Taryn A. Hecker Photography

Last Man on the Water

2010-11-02T20:17:00.001-07:00

A lone canoeist paddles the frigid waters of Lower Twin Lakes on Nov. 2.

Fall Fishing on Twin Lakes

2010-10-23T09:52:00.000-07:00

It may very well have been the last fishing trip of fall. The water is down so low the boat was nearly scraping bottom when we launched at Upper Twin. It might have been the last fishing trip until the lake's iced over, but what a way to end the season. There was nary a boat on the lake which, smooth as glass, reflected a spectacular fall show of leafy trees and tamaracks.

It was so quiet I could hear the leaves falling off the trees. So quiet I swear I could hear the fish biting.

He tells me so

2010-10-18T08:45:00.000-07:00

Grandpa Doug outfishing me on Twin Lakes.

The last breath my Kia Rio took wasn't what I'd have expected.

It wasn't a sputter, a spurt. There was no loud pop. No banging or clanging.

She just slowed to a crawl as I pumped the gas pedal and cars behind me started honking. As I turned the wheel and rolled to a stop in the grassy median there was only one thought on my mind. It wasn't an "Oh-crap-this-car-is-all-I-got-to-drive" thought or an "I'm-gonna-be-late-for-my-appointment" worry.

When, I fretted, had I last checked the oil?

It was the first thing I thought of every time my car broke down. It was the first thing Grandpa had taught me, even before teaching me to drive. Check the oil and check it often -- every time you fill up, he'd say.

I knew it was the first thing he'd ask when he showed up to rescue me, yet again.

There's one thing I've always dreaded: Grandpa's disapproving "told you so."

Or a "You know better, Taryn Anna." Because I do know better.

"How many times have I told you?" So many times, Grandpa. Too many times, Grandpa.

I knew I should have checked my oil. I meant to. But when was the last time?

It was. The first thing he asked.

I fibbed and said a silent prayer as Grandpa hooked the Kia up to his tow dolly for another trip to the Athol repair shop.

Please not the oil, please not the oil, I prayed.

When the mechanic said timing belt, I about jumped out of myself. It was, for a moment, a joyous occasion. Of course, I didn't know what the hell a timing belt was. And bent valves didn't seem too foreboding.

I didn't care what was wrong with her, as long as it wasn't the oil. Death hadn't even crossed my mind.

Grandpa had never mentioned timing belts. I know now that I should get them changed at least as often as I change the oil. Every 72,000 miles or so.

As I'm getting older, my stubbornness is waning. Instead of fearing a "told you so," from Grandpa I go to him for help expecting it and hoping to learn from it. I know the days are too precious few that he'll be around to remind me I know better.

To ask me how many times he told.

To wonder if I'm paying attention, listening. If it really does go in one ear and out the other.

Sometimes I still kid myself thinking there is something Grandpa could learn from me. Like how to fish my lake. I should have known the first man to ever take me fishing still had lessons to teach and little to learn.

I should have known he'd show me up. I should have known he'd have more luck with a little maggot and his trademark line twitching than me with a meaty Werner's Wiggler and my lucky crappie jig.

If there's one thing I should know by now it's that Grandpa knows. He always knows.

He might think it goes in one ear and out the other, but it doesn't. Sometimes the things he tells me seem to take a little detour in my brain, but his advice sticks. In my heart, forever.

Fall at the Thompson Farm

2010-10-13T08:30:00.000-07:00

Sunflowers at the Thompson Farm on the Rathdrum Prairie in full bloom.

Labor Day on the Grass

2009-08-20T09:55:00.000-07:00

A wine tasting, mountain bike ride, talent show, salmon dinner and car show are just a sampling of the fun Spirit Lake has in store for Labor Day weekend.

“Labor Day on the Grass” kicks off Thursday, Sept. 3 with the Spirit Lake Chamber of Commerce’s annual Wine Tasting and Auction at the little park on Maine Street. The event begins at 6 p.m. with live music, local wines and micro brews.

A bike ride benefitting the Spirit Lake Parks and Recreation Commission is set for the morning of Saturday, Sept. 5. Following a pancake breakfast provided by Calvary Christian Fellowship, participants will be bussed to the Mt. Spokane Ski Area and ride their bikes back to Spirit Lake along 20 miles of easy downhill logging roads.

