Labor Day Weekend!

At "Hoffer Cathedral" - Gunsight in background.

    Seems like it has already been ages since I have recorded anything here on Blogspot.  Such will be the case during the more mundane WORKING part of the year!  
    We had plans to head out camping for a day or two with friends, but when that didn't materialize, we have still had a good weekend - and accomplished quite abit as well!  
    Friday night, after a sumptious dinner of BLTs on homemade sourdough bread (Thank you Amanda for the tomatoes!), we decided to take in the home Baker Bulldog football game.  The weather was perfect and it seemed a good time to go to the ball game.  We might not want to later in the fall when it is freezing outside, windy, or snowing!  Baker defeated Weiser by at least two touchdowns, so it was a good game to watch!  

Sheet "ceiling" above pantry.

    Saturday morning Rick and I took a leisurely bike ride out the frontage road - the weather had cooled so it was perfect riding weather!  Came back to get started finishing up some things in the basement, starting with the "ceiling" in the newly finished pantry shelf area.  That led to several other patches of sheeting being put up in areas we had never finished when we started this LAST summer!  Basically we are using old white sheets from the Welcome Inn here in town to cover the rough and exposed floorboards....and all the dust, bugs, and spider webs that come with them!  Sure cleans up the basement!  We started to do the spot over my workbench, but then remembered we will need access to the bathtub pipes this fall to redo the shower, so we'll wait on that.  No sense putting up what will just have to come back down!  In between all that "work" we watched a fair amount of US Open tennis!
    Saturday evening we basically invited ourselves out to Rusty Munn's house so Rick could watch the OSU football game and Baker's own Grant Johnson #70!  We took out corn and pizza and had a great visit with Rusty!  
    I had already told the church I wouldn't be there on Sunday (we were camping, remember?), so Rick and I decided to attend the "Church of Hoffer Basin."  It really is quite a cathedral!   We also came "armed" with a small container, as Rick had seen huckleberries when he was hiking in the area last weekend.  

Grasses were turning red!

    Sunday morning, however, dawned very cool!  We went out to breakfast at the Truck Corral (it had been years since we had been there!)  Simple breakfast, cup of coffee and we are "on the road!"  (Hence this is a legitimate blog!)  And as we neared the Anthony Lakes basin we could see the trees at the tops of the ridges were all frosted and cold looking!  Perfect fall hiking weather!  Fortunately it had been wet and cold last week and Rick was ready with gloves and hats along with our jackets.  The gloves felt good.  But the skies were constantly shifting mists.  The wind was really moving the clouds overhead.   Some of the trees are starting to change colors, and there was considerable "red" in the grasses and the "wild African turkey plant" (Luke's name for it - I figured out what it was really called once, but Wild African turkey plant is embedded in our brains now!).  Pretty.  Very very pretty.  

Huckleberries!

We climbed up to Hoffer Lake and then continued on the trail to the right around the meadow, up to the upper meadow, and then headed off cross country toward the bouldered basin below Lakes Lookout - one of Rick's favorite spots.  Along the way we kept an eye out for huckleberries.  The plants with berries were scattered.  Some loaded, but still not ripe, others totally bare.  Eastern Oregon berries are so small and picking is tedious work! We probably spent at least an hour total picking during the day and came home with a little over one cup of berries!  But they will make GREAT muffins in the morning for breakfast!  

In the Hoffer basin boulder field.

    Stopped for a little gorp and devotion time up on a huge rock slab in the midst of the boulder field.  Great view up to Lees Peak, Lakes Lookout, and across to Gunsight and Van Patten Butte.  We could see Hoffer, Anthony, Lilypad, and Mud Lake in the distance.  All of it made the Hoffer Cathedral perfect.  

Don, Julie, Roxy, Cherrie, Darrell & Rusty

    Dinner at the Conklins!  Since I called Cherrie to set this up - in some ways I guess we invited ourselves to dinner again!   Don and Roxie Ulrey plus daughter Julie, and Rusty Munn made for a delightful dinner conversation!   Darrell cooked up a steelhead, and everyone brought the rest of the dinner!  Fun time!  

The hanging baskets tucked in
for the night! 

    Monday morning dawned clear and COLD!  The front door had cracked open about 10 inches and of course the kitchens windows were still open.  I checked and the temp in the house was 50 degrees.  About 33 outside.  Brrrrr.  Good thing I wrapped my tomatoes up for the night in their blankets!  

Sooooo good!

    A lazy "Labor Day"!  Maybe it was a "Non-labor Day" instead!  We watched alot of US Open Tennis, I did a little baking and sewing, Rick took in the Boise State football game with Rusty.  We spent most of the morning reading the Sunday paper, drinking coffee and eating fantastic huckleberry muffins!  So good!  


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