Finding God's Country Everywhere I've Lived

Time to get caught up on Sibling Assignments. A couple of weeks ago, IEG gave us this assignment:

"What do you consider 'God's Country' and why?"

Raymond Pert's is here and IEG's here.

I am glad I have lived a few different places in this great country of ours, and have managed to consider each place God's Country.

My first 18 years were spent living in the Silver Valley of northern Idaho. The Silver Valley from 1963-1981 was a lot different looking than the one of right now, but it was my home, and beautiful just the same.



Even though Kellogg's hillsides were bare of trees, living in Kellogg was a wonderful experience, and I'm glad I grew up here. You felt safe. People looked out for one another. You started kindergarten with about 25 kids, and most of them graduated from high school with you. You established traditions. And, I didn't know much else besides living in Kellogg. We didn't venture far from the valley while I was growing up. Sometimes to Spokane, and a once a summer trip to Orofino. Other than that, we stayed in Kellogg. Even traveling 15 miles to Wallace was a big deal to my folks.

But I longed for adventure. I liked going new places, and seeing new things.



My second home was in Moscow, Idaho, while I attended the University of Idaho. The beautiful rolling hills of the Palouse, and the U of I campus had a beauty all their own. The years at college were foundational as I grew closer in my relationship with God, and trying to figure out who I was, which really made it God's Country for me.


One summer, I lived in California. I worked at the International Headquarters for Campus Crusade for Christ, and lived at Arrowhead Springs, and worked in San Bernadino. This again was God's Country, because of the work I did, helping spread the "Good News" in all that I did that summer. I found beauty in the desert, in crowded Los Angeles, and Disneyland. I found God everywhere that summer, and again grew closer to Him. I also realized that summer that I loved PKR, and he was the man I wanted to marry and spend the rest of my life with. I attended the 1984 Summer Olympics that while in Los Angeles, and enjoyed watching the USA Basketball team play (Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, among others). I still keep in touch with some of the people I lived with that summer.

After college, my first job was in Glendive, Montana. My dad always said Glendive wasn't the end of the world, but you could see it from there. I lived in Glendive from 1985 to 1991. While we lived there, eastern Montana was experiencing a drought. This is a problem when the type of farming you did was dry land farming...no irrigation.

But you found a tough and genuine breed of people in Eastern Montana. Those farmers and ranchers taught us plenty about trusting and having faith in God and many of the things we learned in the Glendive's Evangelical Church of North America have been the foundation for our Christian faith throughout the years.

One area that really grew on us while living in Glendive, and we came to appreciate were the "Badlands", and Makoshika State Park, located in Glendive. It had a very particular beauty all its' own, and we absolutely loved it.
After Montana, we moved to Meridian, Idaho, outside of Boise. The Treasure Valley again brought us growth in our relationship with God. We grew a lot in our faith and trust and understanding of God, and learned alot while in Meridian. But then, it was time to return to my roots.

In 2000, we returned to Kellogg. And the Kellogg of 2000 looked much different from the Kellogg of 1981, when I had lived here permanently that last time. The hills were now filled with the trees that were planted on the hillsides while I was in high school. The wetlands were emerging. There was no more smelter smoke. But God was still here, and that is because the spirit of the people remained the same. I still had many connections to people in this valley, and this is where a part of my heart and soul had remained all these years. And now I continue to enjoy life here in God's Country, the Silver Valley, the place I have always considered home.

Golf Course Miracle

If you lived here in Kellogg thirty years ago, you lived in a place with bare hills and very few mature trees on the hills.

Today, if you visit my hometown, the hills are covered with beautiful trees of different varieties, and it is truly a miracle in my estimation.

Here is a view of the Bunker Hill Smelter and the hillsides behind it, looking rather free of any kind of mature vegetation.



In this area today, a golf course and golf community are coming to life....

Galena Ridge has been born.

I'm Proud To Be From Kellogg

I'm a little behind on sibling assignments. Here is one I gave a few weeks ago...

What is it about telling people you were born and raised in Kellogg that gives you a sense of pride? Inland Empire Girls post is here, and Raymond Pert's is here.

For me, it is the people.

I love having connections with people who live here, or who I grew up with in this town.

I love knowing my grandparents moved out here from Kentucky in the early 1900's, and that my dad was born here in Kellogg in 1930.

I think I get a lot of my prideful feelings about Kellogg from my dad. He loved it here. When he had to move to Spokane for a while when he was in high school, he worked out a way to come back and live here so he could attend school in Kellogg.

