Category Archives: Colville

A to Z Challenge ~ C is for Colville

C is for Colville. Colville is our newest hometown. We’ve lived here since September 2018. Between hubby and me our first 37 years we lived in Los Angeles, Orange, and Ventura County, California. Dear and I were both born in Los Angeles County. We lived our years through high school and college in Los Angeles County. After we were married we ended up in Orange County where our first two children were born. Before we moved to Washington State we lived in Ventura County where our daughter was born. Our next 30 years we lived outside of Seattle in Washington State. And now for our retirement years we are living in the outskirts of the city of Colville still in Washington State.

Here’s a little history about Colville:

The first white man in the area that is now Colville was David Thompson, who came in 1811 to explore the Columbia River for the Northwest Fur Company. A few months later a water route was opened from Astoria up the Columbia through Canadian waters, and overland to the Great Lakes or Hudson Bay. During that first year, nearly 11,000 pounds of furs were reported shipped to the fur markets of London from the Colville area.

In 1825, Fort Colville, named for Lord Andrew Colville, a London governor of Hudson’s Bay Company, was built at Kettle Falls, a few miles west of Colville. The fort functioned as the center of trade in the Northwest. A large farm supplied wheat, oats, barley, corn and potatoes to sustain the personnel at the fort. (Today, both the fort and farm sites are under water, covered by Lake Roosevelt, a part of the Coulee Dam National Recreation Area.)

By 1840, the Hudson’s Bay trading post was processing 18,000 furs a year. When the boundary of the northwest was drawn at the 49th parallel in 1846 and the territory of Washington was established in 1853, Hudson’s Bay Company, being a British company, withdrew from Fort Colville and moved to Canada. The War Department in 1859 ordered a military post built just northeast of the present townsite. The post was called Harney’s Depot at first, then Fort Colville. Four companies of the United States Infantry were stationed there. (This second Fort Colville, located at different places at different times, sometimes confuses visitors.)

The town of Colville was founded in 1882 when Fort Colville was abandoned. The first school, a hand-hewn log building, built shortly after the founding of the town is presently located at the Keller Historical Center within the city limits.

Colville is the county seat for Stevens County. Stevens County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington along the Canada–US border. At the 2010 census, its population was 43,531. As of July 2018, the population was estimated to be 45,260. The county seat and largest city is Colville

These are backyard views of our Country Bungalow in Colville, Washington. We do not live in the city limits of Colville so we don’t have the same services that the City of Colville offers within the city limits.

Colville is a city in Stevens County, Washington, United States. The population was 4,673 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Stevens County.

Here are some random photos that I have of the Colville area (Stevens County).

Our favorite grocery store.

We have a Super Wal-Mart and I’m bonding with this store that has most everything we’d need for living in the country.

The Country Store can fill in the gaps for farmers and other property owners.

This is our road. We are up this road about 2 miles.

We get some interesting creature visitors in the country.

The view out to Colville city limits from our kids’ driveway.

This is Colville mountain with our huge C for Colville and a lit up cross.

Highway 395 coming north into Colville with one of our local farm/produce shops, Front Porch.

 

When we come down our road to town we have the choice to go south to Colville or north to Kettle Falls.

 

 

Welcome here to our Country Bungalow in Colville, Washington. Colville is pronounced, Call-ville!

I could have used the letter C for the COVID-19 epidemic but I decided we are getting enough information about the Pandemic. Diversions can be good when we really have no power to change the big picture. We do have the power to change the little picture by keeping our distance and compliance to the mandates set down to slow the spread of the virus. We will continue at home keeping the faith and praying for the end of this. Looking forward to better days or better yet the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.

February 1st Walk About…

…our snowy backyard.

On Saturday the temperatures were in the upper 40’s and the sun was shining so we decided to walk about the yard and see some of the winter damage. The winds were coming in gusts so we did not walk too close to the trees. The wind was strong enough to down a lot of branches and trees around our area and to cause power outages. Our power stayed on.

Although we have not seen the deer we know by these tracks that they have definitely been in the yard. Their deposits and hoof prints are a lot more visible against the snow.

This tree suffered a lot of damage from the weight of the snow and winds. We have decided that it needs to come down soon. We will miss it. We will have quite a pile of branches from the front and rear trees for our burn pile.

Dear spotted more deer tracks down in the emptied pond.

One or more of the trees on the mountain behind us have fallen. We have a lot of work cut out for us come late Spring and Summer. If you look on the upper photo of the collage above you can see the fallen tree. I zoomed in on the other photos to get a close up.

The photo above shows how the tree split close to the base of the tree.

