The heat is on

...and we haven't died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Yet. (ahem)

After a rough start involving regulators (bad advice from 2 hardware stores - WTF, people), we finally got the heater hooked up and operating. As in: Keith crawled under the house with the spiders while I fished copper tubing through the hole and then he did the rest. He's good at that!

So, yes, it's definitely not as attractive as the old stove (which was a beaut), but the efficiency and reliability factors went through the roof with the new one, which runs on propane. We set it on the LOW setting and it keeps it at 70°+ all night. That's with the window cracked the width of my fist to prevent aforementioned CO poisoning.

The black part on the floor that was under the old stove will probably stay (ugly as it is) until we re-do the floor as part of the Murphy Bed Project, so that means who knows how long. Anyway, it's a concession we're living with.

Having heat indoors means we can, theoretically, work on the interior of the house over the winter and you know, cook meals and use a toilet of some fashion. Wow, won't that be an exciting day. The kitchen counter and sink are waiting patiently. Me, not so much with the patience.

Of course the dogs are very happy to have heat, too.

But having a heater doesn't mean they still don't get in bed. I was fooling myself thinking it would. Nothing short of pigeon spikes could keep these two down.

Don't let anyone tell you short-haired dogs don't shed. They do. In enormous amounts. I swept the day before I took this shot.

We're enjoying a mild, if rainy, fall and haven't seen any trace of snow in the valley. It frosted a couple of weeks ago, but otherwise plants are following the late seasons we've had all year. Here's a panorama from the (covered!) front porch of the tiny house. Click on it to see it larger.

I finished up Ashley's senior portrait session (4 in all! whew) and was pretty happy with the final results.

It took me a bit to find my groove and match up what I had in my mind with what I was able to produce through the camera. She was a good sport, too, and very patient with me. If it turns into some referral business, great. If not, it was still a good experience.

It can't be October already.

On the way up the old Nezperce grade last weekend to cover the Lewis County Fair (and also the combine demolition derby), we stopped at The Point to take in the view.

Once you get on top, the scenery really changes and starts to resemble the Palouse.

It was a gorgeous day. I saw a dust devil and even snapped a few photos, but it escaped capture.

In Tiny House news:

We sold our stove! Mixed feelings on this. We both LOVED that stove. Aesthetically, it was perfect. Practically, not so much.

Keith ordered a propane infrared heater (something similar to this) from a local place today as they're on sale for $170. It will great to wake up on a winter morning and not have icicles in my nose. (Also, since it's been gone - no where to pile things as we come in the door. For me, a person who lives by piles, it's somewhat of a problem.)

We're still not sure what kind of kitchen/cooking set-up we're going for now that we're going to have heat under control. We saw some rad outdoor grills at Costco. I mean how sweet would it be to have something like this.

We even considered an outdoor oven, like Camp Chef sells, but I don't know how practical that would be. Probably not the safest way to cook inside, ha. But as long as the weather stays above freezing we have a coffee station set up on the deck. French press travel mugs + camp stove = mmm.

Photography-wise, I am hoping to get on a roll with some senior portraits. I'm shooting the first girl for free (she's buying prints) just to get the images out there and hopefully that will earn a referral or two. I've heard people want options for senior portraits around here, but whether or not I am that other option, we'll see.

I made a FB page for myself and I've uploaded the first set of Ashley's senior portraits there. It was a meet-and-get-comfortable kind of shoot so I'm hoping to push the boundaries a bit downtown tomorrow on her second shoot. Maybe try to channel Parker Fitzgerald.

Mia girl has been on a tennis ball rampage. We bought 2 cans in Missoula and we have two balls left. She would go until her heart exploded, but we take it easy and I make her take drink breaks. Thinking of submitting her (and/or Lazlo's) photos to the Idaho Humane Society for their calendar contest...

This is how we camp.

Keith and I and my parents and Amanda and Keith (aka K2) stayed in the Adams Ranger Station cabin this weekend. It was only a couple hours' drive for us, but more like 5 hours for Amanda and Keith. It borders the Gospel-Hump Wilderness, which we've always wanted to see/go to (right out our back door, practically), but had never visited. We'll definitely be going back. With some hiking boots.

oh hai

Keith and I went up on Friday around noon to scout the place and take a drive to the nearby lake(s) where Keith hoped he could fish.