I love the sense of community here in the Silver Valley. I love it when someone is sick, or their house burned down, or for whatever reason they have fallen on hard times, and the outpouring of help and support for the family is overwhelming.

I love living in this beautiful area, with the tree covered mountains, the rivers, the lakes, the bike trails, the skiing and the four seasons.

But I think one of the things I love most is the connection I have with the people who live here. It doesn't take long to see someone at the store and tell my daughters how I am connected to them. Sometimes they think I went to high school with everyone we see!!

And the history of this area is also very interesting. I loved it when I started reading about this area, and realized this was one of the last places in the U.S. "discovered and tamed" by the white man. And that Noah Kellogg discovered the Bunker Hill Mine is 1885, and, less than 50 years later, my dad was born in Kellogg. The Cataldo Mission, the Gold Rush, the Mining Wars...they all have helped form what is today's Silver Valley.

And I am proud to call this place home.

Wildcard Wednesday--Coffee Break

Yes, I am alive and well here in the Silver Valley. The Miser ended on Sunday, and this week I've been busy helping Z2 and Kiki Aru prepare for this Saturday's History Day competition to be held at Kellogg Middle School.

This year's theme is Conlict and Compromise. Kiki Aru and her group are doing a performance on the Conflict of the Salem Witch Trials.

Z2 and her group are creating a documentary called The Conflict and Compromise of the Coeur d'Alene Indian Tribe's Culture.

They are both doing great, but I'll be glad when this week is over.

I had an unexpected surprise today. An old family friend, Kenton Bird, who graduated from high school with Raymond Pert, was in Kellogg today and we got together for coffee at Josie's Full of Beans in the old McConnell Hotel Building.

He emailed me yesterday to say he was coming to Kellogg, and wondered if we could get together.

It was fun spending an hour with Kenton, and talking about things going on in the Silver Valley, and some projects he is working on, one with Raymond Pert, and another about the history of the Bunker Hill Zinc Plant. Bird's father worked at the Zinc Plant for many years. The Zinc Plant opened in 1928, and this marks the 80th anniversary. Kenton is going to come to the Zinc Plant's 20 years club gathering at the end of April and give a presentation on the history of the Zinc Plant.

We talked some about the local newspaper. He worked as a reporter there when it was the Kellogg Evening News. He is now head of the School of Communications and Journalism at the University of Idaho, which is the school I graduated from.

He was also curious about different things going on in the Silver Valley. He is working on a project that deals with images from old mining towns that have turned into tourist destinations, and looking for similarities.

It was a very interesting visit, and, even though it has been probably 4 or 5 years since I saw Kenton last, our Silver Valley bond caused us to be at ease together right away, and just start talking.

And it made me realize how much I enjoy going out and visiting with people over coffee, and how I don't do that enough. Yes, I'm throwing out an invitation. If you are ever here in the Silver Valley, let me know and we'll meet for coffee.

I'm serious. I'll buy!!

October Sunset in the Silver Valley

I happened to be sitting in the right place at the right time tonight, and saw the most beautiful colors out my living room window. So I went outside with my camera, hoping to do this October sunset justice.

It didn't turn out half bad.

This is the view of the sunset tonight in Kellogg. Because we are in a valley, we don't get a whole lot of beautiful sunsets, so, when we do, it is a blessing to experience them as they happen.

Kellogg sunsets are much different than the sunsets in Big Sky Country in Montana. They are also different from the Treasure Valley in southern Idaho. There, the skies are big, and go on forever. The sun and clouds and light have a lot more room to spread and color up the sky.

So, in the Silver Valley, when we have a beautiful sunset with pinks and purples, and oranges and blues, we don't take it for granted. We savor the beauty of the often short-lived phenomenon as the sun is setting in the western sky over the old Bunker Hill grounds.

And I know this valley is too much of a closed in space for some. I remember hearing about a teacher I had in high school who was from Butte, Montana. He had to get out of town every so often because the valley was too confining for him.

I have never felt confined by these mountains. They have always been a comfort to be, almost like a blanket swaddling me and giving me comfort.

When I lived in Montana, and would drive west through Big Sky Country to come home, I will never forget the feeling of getting to about Frenchtown, Montana, and feeling the mountains starting to close in, and the valley getting narrower. I knew that I was almost home.

This valley has always been home. Even when I have geographically lived in other places, this is what my body rhythms know. I never got used to the longer seasons in Glendive, Montana, or Meridian, Idaho. I never got used to the badlands of Montana, or the high desert of southern Idaho. The mountains and the valley is where I belong.

