Northern Plains

Still a desolate land, but every time we go back to Mars we are one step closer .....

Phoenix on Mars

After traveling some 40 MILLION miles ( give or take a million or two) The Phoenix Mars lander approaches the red planet encased in a cocoon of a Delta Rocket. It must then slip from it's cocoon, check it's alignment, come screaming into the martian atmosphere at thousands of miles an hour, deploy its parachute, eject the heat shield, separate from the chute, fire it's thrusters, and make a landing. The track record for doing this has not been real great... about 50/50. Congradulations Phoenix, you made it!!!!!!

Last Picture

This was the last picture I had in my camera, so I took a picture of the camping area on the way back to the Jeep.

Far End Cliffs

This always seemed like a real good area for mountain cats to live. I always make sure my food is picked up when I camp here.

Far End

This is from the far end campsite.

Tree View

Stumps

Summit First Look

There was a tree down right across the boat launch area which made for a little interesting picture.

On the Way to Summit Lake

Okay, after Fancher Dam, I headed off for my favorite little lake in the area, ... Summit Lake.

I knew this old building was up here.. but I don't think it had a new metal roof on it when I was there years ago.

Lonely Cherokee

I walked around the dike and just happened to notice a great little Cherokee Jeep in the distance!

Fancher Lake

Today I had the whole lake to myself. Too bad... no boat. I did take a little walk though...

Star of the Show

This is a place known as Fancher Dam. It is a manmade resevoir that serves as a great watering hole for cattle. It is also a duck hunting area, I think. I'm pretty sure there are fish too.

The Journey Begins

Now that I finally got the brakes fixed on the jeep, I thought I'd take a little drive to jeep country today... This is going up the Face Road looking across Okanogan Valley to Chopaka Mountain. See the resemblance to a sleeping indian? Of course, there is folklore there.

My Pod

I will have this by the end of the week. It took less than thirty seconds to fall in love with the best engineering marvel since the internet and my computers. I am sure it will pop up on the blog when I get it. This will be the most exciting tech thing since I first tried out the internet in Spokane and knew I had to have it. *** More Later... I'm sure!!!***

My Favorite Competition/Inspiration

Okay, I was celebrating Cinco de Mayo and didn't take the picture straight, but this is Amy's painting given to me. The flash didn't do it justice... I will probably re post it later... not today. * Note * This is about her 10th painting with 4 kids and a household to run!

Spanish Head View

This one I have been working on for a few days... It is from the WebCam at Spanish Head looking South. I used to go to this beach a lot when I lived there... it was close to home and on the way to work. I'm not calling it done yet....

Aspens

Now this little guy took about an hour... I am going to experiment with smaller 3X5 paintings and see how those go. It is also using the new LIQUIN paint thinner that I got from Lincoln City.

Always Ugly

If there was ever a reason I don't paint people, this is it. This was supposed top be a girl singing into a microphone, but it looks more like an egyptian painting of Monkey Man. It was actually a test to see if I could paint on a cheap white plastic tablecloth and it could work for a large, cheap painting. This is what is known as a FLOP!