There is a good chance that I will be indoors rather than chasing sprinklers this afternoon.

I hope I will be one of many RMGardeners to watch.

Thank You, Skybird for posting the link. And, Thank You for thinking about me.

Steve

You're welcome, Digit! I missed the very beginning and didn't realize it was about Idaho until a little ways into it! I enjoyed it a great deal, and will probably watch it again online sometime if I don't catch it on TV again!

Enjoy,

Skybird

That looks like it'll be great. I'll watch it later!

I'll watch that. In the late 70's, I once spent 15 days in the Bitterroot range. During wild blueberry season. :)

Wow. Isn't Idaho special? "Esto perpetua." It is forever.

Special and so were some of the Idahoans. But, what about this Pennsylvanian, Howard Zahniser? His quote at the beginning of the video: "We must be guardians, not gardeners." He was just talking about wilderness, right? Outside of that, we'd better be gardeners ...

ッ

Steve

Yes, WOW, Digit! Idaho
IS special!

“We must be guardians, not gardeners.” Yeah, wilderness! To get all sorta philosophical on ya, Digit,
I read that as not USING the land! As in
not tearing it up, and bulldozing it down, and controlling how and where and
when the rivers should run, and cutting down or destroying every living thing
upon it! I found a link to all the
“Outdoor Idaho” PBS shows, and just watched “A Sawtooth Celebration” which is
about exactly that—being a Guardian of the Land!

http://video.idahoptv.org/video/2365477801/

At 6:58 in the 50 Years of Wilderness video there’s this
statement from the original Wilderness Act:
“Describing wilderness as an area where the earth and its community of
life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not
remain.”

For me it goes back to this picture I’ve posted before that
I took at Yellowstone in 2012. When we
just leave her alone, Mother Nature is VERY good at taking care of this
one-and-only Land we have!

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/FB6jzNwT8iIQ3CiyQBumKk8aHZo2AKNLaB0EYKBV5cc?feat=directlink

Regarding Idaho, I might need to do some reconsiderin’! I’ve started doing two trips a year now, and,
because of the “connection” I’ve found to the land and the ruins at the Ute
Mountain Tribal Park at Towaoc, Colorado I had been planning to keep making
both trips to Four Corners and southern Utah from here on out, but maybe I’ll
need to do some thinkin’ on heading up Idaho Way! Just checked, and it’s 800 miles up to
Sawtooth City at the Sawtooth Natl. Rec area!
That’s twice as far as I usually go to Four Corners, but it’s about the
same as the year I went all the way across Utah to Kanab! There would be Craters of the Moon Natl.
Monument and Fossil Butte Natl. Monument to see on the way up!

It would be another 400 miles up to Coeur D’Alene, so I’m
not sure that would be in the works, but you could always head down to Sawtooth
City, Digit, to meet IRL!!!

On the other hand…
(Thinkin’ out loud here!) …I’ve
always wanted to go back to Glacier—before the rest of the glaciers melt!—and
Kalispell is “only” about 400 miles past Sawtooth City! And Kalispell is a lot closer to Coeur
D’Alene than Sawtooth City is!!! And
I’ve REALLY wanted to go back to Waterton Provincial Park, and ESPECIALLY Head
Smashed In Buffalo Jump at Fort Macleod, Alberta! And Fort Macleod (Waterton on the way!) is
only 200 miles past Kalispell—over the Going-To-The-Sun Road! That would get me up to about 1,400 miles one
way! And my Grande Loop to Nowhere trip
(long story!) a couple years ago (Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa,
Nebraska) was about 3,000 total, so it would come out to about the same as that
one! (Just telling myself it’s
possible!!!)

Need to do some thinkin’ on it!

I sure never thought a PBS video would get me considering
another long trip!

Skybird

P.S. I don't see "our" kind of gardening as "using" the Earth, Digit! Garden on!

P.P.S. Here’s the
playlist of ALL the Outdoor Idaho shows!
I’ll be checking this out further for some more Idaho WOW programs!

http://video.idahoptv.org/program/outdoor-idaho/episodes/?page=1

P.P.P.S.! Hey, David! When is blueberry season in the Bitterroot's???

Not sure about the Bitteroots, Skybird, but we were up on the William's Fork this weekend scouting for elk season and sat down to take a rest (and a snack) in a patch of huckleberries, delicious! The currents are probably fixin to be ripe here soon, too.

Zach, I'd be happy with any kind of wild berries, as long as I could be sure they were edible by human beings--and there were no bears around!

Skybird

P.S. If you haven't checked your email lately, do!