It courses through my veins like the minerals in the earth that surround me each and every day.

And I, like a miner, dig and blast what I can from this valley each and every day. Some days it is hard work, but it is well worth it in the end.

Finding My Roots In the History of the Silver Valley

I moved back to the Silver Valley in 2000, after living in eastern Montana for a few years, and then Meridian, Idaho on the outskirts of Boise. During somewhere in my transition back to Kellogg, I had a revelation.

My dad was born in 1930. Noah Kellogg discovered the Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mining Company in 1885.

The town my father was born in had existed for only 45 years when he was born. For some reason, I never realized what a "young frontier" the valley still was around the time Dad was born. This revelation prompted me to start reading and researching the history of this area.

And that is why I chose the following topic for this week's Sibling Assignment: Share about some information you learned about the history of the Silver Valley as an adult, that you had no clue about as a student growing up in Kellogg, and then how this information changed your thinking about the Silver Valley.

Raymond Pert's is here, and Inland Empire Girl's is here.

I think realizing that people didn't really start living in the valley until the late 1800's never caught my attention until the last 7 years. Maybe when you are young, 45 years seems like a lifetime. But as I get older, 45 years is not that long of time.

The Silver Valley is actually one of the last places in the United States to be occupied and "tamed". That was because of the rich minerals found in the depths of her hillsides. Andrew Prichard was the first to discover the riches of this area by discovering gold along the North Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River in 1883. When people started hearing about the gold in the rivers and streams, many flocked to the area that is now known as Prichard and Murray, Idaho.

While living in Murray in 1885, Noah Kellogg purchased a "grubstake" and took off to the south toward Evolution and started exploring along the South Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River. He found Milo Creek and started walking up Milo Gulch and somehow his jackass discovered an outcropping of galena on the hillside.

Soon other mines were being discovered up and down the Silver Valley.

But growing up I never really new what being a miner really meant. Isn't that odd. Dad worked in the Zinc Plant. I think my picture of being a miner was someone who went in and dug rocks. While working on a publication about the Sunshine Mine Disaster in 2002, I realized some things.

Miners have a variety of jobs. Some do go in and drill the rock and blast the rock. Others are electricians. Others drive mine cars. Others muck out the rock. Again, to me that was a revelation. And I don't think I realized that it was hot and steamy down in a mine. And wet.

I remember learning about the Cataldo Mission as a student. I heard about Noah Kellogg and how he was helped by his jackass in finding the mine. But there are so many more fascinating stories about the development of this area.

And I loved learning about the presence of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe in this area before the Jesuit Missionaries or "Black Robes" arrived. I often close my eyes and try and think what is must have been like here along this soggy cedar bog as the tribe traveled back and forth each year for their buffalo hunt in Montana, and hunting and fishing in this area. And what it must have been like for them along Coeur d'Alene Lake when they were the only inhabitants.

I invite you to read about this area. I have a list of books written on the left side of my page. They are full of discovery, romance, murder, greed, hope, love...everything element needed for a good story.

But these stories aren't made up.

They are true. And they are all a part of my history, that helped shape me and my family and made us the people we are today.

Sultry Night in the Silver Valley...waiting for Harry Potter

I'm sitting out on my deck at about 10:40 tonight. Usually the deck is a cool retreat. Not so much tonight. The thermometer on the wall reads 80 degrees still!! This is what nights were like when we lived in Meridian. It is suppose to cool off in the mountains, but I guess not tonight.

Our family did have a lovely evening with some wonderful friends tonight. Our friend Cinderella, who lives in Mullan, invited us and another family up for dinner. I can't remember the last time I was in Mullan. I was glad to return. It is a beautiful little town, and she has taken this small house in Mullan and turned it into a storybook cottage. She calls in "Cinderella's Cottage" and she has painted murals inside on the walls and outside on the garage using a style like Mary Englebreit. It is darling.

Most of the time she lives in Oregon, and was considering selling this precious little cottage. We suggested she turn it into a vacation rental. It is in a perfect location, close to Lookout Ski Resort, the Hiawatha Bike Trail, the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes, and not far from Silver Mountain. It is a peaceful little cottage in a peaceful little community, great for a family getaway or a romantic retreat. I hope she decides to keep it and use it as a vacation rental. If she does, I'll post some information about it in case anyone would ever be interested in renting the cottage.

