The Snowstorm Jens Hegg Friday, December 19, 2008

As everyone has been commenting, there was a big storm here over the last couple days. Berlyn, myself and my parents braved the wind and falling snow to take advantage of the fresh powder for a round of sledding and a bit of a midday walk...er, slog...through the newfallen snow.



What a cute laugh he's got going there!

Here are some stills of the adventure:

Palouse Days Jens Hegg Friday, December 19, 2008

Yeah, I'm behind the eight ball. Palouse Days happened months ago. I even posted about it. Still, I wanted to share this gem of a video that I haven't had the time to upload. It's a first person video account of the mayhem that ensues when a helicopter drops a bucket full of ping pong balls on main street in Palouse Washington. Have fun...

The Green Frog Jens Hegg Thursday, December 18, 2008

The Green Frog Cafe is one of several awesome businesses that have sprung up in Palouse since I left. They have an excellent open mic on the first Friday of the month. Berlyn likes to come up on stage with me while I play. Tiana, the co-owner, often lets him play with a vintage toy guitar that usually sits behind the counter. This time he got to go up without me to sing Clementine on the toy guitar (That's the only song it plays). He was in heaven. Attention from Tiana and the crowd all at once, what more could a 4 year old want?

Playing at the Park Jens Hegg Thursday, December 18, 2008

I still remember "The Big Slide" from the Palouse Park. I remember it being scary up there and that the metal gets really hot right about the time the open swim ends at the pool across the way. Berlyn learned all about the freakiness but loved every second of it. He's an adrenaline junkie already.

"The Big Slide"

Whao, that's a long way down!

Cinnamon and Sugar Jens Hegg Sunday, October 05, 2008

This is a picture of the best cinnamon roll I have ever had, bar none. A man on Palouse has outfitted the renovated hotel he owns downtown with a commercial kitchen and bakery/coffee bar. Unfortunately he isn't open for business, he's hoping someone will want to lease the space for a business.

He aught to do it himself. He baked cinnamon rolls as a special treat for the Palouse Days revellers and sold them at the bargain basement price of $1.50.

They were light and fluffy but with enough substance to keep them firmly in the bready category rather than pastry. They were stuffed with tons of good raisins and plenty of cinnamon and sugar. The bottom was the most amazing part. They were carmelized on the bottom with no burnt spots and a perfect layer of gooey and also crunchy sugar/cinnamon mixture. The cream cheese frosting topped it all off.

I didn't expect to find the perfect cinnamon roll in Palouse Washington, but hey, you take life as it comes. I hope he makes it a tradition.

The Reluctant Dragon Jens Hegg Saturday, October 04, 2008

Not long after the move was Palouse Days, the annual town celebration in these here parts. Berlyn is a social animal and wanted to walk in the parade so we suited him up in last years halloween costume and headed in after breakfast.

He loved getting ready in the staging area and petting the prize sheep one of the other girls was showing off.

He was more than a little reluctant to be there after he saw all the people looking at him from the sidewalks. But he did soldier on, despite refusing to wear the hood of the costume. He might not have been a scary dragon, but he certainly had a unique dragon scowl going.
Of course, afterward there was candy to scramble for from the adult parade.
As a kid Palouse Days seemed like a much bigger deal. It seemed awfully sparse as an adult.
Fire engines are LOUD!

The trip West Jens Hegg Wednesday, October 01, 2008

In August B, myself, and my dad left Minneapolis Minnesota and headed west. It took us 5 days and 4 nights to cross the Northern tier in a Dodge ram pickup with a camper attached. B is an amazing traveller and didn't put up any fuss. He loved looking out the window at the scenery and pointing out every piece of heavy machinery or truck that came along. My father is a farmer and was in the market for a new tractor, so, on the way we stopped to look at several, one of which he eventually purchased. This meant, however, that we did not take the usual route along I90 or I94. Instead we headed north the first night to look at a tractor near Thief River Falls, MN. From there we continued West, eventually hooking up with Hiway 2, the "Highline" as the locals call it.

We headed through the flat expanse of prairie that is North Dakota and passed through the geographic center of North America at Rugby, North Dakota. There is very little to see but we managed to see enough interesting stuff to make it worthwhile. This included a 6 foot long  bull snake at a rest stop in North Dakota (I'm not kidding, 6 feet is a conservative estimate. He was as big around as my arm at his thickest point). He was nice enough to stay above ground for about 15 minutes while we watched him. Berlyn loved chasing him around and trying to get a pet in until the snake had enough and dove down a ground squirrel hole to get away.
We stayed in campgrounds full of oilmen outside of Williston and heard all about the oil boom happening there. We camped in one campground where you were not supposed to leave the paved areas due to insane amounts of poison ivy. We even camped behind a Case IH tractor dealership in Montana.

We saw it all, from the flat stuff, as Greg Brown would say, to the mountains and everything in between. We even saw some art on the way southwest to cross the Rockies on I90 (P.S. - Lincoln, Montana not only has statues of slouching roosters, they have phenomenal huckleberry shakes at the local 50's diner)

Eventually we made it into Idaho, down I90 through Kellogg, past Cataldo Mission newly made famous by Josh Ritters song Wings, through Spokane and to our new home on the Palouse. You can take a gander at the pictures and videos from the trip here if you are interested here.