As you can see the river is still very low despite some rain we had this week .. well, yeah, it really wasn't much to speak off ..

The forecast is for a lot of the same, cloudy days with a little bit of rain here and there. Except for the temperatures, apparently they will be going down to freezing at night (!) and only in the 40-50s during the day! (I also see some snow for next Saturday, when we're leaving, but I've chosen to ignore it, for now ..)

Here's a picture of our 'compound', taken from the opposite hill than the one I'm usually on. Just for a change of view:

          

That's us there of course, squashed against the side of the 'old' house .. 

.. and here you can see us in the 'whole' picture, with the new house on top. That's my 'normal' hiking trail there on the top left:

It's hunting season and Sam, who got a tag for a (Elk) cow, and his son Ryan, drove up to their property at Joseph Plains, where we stayed last summer.

He shot his cow already on Saturday, on opening day, so he was very happy, since last year he never got one. Of course that means that he's now back to be rather bored since he doesn't 'do' much at the house ...

 

Neither of these are Elk, I've actually not seen any so far this Fall, but I ask you (I aks you) .. could you? Shoot one? It's beyond me .. such beautiful creatures ..

Any-who .. I've kept my eye on the bees, because I figured they would leave/retreat one of these days (actually, I'm not quite sure what they do for the winter?), and finally this last week it looked like (most of them) had 'fled the coop'.

                                                                      See the difference?

 

Also, I thought the snakes were all 'gone' or holed up with these cooler temps, but just this week I came across two ..

It's such a pity they're so scary because they really are rather beautiful aren't they?               (I think these are both Gopher Snakes, or Bull Snakes as they're called around here).

 

The house is changing appearances for the better by the day! 

Biggest 'news' of the week is probably the completion of the fireplace/mantel:

It came out absolutely stunning. The local stones and the old barn-wood from Guiles Point (another property Sam owns just outside of Grangeville), make for an impressive and beautiful feature!

The wood-burning stove is a little small, but I guess they were lucky to get one to begin with, since just after they bought it, they were 'outlawed' by the state of Idaho! (Not 'green' enough anymore in this day and age)

Another beautiful feature worth mentioning, is the little ceiling above the staircase leading up to the loft. The cottonwood happened to come in lighter and darker colors, and since we were a little tight on how much was available, they had not inter-mixed any of the smaller amount of dark wood in the main ceiling.

Instead they used it all in this small area:

Looks like a work of art to me!

The huge expanse of ceiling in the living-room/kitchen area got a little bit more interesting by adding some cross-beams, literary:

                       

And than there was the floor!

This is the loft.

And as of today the whole house is pretty much done, except for the entrance hall and closet!

Now we're talking!

 

As for those walnuts I mentioned last week .. after a stormy night I discovered a lot of the 'normal' ( instead of the 'black') walnuts had come down! 

Yes! Just what I'd been hoping for!

 

           

In contrary to the black ones, these are easy to peel, crack, and don't need to dry very long. In fact, you can eat them almost right away!

                                              

                                 Which we did!

Also, since we're leaving in a little over a week we've started to eat/empty the big freezer we've been using in the old house.                                                                                              There's baggies full of plums, apricots and blackberries, so I made a little plum pie which I spiced with pumpkin-spices and cinnamon ... can you say 'delicious'?                                                                                           

Well, I think that's it for this week. Today I cleaned and treated the roof but have no pictures to show for .. I sure feel that I did it though! Man, I'm pooped!

Time to relax a little. Maybe lay out another puzzle, since this Wysocki cat-one is done ..

Another week and a half to go, but who's counting?!