it was great. 80 mile round trip, with beautiful scenery (Priest Lake is still frozen and there is snow along the roadsides) and one of the best hamburgers I’ve ever had up there in the town. Ardy’s Cafe, if you’re in the neighborhood. Bacon cheeseburger with avocado. Yum.
We got a moderately warm day and broke out the shovel and mattock to a) sink the Matala filter (storage-bin sized) into the berm of the pond so it won’t be so obvious, which for Jane meant sitting in mud and stagnant water. And I got out the mattock to skim the ground down to level along the new fence row.
Advil!!!! Triple dose!
But one pond filter is now running!
Jane took Pooki and Wiishu up there, and there are, consequently, pix of the events…
We plan to go back up when the lake thaws and enjoy the area! We now know there is good food!
And now both pond filters are running. Good for us!
The sound of falling water now overpowers the traffic in our back yard.
And the fish have about half new water in their pond, which is more charged with oxygen and probably a little warmer than the water they’ve had. We’ve pulled the heaters: the pond pumps cycle it pretty fast, so they become fairly pointless: the layers will overturn.
I’m going to try adding some filter medium to the waterfall, as well: hope that will help the Matala filter clean things out.
Spring is now official, here in our back yard. Peonies are budding up, sending up shoots, and the cherry is poised and ready to bloom. So is the quince. And tulips are coming up.
sitting in COLD mud and stagnant water? Hot shower, hot toddy, warm chair by the fire……
Pizza and chardonnay!
BTW, got a tip for you: Latah Creek [Spokane] Chardonnay is having their best year ever. Really good wine!
Maybe we should send out some funding so you can pick up several bottles before we get there???? I don’t know if I’d see that label here in Ohio.
It’s a thought. It really is good.
I’ve sent an email to them, asking them if it’s possible to purchase and then you or Jane can pick it up at your convenience. I think it would be kinder to the wine than to have it shipped across country and then carried back from Ohio.
I don’t want to inconvenience you or Jane, though, if it’s a pain to go pick up.
I wonder if it’s available here in HI? MiL is a fiend for good Chardonnay.
Which year would that be labeled as? 2013?
AFAIK, yes, 2013. Chondrite, their website is http://www.latahcreek.com, they ship via UPS, so I’m pretty sure it would be available to ship, but it appears to be a small winery that probably produces enough for the local region.
It looks like the 2013 isn’t available online yet, so I’ll just have to bear that in mind for when it becomes available. The 2012 is out, however.
CJ, I sent you an email, but it bounced back. I got it back twice, even though I only sent it once. I must have forgotten the passcode in the subject line.
Anyway, Latah Creek said there were several ways to do this:
1. Order online (http://store.nexternal.com/latahcreek/storefront.aspx) and put the third party person to pick up in the ship to information, then select Pick up at Winery as your shipping method (just be sure the one picking up the wine is over 21),
2. Call us at 1.800.LATAHCR and order you wine and have your third party pick it up, or
3. Order before you come in September and pick it up while you are here.
We have plenty of Chardonnay, so we will not be out before you come in September.
DON”T KNOW WHY it was bouncing, because we got it! But, sure, we can do that, no problem!
I wanted to know which was easiest for Jane and you? I don’t want to cause you to make an unnecessary trip from your house over to the wineshop, but if we pick it up when we come in, I have no idea which day we’ll be coming in, what time we’ll be there, and if the store will be open. Well, there’s the next day, too.
I finished rereading the other half of Merchanter’s Luck today. I did stop to eat and do a little else, though.
That’s maybe my third or fourth reread, but it has been many years since I reread it last. In the interim, I’ve had a lot more life experience.
My perspective on Sandor and company is a lot different now than when I first liked the book in college. I could empathize with his alone-ness, his different-ness. But years and personal experience (loss, change, etc.) … I understand Sandor, sometimes on a personal, been-there, done-that level, know how it feels, that I didn’t quite, originally. But it’s the story of Allison’s changes too, importantly there.
Hmm, and as the book closes, Le Cygne has been given a good bit of cleaning and maintenance by Dubliner youngsters who “wanted exercise.” 😉 (Meaning they got the luck of the draw, or else they’d misbehaved and were working it off.) — So the book closes with a ship meant for far more crew having still only five permanent crew, and possibly a few younger Dubliners who saw what the ship has been through, and a computer that talks as if to someone their age. Somehow or other, we presume Le Cygne takes on crew elsewhere and begins prospering, allied with Dublin Again and possibly Finity’s End. Or perhaps something else happens.
Still among my favorites.
Proge set up the little waterfall last week when it was warm. It was 16F at 7:30 this morning. It’s going to stay cold with snow expected mid week! This is not terribly unusual for this area, but I think the daffodils and other bulbs are in retreat and doing some odd reverse growing.
Your day trip sounds like a perfect get away…..with good food too!