Frost And Smoke

As I reported in the previous post, we had a hard freeze this week. It got down to 21F and has been in the 20s for most of the nights since then. I covered one tomato plant with a bucket, and it survived, but all the others perished. The corn and potatoes were also killed. I got half a dozen ears of baby corn, though! The edible spuds from the potatoes are in the ground, so of course they did not freeze with such a paltry overnight frost. I dug up the bounty from just one plant and found 25 spuds. Most of those were teeny, tiny, but there was one large one and half a dozen moderate sized ones. Success! Okay, I know that potatoes are supposed to be a natural in Idaho, but given our high elevation and short growing season in Island Park, my husband thought I would get nothing from my garden, not even potatoes.

On another front, this has been a particularly bad year for fires in Idaho and Montana. We have been fortunate not to have any closer than 15 miles from our house, and our valley has been remarkably smoke-free compared to many surrounding areas. However, there have been a couple weeks when the smoke blew in thick enough to make me stop training the dogs. Thick smoke can cause lung damage if you try to exercise in it. This week we had several days of thick smoke that made the mountains dim and fuzzy and left a strong smell in the air.

Here is a shot from last week, showing a team getting ready to leave the yard. The enthusiastic dog in the rear is Current, my main race leader. I do not use her in lead at this time of year because I like to train other leaders who have less experience. Her brother Charge is the white leader who is looking back at me.