Taking our Turn

We spent a day in the hills checking the herd and putting out salt. I was the salt guy (gal?) and in my travels found what was left of an old homesteading cabin. The four walls were lying on the ground and in the middle was a dilapidated cookstove. The lettering on the stove said it was manufactured in St Louis, Missouri. That’s a long haul even before it got to the mountains of Idaho.

I had taken my wildflower ID book so I was able to identify a flower I hadn’t noticed before. It grows alongside yarrow, a ubiquitous white flower this time of year, and they look a lot alike. It never registered with me that it was a different species. My book said the new flower was yampah, and that the Native Americans had eaten the root tubers. I had my trusty shovel with me so I dug up some plants. The tubers tasted like carrots just like the book said. Mark said they were right tasty. 

How would anyone have survived living in a log cabin up here? And for the natives, how did they get the tubers without a shovel and for such little reward? We love this range and its many wonders. I have to keep in mind that we’re just taking our turn.

I stayed mostly inside today to avoid the heat. I went out for short spells and then back in to do housework, which is always waiting. I felt a little discombobulated until it occurred to me to bake a favorite of Mark’s, zucchini bread. If you like to bake, you’re probably making the recipe for two loaves which calls for 3 cups of flour and 2 cups of zucchini. Here’s a tip, use 3 cups of squash instead. The bread is more moist, healthier, and best of all it uses up more zucchini and that’s really the point, right?  

We're sleeping in the basement under a window and noticing the moonlight. I found a neat internet site called timeanddate.com that shows the times of the sun and moon rising and setting, and lots of other good information about day length, etc. What interests me most are the phases of the moon. It tells the exact illumination of the moon on the current day. Today is the new moon, but only 1.4% is visible, so we won’t be able to see it for another couple of days. Then it will be more correct to call it a young moon.  

My grandmother and great-grandmother both left behind diaries. They were very aware and appreciative of the natural world. Of course in those days, living off the land, they were absolutely dependent upon it, more so than us even though we derive our livelihood there as well. They listened for the first killdeer and meadowlark in the spring. They recorded the weather and the pulse of irrigating and harvesting on the farm. And they competed to be the first to see the new moon every month. I know to watch as the moon waxes to full, but know very little about the new moon. My ancestors didn’t have a website, they lived it. But I’ll take the help and try to catch up with them. 

yampah, so delicate and lovely

                                                             

they often have a double tuber

a tough way to live