I feel a little lame for restarting my blog and then rarely actually writing. My blog is supposed to be about homesteading but mostly what we have been up to is interior remodeling and weatherizing.Not very interesting news.So today I am going to share some thoughts which might tide us all over until something homestead-y comes along.

A few weeks ago I thought maybe there would not be any fall colors here like in the valley. We live surrounded by sage brush, evergreen trees and grasses. All of which pretty much stay green year round. But Mother Nature is always full of surprises.

Fall here is golden and full of textures. The light, Aspen trees and grasses have all turned to gold. The sage has even changed its coat, more silvery green with its branches turning darker. The Juniper and Ponderosa pines have kept their same colors but the slanted light of fall has changed the visual texture.

Up in the hills  above us live the Vine Maples who have turned to flame red a surprise in the forest filled with ever greens. Pops of color for my color loving eyes. And a bit of a touch stone for me right now, I miss knowing the names and faces of the wild things.

Even farther up the hills to the mountains are the Three Sisters who daily have more new snow covering them, makes for a new breath taking view daily. Waking up to see those lovely ladies is a motivating way to start the day.

There is also a tale of one of the best parts of Fall for us, Mushroom Hunting. It's a good one, not epic like last years haul of magnitude but a good one.

Chance and I this past weekend went up to the hills to hunt for the mushrooms that are just starting to pop up. Our friends had been the day before and gave us directions to where they had been. We were to turn at a sign for a snow park, we did find a sign for the snow park just not the right one. The one we found was the trail for snowmobiles, it was clear enough to start but then things got a little interesting. We came to a large hump,I asked Chance if we should look over the hump before going up and over.Nah, we will be fine... Well on the downside of the hump was a 30 foot almost vertical drop.And ahead another hump with boulders. This time we got out to look.The road ahead was rougher than we wanted to take so turning around needed to happen.

We were literally in a tight spot that I wasn't too sure about. All of my life I have traveled the back wild roads and for the very first time I found myself calculating how far from town we were and if we could walk back by dark. After an 8 point turn Chance got the truck facing back where we came from.

Chance put the truck into low 4 and said he could make it back up.Sure thing babe,  as for me I will walk to the top and wait. A punch to the gas and Chance was safely up and over. We got back on the main road,eventually mostly found the area we were meant to be in. We got out to scout around in likely spots with no luck. At few of the stops we would get faint whiffs of mushroom but the second you tried to pin point where it might be coming from the scent would be gone.

When we connected with our friends that night they reassured us the mushrooms were barely starting to show and they had found few. We also stopped in the local Forest rangers station in town to get a better map of the area. The lady ranger even gave us a mushroom map, local areas known to have mushrooms.

Yeah we came home empty handed but it was a beautiful day spent roaming the woods, we were happy and came home with a funny story about getting stuck. It has been raining here this week and a bit warmer at night, two things that make mushrooms happy. We hope to go back up within the next week.Which can happen even after work,15 minutes and there you are in the woods.

Hopefully this was more interesting than hearing about drywall, sanding and putting up siding. We have been cutting wood for the stove. I love watching Chance cut wood so if I can get some good photos next time we cut I will be sure to figure out a post about firewood. And maybe include a bit about my love affair with the wood stove here, love that little thing...

Lynda, thank you so much for all of your comments.They nudged me into writing and hopefully from now on I will be better about coming here.

Best Regards
Rois

Looking down onto Three Creek Lake, our favorite spot.