Our one day a week escape.

We headed back out to Butterfield Canyon Saturday to hike.  Lots of people on the road, hardly any where we were.  It was much needed.  This is almost like (what I assume) being in jail feels like.

View looking east from a bluff.


Survey marker on the bluff.


Looking west from the bluff.


The dog and the boy.


Cooling in the stream!


My Bob Ross moment.


Hard to see, but there were TONS of people walking the road below.  We were on a high pressure natural gas pipeline right of way.  No one else around us.


Ominous clouds were rolling in. Time to head back.


In the woods on a different trail on the way back.

Junior Ranger Day!

It's National Park week!  Yesterday was Junior Ranger Day and Skyler participated with a Facebook live ranger talk from Dinosaur National Monument.

Ranger Tiff talking about "what is a dinosaur".

Happy dog!

Especially now that the weather is better.

She still gets too hot in the sun.  Has to rest in the shade with her toy.

Some color for your Friday.

Washington has numerous tulip farms and tulip festivals.  The festivals are all cancelled due to the damn virus.  Enjoy these pics I lifted from AgTalk.

Radio control!

In an attempt to entice him to do his schoolwork,  I got out my Tamiya R/C monster truck Sunday afternoon and got it going again.  Skyler was SO good Monday and so excited to run it.  Too bad it's been going all downhill since!

He picked up how to run it quickly!

Time marches on somehow.

Today would have been my Mom's 72nd birthday.  I think of her every day.

I cut some tulips from our yard (that Mom gave us when we first moved in) to place next to the flowers Dad had placed.

Get out of the house!

After he got to see Grandpa Saturday, we headed out to Butterfield Canyon to hike.  Much needed exercise and fresh air.

Lower canyon.  Juniper trees and sagebrush.


Looking north to the mine.


East view of the valley below.


The now unused BLM wild burrow center.


Natural gas pipeline right of way.  We're headed back to walk it next.

704 feet of elevation climbed.  It felt great!


Overburden piles from over 100 years of mining.


At the top!  Ironically, Kennecott has an air quality monitoring station here.  From the company that burns 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel an hour 24 hours a day!

Easter Dinner.

I had a ham in the freezer from Christmas and made from scratch "funeral potatoes" for our dinner yesterday.  Tasty!

Skyler's plate.  He cut up his ham all on his own.  His vegetable was carrots, ours was green beans.

Yay for Saturdays!

Skyler got to see Grandpa again!

They opened up the garage since it was so nice out.  Pretty impressive looking at the layout from the driveway!

FaceTime with Abby.

Skyler got to talk to his friend Abby on Thursday using FaceTime.  They both seemed happy to have some outside interaction even if it was only for 15 minutes.

Ipad and a cat.  Life is complete.

Topaz, the return trip.

A lunch stop by the railroad tracks to cheer him up.  He was disappointed that we didn't make it to Topaz Mountain to look for rocks.

Looking north on the Lyndyl sub.

Sitting on the tailgate while he at his sandwich.  It was SO windy!

Southern view.  No trains were spotted.  :(

He wanted to stop in the town of Eureka on the way home to check out some mining remnants.  This is the foundation where the electric motors and gear case were that ran the hoist to the mine.

Hoist frame built in 1890.  Shaft is 3,000 feet deep!

Topaz Internment Camp part 3.

 We had initially planned to head to Topaz Mountain after visiting the camp but 66 miles of gravel road changed my mind.  I didn't need to rock-blast my pickup.

Glass was everywhere.  Presumably, window glass?

Barrel staves.

Wide open!

Using Mommy's phone to take a picture of what appears to be lava.

Window screen.  Kind of sobering to see.  Think of the interned people looking through this screen.

The last of our adventure tomorrow.

Topaz Internment Camp part 2.

Lots of interesting artifacts to see.

Stove?


Where one of 3 elementary schools once was.


Coal.  There were numerous remnants of coal piles everywhere.  I can't imagine how cold it would have been in the winter here.


Look at the yellow brick well!


Appears to be a remnant of the sewer system.  There was a brick pipe running south at the bottom.


A flyswatter handle.

Part 3 tomorrow...

Topaz Internment Camp part 1.

We made the drive down south Sunday.  It was a real eye opener and makes our current lockdown situation seem pale in comparison.

Geriatric dog came along.  She panted the entire day!


It was SO windy Skyler took shelter in the bed of the truck.


Names of people that died while interned. :(


It took until 2007 to designate it as a National Historic Landmark!?


Some facts about the camp.  It boggles my mind that this could ever happen.

More tomorrow...

Finally!!

Skyler finally got to see Grandpa and play model trains on Saturday.  They both practiced safe social distancing and wore masks.

Look at that layout!!

Grandpa even modeled his house!  Complete with him operating a lawnmower!

And Skyler's tree swing out back.  Well done!

Make your own compass!

Using only a needle that has been magnetized, a paper arrow, and a glass of water.

Daily call to Grandpa.

Not knowing how long any of this isolation shit will last, we're being extra careful and avoiding anyone other than our direct family here.  This sadly means, not seeing Grandpa since he's technically in the "at risk" category due to his age.  Grandpa is in excellent shape & I'm not too worried.  Nevertheless, better safe than sorry so we call him every day to talk.  Skyler really looks forward to talking to him and telling him what he's been up to.

This was Wednesday afternoon.  Just a boy and his cat.  Our garden for this year is the tray on the right.  :)

Junior engineering.

Skyler has continued to work on his cardboard locomotive the past few weeks.  He put the finishing touches on it yesterday.

Windshield wipers from bamboo skewers.  Note the exhaust and horn on the roof.


He even engineered the sliding door!  There are numerous LED lights inside and a flashlight mounted for the headlight.

Gawd...

Another earthquake last night in Idaho.  Just get it over with already!