Graduation (and weather)

Yesterday we braved the weather forecast; it said the snow would move into Sandpoint late in the afternoon, and even later for us and that it should only be 2-4 inches.  We drove right into the storm, and by the time his last class of the 6 week course was over, Rebecca was urging us to go before it got even worse.  Luckily the snowplows were out and keeping the roads fairly clear.  We did see a number of drivers come out of a side road and punch it just a bit too much for conditions & fishtail.  I kept plenty of room ahead of me, the only direction where I really have any control over safety zones.  For once we didn't grab food on the way out of Sandpoint in the interests of getting home while we could still get in our driveway if it was going to get ugly.  We do have a small "hill" as we come in, with gentle curves, and the ATV can keep it only so wide ... just barely more than passenger car width.  This morning it's up to 33, after a 25 overnight low and the house roof is shedding its 3-4 inches of new snow.  Now it slides down the pile toward the house instead of out toward the yard.  The "burning bush" by the dining room window has a little over 1/8 inch of ice coating it.  Lovely weather.  (Garage is still standing, still carrying a heavy snow load, still precarious)

So, back to Marley's final class for the next several months.  Petco offers puppy classes, which we skipped right over, and Adult Dog 1 and Adult Dog 2, both of which he has now completed.  Rebecca was pretty casual and unobtrusive about how she gave him his final exam.  Since one dog didn't show, and the other was late, we had the first half hour or so one-on-one with her.  As far as Marley knew he was just getting attention & treats.  The basic "in place" behaviors he did with flying colors.  Those are sit, down, stay, target.  She'd seen us practicing leashed walking in the store already and we all know he still needs lots of work on that.  He also did well with "four on the floor" - Petco's term for keeping all 4 feet on the floor when greeting people or being petted.  We also showed off with "shake", "other hand", "high 5" and "step".  So, compared to how our first dog did at the end of her obedience class Marley did really well.  I'd call him the star pupil of the class.  He definitely earned his graduation certificate and package of goodies.

The only other dog to make it was Lucy.  She's a very shy, timid dog out in public and trembles through the sessions.  Just being able to be around people and other dogs away from home is the big thing for her, and yesterday she proved it's working.  She not only greeted Marley, but she approached me, unasked, and even requested some gentle petting.  She still trembled through the time we were all there.

So, what's next for Marley?  We will continue to work on all the stuff he does well, to keep him doing it well.  We'll continue to expand on what he's learned.  Where Una was laid back, what can I do to please you, and Max was a real traveler and tourist, Marley is a learner.  He wants to keep learning new things and he wants to practice the things he has learned.   His puppy excitement is still a barrier to the "nice" leash walking and greeting people, but he's showing signs it will come, with practice.  Eventually, I want to get his "Canine Good Citizen" certificate.  I don't know if it would get any discount with our insurance, but in some cases it does (so I read).  It is a way of documenting that he's a well-behaved dog, which could help in checking into hotel/motel rooms or RV parks if they're at all skittish about labs or big dogs in general.  Beyond that, maybe agility, maybe rally obedience.  But those are all months out before we could even get into training.  Most of those require full obedience compliance as a starting point and being at least a year old.

He's a snow dog!

We finally had our first snowfall here at the house.  Marley had seen snow on the ground at Vermilion Pass, but this was in HIS yard!  Not only was there snow on the ground, his first two trips outside, in the dark, it was snowing big snow blobs!  He at snow.  He caught snow flakes on his tongue.  He ran in the snow.  He had a great time! 

Later, when it was lighter, we took his ball out to play fetch in the snow.  He had so much fun.

I posted videos on You Tube.



Marley's First Snow video
Marley and the snowball

Her First Real Summer Storm

Today we had a real summer thunderstorm.  First the lightning & thunder, then the wind and rain.  The rain drops were big enough we expected to see white (hail or graupel) but there was just water.  At first, she was pretty calm.  Later, as the storm continued to be noisy, she started to run around the house like a crazy cat. 

It was a pretty strong storm.  We had to close the windows on the front and garage side of the house to keep the rain from blowing in.  After a bit, some of the "raindrops" started splattering on the windows, especially the awning windows (windows that are hinged at the top and open out at the bottom).  After a bit the rain settled into a steady, moderate rain, then finished.

