~ fall harvest ~
It's fall harvest time and on Saturday, I went to Emmett to pick apples with Josh, Elizabeth, and Edvin. Elizabeth had done some research on the local orchards and had decided that we would all go to the orchard she thought had the prettiest website - - unfortunately, we couldn't find the orchard with the prettiest website and we drove up and down the road trying to decide which orchard to visit. Without a pretty website, it was a difficult decision. Eventually, we decided to visit the orchard that had the most other visitors and that had an available potty - - two excellent decision-making criteria.
I have never before gone apple picking and I was unsure as to what I should expect. Being somewhat vertically disadvantaged, I had assumed I would be balancing myself on my tippy-toes or relinquishing quality apples to taller persons. Neither were correct. Instead, I was given a pole-thing with a metal-dealie at the top, which I would use to collect apples from the tree tops. Below I am demonstrating my skill with this tool.
And see, the fruits of my labor.
As evidenced by the wind in my hair and my huge poofy coat, you would be correct if you inferred that it was windy and chilly. Brrr! In fact, the previous evening Boise received 1.2 inches of snow, reportedly the earliest snow on record - - to the chagrin of everyone. Fie, La Nina, fie!
Now, you may be somewhat shocked to learn that Josh and I engaged in a bit of silly goofing-off at the orchard. While Elizabeth was extremely serious about her apple-picking (she collected 25 pounds of apples) and Edvin was carrying all 25 pounds of her apples, Josh and I were practicing our ninja fighting skillz. In the below photo, please note the awesome harness-bucket thing around Josh's torso. Initially, I was peeved that he got to carry it, but when I realized that it was intended to carry apples (possibly 25 pounds worth) I wanted nothing to do with it.
Josh and I collected 8 pounds of apples, pretty much more apples than we know what to do with. Don't get me wrong, I like apples and I eat them occasionally, but we participated in this event primarily for the goofing off and secondarily for the socializing with Elizabeth and Edvin. Speaking of whom, here is Elizabeth with her 25 pounds of apples - - note that the bag is too heavy for her to lift.
On Sunday, Josh and I went on a glorious evening hike. We are both upset at the sudden turn towards winter weather, but we are determined to enjoy the foothills as long as we can. The hike was very enjoyable. Josh spent a good amount of time watching out for cougars, as they have been spotted in them thar hills recently. He also examined numerous animal footprints to determine if they were from a cougar. While I am not a wildlife specialist, I surmised that a cougar would not attack two full grown adult human beings when there was likely plenty of other food options available. I did, however, suggest that we take up some big sticks just in case. I also opted to growl into rustling bushes to scare away predators. Anyhoo, it was absolutely lovely and I took about a million photos. Here are just a few.
~ blue Missoula ~
As the subject of politics can sometimes elicit excitement and alter behavior, I went on a road trip over the weekend to Missoula Montana with Josh and Eric. The origins of the trip go back a few weeks when we were staying up past our bed times discussing the impending presidential election. Liberals in Idaho frequenlty confront reality when wanting to 'get involved' with politics beyond the local level. It's unfortunate that anytime I might consider volunteering for the state democratic party about, oh say, the presidential elections, I am detered because it seems like an incredible waste of time. During the political discussion of a few weeks ago, Eric mentioned that the Idaho Obama Campaign is encouraging potential volunteers to head to Montana because it has more democratic leanings than Idaho.
And so early last Thursday morning, we loaded up three adults, their crap, and their mountain bikes into my fuel-efficient vehicle and drove to Missoula. The drive was long, but it wasn't horrendous by any stretch of the imagination. We arrived in Missoula at about 4:00 pm and made our way to Eric's brother's house, where we would be staying. If you recall, Thursday was the night of the Vice Presidential Debate, so we declined a family dinner engagement and went to downtown Missoula to watch the debate over some beers. There was a bit of a snafu in the communication between Eric and the Obama Campaign dude, in which the latter had informed the former that there was to be a debate watching party, when that information was untrue. We made our way to the Union Club, thinking we were going to be watching the debate with other bleeding heart liberals, but other bleeding heart liberals we did not find. Instead, we got some grub from the bar kitchen (I had a chilli hot dog with fries, if you are curious) and watched the debate. The bar ended up getting really packed with other debate-viewers, so we were far from lonesome. Afterwards, we wandered around downtown.
