Living on the Edge

Wild Irises along the Little Spokane River

I have been driving by this meadow for the last couple weeks and more and more of these wild irises are blooming.  I don't particularly like planting them in my garden, but I enjoy them this way instead.

And it looks like they haven't hit their peak yet.  There's a lot of buds still to open.

You can't see it, but there are huge mosquitoes trying to carry me away right now.  It's hard to hold still when you are battling small, annoying insects that are trying to nominate you for blood donor of the year.

Nine Mile Sunset

Yes, I've been taking pictures of the girls....but there are so many other pictures that I want to share too!  We walked to our little park along the river in our neighborhood.  (It's fun that the sun doesn't set till like 8:45 or something like that)  DD even went walking with us.  We saw a pretty sunset adn headed back when the mosquitoes started eating us alive.

Would have been absolutely perfect if it weren't for the power lines!

Noah, Where's the Ark?

As you may have heard...we have oodles of water right now.  We can't even use the river right now...by county order...because of the water level, water temperature and water speed.  I can't blame them.  If I was a water rescue sheriff deputy I wouldn't want to go in the river to rescue anyone right now either! 

We were hoping to take the boat out this weekend, but that isn't going to happen this weekend.  Not with all the debris being carried by the river.  And especially not after just spending $6,800 to repair our $7,000 boat!

Wolves in North Idaho

This is my favorite picture from the past few weeks.  

The girls and I did a girls day out together this week.  There is this place in North Idaho I've been wanting to take them to for quite some time now.  It's called Wolf People and it's in Cocolalla, Idaho.  The name of the town is fun to say...it kind of rolls off your tongue...

Each day they are open they bring a couple wolves from their wolf refuge.  These are wolves that they use for education.  They will go and visit schools and teach children the truth about wolves...to help educate everyone on what is fact and what is fiction.

It was amazing to see them up close.  They are much larger than I thought they would be.  I guess I thought they were more the size of a coyote.

Q might be the animal whisperer, but CC has a way with dogs.  They love her.  She is our dog girl.  Both wolves licked her hand and greeted her.  (Our dog Buddy is the same way...she is the only one that he will lick/kiss!)

The male wolf loved having his back scratched...they were working on shedding their winter coat big time!  It was just a little unnerving to have your kids scratching a wolf's back.  But like when we were in Alaska and the girls got to feed the reindeer, it was a chance of a lifetime!

Yes, the gate was open!  Nobody got away!

They were a little wary, but pretty easy going....just don't go near their bones!

Wolf People is a pretty important place now that the government delisted the wolves.  Wolves can be hunted now, which is sad.  Their numbers will drop dramatically and all because people fear them or fear what they think they might do.

A Belated Mother's Day

Well, this is the third time that I've started typing this post.  If you are reading this it means that MSN didn't fail and send my typing into far nethers of webdom.  Of course if you aren't reading this you won't know that I am screaming and throwing my laptop across the room in a fit of frustrated web-psychosis.  Actually I wouldn't dare throw my laptop...because it's my friend now.  I'm not sure how I got along without it...mostly because it's off limits for the kids...so I know if something isn't working right...I messed it up!

We celebrated mother's day a week late this year because DD had to work.  The girls planned a special day for me. They whispered about it all week. They were so excited to have a secret that I didn't know.  It's fun that they are old enough now to actually keep a secret.

So Sunday afternoon we headed downtown and ended up at Riverfront Park.  The falls are incredibly high right now with the extreme spring run-off. So a favorite spot right now, for tourists as well as the local population, is the Riverfront Park's Gondolas.  It's normally a great photo opportunity, only made better by the river's high flow.

The gondolas take you down and over the river.

 

It was hot out, but the mist from the falls kept us cool.

It's not an incredibly long trip...but it's fun.  Of course Q was so relaxed throughout the ride.

Yup, that's her grip.  I don't think she let go until it was time to disembark back at the top!

She looks like she's having fun!  She is...as long as you don't make her let go of the railing.