Keith was watching the fish rise wayyyyy down there, lower Gospel Lake

We made it all the way to the Moore's Lake trailhead (another 3 miles into the lake) and back down to within 1 mile of the cabin when the brakes on the (1988)
beater
Ranger seized up and we ended up walking the rest of the way back, with the dogs, alongside the highway where gravel dump trucks were running. Good times. Still, not 12 miles out and not in the middle of the night, so no real room to complain. But: no fishing.

inside the cabin

Saturday after a delicious pancake brekkie, we all piled into my parents' quadcab and drove even farther up the same road, all 14 or so miles to Square Mountain Lookout. Pretty basic and, I imagine, pretty windy. But what a view!

Square Mtn. Lookout - WYSIWYG

Click on the photo for a larger size.

This is Mia's idea of camping---when you get to go inside and sleep on a bed at night. She was a pretty good girl.
She let K2 pet her for about 15 minutes one morning (she let him pet her all weekend, actually) and then nipped him on the back of the leg a little bit later. Bad dog! And we had to wrangle Lazlo whenever Amanda and K2's dog Cliff was around because Lazlo thinks he needs to ... I don't know what... dominate Cliff? He's done that already, so I don't know what his point is. Anyway, just to be safe he was on leash a lot of the time.

Cliff is a good dog, despite what Lazlo thinks.

After making it back down the very steep road from Square Mountain Keith hopped in the Ranger and the brakes had un-seized themselves and we did a happy dance.

The scenery up there is gorgeous and we're lucky to live so close to somewhere that is TRULY wilderness. I'm not kidding when I say we'll be going back with hiking boots. Gospel Lake, for sure, is a trek we'll make and I think Moore's Lake, too. It would be great to spend a couple weeks in the backcountry next summer and this is so close it'd be criminal not to.


It's definitely looking like fall up there. A lot of reds and oranges. I just had to break out my "nifty 50" to document it.

Activities

That's me crossing the finish line of my first 5k. Not a goal I would ever thought I'd set for myself. I used to be one of those people who thought running was stupid. I wouldn't say I'm a total convert now, but I see the value in being outside and pushing limits and zoning out. At least that's why I get out of it. Also, calories burned.

I started "training" using the Couch to 5k program back on March 14 and had several setbacks (shingles, blisters from the hike) that caused me to backtrack, but the farthest I had ever run without stopping was just over a mile.

I decided the BBQ Days Fun Run would be my last chance this year to get in a race, so I decided to go for it, push myself, and see how far I could go. My goal was to run the whole thing without stopping, but I didn't know if that would be possible.

almost to the halfway point

Saturday a.m. I ran to the halfway point, past the halfway point, to a shady curve where I walked for about a quarter mile and then I finished running the rest of the way (including up a hill, which is why I stopped--to have the energy to go up it). At the end I was thinking, I shouldn't have stopped. But I did. But I am still happy with myself since I hadn't run at all the week before.

Sunday I covered the Extreme Bull Bash for the newspaper. Not exactly my scene (I feel bad for the animals, especially when they're getting shocked), but I got some great shots. The newspaper has decided to start selling prints through zenfolio as well (in fact, I pitched it to them), so the photos are technically not mine. (Prints for sale/view will be here later this week.) But here's a preview.

This is Clayne Haight, a local high schooler who was one of the younger riders in Saturday's competition. They had PBR bulls and even some pro riders, but not that many successful rides. Bulls kept escaping from the chutes. It was a little hectic. But the turnout was really good and I think it's something they will do next year.

Photo Friday

Indian Time

I'm still climbing the learning curve of how to use my DSLR, but I managed to get a couple good photos at the pow-wow last weekend before the sun went down.

I'm very familiar with Indian Time, and its close cousin Mexican Time, and honestly I think we (white people) could learn a thing or two about not fixating on schedules. However, I'm setting the scene for Friday night.

The pow-wow was scheduled to start at 7p (Indian Time---even the FB page acknowledges it). So when some people down the bleachers asked what time it would start, I knew there wasn't a concrete answer.

