Dashing through the snow

I was very excited to cut down our own Christmas tree this year. Maz, being the career mountain man and cutter of several Xmas trees in his youth, was more than prepared for this excursion.

He researched the location.



He researched the method.


He borrowed the tools.


He mixed the toddy.


Timber!


He engineered the retrieval method.


We have a legal tree.



Merry Christmas

Frosty

After peeling myself out of bed on a zero degree morning, I looked out and saw the layer of frost over Driggs. The trees looked so bright and brittle. I grabbed the camera and fingerless gloves (with the flip top- thanks Alison) and took some shots. I mostly used my film camera, but I snuck in a few with Jay's new digi.

Sea to Ski

Hawaii is incredible! It was an action packed 2 weeks with lots of driving, swimming and laughing with our friends J, Kelly, CD, Catherine, Jeff and Karrie. Maz and I eventually made it around the whole island to see the crazy landscape that seems to change within 5 feet of elevation gain.

We snorkeled in 3 different places, saw dolphins from afar and up close, went to a Luau in Kona, camped in the Puna district near 40 foot cliffs, saw some amazing sunsets and learned how to open up a coconut without a power drill.

Start saving your miles and get to Hawaii, wiki wiki!

Our friend Caleb graciously shuttled us to and from the airport (he is easy to bribe when beer is involved), and we returned to a wintery Driggs afternoon. Afraid of falling asleep for the rest of the day and being up all night- red eyes, gotta love them-we went skiing instead. We took our first 2 runs of the season. Bring on the powder.



Kona weather report: 77 and light wind
Driggs weather report: 18 and dumping snow, wind from the north

house goes to SIP factory, we go to the beach.

With any luck at all, Maz's gorgeous and accurate CAD drawings of our floor plan will go the SIP people this week. In the interim, this blog is turning into Hawaii Unwrapped, also titled Look at My Pretty Pictures, I am Having Fun Getting Sunburned at Approximately the 20th Parallel.

Most of the gear is packed. The summer gear is rolled in a space saving configuration. The flip flops are dusted. Let's go.

Licensed to Swill

(Click on the photo for a special treat.)

Getting my Idaho license today was completely unlike going to the MA RMV in the Watertown Mall an hour before it opens and hoping to make it to work only 2 hours late. I didn't have to look up the wait time on the internet and strategically plan my arrival, nor did I have get a second job to pay for an out of state transfer fee.

I also redeemed myself from failing my driver's test twice 16 years ago- I got a 95. My new license expires when I'm 40-sweet!

Happy Birthday Zunger!

Legal Migration

Back to incognito. We are no longer "the people with Mass plates" anymore.

24 Hours of Targhee

Life in Teton Valley would not be complete without a 24 hour mountain bike race. Our friend Randy of Team ODB (guess the acronym-special prize for the winner) raced at 24 hours of Targhee in September. Hard core!

mail , rocks, porches, bikes and parks

The mailboxes for the 'hood have been delivered. It reminds me of my Aunt Helen and Uncle Tom's mailbox complex in Caledonia, MN. When I visited, Helen would let me trot across the street with her key and retrieve the mail. Half the time I would forget which number it was in the time span of 30 seconds. Some things never change.

They look to be very Louisville Slugger-hanging-out-of-a-car proof, which is good, because I would hate to have my weekly delivery from Sierra Trading Post destroyed at the hand of a punk Driggs 15 year old.

I wish I knew which one was ours!


Yeah, more babyheads. Just want to give you a COMPREHENSIVE visual of the landscape. Get used to it.














Exercises in pantomine. Here is Maz leaning on our front porch railing.















Exercises in perspective. Maz's Silver Bullet on our brand new sidewalk.

















This is the back edge of our backyard, which backs up to a park with a soccer field and, if Jay has anything to say about it, a winter skating pond. Triple lutz anyone?




A parting shot for the day- a beautiful blue Idaho sky from the SW corner of our lot. Next spring, this same shot will hopefully feature a garage.

Speling Lesin

This was an exciting surprise- street signs! Paiute Street exists!

Oh wait, it's Piute Street, along with Legrand Pieere. Can we chalk one up for the merits double-checking our work? I hope they've been fixed on my trip out there tonight. Embarassing for my Idaho brethren!

Jealousy

Look who beat us to a building permit- our neighbor across the street! Must be an inside job.

We did have fun running around in their ceiling-less basement.

Babyheads!

Main Entry: babyhead; 'bA-bE 'hed
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural babyheads
Etymology: Teton English, from rock

1 a (1) Rocks similar in size and shape to the head of an infant.


Get used to seeing lots of pictures of these and christmas or birthday gifts of similar composition.












Jay rides the Silver Bullet in the yard while he can. Once those daises go in- off limits!

Topo-graphique

I'm olde skool and still shoot film, so here is a aerial topo of our lot and the park behind our sagebrush yard. I only have 3 shots left- more pics soon.


We have a small hill in the southwest corner of our lot and we were pretty much going to level the whole thing. It was haunting our casero-vision. Then our architect friend checked out the lot and said "This is the best lot in the whole neighborhood! We're keeping it!"

Knocked out- Round 1

Our first attempt at getting a house plan approved is a bust. We requested a variance for the roof pitch and overhang (this is the terminology sneaking into my vocab these days....) and it was denied. This plan was based on a factory built kit home from Oregon Yurtworks. So since we aren't building it, I can share the plans with you.







These homes are really beautiful and unique. I encourage you to check out http://www.yurtworks.com to see some of the photos. At least we will have something ready to go when we buy our off grid land in the mountains for retirement. Settle down, one house a time.





These days, Jay and I are exploring timber frame houses (http://www.tetontimberframe.com) and structural insulated panels (SIPs, www.sips.org).

Photographic Evidence

I finally developed my 15 rolls of film that were collecting dust. Now you can see a picture of our western front! We are currently working on a house plan for our narrow lot that will give us a little Grand Teton view and lots of sun for passive solar. Tuesday and Wednesday nights are reserved for 'Paiute Street Shakedown.' Translation=planning and research.





Our lot stake- #113!


















Jay and Gayle. They are standing at the northwest corner on Paiute Street.

Our view west toward the Big Hole Mountains.












Anyone want some sagebrush?












Besides house planning, we have been taking advantage of the ridiculously fun summer in Driggs. Here's some pictures for you.

Gayle (Jay's mom) visited us in June and we went to Yellowstone for 3 days.

















and we saw a mama bear with 2 cubs!












roar!
















Hot Air Balloon Rally at Driggs Airport on July 4th. I had never seen hot air balloons so close before- it was an incredible sight! Even if I did have to get up at 5:30 am. pppbbbbllllttt!







Balloons over Teton Valley












































Just one more... this balloon was lifting off. Tetons in the background.











And this is Jay goofing off with some friends of ours. Nope, that's not me- I get mistaken for Linsey all the time! People think we are sisters.