One of our main goals while here in Grangeville, was to make a jet boat ride down Hell's Canyon. Well, first day here, friend Jane calls the company that we chose for the ride. They had a boat going down that morning and if we could be there in 2 hours, we had a seat. So off to Hell's Canyon we went.
There was 9 people all together on the boat including crew. The normally carries about 30 to 40 people. The captain said that since we were so few, we could take our time at stops and really see things. Headed down the river, the captain was very informative about the different sights and the river. One thing that he said, was the river was pretty darn high for this year. We saw several different wildlife. Deer, Big Horn Sheep, bear, eagles. There were a few rafters also on the river. Watched a bunch of fishermen at the dam fishing for steelhead. While there, one was caught.

Headed up the river, we had three rapids to run. One was classified as a semi bad one. But it sure was fun to do. I really see what river runners see in running the rivers. It is a rush that is super fine. Marshal even says that his day on the boat was awesome.

And I am sure that if he gets the chance to come back, he will.

We now have a couple of travel days to reach our destination of Grangeville, Idaho. Hoping to make it in there to spend a week and to avoid the 4th of July travel. So as I am the navigator, I get to chose the route we take. So it is from I84 and Boise to the Ponderosa Pine Scenic Byway, where we turn onto the Wilderness Canyon Byway, which this picture comes from. And finally to the Payette River Scenic Byway.

One thing that we see in these places, are the rivers, which are very high and fast due to the snow melt and rain that Idaho has had this year. We hear on the television that night how one woman lost her life close to Boise due to high water and a kayaker was lost in the Payette River. There are stretches of the rivers, and I mean miles of river that are white water and very dangerous.

This picture is from the Wilderness Canyon Scenic Byway. By the time we arrive in Grangeville, our count of scenic byways is now 6 byways.

We do spend one night at Cascade, Idaho in a nice park. Our site was close to the river. Really too close for my comfort, as the river was running high.

I have found a very nice rv park here in Grangeville, Bear's Den RV Resort. As they are very booked for the 4th weekend, we get a couple of pull throughs for two nights and then we back into some new sites that they have been working on. The owner was working hard for those first two days just to get some new sites available. He had rigs parked on the grass, and in a couple of the sites that have the hook ups, but not really a good place to park. As we have been in worst, it was no big deal to move from the grassy nice sites to the ones we are in now. We have a level site, with full hook ups and wi-fi. We are happy.

We are traveling with a friend, Jane, who purchased a book that describes a good many back road adventures using a Jeep. And this book gives very good detailed instructions of where these sights are to be found. One of them is Bruneau Canyon Look out. So off we went the next day after a good night's rest.

Following the directions, we went down a canyon wall into the nicest, sweetest valley. The present owner of the ranch still ranches and farms the land. We didn't see anyone though. Then it was up the opposite canyon wall onto the flats. Following the instructions in the book, which said to follow the path to a y-junction, take the right hand path and follow it to the playa, then follow the trail to cow path and then across country. We never did find the cow path!!! LOL
But we did find the canyon overlook. Amazing. Well worth the trip in.

Coming out, saw some dust. Turned out to be a pickup with federal government workers checking out the sage hen habitat. Told them that it was nice to know that we weren't the only ones out there. The driver took a look at friend's Jeep and said it was nice to see a vehicle that could pull them out if they got stuck!!!!!!!!!!! LOL

It was well worth the trip in and out. A beautiful sight that most people cannot get to.

Our next day at the campground was a down day, which we took advantage of.

As always, if you want to see more pictures of our adventures, click on the My Pictures link and you can see more.

We took one day and explored the Owhyee Uplands Back Country Byway. It is definitely back country and very desolute. We saw very few people, vehicles and animals. But it is a very beautiful country. The roads were mainly dirt and/or gravel. The drive starts in hay fields with quite a few farms around, then rapidly heads into the a high mountain desert type of land. As Idaho has had lots of rain and snow this year, the sights were absolutely beautiful with all the wild flowers blooming. We went from sagebrush and wildflowers to rock-walled rivers and streams. The total drive is 101 miles long and well worth the trip. As there are no services out along the drive, it is a good idea to start with a full tank of gas and lots of water to take with. We stopped in the only campground on the drive and had lunch. We carried our own sandwiches with. We made a side trip to Jordan Valley for gas, even we had plenty, we were taking another road and I wanted to be sure we had plenty.

The next road we took that day was to Silver City, Idaho, a ghost town. In it's heyday, quite a bit of silver was taken out. It really didn't have much, but we did make a stop at the cemetery. And that was an adventure. There is only a one lane track to the cemetery and we were in my Jeep. Met up with some ATV's. There was a little track going up the side of the hill for them to pull over to let me by. Yes, I had the right of way. First ATV'er went up the track. Second one refused to move. The girl I am thinking was afraid to go up the hill. And I am thinking it was her husband on the first one, they had an argument, which she lost and she got out of the way. I went on my merry way. While walking in the cemetery, I heard the two of them down on the road having an argument about what had happened. She was not a happy camper. Oh well. After seeing the sights at Silver City, we headed back to our camp after a full day of seeing some beautiful country.

