There is fungus among'us

Lately we've been seeing an amazing variety of mushrooms.

Some are bland (see above), some are showy (see below).

But I tell ya, when we went walking last week higher in the mountains, we saw mushrooms galore. As the old wordplay goes, there is fungus among'us.

I don't have any clue what any of these mushrooms are. All I know is there has been an amazing variety on display this fall, both here at home and elsewhere (such as in the mountains). Without further ado, enjoy the photo journal.

These little pale pink button-sized things were growing on the side of the road.

Older Daughter poked one with the end of a pine needle, and it oozed a gelatinous goo.

This mushroom looked almost like a dandelion.

Here we are, up in the mountains. We were probably at 5,000 feet in elevation.

These were fascinating mushrooms. They looked like little cities.

This one looked like coral. Someone had plucked this sample and balanced it on top a fence post, presumably for closer examination.

Here is some more, growing at the base of a log.

Other interesting varieties:

What a wondrous world we live in.

An air of desperation

Don was scrolling through our local Facebook Marketplace buy-and-sell last night when he came across a listing for a 2023 Ford F350 truck. The seller wanted $73,000 for it.

"Seventy-three thousand!" exclaimed Older Daughter. "That's the down payment for a house! Let me guess, it has all the bells and whistles."

"Yep." Don started reading the list of amenities: Automatic this, heated that...

"That listing has an air of desperation about it," remarked Older Daughter.

And indeed it did. We started speculating why someone was selling such a brand-new vehicle, clearly barely used. We concluded the only reason someone would part with such a treasure was because of the monthly payments, which doubtless were at least $1,000/month for at least seven years. Was it buyer's remorse? Was it budgetary reality? Did the buyer just lose his job?

We recalled what Younger Daughter had mentioned when she was in boot camp in Great Lakes, Illinois: The number of car dealerships located just off base. Teenagers, newly enlisted and flush with the headiness of a steady paycheck and being away from home for the first time, would buy brand-new vehicles and then get saddled with crushing payments for vehicles they barely had time to drive before they were whisked off to another part of the world or deployed at sea. Madness.

But then, I think it's madness to spend $73,000 on a truck, too, unless the buyer is extremely well off or has a guaranteed job. It could also explain this headline from today: "Subprime Auto Loan Delinquency Erupts, Reaching Highest Rate On Record."

Whatever the reason, we hoped – for the seller's sake – he would find someone able to relieve him of this financial burden. $73,000 is an awful lot of money to owe for a vehicle, especially in these fiscally uncertain times.

A new walking trail

Older Daughter has been slowly learning what kinds of walking trails are in the region. Now that her busy season is over, we all decided to celebrate by taking a nice walk in the woods.

We brought Darcy, of course. I made sure to walk him before we left so he could, well, do his doo-doo duty ahead of time. When he learned he was going with us on this adventure, he was thrilled.

In fact, he was so thrilled that he barely made it out of the car before making another huge pile, despite having done so earlier. Oh well, at least this meant we could leave it next to the car instead of toting it with us through the woods.

The trail was largely flat and easy, formed in a loop a bit over a mile in length. There were additional trails, but dogs weren't permitted on them, so we contented ourselves by looping twice.

We saw lots and lots of mushrooms ... so many, in fact, that I'll make a separate post on them.

This photo came out blurry because I was walking (instead of standing still) when I took it. Still, I think it's kinda artistic. Very impressionistic, no?

A chickaree with its mouth full chattered angrily at us as we passed.

It was simply a beautiful path, sun-dappled and deeply forested.

A tree draped in lichen.

Darcy was in his element.

We saw this bunch grass everywhere.

Many had the dried remains of a tall flowering stalk. Anyone know what kind of grass this is?

A large tree that came down, splintered dramatically at its base.

Beautiful forest scene.

The larches are just starting to turn yellow.

Evidently this trail is widely used by horse riders.

Darcy got himself a good drink before we got back into the car.

A very satisfying morning's amble.

Definitely a place to explore some more.

Can't resist a library sale

Older Daughter caught wind of a library sale being held in a tiny nearby town. We made plans to go, though to be honest we didn't expect much. The town is small and isolated. How big could the sale be?

