Spring is on it's way!

Driving to Grangeville last week, I spotted these lambs in a meadow in Slate Creek!

It was a miserable day, cold and rainy, and the poor little things were all hunched up next to their mamas. 

I didn't take pictures than, but decided to go back there yesterday, which was beautiful and sunny, and this time they looked much better! Most of them were just relaxing in the sun but a few were up and about ..

This is one of the daddies!

They are Rambouillet sheep or French Merinos, and have very fine, and super dense, fleece.

I'll try to get my hands on some!

A little further down the road there are several large herds of cattle in the meadows near the creek, and guess what .. calves!

So cute! This is as close as I could get, on this side of the river, and using full zoom on my camera, still not the best shots but you 'get the picture' (ha).

 

I'm amazed at how early these youngsters are born. 
I bet there's still some cold weather coming, but I guess the farmers know what they're doing and they're going to be OK?!

Talking about that trip to Grangeville, we had to pick up Sam's truck, which was repaired (busted fuel pump), and we took the opportunity to do grocery shopping and get some materials for James as well.
This was how the road up the Whitebird pass/summit looked like:

White Bird

This is a little further up the hill, looking back ..

And here we're passing Miriam's place, right in the middle there, where you see some trees at the bottom of the hills ..

This is just before we reach the summit at 4,245', again looking back to where we came from ..So far the winter has been very mild, this is about as snowy as it has been. We didn't even get that much. OK, let's run and knock on wood now ..

James certainly is happy about it, and even more so now he has found 3 more workers this week! There young 'kids' and don't know much (yet), but they work hard and are willing to learn. Yeah!
Things are moving forward a little faster now, and the first walls have been going up:

                               

                                                        

                                                        

Looking good there boss!



How about this view from the master-bedroom window:




This is how it looks now coming up the driveway to the old house below:

                                   

Don has done some more excavating and leveling ..

                                       

It's hard work, holding that level, but someone has to do it ..

My week would have been rather uneventful as usual, except for the fact that I spend several anxious days trying to book a plane- ticket to Amsterdam!

Yep, Time for another visit to family and friends, it's been a year and a half since I was over there, so I'm a little overdue, but of course there was the truck-disaster and all, so there really was no money for a while.

I always get so nervous, trying to get the best price and making sure I make no mistakes in dates and times and everything else ..

But I got one, with nice dates and times, so I'm happy, and boy what a relief!

The price was outrages, but I guess that's only going to get worse with the whole 'green' movement ..

 I got myself a present for a job well done ..

 

A new bag! As I mentioned in the previous post I went back to the restaurant in Riggins where I saw it and lo and behold, they still had it!

My old bag was 7 years old and falling apart so it has been retired.

This new one is a Myra-bag, apparently made from the canvas of recycled, old army tents with some scrap-leather accents and straps.

I feel so green! Somehow I don't think it'll make up for that airplane ticket though ..

I don't see them often, but they are around!

We're having a couple of rainy days at the moment. It started out with a day of very fine/light snow all day yesterday, and today it rained steadily and non-stop all day long. 

James' crew didn't work yesterday, and he has cancelled the work for the rest of the week too, it's just too miserable out there ..

This is a picture of the light dusting we had on Sunday and this is how it looked today ..

Just as well that Ronnie and Sam brought us some vitamin C, all the way from down south, in the form of  a whole bag of citrus fruit when they arrived here last week! 
It included some Satsumas, the mandarin/orange variety we loved so much when we were in Louisiana!

                      

             Doesn't that look healthy?


Talking about the job, things are starting to go up! See?
The floor is coming along and part of a (inner) wall is up:

I climbed yet another hill on one of my walks and took this picture which shows the house from a little different angle.
I was very (almost uncomfortably) high up on that (very steep) hill.
I always forget that I have to go down too, and that things look way-y-y steeper when you look down!

Here's the boss, spraying down the glue for the floorboards:

There's a whole herd of Elk that keeps coming down the canyon on a regular base now. They're coming closer and closer down to the house ..

And the other day, just when I thought there was nothing interesting to be seen, and I was already on my way back, all of a sudden there was this ..



I immediately froze and crept a little closer towards the side of the path, trying to blend into the hill so he wouldn't see me.
He didn't, but he kept looking up and around and sniffing the air .. I think he smelled me!

