Thanks, Dad!

      This pack has been many hiking miles so far this summer. Dad gave it to me at the beginning of the summer, and wow! It's been great. In this picture it is full of sun-bleached pieces of a cow's spine=). Teachers need things like this. Nathaniel and I found the remains scattered around the trail while hiking up onto a ridge. As I've been in need of consecutive spinal column pieces for sometime, we loaded it up in my roomy pack and took it back to the lodge. Thanks, Dad! =)

A storm hung over the Gravelleys as I drove home last Sunday. Some storm clouds are pearly and bronze, without pattern and very magical looking. Such were these. I could see the storm brewing on the right side of the road and stretching lightly over toward the Madisons on the other side of the valley. Only it thinned out into a rainbow on that side. It was gorgeous! I felt treated to a movie scene.

The Centennials

The flat-topped, rocky, basin-filled Centennials form a solid boundary between Idaho and Montana. They also form a large valley of the same name. If you can picture an upside down 'T' then separate slightly the perpendicular lines you will be picturing an elementary map of the Centennials and the Gravelleys. The Gravellys being the up and down part and the Centennials being the across part. The Centennial Valley dives through the space made by separating the lines. It is a beautiful, grass-laden valley. Harsh in the winter and oh, so rich in the summer. This picture is taken looking southward toward the Centennials (from the perspective of the very southern end of the Gravellys). The lodge is placed at this point and if I would have pointed my camera slightly downward, you would be able to see it in the middle of this picture. Speaking of which, ignore the differing blues in the sky. I tried to combine a few photos and they weren't exactly the same color!

Sheridan is probably one of my favorite towns in the Ruby Valley, and the Ruby Valley is close to my favorite place in Montana. Here's one of the reasons. Serendipity is a cute, fun little place that is sparkling clean and good smelling. Sometimea curl of homemade pizza smell wafts passed as someone is being served their lunch or the inticing coffee scent of a freshly made  americano guides your eyes to the drinks board. Yum! 

My good friend and I went the other day and this delightful huckleberry milkshake is what I ended up with. It was a hot day and we had already been plant shopping. It was time for something cool. I also bought my sweet little niece something there. The proprietor has a wonderful selection of quality, valuable toys and kids items along with some other things like candles, shirts, jams, etc. A cute little girl helped me pick out the puzzle. She was an efficient little saleswoman!

This is my sweet little saleslady.

                                                                                                                                        
Another great place to go is Kindred Spirits Gift Gallery. While at Serendipity we ran into the gal who owns this place and this prompted a little walk down the street and across for a visit. It's wonderfully eclectic and 'ritzy' feeling. She has art of all kinds: paintings, cards, wooden works, iron works (like these hooks made by her husband), painted brooms, jewelry, and more. In addition she has a great selection of books to peruse through.


Kindred Spirits Gift Gallery

There's lots of great stuff packed into this little town, and I haven't even begun talking about the fields, cows, nice people, gravel roads, charming yards, tranquil rivers, beautiful mountains, great greenhouses, and shimmering round bales of hay!



A Meal

Elk Lake...dinnertime for the workers brings wonderful things to the table. We take turns cooking. Sometimes we pull out delicious leftovers out of the fridge, sometimes it's a mix of old and new, and sometimes it's all new. Laurel's turn was last week and we enjoyed some great food! We had a round-the-world food week. One of my favorites was jagerschnitzel. Pronounced yeagerschnitzel this meal comes straight from Germany.

Laurel put together a yummy fresh salad with a sparkling vinegarette dressing and roasted corn; homemade French fries; and pound, breaded and fried pork cutlets; and a rich, smooth mushroom gravy to pour over both pork and fries.

Earlier in the day I had walked into the kitchen following the sound of pounding coming from it. Laurel was pounding a bunch of plump little pork steaks into the thin, wide pieces she needed.  This is not a little amount of work.

The smell of the gravy drew me in later as it bubbled in readiness on the stove. The final product was delicious as I already stated. We were all 'full as ticks' as the saying goes!


Laurel, the chef of this meal, has a blog called Eating Up the Road that I would be remiss if I didn't mention. It's a chronicle of her and her husband's travels and experiences as caretakers of Silver City, ID. Take a look!

Delight in the Details

As you know, this country begs to be hiked and I love to do it! Who wouldn't like meeting the sweet-smelling wind at the top of a ridge then dropping down into the still air and lush vegetation at the floor of the next draw? Wide panaromas and the veins of a flower, hot sun and cold springs, steep hills and flat cattle trails...many different aspects make hiking something that calls to many of us.

Here are pictures of some little details pulled from a vast country. The first picture is of a bitterroot, our state flower. It was growing on a steep hillside which we were scurrying up, I using my hands extensively! What a place to capture a picture. I had to balance against the slanting side while working the camera. My companion held back grass that was in the way for me. We got it then continued the scramble up the side.

This little froggy was interrupted in his sunning as we came down a ridge and upon his little stream. My companion remarked, "This is a good place to see some frogs and turtles." No sooner said than done. This little guy plopped into the water and 'hid'.

Look closely at these neat old boards! Rough cut without the bark removed, these bright boards cloth most of the buildings in the 1930s sheep camp we came across. They are still so bright! That sheep camp had a barn with a corral built over a stream. I've seen that more than once in old corrals around here. It's a built-in water supply.  Back in Oregon something like that would create a muddy mess I would think!



While vast occures in one's mind as they hike through this country; the words tiny and delicate also enter in. Look at these flowers which fulfil both adjectives. Add beautiful as well!

This post wouldn't be complete without a man-made detail. Our starting point was a 'shack in the woods' tucked into a hill out in the middle of what some would consider nowhere. It is in a beautiful nowhere. And you reach it on a beautiful dirt road which wanders past a curving and warm creek, up past jutting rocks and down into another peaceful valley skimming away from the base of the mighty Sheep Mountain in the Gravellys. It is the dream of a neat man named Billy. His place will be a hunting 'camp' which hunters may rent and use as a base of operations. It's gorgeous! Wood everywhere, a big fireplace, a huge and lovely kitchen with the awesomest looking 6-burner gas stove! This painting shows the lodge's name and was done by a relative of the builder. It's a lovely spot.


Comfort Food

Soup...I usually end up ordering a cup of soup and a roll at a restaurant. This is for a couple of reasons. First it's in the category of comfort food. The other reason that I got into the habit was because that way I could justify also ordering a piece of pie, another comfort food. Here are two Elk Lake versions of both.

Hearty Vegetable Soup

Lerrina made some spectacular hearty vegetable soup a few weeks ago. Our morning routine has us in the kitchen and when Lerrina was making this there was pile of vegies going into it. I didn't look at the recipe but she must've sauteed herbs, butter and onions at first because it was smelling so good!  It got great reviews in the form of the same people ordering it multiple times. Delicious!

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Pie is American, it's delicious, and joins soup in the comfort realm. We make lots of pies here. The one pictured here is special because it came from a healthy little rhubarb plant growing on the banks of little Narrows Creek as it flows through the yard. That little plant has survived winters up here! Lerrina and I went out and cut it fresh for the pie. The strawberries weren't from bush to pie, but they were great anyway! The topping is a crisp topping with browned coconut added. Yum!