although it was rather cold. We had a walk around on the trails in the green belt which today was more like the white belt as you can see in the pictures. I got a couple of pictures of the falls, and of course, my favorite lady.
Well, we had a very nice time on Christmas with Krista, Karen's daughter, and her family. The first picture is Krista with the YES on her shirt, Karen and 2 of Krista's kids. I thoroughly enjoyed visiting with Krista and Curtis, her husband. I really want to get down to Logan and see some of that country and I'll be in the right place to do that after I move up here... but in the warm time of year though.
In the mornings we have been sitting in the kitchen near the wood stove having coffee and breakfast so it dawned on me to take a picture of that. It's very cozy in Karen's house and I just love it here. This morning I spent a considerable amount of time shoveling snow off the roof and then cleaning up the mess it made. It is warmer today than it has been the whole time I have been here, the thermometer says 44 which is really nice compared to the 20's we have been having for highs. Karen had a hair appointment this morning so it gave me some time to get a few things done. I have to say, I'm not looking forward to going back to Susanville at all, but I will have to be doing that soon. I'm going to miss my new little family until I can get moved. Oh well...
I just love seeing Karen sitting next to me in my truck so I had to take this picture before we went out the other day to go shopping. The snow has been getting deeper around here and with the wind there were some rather deep drifts as you can see on the roof of her house.
Hey Tom, check out the gas prices here. It was $1.41 the other day when I got gas so it has gone up a couple of pennies I see. I gave the lady $20 and actually got change after filling my tank from near empty. It's been a while since I did that.
and I didn't know how big it was until I saw it. There is a round-about that goes all the way around it and it's on the way to Walmart so I've been there several times. I took that picture as I was driving since I couldn't talk Karen into getting out to pose for me. (She didn't want to climb over the big pile of snow, and I don't blame her.)
Sunday we had a nice dinner and church service at Karen's for her second church group. Ham, and a bunch of other stuff were on the menu. I had the honor of cooking the ham but the dinner was a group effort. Sonny is the gentleman sitting at the head of the table and he is the pastor for this church. Sonny is also a pretty good chess player and he beat me, which was the first loss I had so far since I got here. Nothing wrong with getting beat by a man with God on his side, is there? It was a great day and with lots of good food and company Karen will make me a socialite yet.
Well, my drive up to Idaho was pretty uneventful. There were some bad roads along the way but they really weren't that bad. Instead of cruising along at 75, I had to slow down to 60 or so. That was until I got about 10 miles out of Idaho Falls, then the weather started deteriorating and I had to actually use 4-wheel drive after I got off the freeway, to get around town. It was all good though and it took me about 12 hours to drive from Susanville.
The second picture is my truck sitting in front of Karen's house.
Today I went up to Eagle Lake and tried one last time to catch a few of those illusive critters. I say "last time" because it may very well be the last time I fish up there since I'll be gone to Idaho until after the first of the year and next fall I'll be living in Idaho. So I said my goodbyes and I also managed to catch one small one, which was good since the conditions were really bad. It was smooth and calm and not the way I like it but I didn't freeze my ass off either so that was good.
can see it was almost full. Like I said, it was smooth and glassy and I felt privileged that I even got one fish to bite. It was too small to keep and I let it go. Had lots of stuff to do today to get all my work out of the way and get ready to head to Idaho. The weather for the next 4 or 5 days doesn't sound too good but I am hoping to get a chance to make the trip on Sunday, otherwise I might have to wait a few more days and I just don't want to do that. I don't mind snowy roads as long as it's not icy and blizzard conditions. Hope that doesn't happen!
The sun was nice and warm today for another long walk up the Bizz. There is supposed to be a major change in the weather this weekend with a 20° drop in high temps which sometimes translates into colder than they predicted. There is also some snow in the forecast which we can use, I just hope the weather doesn't cause me any travel problems for my trip to Idaho. I'm hoping for the best on that one.
Got up early this morning and went up to my usual spot at Eagle Lake. I left later than usual but still got there before I could see my bobber. Shorter days this time of year, in fact the winter solstice will be coming up on the 21st. That's the shortest day of the year, sunlight-wise for anyone who doesn't know that. But anyway, back to my fishing... I started getting bites right away and before too long I hooked one. The first 2 were small so they went back but I ended up getting some solid 2-3 lb fish like the ones in this picture. I landed 5, broke one off and had many bites, all within an hour of getting there, which made it all so special. 
I climbed to the top of Stony Ridge today from the bottom. I could have driven part way up but that would defeat the purpose so I walked from the main road. Karen was #1 in my thoughts like she always is. I kept thinking about how she would like the scenery along the way so I took plenty of pictures and even a couple of videos but the videos didn't do the walk justice so I'm not sharing them. Anyway, a beautiful day for a nice hike and some really pretty forested scenes.
I took another walk today up on the Bizz. The cold nights are showing along the shore of the river and it's frozen over in the slowest places. This time of year makes for some interesting walks. There were almost no people out there and it was a Saturday, even. I did see a few, but not as many as I thought should be out on such a nice day. I walked up to the last bridge before Cady Spring and climbed up on the rim rock and sat in the sun listening to music. It was very comfortable and was really a nice thing to do today.
