Late Snow in Heise Hot Springs

Is It Summer, Yet?

This has been a strange year, for sure.

Terry and I have been coming to SE Idaho for the past four summers to workcamp. Heise Hot Springs is 20 miles NE of Idaho Falls in the eastern part of the South Fork of the Snake River. We are on a channel of the river right against the mountain. In fact, the mountain goes straight up 50′ outside our door. We are protected on three sides by the mountain and trees on the other side. We don’t usually get much wind and the fiver gets some shade.

Past years we have gotten here in late April and we have been greeted by fairly pleasant weather. I have been able to plant flowers and get to gardening within a week or so of arrival. By the first of June plants have been blooming profusely and I will have been spending hours every day watering.

This year…well, just say, it has been different! We arrived the third week of April to be greeted by snow. Lots of it. I put off buying flowers for a couple of weeks just to be sure of the weather. Sure enough…the second night I had to bring hundreds of them inside to protect them from frost. I finally got them into the ground just before Mother’s Day. The flower beds looked really pretty and my tomatoes and peppers were happy in their containers.

Two days later….yup, it snowed! Fortunately, they made it through. The next week…more snow, and once a week thereafter! Still they plucked on, a bit worse for wear, but those are tough little plants!

I just can’t win. Today we woke to another white day. One inch of snow and I had not covered the tomatoes. Global warming? Not here, that’s for sure! The awning had an inch of heavy wet snow on it. We got that put away with no problems, came inside to watch the snow drift down off and on all morning. Right now it has all melted, but once in a while a stray flake floats past the window. My tomatoes and peppers look fine, even though they had an inch of snow on them earlier. I will cover them tonight!

Will it ever warm up? Probably and then summer will come in with a blast! Right now I am enjoying the weather, snug in my little home on wheels, watching the robins hunt for worms that won’t come out into the cold. No wonder the wolves I heard the other morning have not headed for the high country….somehow they know winter is not over. I will be watchful on my early morning six mile walk…..don’t want to be a snack for Lobo.

Yes, this life of fulltiming and workcamping is a tough one, but we shall perservere!