Gardening

When we found out Mike was going to be heading to Oklahoma for the summer, I realized I would need something in addition to work to keep me busy since I tend to become a couch potato if given to much free time. My neighbor has had a plot in a community garden here in town for a few summers now and I've helped her out here and there, so I thought maybe I'd get my own. Last week the group that runs the garden let me know they had one available for me if I wanted it!

So, it's been a busy week. The plot is about 12 x 12 feet, but it wasn't planted last year, so the soil was a little hard and there were WEEDS, WEEDS, and more WEEDS. I took out two wheelbarrows full of dandelions alone! It also had volunteer onions growing all over too. I felt bad taking out the onions, but I had to roto-till the plot or I never would have been able to do anything!

Sunday my brother Ryan brought over a roto-tiller and tilled the plot for me! It was awesome. Then last night Mike and I went up and built a little fence around it. There are bunnies that love living up there because they get to eat all sorts of yummy veggies all summer! I'm not sure our fence would keep out a bunny if it really wanted in, but we are hoping that they will just move along to the next plot that isn't fenced.

I also planted some lettuce & spinach! And I have tomato, squash, and pepper plant starts at home. I'll probably plant them in the garden next week, we've still had some mild frosts the past few weeks up here.

I'll go up to the garden and snap some pictures to post on here so you can what it used to look like and what it looks like now, just a week later!

Exploring Idaho!

We've been in Idaho now for about 2 1/2 years, we've done some exploring, but there is a lot more to do. My mom, brother, Mike and I went for a long hike to see Elk Creek Falls. It's about an hour drive from home, but just a beautiful drive getting there even.

We started at Mom's house with a super yummy breakfast of biscuits & gravy. My mom makes the most fantastic breakfasts, but generally you are ready to go back to bed after eating them. But we said "Nope, we are going hiking!"

There are three falls, Upper, Mid & Lower. We hiked out to the Upper Falls first. Mike and Ryan did a little fishing. Ryan caught a rainbow trout that was a keeper, and Mike caught a little brook trout he released back into the water. Then, he caught a nice sized rainbow, but when he went to grab it off the line the fish got away. If I hadn't seen it myself I would have considered just a fish tale, but it was the big fish that got away!

We then hiked down to the middle falls, which were amazing. You can see all the columnar basalt that is part of the Columbia River Basin. The falls are about 90 feet and were just so amazing to see. We then followed a little 'goat trail' up to the viewing area as we had kind of hiked a little off trail to get closer.


-above is a far away shot from the viewing area

- a closer picture

The little 'goat trail' we hiked.

Then we hiked down to the last falls, Lower Falls. The rainbow on the Lower Falls was so pretty! Below is a picture of the Lower Falls, it was a great day, and boy was I sore from the mile+ hike of the canyon, but I would love to do it again!