Spring cleaning

Today it wasn't raining so I spent a couple of hours this morning working out in the yard. Karen's yard is a great place to work in and when everything starts to green up it will look really nice and will be a nice place to hang out too.

This morning we noticed that the boys had a squirrel treed up on the arch and he was pretty well trapped. As you can see in the pictures, there was no good way for him to escape but eventually he did, thankfully after we got some cute pictures of the event. The dogs really give the squirrels a bad time and chase them every chance they get, but never seem to actually catch one, which is a good thing.

The squirrels around here are an introduced species and while they are quite colorful and cute in their own way, they are also a nuisance and they go after the bird feeders to get the seeds. Ken used to trap them and take them down to the river and release them so I have been doing that too. So far I have only caught one but I will surely catch some more now that spring is here and the squirrels seem much more plentiful. I have a trap set right now and my guess is that I'll have to drive down to the river this afternoon.

So it's not a bad day today but thunderstorms are predicted, so we'll see. Karen is a working girl trying to get everything done before her last day next Wednesday. Those last minute tax filers are a pain I guess.

Beautiful colors

There are some beautiful flowers coming up in Karen's back yard and I just had to take a few pictures of them. I usually take pictures of wildflowers this time of year but I haven't seen any yet so these will do nicely in their place. On one of these flowers I watched a honey bee gathering pollen and it was nice to see the insects are coming to life. That is a good sign.

Karen has this cool owl by her pond that she hand painted and the detail always blows me away. She did a wonderful job on it and while it may not frighten the squirrels or other animals away, it really goes well where she has it. It's a concrete statue and very heavy so it's not likely to be blown over or knocked over easily.

Today the weather has changed a little and we are supposed to be having some rain by this afternoon but it's still pretty warm out. The last couple of days were a nice break from the snow and cold and a little taste of things to come. I'm going to have to get a fishing license soon and try for some smallmouth bass in the river.

Last night we had prayer group and one of the guys there is an avid fisherman and he told me there are bass all over the place around here and showed me some pictures of some nice smallmouth he and his son had caught in the Snake River. The game is on!

Beautiful day with my beautiful lady!

Karen and I took the boys with us this time and they had a ball. We had a ball too so it was good for all of us. We went out to a little town called Arco and had breakfast at a little cafe called Pickles Place. The food was good and I even bought a hat that says Pickles Place, Arco Idaho. I needed a hat since I had forgotten to bring one and my bald spot would have gotten totally burned in the nice sunny day we had.

There is a hill behind Arco where each year the graduating class has a tradition of painting their year on the rocks so we stopped at this little park to take some pictures of it. It turned out that it wasn't a park at all but a memorial for an old WW2 submarine. The caretaker saw that we were parked there and he came down and showed us around. We really only intended to take pictures of the cliffs and all the dates on them but as it turned out we got a history lesson too. As you can see they had the conning tower of the old sub mounted on a slab of concrete and it was certainly not something you expected to see this far from the ocean. Of course I had to have a picture of my favorite model and her boys sitting next to it.

After we left there we went to the Craters Of the Moon National Monument and along the way we stopped at this scenic overlook to take some pictures. That's where I took this picture looking back toward Arco which was way across the valley against those mountains in the distance. The loop road in the monument was still closed for the winter so we didn't get to drive around in there but we just figured we could come back later after it warms up some.

We continued on to a little town named Carey. Just outside of Carey is the Carey Wildlife area and low and behold, they have bass, bluegill and even perch in there. We talked to a couple of guys who were there and they said there are some 5 lb bass in that pond and the old fisherman in me was chomping at the bit for coming back to this place. Karen has a small boat and there is a boat ramp so we plan on coming back with it next time. This is nothing more than a series of canals lined with cattails and fed by a hot spring, and it looks just like the Flemming unit at Honey Lake where I used to fish all the time. When I walked down to the little boat ramp I saw a 8 or 9" perch swimming there and boy, I really want to catch some of those guys.

After stopping in town to get something to take with us for lunch we came back the way we came to a dirt road that led to a reservoir called Fish Creek Reservoir. We found a little spot off the road near the creek to sit in the sun and eat lunch and talk and we even got a little sun burned doing that. Good times to be sure!!

We checked out Fish Creek Reservoir and some of the ranches up that road and this picture is looking up Fish Creek above the lake. The snow is melting and it was really nice and warm so all my whining about being cold was ancient history today. On the way back we stopped at this little roadside hot spring and there were several people there so we took a few pictures and left them alone. It's not that hot but warm enough to soak in and it's hidden from the highway even though it's very close to it. A cute little spring and I'll have to come back and sit in it sometime.

So it was a memorable day and we had the best time talking and being together and enjoying the warm sun. It just doesn't get much better than this!