This goose had a nest with a view of the river.  Our gondola went past her and her nest on the cliff.  I bet those babies have a short learning curve for learning to swim and probably for flying too.

This little troll was also there to greet us at the turnaround point  across the river.

Of course the girls knew that second to having a family day, my favorite part of the day would be the chance to take some fun pictures!

Water, Water, Everywhere!

The day of the Jr. Lilac parade, CC and I walked back to the car a different way. We went over the walking bridge that crosses the Spokane River.  The days are warming up and the huge snowpack is melting.  The rivers and creeks are filling and overflowing with water....lots of it.  This is the view from along that bridge:

 

CC kept trying to scare me by getting really close to that gap in the railing that you see just to the right of her.  The little stinker!

It gives the news stations plenty to talk about, that's for sure.  It also keeps our boat off Long Lake right now.  There are some huge logs getting carried over the dams and through the swift spring current.

On top of the snow melt, we had half an inch of rain yesterday.  It just poured throughout the day!  I know that doesn't sound like much if you live along the far north coast of California or the coast of Oregon.  But for Eastern Washington, it's just short of a deluge.  I'm sure someone is organizing the building of an ark!

I have more pictures in my camera from this past weekend when DD and the girls took me downtown for a belated Mother's Day celebration.  I will have to download them soon....

The Spokane River is raging even higher now!  They said it won't peak until this Friday!  And people in Spokane County have been ordered to stay off the Spokane River.  We don't know if that means our part of the river on Long Lake.  Hmmph...that may put a glitch in our plans for Memorial Day.  We have a date with our boat planned!

Wordless Wednesday

Here is a real sign of Spring!

How about some spring...

Here are some friends that have come back this spring to life out here on the edge...

The marmots woke up.  They are a busy little critter, scurrying around the marmot mound.  They are like my kids' hamsters.  You just want to go up and pet one...until they mash their teeth into your flesh of course. Actually they are more likely to just disappear down into their den.

The pair of osprey that built a new nest next to the bridge are back.  They have a bit of work to do on their nest to make it egg-worthy.

One osprey looks like another which looks like another.  But this is a different osprey in a totally different nest.  This one is an older nest along the Little Spokane River.  There's actually two standing there, but she wouldn't show her face.  Apparently her left side is not her best which makes her camera shy.

The turkeys were making their way through the woods behind our house.  They are teasing all the hunters that live in the neighborhood.  Though the boy turkeys have something more important on their minds right now....

impressing the girl turkeys!  Men...only one thing on their mind!

I love this picture.  Can you find the critter in this picture?  The dove blended in perfect with the rocks in the backyard!

No critters here....well maybe some chilly fish...but the falls are flowing...really flowing with the combination of snow melt and rain/snow fall this spring. 

Well, I need to get my other daughter off to school.  It's raining today so the critters will be laying low.  That's ok, because I've got walls that need a fresh coat of paint....lots of paint.

Spring is Getting Closer!

This is one of the first flowers that pops up in the forest behind our house.  It's such a pretty little thing.  You can't pick them because they die right away, but they are prettier growing among the pine needles on the forest floor.

This is the other first flower growing in the forest.  Please don't ask me their name.  They are the "Idunno" flowers.  They go along with the Idunno Mountains to our north! And no, I'm not saying Idaho with a cold!

Look at the first bumblebee of the spring!  I'm sure he was very happy to find a flower.

Can you see our first tenant this spring?

This little bird actually made this huge hole in the tree!  Amazing to think that little beak could do that big job!  He didn't mind me hanging out watching him (or her).  It was so intent on completing its nest!

And the final sign...The girls are wearing shorts!  Gotta love Q's plaid shorts.  I think I remember my parents wearing them when I was a little girl in Florida.  If only we had saved all our clothes from our childhood....my kids could be wearing them now and I'd save a lot of money!

The haze is the first day of spring burning!  No smog here.

Wordless Wednesday...really