Fire & Ice

Proof to the fact that we have had a very, very dry winter; the Reno area was hit with its second fire storm in about two months time. Thank you for those that inquired about our safety, luckily we were just fine in this last fire. Cassie's house however has been close to the action in both of these fires. The last one came within a mile and a half of her house.  I am sure that DNR firefighters are not called out for action very much in January but "stuff happens"!
The fire storm was finally brought under control when the weather changed, it started to rain and the winds died down. So within 24 hours we went from fire to ice as our first snow of the season arrived.

Morning's first light hits the Highlands.

A cozy look for a cold white morning.

Carolyn is getting the "Lady Cave" in tip top shape.

Storm Runners

We made a trip back to La Grande via a rather circuitous route, with stops in Redmond, Or., Winlock, Wa., Gresham, Or., Pendleton, Or., La Grande, Or., and Winnemucca, Nv.  And the end result was getting the rest of our goodies out of storage and instead of being a storm chaser we instead were storm runners!! We made a last minute decision to pack up the truck and get out of La Grande before a Winter Storm was to dump 7 to 11 inches of snow in the valley.
We left Reno with a weather report that looked pretty innocent. We drove up 395 through Lakeview, Or. then cut over to La Pine via State Hi-way 31. It was our first time on 395north of Alturas, Ca. The eyes are always open a little wider to take in the scenery which is noted in the first few pictures....

This mesa top was lined with Indians on their horses but just as I got my camera out they disappeared. This mesa is just east of ValleyFalls goes for miles and miles.

Just before entering the town of Paisley the Coglan Bluffs are very prominent.

The residents of Paisley didn't bother to stop and say hello to us as they were quite busy with lunch, we just nodded and drove on...

The fasted land mammal in North America, the Proghorn Antelope, also ignored us as they appeared to be focused on traveling north.

These ladies on the other hand not only noticed us but they made us stop and take note of their ability to follow a very wide path.

The photographer made good use of the car mirror to capture bovine both in front of the car and to the rear.

As we approached La Pine, Mt. Bachelor looms in the distance (to the left).  While the mountain appears to have a nice mantle of white, a few days later a couple of the storms that hit the Pacific NW dumped several feet of new snow on the mountain.

We stayed a night with our good friend Gloria in Redmond, Or.  

A couple of days later in Gresham we awoke to the signs that maybe Winter was going to grace the West Coast after all.

This Humming Bird was glad to find some high octane syrup on this cold morn.

Meet the snowman.....

Meet the snowman maker!!.....................oops, the picture had to be remove as the picture was a bit revealing and we did not want to embarrass anyone that was not an actual carpenter.... 

A brief glimpse of the Vista House at the entrance to the Columbia Gorge.

Multnomah Falls looks spectacular from her snowy top to the barren valley floor.

La Grande has many sledding spots and the kids were out in force as this was the first measurable snowfall of the season to test out those new sleds and dishes.

We only spent about 24 hours in La Grande as we got word of an impending storm. We loaded up our truck in the dark on Monday evening and then headed out of town about noon the next morning to outrun the storm. We did just that but could not make it all of the way home as we were exhausted an took refuge in Winnemucca, Nv. 

A Quiet Spot in the Comstock

We took a little time out the other day to explore the old "Silver Terraces" Cemetery in Virginia City. We have always found it interesting to poke around old cemeteries, and this one was no less interesting. The community seemed to pride themselves over the fact that they actually had running water at the cemetery back in the 1870's (it cost all of $3,000).  This helped make the cemetery more like a park and a nice place for people to come and meditate or pray for those friends and family that now occupied the premises. 
The following pictures certainly do not depict a garden setting but a rough and tumble desert setting on a mountain side that has seen it's better days. There is a foundation that was formed in the last ten years that is helping to restore the site before Mother Nature has her way with everything at the cemetery.

The plastic daisies are a nice winter touch.

A view of Virginia City from the cemetery.

The overburden or waste material from one of the old mines, Mother Nature is slowly reclaiming the landscape.

This picture kind of says it all....

Surely not the bluebird of happiness!!

A Little poking around the area....

Fun Nevada Factoids #1: Nevada has more mountain ranges than any other state in the Union.


First of all let me apologize for being a bit slow with my updates, but as you might surmise, everyday now has a trip to the hardware store, grocery store,  lighting store, paint store, recycling cardboard, ... and the list goes on!  At least we are making progress in converting a house into a home.
The other day we did do a little exploring of Six Mile Canyon.  This is another windy road that goes from Virginia City down to the town of Dayton. Dayton is the first place that gold was discovered in Nevada.

 This is actually the drainage outlet from VC to the valley below, I would venture to guess that this little stream has had it's fair share of toxic chemicals over the years from all of  the silver and gold mines.

I believe this is a Prairie Falcon, just managed to catch a picture as he/she was preparing to liftoff.

Rocks, rocks everywhere, and this particular one has a face that kind of looks like Mr. Potato Head without his hat.  

Yesterday I walked to the house from the mailboxes (about 1.1 miles) and snapped a few pictures along the way.  We had some beautiful clouds as the lenticular clouds were out in force, showing off their sleek UFO figures.

Uhm-m-m Kemosabe, the tracks are fresh, maybe two hours or less...should we ride on or make camp here?

Carolyn found a salad recipe that called for chopped up juniper berries...from the looks of this we are going to have a lot of salad! Maybe we could invite Silver and Scout over to graze at our salad bar!?!

Some VC Highlands humor....

Uhm-m-m, Tonto have fun and scrape letters off of sign, make pale face go crazy!

Fun Nevada Factoid #2: Nevada is the number #1 state in the production of gold and if compared to the world would only follow South Africa in annual production.

Christmas and Beyond

We hope y'all had an excellent Christmas with family and friends. We certainly had a great day, went to church, then to Cassie & Mark's house.  Amanda & Violet arrived about noon then a couple of their friends came over and the following happened:

• Plenty of good food, prepared by many
• Football on TV
• Games
• Gift exchange
• Plenty of chatter with a good mix of shucking and jiving

Some pictures from the day....................

Lexy was happy with her bone and yellow buddy.

Mark tells Daisy that she is not to beg food from anybody or be a pest.

Is someone trying to get attention?

Daisy finds a soft touch at the dinner table!

Goodies start to accumulate....

Unwrapping a gift or two put smiles on everyones faces.

Cassie had bigger hibiscus growing in her house than we ever saw in Costa Rica.

Violet & Amanda

Let the games begin, yours truly put together a "Minute to Win It" contest after dinner.... here we have people trying to pick up penne noodles with a spaghetti noodle ... the competition was intense .... 

The other contestants watched intently....

After noodling around the next part of the game was to move a cookie from your forehead into your mouth with only using your face and neck muscles...

Rachelle gets harassed by her sister in an attempt to disrupt her process of stacking shimmer poms.

One of the prizes for "Minute to Win It" was my old Donald Trump wig that turned into an instant hit....

You go girl!

Cassie looks good in her new hairdo...

Rob, looking ever so suave, knows that this style will win him a few extra dates.

Oh my gosh, this makes me look over 21...wait a minute, I'll be 21 in a month and a half!!

Ok, enough about our Christmas Fun, now let go back to the hood with some apples and carrots....

Ok, I'll give you some apple, just don't blow snot on me!!

The big man on campus takes his fair share of goodies from the ladies!

This mare is thinking: "The Big Man thinks he is such hot stuff, well he is certainly no Trigger or Silver!!"