That blue sky was a welcomed treat!

Our Weeping Pussy Willow is leaning over from the weight of the snow. We hope we can save it. The only color in our yard right now besides the evergreens are these red berries.

It took several tries for me to be able to upload my photos today. The joy of country satellite connections. Oh and speaking of country we have Dish provider for TV. They cut the Fox channel that was televising the Superbowl game so we weren’t able to watch. There were a lot of angry Dish customers. Thank goodness the Seahawks weren’t playing. I was happy to hear that Kansas City ended up winning. Sorry San Francisco fans.

Happy Groundhog Day! I hear we are suppose to have an early Spring. Time will tell.

We had a good morning at church with Communion and a sermon from the book of Hebrews. We enjoyed the grandkids sitting with us and thankfully they were not disruptive. Quiet cuteness! Jaymison was entertained by the singing and watching all those people. Addy hopped from lap to lap. She had her parents, Gramps, Baba and Granny to keep her occupied. She did wonder why she couldn’t have the “crackers” when the gluten free matzah came around for the Communion service. During our benevolent offering which we always have after Communion one of our elementary kids played the offertory on the piano. So sweet that our young people can share their talents in our services.

Has your church gone to gluten free for your Communion services?

October 2019

Country life has taken a very busy turn for us. The first three weeks of October are filled to the brim. It was good to have a nice hour walk with a friend on Wednesday along the trails by the Dominion Meadows Golf Course here in Colville.

Our cousin Jim is here right now and we connected with another cousin in Colville who we’ll have dinner with on Friday while Jim is here. I hope we remember to take some photos. Jim plans to move along in his travels leaving here on Monday.

Our Connection Groups at FBC start up this Sunday for 6 weeks.

Our Third annual family hunting get together is coming up and our “Coast Kids” start arriving on the 11th.

A wedding has been added to our calendar on the 12th of October and we’ll travel to Spirit Lake in Idaho with our kids, Andrew and Katie, for that event.

Dear and I are heading to the Truth Matters Conference in Southern California on the 15th.

After the 19th of October we do have some free days until the 30th of October if anyone feels inclined to have a casual visit. You know who I’m talking to. No more snow in the forecast. But things are subject to change.

My computer time is going to be slim these weeks so if you don’t see me around you will understand why.

Some Spurgeon to close this post…

Always remember this. In common life the wisest thing is the right, straight, undeviating course. The right thing is always the wisest. Sometimes it looks as if it really is necessary to go off the straight line and just take a shortcut. It seems so, but it never is. The take of the shortcut is a book of lamentations from beginning to end. But you need not be a philosopher to discover how you should act under any circumstances. The way to act in every case is to fear God and keep His commandments. Straight Ahead!

Here we go…straight ahead into October and beyond!

U-Pick Corn

On Tuesday afternoon we hopped in the car and drove a few miles north of us and stopped at this farm to pick corn. U-pick 4 for a $1. Part of the sign looks like it washed off but we got the gist of what they wanted us to know.

We found 4 ears we thought looked good and put our $1.00 in the metal box and headed back home.

There’s a story behind me having to take a photo of the photo of me at the corn field. Dear mistakenly took a video of me instead of a photo and my computer wouldn’t let me make it into a photo and I couldn’t upload the video, either. Hmmm.

We cooked 2 ears of corn as soon as we got home and boy was it good and sweet. I called it dessert, delicious. We’ll remember this farm next year and enjoy fresh corn again.

Quote of the day from Sprugeon:

“The way to do a great deal, is to keep on doing a little. The way to do nothing at all is to be continually resolving that you will do everything.”

Encouragement of the day:

If you are finding it hard to get started on a task, try setting a timer for 15 minutes and tell yourself to get after that task for at least 15 minutes. You’ll be surprised all you can get done in that short amount of time and maybe it will be enough motivation to continue.

Have a great 9-19-19!

It started with a Crash!

We marked our driveway for our First Baptist Colville Senior Summer Social. When it was time for everyone to arrive there was no problem slowing down and finding our address since a Sheriff was right in front of our property with his lights flashing because of an accident right at our driveway. The person who caused the accident was in a hurry and tried to pass someone who was turning into our driveway. He ignored or didn’t see our guest’s left blinker flashing and came around them and tried to pass while they tried to turn into our drive. No one was hurt but our guest’s vehicle suffered lots of damage and had to be towed away. That was a bang of a start to our social.

Most of the 31 folks had never been to our home before and we only knew a handful by name.

By the end of the evening we became familiar with many more and enjoyed conversations with a few.