She also invited another family up for the evening, and this couple came with their son. What a special kid. KN is autistic, and is very functional. It has been amazing watching him grow up these past few years, and see him learn and socialize better, and I love to see how his mind works. He is a real blessing.

Z2 stayed up until 5 a.m. last night reading the final Harry Potter book. The Princess is about on Chapter 12 or 13 at the moment. She reads pretty fast, so I'm hoping I get to begin the book by Wednesday. I look forward to discussing it as part of the HBO book club selection next month.

Raymond Pert and Snug moved over to Mom's house while my brother in law and neice were here for a few days. They have moved back in on this sultry Silver Valley night.

Time to go in the house and face the heat...UGH!!

This is Where I Belong

I love living in Kellogg, Idaho. This is where I belong.

It is not the city. It is not the country. It is a rural area, population around 2500. It is located within an area called the Silver Valley, with a population around 10,000.

I love living in the place where I was born, because there are so many connections, and I feel a part of where I am living. This is where I belong.

For me, Kellogg is in my very being. I am a part of her rhythm. I have climbed her hills. I have walked, biked, run and driven on her streets. I have swum in her creeks and fished in her rivers. I have played in her parks, and attended her schools. This is where I belong

I come from a mining community, where weather was never really a factor is our everyday life.

After college, I moved to an agricultural community, where they used dry land farming, it was in the middle of a drought, and all they talked about was the weather. That was different.

I grew up in a small, mountainous valley where the river and the Interstate split the two mountain ranges, and for me it was close, and safe and comfortable. I would travel home from eastern Montana, and as soon as I hit the Bitteroot Valley, around Frenchtown, Montana, I would start to feel like I was home. This is where I belong.

Some who came here were stifled by the closed in valley, and would need to leave every so often to keep from suffocating.

To them they were stifled. To me, I was comforted.

My next move was to the Treasure Valley of southern Idaho, to Meridian. It is the high dessert. Lots of sage brush, and foothills, and big, open sky. Over the nine years I lived there, that area became more and more “citified”, gaining more and more people. Malls sprouted up. Subdivisions covered the once fertile farmland. Traffic came to a standstill during the evening rush hour.

My husband and I knew we would eventually end up living here in Kellogg. We didn’t actively pursue coming back, just one of those feelings we knew would come true. And it did. In the summer of 2000, my husband started a job here in Kellogg, and we returned. Kellogg called us back, and we responded with yes, we will come. This is where I belong.

I love many aspects of the “city life”, but I can travel to a city, get my city fix for a day or a weekend, or even a week, then go back to my rural, mountainous valley and enjoy the slower pace and the connection I have with the area my grandparents traveled to and settled in the 1920’s, where my dad was born in 1930, and where I now live, 77 years after his birth, and know…

…this is where I belong.

For more town and country writings, visit Sunday Scribblings here.

The Sights and Smells of the school in the shadow of the Bunker Hill Zinc Plant

My mother was a teacher at Silver King School from the time I was born until I left Sunnyside Elementary in 1975. I entered 7th grade at Kellogg Junior High School. Mom moved to Sunnyside to teach.

My assignment for my siblings Raymond Pert and Inland Empire Girl was to share some memories about Silver King School. I was the only sibling who never attended the school as a student.

My memories are from the visits I would take when Mom would go out to get some work done at the school on the weekends. Silver King School was located at the base of Government Gulch between Smelterville and Kellogg. Above the school was the Zinc Plant,and to the east of the school was the Bunker Hill Smelter. Both were large sources of pollution and toxic waste in the valley. And Silver King School was at the center of it all.

By the time I remember visiting the school with Mom, I don't think the creek running along side of the school was quite as toxic. Raymond Pert remembers losing balls into the creek, and not being able to retreive them.

Visits to the school with Mom gave me lots of time to wander around the school. Often I would head to the gym and open up the equipment closet and get out the P.E. equipment and play with it. But it was a little creepy down in the gym all alone, so, if it was too dark, I didn't stay long.

Going down to the gym was fun, because you went down a long carpeted ramp. But on the edges it was still tiled floor. On this part, you could sit on your butt and slide down the ramp. That was the fun part.

One of the very unique sights of Silver King School was the big window on the north end of the building. The window had bottles of colored water in each section of the window. I wonder whose idea it was to decorate that window in that manner?

The gym was always kind of creepy, but the really creepy part of Silver King School was the attic. During mom's time as a teacher at the school, this was used as a storage room for items they didn't use all the time. Originally, I believe it was the school's cafeteria before the new part of the school was added. Sometimes I would accompany Mom up to the dark attic to find some Christmas decorations or possibly a fish tank that was stored up there.