The next morning, we rose and went back downtown for breakfast. Upon the suggestion of a local, we went to a very small place on Higgins. The goodness of the breakfast was slightly overshadowed by the crowdedness of the place (as Eric had to sit alone in the corner for some time due to lack of available seating). Afterwards, we wandered around that part of town, venturing into a few shops, including a bike shop and some kind of strange novelty shop. We also explored Eric's old neighborhood, including a walk by his old house. The males also got their swing on. After extensive wandering, we went to a coffee shop where I had lunch of a roasted red pepper sandwich and barley salad. I also took the opportunity to visit a yarn shop that was reported by various internet folks as being the best yarn shop in Missoula. Once I walked into the shop, however, I was to feel slightly uncomfortable as the shop owner was discussing her ill health and impending death with a friend. I was unsure what the most polite behavior would be in this instance, so I just kind of walked the circumference of the shop quietly and slipped out.
Then we went over to Rattlesnake recreation area and went on a fun mountain bike ride. I must say, the mountains outside of Missoula make the Boise foothills pale in comparison. Eric led us on a ride that took us way up the mountains and afforded us a lovely view.
The downhill was great fun, punctuated by a herd of wild turkey sighting. We ended up doing two loops. The first took us up the mountains at a fairly steep grade and wound us along the side of the mountains. The second was up some of the roads at a more moderate grade and down some singletrack with switchbacks. Both times we ended the loops with a fun jaunt through what I called Sherwood Forrest, a section that had truly sweet winding singletrack in which the autumn colors were striking on the adjacent trees.
The ride was a lot of fun and left me wanting to take a longer trip to Missoula to have more riding in its mountains. Afterwards, we picked up a large quantity of pizza for Eric's family, as a token of appreciation for letting us invade their home. We had every intention of hitting the bars that evening, but found ourselves watching "Empire Strikes Back" instead. I have to say, watching a Star Wars film with commentary by a five and four year old is a quality experience.
The next day, we went to a bakery downtown for breakfast and coffee. Afterwards, we went to the Obama campaign headquarters and spent half an hour in an asinine training, as though canvassing is rocket science. We got our clipboards and went to a neighborhood near the University to do our political duty. Eric went by himself and Josh and I teamed up. I thought the volunteer coordinator was full of doo-doo when he estimated it would take us 3.5 hours, but he proved to be right on the money with his estimate. Josh and I were able to get several people registered to vote and got quite a few absentee ballot requests completed. We also had a good conversation with a Republican leaning Obama as well as a few Independents. Therefore, if Montana goes blue this election, it will be ALL because of us. We rule.
By the time we were done canvassing, at around 2:30, we were all starvin' marvin. Eric directed us to a drive-in where we procured some delicious drive-in food. Of course, I couldn't allow us to have a normal / boring drive-in experience. I had to go an drop Eric's burger down the front of my person and onto the car floor. The server person was nice enough to get him another free of charge. Then, as I was exiting the car, I managed to drop the entire tray that was loosely affixed to the window and which was supporting multiple uncovered containers of ketchup, all over the ground. The resulting ketchup splatter caused me to have a large quantity of ketchup all over my clothing, compounding the preexisting ketchup and mustard stains that I aquired when I dropped Eric's burger onto my person. Anyway, I was just keeping it interesting for everyone.
The next adventure was to Blue Sky Brewery for some free beer. If you've ever been to a local brewery, you can imagine how that adventure went. We all had to try on every single Brewery hat, had to play with all of the beer openners, had to put the beer cozies on our heads, and in general defied our maturity level. Afterwards, we returned to Eric's brother's house for some R&R. That evening, Eric went to a family BBQ and Josh and I had a date in downtown Missoula. We went to a sushi place, where we enjoyed some fairly good sushi, and then wandered all around, having various silly moments. We explored the river area, having a great deal of fun running on some grassy mounds and eventually went to a bar for some wine. We returned to the homestead where Eric recounted the shenanigans of the family BBQ.
The next morning, which would have been Sunday, we had a hearty breakfast with the family, which included pancakes, scrambled eggs, and sausage made from a deer that Eric's brother shot and killed. We then loaded our persons, our crap, and our bikes into the car and set off for Boise. The drive back took longer as a result of more lengthy stops, including a lunch stop at Kooskia.
Photos for this are available here
