Blimey, He thinks he's Irish

Teton Springs: The Antithesis of Smart Growth

According to wikipedia................

Smart growth is an urban planning and transportation theory that concentrates growth in the center of a city to avoid urban sprawl; and advocates compact, transit-oriented, walkable, bicycle-friendly land use, including neighborhood schools, complete streets, mixed-use development with a range of housing choices.

Smart growth values long-range, regional considerations of sustainability over a short-term focus. Its goals are to achieve a unique sense of community and place; expand the range of transportation, employment, and housing choices; equitably distribute the costs and benefits of development; preserve and enhance natural and cultural resources; and promote public health.

Teton Springs, like Huntsman Springs, Rim Rock Estates and Teton Reserves, was brought to us courtesy of the sub-prime mortgage fiasco and the lack of due diligence by our very own City of Victor and Driggs Planning and Zoning. Responsible development this is not!

But I should let you be the judge. What follows is a photo journal of the houses (less than 10% are actual homes) I went past last week when I took my dog for a run around this pretentious development. I went there because I could be certain my dog was in no danger of being hit by a car if I ran with her off-leash.

Empty, construction incomplete.
Why do so many Americans feel they need and are entitled to a minimum of, say, 6,000sf for their family ? Especially if they can't afford it.

Vacant, sits on over an acre of former farmland and wildlife corridor.

Deserted AND ugly.

Not a single family living in this row of houses.

Yep, you guessed it.......Uninhabited. Every. Last. One.

Thank goodness each of the newly elected commissioners also happens to sit on the board of the non-profit Valley Advocates for Responsible Development. I imagine these eyesores will cease to pop up in every conceivable open space,

Way Too Many Miles Driven

I have depleted all my green karma that was built up in St Louis. To live in Idaho is to drive a car. A lot. There is no other way around this fact unless you stay put and do nothing, because everywhere you may need/want to go is very far away. The sad fact seems to be that to live lightly it is necessary to live in a large city with a public transport system.

I imagine I put close to 800 miles on my car between Friday and Monday getting to Boise and back for Owen's climbing competition. Of course it was not necessary we go. But we went to this one and will go to others, in Bozeman, Salt Lake, Vail, Pocatello and Cody. If we had a team to go with we could carpool but Owen's team days he left back in the big city with the good public transportation system and lots of amenities, like a climbing team.

We did have fun. We always do. We got in our first night of camping for 2009 under clear, star-filled skies and single digits temperatures. We found the perfect, completely empty campground (not many people are crazy enough to camp in the cold...but we love it) less than 10 miles outside of downtown Boise. It is situated right next to Lucky Peak Resevoir on the road that heads to Sun Valley from Boise.


The competition was held close to downtown at Boise Peak Fitness. Owen agreed with me that it is the best indoor climbing facility that we have ever been to. There were lots of kids competing, with the biggest team coming from Monument Gym in Sandy, UT.

Owen rocked. He climbed as well as I have ever seen him. I know I am a bit biased, but even the coach of the kids who placed higher than he said he was an amazing climber. If he were just, say, 4 inches taller I don't think there was a route he would not have been able to complete. The drawback of indoor competitions is that you have to use only the designated holds. If a hold is out of reach you are out of luck. In outdoor climbing you can use any and everything to get to the top.

I did not get many good photos because I kept forgetting to use my camera.











After the competition was over we cooked up a hot lunch on a picnic table outside an office building downtown. I have to laugh because Ben was, from an early age, mortified that we could not just go eat lunch at a restaurant like "normal people". Owen, on the other hand, requested this lunch and even picked the location. Then we went and hung out for a while at my favorite coffee house at the corner of 5th and Idaho St. before heading back into the car for the long stretch back to Idaho Falls.

BTW, thanks to Tony for uploading the Harry Potter movie, REM and John Denver onto Owen's MP3 player. It made the drive bearable for Owen.

Owen Turns Nine Years Old

Owen started planning his birthday party in September when we moved to Victor. His ideas for potential venues: Lava Hot Springs, Enclosure Climbing Gym, Jackson Rec. Center Pool, BYU Badger Creek Sled Hill, Targhee. He finally decided just to have it at home and make it a sledding party. Great. Simple.

He had to wait until the week after his actual birthday because his best friends would be out of town and it would not be a party without them. After two years in St Louis he was not going to tolerate another Lucy and Ethan-free celebration.

The whole B.D. weekend was almost derailed by sudden illness but he managed to condense what for every other kid in his class was a 3-4 day illness into 36 hours. We only had to postpone one day!

Pole Canyon: A Two Stroke HWY to Hell

I naively thought I would spend some quality outdoor time snowshoeing up Pole Canyon and perhaps capture some wildlife photos and just enjoy the serenity of one of my favorite local trails. Nope.

Call me biased and judgmental but I just think people don't deserve to be out in the wilderness unless they come to be there under their own power. I wonder if these men think of themselves as lovers of nature. They obviously love being out in nature, but sn't their presence on those obnoxious machines detrimental the very existence of the natural world? In the case of Pole Canyon, they are passing right through the center of a major wildlife corridor. Believe me, no animals are going to be utilizing that area as a means for traversing north and south, even though it is a natural corridor for such travel by wildlife.

I was hoping for this:


But instead got this:


In my quest to make lemonade out of lemons, I came back the next day with my trail shoes and spikes and ran the damn snowy highway.