One area of the school that always had a unique smell was the faculty room. I remember it being a combination of cigarette smoke and the citrusy scent of Constant Comment Tea. Years later, while employed by the school district in the summer to help clean the school, the faculty room still held that unique odor.

One year while I was still in grade school at Sunnyside Elementary, I had the honor of helping out at the Silver King Christmas program by being the page turner for Mrs. Williams, the music teacher. I felt very special. I must have looked pretty cute, because years later, when I attended junior high and high school with those Silver King students, some of the boys confessed they had a crush on me after seeing me at that program.

For a fund-raiser each year, the Silver King PTA would have a Chili Feed in the cafeteria. Each year we faithfully attended. I also remember another PTA fund-raiser during the summer was having a booth during Frontier Days in Smelterville. I remember being in a booth located under the grandstand at Ferd Stadium. The PTA sold corn dogs during the rodeo and the demolition derby. (They may have sold other things, but I remember the corn dogs.)

Yesterday we traveled up to Silver King and it is sad to see the old school in such disrepair. I know the local school district is determining whether it needs to be torn down, or if parts of the school are still usable. It was also interesting driving up to the end of Government Gulch and seeing some of the buildings from the Zinc Plant up there.

That whole area holds many memories for me and for my family. Dad worked at the Zinc Plant for years. Mom worked at Silver King School. My brother and sister attended Silver King School. I worked at that school one summer helping to clean the building. My husband lived in a house in Silver King as a child.

And my famly wasn't without its casualties because of the Silver King area. My dad's death was directly related to the asbestosis he contracted from his long term exposure to asbestos while working at the Zinc Plant.

Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999, and we believe there is a strong tie to her cancer and her working environment at Silver King School. She was one of many teachers who taught at Silver King School that battled cancer. Mom won her battle. Others weren't so lucky.

My brother fell to the bottom of a roaster at the Zinc Plant in 1973 and almost died. He temporarily lost his sight and has had problems with his lungs ever since the accident.

But, despite the casualities, I love living in the Silver Valley, of having a father who worked for the Zinc Plant, and a mother who was a gifted teacher who taught hundreds of students at Silver King School.

My siblings and I all feel this way. Perhaps it was the sense of pride our dad had in this area. I'm not sure. And I'm not sure we have to come up with a reason. I think just loving it here is good enough.

After PKR and I were married, we always knew we would end up in the Silver Valley. It wasn't a plan or a goal we were working towards, it was a gut feeling we both had that someday we would return to the Silver Valley and live. And in 2000 it happened. We moved back. And we haven't regretted the move a bit.

Renewing Old Acquaintances

Today I was reunited with some old friends.

These are books that have to do with the history of the Silver Valley.

In the summer of 2004, I quit my job as a reporter at the local newspaper to start writing a book...an historical fiction novel about the Silver Valley.

A wonderful friend of mine owns two houses in Gem, a small community along Canyon Creek up the Burke Canyon outside of Wallace. She graciously offered me the use of the smaller of her two houses to use as a writing studio. So I moved in and took many of my books up to use for research for the story I am writing.

The house was named "The Swallow's Nest" and many wonderful days were spend there reading books, writing down information, typing it into the computer. It was also wonderful to take my dog Peaches for a walk down the road a ways and see the sight where the Frisco Mine Mill was blown up on July 11, 1892. In the book "Coeur d'Alene Diary" by Richard G. Magnuson, there is a picture on page 160 of the mill before the explosion and one taken right after the explosion.

When you look at the pictures in the book, then go look at the hillside 115 years later, it is amazing what is still on the hillside and parts of the structure you can still make out even today.

The Frisco Mill explosion was the result of labor unrest. The union didn't want non-union workers working in the mines, but the Frisco, Gem and Bunker Hill mines all hired non union miners. Fights between the union and non-union workers were becoming more common.

On July 10th, union men from Wallace, Mullan and Burke gathered in Gem armed with rifles, shotguns and revolvers. On the morning of July 11th, there were men on both sides of the canyon on the hillsides armed with guns. Early that morning, union men started firing at the Frisco Mine and Mill property.

The miners probably didn't plan on blowing up the mill, but it arose as an incident of this battle. Here is how the incident is described happening in "Coeur d'Alene Diary".