Our back acres proved to be an ideal picnic spot in the evening since the sun goes down behind our mountain at 5:30. Since we were in the upper 80’s or low 90’s being shaded from the sun was necessary.

One of the gals from our church walked about our property with me and identified several plants by name. I was very appreciative of her knowledge. Come to find out she’s a master gardener. She told me how to cut back and what I could pull and what are weeds. I wish I had a pad and pencil on me when she pointed out the plants and named them. Our huge bush is a variegated willow. That one I remember.

The morning after when I pulled up the blinds in our bedroom these fawns were just outside our window frolicking in the yard.

And then daddy showed up, too.

He sensed us through the window but couldn’t see us.

I did not turn my computer on yesterday and just turned it on at 3pm today.  We are recovering from last evening. Hope all is well in your corner.

Know Your Strengths…

The Greenhouse really does it’s job in encouraging things to grow, just look at these weeds.

We will probably sell the greenhouse or give it away to someone who will make good use of it.

It’s good to face the facts and the fact is we are not gardeners. The greenhouse is something that a gardener can make good use of.

We’ve been repurposing some planters and making areas of the yard more accessible to the riding lawn mower. We also continue to pull weeds.

If you had a greenhouse what would you plant in it?

 

Colville Rodeo Parade

We had a super weekend but I left my camera at our kids’ house in all the excitement and only have these fun photos our daughter-in-law posted on Facebook to share for now. My camera will get dropped off tomorrow.

This weekend besides being Father’s Day Weekend was the Colville Pro-West Rodeo Weekend. The parade was on Main Street. Our kids went to the parade on Saturday afternoon before coming to our place for a early Father’s Day dinner. Addy was a little concerned about all the loud noises.

She had fun collecting beads and candy from some of the floats in the parade.

It was a hot and humid day and Dear and I opted to skip the parade this year and make the final preparations for our time together Saturday evening. Just look at that sky in the photo above. It says heat and humidity to me. I am so very thankful for the heat pump we had installed in November. It is a pleasure to be cool inside when the temps get over 90 outside.

Thank you, Laura, for the great photos that you always take and share with us!

Hope you all had a good weekend.

Seek First…

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

~Matthew 6:26-34 (ESV)

It has been such a treat to enjoy the variety of birds that fly and perch in our back acres. How is your week coming? We are having a heat event with temps predicted in the 90’s tomorrow and Thursday and upper 80’s for Friday and the weekends. We are doing yard work in the early hours and watering in the evenings.

So far we haven’t managed to kill off any of the pretty things that are blooming in our yard. We purchased some rain bird sprinklers to use in our front acres so that they can do the watering for us. Gradually we are learning what are the best techniques and devices to use for the upkeep of our country bungalow.

Front and Back and the Shop Pad

I took some photos while Dear was removing part of our fence to get ready for the work force that would be prepping the area for his future shop.

The equipment arrived bright and early on Tuesday the 28th of May.

The pad is ready for further preparations for Dear’s shop. The structure will be next and the concrete floor is the last thing you do. We are really open now to the street on this side of our property. We haven’t seen any deer in the back acres yet with this new open invitation. They are creatures of habit and coming into our backyard hasn’t been part of their habit…yet.

I’ll be linking up later this weekend to Mosaic Monday with Angie at Letting Go of the Bay Leaf.

Hello and Shoo!

Last Friday we were mowing the lawns in the morning and were in a rush to finish up before the rains came. We put all the equipment away and later in the evening we noticed a deer in the yard. We have never had deer in the backyard because it is totally fenced off. We realized we had forgotten to close the gate in the back where we have started a compost pile on the other side of the fence.

The deer seemed quite delighted with all the new things in our yard that it could nibble on.

When the deer began to eat our clematis it was time to shoo it away.

My Dear had to go out and scare the unwelcome deer back to the gate and out of the yard.

We secured the gate again and the deer went off to wherever the deer go in the evening.

It’s been nice having a relatively secured back area but today Dear took down 40 feet of our fence in the front because we are having a space prepared for his future shop to be built on. I might be chasing more unwelcome deer away from our clematis, soon.

If you look through the tree you’ll see the fence sections Dear has taken down already. Our backyard is free range now.

On Monday I got to enjoy both our grandchildren. Addy is getting more and more articulate and it’s fun to hear her full sentences. Jaymison is still having some digestive and elimination issues but he’s gaining weight and doing better. We’ve had some periods of heavy rain through the weekend. We are warming up and expected to go up 10 degrees tomorrow. I’m sure we’ll be putting our Heat Pump to good use. Hope you all have a good week.