Spring is Here, I Think

High-desert lupine. About the size of a teacup saucer!

It is spring, I can hear the birds singing, and the grass is starting to grow a little. The trees still look dead, but that's how it goes up here. The flowers above are from Jump Creek Falls.

It's spring break next week up here in Idaho, so I'm headed south. Not much I can do with my research with most people gone, and I can read pretty much anywhere. While in Humboldt, I'll be looking for a place to call "home" while I finish my dissertation this next year. Also looking at trucks, and making sure Ber and Gio have a place to call home, too. The week is going to fly by.
Hopefully I can ride a couple times, visit with friends, and have a good meal at my favorite Mexican restaurant. I'll try to post pictures, and maybe a few videos of horses.

Meanwhile, I'll leave you with some very, very cute goats from down the road, an example of a "catbird seat", and my happy horses.

Cat in a tree...

Very content cat in a tree!

Mama goat and two kids.

Third kid-an "orphan" in her own home. Bottle fed, hence people are very cool.

Tiny, micro flowers. The size of a pin head!

Side view of same micro flowers.

Carrot time!

Rare, quiet moment for Ber. Before the carrots appeared...

Jump Creek Falls

Went to Jump Creek Falls today, which is south of Marsing, on the south side of the Snake River. I'll let the photos tell the story....

At the Entrance, looking south into Jump Creek Canyon. It's a 1/4 mile hike in.


Walking up the trail.


Really cool caves all along the cliff sides.


I have lots of pictures of moss an lichens. Rocks were covered in them!


This yellow lichen was all over the place, especially high up on the cliffs. Looks exactly like the stuff on Abert Rim, in Oregon.


Jump Creek, winding under the boulders


Can you see the fish? Talk about camouflage!


The water fall.


The water fall from up on the cliff.


Hiked up on the west rim of the canyon to see the water fall.


From way up on the cliff, where the ravens were soaring.

A Sad Day

17 great years. 14 weeks, omg cute!

So Glad March has 31 Days!

I'm glad March is here, but I'm grateful there's 31 days in all. I need them! My Pilot Study passed IRB, which means the university research review board said I could go ahead and do my study. I mailed out 57 letters, with return SASE's, to prospective participants. I've heard back from 20 so far. That was enough to pull five participants for the first interviews, to test my questions and procedures (aka "pilot study:).

The exicitng news is that I need to submit a draft of my Pilot Study report on Monday (Mar. 8) to my committee for their review and feedback. Why so soon? Because my Pilot Study defense is March 22nd!! Wow. Pretty cool. So, nose to the grindstone and all that. Do five interviews, transcribe them, analyze the transcriptions and the data from the demographic survey, and find my conclusions. Whoa!

The weather here has been really nice. In the 50's, clear skies. Arcy has decided she likes to go for walks again, after a couple weeks of being a house potato. She says the warmer weather suits her fine. The horses are beginning to shed a bit, and the grass is beginning to grow in their pasture. So they are pretty happy. Jetta went to the VW dealer and had some work done, and seems to be running purrrfect again. I can't wait to see how the mileage is for this first tank of diesel after the work. Hoping to get back up to 45 mpg! None of this 40 stuff! (I realize 40 mpg is nothing to shake a stick at, but when you've been used to 45, it's hard to swallow! lol).

My dad and my brother, Stuart, are coming up the end of March to visit, just in time to go to my Pilot Study defense. Very cool. Then I am headed to Humboldt for a week. On my agenda for the trip is to figure out where the horses are going to live, find a truck to buy, and maybe even find a place for me to live! I also want to help a friend with her garden, check in on my house, spend some time with friends, maybe do some horse stuff, and spend some time each morning working on my dissertation proposal. Then it's back to Boise to submit my dissertation proposal, defend my proposal, and collect the data. Pretty exciting to see how it is all coming together. I hope to move back home by June 15th. WooHoo. Just before the heat really bakes Boise to a crisp. lol.