This is a picture of Al and my home (my view of it) in the winter. This was early in the winter of 1986, there are two types of tracks in the snow. (In front of the cabin both snowshoe and snowmobiles show the fun being had by all) This was early in the winter when our kids and grandkids were having fun, then it gets deeper and deeper, the berms begin to form. By Feb. you are really ready to see something besides snow.

We live in Valley County, Idaho. The county consists of 2,354,048 acres, of which only 9.4 percent is private land. The balance of the land is owned by the government, which pays no taxes. It is a relative poor area, but what it does have is beauty.

We live in a very rural area, no paved streets or sidewalks. Very few neighbors, lots of vacant land, no public transportation, unless I drive myself or walk. (snow this winter up over my head) I use to walk a lot (a mile or more every day, periodically I walked from my house to town) but no more, I can't even make it to the end of my driveway unassisted anymore. The closest medium sized grocery store is about15 miles from my house.

There is about 25 acres the government owns, behind our property. It has very limited access for the public, a small narrow gateway. The only close access is through my back yard. It is partially wooded and has deer and other wildlife living in it. The deer like our yard a lot.

I moved to Donnelly full time in 1988, and my husband followed two years later. We built our present log home in 1985, primarily for a vacation cabin rather than a year- round home, but due to my husband's unscheduled early retirement, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. We elected to move into the cabin full time with the anticipation of living the "Good Life" of retirees. We reluctantly left our scenic view hillside Boise home for others to enjoy, and headed to snow country with our three dogs and a cat and high hopes of enjoying mountain living.

Our home sits on nearly one and a half acres (3 subdivision lots). Our living room faces toward the government land protecting Cascade Lake to the south. Although the land between us and the lake is open to the public we occasionally have to shoo hunters off our property when they try to gain access through our rear gates.

This is a view of the north end of Cascade Lake from the West Mountain Look Out Station. The picture was taken in the fall when the slash fires were burning. The picture takes in less than one half of the lake, which is about 25 miles long. We use to only come up to this area when we were at a Southern Idaho Sailing Association Regatta, now we live here, year round.

The pollen in the summer is a visible cloud blowing back and forth over the valley and leaving it's trail on everything in it's path, even the lake turns yellow.

My husband Al and I enjoy just going out exploring in this area. We enjoy the old mining areas which have been left as they were when more people lived in them, only a few hearty individuals stay year round. Burgdorf and Warren are just north of us it is a great place for visiting the history of this area! Another area we go to is the east mountain area, lots of old buildings and a few nice hot springs.