The View From Squaw Butte

The View From Squaw Butte

My wife and I finally found our way to the top of Squaw Butte, a pretty major mountain northwest of Boise, a few weeks back. The view was amazing up there--and it might be better with a bit less haze, but what the heck:


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And you get really interested in seeing more detail, there's a 20 MB panorama available here.

Boise: Some Very Nice People Live Here

Boise: Some Very Nice People Live Here

I dropped off my wife's TrailBlazer at Big O Tires in Meridian Friday morning to get a tire repaired, and while I was waiting, I ran across the street to Jack in the Box to have one of their breakfast burritos. During conversation with the gal behind the counter, I mentioned that I had been caught in the big HP layoff.

There was a young guy waiting for his order; he told me that he had just hired on at Shopko, and that they were starting to hire seasonal help. An older guy heard the conversation, and told me that his employer, a trash hauler, was hiring at the moment. An older woman worked for the same trash hauler, and told me that it was a good place to work, with what sounded like surprisingly good benefits for that level of job.

Now, I appear to have a reasonably high paying software engineering contract position lined up in Bend, so I am not likely to pursue any of these opportunities at this point in time--but it is one aspect of Boise that I really like, compared to most parts of California where I have lived. People go out of their way to show their practical concern and interest in complete strangers.

The Part of Idaho Where No One Lives

The Part of Idaho Where No One Lives

My wife and I drove up to McCall for a late lunch on Sunday--and I am pleased to see that the Trailblazer, as bad as it is around town, just sips gas at freeway speeds with the cruise control set.

Idaho state highway 55 north from of us is a part of Idaho where almost no one lives--and on a day like this, you would be asking yourself, "Why?" There's a reason that this area is so beautiful and unspoiled...and for the same reason that much of Alaska is in that same pristine condition. I've driven through this part of Idaho in winter (defined at this altitude as "November through April and sometimes May").

Anyway, here's some pictures of the state park on Lake Cascade, about 15 miles south of McCall.


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Yes, that's snow on the peaks behind the lake.


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Trust me, that's gold in the water! (Or more likely, pyrites that I wasn't prepared to fish out to do hardness and brittleness tests.)


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Water sports paradise. This is why, in spite of the price of gasoline, there's never a shortage of vehicles towing boats north along Idaho 55.


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Yes, plenty of massive beef cattle were grazing along the lake. Skittery creatures.


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Hey, we may not be a very racially diverse state with respect to people but when it comes to cattle....


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Gorgeous wild flowers, everywhere in that part of Idaho.


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Yes, those are pelicans. I wasn't expecting them this far from the ocean.


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My wife thought these were perhaps immature ospreys. They are amazing critters in flight.


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Okay, I'm used to seeing seagulls way inland.

We ate a late lunch at The Great Escape in McCall--where all the tables (inside and out) have a lake view. On days like this, I can see why so many people in Boise have boats--and are prepared to drive north!

Each time we stop in McCall to do the tourist thing, it seems like nearly every restaurants and shops that was there the last time has been replaced with a new place. The Great Escape had good food at a decent price (considering it is a tourist area and they have this great lake view).

A lovely afternoon!

Another Lawn Chair Flyer

Another Lawn Chair Flyer

I remember seeing the news reports back about 1981 when a Torrance, California man in a lawn chair passed several jetliners--leading to some rather bizarre questions from air traffic control, who found the reports from pilots... somewhat difficult to believe. Someone in Oregon decided to replicate this. From the July 6, 2008 Idaho Statesman:

CAMBRIDGE, Idaho — Using his trusty BB gun to help him return to Earth, a 48-year-old gas station owner flew a lawn chair rigged with helium-filled balloons more than 200 miles across the Oregon desert Saturday, landing in a field in Idaho.

Kent Couch created a sensation in this tiny farming community, where he touched down safely in a pasture after lifting off from Bend, Ore., and was soon greeted by dozens of people who gave him drinks of water, local plumber Mark Hetz said.

"My wife works at the City Market," Hetz said. "She called and said, 'The balloon guy in the lawn chair just flew by the market, and if you look out the door you can see him.

"We go outside to look, and lo and behold, there he is. He's flying by probably 100 to 200 feet off the ground.

"He takes his BB gun and shoots some balloons to lower himself to the ground. When he hit the ground he released all the little tiny balloons. People were racing down the road with cameras. They were all talking and laughing."

Couch covered about 235 miles in about nine hours after lifting off at dawn from his gas station riding in a green lawn chair rigged with an array of more than 150 giant party balloons.

Oregon-Like Weather

Oregon-Like Weather

The last couple of weeks (ever since I finished balancing Big Bertha 2.0) has been like Oregon: cloudy when it isn't raining. Tonight is the first night that I have been tempted to roll out the telescope. If this keeps up, everything will be green and beautiful--and then the liberals will move here and make the place uninhabitable.

