S.O.L.E. in the Schweitzer Sunshine

My sister Laurie's fifth graders hit the fine-weather jackpot for their outdoor education experience at Schweitzer yesterday.  

I don't know what else to say in regard to the photo above except:  that great big sun over Lake Pend Oreille, taken from the Schweitzer Road, truly reflects how great the school day spent outside their normal classroom turned out to be. 

It was a day with S.O.L.E. in the Schweitzer sunshine.  S.O.L.E. stands for Selkirk Outdoor Leadership & Education. 

The mission statement on the organization's website reads:  We provide transformational experiences that empower our participants to become active learners and responsible stewards of their community and its environment!

Explore > Achieve > Lead. It's what we do.

Among its many outdoor learning-based experiences aka experiential education, S.O.L.E. is working with school district fifth graders this year.  

Under guidance from founder Dennison Webb, the students learned a few basic principles for their day of learning on snowshoes just above the Schweitzer Mountain Resort community fire station. 

The day's basic rules included taking care of self, of others, of resources and community. 

Along with the learning fun in the sun came high expectations for behavior, respect and a work ethic.

In the exploration phase, students honed their observation skills by looking for examples of items collected in a plastic bag and passed around for them to inspect with their senses of sight, smell, taste and touch. 

The trip up the trail on what was for most their maiden snowshoeing experiences included several stops to inspect and analyze tracks in the snow, lichen, needles and bark on trees,etc.  

Then came the real work:  dig and prepare an rectangular area for testing snow composition.  Dennis showed them methods for efficient shoveling, probing and preparing the spot for some later lab work with snow kits. 

While sit spots were being prepared, students took time out to go to another spot, sit down and reflect about animals that might inhabit that area.

They learned how to analyze the snowpack through feel, close microscopic inspection of crystals and snow temperature of different layers. 

This year's snowpack is minimal compared to past years, and it's dry, hard and cold.  

The outdoor activity included a variety of skills, observations and analyses.  And, as a former teacher, I'd say it was an A-plus day for learning and doing so in an A-plus plus environment. 

Our students are truly fortunate to have a program like S.O.L.E. to complement their normal classroom learning. 

I very much enjoyed helping out, and I'm sure the students will remember the day and maybe even most of what they learned as they trudge onward through their educational journey. 

Speaking of trudging, they did okay for their first time on snowshoes. 

I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoyed being there to snap them.  

Thanks, Laurie.  Thanks, Dennison and Hank.  And, thanks, students, for a fun day. 

To learn more about S.O.L.E., you can visit www.soleexperiences.org.   

Crispy Cold Tuesday

Early posting this morning, as I'll be on my way up to Schweitzer in a while.  The school activity will definitely require some extra layers of clothes and a pair of gloves on this cold day.  

We're hovering just above 20 degrees here on the flats, but I'm thinking it will be at least ten degrees colder up on the mountain. 

It should be a fun day with the camera and the student activities, although yesterday's picture taking turned out kinda fun with my buddies as we walked the woods, the fields and the barnyard area. 

Over in Meserve's field, several robins were out and picking away at the dirt piles left by the gophers.  Must have been some good eating over there as the birds didn't get too concerned as I stepped closer with my camera. 

I think robins establish a definite pecking order when it's feeding time.  They keep themselves spaced out but move as a unit combing the ground for treats wherever they happen to be.  

I've noticed this especially in our lawn area as the ground warms up and worms start hanging out closer to the surface. 

It would be nice to know if we have some of the same robins every year.  I think we must. If only I could interview them, I could learn a lot more about where they hang out in the winter and why our annual visitors pick our place as their summer residence. 

This area definitely is Robinville, and I like that.

The dogs were having a great time racing around and playing with their toys in the woods yesterday.  

Thanks to the dry surface, I actually got down and lay on the ground at their level to snap some photos.  I noticed later that all the doggie romping around my face and camera played a little havoc with my lens as little spots showed up on some of the photos.

Still, the pictures turned out to be fun. 

The stop sign in the photos is next to a rather bumpy Baily Road on the north side of a large field at the base of the mountains west of Colburn.  

After getting some gas at Samuels Store, I turned off on the road,  looking for photos. For an instant, the sun tried to peek through the snow clouds just as I pulled up to the sign.  

