In & Out of Taylor Ranch

Here are a couple of my pictures from my flight into Taylor Ranch on Monday!  Like I stated in my previous post, it was a beautiful day for flying, we left Pullman at 7:30 am and landed at Taylor Ranch about an hour and a half later.  

Here is a picture of the amazing Palouse from overhead!  It was a little hazy in North Idaho and I'm shooting through the window.  I am so happy I invested in the Canon DSLR camera back in January!  I would have never been able to capture high quality shots like this without it!  Below is a picture of my Aunt Kim and Uncle Darrell's house outside of Genesee.  We're still a little far away--but what a beautiful spot to have a house!

 These photos are from across the Palouse region!  

 Uncle Darrell & Doug Gadwa (our Pilot) talking about their many connections on the Palouse!

 Below is the small runway we landed on and took off from!  I still can't believe that Doug landed on so amazingly!

 Me taking a break from hiking the shade!  I was not used to the heat that we find in Southern Idaho.  We actually had to take off earlier in the afternoon before it got too hot and the plane wouldn't have been able to handle it.

 This plane came in right after us and dropped off a Fish and Game researcher.  I was able to capture a couple pictures of him taking off!

 This is the main cabin that the students get to stay in.  It is relatively new and was built to replace a cabin and cookhouse that they lost in the 2000 Wildfire.  It is gorgeous inside and UI currently has six students living in this bunkhouse this summer.

 The below cabin serves as the research spot.  It has a library, study area, small lab, and quarters for visiting professors etc.  It is pretty impressive the set up that UI has worked on.

 The river offers some relief to the heat!  I think next time (if I ever get this opportunity again) I will bring my fishing pole!  The managers said the fishing is great in July!

 Behind me is the Cessna 280 (unsure of the number, but I'm pretty sure!)  This is when I was waiting to take off!

 The two managers, assistant manager, a professor who is visiting, the Pilot (Doug) and my uncle Darrell.  Also in there, are two adorable dogs, Toby and Snowball.  Darrell and I also got our picture taken--this should make a great Christmas card!

 During take off!  It is amazing to be so close to the mountains in a small airplane and Doug was amazing and fearless--but always very, very safe!  Below is approaching the Palouse--it felt great to get back home and on solid ground for a while!!

Roger that...10-4...Rubber Ducky Out!

I had the amazing, once in a lifetime opportunity to fly into Taylor Ranch Research area earlier this week.  I found out Sunday I would be, while at Hoopfest, that my Uncle Darrell was flying in and had room for a UI employee...I became that UI employee!  WOW!!  What an adventure of a day I had.  
My mom raised me to fear small airplanes (thanks Mom!)  I never thought I would leap into one for a quick day trip to South Idaho!  But, I LOVED IT!  The flight down and over to the Cascade, ID area, was breath taking--we as Idahoans truly live in a beautiful state and I got to see it from a truly unique view--on top of it!  
I will be posting pictures of my beautiful trip later this week.  I am still working on uploading the pictures.  The weather was perfect and we got to take a pit stop in Grangeville to pick up the UPS and drop it off in Lewiston!  
I love what a small world it is, as well!  Our pilot ended up being one of my great friends from college's, dad, Doug Gadwa!  He did a great job at keeping us in the loop at what was going on during the flight and telling us the history of the land we were seeing and pointing out great points of interest.  
I am so amazingly blessed to have been invited on this amazing trip with my Uncle Darrell.  A huge thank you to Darrell and Doug for a fantastic day and a wonderful adventure, that I will never forget!

What the What?!

Shane and I celebrated our two year anniversary over a week ago.  I got text messages and facebook posts all day!  We truly felt the love from our wonderful friends and family!  I was able to go through our wedding album that our wonderful photographer, Cyndee, put together for us recently and I fell in love with this picture all over again.  To truly understand what is going on in my mind and probably in Shane's you need the back story--and I can't believe I haven't shared this one yet!  This story will take you back to the day before our big day!
June 18th, 2010--I woke up and got ready for all the work we had ahead of us that day!  Shane was already up and ready to go, I went into the living room and started talking to my parents about everything that needed to happen that day, after we had a game plan I went outside to where Shane was talking to his brother, he ended the conversation by saying, "ya, I'll see you soon."  I told him I was going to head to the church to get things started and he told me he was going to go meet his brother in Caldwell for a while to do "guy stuff".  I asked him how long he would be, when I could expect him to get everything put together for "our" wedding?!  To say I was in crazy mode is a understatement.  I asked what he was doing, so at least I could tell people where my soon to be husband was while we were working on the wedding--he of course couldn't say.  
Fast forward to our wedding day--our wedding toast actually!  My beautiful best friend had just given the toast and made me cry (thanks Marie!) Next up, Shane's brother, Kyle.  At this point I had almost completely forgotten the crazy lady I had been the day before (I am unsure if Shane had though!)  Kyle started his speech by announcing that he and Shane had gone skydiving the day before!  Our amazing photogratpher caught this picture--an amazing reminder at how much Shane (and his brother) could still surprise me after knowing him for over 4 years!  
That was the first surprise of many after being married.  Two years later Shane (and his family!) still surprise me.  Some days it's his thoughtfulness, or his random acts of kindness towards me, my family, his family, or others.  There have been not so pleasant surprises, but for the most part I feel pretty dang lucky to call have this funny and loving guy at my side through our adventures! 

