Deer in Headlights Experience

Tonight on my way home from Boise I had a much too close encounter with a very large female mule deer.  I was cruising at 65 mph down highway 95, and Bryan suggests that I turn on my high beams.  I do so and am shocked to see this deer standing in the roadway.  In my horror, I flicked off my high beams (which was very stupid of me...but I was not thinking rationally at this point); and I hit the brakes as hard as I could without losing control of my very fast traveling vehicle.  I literally reached the deer at a slow enough speed to swerve around her on the right hand side of the roadway as she casually stood there in the middle of my lane simply looking at me and then s-l-o-w-l-y she began to saunter into the other lane of the highway.  Needless to say, I was somewhat spooked after this experience.  Bryan calmly suggests that I may want to cruise at somewhat slower speeds after dark when traveling on the wilderness highway.  The truth is, had I actually hit that deer at the speed I was going, Bryan and I would more than likely be in a hospital and the deer wouldn't have survived.  I praise the Lord for sparing us!  And from now on...I will be using my high beams and traveling at a slower speed after dark.

Trip to Lewiston, Idaho last weekend

Bryan and I took a trip to Lewiston, ID last weekend.
Normally it would be a super gorgeous and scenic drive, but as you can see from a couple pictures that  I took below...the views were masked by the smoke from the ongoing fires burning out here.  The smoke has been getting worse and closer to us.  Air quality is terrible.  The locals are telling us that this has been the driest summer that they can ever remember.  We join them in praying for rain.

We drove down Lewiston Hill.

 

We walked the dogs along the snake river on some nice park paths.

 

We went through the Discovery Museum at Hell's Gate State Park, which gave detailed descriptions of Lewis & Clark's Expedition.

 

And on our drive home, we had the rare privilege of watching one of the fire fighting helicopters dip his water bucket in the Salmon River and fly back up over the mountain to continue fighting the fire.

Here are a couple pictures Bryan took.

 

 

MORE LATER.
Thanks for reading.

Sacrifices for Love

OF SPOUSE

Move to Idaho to build dream house

AND

Believe the best
But raise contest
When given test

Then let it rest
with forgiveness request.

OF CHILDREN

Sleepless nights when they are small
Fiercely protect as they grow tall

AND

As they grow
I let them go
And hope they know
I love them so

Every day
To God I pray
That close to Him, they will stay
And "Please, God, take their cares away."

OF DOGS

Commit to care for them for life
Vow to never bring them strife

SO

NO airline flight
(I prevent them fright)
Just drive, drive, drive
So they will thrive

Potty breaks without delay
"Chuck It" ball is what we play
When it's time to end the day
"Motel 6" is where we'll stay.

 

A Walk Around the Neighborhood

These are our neighbors and new friends, Sharron and Arne Pederson.
They had us over for dinner with another couple from our new neighborhood, and today, Sharon and I went on a walk around our neighborhood.
Here are a few photos from the neighborhood:

And here are some of Sharon's photos from her walk on another day:

 

Today we saw deer, elk, and bear prints and scat... two red hawks, quail, magpies, and lots of little birds that I don't know the name of.  After we walked for about an hour, we went back to Sharon's place and I took this picture of she and her husband and their dog Gigi. 

 

They are caretakers for this home, which is a retirement home owned by a couple named Hughes.  The Pedersons live here from April through October, and then they live in their huge motor home in Arizona over the winter months.

 

 

After my walk with Sharron, I took these pictures from our property. 

 

As you can see, Bryan is moving a lot of dirt.  Footers will be  poured on Wednesday and the plumber will be prepping the radient floor heating for concrete floors to be poured after that.

 

This is looking up the driveway.

 

This view is looking from the top of the driveway down to the road.

Bryan had the footers dug for pouring.

In this picture, I am standing on the place where the house will sit

 and looking towards Cuddy Mountain.

 

 

That's all for now.  Enjoy the pictures.

 

 





Two Weeks In Idaho - Update

Our "Home-Sweet-Home" During Building Project

 

We have been in Idaho for a little over two weeks.

 

Every day so far, the weather has been warm and sunny with temps in the 80's and 90's in the afternoon (but no humidity, so it feels very comfortable), and it cools down to lower temps in the evening and mornings.  Below are some photos that I took of the property and the beginning of the digging to install the septic system/electrical lines/phone lines, and today (Sept. 6th, 2012) the plumber and Council Construction were out to run the water lines from the well to the shop and house.

Things are progressing.  We should have our land line phone by Monday morning.

