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?!

Three different life-styles: RV, Cabin, Mansion ...

Time sure flies! Especially now we're in those last couple of hectic weeks, aka 'crunch-time', when we're working hard to get everything done before we leave.
Only 2.5 more weeks to go until we're back 'on the road again'!

Many birds are ahead of us though, and are (or have) already leaving/left for the south. We often hear and see V's of Geese, honking their way south in big flocks.

                                                      

                                                                     Gold Finch

Lots of smaller birds are gathering too, but are still hanging around for the seeds of the (mountain) sunflowers and thistles. I bet they're almost ready to pack up and go as well though.

Flicker

The weather definitely is changing now. We're going to have some rain over the weekend, and the temperatures will finally drop into the 60's! Or .. so they say ...

I've come across several Wooly-bears this week and only one of them had a brown band, the others were all black.
This doesn't bide well for the winter, since they have the reputation of being able to forecast the coming winter weather. A bigger brown band is good - a mild winter. Bigger black bands are bad - a hard winter. All black ... you better go and find your 'woolies' (ha!) because an especially bad and very hard winter is coming!

Althought I'm not looking forward to the, still, hot temperatures in Arizona, it might be for the best that we're going to spend the winter in the south this year!

The blackberries are all done for now, and the Italian plums are getting all mushy, but we're having apples galore.

                                                 

There are about 4 or 5 different 'brands' on the property, and the black walnuts are starting to ripen and fall as well.

Black Walnuts

I don't think I'm going to venture into 'doing' anything with them though.
For one, they stain everything, your hands and clothes, a terrible black, and secondly, they are extremely hard to crack. And after you would have braved all that, they need to dry for a couple of weeks before they're edible.
Too much work, if you ask me, and especially now we're so busy. We just don't have the time .. or the energy left!

 The house is starting to look great! Guess what? Houston .. we have a ceiling! Look at that!

                                

Isn't it gorgeous?

This last shot is taken from the landing to the loft, looking down into the kitchen and living-room area .. and as you can see, the countertops are in as well!

And also the bathroom counters and sinks, and the one in the laundry-room/pantry/mudroom:

                   

Talking about bathrooms, the shower in the master is starting to look good too (that bright red is some thick water-proof paint that went on first, before we started tiling):

                

Needless to say, the days are long and busy, and we're pretty much pooped at the end of the day when the 'golden hour' comes along ..

The beer and wine at happy hour have never tasted this good!

Proost!

 

 

 

Hey, look at that! Fall colors! Yeah!

'Tis the season, and it's starting to look like it .. a little bit. It sure doesn't feel like it much yet with day temps around 80-85F, but at least at night we're now cooling down into the high 40's low 50's, which is better than it was.

                 

                                      

                                             And yeah, some color. So pretty!

                                                              

I found these little 'lanterns' along the river.                                               

  

 

Normally they're much more orange, but maybe that'll still happen?  I'll keep my eye on them ..

This fuzzy caterpillar tried to make it's way across the gravel to the other side of the path, like they usually do for some reason?

I think it's a Woolybear, but it has no brown band at all?

                                                

 

And there was this Praying Mantis, sunning himself in the midday-sun.
I know this one was a male, because he flew, before he landed there! Females have wings but can't fly.  

          

And this one, who was a completely different color! Female?

Here's a few more fun facts about Praying mantises: they have bulging eyes and heads that can swivel 180 degrees. They eat nothing but live food, mostly insects and clean their forelegs after eating. Cannibalism is common among them, it is estimated up to 28% of males are eaten by their partner. After mating, the female stores the male's sperm and later uses it to fertilize the eggs that she produces.                                                                    There, now you know! Such intriguing little insects!

On Saturday we went golfing a little later than normal because James had won a round for 2 at a raffle during last month's tournament, cart included, as well as dinner for 2 at the club's restaurant.                                                                                                   

So instead of golfing early in the morning, like we normally do, we went over later in the afternoon, played 9 holes, enjoyed a glass of wine and beer for happy hour and sat down for a nice Prime Rib dinner:

 

 We had a window table, with a view of the setting sun over the Camas Prairy. Very nice!

 

As I mentioned in my previous post, Sam, Ryan and Ronnie arrived on Monday, and 'hit the

ground running' as they say .. 

 

They've immediately started sanding the, now dry, wood they milled the last time they were here, and are varnishing the back-side as well while they're at it.

 

James in the meantime, has spray-painted all the kitchen and bathroom cabinets, and I helped painting all the casings.

 

   

  

 

 

 

 

And yesterday we tackled the pantry/laundry-room: 

 

                                  

 

He created a spray-booth out of Sam's trailer:

 

                                  

                             Works perfect!

Austin and James are almost done with the two dormers. Still more to do, but the end is in sight ..

No more scaffolding in the front!

                                   

                                                        But now it's in the back .. can't get rid of that thing!

In the evenings James usually enters all that has been done that day on the computer, and writes down everyone's hours.

This unfortunately is also the time that Merlin wants some 'lap-time' and attention, and it has always been a struggle to accommodate both a cat and a computer.

 

But not anymore!

We ordered this handy dandy computer-desk on coasters that fit over the chair's legs at the bottom, and has a tray/table which can swivel back and forth over his knees.

 

 

 Eh, voila, problem solved! Everybody happy!