Deer Pictures!

As promised, here are the very cute pictures of the fawn that ventured my way!  Again--such an amazing experience!  I am still trying to dig out the picture of my car post deer hit and run.  But the fawn is much better to look at!  

Deer! Oh, dear!

It has been a long hiatus from blogging.  It all started with the Holidays, which were fantastic, but stressful at the same time.  I didn't get stuck in the snow once this year--but we did buy a Tahoe to help me stay on the road!  It was a much better winter than last.  

This spring I was out in the field more than ever.  I drove truck off and on, and even got in the driver seat of one of the tractors for practice!  I am still practicing my backing up skills with a trailer on though.  

My most exciting moments on the farm this spring and summer (if you could call it that so far!) have been centered around deer.  Yes, deer.  

In April on my way home from a very long weekend at UI for events and a class that met on weekends.  It was rainy and crappy out.  I was almost home, when out of a blue, a deer ran in front of me and I hit it.  I slammed on my breaks, examined the damage to my car and the poor deer.  Both were in bad shape.  The poor deer died instantly, and it looked like my car was pretty much done for as well.  I cried in the middle of the road, apologized to the deer, (even though it ran out in front of me!)  

Thankfully Shane was home and came to my rescue.  He held me in the rain, told me my car would be okay, and that we should go home.  After two weeks of waiting and driving a very nice rental car, I had my car back and it looked great!  I am definitely even more wary of deer on our road and am thankful that I wasn't injured and that no one else had to see the pathetic sight on the road I was!  It made me realize that there are huge perks for living out in the sticks--no traffic to see you mess up!

The other very positive event that revolved around deer happened last weekend!  We were driving home from the Tekoa Slippery Gulch parade when a mama deer and her twins crossed in front of us--I slowed down and noticed that the two fawns were hanging out in the tall grass next to the road.  I jumped out of the car and started taking pictures.  
Pictures will be soon!

 

This experience made me so very thankful that we live in such a beautiful place!  So far this summer I have seen four different (I think) fawns in the seven mile stretch of gravel road!  

Thank A Farmer

I have been spending some time looking up recipes for Holiday parties and dinners. It struck me today that so many people, myself included, take for granted the important role that farmers have in the holidays! Every meal, appetizer dish, and yummy treats are possible because of our farmers! So, thank you to my husband, who works his butt off so we can eat great food, thank you to my ancestors who worked hard to feed their families, and thank you to all the farmers out there making our lives possible!

I'm Back....

Whheewww! It has been a very busy couple of months. We have been busy out and about! We have taken on some house projects, that I will post, but the one thing I have pictures of is my melted crayon art project I took on over Thanksgiving break. I have lost a lot of time on pintrest. I love seeing all of the craft ideas and recipes. I finally took one on and am very excited about it! I hope you enjoy...once I get these babies on a wall the project will be complete!

I started by grabbing canves that was on sale at Ross for $6 for a pack of three! I am always so amazed at what I can find there. I printed out the barn and the tractor and traced them onto the canvas. I then took a sharpie marker and filled them in.
Whheewww! It has been a very busy couple of months. We have been busy out and about! We have taken on some house projects, that I will post, but the one thing I have pictures of is my melted crayon art project I took on over Thanksgiving break. I have lost a lot of time on pintrest. I love seeing all of the craft ideas and recipes. I finally took one on and am very excited about it! I hope you enjoy...once I get these babies on a wall the project will be complete!

Once the canveses were ready I pulled out the crayons from colors that I wanted to use--Crayola Crayons worked awesome--I had a friend who tried a project with crayons and bought cheaper ones and hers didn't turn out. I super glued the crayons onto the canvas borrowed Shane's heat gun from the shop and my friend and I went to town melting crayons. Don't forget wax paper underneath the canvas to catch the melted crayon! If you don't have access to a heat gun, then a hair dryer would work well too. I was surprised at how quickly the wax started dripping down. Each canvas only took a couple minutes to be finished. We are really excited about these and are happy with the way they turned out.