Ha! As I said on Facebook: "that's what you get when you mention Spring!"

Mother nature had to proof me cocky I guess, and dumped an inch of snow on us last Sunday night. 

And here I thought good-ole' Punxsutawney Phil knew what he was seeing, or actually not seeing, and predicted that early spring ..

Oh well, it only lasted a day and melted away quickly but it sure makes for pretty pictures doesn't it?

 

James cancelled Monday's work but since they worked on Saturday not much was lost there ...

Other than having to wipe our dishes, we weren't inconvenienced much .. (got to record 'our' shows, you know!)

   

We'd already got our groceries done on Saturday, and snuck in a lunch at Cattlemen's  Family dining, another local restaurant we hadn't been to yet.

It's mainly run by Kate who is quite a remarkable and very energetic women, trained as a classical pianist, has raised five children, been a fly-fisher river guide, and now runs this fun little restaurant.

Almost all of her products, including meats, are organic and/or home grown and she bakes her own breads!
Besides that, she likes to get to know her customers, tries to come over for a chat when she can, and apparently has some great (fishing) stories to tell ..

  

We split a Greek wrap, accompanied by some fried onion petals (yum!). Not 'haute-cuisine' but very tasty and filling ..

Unfortunately Kate was talking up a storm with some other customers so we didn't get to chat with her, but since I've heard her breakfasts are phenomenal I think we'll be baaaack! 

Talking about bread, since my sourdough bread-baking has been a bust twice in a row now (think hockey pucks/deadly weapons), I tried a no-knead-bread for a change (and a moral-booster) which came out rather good ..

It rose so well, it hit the top one of the 2 cast-iron pans I use to bake my breads in, and got a little to brown (think black) on one side, but it tasted good so I might stick with that for a while ..

The raspberry bars I made were excellent as usual, super-sweet, but so good!

 

The house really took shape this week. All the outside walls are in as well as some of the inside ones ..

I'm also quite excited, since I've found a different area to walk!

I drove the car all the way up to the back of the canyon and parked it, and than walked up the small path that leads all the way up the hills on the right hand side.

Halfway up I had this view, looking back towards the house. If you look real careful it is just visible in the middle of the picture (that white dot, just above the trees):

Here it is, when I zoom in:

 

And guess who I came across, when I rounded the next bend:

I'm pretty sure this is that big herd of Elk that came down the other week, and overnight-ed in our pasture!

Unfortunately I had to walk the whole way back down to the house, since for some reason I could not for the life of me get the #@$%! car to start back up!
James drove me back up (on the tractor), and of course he got it to start right away!
It turned out that I had maneuvered the front wheels in some rut, which was the reason I could not turn the stirring wheel out of it's 'locked' position, which prevents it from starting ... sigh!

Beautiful Idaho .. even in the grey of winter!

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 ..