She found her way to Tom's lap and settled in for the long haul.  Looks like she'll deal OK with the summer thunderstorms.

Not a fun night

There's nothing that will ruin a night's sleep faster than a safety alarm going off.  Sometimes our furnace runs a really short cycle that doesn't heat the vent pipe.  If it's cold enough outside the cold air in the top of the pipe keeps the warm air from rising and exhausting.  So the CO detector gets us out of bed at 4 am to clear the air and get the damned thing to reset to zero.  I hate running fans and opening windows to sub-zero temperatures, but we've got to get the air cleared.  It doesn't come back, so it's not that we have a leak or blockage.  It only happens when a certain set of circumstances all match up.

So we got the CO detector cleared, the CO cleared out of the house and went back to bed.  It went OK for a while.  Then, around 7 am, Charlotte decided it was time for us to get up.  She was up and full of energy.  Unfortunately, one of her new passions is jumping & climbing curtains.  The only curtain she can reach in the bedroom is right over & behind our heads.  She'll pounce on feet, bounce up the bed, and launch ... sometimes off our heads or faces.  "Nicely" grabbing her and setting her gently in a better place does not good.  Last night, the third night she's done it, we were grabbing whatever body part came to hand in the dark and sending a bit less than gently to the foot of the bed or off the bed.  We only both grabbed her at the same time once - one back leg and one front leg.  We'll see tonight if it did any good.

This morning she started a bit with the curtains by the table.  She loves to sun herself in that windowsill.  Down here, and with both of us up for the day, I have an air horn (one of those canned ones you carry on a boat) to blast at her.  Too bad we all have to be subjected to that noise.  We'll be searching for a better solution for all of us.

First really cold morning of the season

Brrr!  It was 11 below zero, but quickly came up to 10 below about the time we got up this morning (around 7:30).  It had bottomed out at 12 below zero.  By 10am it had warmed up to 6 above.  Now, as I write this around noon, it's up to 28, so still below freezing. 

When we were moving here we looked at a weather chart that showed a couple of months that listed "days below 32" and the number of days in the month.  I didn't fully understand that until we got to January and February of that first winter.  That means a couple of months where, on average, no days go above the freezing mark for the high temperature!  I understand it now.  There's nothing like watching the thermometer to see if it gets above zero, or by how much.  And we have a lot of those in the depths of winter.

One of the things about these really cold mornings is hoar frost.  That was another new experience for me.  I had heard of pogonip - frozen fog - when I was a child in the Reno area.  But we get hoar frost with and without fog.  When it's really cold the moisture in the air freezes into tiny "feathers" that cling to surfaces.  Later in the day, as the sun hits the hoar frost, we get "diamond dust" in the air.  Tiny floating ice crystals that sparkle as they float around and to the ground.

Even after 23 winters, I'm still fascinated by the fleeting beauty of hoar frost and "diamond dust".

First Week

We’ve been away from Grand Lake for a week, now.  We’ve travelled 1157 miles in convoy, bought a shopping cart full of fireworks, helped with a move, opened the house for the summer, set up our RV for long term use, started the process of getting our mail forwarded to Trout Creek, got (Tom’s mom) Lois’ mail coming back to Trout Creek, and have a few more changes to take care of for her.

Max is loving having the yard.  He can walk around, sniff, explore and come to the door when he wants in.  We’re just far enough off the road we can let him out the gate to get into the car, without putting on his leash.  And Missy tries to get him to play with her every now and then.  Missy is Lois’ 7-year-old Boston.

Our communications are a bit limited.  Our cell phones get enough signal to receive & send text messages, and some simple email messages will come in on my smartphone (but not Tom’s dumbphone).  But, we can’t receive or make calls from here.  We can go to lunch in Thompson Falls (about 15 miles east of here) and spread out on a table with our laptops and our jetpack.  Or, we can park in a roadside parking area about 5 miles east of here.

Yes, there are places that are significantly more “remote” than Grand Lake.  Trout Creek, downtown Trout Creek, consists of a few businesses and a number of households and not much else.  There are 2 motels, 2 stores that fall between a convenience store and small town mom-n-pop grocery store.  Both have gas, ice, beer – all the essentials for fishermen, boaters and vacationers.  Trout Creek is the Huckleberry capital of Montana, with a Huckleberry Festival in August.