On down the road was another stop sign with no intersection.  Still, I stopped and moved on a bit to another homemade stop sign.  Time to turn around, I surmised. 

We did have a bit of spitting snow yesterday, and maybe we'll see a heavier coat at Schweitzer.  Down here, though, it disappeared and brought on this crisp, clear and cold Tuesday.  

We'll bundle up for a couple of days and then welcome shirt-sleeve weather by the weekend.  Typical March.  

Happy Tuesday.   

Early Spring Seens

I saw in a Facebook post yesterday that a group had ascended Scotchman Peak over the weekend. Is that unheard of in winter time?  Maybe so.  It surprised me to see their collection of neat photos. 

Scotchman Peak, at 7,009 feet is the highest point in Bonner County.   Ongoing efforts have been in motion for several years to protect the peak and an area of peaks around it along the Idaho Montana border through a wilderness designation. 

Scotchman and Lake Pend Oreille---courtesy photo from http://www.scotchmanpeaks.org/about-the-friends/about-the-peaks/

I climbed to the top once with Bill and friends, only to meet  head-on with a blustery winter-type storm on July 3 back in the early 1980s.  With no visibility offering anything like the view in the photo above to reward us and with ice cold, numb hands, we ate a quick sack lunch and descended. 

So, to imagine a group climbing Scotchman on a crystal clear day in February offers another "Wow" factor to the unusual springlike month in 2015 that offered so many unusual outdoor opportunities. 

People are riding horses and bikes and hitting the mountain trails. Yesterday I saw a note on Facebook about a plan for a group of women's hikers to go up the Mickinnick Trail which winds its way up Greenhorn Mountain northwest of Sandpoint. 

Early spring continues to abound in early March----a month, which in the past few years has dished out our biggest helping of winter.  The deer, which usually stay away until sometime in April, are starting to show up in farmers' fields.   I saw two across the road while getting this morning's paper.

Yesterday, Annie and I drove out to Gamblin Lake southeast of Sandpoint and pulled into the Wildlife Management area where a gentleman, his family and their two adorable labs had just wrapped up a morning of fishing from his boat.  He could have done some ice fishing, but more than half the lake has thawed. 

During our brief stay there, we walked the trail and Annie found a geocache.  It was apparent that much work needs to be done to clear out last summer's violent storm blowdowns as trees lay scattered all different directions. 

Later in the afternoon I saw a pair of geese just off Center Valley Road.  I think they're the same pair who inhabited a nearby temporary pond last year.  

This week we'll be up to the mid-50s with more lovely weather.  

While we are delighting in dry ground and spring activities, my brother who lives near Tacoma, has headed to the south land to enjoy the sun and warm weather for a couple of months. 

Most of his driving toward Houston, though, has been through snow.  This morning on Facebook, he described Post, Tex., in one of his photos as a neat little town.  

Bill, the kids and I went through there and even stopped in Post (named for the cereal guy, as Mike noted) back in the early summer of 1980 when the Texas heat wave was making the news.  

That was before we had air conditioning in the car, and it was also the onset of convenience stores as we know them.  Annie had just gotten over the chickenpox, but on the trip, her pox became infected, due to the extreme heat. 

Her head with thin toddler hair wasn't too purty as those pox oozed and matted up her locks.  So, we stopped in Post, went to the hospital where a doctor looked her over and prescribed some medicine and then headed on our way.  

That was a trip of many stops at convenience stores to get some ice and to enjoy a few minutes of storewide air conditioning before returning to that hot car and traveling another 40 or so miles to the next convenience store.

It took us five days to get through Texas on that trip. The doctor's treatment worked,  as Annie's pox soon cleared up, but Bill is still mad at that doctor who charged us twice.

Anyway, Mike and his wife Mary liked Post, but they really enjoyed eventually getting out of the snow-covered roads of Texas. Maybe spring will soon show up there like it has in North Idaho. 

Looking ahead here at home, I will get a little taste of winter tomorrow when I slip on some snowshoes.  My sister's fifth graders are going to the fire station area up at Schweitzer to learn about water levels on an experiential education outing.  I'm told there's still enough snow up there to require footgear other than tenny runners. 

The nice part:  we can pretend winter and after a few hours come back down the mountain and continue to enjoy our unusual spring. 