Our count of scenic byways is now 3.

Our next stop was Bruneau Dunes State Park south of Mountain Home, Idaho. It is a nice little park with some rv parking and camping with tents. For this short jaunt, we did the Thousand Springs Scenic Byway. Making it two so far.
We use the state park as a base to explore some of the country around that area. One of goals was to check out the Owhyee Uplands Back Country Byway. Which made 3 scenic drives for us.

City of Rocks National Reserve

This unique geologic area became a landmark in 1843 for California bound emigrants. A few granite pinnacles and monoliths are in excess of sixty stories tall and 2.5 billion years old. The smooth granite faces offer exceptional rock climbing.

The Reserve boasts Idaho's champion pinyon pines, at more than 55 feet. City of Rocks pinyon pine forest is the northern most extension into Idaho. Wildflowers are abundant in the spring and summer months. The diverse habitat of the reserve supports a large variety of mammals, birds, reptiles, and invertebrates.

Geology

The landscape of City of Rocks has been sculpted from granite that was intruded into the crust during two widely spaced times. The granite that composes most of the spires is part of the 28 million year old Almo pluton. However, some of the spires are made of granite that is part of the 2.5 billion year old Green Creek Complex, and contains some of the oldest rocks in the western United States.

California bound wagon trains (1843-1882) left Raft River Valley and travelled through this area and over Granite Pass. Names and initials of emigrants written in axle grease are still visible. Emigrants consistently referred to the city as one of the memorable scenic wonders of a phenomenal journey: "This is one of the greatest curiosities on the road" wrote Eliza Ann McAuley in 1852.

A short drive through the reserve taking pictures and thoroughly enjoying the sights of the rocks. Just imagining what it was right for the wagon trains going through this. We used our imaginations to guess what the rocks looked like to us. I saw one that reminded me of Jabba the Hutt. The wildflowers were still abundant, as this has been a wet cold year.

We found another side trip to take. This was definitely a dirt road that had not seen much use. So off we went. Well, make this our second road we had to turn around due to a snow drift. Better safe than sorry. As we were headed down the road, there were several 4WD vehicles headed up. We stopped them and explained about the drift. Guess they decided they could go through. Well, there was like 4 of them and the drivers were all young men.

We headed down the mountain towards Oakley and another side trip out of there back towards where we were parked for the night.

We did our first scenic byway, City of Rocks Back Country Byway.

One of our goals on this trip is to explore as much of the back country of Idaho as we can get to. So after Albion, headed south towards City of Rocks, we found a side trip to Mt. Harrison tempting. So up the mountain we went. That is until we found this snow drift that completely stopped us in our tracks. As we could not go through, we turned around. This makes our first turn around. But that is all right. Now further south to the City of Rocks.

We are on our latest adventure. Left home on June 24th with a friend from Oklahoma. Jane also has an rv and Jeep. Our plans were to see as much of Idaho as we can. We made our first stop in Declo, Idaho. Yes, I know not that far from home, but there was some sights that we wanted to see, like City of Rocks and Albion Normal School. The plan was to stay one night and see what we could that first day. After getting our rigs parked and set up, off we went. Our first stop was Albion Normal School. Here is some info about the school.

Albion State Normal School was an institution of higher learning located in Albion, Idaho . The school was established by the Idaho Legislature in 1893, as one of two Normal schools in the state. Citizens of Albion had actively lobbied for the school's establishment, and donated land and labor for the new campus.

The school remained a small institution throughout its history, focusing on the training of teachers and drawing its student body primarily from south-central Idaho. Albion Normal offered a two-year teacher training program until 1947, when it was renamed "Southern Idaho College of Education" (SICE) and authorized to confer baccalaureate degrees. The school remained troubled by low enrollment and a lack of funding, however, and was finally closed by the state in 1951. Its academic programs were transferred to Idaho State College (now Idaho State University) in Pocatello.

During its existence, Albion Normal awarded some 6,460 degrees. Perhaps the most notable alumnus of the college was Terrel Bell (1921-1996), who served as United States Secretary of Education from 1981 to 1984.

The college's athletic teams were known as the "Teachers" until 1935, when they became the "Panthers." School colors were Cardinal and Black, and the annual student yearbook was called The Sage.