It’s very green here right now.  May is a wet month.  At least this one is.  So far, I don’t remember the last time we had a no-rain day.  We had that wet transition from April to May in Grand Lake, followed by more rain and snow, then rain at least part of each day on the trip here, and each day we’ve been here so far.  Last night started the wettest 24 hours so far.  It started raining around 6 or 7, took a break between 3 & 4 am, and a couple of brief breaks during this afternoon.  It may have tapered off for a while, but it's still cloudy & humid.  Tom was able to get a lot of grass mowed before the rain got serious. 

While he was mowing, he saw a baby swallow in the grass in time to miss it.   He had me come out so I could get a picture.  The poor little bird not only left the nest too soon, but one foot had gotten tangled in a piece of insulation fluff (or something that looked like green fuzzy insulation).  I was able to get it off the little guy’s foot.  I made sure to put it back where it started so the parents would keep protecting and feeding it.

Settling in here at the “Mason rancho” has gotten off to a good start.  We’re figuring out where things are, getting transitions arranged back to here from Helena, and our transition to here (like getting a PO box), and figuring out tastes and preferences so we move along smoothly.

As we drive by the lake in Thompson Falls, there are some kind of yellow iris along the edge.  They remind me of Japanese iris because the droopy parts are big and there are virtually no “stand-up” parts.  The parts are there, but the iris has a flat topped look.

Over the next weeks we’ll do more settling in, and see if we can do a bit of exploring, too.

P.S.

Right after dinner we had a bit of excitement.  Tom saw a large yellow dog just outside the fence.  Then a minute later he saw it inside the yard.  While he kept Max in at the sliding door, I went out another door to see if I could get the dog out of the yard.  That’s when I saw the 2 little boys, maybe 5-7 years old, with yet another dog, at the gate opening & closing it slightly.  I told them they needed to get their dog out of the yard.  Then they started to come in with the second dog.  I told them they had to keep the dogs out of the yard.  They backed off.  They asked “Is Barb back?”, pointing to Lois’ car.  “No, she’s not” I told them.  I went back toward the corner of the yard where the yellow dog was crouching on a stump (cornered by a Boston).  It ran for the other end of the yard and I told the kids to let it out.  It had a 3-4 inch wide swath of hair standing up down its back.  One of the boys volunteered “he likes to get in the garbage”.  Tom had come out.  When he asked the boys “How’d he get in the yard?” one of the boys was heading back to the fence and home, the other one couldn’t decide if he should grab his crotch, his butt, speak or not, and finally just ran away.  We decided we should lock all the cars & the RV.  Max decided he should be on guard and for the last 45 minutes he’s been scanning the yard – side to side and back again.  He’s on high alert.  I’m sure he’d be ready to defend “his” yard, but he’d go down so quick.  Some days he falls down when he shakes his head.  No matter how much he wants it, we can’t let him get in a fight.

Well, now that we're here, the real adventure begins.  Internet will be an issue - a single bar (sometimes) of 3 G wireless service means, for all intents and purposes we will be on a text-only basis at the "rancho" an d will come into town (20 miles or so) for any "real" internet activity.  So don't expect to see frequent emails or blog posts.  And things might get a little boring for a while, anyway.

The convoy (with the Subaru + trailer w/motorcycles behind all that)

 

Total distance, with the swing over to Helena, was 1157. 

And, of course, it looks like it's going to rain again this afternoon.  I'm ready for some dry weather one of these days.

To be continued

Damn it! It did rain - buckets!

Well, after thinking we'd ended our day with a baby thunderstorm, we got a real one.  Wind, lightning, thunder and gobs of rain.  The RV felt almost like it was rolling down the highway.

Unfortunately, we'd left the windows open on the Honda.  After all, it was warm, sunny, and nice when we pulled in.  Had to get it on a charger since the tiny battery can't go a day without driving it when we tow it.  Now the seats are soaked, the dash it wet.  I did get the windows up for the night - left a bit of opening at the top, under the protective covers, in the hopes some of the wet will evaporate overnight.  But, those seats are going to be soggy for quite a while, I'm afraid.