The sun sculpted this frost picture on the bridge up on the Bizz today. I've seen this before and it always looks cool. There were spots on the river that were frozen over, shades of things to come with winter fast approaching. I had around a 5 mile walk round trip and it was a pretty nice day for it. Not warm at all but the sun wasn't filtered by high clouds and was nice and strong and warm.
Today I decided to climb up to a high spot for lunch and I picked a hill I had never climbed before. As you can see it was a nice day, not too warm as I had to keep my sweatshirt on even going up the steep spots. Never saw another person all day which was nice, but then I always say that, don't I? I have had my eye on this pointy hill for some time and today just seemed like the right day to climb up it. I had my mind on Karen the whole time, but again, that's been normal for me, hasn't it?
It wasn't exactly comfortable today but it was a good day for a long walk. I walked about 2½ miles up the Bizz and then climbed up onto the rimrock just for something to do. I sat for a minute on my ledge where Karen and I had lunch not too long ago. It was a little sad and I was a little lonely so I walked down the edge of the rock and took this picture looking back down where I had come from. I ended up finding another spot in the sun that gave me a nice view and sat there listening to music for a while. I am really missing Karen today and my walk just reminded me of her even more. Oh well, I guess I need to get used to it. Until I can find a place in Idaho Falls to move to this is as good as it's going to get.
I'm getting real sick of this but I guess I'll just have to deal with it. I hate it when she leaves but I thoroughly enjoyed every minute I spent with her. We tried to spend some time in the sun and I took her to some of the spots I know like the petroglyphs at Belfast and my bench up on the hill.
Sittin' with the lady I want to be with by a campfire, what more can you ask for, huh? Karen and I made a trip to her property in Greenville and had lunch sitting by the fire. You needed a fire to keep warm since it was quite cold there and another thing, the gas prices in Greenville were $.48 cheaper than in Susanville. Gas there was $2.09 which was a real bargain compared to the price fixing situation in my town. I thought price fixing was illegal! OK, I'm off on a tangent, enough ranting for now.
What could be better? Walking in the woods with a pretty lady and sitting in the sun on a rock is a great thing to do. We went out to the Dodge Mine area and had a nice walk and some good conversation. This is the good life! As you can see it was nice and warm and comfortable. Ya gotta love it... and I do, both the good times and the lady! 
The last couple of days I have been enjoying the company of the lady I am getting very attached to. I guess I could word that a little differently but I won't just yet. Anyway, we haven't been doing anything too special, just spending time together and that's what has been so enjoyable. Tomorrow we are going down to Downieville to have services for her brother Jim on Saturday. I'll be meeting her other brother Steven then and I'm looking forward to it, even though the occasion will be a solemn one. Karen has had a rough year and I am really hoping that her life will take a good turn now, she is a special lady and she has a special place in my heart.
Today Chris and I had a great hike up into the Skeedadle mountains near Wendel. We intended to hike into Spencer Basin and we got pretty close but time was a problem. We didn't want to come down after dark so we had to turn around about 2:00 to make it back to the truck before it got too late. We were also looking for some chukars, which we found and we even got some shooting in. I got one but Chris missed his. It started snowing around 1:00 and it was light so not much of a problem for us but it was not warm up there. The weather got worse as the day progressed and we did end up getting a little wet but not too much.
I just got back from a fantastic weekend with Karen down in Las Vegas. I got to meet her sister Judy and Judy's husband Kirby as well as her nephew Brad and his new wife Betty. Brad and Betty were there to get married and that was the occasion for this trip. I couldn't make the wedding but I got there Thursday night and stayed till Karen flew home Monday. I stopped and slept in the desert Monday night and the stars were beautiful and it was nice and warm.
Had a nice slow ride up the Bizz today looking at the scenery and thinking about my favorite subject. The colors up here are a little more vibrant than the ones up Piute Creek where I was yesterday. I took my time and didn't get home till about 4:30. The late day angle of the sun gives everything a different hue so it was worth getting dinner started later than usual. Tomorrow I'm going to meet Chris and do a little quail hunting out at Laufman where I used to work. The station is closed now but the quail are usually in the area because of the springs.
Went up the park trail system yesterday for a short bike ride before heading up on the hill to sit on the bench and think for a while. The colors are somewhat subdued this year compared to last year, maybe because we had such a hard freeze last week that shocked some of the vegetation. I know that I saw trees around town that had leaves killed by that freeze and they didn't have a chance to turn colors. Anyway it was a pleasant day, fairly comfortable and sitting on the bench in the sun felt real good.
I just got back from a fantastic week in Lodi with Karen. We spent the time finishing up a remodeling job on her brother's house so they could put it on the market. There was plenty to do but Karen had gotten most of the hard stuff done earlier in the year.
Today I rode up to Goumaz and back, checking out the fall colors that are starting to show up along the way. I love this first view and I have many pictures I've taken over the last several years of it in spring, summer and fall. No winter shots yet since I keep talking about getting into cross country skiing but never doing it... maybe this year. Today there was a play of shadows being cast by the clouds that gave it a slightly different look... at least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Going down below Devil's Corral to where Cheeny Creek comes into the canyon the colors are getting nice but the sun wasn't cooperating. I took pictures anyway, what the hell, it's digital.
