Snake River

Looking across the Snake River, in a northerly direction.

It is Sunday, the end of week 2 of the "Summer Marathon" as I've been calling it. So far, so good. School is going great, and I'm keeping up with the work load. Today, for a treat, I decided to drive down to the Snake River. On the map, it seemed like it would take forever, but it just took about 35 minutes or so. I am going to try to go on a short road trip every Sunday, so I can get out and see the wonders of this place. My trip up to McCall two weeks ago, when my class went to the ropes course, opened my eyes to the places I could go...

Looking down the Snake River in a westerly direction. The girls were standing at my feet, water between their toes.

As you can see from the pictures, it was a cloudy, overcast day. I imagine the colors of the mountains would be stunning on a sunny day. It was hard to take pictures, because there was virtually no where to pull over. The farm lands go right to the edge of the road, and there isn't a "senic overlook" to be had. There was a boat launch area, and I took the girls out to explore, which made their day. Of course, now they are crashed on their respective rugs. Doesn't take much, these days, to wear them out!


Along the drive, there were all kinds of high spots. Hat Butte, Jackass Butte, Wild Horse Butte, and Castle Butte, to name a few. Not sure what all their names were, but a few times, they made a stunning sight, against the backdrop of gray. I'll leave you with the landscape as I head back to work, or out to work my horses. Haven't decided which to tackle first, yet. :)

I believe this is Kuna Butte, looking towards the North East.

Five seconds later, the light had changed, so here is Kuna Butte again.

I think this is Guffey Butte, looking northerly.

Unnamed Cliffs of the Snake River, east of the tiny town of Murphy.

School is....Scintillating

All I can say is....Wow. And I thought my first semester of classes was interesting. I had no idea that these first two summer classes would be so fantastic. This is why I came here. The classes are about the problems of school reform (how DO we make things better) and examples of schools that are making things better. It is hard to express how charged up I feel, and how much I am gaining from the reading, writing, and discussing we are engaged in, both inside and outside of classes. I guess if you could see the smile on my face and the spark in my eye, you'd probably get it pretty quickly!

Catching Up

Been a whirlwind couple of weeks. After my brother visited, I started on the reading and first paper for one of my summer classes. Read four books and ten articles, and drafted a 20 page paper on Memes and Education Reform. Phew. Also in the final stretch on the first McNair paper.

I am riding both horses now, and Berhwood is starting to go out into the world on trails. He loves it. Unfortunately, both of them had issues with their backs, so I had the horse chiropractor out. He did a full adjustment to Ber, head to tail, which has made a world of difference. Though Ber could go back to work after a day of rest, Giovanna's pelvis was terribly out, and she was on two weeks of rest, when she ripped open her heel. She's going to be fine, but it pushed back our ability to work two more weeks. I'll start lunging her again the end of this week, once I can be assured her wound is really on the mend. Oh, and I made arrangements with a teenager down the road, who trains horses, to come help me by standing on the ground while I get Giovanna going under saddle. I've been on her about 5 times now, and we have walked a few steps, but she needs (and I need!) the support of someone on the ground.

Next, I organized my life and found sitters for my dogs and horses for three days so I could run (fly) home for two days. I needed to check on my house, rescue a bunch of plants, help a friend with laying out her garden, visit a few people I missed seeing back in March, and play with horses a bit, including watching Top in action, finally. Wow, what a horse. (See horspoor's blog for pics of Top that I took.) I was delighted to find that my renters are taking excellent care of my house and the yard, and are really good neighbors to the neighbors. The flight down was great, and my visit was just what I needed, though it seemed awfully short! My heart is full again, and I find it much easier to focus on my work here.

The flight back was another matter. Turns out San Francisco had closed one of their runways, so all flights in and out were getting backed up. I was panicking when my flight out of Humboldt was delayed 3 hours. I called horspoor when I learned that I would be getting into SF AFTER my flight to Boise was supposed to leave, and decided to go ahead to SF and see what happened there. Luckily, my flight to Boise had also been delayed. I waited 30 mintues, then boarded the plane. Which had problem after problem before we could depart. While loading beverages, a bottle of wine was dropped and broke, spilling wine everywhere; a tray table was broken and wouldn't stay locked, so a tech guy came on to fix it and the pilot had to inspect before we could leave; some mechanism in the cockpit malfunctioned so they had to go to back-up, and test that. Finally we left, the flight was perfect, and I was home by 10 pm.

The girls did great at their sitters, but they've been my shadows since I returned. I told them I won't leave them again. My next trip down home is the end of August to paint the Trinidad house, and I'll be staying for a full week, so I will take the girls with me. Should be perfect timing, as the temps could be in the 100's at that time. Humboldt will be mighty fine. lol.

Summer classes began yesterday (Monday) at 7:30 am. For ten weeks, I'll be on a pretty intense schedule, and any spare time I have will be spent with my horses. Today, Tuesday, our summer classes drove 3 hours north to a small town on a lake, and did a ropes course with high and low rope elements. I got a lot more out of the low ropes stuff than the high ropes stuff, but I did everything, even leaping off a 30' pole to grab onto a trapeeze bar. Yikes. Quite the experience. They had elements with names like "Leap of Faith" and "The Screamer." Here's a pic of me, flying through the air.


In closing, I'd like to send out a big Congratulations to my youngest brother's mom, who just passed her Comps and has now earned her Master's in Literature. She's a high school English teacher. Way to go!!!!