The Beauty of Idaho

The Beauty of Idaho

The snow has not completely melted yet--we're having an unusually cool spring. Here's the last remaining patches of snow a few hundred feet above us, on the north facing slopes:


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And here is the ski resort--a couple thousand feet higher at the base:


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While it is still quite cool at night, there's enough sunlight and warmth in the day to get the wild flowers well under way:


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My wife knows the name of the intensely bright yellow flowers, but she's not here right now. Here you can see some of them closeup, and a hillside in the distance that is so covered with them that you can only see the integrated result:


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Every once in a while I start feeling sorry for myself that I still have to work for a living, unlike lots of other people--and then I think about it and realize that I am really quite fortunate to be able to live and work in a place this beautiful.

Yesterday after church, my wife and I drove through the back country of Boise County, placing campaign signs. The roads are just terrible back there--but it is astonishingly beautiful. Much of it is Alpine meadows and granite. It looks much like the high country of Yosemite.

And For Really Big News...

One of the things that I like about living in Boise County is that what constitutes "big news" is a bit different here than in other places.

Heck, even what constitutes "big news" in Boise (which is in Ada County, just to confuse you) is a bit different from other parts of America. A reporter from an Ohio newspaper called me up a while back to interview me about the Civilian Gun Self-Defense Blog. While discussing Boise, I mentioned that (at least at that point), murders were rare enough that they were a front page, above the fold news story. Some murders would remain front page stories for days on end, just because there is so little murder here. This Ohio reporter sounded a little disappointed when he told me that at his newspaper, murders were so common that sometimes they weren't even considered worth putting inside the newspaper. They weren't news.

Well, here's the headline from the latest issue of the Idaho World, Boise County's newspaper--and as the masthead observes, Idaho's oldest continuously published newspaper:


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Hey, that's big news here! But what would they do if they had a really big news story to report? What font size would they use? I fear that the headline "Global Thermonuclear War" would be so big that the "G" would take up the whole front page.

Rafting on the Boise River

We went rafting on the Boise River today, from Barber Park down to Ann Morrison Park. (Click here for information on renting a raft. It cost us $42.40 to rent a four person raft with four lifejackets and two oars.)

This wasn't a white water adventure. I was told that the worst of the rapids we went through were class 1--maybe class 0.5, according to my daughter! I'm not a spectacularly strong swimmer--in fact, I didn't learn to swim even at my current unimpressive level until I bought a house with a pool in California some years back--so I've always regarded the trips that you see in films with considerable trepidation.

Anyway, this was a pleasant way to spend an hour and a half, floating, occasionally getting some adrenalin rush as we went over somewhat rough water, and enjoying the beauty of the tree-lined banks of the river.

Idaho Weather

I remember sitting in a diner many years ago in Lewiston, Idaho during a thunderstorm, and being told by the waitress that in Idaho, "if you don't like the weather, wait twenty minutes, and it'll change."

We've been having a heat wave here the last few days--mid-90s even where we live, above 100 in Horseshoe Bend and Boise. Forest fires north and west of us have also been giving us a lot of smoke.

I had to run down to Kalac's Market in Horseshoe Bend for some rice for dinner, and I found myself saying, "Gee, those almost look like rainclouds." And part way back, huge raindrops started to hit the windshield, and the me (because the top was off the Corvette). Shortly after I drove into the garage, it started hailing! Wow! After hot days like these, hail and rain are so welcome.

They Really Should Warn You That The City Has A Gun Control Ordinance

I mean, I don't actually live in Horseshoe Bend, and it wouldn't be a big problem anyway, but I did find that back in February of 2001, Horseshoe Bend, Idaho passed Ordinance #186-2001: "Ordinance for Civil Emergencies and Establishing Right to Maintain Firearms."

1. In order to provide for the emergency management of the town, and to provide for the civil defense of the City of Horseshoe Bend, and further, in order to provide for and protect the safety, security and general welfare of the town and its inhabitants, every head of household residing in the City of Horseshoe Bend city limits is required to maintain a firearm, together with ammunition therefor.

2. Exempt from the effect of this section are those who suffer a physical or mental disability, which would prohibit them from using or obtaining such firearms. Further exempt from the effect of this section are those who are persons under the law who are restrained from possessing a firearm/firearms, such as a felon, or one who is under court restrictino such as a restraining order to disallow possession of firearms.

3. Exempt from the effect of said ordinance are those who conscientiously oppose maintaining firearms as a result of belief, religious doctrine, or who are financially unable to purchase a firearm.

Welcome To Idaho

This is going to an irregular series of postings about things that I see or find that make Idaho different from living on the coasts--and maybe even other states in the heartland. Not that I am completely happy with every thing that shows up in this category, but they are aspects of life here that may be a little surprising if you live in Los Angeles or New York City.

On the way back from Banks (where we ate in the Banks Cafe--a much better lunch than I would have expected for the price and location, overlooking the Payette River), we stopped at Ponderosa Sports. The guy that runs it took the Voluntary Separation Incentive from HP some years ago, and now runs this combination gun store/sporting goods/gift shop with his wife.

This is his truck parked out front. The only question is: tailgater discouragement, or extra propulsion unit?


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And yes, that appears to a Barrett Light .50.