Halloween 2011

Lot’s of working adults wearing costumes in town, and the Victor Community School kids were dressed up this morning, making the rounds.

Halloween is a non-event for us. We haven’t had anybody trick-or-treat us in the last 5 years. We always buy candy, and then end up eating it ourselves. So, this blog post will be the closest I can come today, to spooky.

Happy Halloween!

SlideShow (Halloween 2011)
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October Leftovers

We’re at the end of October and I’ve got a few shots hanging around on my desktop.
Let’s consolidate them, and move on into November.

Here’s some signs I’ve encountered recently…

This was a Fire Department exercise called Destroy The Crash House.
An Eagle couple were monitoring both directions of Bates Road.
Tom said this house has an observatory built on top. Sure looks like it!
Finn’s moms vehicle with under 40k on it, Very cool!
SlideShow (October Leftovers)

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Green Pipes

There’s been a lot of speculation about the green pipes stacked along the frontage road.

Sewer pipes are the general consensus, but is this something new, and which direction does it go? Our property has a septic tank, so I’m out of that loop.

I ran into Jared (the Public Works boss) at our base yesterday, and asked him about it. This is called going directly to the source :-)

Turns out an existing sewer line, running from Victor to Driggs, is being rebuilt with new pipe. I’ve been here six years and I didn’t know we had such a thing…

SlideShow (Pipes)

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Hideout Hill

I was giving Tom his regular afternoon ride to Victor today, via Bates Road. He knows a lot about this valley, and I love picking his brain.

As we drove by this thick cluster of trees, he told me that two spies had houses in there, with other houses for support. He rambled on about the details, which I mostly missed because I was taking this photo and worrying about being in the sights of a sniper rifle.

Tom said they also have more units in here:

If I turn up missing, here you go…

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Halloween Treats

Steph whipped up a bunch of treats, in a Halloween motif, and put them in a cardboard box for me to give out to the kids. We’ve been doing this for a few years now, with Easter and Christmas as the primary events.

My Victor Community School kids were more then willing to dig into the box today.

They were just Hershey’s Kisses, but it’s the presentation that counts :-)

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White Mountain Well

I gave Tom a ride out to Moose Creek Ranch today, along the Old Jackson Highway. As we drove by this concrete bunker looking thing he said, “That’s Victor’s water supply”. I slammed on the brakes and said, “What?”

Tom’s lived here a long time and told me about this well, while I took photos. It was built back in the 30’s on top of a shallow Aquifer. It has two well heads, one that supplies drinking water to the residents, and one that provides irrigation water to the farmers.

This is the purifying unit for the drinking water.
I took this shot through the fence…
This is White Mountain, on the way to Moose Creek.
SlideShow (White Mountain Well)
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Bike Tunnel

I mentioned in my Bike Light post that the city should have built a bike tunnel, instead of a crossing, in that 45 zone. I found out yesterday from Carol Stratton (a regular commenter here) that Victor had one on the south end of town.

She said it was built as they were constructing the highway, years ago. She even went through it in a horse drawn carriage.

I located it today, just south of the Gateway Chevron, in a 55 zone.

SlideShow (Bike Tunnel)

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Proud House

On the way to Mesa Falls yesterday we passed an old house that has always fascinated me. Of course I had to stop and photograph it.

I’m assuming it was built when the first Mormon farmers descended on the area, well over a hundred years ago. It overlooks thousands of acres of pristine farmland that is still being actively farmed today. Here’s the Satellite view…

Many generations of Teton Valley natives probably originated from this home.

I’m intrigued with the history of this house and I’ve put out feelers to my Mormon friends, for some background. I will update this post as soon as I get the story.

SlideShow (Proud House)
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Mesa Falls

Hooked up the GPS receiver to Lucy today and said Take us to Mesa Falls! I had to do the driving of course, but shortly we were at the beautiful waterfalls known as Mesa.

A spectacular day with nobody around, and perfect for capturing videos.

SlideShow (Mesa Falls)

Videos:

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Horse Drawn

Saw this cute old couple moseying down the street last week, looking at the Mormon church they’ve probably attended for many years. I was in the church parking lot…

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Bike Light

We have a new bike path in town that crosses Hwy 33 at Creekside Meadows. This crossing occurs at a point where traffic is either accelerating from 45 to 55 heading to Victor, or slowing down from 55 to 45 heading into downtown Driggs.

Either way, it’s a bad place to have a stop light, but the electricians that hooked up our traffic light recently, were hard at work today installing this thing.

There was some discussion previously about putting a tunnel underneath the highway. Personally, I think that would have been brilliant.

This new system is solar powered and push button activated. We’ll see how going from 45 to zero quickly, works out…

SlideShow (Bike Light)
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Jeep Job

My son Riley had a very influential teacher in elementary school (sadly I can’t remember his name). Riley dropped by and visited him one day, while in high school. The teacher recognized his love of cars, and recommended Wyotech as a career option.

Wyotech is the premiere trade school in the United States, which teaches people how to rebuild automobiles that have been damaged in accidents, back to original condition.

Riley chose this option and made an amazing journey down to Laramie, Wyoming after high school, mastered the Wyotech courses, and returned home to Kent, Washington. Considering how many college grads are unemployed, it was a great decision.

He has evolved into a skilled craftsman and is now working for one of the best autobody shops in Washington. Here is Riley’s latest project, a mangled Jeep, restored to new.

This career choice also allowed him to achieve his dream of buying a great house with a nice big shop, to work on his vehicles. Not bad for a 24 year old! I’m a proud dad…

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Yellow Dirt Road

To further my quest of enlightening those that don’t live here, about the beauty of Teton Valley, here’s an old road at the base of the Big Hole Mountains.

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Fall Colors

The foothills come alive this time of year. You can easily see the shades of Halloween, bursting from the beauty of nature.

In a moon phase heartbeat, the color will fade to white.

SlideShow (Fall Colors)

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Traffic Light

We have one traffic light in Teton County, at the intersection of Main Street and Little Avenue, in Driggs. (The caution-stop light in Victor doesn’t count…)

During our construction summer from hell this signal has been turned off, and drivers have been perfecting their four-way stop etiquette for months.

Today it was finally turned back on. As someone who makes his living going through this intersection, all I can say is Sweet!

There’s a new four-light control that I can’t wait to spend some time with. It appears to have a yellow turn when you can arrow, with new electronics directing the whole setup.
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