Well what
an exciting two weeks! Since my wonderful birthday picnic I have been creating
all kinds of havoc in the wilderness! BUT I have had plenty of help thanks to
my wonderful friends and family!! It all started last week when Samuel and I
went huckleberry picking in Ponderosa Park. The bushes were laden with the
sweet little berries and despite eating half our crop we still managed to fill
two large Tupperware containers AND leave some for the bears! Of course we took
our purple stained fingers straight to the grocery store to buy vanilla ice
cream (as any decent self indulging huckleberry picker would), and you can
imagine the sundaes and milkshakes that ensued. Delicious. That is all.
A few days
later Samuel and I returned to Ponderosa, not for a second go at the berries
but for a swim in the lake. Although it was pretty cold still, I enjoyed it
immensely and it marked my first time in Payette
Lake in over two years! Thanks Samuel for being such a fabulous adventure
buddy!!! What would I do without you?!
Mom and I decided
to have or own adventure last week as well. For years my wonderful mother has known of a top secret airstrip in the
Idaho backcountry that is of PARTICULAR interest to me….It was once a homestead
and although now abandon for quite some time has apricots, apples, tiny plums,
grapes, logan berries, and cherries still growing wild. After Mom scoped it out
last week she informed me that the apricots were ready and it was the biggest
crop she’d seen in years!! Well we packed the plane immediately and flew back
together to see if we could get a few buckets for jam canning, and did we
ever!! We picked until our buckets were full and our arms were jello. Much of
the fruit was still too green but the cherries, plums, and apricots were just
right…this is what 20 gallons of ripe wild apricots look like…Holy. Moses. What
a happy girl I am!
Some where
in the middle of all that shenanigans I managed to take myself on a hike up to
Hazzard/Hard Lake, which was very nice except for the horrific mosquitos!! Charlie and I were eaten alive by swarms of the angry buggers, but the view was
worth it.
With all that fun under my belt I suddenly caught
word that Jason and Shelby were planning a spur of the moment trip from St.
Louis!! I collected them at the Boise airport on Thursday and after a quick
fuel stop we were off to McCall to give those two city slickers a decent dose
of redneck. We started with the Roseberry Music Festival. The food was awful,
the music was decent, and the weather was fabulous. After a few hours of the
“bluegrass” music from the Ukealadies we bailed and closed the day with
a nice dinner on the deck while Charlie and Shelby roughhoused like the old
friends they are.
The next
morning after a walk with the dogs in Bear Basin Jason and I packed the car and
headed up to Boulder Reservoir for an overnight camping extravaganza! 
For the
first time in my life I purchased a fishing license and after setting up camp
we spent the evening fishing for our dinner. It was a bit touch and go to start
but we ended up catching more fish than we could eat (3)!! Jason even convinced
me to let one go because it was a little guy and we already had enough! Being
the fab team we are, upon our return camp Jason gutted our prizes while I
prepared dinner. We cooked scallion polenta, roasted cabbage, and paired the
fish with carrots and homemade mushroom chutney. What a feast!! Even the pups
each got a small leftover piece of rainbow trout! Nothing beats food prepared
in a campfire, especially when you’ve caught it yourself!!
The next
morning after some coffee and oatmeal Jason and I rallied the dogs and hiked up
to Louie Lake. We never actually made it to the lake due to our directional
imparedness, but we had a fabulous time chatting and breathing fresh air nonetheless.
Shelby even tried to swim across a huge creek on her own! She had to be recued
from the current halfway and seemed less than amused. Way to go girl!!
Also during
the visit we did a half-day raft trip on the Salmon River! It was Jason’s first
time ever and my first time in many years. We were joined by a mother-daughter
team and an out of this world guide who told us we rowed like a well-oiled
machine. We had a ball and didn’t even getting ejected from the boat or
sunburned. Yahoo!!
While the
weather was still nice we snuck in a bike ride in the park by the lake, and
sadly their last day in town was dotted with thundershowers. But I had a plan
B! We abandoned our kayaking idea and went to work canning instead! We pitted
all the cherries Mom and I had picked and canned half the apricots!! What a
trooper!
The next
day although exhausted, I was sad indeed to drop them off at the airport. Until
Holland Sir!! Well, I think that about covers it for now! Love and miss you
all! xoxo
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