But to cap off the day, there was a glorious sunset, with a bonus sunset in the east, complete with rainbow.

Sunset in the west

Sunset in the east, with rainbow

Almost there . . .

Today was a fairly easy day, except for the unintended side trips.

Here's a look at our cheap RV park.  We were in the corner - if still there we'd have blocked the view of that short school bus.

First, as we left the little RV park Tom sat quite a while at the edge of the street.  I began to think he wanted me to signal left or right, then, he took off to the left.  Wrong way! What I couldn't see was a tow truck to the right, making multiple attempts to back a tow into the garage.  So, Tom figured he could go left, and find a place to go around the block or turn around.  I told him I'd scout.  At first I thought around the block wasn't going to work - it looked like the side street ended smack up at the railroad tracks, so I scouted away from the freeway, hoping there'd be a big parking lot to turn around in.  Nope, all too small. Then I realized the side streets did go to a street along the tracks.  So we did the round-the-block, almost, and came out on the cross road back to the freeway.

I forgot to check the gas gauge before we took off.  I was just under a quarter tank, not enough to get as far as Tom could.  I flashed lights & signaled "right" as we approached Dillon, MT.  I wasn't down to fumes, but it wouldn't be long.  What I didn't know was that all the gas stations were at the other end of town, so we had an unintended "tour" of  town.  Then, while I filled, Tom missed the turn back to the freeway and found himself on another highway.  Luckily the "sometimes weigh station" was not being used and made a great meet up and turn around spot.

For the first time in weeks we had a day mostly without rain, mostly sunny.  There was a short thunderstorm late this afternoon, after we were set up here in Clancy.

A bit after 4 we arrived at Clancy and our last en route stop.  The land is sloped - the house is at the top of the hill, so we needed to put the RV's left wheels on blocks (2 in the back and 4 in the front to get "close enough" to level for one night.  To get it closer we'd have to go up high enough to take a wheel completely in the air.  No-no.  Better a little off level than swinging in the air.

Assessing the lay of the land.  We wound up next to the 2 cars up by the house. 

 The Subaru & bikes were parked in the grass

The guys have gone to get a trailer to move their mom's stuff back to her house for the summer.  Tomorrow the convoy grows to 3 rigs towing something; RV+car, car+motorcycles and SUV+cargo trailer.  Whee!

And the Honda is on a battery charger.  Its little battery can't take more than a day without being driven when we tow it - the brake unit uses the power to run the compressor that pushes the brakes, and to light up the signal, tail and brake lights.  Tom's planning to add a power wire to keep it from dying if we run multiple days on the road.

Four State Day

This trip is one where a four state day is not hard to accomplish.  Evanston, WY is almost directly on the Utah border, so minutes after getting on the road it became a two state day.  We started our day with a trip to the fireworks store (one of the family obligations since we come through where you can get the "good stuff") and we were on the road just after eleven.  We had a lot of cloudy weather, a little rain, and a few moments of sunshine.  Luckily, the wind was much less.   But, then, we were out of Wyoming.

  Three hours later we crossed into Idaho. 

 

The part of Idaho we cross on this route is potato and grain country

. 

 

And very volcanic.  You can see broken lava flows all around, and at times, in the distance you can look at a hillside and see that it is a lava flow over the top of previous flows.  Some areas along the interstate have blocky ridges, and some look like collapsed lava tubes.

Just before seven we crossed into Montana, and a few miles later, pulled over at a small, cheap RV park. 

We knew about it because we've stayed here once or twice before.  $15 (plus tax, of course) gets you full hookups, $10 gets you an electric site.  I had forgotten we needed to dump our black tank before we settle for the summer, but he let us dump for no additional charge.  Can't help but wonder if the lower fee is really because the water connection broke and he can keep using the site anyway.  $10.70 total for the night.  Regardless, it is one of the bargains out there.   Don't expect much, some gravel driving paths, some grass and hookups.  There is a school right behind it, home of the Lima Bears, and the field (track football, what have you) is right next to the site we were in.

