And once again the Army Corps of Engineers is dumping water out of Lucky Peak. Since Annette and i don’t live in one of the richie-rich houses east of Boise on the floodplain of the Boise river, nor do we live over in Eagle out in the former potato and alfalfa fields (also part of the floodplain) we can watch the roaring water with some amusement. As i write it is pouring rain down in the valley, i can only assume it’s pouring rain a few miles east in the hills surrounding Lucky Peak. I can hear the water managers now… “yep, let’s increase the flow for another 24 hours or so, take her to flood stage.” Hey, they don’t call it a floodplain because it sounds romantic.

I continue to tweak my big printer… but i’ve stabilized about 98% of the variables. I can get very predictable results on Moab’s Colorado Fiber Gloss paper. I’ve got a print in my office that was output on Moab’s Entrada Rag which is heavier and more matt finish. Even casual observers are impressed by the impact of the image and the heft of the paper. I plan to open shop with a smattering of my own images for sale sometime soon. Need to build up a decent library of hi-rez photos so i can offer more than just a couple final prints.

I suspect this will be the last or near last rain storm we see here until sometime in October. I miss rain. I miss water. I could sit and watch the torrent blasting out of the spillway pipes at Lucky Peak for hours. Even better would be heading back up to Arrowrock to see what’s happening there. See if the bureau of reclamation is dumping water. Maybe the thing to do this coming weekend is head up to Deadwood… see what the level is up there… if there’s water spilling over the dam.

Water is life. In a couple of months the entire snake river valley will be dry as dust so it’s important to get out and appreciate this event. I can imagine feeling differently if Annette and i lived in Astoria, OR. But we live here in the banana belt of Idaho, so rain is a cause for celebration.