Didn't see any bears up there, a regular in the area said they aren't as common as lions... boy that made me feel better! At least bears go away when you yell at them loud enough!

If it's wild berries you want, you can scrounge for whatever is left of the chokecherries along my fence-line after the raccoon's have been having their fill this past week. Course, they are pretty nasty anyways so, I don;t recommend them.

Just checked my email and thank you! I will take a look and get back with you very soon, I actually just got home from the mountains...3 hours to get to C-470 from Silverthorne. I think the drive was more exhausting than the backpacking...

I've heard chokecherries make pretty good jelly, but I think I'll pass on the fresh ones and let the racoons have the rest of them! But thanks for the offer! :-)

The nite I spent "under a rock" for 12 hours in Capitol Reef Natl. Park, the next day I verified what I already knew--there WERE both bears and mountain lions in the area where I was! And I was right next to the only water in the area for I didn't know how many miles!!! I'm still here, but I have thought about this, and I think being eaten alive would be the very worst possible way to die! At least I sure haven't thought of a worse one yet!!! :-o

I think that stretch of I-70 from Denver to Silverthorne is the absolute worst stretch of road in the state nowadays! And to think that I remember the mountains before there were ANY interstates out there! When I'm out trippin' I do my best to avoid any and all interstates! The "real roads" are often just as fast, and you actually get to SEE something along the way!

Skybird

I live in the Bitterroot Valley berries extra early this year what there was. Bears, Oh Yeah! If you go thru Montana to Idaho or Glacier stop by Skybird. Glacier unfortunately is part way closed because of fires. First clear day from smoke for a week or so.

I was up there (Glacier/Waterton) in '03, Margaret, and that was another Fire Year. Going-To-The-Sun Road was closed when I first got there, but I lucked out and it reopened before I was going to go over it. The fires had burned across the road in spots, and I drove through areas that were still "smoking!" I have pics, but they're not digital! It's really interesting to see how forest fires burn! A tree or two can be burned in a small spot with everything around them still green, or just the opposite, almost a whole slope can be burned, with just a few, apparently untouched trees still standing! Also interesting to see how some trees that didn't actually burn get killed by the sheer heat of the fire. They just turn totally brown and crispy, but the leaves are still attached! It is sad to see an area after it's burned, but fire is Nature's Way, and, ultimately, the forest will regrow stronger and healthier than it was--just like in Yellowstone. Maybe not in our lifetimes, but it will happen!

If I get up that way, I'll come lookin' for ya, Margaret! Don't have any idea when this might wind up on the itinerary, but I know for sure it won't be in 2016 yet, 'cause my spring trip for next year is already planned--not changeable!, and in fall I ALWAYS go back to Four Corners and southern Utah. Conceivably in spring of 2017!

Skybird

I have family in Boulder, Durango & Dove Creek. I was in Durango & Dove Creek late May for a memorial service for one of my brothers. Did you ever fly United Denver to Durango?

I'm sorry about your brother, Margaret.

The only planes United flies into Durango are the cute little regional jets, and while lots of people think they're flying on United, they're actually flying on a separate airline that's contracted to fly the shorter routes, or the routes with fewer passengers, so, no, I never flew into Durango. Aspen is RJ service too, but we did have "seasonal" service to Eagle/Vail that we flew with "real" airplanes, and one time I got to stay at the historic Hotel Colorado right across the road from the Glenwood Hot Springs pool! Very, very cool olde hotel with high ceilings and wide, wide halls--something you'd NEVER see in a modern hotel, too much wasted space that they can't make money on!!! But the room I had was still heated with a steam radiator and every 15 minutes--all nite--it went: WOOOSH as it let off excess steam! No sleep that nite! But it was still cool to stay there--one time!

Last year when I stayed at Cortez I stayed at a cabin on a farm in Yellow Jacket--not far at all from Dove Creek! I drove down from Monticello thru Dove Creek to get there. Yellow Jacket is one of those places you drive by without even knowing it's there! Found a place for this year that's immediately south of Cortez, so 15 miles closer to the places I go! I must have been in Cortez about a week before you were this spring. Then I went over to Ignacio, just east of Durango and stayed there for several days, so if the timing had been a little bit different we could have been there at the same time! I think it's fun to meet the people from RMG that aren't close enough to make it to a swap! Maybe some day we can connect!

Skybird

My sister's husband has a farm out of Dove Creek. Our family farm is between Dove Creek and Monticello on the Utah side of the state line. The boundary line between states is one of the property lines. I have spent a lot of time in that area. My sister is trying to convince me to move to Durango but Durango is an expensive area to live. I don't want to live way out of town.