Fun in the sun!

We had a wonderfully gorgeous day the day before yesterday. It started out with some visitors we found hanging around across the street from us. There were approximately 10 – 15 individuals in the herd and they were very comfortable, just roaming around munching then they all started to lie down in the snow to chew their cuds. We didn’t see any bulls but we did get to see a yearling spike. They call them spikes because they haven’t developed the branches off of their antlers yet so they go straight up in the air about a foot or so above their heads, thus the term, “spike”.

After having breakfast and watching our guests for awhile, I decided to follow Mike into town and couldn’t help getting some great pictures of winter life around here.

We are having perfect snowmobile weather up here as we have had a ton of snow fall, then it warmed up and melted some of it down then we had even more snow. We now have the perfect base for skiing and snowmobiling.

As you can see, all the locals have tuned and lubed up their machines and are ready for some fun! How many towns have you been to where you can rip up and down

Main St.

on your sled without someone calling the cops! Our friends, Buck, his wife Connie, and Rick were the first ones to start, as you can see. Buck was doing a power slide at the end of town and almost tipped over the sled, which it’s good he tipped it the way he did because if he had tipped it the other way he might not have been able to save it! You see, Buck lost his leg in a loader accident a couple of years ago. He had a large boulder in the bucket and the loader got off balance and he rolled over the embankment where he fell out of the cab and landed between two rocks but his legs was up in the air and the cab of the loader crushed his foot; unfortunately, the doctors were unable to save it. He does a great job of getting around though and has even retrained himself to drive the loader!

Unfortunately, since I shattered my wrist a couple of years ago on a snowmobile and now have a steel plate in my arm, I refuse to get on one! My idea of fun in the snow these days consists of a non-motorized sled or just sitting on the porch of the Silver Dollar Grill with a cup of hot coffee watching everyone else have fun!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow......

Yahoo!!!!! The snow is really here! We seem to be having a good begining to the winter season here in Yellow Pine. we have had several steady days of snow and in total have probably gotten at least 16" of snow. However, the temperature keeps ranging from the mid-30's all the way down to -10 degrees! So we will get several inches of snow but then the higher temps will melt it down a little, then it will snow again on top of that, makes for a fantastic base for skiing and snowmobiling. When Mike and I left for California we only had a few inches but by the time we got home we had a little over a foot! I think this is probably the best winter I have experienced since I moved back to Idaho although Mike says it's not nearly what he is used to. Apparently, back in the early 80's they would get feet of snow over night!!

As we were leaving Yellow Pine to go to California we had had a heavy wind storm and there were several trees down on the road. These are only a couple of at least 18 trees down on East Fork and South Fork roads. Our local grader/ecavator/plow team were working very hard to clear the way as we followed them out. They really do a fantastic job when there is a crisis. Funny when they spend most of their off duty time drinking at the Corner Bar! They are so used to this kind of thing happening that no one gets excited anymore, only the newbies like myself!





So our trip to California was thankfully uneventful and kind of boring. We went through Elko, NV so we traveled through the desolation of the Great Basin area near Death Valley. When we got to Elko a huge snowstorm rolled through and shut down the main highway so we took a very remote trail south! Elko got 3"-5" within about 2 hours! Then the snow went away and by the time we got to Baker, CA I was in my tanktop and sweats!

This was kind of a cool mountain we saw on the way home. The wind was blowing so hard that it was blowing all the snow off the top of the mountain. The even cooler thing was....there was no wind down on the road where we were!

We spent Thanksgiving at my Aunt's house and like a goof, I forgot my camera, so I apologize for no pictures of that. While we were there we enjoyed good weather up until the day before we left when our weather caught up with us.

My friend Stephanie Foulger came over and took some family pictures which I am very thankful for the fantastic job she did, the pictures came out great!! Mike took these pictures.

The family, and Me and Mike.

All in all, we had a great trip!