While we made plans to arrive at the opening of the sale, we didn't anticipate much competition. After all, how many other bibliophiles were there in this small and isolated town?

We were happily surprised on both counts. Not only was the selection extremely large for a library that size...

...but it seemed every homeschooling family for miles around had arrived to pick over the books. Yes! It was wonderful to see so many kids. (As we were checking out, a little boy belonging to the family ahead of us was clutching a small but old book against his chest protectively, very proud of the fact that he had paid for it with his own money. I don't know what the book was, but the kid looked over the moon.)

Ahem, I came home with a carton-full. Total cost? Eight dollars.

It's just so hard to resist a library sale.

My weather diary

On October 26, 2004, we had our first hard freeze of the year. The temperature was 26F.

On February 3, 2014, it was calm, cloudy, and a low of 20F. It snowed two or three inches overnight and snowed lightly much of the day. I took Younger Daughter into a nearby down for a music lesson.

On August 13, 2017, it was breezy and cooler than the day before. Don's arm was hurting from a bout of tendonitis. We both took a walk to the mailboxes (3 miles round trip), taking advantage of a cool break from some hot weather.

How do I know all this stuff? It's because since 2004 (starting on Oct. 26, in fact), I've been keeping what I call a weather diary. This is nothing more than a brief summary of what we did around the house and farm, and occasionally something noteworthy that happened in the news (Notre Dame burned on April 15, 2019, for example). The weather diary is called just that – a weather diary – because originally it was meant to note the weather patterns in what was then our new home in Idaho (we moved in June of 2003). Somehow it evolved into a daily family diary, though I still note the high and low temperatures as well as any weather.

I've been making nearly daily entries for almost 19 years now, and the document is currently 540 pages long. Pick any date since Oct. 26, 2004, and it's 99 percent likely I can tell you what we did and what the weather was like. I can't even begin to tell you how useful this journal has been for a zillion and one reasons. When did we do such-and-such? On what date do we visit thus-and-such? When is the first time we met someone? When did we travel to a distant location? I can do a brief search and have the answer within seconds.

On October 1, 2015, for example, I dehydrated some garlic (and wasn't impressed by the results). It sunny with a high of 70F.

On April 30, 2012, I got a phone call from a childhood friend who was in the states visiting her family (she lives in Germany), and we had a long conversation. It rained much of the day with a high temperature of 45F.

The vast, vast majority of this diary is boring and mundane. But then, when you think about it, the vast, vast majority of everyday life for everyone is boring and mundane. But it's life.

As boring and mundane as my weather diary may be, I've extremely glad to have it. Life for the past 19 years has been recorded almost daily.

Did you see the eclipse?

Saturday's solar eclipse covered a good chunk of the Western U.S.

We got to about 80% coverage. The above chart was annoying because apparently it was using the Mountain Time Zone of central and southern Idaho rather than Pacific Time Zone of the northern part of the state. It indicated the eclipsed started at 9:09 am and peaked at 10:25 am. However we found out it started an hour earlier: Beginning at 8:09 am (Pacific) and peaking at 9:25 am.

Frustratingly, we didn't have (or couldn't find) the solar glasses we used during the last eclipse we experienced. Sometime inside six years and two moves, they disappeared. (Doubtless we'll find them next week or something similarly useless.)

A neighbor was watching the beginning of the eclipse as we returned from walking Darcy (around 8:15 am, which is how I figured out the time discrepancy on the above chart). We peeked through her glasses and I tried to get a photo using the solar glasses over my camera lens, but no luck.

Then I tried putting sunglasses over my camera lens. That didn't work either.

 As the eclipse progressed, I tried the old "pinprick through paper" trick, with marginal success.

So I turned to go inside the house, figuring there was no way to see the eclipse without resources. I turned around and saw ... this.

The leaves of our willow tree...

...were eclipsing on the white side of our chest freezer, which is on the porch. How handy is that? We were able to "see" the eclipse after all.

The eclipse caused the light the get kinda sickly faded, but nothing overly dramatic. I'm sure it was different for those in the path of totality.

Did you see the eclipse?