There's a café across the way, so you can walk to dinner if you want.  Not great food, but reasonable.  We celebrated "monthiversary" number 392 (that's 32 years and 8 months, all celebrated at least a little bit) at Jan's with sirloin steaks and an add-on of shrimp to make it surf-n-turf.  One of the potato choices was twice baked, and you get soup or salad.  This morning, the leftover twice baked potatoes, with added sour cream to alleviate their dryness, and the dinner rolls that sopped up the steak juice, will be our breakfast.  Lunch will be my leftover steak, split into two thinner slabs, on sourdough bread.  So, three meals, and Max's dinner, too (Tom's leftover steak cut into bites).  We had "12-ounce" sirloin steaks, but they were both much larger than what I've been served as a "12-ounce" steak in other places.  I think their twelve ounces might be after cooking instead of before.  It could have used some salt, and garlic, but in Lima, Montana there aren't many choices and it was good enough.

To be continued

I am sooooooo tired of rain!

Not long after we arrived, it began to rain here in Evanston.  Then it picked up.  Then it rained harder.  Eventually it stopped.  Then, this morning, it started again, and picked up and got harder and got harder. At the moment it's not so bad, but we've been in the rain for over a month.  Maybe there were a couple of dry days, but I just don't remember.

Looks like weather up the road will be much like yesterday's.  Mostly clouds, but some more rain in places.  Damn I'm tired of the rain.

Heading North

Today was the big day.  We cleared out the old freezer and defrosted it and unplugged it yesterday.  Today we cleared out and unplugged the refrigerator.  Then the drama really began. 

May has been wet.  There MIGHT have been as many as 3 days without rain this month - in Denver.  At our place, by the time I realized it was noteworthy, I couldn't remember IF we had any days without rain.  Very possibly not.  It probably started raining in late April and hasn't stopped yet.  And a lot of those days had some snow, too.

I mention this because when we came home from the Shake Down cruise, Tom tried to park the motorhome partway on the driveway.  Unfortunately the low spot is low enough that to level it, at least on corner was left with the tires off the ground.  Not good.  So, it went in the low spot.  And, when he tried to pull out so we could hook on the Honda, it wouldn't move.  I just spun tires and slung mud.  Tom put plywood in front and back of the rear tires.  It would touch the edge and spin and sling.  I was about the call our friend and neighbor to ask his help, when wife came over, saw what was going on and offered to go get him.

.

They brought over some gravel and I went down to town for a couple bags of kitty litter.  It took 4 people, the plywood, the gravel the kitty litter and anchoring the plywood to get the Spotted Dog out of the driveway.  We ARE going to fill that low spot with gravel.  No question about it.

 

Video by Leigh BD

Once we were on the road things went much better.  I detoured to fill my gas tank and we met at the first pass of the trip - Willow Creek Pass.  Tom pulled over and had a snack during his short wait.

 

Of course we encountered rain.  It looks like Wyoming has had the same wet weather as Colorado - it's really strange to see water between the sagebrush and full, running rivers.  And, of course, it's raining pretty good right now as I write this.

We also saw a couple of pretty scary things.  Luckily, they were both on the other side of the freeway.  There was a truck making an awful sound - worse than when they've been running on a flat dually tire and it's flopping an shredding.  I glanced in the rear view mirror thinking tire and what I saw suggested he'd run flat so long it was his wheel that was disintegrating - it looked sort of like when a big chunk of snow hits the pavement and explodes.  But there was no snow, no accumulated ice on any of the vehicles on the road.  The other one, was also sad.  There was an Airstream motorhome that was folded in the middle and had a big hole right in front of the door.  Tom thinks it may have hit the guard rail.  When I saw it I thought that being metal it came out of it better than a fiberglass unit - one like ours would probably have disintegrated instead of folding like that.

So much for the first day of what should be an interesting summer.  We'll be living in less than 300 square feet all summer.  We've done it for a month, so it shouldn't be any kind of problem.

To be continued.

