Teton Dam

The Teton Dam is a wondrous man-made entity, providing boundless amounts of water to the farmers and cheap hydro-electric power to us all.

Oh wait, that was the intent back in 1976, until it fell apart as it was almost full…

Wilford, Sugar City, Salem, Hibbard and Rexburg were hit with 2,000,000 cubic feet of water per second, spilling from what used to be the Teton Dam.

The collapse of the dam resulted in the deaths of 14 people and 13,000 head of cattle. The dam cost $100 million to build, and the federal government paid over $300 million in claims related to the dam failure.

More than 200 families were left homeless, with an estimated $400 million, to one billion dollars, in property damage.

btw: These photos were taken within 24 hours of this post, as are 99% of the photos that appear here…

SlideShow (Teton Dam)
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Categorized as The Valley

Kent The Frog

This little guy used to accompany me as I made my rounds on the Shopper Shuttle bus system in Kent, WA. The routes used to be called The Frog Bus.

He’s now sitting on my fare box, greeting folks as they board my bus.

Here’s the original Frog Bus:

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Categorized as The Bus

Autumn Fade

Summer fades into warm autumn afternoons with surprisingly bright yellow colors erupting from our variety of trees.

Soon, four feet of snow will be our constant companion. It’s called living in the Rockies…

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Categorized as House

Huntsman Green

The golf course at Huntsman Springs is known as a world class facility. From what I can see from the road, it’s nice…

It was designed by the acclaimed golf architect David Kidd, winner of GOLF Magazine’s 2008 Architect of the Year. He refers to Huntsman Springs as his greatest golf architectural achievement. Wow!   (facitious emoticon here…)

As soon as I can come up with a $40,000 non-refundable initiation fee, with $4,200 annual dues, I’m going to sign right up!   (another facitious emoticon here…)

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Bates Road Eagle

I’ve been watching the eagles on Bates Road for a couple of weeks now. They’re pretty territorial with their power line perches, about one eagle for every eight poles.

Hwy 33 construction between Driggs and Victor is now done, and I knew this would be my last Bates detour. So, I pulled over and visited with this big boy.

I’m sure he didn’t leave on my account, he just wanted to show off, to you!

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Categorized as Nature

Honeymoon Snapshots

My son Riley, and his new wife Jessica, are on a honeymoon cruise up in Alaska. Just grabbed a couple of their Facebook uploads, and I’m posting them here:

Here’s a view of the cruise ship, while doing their Tram adventure. Pretty cool…

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Categorized as Riley

Asphalt

The summer of construction continues to rumble on, belching and stinking, distracting and delaying, up and down the valley.

I saw a large plume of smoke coming from the east side and I thought it was controlled burning. The foothills were fading from visibility as the smoke moved north and south.

Turns out it was the asphalt cooker, the thing that’s been cranking out the black stuff which is resurfacing our former perfectly good highway.

Downtown project mission statement: To replace failing road surface and water line, and redesign the Main Street in the downtown core to achieve a more attractive and pedestrian-friendly streetscape and also address stormwater drainage and traffic flow issues and add wheelchair accessible curb ramps at existing sidewalk corners.

Downtown project funding: $4,307,000 State Transportation Improvement Program funds. This does not include the fact that they are rebuilding Hwy 33 from one end of the valley to the other.

SlideShow (Asphalt)
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The Omen

An interesting light appeared in the corner of my office yesterday (9/11). I’m really into visual and numerical occurrences lately. I think they are the method by which spirits communicate with us.

I often awake at 4:44 and glance at the clock. Today I bought bread, a water, and a power bar at the store. The tab came to $4.44.

A couple of years ago I was awoke by three very loud knocks, somewhere in the house, at 4:44. Nobody was there. This number has numerological and spiritual significance, but I haven’t figured out yet, how it applies to me. I think my grand-father may be behind this whole thing.

The light looks like a hand, pointing at the painting of a smoking cowboy. I forgot that painting was back there, as it’s blocked by my TV. Very interesting, as smoking pretty much killed off my family.

I smoked, for a long time, before I shook Riley’s hand 15 years ago and agreed to quit if he never started. Best deal I ever made!

I tracked the light source down to the sunset bouncing off a mirror in the living room.

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Litter Box

This is really too funny. We have a planter thing in the back that we attempted to grow some vegetables in, a couple of years ago. Small grasshoppers came thru the mesh and ate everything, so we don’t use it now.

The other day we realized that Piper is using it as her outdoor litter box! She prefers it to her indoor one. In fact, she bugs me every morning to let her outside, to use the big box.

I don’t let her out until it gets light now, because she was jumped by something in the dark a while back. I suspect it was a coyote. She’s alright, but it shook her up pretty bad.

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Categorized as Piper

Cedron Cemetery

This is a great little cemetery at the base of the Big Hole mountains. There’s a lot of Kunz buried here. This is a notable Mormon family name, and I know a few of them.

I love the history of this clan! Apparently there was a polygamist patriarch that had to give up all but one of his wives, and he kept the youngest. Makes sense to me! :-)

SlideShow (Cedron Cemetery)
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Have You Forgotten?

I created a Flash presentation, commemorating 9/11, back in 2003. I’ve wrapped it up into a simple page this morning, and you can watch it Here.

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Piper Photo Shoot

The permanent cat was lounging around in the grass today, so I grabbed my camera and said “Give me some shots for the blog, Piper!“.

She must be a model reincarnated, as she rolled over and started making cat eyes.

SlideShow (Piper Photo Shoot)
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Categorized as Piper

Barley Art

It’s fun to take your own photo and convert it to a different form of art. This was a brighter barley shot then the previous set, that I converted into an oil painting.

I can’t leave this on my monitor too long, I’m afraid it’s going to burn it up! :-)

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Categorized as Paintings

Barley

This is a rewrite of the post “Hay”, since I really did this fine grain an injustice…

Barley is used to make beer, and Teton Valley is a prime growing spot. Anheuser Busch is the buyer and oversees the production here, telling the farmers when to harvest.

What a magnificent time of the year here. The soft yellow texture adds peace to the day.

SlideShow (Barley)
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Open Spaces

Headed out east of Tetonia today, due north of Hatches Corner. I love the country here, great Teton views (when the prescribed burns aren’t going on), and wide open spaces.

A lot of this land was bought up by developers, before the boom busted a few years ago, and now just sits here, pretty as a picture…

As of the 2010 census, Teton County contains 450.36 square miles.
That’s 22.6 people per square mile, and a lot of people have left since then…

SlideShow (Open Spaces)
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Categorized as The Valley