Tickets for the ride, which includes a souvenir T-Shirt, are $35 each.

The bike ride ends at City Park, where events are planned all weekend including live music, a mountainman encampment, booths, Old Ways Society, Dutch Oven cooking demonstrations and more.

A talent show and salmon dinner are planned for 6 p.m. Saturday evening with musicians, jugglers, comedians, dancers and magicians vying for cash prizes.

Sunday’s events include a car show at City Park and classic rock music by the J.W. Hardin Band and Muddy Frog Watters.

Monday is the town’s annual Labor Day parade on Maine Street. The day’s entertainment lineup at City Park includes the Jimmy Brown Band, Brad Sondahl and the VFW foot race and corn on the cob.

For Information Contact:

Bike Ride & Car Show – Marc Kroetch, 208-623-5130

Vendors – Verla Reed, 208-623-2275

Wine Tasting & Auction – Roxanne Kusler, 208-623-5700

Music & Talent Show – George Bruner, 208-263-3129

Fishing Sprague Lake

2009-08-18T07:24:00.000-07:00

You can bet I'll be back.

Redneck Lobstering

2009-08-17T07:35:00.000-07:00

In this month's River Journal I write about Redneck Lobstering aka the fine art of catching crawdads.

An excerpt:

When my beau asked me if I liked the taste of lobster, I thought he was gonna take me out for some fine seafood.

I didn’t realize I’d be spending the day foraging for my own dinner underneath slime-covered rocks in some river. I say some river because I’ve been sworn to secrecy.

I can only say it’s somewhere in this state or the one next door. If I gave up my man’s top-secret Redneck Lobstering digs I think it could go on my permanent record.

I’m not gonna push it.

Especially since I’ve tasted these babies.

Call them crayfish, crawdads, mudbugs or crawfish.

I call them Redneck Lobsters.

For the rest of the story click here.

More Sunsets

2009-08-14T12:09:00.000-07:00

Something good that's come out of all that haze over the Prairie.

Sunday's Smokey Sunset

2009-08-03T07:40:00.000-07:00

I spent the afternoon in the mountains picking huckleberries yesterday and knew we were going to have a fabulous sunset given the haze of smoke in the air.

It was a short-lived show, but it was fantabulous and it happened right as I was driving across the Rathdrum Prairie.

Here are a few of my favorite shots from last night:

Hollyhocks in bloom

2009-07-30T08:17:00.001-07:00

My purple hollyhocks are the saving grace of my neglected garden. I love the hollyhocks.

Class of 2010 Senior Portrait Specials!

2009-07-22T09:03:00.000-07:00

Seniors -- Call by Aug. 1 to book your senior portrait session and SAVE big time.

Cheers!

Mental Health and Feng Shui

2009-07-21T09:58:00.001-07:00

Read my article about the connection between mental health and feng shui in InHealthNW Magazine on newsstands now or online:

Be a Healthy Homebody -- By Taryn Hecker

Barbie's feeling the pinch, too

2009-07-17T08:54:00.001-07:00

You know kids hear plenty of adult-talk about outrageous gas prices when their pretend play consists of making Barbie rideshare and carpool.

If the Barbie VW Bug wasn't topless, there's no way Faith could have fit all of her Barbies, a Bratz doll, the Little Mermaid into one car.

There's a lucky Ken in there, too. I think she crammed him in the trunk.

Letting the claws come out

2009-07-09T10:33:00.000-07:00

Me, with Spider, the tattoo artist

Yesterday I woke up as a 30-year-old.

I didn't feel much different than I did the day before. I was a little surprised by that because so many people, from the clerk at the grocery store, to my friends and relatives had told me tales of how hard 30 hit them.

I was a little excited for 30, the dawn of a new decade. After all, my 20s offered up some spectacular adventures (like marriage and motherhood and a journalism career), but the tailend of the decade was a little rough (divorce, motherhood and losing my job).

I came out of my 20s this week making a commitment to myself: To fully embrace the adventures in store for me in this new decade, let go of mistakes of the past and, No. 1, to put an emphasis on faith and spirituality like I never have before.