After SICE closed in 1951, the campus remained vacant until 1957, when Magic Valley Christian College opened at the site. Magic Valley Christian, in turn, closed in 1969. The campus was deeded to the city of Albion the following year, which continued to maintain the grounds while alternative uses for the property were explored. Finally, the empty and deteriorating property was sold at public auction on June 2, 2007; a group of Idaho investors were successful with a bid of $810,000. The new owners have begun rehabilitating a portion of the campus to serve as a conference and retreat center, called "Campus Grove at Albion."

I guess I am a glutton to punishment!!!! I really hate to sew squares together, but decided that youngest granddaughter needed an afghan for her 5th birthday coming up in August. This is a merry go round with two horses. I am sure that she will love it.

Yes, for those that can find them, there is a couple of mistakes, but at this point in time I am not going back in and fix them. I had to take most of it apart to fix quite a few mistakes. I am going to put a backing on it, due to having lots of small, short ends to deal with and cannot thread them in.

No more of this type of afghan until the grandson turns 5. Which will be next year. Then no more of them!!!!!!!!!

I have heard about yarn winders for years. At first, thought well, I really don't need one. And as most of the skeins I purchase, I can pull out a strand from the middle of the skein. Back years ago, a skein had to be wound into a ball, as it could get easily tangled from the way yarn companies packaged the yard.
The more I thought about it and got to checking, a yarn winder would make perfect sense for that yarn that I did not use on a project and I put into my stash. So I checked to see what kind of winder would be the best. Found that one with metal gears would be best. I then went to Amazon.com. My favorite website and I have some credit there. Was able to find a yarn winder at a good price, so ordered it. I have had it about a month now and love it. The first couple of days I had it, I rewind every ball of yarn I had in my stash. Makes nice balls of yarn and they are easy to stack in a plastic storage crate. I wonder what I did before I had one!!!!

For some reason I purchase some foam door hangers. Guess they were on sale or something. But was thinking for a gift or little something for one of the grandkids in the future. Well, I was sitting here and it hit me. Why don't I fix up the door hangers for Sydney, Peyton and Mason. A little extra something for them. So I found some foam letters and decorations I had in my storage room and made up the hangers for them. I did both sides, that way they can change when they feel like it.

This is the latest crochet project that I finished last night. It is a gift for a certain young lady. I won't say which one, just in case. She may check out my blog from time to time, just doesn't say anything about it. Hope she likes it.

This is Alice in the back seat of the truck as we are headed south to some warm weather. We decided that it was time to go to the Phoenix, Arizona to see Marshal's son, wife, and the granddaughters. And I wanted to feel some warm weather. Got so tired of the cold temperatures we were experiencing here. Seems like they were going on forever. It was nice to feel warm for a change this winter.

And the visit with the granddaughters was fantastic. They are at the age that they and we can really enjoy the visit. Although that 4 year old was full of energy all the time.

Here it is almost the end of February and yes, I have been lax in keeping my blog updated. Just has not been all that easy to deal with everyday life since the last entry. Here is a rundown if I can remember it all.
First off, I had that crud. I would have some good days and some bad days. And it hung in there forever. From before Halloween until just after the first of the year, I had it. And that crud had a cough that hung in also. Which was not made any better from the medicine I was taking for my blood pressure. A side effect of the medicine was a cough. Then seems like I developed acid reflux and really didn't know it. And a cough is one sign of that condition. I was hit a double whammy. And on top of all this, was dealing with my driving Marshal and my mother to their doctor's appointments. With Marshal, it was a chronic sore throat and voice being hoarse. We had made a couple of trips to Salt Lake to the VA, to have it checked out. Finally, after scoping his throat out, the doctor's decided that he had acid reflux and that was the problem, no cancer or any other problem. But they wanted him to has his esophagus checked out. That appointment was in January. No problems there either. So that was one thing down and taken care.

Mother has had wet macular degeneration in her eyes and we have been making trips to Logan to have shots in her eyes to take care of that problem. Then she got chronic fatigue and not feeling well. The PA checked her blood and found that she had high calcuim, which is a sign that the parathyroid is not working correctly. So she had surgery in January to remove two of her parathyroids. And that took care of that problem.

The crud was really getting me down and it finally come to a head in December at Christmastime. We finished up with doctor's appointments a couple of days before Christmas. I told myself, now I can get a week and half of rest and get better. Well, the crud and the cough caused by several problems, really did me in. I had to have Marshal take me to the Emergency Room on Christmas Eve. The doctor gave me some cough medicine to take. I knew that if I could at least slow down the cough, I could get some sleep. And it worked. I finally got over the crud and the cough from it just after the first of the year. Still had the cough from the medicine and acid reflux.

Talked to the doctor and we changed my medicine for blood pressure. My cough slowed down, but still had it. Finally here this past week, been doing some reading and checking out acid reflux. So now I am treating it with baking soda and my cough is about gone. Sure glad to have some relief from the coughing. I plan on using a couple more natural remedies to work on the acid reflux.