Happy Monday. 

Marching On . . . .

It's a new day, it's a new month, and there's a new perspective filtering throughout the ZAGS faithful after a stunning loss during Senior Night in the Kennel last night.  

First, let's talk the end of February.  What a month it was, and what a beautiful productive ending----at least for us Lovestead residents and friends. 

All photos today are the work of Annie Love who's here visiting the Lovestead this weekend. 

After the squirrel came for morning treats yesterday, the jays arrived and put on their morning show for all photographers who happened to be sitting in the living room with a cell phone handy.  

I must say that cell phone of Annie's captures some lovely shots. With the exception of the coyote pictures at the bottom and the ZAGS senior photos which came from the Gonzaga Men's Basketball website, I believe all the others came from Annie's phone. 

She wanted to go geocaching yesterday, so Bill suggested taking the Clark Fork route. Looks like they made it to Montana too.  Annie found 19 caches yesterday, along with her dad and Foster.  They also stopped off at the Pantry where she sampled her first freshly made sandwich.  

While they were enjoying their geocaching, I stayed home and prepared items for our spaghetti dinner and did a little house cleaning while catching snatches of basketball games on the TV.  

Once the housework was under control, it was grooming time.  Two horses and two dogs received various levels of brushing, coming, clipping and bathing.  Actually, Kiwi got the bath and she LOVED it.  

I figured out the logistics, in advance of how I could efficiently bathe her in the downstairs tub and keep the mess to a minimum.  Towels were set out, a pitcher from the kitchen was easily accessible for rinsing and both doors to the tub were removed for an easy ingress and egress for Kiwi.

All turned out well, as it took about four towels to dry her beautiful and sparkling clean coat.  Later, we sat in the sun near the barn while I combed out and fluffed up her hair. Kea received a good brushing and some snips in the rear area where matted tags have formed.  

As for horses, Lily received the most attention with some bridle path, muzzle and fetlock trimming along with a thorough brush down.  A fairly substantial carpet of white winter hair has yet to be removed from the mats where her beauty operation took place.  

Lefty stood in the barnyard while I brushed him from stem to stern. 

All four seemed quite pleased with their afternoon attention, and I loved going outside occasionally just to view the results.  

My sisters, Willie and Maryann came for dinner, and we sat down to a sumptuous spaghetti dinner, complete with red devils food cake from Costco. 

Twas a dismal, frustrating evening, to say the least. Somehow that spaghetti and all the trimmings lingered in my stomach like a big concrete lump as time after time, everything that could possibly go wrong for the ZAGS in MacArthey Athletic Complex did just that---went wrong.

Everything that could possibly go right for the BYU Cougars did just that---went right. 

Heck, even the shot that McClelland was supposed to miss after ALL those other missed ZAG shots, fell right into the basket.  It was obvious that it was the first time in that young man's life that scoring a point was so disappointing. 

Never fear, though, coach Mark Few gave him a hug when he walked back to the bench. And, I have a feeling that thousands of ZAGS faithful have been and are still sending virtual hugs to the ZAGS this morning. 

They lost, but I also have a feeling they gained a lot from last night's monumental disappointment.  As John Blanchette, the Spokesman columnist,  pointed out this morning, many hopes for the magical season the ZAGS have enjoyed vanished in a flash----but not perspective.

So often in life, it's in the losing that we gain the most.  So be it with the ZAGS.  They will bounce back.

I have one more feeling: they'll emerge from this setback with their usual grace and style and determination to attain a much higher level of execution in the sport they so love. 

The best is yet to come with our ZAGS.  Last night's stern lesson in the Kennel will provide the seed for a phenomenal March and for the best season of "Dancing with the ZAGS" ever. 

And, we,  the ZAG faithful will continue to cheer them on every step of the way. 

As a side note, I feel the need to complain vigorously about ESPN's "Viagra Monologue" which played continuously at every station break.  

Viagra and ESPN may be considering the importance of the bottom line, but it would be nice for them exhibit a sense of responsibility by considering the family setting which makes up the majority of the audience for presentations like last night's game.

Their decision to air those endless repetitive ads was, at the very least, inappropriate, and grossly irresponsible. 

GO ZAGS!  Happy Sunday.