Let's see, what else .. on the cooking and baking front, I'm sorry to have to say, that my second attempt to bake a sourdough bread was a total bust!
After taking it from his 'slumber' in the fridge, I think I killed the starter, by adding the wrong ratio of flour and water when I tried to revive it!
The result was a nice, firm hockey puck, a deadly weapon of sorts!
Oh well! I'll try again ..

             

On the contrary, the French onion soup I made in the IP, came out great

                            

French Onion soup in under an hour. Ooh, la, la, la, c'est magnifique!

          

Talking about food, since I wasn't able to do my grocery shopping on Thursday due to the fact that Sam's truck was in the shop (busted fuel pump), we went shopping in Riggins on Saturday and had lunch there also.

We tried a restaurant we hadn't been to before, which in the winter is only open in the weekends (you got to love small towns).  

Although the place doesn't look like much (and that's an over-statement), the food was surprisingly good!

I also spotted a nice looking purse they had for sale (don't ask) and that I didn't buy ... of course I regret that now, so I might go back this coming Saturday to see if they still have it!

If not, it obviously had to be so ..                 

It's a Concre-ature! (Ha!)

As you can see we had a wild week. 
Concrete was poured in the Styrofoam forms .. and James got covered in the meantime!

This was the first time the concrete company was using this conveyor-belt system, and it worked like a charm. 
The whole contraption could effortless reach the walls on the far side of the house!

        

Still, it was a rather messy job, that shirt James was wearing could not be saved.
The guys worked their butts off to get it all done in one day, they had three trucks coming and used it all!

Now the 'building-up' part can start!

                          


An enormous order of wood and beams and screws was delivered, and a start of placing the beams that are gonna hold up the floors, was made ..

                                        
              
We were very fortunate that the weather had been so warm and dry, and the concrete trucks had no problem coming up the driveway.
Lucky indeed, since the next couple of days looked more like this, and the drive way turned muddy and slippery:

Grey, rainy and cold .. yikes!

I went for a short walk to the river on Sunday, just to get some fresh air in my lungs, but was happy to come back in the nice and warm and cozy RV, and enjoy a nice cup of hot chocolate in front of the fireplace!

                               

Fortunately, we woke up to a beautiful morning again on Monday, just in time for work to be able to continue ..

I went for a longer walk, up and over the hills this time. What a difference a day makes!
Sometimes I have company these days in the form of Tody, Steven's dog. 

He's such a sweet and fun little guy (the dog).

He really loves, loves, loves it when you throw him a stick and never tires to chase it, but he likes to go for a walk too. 

I guess he gets bored with the guys ..

And than for something totally different .. I've been trying my hand at making sourdough!

James loves it, but I've never been a big fan of the American sourdough. I've always liked the German-style bread though.

Any-who, James' niece Bethanie is 'doing' it, and reading about her trials and tribulations on Facebook, I decided to give it a go.
  

  

Well, let me tell you, making this type of bread is not for the faint of heart! It is a very interesting process, to say the least!
First you have to 'make' a starter, aka mother/leaven/chief/sponge. Which can take 5 to 7 days or, if you're un-lucky, up to 2 to 3 weeks! It's easy enough, just combine flour and water, let it sit at room-temperature and 'feed' it every day until it starts to ferment ..
Mine took 12 days (I started to get a little nervous there!), but finally I had a beautiful bubbly, melted marshmallow-ish concoction. 
If a teaspoon of dough floats in a glass of water, it is 'potent' enough to rise a bread-dough!




I mixed part of the starter with bread flour, salt and more water and let it rise overnight. The next morning I had a beautiful risen dough. Phew, so far so good!

                                   

After forming it in a ball and letting it rise for another 2 hours, it went in a hot cast-iron pan, in a 425F oven, for about 30 minutes ... and voila!

A beautiful crusted bread, lightly (just enough) sour and pleasantly 'chewy'. Wow, I did it! How about that?
The only thing I forgot was to 'score' the bread so the crust didn't break open as it should to form a nice, rustic looking, 'ear' .. minor detail ..
I actually dusted some flour on the crust, using a quick, hand-cut-on-the-spot template, so I think it looks nice enough.

Now to keep the starter alive! It sits in the fridge until next time. There are people that have 100 year old starters that originate from their great grand-mothers!
I named my starter, as is tradition, Beth, for Bethanie, who inspired me and is as bubbly, sweet and nurturing/mothering as this starter!