Boise

Pat & I went to Boise, his hometown, for the weekend. It was absolutely wonderful to be off the ranch for a bit. I'll admit, though I've only been in the middle of nowhere for several months, re-entry to a big city was actually overwhelming. Traffic, noises, supermarkets- goodness!


Pat has an apartment in a charming neighborhood, walkable to stores and restaurants. Saturday night we (and by we, I mean Pat) made an absolutely wonderful homemade dinner, grilled steak with caramelized onions and blue cheese with a salad on the side. My steak was perfectly barely cooked for my taste with blue cheese and onions dripping into every bite. It was so awesome to get eat slowly and not beside a dumpster. Then we met his friend Jimmy out on the town.


On Sunday afternoon, we went to Pat's step-grand-niece's one-year birthday party, where I got to meet Pat's parents and his two brothers, Tim & Bill, Bill's wife Gina, Pat's aunt and a whole lot of other relatives. It was a great picnic-party in a park. Boise apparently has lots of parks. The one-year old properly covered herself in cake and received five thousand pink gifts. Pat also received his birthday present from the whole family...an older (read, more sturdy and cool looking) Cuisinart commercial mixer that had been refurbished. Unfortunately there wasn't time to whip anything up over the weekend, but I did get to hear it sounding like a jet engine while running-quite impressive.


Then on Monday, we got to go boating on Lucky Peak Lake with just his parents. I love riding on motorboats, it makes me feel like a dog with his head stuck out the window. We stopped on a dock and went for a swim. (Forgetting my swimsuit, buying a swimsuit in under 10 minutes and wearing a swimsuit that didn't quite fit all of me, was an especially exciting part of "hanging out" with his parents, but all went well). They are very nice, and we had a relaxing time on the water.



Pat's Dad retired from being a pediatrician in the Air Force when Pat was little and then became a psychiatrist, which he continues to practice several days a week. He told many funny stories. Pat's mom did the question asking to make sure that I was up to snuff to be with her son. I think I passed, you never know for sure!



















We also toured around the city a bit. Downtown Boise is great: very clean, lots of great restaurants and bars with outside seating. I'm surprised by large cities that don't expand into suburbs. From what I saw, it looks like Boise just stops and the hills start- no sprawl that gradually dissipates. There was a great view of the whole place from on top of properly named "Signal Hill".











I apologize there are no pictures of the family. I thought I might get a few snaps at the end of the day, but a large wind storm made it hard to get in and out of cars, let alone take any good pictures.

Daily Grind

Another exciting week in the middle of nowhere. No really, the middle of nowhere. It's still absolutely gorgeous here, although there is smoke in the air from fires outside of Mountain Home, but by the middle of August, living and working with the same people has its moments of tension.


So here are some pictures of the people that have to put up with me day and night. Erica and Barbara work in the office with me.












Rosie and Andrew are in the kitchen. Edward is chopping. Pat is lounging in the bakery (okay, he usually works harder and longer than I do, but I caught him lounging, just this once).














Then we have Andrew showing his son, Quinn, how to play ping pong during the Thursday barbecue. Andrew, generally known for his temper, also spreads sarcasm and bad puns throughout the day.






We get to eat breakfast in the dining room with the guests, however most lunches and dinners we outside. The staff outside seating, unlike the nicely woodworked benches in front of the lodge, is a solitary picnic table behind the lodge. When it gets to full for any more of us to squeeze in at the table, don't worry, there are always extra milk crates to pull up. Yes, the picnic table is next to the dumpster. But I have to say, atmosphere or not, mostly not, I have had a great many laughs around the dinner table with our dysfunctional "family of employee" dinners.




Random other parts of my day. Filling the beverage jugs on the front porch with home-squeezed lemonade, water and ice tea. This part of the job also includes cleaning up any mice or squirrel droppings, as they make the lemonade less appealing.


Walking on the employee path to home.

Watching the housekeepers barrel around the ranch in the golf carts. We're hoping to have races at the end of the season. Maybe even an IRMR Iron Man: biking to the pond, (which is very cold, nobody swims in it), swimming across the icy cold pond, racing the golf carts down the driveway, across the highway and to the hot springs pool....for a celebratory soak. I don't know yet if we can make it happen, but I'm willing to flag the start line!

Boundary Creek Trail

Here are pictures from my hike last Tuesday. It is actually the same trail that I took near the beginning of the summer, but this time I made it all the way to the top to the view to the next valley and Casino Lakes. It was an amazing hike. It was hard and took longer than I thought I it should, but I made it!

It was just me, the butterflies and God on the top and it took my breath away (well, the hike might have helped with that too)! I felt very renewed inside....and I felt blisters and sunburn on the outside.

Roads to drive

Monday night Pat & I went on a drive on Nip & Tuck Road. I'm pretty sure this isn't a road named for any gymnastics move, but it was a gorgeous evening. We walked by old homes of which just the chimneys were left. We saw cows and jack rabbits and we tested Pat's Trooper for it's vertical inclination...it was inclined.

Custer & Bonanza Ghost Towns

So, ghost towns aren't scary. There just towns that people used to live in and now all the people are gone. I didn't know this, I was expecting goblins and shaking chains. However, it was extremely cool to visit Custer and Bonanza.

First of all, I learned that Jerry Springer did not invent human foibles. Agnes "Lizzie" King's grave site tells the story of a young bride arriving in town with her husband, Richard, who unfortunately was killed in an argument. So then Lizzie dated Charles, the owner of the local hotel. But before Charles could get Lizzie to the alter, Robert Hawthorne swept into town and swept Lizzie off her feet. They were married...briefly, before they both "died" in their home. Charles buried them beside her first husband, Richard, (in a graveyard separate from the rest of the town's graves) and then he disappeared to another town. When Charles died later, alone in his cabin, he was clutching her photo. What are the lessons to be learned here? If you're going to run off with someone when you're engaged to someone else, run to another town, so they can't kill you. Also, if the one you are betrothed to, disses you, get over them and move on to someone new so you don't die alone in a cabin suspected of murder, (unless that's your goal in life). Life lessons by Emily.

The coolest part about seeing a town that used to be there, was imagining all the lives that happened there. Custer and Bonanza were both mining towns. Custer was six times bigger than Stanley's current population. People moved there to find their fortunes. The red districts were full (there were at least four) of women of the evening. Families started, grew and dissipated from there. Then the mine hit hard times, people moved on and now the town is gone. Will my town be gone in a hundred years? Why do I worry so much about stupid things when my town could disappear just like that? Another note to self: Meals on Wheels and Ghosts Towns make me stop worrying about small petty things.

















The large machinery looking object is the Gold Dredge that is located near Custer. It moved about a mile a year tearing up dirt in order to filter out gold specks. Apparently it was closed because it was hurting the river system. Gosh, but it looks so environmentally friendly?