Potato Mountain

This ride had more creek crossings than I've ever been across but they were nice since it was almost 90 the day we did this ride. Our biking friend, Wade, from Washington came to Sun Valley for a week and we got to do some fun rides with him.

Poineer Cabin

This ride took us up to the famed Pioneer Cabin. It's more of a hiking trail as it is steep and sometimes loose, I did a lot of pushing my bike and swatting at horse flies. The views are amazing though...makes you want to keep riding and riding and riding....Pioneer Cabin also looks cooler from the outside than the inside. The inside looks like what I envision a meth house to look like...I always want Pioneer Cabin to be quaint and cute inside. It could be a cool place to stay after a long hike. Someone needs to fix it up.

The Best Summer Ever

This is the first summer of my adult life that I've not worked. The last actual work I did was a barn sitting job in June. Since then I've done nothing but whatever I want! Funny how much free time I thought I'd have since I wasn't working AND funny how quickly I filled that time. So here's our summer in a nut shell, or as Colleen calls it, Readers Digest style.

July 5- Our month in Idaho begins. I usually work in Idaho but this year I just came to play. I brought both Sophie and Nic and got a lot of riding time in, even took Sophie on her first big-girl trail ride. The photo above was taken at my friend, Lori Sewell's place. My horses stay there every summer, it's like a resort for them as there are a ton of horses in the neighborhood, the grass is great and Lori has super nice soft sandy pens for them to sun themselves in mid-day. The other great part about Lori's is that Meghan lives about 5 minutes away. We always stay with Meghan so the convenience of both locations is perfect.

While in Idaho we also biked our buns off. I figured I averaged a little over 50 miles a week on my mtn bike, seems impressive until I calculated that Jarred averaged 100 miles a week. Now I seem like a weenie. We got to ride all of our favorite rides and some new ones. My overall favorite ride is called Cold Springs to Warm Springs. The climb is fun and the downhill is the best of anywhere I've ever been. I rode this ride once a week while we were in Idaho and took anyone and everyone would would come with me on the ride. Jarred managed to get in some "epic" rides, these generally involve hiking with bike exploring unknown locations. I steer clear of these rides. I like biking and want to keep it that way.

We also have awesome Idaho friends. Staying with Meghan is great as she's always game for our energy and my obsessive cleaning of her house. Plus she has two of the best dogs. We always seem to meet new friends during our visits too. I think I have more of a social life in Idaho than I do in Washington.

The Downfalls of Clear Cutting

Much of the Tarbell trail has been clear cut. It's ugly and makes for bad trail conditions. I wish there was another way for logging companies to get lumber. I would even pay more if they didn't desicrate the land like this. It's intersting to see the different colors in the background of this photo...they really show the age of the forests.

The Tarbell Trail

Yet another cool place in Washington.

Men in Tights

Wednesday we rode a 19 mile loop called the Tarbell Trail just north of Camas and Washougal. It is a popular horse trail and the horses have pretty much killed any downhill flow the trail had, but it was still a good adventure. We got a little lost about 2 miles from the car and had to ask these redneck horseback riders where the trail was. I can only imagine what they were thinking when they saw Cage (in helmet with Mohawk) and Jarred. What they don't know is that these guys are bad-ass riders, especially Cage, I think Cage could have rode the entire trail in a wheelie if he wanted to.

SURPRISE, it's elephant garlic!

Since we moved in last March I've wondered what these odd looking corn-like stalks were in the backyard. They weren't very aesthetically pleasing and I was leaning toward ripping them out. We didn't own the house yet though and I was reluctant to change too much in case our loan didn't go through. With the approval of the loan and the taking down of the for sale sign, we starting improving things as seems to be status quo for us and homes we purchase.

I started installing some drip line in the backyard for the gardens and plants so things don't die while we're off enjoying our free time during the summer. I was having trouble weaving the drip line between these weird stalks that had now grown odd seed pods on top, and the beautiful orange lilies in the back yard. I told Sarah I was going to rip out the stalks to see if they were indeed the garlic her mom thought they might be (her parents had just visited a few days before.) Once I took the first one out it was obvious! The smell was awesome!!! If you like garlic, plant it! It grows over the winter and when it's ready (we actually harvested ours a bit too soon due to ignorance) you have this great veggie that was maintenance free all winter long, it's the ideal garden plant!!! Big pay off, no pay in, what more could we ask for.

So now we're planning on planting more garlic this fall and we'll know how to harvest it more appropriately thanks to my aunt who is a garlic wizard. Check out the spindly little seed pod in the picture below, it must be over 6' from the actual garlic bulb, amazing plant! Nature is without a doubt the coolest aspect of life.