Sunday

It is a slow day here in Idaho. At least I am trying to slow down. After surgery on Friday I felt very good. I even walked about 10 blocks before settling down and watching tv in the Cardolay House. I watched the mariners lose another ball game. :( This is getting to be a too familiar occurance. I visited the ER later that night as things changed and I experienced some discomfort. Saturday morning I eat breakfest at the hospital cafeteria. I had a very good omlet, potatoes, toast and peaches. My appetite is not suffering! I didn't try any more walking but I did go to Walmart and the Black Sheep. That was probably too much walking. I was feeling the effects by late afternoon. I even took a pain pill! General discomfort and localized pain kept me from doing much. I did clean up my flower bed and plant 4 flats of marigold flowers. They should give a slash of color to my apartment front. If I remember I will add a photo later. Some cold compresses and another pain pill finished off the evening. I need to take it very easy today and tomorrow. I can't seem to just stop and relax. I am always thinking about things that I need to do. Donald called this morning and we had a good chat. Fishing dominated the conversation. Joel had gotten a big tom turkey with a 10 1/2 inch beard. I enjoy talking with him. I wish he was closer so that we could do more things together. I might have to get Greg Millikin to look for an apartment for me to rent this fall. That way I can spend the fall chasing that big whitetail buck. That reminds me that I need to put my application for a deer license me. I had better go and do that right now.

Thursday 8 May 2008
Here it is Thursday already. The week is flying by. I went exercising everyday except on Wednesday , when I went fishing instead. Not as much exercise value but I got a l;ittle activity reeling in all those fish! No not really. We almost pulled our lines in without a bite when all that changed in a hurry. We had noticed some fish activity on the surface of the Dvorsak reservoir so I removed all my weight from my kokanee troll. I was rewarded with a bite and after a brief battle a 10 inch kokanee came in the boat. Hurrah! We are not skunked. It is always a relief to get hat first fish into the boat and avoid going home empty handed. Duane quickly adapted as I reeled in another fish and he adjusted his line. In the next hour we boated a total of 22 nice kokanee. They are now in the smoker at Duane's house. I hope to sample them next week. I promised that the next batch would be for barbequeing at Ralph's house. Duane and I will go next week when I get to feeling like it.
I went mushroom hunting on Tuesday but didn't have any luck. I found too much snow out at Johnson Mill so I went up the Upper Wells Bench road. I took a short hike but the ground was very dry and no mushrooms. I emailed my friend from the forest service to get a lead on mushrooms but he hadn't heard of any yet. It is getting late but the weather has been so cold that it is really early. There is a lot fo snopw at the higher elevations so it will be very late before we find any mushrooms up there. I will have to concentrate on fishing and maybe trade so fish for some later.
i washed the truck today. I will take it to Lewiston tomorrow. It isn't suppose to rain until Saturday! I went grocery shopping but the good produce sale doesn't start until tomorrow! Oh well.

Saturday

If I said that winter might be over....well don't believe it! I went to the woods on Thursday and had a real adventure in the snow. It started out as a mushroom hunting trip and it turned into a survival expedition. I picked an area close to snow line (I actually thought that I was below it) and walked out an old logging road. After a short hike of 3/4 mile I found that the snow was too deep for any mushrooms to be in this part of the forest just yet. I picked an open ridge and started up the mountain. It was a great hike and I spotted yellow lilleys blooming along with a small white, 3 petal flower. The forest was coming to life. I hiked up to the top and found a new reconstructed road that was almost totally snowed in. I didn't want to backtrack so I decided to follow the road. The top of the cutbank on the north edge of the road (open to the sun) was bare and I found the going easy for about 3/4 mile. I came to an intersection with another road and it was decision time. None of the roads was going in the direction that I need to go! A fresh bear track lead off into the timber and it appeared to be staying on top of the snow. Well that bear must have been a little one because I didn't stay on top! Well to make a long miserable hike through several feet of snow, up and down forested mountain terrain into a short description.... I made it back to the open gravel road at noon. I was over two miles from the truck! It was almost 100 pm before I made it back to the truck! I had gotten my exercise for the day!
I went fishing in the afternoon with Duane. It was a gorgeous day but the fishing was slow! So slow that for the very first time we got "skunked"! All I can say is that I will do better next time.
Friday I spent the day in Kamiah getting things ready for the Lion's garage sale day. I didn't get my exercise in but I did move a lot of boxes, couch, love seat, and other things. I might have gotten in my daily exercise requirements. Today is the garage sale. I hope that we make a few dollars to go towards the annual scholarship that we award to a local highschool senior. I plan to take the day off except for a short mushroom hunting hike late in the afternoon. This one will definitely be where there is NO snow.