Hi from beautiful St. Maries Idaho

Hi, just joined this site today, though I've visited several times. What was I thinking, not joining? LOL

Our spring is has been typically wet and according to the weather reports, snow is in our future next week :(. But then, I believe in "eye-witness" weather... just stick your head out and see what it is doing out there!

Looking forward to meeting and sharing ideas with everyone!

Take care,
Zazzy

Welcome Zazzy. I'm a fellow cold NWerner. It will be good to have someone to commizerate on weather different than the Pacific NW. Where is St. Maries?

Hi Zazzy,
Nice to have an Idahoan check in to join us. Snow! You must be at some elevation then? Put away the seeds and grab the skis!

What do you like to grow and tend in your gardens?

Thank you Pooch and Soferdig for the warm welcome. St. Maries is 45 miles south of Coeur d'Alene. Our elevation isn't too high though.

I have mostly flower gardens now. We have a neighbor who feeds deer all winter, so we have a herd of approx. 30 here in our neighborhood. Gardening is a war most of the time. lol

My favorite in my garden is my crown imperials. They are beautiful and I've gotten many divisions from them. Other than that I mostly grow a mix of perennials and annuals. Just put in a blueberry this year and a blackberry (in a pot of course). I also have some raspberries. My garden is a work in progress. This year I will put in an above ground fountain/pond and join two beds in my front yard. That is if the rain ever stops! ;)

Take care,
Zazzy

Zazzy,

Are there a lot of Tamarack trees in your area? We drove through Coeur d'Alene last fall on our way to visit Kalispell and the tamaracks were breathtaking. It was wet then too as I recall! My husband fell in love with Coeur d'Alene and was ready to move instantly. I am in the Tri-Cities now and it is so flat and brown seeing all the beautiful green and gold was such a welcomed change. We get very little rain here (7" a year I think) which has its pros and cons. The major con being our water bill!!

-Stacey

Welcome Zazzy - you live in a lovely area! We have been fortunate to visit a few times. Welcome to DG!

I often fly over your area on my way to work. Are you the small town at the southern end of Lake Cour.....? I have sailed there a couple of times. Love the hole that is on the Island that they move in and out at the golf course there. We have very similar climates you and I. Anything I can do to help just Dmail me.

Oh, I LOVE Coeur d'Alene. I'd move there in a minute. Mountain lakes are my favorite. We always drive thru when we go to visit our friends in Kalispell.

Gwendalou

Well again, thank you for the welcome!

Designmom: yes there are tons of tamarack here. We had one at the end of our driveway at our house next door, but it had to go because we were having a hard time finding the cars in the fall ;) We go through Tri-Cities on our way to Oregon.. maybe we can meet up sometime.

Sue: You've been to St. Maries???

Sofer: That would be Harrison. We are 12 miles south (?) of there. Lake Coeur d'Alene is connected by a series of lakes. My cardiologist travels here by boat from Coeur d'Alene in the summers.

Gwen: There are a lot of lakes here... Lakes Chatcolet and Benewah are below Lake Coeur d'Alene and are the two nearest us. St. Maries is situated on the confluence of The Shadowy St. Joe and St. Maries Rivers. The Joe is quite famous for its fishing.

Soferdig.. I visted your diary and all I can say is WOW!!!! Think your wife would loan you out? LOL Yes, I think our climates are the same.... especially the deer part! I'm so envious of your gardens. We've lived here for 10 years, but I was working when we first moved in so not a lot of time (I worked at the local newspaper and would write obits on the weekends); then I had open heart surgery, was diagnosed with CML (chronic myelogenous leukemia) and breast cancer all within six months. Heart is good, leukemia is in remission and no signs of further breast cancer. Now I've got arthritis. Last year I put in a secret garden in one part of our yard and this year it will be the front pond. We just pulled down an eye-sore of a shed two years ago, so that is still a problem area.

Take care,
Zazzy

Zazzy, do you have pics of your secret garden? I am wanting to put one in our yard.

Gwendalou

Zazzy,
Good to have you on board. My husband's family has a history in St. Maries. My husbands great grandparents lived there. He was a photographer (sp?) back in the early 1900's and lived in the little white house behind the convient store across the street from the old cemetary. (That's where he is buried) We went over there to see the house, town and gravesite last summer. We had lunch at the park down by the river. That was nice. Anyway, some of great granpa's photos are in your little musium. His last name was Savago ( not sure about the spelling). That area is very pretty. We drove all over and went up a road that had a bunch of old tunnel carved out of the rock, where they use to build dams and send the logs downriver. The road ending up on the back side of Wallace. That's an interesting place too. I recently listened to a book on tape about a bad mining accident in that area. There is allot of interesting history up there with the bad fire and all. I love the wood up there. They are so dense and beautiful. Not like Washington that is all logged off. I'm sure you've got allot of logging too, I just didn't see the mess left after logging like I you do in Washington.

Anyway enough rambling, welcome. Sagewood.

Yeah Sagewood the fire that started in Wallace burned up and over lookout pass and burned all of western Montana in 1910. It almost took out Glacier park the year it first opened.
Zazzy well you have weathered just about everything God has thrown at you. Arthritis is a good disease. I lets you know every day that you are alive. Well that is what I tell my wife who has Reu. Arth. and it get her up everytime I say it, to go out in the garden. ( After hitting Me) LOL Is there really a water way from Cordel.. to Saint Marys? Is it just for small boats or can a power boat go through?

Welcome zazzy!!!!

Hi Sage,
I'm going to go look up your hubby's great-grandfather's pictures. That's cool.

The 1910 fire actually started in both Montana and Idaho. There were over 2,000 fires that summer. Avery was hit hard. The place that the firestorm got its life was in Elk City, down by Grangeville. We used to live up there.

Sofer: Actually larger boats can get up here. The city has a history of steamboats, which were the only mode of transportation in the old days. There are some really cool pictures at the paper. We have an excursion boat that goes from Lake Chatcolet in Heyburn Park to St. Maries all summer long and in the fall. That is one of my plans for the summer to take a ride on that.

Lenjo.. thanks for the welcome!

Take care,
Zazzy

Welcome Zazzy, I live north west of you in Tonasket,Wa. I think we have very simular weather and turain. We have lots of lakes here and a lot of Tamarack. We are about 3 hrs NW of Sopkane. Hot dry summers and long cold winters. Amending my soil is an ongoing process as we are mostly clay and shale.
Tell later,Debbie

Zazzy,
I got great grandfather's name wrong, thought it was the other ggp. His name was Louis Wetzel. He died in 1918 when he was trying to rescue his 12 year old son from drowning in the river. They were down there and his son was walking on the logs and fell in. Neither could swim. We've got old letters his daughter (my husbands grandmother) wrote to her family after she was married. It's very interesting. His pictures are too.
When we were there last summer the museum was closed so we didn't get to see the exhibit. My husbands mom and sister put it together. They found all his old photo plates in the family house there in Saint Maries when their uncle died. It was a treasure trove of the past.


This message was edited Apr 15, 2006 7:10 PM

Welcome Zaaay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!