I said, "What time is it now?"
They said, "7:20"
I looked around, saw no indication anything was happening with any speed or sense of urgency and estimated, "Maybe about 8?"
I heard later it didn't get started until about 10p.

Amber & Joe & Florence

I posted photos from Amber & Joe's engagement session in Stites and Kooskia on my site. (Once you're there, click on any image to start a slideshow.) Amber is a good friend (and classmate since 1st grade) and it was great meeting Joe. They're getting married in November in Mexico, so I suggested an engagement session for fun while they were visiting Idaho and they were up for it. I'm pretty happy with how the photos came out, too.

This coming weekend I'm going to do shoot the Chief Lookingglass Days Pow-wow and a woman I went to school with asked me to cover some special events during it for her family, so I am stoked to hopefully get some good, intimate shots there.

My parents and Keith and I drove up past Grangeville to check out a cabin we've reserved for us and Amanda and K2 in September. After we checked out the cabin we drove to Florence, which doesn't really exist anymore, but it's a former boom mining town in BFE Idaho.

It's all gone now, we only saw remnants of a couple cabins and all of the ditches that had been dug for mining. But at one time, the population here reached 9,000! That's amazing considering the very remote location and the fact it was the late 1800s. Gold fever, baby.

The cemetery was the most interesting part. It's been restored somewhat, as in new markers have been made for some of the graves. Though one sign we read said one person per day died on average, so there has to be more bodies buried that they just don't know about and/or have lost track of...

There were also indentations left with a sign that explained "Exhumed Graves of Chinese Miners." Hopefully that means the bodies were returned to their country of origin. There was a semi-circle of holes like this apart from the rest of the grave markers.

Related: Kooskia's internment camp during WWII has been in the news a lot lately as archaeologists from the University of Idaho are working there.

A lot of the "new" grave markers said "Unknown" but the ones with names and dates showed people who died there who came from Canada, Georgia, Kentucky. All to find a fortune mining. I don't think it worked out like they thought it might. But you have to admire the sense of adventure that brought them there.

There are also a lot of dredge ponds left over (see above) where moose are likely to be, but we didn't see any this time.

porch makeover

I had to step into the soon-to-be-shower to get this last shot.

Keith and I were pretty productive this morning - we got all the slats up on the porch. We had originally planned going all the way to the top with them, but decided we wanted the option of more air/sun on top in the winter.

We might frame an awning that would be just screened (like a horizontal screen door) that would have legs so we could prop it open if we want.

But, for now, this will work just fine.

The butcher block you can see in the top photo is from my great-grandparents' cattle ranch. We're going to set up a little outdoor cooking area so we can have dinner at our own house once in a while.

I thought we might get started on installing the kitchen counter, but we ran out of time. Another day.

Friends from Oregon are visiting and we're floating the river this afternoon, then doing an engagement session for them, then dinner. We went to some other friends' (classmates of mine) and had dinner and talked and it was nice to be acting like adults with friends, something we're not all that practiced at doing.

Also: meteor shower tonight! We saw a few stunners last night, but tonight is supposed to be the peak.

Around the tiny house lately we’ve been starting more projects than we’re finishing, which is, really, just the way we operate. (Are you new here?)

Projects in mid-stream:

1. Covered porch – still working (thinking? planning?) on getting the slats across the front and maybe the side. Until then, it still works as a hammock haven.

2. Insulation – we have maybe 1/3 of the roof insulated and some of the ceiling boards in place (to hold the insulation in the rafter bays) and it has dropped the temp in the house considerably in the late afternoon. (The roof on the porch helps, too.) We made it most of a day doing this (I’m an excellent brad nailer.) and then Keith got started prepping my parents’ house to paint…and that was the end of that.

Also we put up shelves over the doors for my camera gear. Barn wood will back the shelves. Some day.

3. Kitchen – we have shelves under the kitchen window holding our dry goods even though we can’t cook in the tiny house. Mostly for decoration/illustration, I guess. We found some yellow pipe (instead of galvanized) to support the yellow counter with our sink, so hopefully that will see some action sometime soon.

We sat in our theater seats on the front porch yesterday and talked about how we needed to make a list along the lines of Must Accomplish Before The Cold. Presumably a toilet falls somewhere on the list...