We've had a month of almost non-stop rain. Our backyard was full of snow in early December, but since then it's just been a lake. The other day it finally dipped back down below freezing and our little lake became a skating rink! Well, not really, but the kids thought it might work.

This is the last photo I'm going to post here. I have another blog on which to post my North Idaho photos and travelogues. Consolidation, I'm learning, is a wonderful thing. When I first started blogging I had so many ideas that at one point I was maintaining four blogs. It took awhile before I realized that this hobby takes up a lot of time. And thought. So I've finally whittled my original four down to the one, which is about my life as a stay-at-home dad in North Idaho.

I will also be posting my best pictures on the amazing photo-sharing site Flickr. Here is my Flickr page. Between that site and my main blog, there's really no reason to continue with Tall Trees. So, if you've stumbled onto this page and want to see more of my photos, head on over to either my blog or Flickr. Thanks for looking!

Looking down Hanley Avenue at Canfield Mountain in Coeur d'Alene.

The dark fields around my grandma's house in Moscow have always unnerved me on moonless nights, especially when I was a little boy and thought there were monsters in the barn.

Christmas lights on Lake Coeur d'Alene.

Happy Thanksgiving 2005!

Old miners never die, they just become tour guides.

This one's at the Sierra Silver Mine in Wallace, Idaho.

This Palouse farm window is nearly 100 years old... I'm always amazed that things like that can survive intact for so long.

Trick-or-treating at the Silverlake Mall in Coeur d'Alene.

My son and I spent a few hours in Wallace, Idaho, today. First stop was the Sierra Silver Mine, which had been transformed into the Haunted Silver Mine for Halloween. This old mine is already a little spooky and it was made even more so by a fog machine, orange and purple lights, cobwebs, and some realistic "ghost miners" who managed to make me jump at least twice. My camera didn't like the lighting, but I did manage to snap one good shot of a TNT-happy miner who threatened to blow us all up.



After the tour, we stopped at the Nine Mile Road Cemetery in Wallace and I told my son a story about how the dead like to dig themselves up on Halloween so they can party all night. I warned him to be careful walking over the graves because someone or something might be reaching up out of the ground a little early. As we walked back to the car he snagged his foot on a tree root in the tall grass. You better believe I had fun with that!



Last stop, a walk around downtown Wallace, where we saw this dog locked inside an office building. My son said it looked like a ghost dog. Definitely a spooky afternoon... Happy Halloween!

We try to hike Tubb's Hill a couple of times a month. It always lives up to its billing as the jewel of Coeur d'Alene. Located right in the heart of downtown, the main trail is an easy loop. We usually get no further than halfway where the hill comes to a point with beautiful beaches on either side. That's where I like to sit and gaze out over the water. There's nothing better.

I like these steps at Lake Coeur d'Alene better when they're not covered with teenagers.

Sunset over Lake Coeur d'Alene. No lifeguards on duty 'til next summer.

A few days ago we went for an early evening walk through Coeur d'Alene's City Park and Beach. I was really surprised to find the place completely empty at 5:30pm, but I guess that's what happens on fall days when the tourists are gone. This is why I live here.

Playing on the wall above City Beach in Coeur d'Alene.