At long last, we took our first extended visit to the acres. Exceptional amounts of spring rainfall encouraged all the grasses, bushes, and weeds to grow much taller than we saw last year. Even our driveway camera had been obscured by the tall grass!
![Horse corral meadow.](http://www.starvationacres.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/June22Corral.jpg)
![Our camp area.](http://www.starvationacres.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/June22FirePitWideView.jpg)
![Our driveway.](http://www.starvationacres.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/June22DriveWay.jpg)
The two types of elderberries we’d planted earlier, some in autumn and others in the spring, are doing well and standing a couple of feet tall. The rhubarb not only survived the winter, but is already large enough to harvest some! More rhubarb and elderberry will be planted in the coming autumn. Even the many bushes we haven’t seen bear fruit have flowers now. They appear to be snowberry. We won’t be eating the snowberries.
![Blue elderberry plant](http://www.starvationacres.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/June22Elderberry.jpg)
![Tiger lilly growing wild](http://www.starvationacres.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/June22TigerLillies.jpg)
![Apparent snowberry blossom](http://www.starvationacres.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/June22SnowberryBlossom.jpg)
We saw some fabulous scenery both on the drive to Starvation Acres and when exploring the state land across the street. We saw deer, chipmunks, and squirrels. Found moose tracks in the road. Much of the forest was too thick to walk into.
![State land dirt road](http://www.starvationacres.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/June22StateLand2.jpg)
![State land road](http://www.starvationacres.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/June22StateLand.jpg)
![The Xterra](http://www.starvationacres.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/June22Nissan.jpg)
![](http://www.starvationacres.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/June22Naomi.jpg)
![Mushroom crown pushing through pine needles.](http://www.starvationacres.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/June22Mushroom.jpg)
![Moose tracks on roadway](http://www.starvationacres.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/June22MooseTracks.jpg)
![Spillway at Long Lake Dam](http://www.starvationacres.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/June22LongLakeSpilway.jpg)
![Spokane River below Long Lake](http://www.starvationacres.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/June22SpokaneRiver.jpg)
On Saturday, we had breakfast at Beaver Lodge & Resort. The view of Gillette Lake from the dining room is not to be missed. The rest of the day was spent visiting the Bigfoot Festival in Metaline Falls. It seemed the event covered the entire town! Other excitement included finding our tiny Garry Oak had survived the winter, hearing Cletus tell campfire stories, and seeing a black bear had strolled down our driveway shortly after we returned home.
![Garry Oak](http://www.starvationacres.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/June22GarryOak.jpg)
![Beaver Lodge has a new sasquatch display.](http://www.starvationacres.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/June22BeaverLodge.jpg)
![](http://www.starvationacres.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/June22Bear.jpg)
![Pork steaks on a wood fire.](http://www.starvationacres.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/June22FirePit.jpg)
![The story teller.](http://www.starvationacres.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/June22StoryTeller.jpg)