For years I had debated getting a tattoo on my birthday -- a crab to represent my sign, Cancer. I thought the crab -- how it skittered backward and side to side to avoid confrontation -- was representative of my character.

Was.

Things have changed.

The tailend of my 20s shaped me in a way that made me rethink a lot of things, including giving stock to horoscopes. Yesterday I finally got my tattoo. Still a crab. But only as a reminder that I don't want to be one.

As a reminder to myself to keep moving forward -- confront life. Keep on, keepin' on.

Not to skitter side to side and be afraid or bend backwards, but grab life with my claws, hold on tight to the people and things that are near and dear to me and, overall, trust that God has a plan for me and it's all good.

Cocktales

2009-07-07T07:43:00.000-07:00

If it wasn't the barking of the neighbor's dogs, it was the crowing of the dang rooster.

I was telling my friend about my troubles sleeping and troubles of not sleeping.

Try living next door to that rooster, she said. It's right outside my bedroom window.

For weeks now the crowing of roosters has been traveling right through the walls and windows of my house, through the pillow over my head and even through the cheap foam earplugs I found in my toolbox.

I have become an early riser. I'm up with the roosters. And not at the break of dawn, either.

Me and the roosters are up before dawn has even bent.

Not long after the bars here in Spirit Lake close.

That's how early the roosters rise.

When my friend told me that, after weeks of complaining to her neighbors, they showed up on her step with an apology and a roasting pan with a dressed rooster and fixings for side dishes, I was giddy with the idea of a good night's sleep.

But early the next morning. Again.

I know a rooster with it's head cut off can still run around, but can it crow? Especially once it's been dressed and roasted and digested?

Another friend clued me in.

She lives a couple blocks away and has a rooster. I didn't know.

And she's given a rooster to a neighbor and another neighbor has a rooster, too.

"All three of them get going at once," she said. "Like they're talking back and forth."

I don't understand the point of roosters.

But that's just me. I haven't known many roosters and the ones I have weren't worth knowing.

My brothers had one once. His name was Timmy and he was more like an attack dog. Nobody dared go out the front door in shorts. Shin guards were a safe bet.

Grandpa Doug told me they took in a rooster once because its owners couldn't care for it any more.

It was a mean one, too, he said.

It went after the mailman and the milkman and the census takers.

They tied a baseball bat to one of its legs to slow it down some.

That didn't help.

There was only one thing left to do.

Rooster's tough meat, he says. You have to boil it slow.

Priceless Not Pricey Launches Today!

2009-07-01T09:36:00.000-07:00

A huge thanks to Knock Marketing for designing my awesomely fantabulous new site www.pricelessnotpricey.com.

Check it out for more info on Taryn A. Hecker Photography, prices and to check out some of the work I've been doing.

Happy Wednesday!

First Fish of the Season

2009-06-27T08:25:00.000-07:00

I'm sad to admit that last night I caught my first fish of the season.

Last year, I bought my fishing license on January 1 and started fly-fishing in waist-deep snow. I'd landed plenty of trout from rivers and creeks from Washington to Montana by this time last year.

Last night was a momentous occasion.

Not only did I pull in my first fish of the season, but it was the first time I had been out fishing on Spirit Lake. I fished from the docks and shore a couple of times last year, but I had never actually been out on the waters of my new home lake.

I found out last night that I've been missing out.

Beauty. I love it.

We spied heron and moose and wood ducks and pulled in fish after fish after fish. By nightfall, we had a bucket full of crappie and perch. (Fish in bucket are larger than they appear -- of course!)

Best of the Back-In: Camo

2009-06-26T17:02:00.000-07:00

Taryn A. Hecker Photography presents:

THE BEST OF THE BIG BACK-IN CAMO 2009

Best Camouflage Lawn Tractor

Best Basketball Shorts/Camo Combo

Best Traditional His-n-Hers Camo Duo

Best Un-Camo Camo

Most Conflicted Camo

Most Patriotic Camo

Most Coordinated Camo Couple

Most Eligible Camo Bachelors

Lost in Translation

2009-06-26T08:24:00.001-07:00

I took the kids to last night's Chamber of Commerce meeting at La Sierra, Spirit Lake's lone Mexican restaurant.