This basically takes me to the end of the year and some what into the new year.

One thing that I have have doing lately is working on some hanging towels for gifts. Seems like everyone likes having them. Been using up my stash of yarn to make the tops and hangers. All the patterns I have called for cutting the towels in half. To me, that is a small towel, so I left them the normal size. Makes for a larger towel and more towel to work with.

For those that were wondering. Now you know. Yes, I am a crazed baby killer!!!!!!!!! LOL
Our local Senior Center had a Spook Alley for the Halloween weekend. I picked being a crazed baby killer as my part. As ya'll can see, I can get into the act quite well.
The thing though was, there is some kind of crud going around and I have had it. Has not been fun at all. I was able to be at the alley for the first night, but that was it. I was sick the rest of the weekend. But I did the part long enough to get a couple of pictures.
If you want to see the pictures from the Spook Alley, click on the link to the right for My Photos and check out Halloween 2010 photos.

Yes, I know it has been awhile since I posted anything. Just been so darn busy. It is slowing down some now with the weather turning somewhat cooler than the summertime.

In September, we took another trail ride up 2 Mile Canyon. The leaves were just starting to change. It was really a short ride for us. Weather was fairly good and it was nice to just get away and ride.

Then in October, it was back to another trail ride. This one we went to Red Rock, over the summit to Devil Creek Reservoir and then to New Canyon. From New Canyon, it was up over the hill and cut off towards Deep Creek Reservoir. This part was a new trail for me and the pups. It was enjoyable. The leaves have really changed since we were out in September. Some trees were loosing their leaves, while some have not changed yet.

Like always, you can click on the Photo link to the right and see what pictures I did take on both rides.

Yesterday, August 14th, we took off on another ATV trail ride. The day was perfect. Sun shining, but not too hot with a breeze blowing to help keep it fairly cool. Altogether, there was 8 ATV's and 9 people. This time we started out on an old trail that we have done before, transitioning over to a new trail. The new trail was really beautiful, but rough. This above picture was an easy part of the trail. It was very rocky. And did I say rough? The new trail is called South Canyon trail. It was mostly in the trees, so that made it really nice and not too hot.
We did have an accident. One of the ATV's got stuck on a log ramp we had to go over. It got high centered. When it finally went forward, the rider, who was standing at the side, went flying and landed on the ground. Of the two guys that were pushing from the rear, one went down and hit hard, but did not break any bones. But he was dizzy for a few minutes afterwards. The other was able to catch himself, so he just stumble. It could have been worse, but wasn't. Which we are thankful for.
Most of us decided that even though the trail was beautiful, due to it roughness, it is a trail to take maybe once a year if that. Today we are sore and stiff from fighting the handlebars yesterday.
It was a fun ride. And I am sure everyone is ready to take a new trail here soon.

Late last year, I noticed that on the driver side seat in our motorhome, there was a wore out spot that could only get larger. Well, on our recent trip to Texas, the hole definitely got worse. We had talked about finding a set of seat covers in a truck stop, but never got around to it. So while we were in Texas, I decided to make a set of seat covers. First off, I decided on what color I wanted. Didn't want to use regular yarn, due to static electricity, so decided to use cotton yarn. More durable and easier to throw in the washer when needed. Well, I looked in Hobby Lobby, Michael's and Walmart. could not find the color on cones that I wanted. As I had no idea how much yarn to start with, did not want to buy the small balls of yarn. And figured that it would take quite a few of those balls to use for two seat covers. So at the Walmart in Kansas, changed the color I really wanted. This color that I chose will go all right with the color, it is just a light color and may need to be washed often. But my plan was for the covers to be turn inside out when needed, or around. The back becoming the front when needed.
Had no pattern, just basically took measurements and started crocheting. I fitted the covers to the seats. I finally finished the last cover a couple of nights ago. They fit really good on the seats. Husband likes them also. A big plus, as he does have to sit on them. I do believe that they will work out just fine and last quite some time.

A recent visitor to our home was our friend, Jane. As a hostess gift, she gave me a new knit/crochet book. It was how to get started on knitting/crocheting with wire and beads. The patterns are necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. I found the easiest pattern to practice with. Don't know if the wire I used was the right size or the beads that I also had leftover from previous craft projects. This was my first time crocheting with wire. It is an experience. I have done necklaces in the past with beads and thread. Remember those '70's crocheted necklaces every one had??? Spent the large part of the time threading the beads on the wire. Once I got into the swing of things, it went fairly fast. In fact, I crocheted these three strands in a couple of hours. And that counted putting the beads on the wire. I am gonna get some more wire and beads to do more of these simple necklaces. Found a pair of earrings to do also. It was fun to do these strands.