Memorial Day Weekend Weather

Memorial Day in Grand Lake is celebrated regardless of weather.  And that's important.  The weather on major summer holiday weekends can be almost anything.  By major holiday weekends I mean Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day.  Sometimes we have beautiful sunshine and calm and warm weather.  Sometimes we have cold, snow and wind.  Sometimes it's only unending rain.  So far we've seen most of those this Memorial Day weekend.  Saturday morning was in the 40s and 50s, sunny and calm.  Later in the day it rained, with the occasional snow-blob mixed in.  Then in the evening it snowed.  Not just snow flakes falling, but snow stacking up on the ground.  It was only a half-inch to an inch, and is melting as the temperature slowly creeps up above freezing.  This year, though, it's not just the holiday weekend, it's been pretty much the entire month of May.  At least in Denver, it's been the wettest May on record.  I have little doubt that applies here in Grand Lake, as well.  Not only have we had rain pretty much everyday, it's been much of the day, not just an afternoon shower.  And, as we prepare for departure on our summer trek, there's no end in sight.

Snow in aspen branches

Looking across deck, to hill, to Shadow Mountain (it's across Grand Lake, hidden in mid-ground)

Weather - again

Even after more than twenty years here, the weather can be fascinating. 

We needed a couple of items to finish some of our preparations for our next trip.  So, with a check on road conditions (most of the CDOT still cameras were blank this morning, but the list of road conditions had nothing scary.  The Denver Metro area was not on "accident alert".  So, there was no reason not to go, and Tom can get the items installed and make sure we're ready to tow the bikes.

As we crossed Berthoud Pass on US Hwy 40, the weather got more intense.  It went from light rain, to rain to rain/snow to snow.  As we got down closer to I-70 it let up a bit, but then as we were on next-to-final approach to the Metro area it started snowing hard, with big flakes.  We were hoping all the time we were doing our shopping that it would turn to rain or even stop before we had to come home.

Luckily, as we headed home it was raining lightly.  But as we left Fraser (on our side of Berthoud Pass) it was snowing and blowing.  I was actually steering a little bit left of straight to keep a straight path, and the snow was blowing across our path.  Normally, rain or snow will look like it's coming straight at you when you look out the car windows, then when you stop you find out which direction it is really blowing. 

 

 

Over all, Colorado is having a very wet May.  After dry warm months when we should have been getting lots of snow, now rain and snow are falling.  On the Front Range it has been more days raining than clear this month, and the last week or so it's been heavy rain.  Creeks are reaching their limits.  Places that had serious flooding back in the fall of 2013 are reaching flood stage again.  At this point it's "normal" flooding, not the flooding "of biblical proportions" of 2013.  People along those streams and rivers are getting very nervous.

Spring Storm

Today we had our first real spring storm.  Thunder and lightning - one blast had almost no time between the flash and the crash.  A little before the skies opened up the satellite TV went out for a while.  Once the storm got going we had a short power outage.  Then we had a lot of hail.  An hour or so after the storm was over the leftover hail was still 1/4 inch to 3/4 inch deep on the deck.  It had been blown against the house and piled up along the wall.

Foggy Morning

The 9 Health Fair was reason to get up early.  In fact, it was the first time in a little over a month that we got up as early as we used to do for work.  It had rained a bit yesterday (less than 1/4 inch) so there was lots of humidity.  The chilly temperature (27) combined with the high humidity caused big fog banks to rise up out of the lakes.  Our drive to Granby started in more or less sunshine, then dipped into the thick fog along the lake.  On the way home it had lifted just enough to see the some of the close-in docks and shoreline features.

Docks at Highland Marina

Rocks at mile marker 9

Stillwater Campground across the water

Wacky Weather

Springtime in the Rockies can be exciting.  But, it's almost never boring.  Yesterday, for example, we had sunshine, wind, rain, snow and graupel (soft hail/snow).  None of that surprised me.  It's springtime.  However, just before bedtime, when I stepped out the back door to put the dog on his trolley, I almost landed on my butt.  The day had been humid enough that instead of drying out the last rain/snow had frozen in thin later of ice on the wood deck.  Since I had on moccasins, I had no traction.  Good thing I holding Max back (he really wants to bolt through the door ahead of us so we hold him back) and going slowly.  Lucky for him he took my advice to go "easy" down and back up the stairs.  Sometimes he jumps the bottom 2-3 stairs and if the snow or ice is slick enough his back legs will slip through and he falls back.  It all worked out this time.  If I'd had to go down to rescue him I might have slipped and fallen, too.