as mentioned before....

...Andy finished the truck enough to show it "in progress" at the Palouse Days car show. We did not take any pictures, but have just received some from our car buddy Joe:
The truck on the left is the newest member of the Heitmann fleet. It started out as a 1937 Dodge and has been chopped, channeled, short-bedded (probably not a real term), and mulled over for hours. As the build continues, you will hopefully see more close-up pictures and hear more about the amazingly detailed work that goes into a project like this. The man behind the scenes has a vision in his head, and it is gonna be good! :)
side note: the truck on the right is another work in progress being built by fellow club member Monte.

And here, of course, is 'my' car looking mighty fine as always sitting next to the other boat in the club - Aaron's Lincoln.

The Great Harvest

A frost last Friday night took care of the rest of our garden and sweetened the fruit on the trees, so we were in for a day of hard work! Andy came home after only one day of elk hunting up north and Beth came out from Moscow, and we made quite a team!

Beth and I tackled the 2 apple and 2 plum trees, filling boxes with fruit, while Andy concentrated on the many tomato plants - picking and sorting the ripe from the green. Then, we all gathered to see what kind of carrots we'd been growing underground. This little guy came out of one of the rows, and Beth quickly claimed and named him.
We also had a couple of monsters that had room to grow - and grow they did!The overall one-day harvest looked like a regular farmer's market!
and, prompted Beth and I to strike the farmer pose as we were coming in from the garden:
Once all the produce was brought in, Beth and I tried making plum jam while Andy finished yanking all the dead plants and making a burn pile. What a productive day!

And...Just in case you had any doubts, this girl here is the most wonderful, lovable little sister in the world :)

Thanks Bethers!

Christening the New Camera

Yes! we have a new camera - to replace the one stolen at the beginning of last semester. Pretty exciting to have a new piece of technology to figure out and play with! It's quite the upgrade too (thanks to Uncle Sam) and will take some time to get used to :)

However! It has now been officially christened - in the best way I know how:

With a sunrise....

...and a sunset :)

A New Adventure

Well, I thought I (Andy) would post for once and share my newest and latest adventure. I have been working up in the Kellogg area (what a surprise) for the last few weeks and have several to go. So I decided that I would try and hunt up here in this new but great elk country. I have no idea what I am doing but I thought I would try it this year. Well to make a long story shorter, I was talking with some of the guys I am working with about where to go. One of them mentioned he has a tree stand set up and has been watching some bears over the past week. Of course, I was intrigued so I asked him tons of questions and before I knew it he was asking me if I wanted to go with him. I said sure, since I have never even tried for a black bear.

So we didn't end up working last Friday so it was the perfect day to go (as long as the weatherman was wrong about the rain). So that morning we went into the woods and set up a second tree stand, dumped some good food (baiting is legal in Idaho) and retreived a motion-sensor camera from the tree that they had set out. (Here is a shot of the 2 tree stands in the same tree...I was in the top stand which is the most visible one)

Went back to town and looked at the camera. The bears are very habitual and this game camera helped to take all the guess work and scouting out of it. That whole week there was a smaller black bear with a white "v" on his chest coming in between noon and 1 and then another cinnamon colored one that was coming in between 3 and 4 in the afternoon. So we headed out before noon and got all set up. We only were sitting in the tree stand for about 45 minutes before the black one came strolling in. I got a short couple minute video of him coming in and checking out the fresh food. After watching him for about 20 minutes, I decided to shoot him. Well long story short, after tracking for a little while, we found him and I had shot my first ever black bear.
(Matt and I with my first bear)

(Here is a better shot of him...you can see the white "v")

It was extremely fun and something I knew nothing about previously. When I tell people this story, they seem to think it (baiting) is halfway cheating and not very sportsman. After looking back on it, I have determined that it sounds like so, but the truth is that this guy (Matt - who I hunted with) really knew what he was doing and had done his homework. If I was to try and go do this on my own I am pretty sure it wouldn't be even close to that easy. But anyway, it was tons of fun and I have checked yet another new adventure off my list. I think this now got me thinking I would like to shoot all the game animals possible in Idaho before I die. I have a good start but there are still lots to go and some are controlled hunt with very minimal odds. We will see what happens.

Portland, Part II: Chasing Waterfalls

Read the post under this one first.
Colleen came up from Eugene on Friday night to see Susan and I, and we planned to go hiking on Saturday, despite the weatherman's prediction of rain. We googled easy hikes in the Multnomah Falls area and came up with Horsetail Falls. We chose to avoid Multnomah (although stunning) in order to get away from the crowds and just have a relaxing walk around the mountains in the Columbia Gorge. We ended up starting at a different trailhead than the directions said, and our 4-mile, 2-waterfall hike turned into more of an 8-10 mile, 6-waterfall hike. The weather was cool and a little humid with some misting - perfect! - and there were just enough people on the trail; we didn't feel crowded or rushed, but it wasn't hard to find someone else to take your picture.

The way we approached the waterfalls on our backward hike was Ponytail, Triple, Upper Horsetail, Lower Horsetail. If you start at the main trailhead, you will see them in this order:

Lower Horsetail

Upper Horsetail

Ponytail

Triple Falls

We wore ourselves out and headed back to Susan's for some homemade pizza before going our separate ways. I'm really glad we got to sneak some memorable sister time into my mandatory fieldtrip!

Green Roofs and Gray Skies

A couple of weeks ago - in fact, the week before Moscow's Oktoberfest, I had a studio class fieldtrip to Portland. We went to see a city that actively incorporates sustainable/green design into their buildings and way of living. Each morning, we met as a class at the first site and then traveled together throughout the day by MAX, trolley, or tram. It really was a good way to experience the city AND to not get lost!Our adventures included tours of Wieden + Kennedy (advertising firm), GBD Architects, U of O - Portland, Portland Water Resources Lab, the Center for Health and Healing, and the new AIA Headquarters, as well as some walking around neighborhoods and the OHSU campus.
The most impressive tour was at Wieden + Kennedy. The building doesn't look like anything special from the outside, but once inside it is a jungle-gym of concrete and huge glu-lam wood beams. From many spots within the building, you can see people working, meeting, having lunch, or showing presentations, on multiple floors of the building (4 total). The middle of the building is very open and just full of criss-crossing catwalks. This firm does all the advertising for Nike, Coca-Cola, Converse, Visa, Target, ESPN, etc..... They have a full-size basketball court and a very well-equipped weight room, a sit-at bar area, gaming cubicles, a "bird's nest" meeting room, and tons of other unique office features. Some of the employees even taped off a hop-scotch game on the concrete floor near their desks. It really seemed like a fun place to work. There was obviously no dress code, although most employees seemed to be wearing Nike or Converse shoes....imagine that....
One on main wall in the building, there was this motivational message:

What's it made of? A wall painted white and stuck with clear thumb tacks - purchasable at your local department store, craft store, and maybe even dollar store. The patience that went into this is incredible! I should have taken a close-up shot of it but didn't think of that until we left.

Except for one shopping adventure with some classmates after our last tour on Friday, I spent the evenings relaxing and catching up with Susan and Chad. They live in Portland, so I avoided the hotels and stayed with them every night (and benefited from their awesome cooking!)
Thanks again!