March Overload.

So much March! So little time!

First there was sprayer clean-out/prep.

Cracked nozzle... $22 loss.

It took a while.

Then there was the topdressing.

With a brief break to advise and consent on manure deliveries.

This patch had me fairly concerned. It looked to me like aphid activity, which made me think Barley Yellow Dwarf. I really need to go look and see if it was BYDV or just aphid feeding. It would take me 5 minutes. Maybe I will remember one of these days...

Late-planted Oakley CL looking late-planted.

I did some look-see-ing at our seed production.  To your left is the taller, tillering-er, older variety TAM 111. To your right is the new hot-shot variety SY Sunrise.

Me and Katie got to go along on the final walk-through of Linda's new house.

"You'll never have to hand washes dishes in this house!!"

Then we moved Linda's stuff to her new house. There were no pictures taken because moving makes everyone miserable.

Then the girls and I were off to Denver to catch an Airplane.

We had to park in the "Mt. Elbert" lot at the airport because "Pike's Peak" was full.  We parked by this sad pickup whose owner had neglected to roll up the window.  Hopefully they got back from their trip before it snowed...

We got to the plane too late to all sit together because I am one of those people who think that my time is more valuable than everyone else's and how dare I but luckily Katie and Anna got to sit next to a very nice lady who also had a 5 year old named Katie and who got to chat with Katie for two hours straight.


And then there was a whole week of cousin-ing.

And falls down fancy stairs.

And gaming.

And train-ing.

We had a belated birthday party so that I could talk to strangers.

We had... some sort of cold white pellets. Not really sleet, or hail, or snow, but... something.

Exercising.

Quest-ing.

AND THERE WAS A TRAIN DERAILMENT IN GRAY COUNTY AND I MISSED IT!

One day we drove up to Lake Pend Oreille ("Ponderey").

Jonathan violates the sacred unspoken vow between photographer and subject.

Lego-ing.

Another day we drove through the Palouse to Steptoe Butte.
The Palouse might just be my new favorite place.  The worst part of Jeanette moving to Spokane is that we don't get to visit the big trees anymore. But the Palouse might be able to make up for that.I just need to figure out how to make the trip during the growing season...

We stopped for lunch in Tekoa, and there was a farmer meeting going on in the next room. It was very tempting to go sit down and learn about Washington farmering, but dagnab if they didn't have the projector set up so you had to walk past it to grab a seat-- no way to just sidle in and catch a seat at the back of the room.  Oh and the kids might not have liked that either.

Then we found the butte.

O look what a nice little road for a nice little drive...

...DIRECTLY INTO THE SKY OMG THIS IS CRAZY!!!

When we got done with the terrifying death-wish of a drive into the void of space, I could hear a plane engine... and sure enough, there were some fellow sightseers nearby.

By the way the grain bins on the right side of the above picture is where I took the picture of Katie and Steptoe.

Anyway the view was pretty amazing. We did some picture-ing.

On the way down we stopped so I could try to get a picture of the crazy tilted sideways wheat field, but it is really hard to capture the dizzying feeling on film.  I cannot imagine driving a tractor on these slopes. I just. Wow.

We had a nice lazy day too. It was vacation after all.

Anna kept her chops up.

This is a picture of a lie and a mystery and an oddly justified paranoia all in one...

And then we went to Silver Mountain to go tubing.  First we had a thirty minute and gondola ride. I didn't even know it was legal be on a gondola for more than five minutes without being involved in some sort of international espionage chase to the death.

Eric kept an eye out for car 21 just in case...

Pre-tubing

Tubing.

Post-tubing.

Then we went to the indoor water park.

It was all fun and games until I tried to hop in the two man inner tube with Katie and flipped her up into the air and back down into my head. The rest of the day was kind of woozy, but we did get to go to Montana just for me, and I just now am realizing that this means that I have been to every single state west of the Mississippi! (Besides Hawaii and Alaska because like they even count for that kind of record anyways.)

And then we flew back to Denver.

And two days later Mom and Dad moved to town because life is really stupid and sad sometimes.

And then Jimmy helped me get the sprinkler going.