Unfinished Projects

The fall sun angles dramatically on the southern horizon.  Shadows stretch across short cropped green alfalfa fields, the golden light oozes over the landscape.  Today's walk is cold with a southern breeze, going back will be chilly.  

This is the time of the year to finish unfinished projects.  Dig up the gladiolas and daliahs.  Mike bangs the hardiboard lap-siding onto the north side of the greenhouse.  Think about cleaning the leftovers of moving, now over a year and a half past.  These long walks afford pause to ponder the Unfinished Projects.  Of course, walking does not accomplish any of this work!! 

Rooster smells the air for grouse but finds chipmunks and mice.  He seems equally overjoyed and frolics through the frost-dried grasses.  Hound's tounge weeds stand patiently awaiting the fur of an animal and I spend ten minutes pulling the tick-sized, velcro-covered weeds out of his wirey coat.  I leave the invasive weed seeds on the other side of the highway in the gravel road.  

Elk graze in the afternoon sun.  This morning we watched a herd of 150 elk cross the road just to the west of our place and settle on the hillside above the summer homes.  The calves mewing for their mothers, a bull bugling a half-hearted end of season call.  

Writing a blog piece is always unfinished business!  Now done, I need to go off and make some dinner!  Enjoy these last fall days; clocks get changed soon! 

Good Bye Fall

The season of spring has many likable traits, but fall is the best season of all. 

The weather forecast is messy for this upcoming week; rain, rain and snow, and then snow.  Watching the beautiful days tick to a close, we hooked up with neighbors Pam and Lou and floated our vessels down the Salt River.  The river cuts Star Valley in two - west side, east side - running north into Palisades Lake.  

This year, the river current is swift and there are challenging rapids.  Mike rows our blue raft, Pam and Lou follow us in their metal boat clunking its way into rocks over shallow spots.  The river smells cold and clean as we are all carried along past grasses turning yellow, aspens shimmering in reflections, and giant mansions built by the river.  It is a glorious afternoon for a float on a river. 

Fishing is challenging this time of the year for hobby fisherpeople.  Flying insects are rare and the fisherpeople play with knot tying, changing up flies, trying a different patterns, different colors - trying to guess what looks delicious to a fish. 

Mike drops the oars and casts; a stressful and not successful endeavor.  Corners of the river announce rapids ahead and we strain our necks trying to see what is coming around the bend.  

The problem with fishing is how easy it is to miss the view, the big picture.  I catch a couple of fish and prove to be the only fish catcher on this beautiful Sunday afternoon.  Mike "coaches" me to improve my fly fishing techniques.  I am certain I embarrass him with my amature rod-whipping.  We are the quint-essential couple; he coaching me along while I get frustrated and pissed and just do it the way I have always done it!  And I manage to catch a fish or two along the way - just think how many I could catch if I knew how to fly fish!!  (Five total for the day, by the way).

This nice lil cutthroat trout gulped down my fly toward the end of our trip.  He recovered well after my rough handling and zipped back off into his wet, dark world.  

We ended our afternoon pulling boat and raft onto trailers and heading out for a bite to eat.  The morrow's day weather forming on the western horizon.  

  

Here is today's saffron harvest.  One gets a real sense why this spice is the world's most expensive spice.  The beautiful red stigmas are plucked from the lovely purple blue blossoms where they dry on a paper towel.  Local saffron.  That's a real novelty!!  We will keep the heater on in the greenhouse until the month's end to coax more flowers from the hazelnut sized corms.  Then, I will dig them up, dry them, and store in the crawl space until next year.  This home grown spice is so priceless, I'm not sure they are for sale this year!!  I do believe there will be Paella on the menu a time or two this winter!