Cone Cutters

There are four or five species of white or 5-needle pine in western North America. The most famous, because it is currently imperiled, is the whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) of Idaho and Montana. The mountain pine beetle (MPB), a native pest, working together with white pine blister rust (WPBR), a non-native disease, has significantly reduced the population of whitebark pine across the northern Rockies. In southern Utah, we have two different, but closely related white pine species, the Great Basin bristlecone (Pinus longaeva) and the limber pine (Pinus flexilis). These species are also at risk from the double-whammy of MPB and WPBR, though WPBR has not yet arrived in our area.

In any case, I noticed earlier this summer, that our local 5-needle pines were having a good cone year—a real bumper crop. Because this only happens periodically, I called the regional plant geneticist to ask what we should do. She said, "Pick 'em." Collecting and storing seed allows us to grow seedlings to replant after natural disturbances and also allows us to isolate the seeds that are genetically resistant to WPBR. Because most of my favorite bristlecone grows outside my jurisdiction, so to speak, I decided to try harvesting limber pine cones.

You might think that collecting pine cones would be easy, but it isn't. First, there is a lot of competition out there. The squirrels will clean you out if you don't pick early, and the birds, while leaving the cones on the tree, will break the cone scales and steal the seeds. Second, the limber pine does not grow cones close to the ground, but prefers to put them at the top of the tree. Unless you intend to cut down the tree—which is a possibility in some cases—you have to find a way to harvest cones that are 20 to 40 feet in the air. The method we devised requires three people, the hooker, the cutter, and the bag man. The hooker finds a loaded branch, catches it, and bends it as far as possible; the cutter uses a pole pruner to snip the branch just inside the cluster of cones; and the bag man twists the cones from the cut branch. Voila.

Sink's Done

As I noted last week, we've been in the middle of project to replace the kitchen sink. Actually, with the exception of some painting, the project is finished and the kitchen is fully operational. The whole deal—from disconnecting the old sink to opening the tap on the new sink—took 10 days and cost just a little more than $4,000. We're really happy with it. It is a serious upgrade from the grungy old situation that we had. In addition to the new sink, we added a disposal and a dishwasher to the set-up. In one week, we jumped from the 19th century to the 21st. (I won't name names in this post, but the little local contractor that we hired to run the job does very nice work. Call me if you're looking for somebody.)

The Kitchen Sink

Like many parts of The Homestead, the kitchen sink and counter area have always been a little grungy, ramshackle, leaky, inconvenient, and run-down. On Tuesday, we had it all removed. Once it was gone, we found that the original floor—now covered by tile—was actually hardwood—nice hardwood, like maple or something. We also found that the chronically leaky, do-it-yourself plumbing of the sink had nearly rotted the floor away. Fortunately, by Friday, we no longer had to look at it. The guy we hired to manage the project had the new cabinets completely installed by 3p. We're ready for the counter top.

Baba and Poppop Paddle Yankee

This week, we had Baba and Poppop for a visit. They felt like trying the canoe, so we went to Yankee. The water was low, but we've seen it worse. They took the first turn while the rest of us goofed around on the shore. Then the girls went out. Then I joined them. Finally, Baba and Poppop had another try. It wasn't much of an adventure, but it was probably about right for the group we had. We made it home in time for dinner.

Idaho

While EDO was on the east coast visiting her cousins, VSO and I went to Idaho. On the way north, we wanted to avoid the long extension of California called I-15, so we went to Milford. From there, we headed west to Baker. The sun was out as we came into town, but a towering storm was building over Wheeler Peak. Spectacular. It was about the last we saw of the sun until we reached Twin Falls. From Baker to Ely to Wells to Jackpot, storm after storm rolled through. The temperature on the car said 47F and the smell was of bruised sagebrush. It was a pretty nice afternoon.

Idaho has some famous rivers. We spent a night by one of them. The Snake, near Twin Falls, has, well, some falls. The picture, above, is from one of them. Shoshone Falls. The Niagara of the West. I made a picture of the cascade. But I didn't post it here. It is nothing like Niagara. Well, it is like Niagara in that water is flowing, but Niagara is 10 times bigger.

From Twin we took the freeway west through the hundred miles of ugly sprawl that used to be Boise and turned north on Highway 95 to New Meadows. After a stop at Goose Creek, we met Keith at the Bear Basin trails for a short mountain bike adventure. It was probably made shorter by a somewhat bloody crash on Keith's part and a bit of a bonk on VSO's part. (I don't blame her. She'd been sitting in the car for 8 hours and went straight to riding uphill in 85 degree sun.) We followed Keith to his house for a good dinner with Karen and Bryce. Afterwards, Karen took us out to Payette Lake. If it weren't for the constant motor noise, it would be a beautiful lake. Clean, clear, refreshing, but not cold.

In the morning, after breakfast at the Fogg Lifter, VSO voted strongly for a return to Bear Basin. Karen joined us and we did another 60 or 90 minute ride. VSO loved it. Despite running out of gas the afternoon before, that was her kind of riding: not steep, not rocky, not tricky, just good, smooth single-track. By about 1p it was time to start back. We thanked Keith and Karen, and then joined the long line of traffic along the North Fork of the Payette. We suffered all the way to Banks. At that point, we turned up the South Fork. I'd never been there. It was really a beautiful canyon (below). Looks like a fun float, too. We turned south at Lowman and made it to Boise by 7p.

In the morning there was nothing for it but the long, hot, crowded, boring, ugly freeway run to Salt Lake City. I thoroughly enjoy that kind of thing. In Salt Lake we met Mark and Kristi for lunch at the Red Butte Cafe. The best part of the day: Pretty good food and really good friends. From there we drove to Nephi where we stopped for gas. We filled the car, but my tank was empty. I asked VSO to drive and I put my hat over my face. After about 40 minutes of semi-coma I felt a little bit better. By then we were in Fillmore, so VSO took us all the way home.