The men above the mill swung around, and got to the flume where the penstock goes to the mill. Bullets whistled about these men, but they had only one aim--to get the boxes of powder down the penstock. The pipe was full of water, so holes were shot in it near the wheel. When the water drained out, the powder was sent down, and the last box of powder had a fuse attached. In the ensuing explosion, the entire old mill building seemed to rise bodily from the ground and then drop back, a mass of ruins. How many men were in the mill was not known, most of them had gone into the new mill after the first attempt to send down powder had failed.

This explosion caused damage of about $20,000.

It was a bit of a muse having that site just down the road, or just look out the window of the house and see that historic site. I am fascinated by the history of the Silver Valley, and hope to some day share it with others in the form of a novel.

Now that I have all my old "friends" back, I hope to continue sharing more of the fascinating history of the Silver Valley.

#35 My Tree--Framing Progress in the Silver Valley

Nowadays almost all man’s improvements,

so called, as the building of houses and the cutting down of the forest

and of all large trees, simply deform the landscape,

and make it more and more tame and cheap.

- Henry David Thoreau

Grandma Woolum--A Silver Valley Story

I had two grandmas growing up…no grandpas. Both of my grandmothers raised their children as single mothers, when being a single mother wasn’t too common.
Grandma West, my mom’s mother, lived in Orofino. We went to visit her for one week every summer. She was a wonderful grandma and I always loved our yearly visits.
The one I knew better was Grandma Woolum. She lived in Spokane. She was my dad’s mom.
When I think about visiting grandma’s house, there are so many memories that come flooding back. Certain sights, certain sounds, certain smells and certain tastes.
One of the things that I always remembered about Grandma Woolum’s by sight was her chewing Doublemint Chewing Gum. Whenever I see a green package of the Wrigley’s gum, I think of my grandma.
And she usually only chewed half a stick at a time. She would have those 24 stick packs hidden away in a drawer or in her bureau, and you would see how half a stick was still in the paper. I’m not sure why Doublemint was her favorite. I don’t think I ever asked. I never thought to ask. I just knew that was what Grandma liked.
A sound I remember from Grandma’s house was her starburst clock on the wall above her television. It always had a certain buzz at certain times when it moved.
There were so many wonderful smells emitting from Grandma’s house, but one I remember and still love today is when she boiled green beans on the stove with some bacon so we could have them for dinner. They seemed to boil all afternoon. Yum-m-m-m!
I had never heard of “jack cheese” until I went to Grandma’s house. She always kept this white cheese wrapped up in her refrigerator in aluminum foil to keep it fresh. It tasted very different from cheddar or American or Swiss, the cheeses I was used to having at home. Later in life, I learned the correct name was Monterey Jack cheese.
Grandma’s house was always such a safe and nice place to be, because she made it that way. She was always excited to see us, and I was always her “Sugar”.
She lived here in the Silver Valley, living various places like Burke and Wardner and Kellogg. But after a while the “smelter smoke” took its toll on her breathing, and she moved to Spokane. But she did always love to come over and visit us.
She was part of the Silver Valley, and the Silver Valley was a part of her. Hers is a very special Silver Valley story. She is why I am a part of the valley today, and why it runs through my veins.
Thanks, Grandma, for letting my life, and my children’s life, continue your Silver Valley story.

Happy Groundhog Day!

No shadow seen by the groundhog today in my backyard. Looks like an early spring in the Silver Valley. Which may not be a good thing when you enjoy two ski resorts within half an hour of each other. Believe it or not, the above picture is a color picture, not black and white. It was of a recent dump of snow here in my back yard. Just so much snow, you don't see a lot of color.

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Today is the day to start my blog. My brother, at www.kelloggbloggin.blogspot.com has inspired me the last few months by his daily posts regarding growing up in the Silver Valley, his three beautiful things, and his new digital photography hobby. But what I have got the most out of his blog is getting to know him on a whole new level.

I guess that is what I want to accomplish with my blog. I want my readers to get to know the Silver Valley on a whole new level. Through my eyes. I love the stories about this area, and there are many. When I used to be a local journalist, my favorite stories were the human interest pieces about people who lived and grew up here, and the stories they would share.

I hope to share some of those on this blog. I also want to share some of my experiences about my daily living in the Silver Valley. Also my observations about living here. And share other people's observations about living here.

So welcome. I hope to hear from others who love the Silver Valley as much as I, and maybe I'll even get a few converts who want to come check this place out sometime. Yes, the fact we are a Super Fund Site is part of the history of this area, but there is so much more to know about us here. Enjoy!