Bailey had been craving a bean burrito forever and was excited that I was finally taking him there to get one.

I hadn't realized that the waiter had brought Bailey a beef burrito instead of a bean burrito until halfway through the meal when Bailey asked me what they speak in Mexico.

Spanish, I said.

"Mom, does bean mean beef in Spanish?"

Big Back-In 2009

2009-06-24T18:58:00.001-07:00

Spirit Lake is Dad Heaven every Father's Day when souped-up lawnmowers take over Maine Street for some intense drag racing fun.

OK, so maybe it's not that intense. The stock mowers putt along at a whopping 6 mph, but when the modified mowers take off, look out. Some go nearly 40 mph -- faster than most jalopies cruising the streets of Spirit Lake. Never mind that the town's speed limit is only 15 mph.

Just when you think life couldn't get any more exciting, The Big Back-In offers a bevy of sights to behold. Like a jacked-up ice chest that could easily traverse the crappiest of city streets.

And thank goodness the Ambrewlance is nearby in case you run out of beer. There's even an IV set up on board in case an oral booze fix wouldn't cure what ales ya.

And these push mowers might not do well in tight spaces, but I could use one in my uneven yardscape.
It's always good to see the town come out and support community events like The Back-In. This is Mayor Roxy Martin and don't worry folks. Those beer mugs were empty when she got them.

Best of the Big Back-In: T-Shirts!

2009-06-22T15:53:00.001-07:00

Sunday's Big Back-In Lawnmower Drag Races on Spirit Lake's Maine Street easily qualify as the town's social event of the year. Thousands of people line the streets of Downtown Spirit Lake (all two blocks of it) to watch competitive lawnmachine racers square off for trophies (beer mugs) and bragging rights.

The event brings out some of the most colorful characters in all of North Idaho, too.

One of my friends said the event was a little "rednecky" for her taste.

Being an Idaho girl, I just can't get enough of the local flavor.

Here's a sampling of the T's folks were sporting at Sunday's event.

I love the one above. I wouldn't snitch on him.

And how about this one?

Dunno if these dude's came together, but if I had my choice of partying with the Church of the Solid Rock guy on the left or Mr. ATF, I know who'd I choose.

This one speaks for itself:

I don't think he's who she is looking for:

Dunno if this guy would qualify as prince charming, either:

The front of this shirt says Montana, but it could totally be an Idaho shirt:

And this woman can definitely be trusted. She's totally legal. By a good 30 years:

Leafblower Fashion Shoot -- BeerBBQ 2009

2009-06-22T13:43:00.001-07:00

At the Grand Opening BeerBBQ for my new studio (co-hosted by my good buddy, Bent), Kerri Thoreson asked me if I had a wind machine in the studio.

No.

But then I remembered: I have a leaf blower.

Guess what? A leaf blower makes for some wonderful high-fashion shoots.

Nobody knows by looking at the pictures that we're using a leaf blower to make our supermodels look superfantabulous (Note: This word trademarked by Taryn A. Hecker Photography). Or that my assistant and wind blower-aimer is decked out in head to toe camo.

This is Rachel aka Rachelmom (above) . I've known her forever. She graduated from high school with my mom back in the Seventies. All I can say is, man, does she look hot in these pictures. I'm going to be sure to make a copy for her husband.

This is Kerri, aka the Beerhuntress. Her superfantabulously awesome Beerball Sausages took top prize at the first annual BBQ event at the Taryn A. Hecker Photography Studio grand opening here in Spirit Lake.

And speaking of fantabulous, Meg's rocking it BIG time.

We came up with a catchy slogan to advertise my new studio prop/yard tool.

But some people might misconstrue "Come get blown in Spirit Lake."

Dang. It has a good ring to it.

-T-

SUMMER STUDIO SPECIALS!

2009-06-22T12:51:00.000-07:00

The Big Bash!

2009-06-15T15:25:00.001-07:00

Taryn A. Hecker Photography and Bent's Beer Garden are teaming Saturday, June 20, to celebrate the grand opening of Taryn's new studio at 32539 N. 4th Ave., Spirit Lake.

Free food and drinks will be served.

More info coming soon ...