore
Furnished with tile, the fierce artificer
Curves his white bastions with projected roof
Round every windward stake, or tree, or door.
Speeding, the myriad-handed, his wild work
So fanciful, so savage, nought cares he
For number or proportion. Mockingly,
On coop or kennel he hangs Parian wreaths;
A swan-like form invests the hiddden thorn;
Fills up the famer's lane from wall to wall,
Maugre the farmer's sighs; and at the gate
A tapering turret overtops the work.
And when his hours are numbered, and the world
Is all his own, retiring, as he were not,
Leaves, when the sun appears, astonished Art
To mimic in slow structures, stone by stone,
Built in an age, the mad wind's night-work,
The frolic architecture of the snow.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

With the last three posts having been posts of the past I thought I would post from the present. We had some pretty good dumps last week and snow is at the top of my lists of fave. The photos are from a hike I took with friends out Lake Creek.

The power and the beauty of Mother Nature

Over the weekend we received our first snow here in the Wood River Valley with the majority of it dumping on Sunday night and Monday morning. And what a dump it was. The following is a photo from my backyard early Monday. My little house is hiding in there.

Unfortunately the snow was so wet and heavy and all our trees still had their leaves that there was a lot of tree limb loss throughout the valley. One of the trees in my backyard split right in half. Luckily it was the back half of the tree and not the front. Had it been the front it would have landed right on top of the house. It didn't even take out any part of the fence. Phew!








Just missed the fence.



























More in our local paper the Idaho Mountain Express.


The following two photos I took Sunday night as the snow was gently falling and I was excited to see it. (I was also trying to practice with the camera at night. Hence the weird photo of the chair.)




The first snow is always so special.

























Little did I know...

The only thing I've ever seen that comes close to the destruction of the trees over the weekend is the same type of destruction to trees due to an ice storm in Vermont in the 90s. I've never lived on either coast here in the U.S. or on the plains so I've never experienced a tornado or a hurricane. I can't imagine.

And although the loss of trees and the damage done to property is sad this world never ceases to amaze as I still find so much beauty in the snow and ice.

The forecast calls for snow!

Yup it's true. One to two inches of the stuff by morning.

But...

The forecast also calls for temperatures in the 60s by the weekend. Welcome to the high desert mountain region of central Idaho.

And...

As of today I have almost completed the new composting structure. So far I have only invested a half an hour of time and a couple of new self tapping screws into the structure itself. I did however spend about an hour regrading the area where I am to install it.

Here is an overall update photo of the backyard. The compost is to the right of the shed. The dog in the foreground of the photo is a new found friend who comes to visit daily, Jackson the Dog, and in the background is my ever faithful companion and friend, Tucker the Dog. They have both been contributing daily to the toils in the yard. And... all of my gardening planning will be affected to some degree by the Tuckster. i.e. additional fencing around the composting, fencing around the veggie beds, etc, etc... Wouldn't have it any other way though.

Oh and note the last little pile of debris near Jackson to be taken out with the trash on Wednesday. Then, all that will be left will be organic material in the yard. Well, except for the dang cigarette butts...

And here is a photo of the compost structure.

It doesn't look like much, in fact it kind of looks like it is being created to keep in some sort of animal, but hopefully it will someday contain some really nice decaying organic matter. With earthworms to boot.

First though, I need to learn a little about layering the green and the brown and adding moisture and turning properly and keeping the dog out and keeping other critters out and well...first I have to finish creating it. It's not that stable yet. If you look closely the branches to the right are hopefully to be used to create some sort of fencing. Perhaps...

As I am looking at the photos I really cannot wait until some color is to be found in the yard.

Whilst it snows outside...

Yes, it's snowing and sleeting and raining and dripping and generally just not the type of day where you want to be outside. Unless of course you are a duck, a frog or perhaps an earthworm and earthworms are aplenty in the backyard.

The beginning of this week more time was spent in the backyard cleaning and removing debris and...under all the debris I found big fat earthworms. I wish I had a picture or two of the nice big fat earthworms but I only took a few more pictures of the debris in the yard. The following two pictures are some of what was found just outside the french doors to the back yard.

Wednesday is trash day though and all has now been carted away. I now have a blank, albeit leafy, twiggy, cigarette butt strewn canvas to work with.

And...

My soil blocks have sprouted! There are little green shoots poking out of a few of them and the ones that don't have green shoots poking out the top I checked the bottom and they have root growth. The root growth blocks are bib lettuce and the green shoot blocks are eggplant and lovage.

Lookee here!

Also, my composting expirement in the kitchen has almost reached a point where the scraps need to be posted to a pile out of doors. The compost structure needs to be built though. The plan for now is to create one from what once was a metal futon frame found in the backyard. It will be a three sided structure with some sort of removable door on the front. The door may be made from a discarded piece of plywood that I saw the other day on our daily canyon hike. As a bonus the piece of plywood has already been painted an attractive green. I do need to inspect it for rot and general usability though.

Bowl #1 - Coffee grounds to be used in homemade fertilizer

Bowl #2 - Kitchen scraps to be composted

Bowl #3 - Recyclables






Old futon frame soon to be a compost enclosure.

Looking forward to a less wet day tomorrow so I can get to work outside again!