June has arrived

We call 'em The Four Sisters: April, May, June and Julie. June's our favorite because she offers the year's longest day and can boast with pride that she also brings on summer.  This year we're counting on June to deliver the goods.  So far, summer had been a very elusive concept and continues to be so.  People here are so starved for a glimpse of summer that they easily mistake a nice spring day for summer.  Take yesterday.  Believe it or not, the temperature actually touched 70!  People were practically dancing in the streets with glee. Susun rode her bicycle over to Joanne's Place and came back all agog and bubbling about the beauty of the place.  Today promises to be one more fleeting dose of 70 degrees before we go back in the dungeon of cold, wet weather.  Yep, back to the 40's and 50's tomorrow.  Luckily, Saturday might be decent weather for the Hilda Garden Gig be then it's back to the 40's and 50's again early next week.  Soooo....the long and the short of it is that June better get her act together and deliver summer SOON!  Got that, June?

The river's running around 29,000 today and there's still nothing upstream to indicate any sudden rise.  The local newspaper continues to say it's flooding here but things are very stable and nothing new is happening.  Meanwhile, the Two Ocean Plateau snowpack took yet ANOTHER jump yesterday, once again setting a new high for the winter season.  This frankly just completely boggles our feeble brains.

Speaking of rivers, we've been wondering how a June trip to Salmon River Country could or would unfold.  Here's how it's all going to come down.  As you may recall but probably don't since it took place in BBT, we bought a raft in August 2009.  (BBT= Before Blog Time.  It's like BC, only different.)  Yes, we paid $800 to a guy in Hailey for an Avon Red Seal.  Well, we used the raft O-N-C-E!  Ouch, that was a very expensive 90 minute river trip!  Ever since then, the little raft has sat in the basement.  Since we bought a new AIRE Lynx II last year, the odds of our using the Red Seal are basically Slim and Nun and Slim just left town.  Well, the longer that raft sits down there the more we have the urge to sell it.  So, we finally plopped it onto Craigs List a few days ago and BAM, we had an INSTANT cash buyer.  Well, we realized we mispriced the boat so we took it off Craigs List and contacted the buyer and told him he would have to pay more.  Yesterday he replied and said he would gladly pay more.  Those are the kind of buyers we prefer.

Anyway, it turns out Rodney lives in Challis of all places.  We got to talking and it was like Old Home Week.  He spent his early youth in Clayton, Idaho.  His Mom is an East Fork Baker!  In fact, he went to high school with Junior Baker and they remain friends.  He's been to Bowery Hot Springs many times in his life and always stops at Junior's house to visit when he's in the area.  He works the night shift at the Thompson Creek Moly Mine and loves to shop at the HUB.  He's a Custer County Lifer.  Anyway, I asked him how often he got down to Idaho Falls and I could tell by his answer that, as a pureblooded Custer County Lifer, he dreads and avoids even the mere thought of traveling to the Big City.  So, I offered to deliver the boat for the cost of round trip gasoline and he jumped at it with both feet.  Sooo.....there you have it, the little raft goes to a new good home and we get a free round trip to Salmon River County.  Cain't git no mo better dan dat.

 Yesterday morning was a lot of fun--I spent over four hours preparing for, enjoying and unpacking from a Tuesday Target Shoot!  YEA!  Houn' Dawg and I went out to the edge of the Hell's Half Acre lava flow and spent over two hours having a good ol' fashioned target shooting session.  I would dearly love to show photos but forgot to take along a memory card for the camera.  Guess I need a checklist.  I will write up the whole thing for the shooting blog.  THANKS, HD!

The remainder of the day was pretty routine.  When I arrived out at Barnes & Noble for Tuesday chess, I did a U-turn and left immediately.  Periodically, a group of urchins shows up and takes over the Tuesday chess session.  These small humans are probably aliens in disguise.  They are all chess geniuses and are absolutely NO FUN to play with.  They have no politeness, never say "thanks" and run roughshod over any sense of civility there.  I don't like them and I can tell by their beady eyed stares that they don't like me.  I'm convinced they are probably zombies from Planet Voltar.  I don't mind losing to adults but I really despise losing to urchins wearing bottle glasses with no gratitude.

Well, it's a good thing the urchins were running rampant at Barnes & Noble.  Upon my return home, it was tree planting time at Jana & Matt's Place.  Susun and I helped.  Susun worked while I took photos.  Matt and Jana and Son Oliver were a lot of fun to enjoy a Tuesday evening visit with a the proverbial Good Time Was Had By All. 

Shortly after the tree was planted, I checked in on our local HAM net at 9 am using my little home grown ET-style ground plane antenna set up beside the front porch.  Tonight is the local HAM club's monthly meeting so I get to spend a couple of hours with some fellow geeks and nerds.

Well, that's all the news you can use this morning.  Have a great day and Cheers!  jp