 

 

 

You may notice that the sky looks smokey in the above photos.  That is because our first week here, the skys really were smoky from fires in Oregon and Eastern Idaho.  We saw some burned areas.  It is very, very dry out here.  They have not had rain in over two months.  So while we do not have any humidity, it is super dry and DUSTY. 

 

ADJUSTING TO LIFE IN IDAHO:

 

We are fairly certain that we've found our new church:  Cambridge Bible Church.

It is the closest church to our home, and the people are super nice and friendly.  Pastor Roger is also very kind, and welcoming/Pastoral and his preaching these past two weeks has been very good!  His preaching style is a solid, Biblical expository style, and he throws in lots of helpful historical detail and makes great life application points...so we really do like his preaching style. I think that he is in his 60's (?).  He extends sincere interest in his flock.  I like the way he relates and interacts with his people.  And I like the way he attempted to locate our new home site from the visitor log after our first week, and he remembered our names and asked us follow-up questions the following week.  It's awesome to connect with the body of Christ 2500 miles from our PA home.

 

I've been doing lots of driving and exploring to see where the shopping is etc.  Ha. Ha.

I even took Kelby to an agility training class on Tuesday night.  It was great!  I signed up for an AKC agility dog show in Boise on October 12th & 13th.  I'll be taking her back to QQuest training classes so that we'll be ready to show.

 

Our neighbors had us over for dinner last Monday, August 27th.  It was very kind of them and it was wonderful to get to know the new neighbors.  (Sharon and Arnie Pederson and Ed & Irene Hargus(?) I'm not sure about that last name. )

I'm going for a walk with Sharon tomorrow morning. 

 

On Labor Day Monday, Bryan and I went for a long (12 mile) ride on the Weiser Trail.  Beautiful!

But I realized as we were on that bike ride that I am actually more "city-fied" than I thought I was. 

We came across a lot of varieties of birds and the signs of other wildlife were all over the trail.  Plus, since this is a "free range" state, cattle roam where they wish and so there are lots of cattle gates along the trail.  Some ranches are probably fencing their cattle in...but some ranches are probably fencing cattle out.  We rode right up to several herds of cows and it was a little too close for my comfort.  I am not accustomed to being in close proximity to such large beasts where we are sharing the same trail with no fence between us.  Yikes!  Plus there was tons of what Bryan thought was bear scat on the trail as well.  It's one thing to enjoy seeing a bear cross the road in front of my car.  It's entirely another matter to contemplate a bear walking out in front of my bicycle.  So, I have some fears to work through when it comes to walking and biking by myself in the heart of the wildlife's homeland.  Now I really do need to get comfortable with my handgun.  It will be prudent to carry it on those walks & bike rides.

 

I'll post more pictures and updates on our building project progress soon.

 

Take Care All.

Love and Miss Ya, and I look forward to seeing everyone towards the end of October.

 

 

 

 



Switching Gears

High to Low
Fast to Slow
Rat Race to Snail's Pace
Work Rush to Sage Brush
Time Punch to Endless Lunch
City Malls to Forest's Falls
Highways to Byways
Roadside to Riverside

Our out west relocation adventure begins.

It took us eight days to arrive in Idaho.
Of course, we were driving a Semi Truck and being followed by our friends in our pick up truck with our 5th wheel RV, and we stopped to visit friends in Indianna and Iowa.  And, we toured the Badlands, Wall Drug, Mt Rushmore and Custer State Park in South Dakota. We also spent two nights in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons National Park.

Amazing views!  Wonderful waterfalls and wildlife!!!  I love the buffalo!  And seeing the bald eagle catching fish was cool too.  Overall, the trip was not as grueling as I had anticipated and I really did have a great time sight seeing.
Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the trip:

We arrived in Idaho on Monday, August 20th.

On Tuesday, Doris spent time with her good friend, Debbie and Debbie's family; I got the RV set up and cleaned and laundry done, while Bryan and Brian Runk started the work of intalling the septic system on our property.

Wednesday and Thursday, Doris and I explored the "closer" towns of Weiser & Ontario, Oregon and Mcall. 

And Friday, we all drove to Boise for dinner and to take Brian and Doris to a hotel by the airport for their early Sat. a.m. flight back to PA.

We are extremely grateful that Brian and Doris Runk, (our friends & neighbors in Huntingdon, PA) agreed to join us on our journey west.  We had a great time along the way, and Brian's help with getting the septic system installed was much appreciated!