King of the hill

Isn't he gorgeous? I sure hope the hunters won't get him this season. I'm not sure about the deer, but the elk-season starts the 10th of October.

We've been told it will get fairly busy up here with hunters driving around, trying to find 'huntable' acreage, even asking if they can use your land.

There's a season for each gender, like for this little doe, and even for the different seizes of 'spikes' on the bucks.

But for now everything is still very peaceful up here and I am the only one that is 'shooting' anything.

What I really like about this area is its variety. 

During my walks I can be walking around in a heavy forest at one moment:

 And in a wide open meadow, the next:

Like I said on Facebook, there's so much blessed breathing room up here! You're so far removed from the busy rat-race, you'd almost forget it exists!

Life is easy here. Simple, straightforward and peaceful.

I take it!

For some reason I start to see lots of turkeys at the moment:

Weird, I didn't see any over the summer and now they're all around us.

Don't they know 'Turkey-day' is coming up soon?

If I were one, now would be the time I'd go into hiding!

We start to see more and more progress at the job-site now. 
Things are 'coming together' as they say.
We had to make a little bit of a mad dash with the painting, since the carpet guys were coming over yesterday, but we made it!

  
 The red under-floor ..

And the carpet .. 

The result is amazing!

                 What a difference a little bit of carpet makes!

 

Still a lot to do, but we're getting there.
Things should move along a little faster now by the way, since we have a new helper since Monday. 
His name is Allen, he's an older gentleman, but he seems (still) capable enough, so we hope he'll stay for a while.
Moving forward!

On a totally different note, here's a thing about Facebook, sometimes you learn something from it .. gasp!
Like this ingenious bread-toaster hack:

                     

Set it on its side, and it becomes a perfect little toaster-oven to heat up your left-over pizza slices!

I also tried a couple of Facebook's recipes, like these apple dumplings:



Super easy with crescent dough (from a can)!
And eggplant roll-ups:

Filled with ricotta cheese, delicious and also very easy to make!
And last but not least, and this is actually my own idea, banana-raisin bread with cinnamon and walnut:

 

Talking about good .. mmm

There's something about when the days are getting cooler, that I start to feel more and more like cooking and baking .. comfort food especially.
And it is getting a lot cooler at the moment. 
This whole week has been in the 60s, with even a little bit of rain here and there, and the last two days it stayed in the 50's with nights in the 40s!

You don't hear me complain, I'm a 'Fall-girl', let's bring it on!                                                          

Last week I showed some pictures of the (gravel) road down the hill, where it looked fairly 'straight', well .. this is the windy part!
Can you believe the hair-pins on that sucker? And that is just one stretch, there are many more like that!
No wonder the mere 24 miles take us about an hour and a half ..

Here's a picture of one of the trails I took the other day ..

It's where I came across a doe with her twin fawns. Aren't they the cutest?

They didn't notice me for a while until they finally got a whiff of me (I think), and took off!

I'm still followed around on many of my walks by my faithful companion, Rosie. 
She actually smells or hears the deer way before I do, and funny enough she will stop in her tracks and growl!

    

There's not a tree she hasn't climbed yet!

She's getting more and more comfortable with us, even starts to come into the house sometimes (no, no, we were not going to allow that .. right!) and she and Merlin seem to have made peace of some sorts!
She's not only very sweet but also very playful. Watching her and her antics is better than TV, she cracks us up!

Talking about cats .. what about this print?

 

That's one biiiiiig pussycat!!

The print on the left in the next picture is from an Elk, also a big one!

                                                                                          

I haven't seen it's 'owner' yet but I guess there's one around .. (a mountain lion, that is)

 

What else? O, we've finally started the painting! Yahoo!

James is spraying most of it, but some parts need to be rolled, and others (that's where I come in) need to be brushed ..

                              

And we're starting to see some colors!

The red is obvious of course, and the others are a light and a dark grey:

Like I mentioned, I've helped painting, mainly 'cutting' the edges and around the ceilings (and now have a stiff neck to show for it), but I've also done some 'hearty' cooking. 
The weather all of a sudden took a turn, and it got real cold for a couple of days. 
It has been overcast and it even rained all day last Sunday!

This was how dark it was at 11am, just before the rains!

Time to bring out the stews and other more filling recipes ..

This is one of my favorites, chicken Cacciatore (hunter-style) in my Instant pot .. and on the plate ..

And of course more baking! Still working on the blackberries, these are some delicious blackberry scones ..

They look a little 'rustic', as always when I incorporate fruit, but they were very good!

 

Talking about fruit, on my walks I pass this (wild?) apple tree, close to the house ..

I hope I'll be able to pick some before we leave, (or before the bears take them all) and make a pie!
No clue what they are, but they look very nice. 

Well, I'm at the end of this weeks 'tale', nothing more to tell, so let's make this 'the end'.

We went for another grocery/material run down the hill.
It's a long way down each time but I'll never tire of the view ..

Since Central Canyon is closed for maintenance/repairs, we're taking Joseph Plains Road all the way down these days.
 
 

And although I'm getting more comfortable with the steep and winding narrow road, I sure hope they finish the job quickly, because I don't want to think about taking this road with the RV in tow in October.
It sure is pretty though ..

That's the road down there, and although it looks fairly 'straight' here, it has some unbelievable hair-pin curves and steep climbs in other places.

                It's also a narrow dirt-road, and this is the view you have after a truck passes ..

Early morning pictures during my walk often have to be taken while 'back-lit'. 
I like how the sun gives everything a pretty halo .. like this fawn's tail:

                                             

And these huge Thistles, already going to fluff!

Lets see, what else ..
James obviously had a lot of fun sanding the walls and ceiling in the 'suite':

 

                                                           

I had a lot cleaner job; masking everything! (this is actually the downstairs area, I'm trying to stay ahead of him)

And this morning we worked together, while spraying structure on all the walls and ceilings:

              
                        Mixing the mud ..
 

       

See the 'speckles'?

It is pretty warm at the moment, temperatures in the 80's during the day, but the mornings and evenings are just about perfect.

So calm and quiet, not a bit of wind and very much 'balmy' temperatures ..

 

 

                                                            

We like to sit on the back deck these days since it's shady most of the day, and therefor the coolest spot for happy hour!

And there you have it .. another week in Paradise! 
As I mentioned before (I think?), we'd set a tentative departure date to leave for Wet gulch for the 6th of October, but it looks like we'll stay for another week or so longer.
The kitchen cabinets, that are being made by and brought up by Ronnie, might take a little more time than anticipated

This all depends on the weather of course. If it goes south, we go down. Ha!

Another beautiful Idaho sunset