Thursday, November 21, 2013

A Dam Fine Day!

My long-time buddy, Nancy, loves nature as much as I do.  Our first adventure in my new stomping grounds was to walk to Nine Mile Falls dam.
Nancy and Diane with Spillway in background.
 
There's a lot of history connected to this dam as it's over 100 years old and it is on the National Register of Historic Places.



The dam was originally built to power electric trains linking Spokane with rural communities.

Fortunately, Avista did a major renovation over the last couple of years, so it should last a lot longer.
 

Only one spillway is needed right now.

 
I'm still glad that I live above the dam!
If you zoom in and look really close, you can see my house

Nine Mile Falls Reservoir on the left;
Spokane River on the right.

 

Next adventure . . . bird watching!  :)



Thursday, October 31, 2013

Welcome to The Res


So, I'm listening to Yo-Yo Ma plays Ennio Marricone. It is one of my favorite albums because it is so soothing. In fact it is so soothing, it's the music I chose for my colonoscopy. I bet you thought I was going to say wedding, didn't you?  Wedding, colonoscopy . . . anything that is high stress; this album will soothe it.  So, why am I playing it today? Well, we recently moved and I still have about 100 moving boxes to unpack. When the towers of moving boxes are taller than I am, I tend to feel overwhelmed. 

Of course, it also helps when the sun comes out and I look out on the lake.  Speaking of the "lake", I am no longer sure what to call it. My first clue was when I Googled Nine Mile Lake and nothing came up. My second clue was when our neighbors gave us a card that said "Welcome to the River". This was after I had already added a number of lake-related word art to my Amazon wish list, so I found myself a bit disappointed. Our waterfront home is on a section of the Spokane River that has been dammed. The next body of water below the dam is called Long Lake. It is also a section of the Spokane River that has been dammed. So, why does that one get to be called a lake?  Is it just because it is bigger? Sounds like discrimination to me! Technically, we live on Nine Mile Reservoir. So, I guess I will need to start shopping for wall art that says "Welcome to The Res".