Adventures on the Road: quality Service Inc

August 24, 2011

Today is June 15, 2011 and by the time I am able to publish this will be a week behind. Again we have no inet and counting the days till we have it once again. 30 days (of course that is going by the date of June 15, 2011).

Of course the sky is yet gray again and just within minutes it will rain upon us again. However, today will be about COLD rain. I have no right to complain and I understand how shellfish that may come across seeing Texas and Arizona with all of its fire and lack of rain – I should be so lucky. Everything is so green and beautiful and that cannot be taken for granted and so I apologize.

We have recently met a handful of local residents and what we are not use to, is “The Welcome Wagon” theory. I am so in love with the folks who choose to live here in Rathdrum. They have been full of grace and acceptance to us. We are told to have empty bellies this coming summer for fresh vegetables and such treats. Now how wonderful and giving is that?

QSI

What is QSI – well it is the company we work for: Quality Services, Inc. which is owned and operated by Rick and Shelley. You can visit their web site www.quality-services-inc.com and see for yourself how they work. One of their clients Inland Empire Paper Company (since 1911) is the client Jorge and I are Gate Keepers for. They have a total of 7 major gate accesses: Brickel Creek, Mt. Spokane, Thompson Creek, Mica, Scenic Lodge (this is our gate), Fish Creek and Tesemini. And I have to say we won’t get much of a chance to check out all the gates because there is over 144,000 acreage of land between us. Can you imagine having that sort of playground?

What we do is a little different from the other gates only because we have such a unique situation of where our gate is locate. We have State Land as well as Private land all around us and so with State Land offering free usage of their land along with 2-weeks of camping (I am telling you one of the coolest area to camp in too – a must visit bucket list). Now with QSI we sell and check permits and log all that enters the area regardless if it’s for private, state land use or IEP use. And chat with everyone we encounter and help educate them on the importance of proper use of IEP land – such things like the proper fire gear – the one thing we do have to police is if they have their equipment because it is a state law and I love this law because it makes things safer and easier for us to handle.

Permits we sell are for DAY USE ($10) but if you’re smart like most of the folks around here are to purchase a yearly permit for $40 for a single or $60 for a family. What these permits include is the land use in which you can take out 5 cords of wood (I am so not kidding – this helps out so many of the locals considering a cord of wood can cost up to $200-300 a cord), mushroom picking, berry picking (huckleberry’s), ATV’s/motorcycles, mountain biking, hiking, hunting and Christmas trees. So much to do here it’s amazing. We are just having so much fun….

Here are some more pictures that we’d like to share!! ENJOY!!