Category Archives: Colville

To Canada!

On Friday the 29th of August we left early for a little road trip to Canada to meet up with a couple of the Mennonite Girls and their husbands who were camping close to the border in Midway, B.C. We traveled new roads to us.

Instead of deer, we were on the lookout for cattle along Boulder Creek Road.

Today I’ll share the destination and the time with our friends and tomorrow I’ll show more of the sites along the way.

Our route was well marked. In the near future, I’ll share what we learned about Ranald MacDonald, too.

We knew this small border crossing closed at 5pm but we didn’t realize it didn’t even open until 9am. We were early so we tracked back to the little town of Curlew and we were pleased to see this sani-can!

Thank you, Beal Park, for your facilities.

We were back at the border crossing at 9am and were welcomed into Canada with a tip that we should be back to the crossing at 4:45pm to insure that the border wouldn’t be closed.

We found Lovella and Judy’s campsite which was about 3 minutes from the border and it was so good to see our friends face to face.

The table was set for our breakfast together.

Judy and Lovella served us a feast!

After our delicious breakfast we played a few rounds of Skyjo!

We had a good catch up time and we might have solved some world problems.

We had another fabulous meal together that we called linner before we said our goodbyes and headed for the border!

Our Linner even came with dessert, fruit filled perishky!

It was such a nice time together but it was time to wave goodbye and head to the border.

Thank you, friends, for your hospitality at your home away from home.

We crossed the border after a nice chat with the border agent and made it home by 6pm.

Saturday was a stay at home and relax day. Sunday we were in church and afterwards stayed inside because of smoke from a few fires burning in our area.

We can’t see our beautiful mountains.

These fires are about 12 miles north of us.

This photo above is from our county fire agency. The fire is in rugged areas that are hard to get to. We are hoping all the agencies and volunteers fighting these fires make progress today. Such hard intense work.

Another photo from Northeast Washington Fire Information Group. This was the caption for this mornings briefing;

Crown Creek – Blackhawk Mtn Fires
Good morning from Fire Camp in Colville and 0600 morning briefing. About 550 crews have arrived to help engage and manage the fire, with more crews arriving throughout the day. 550? That is about 10% growth for the city of Colville.
What an amazing turnout!

Today is Labor Day here in the USA and Canada and we also welcome September! School in our area will start tomorrow and Awana starts on Wednesday.

Hope all is well in your corner of the world.

NE Washington Parade and Fair 2025

Our kids enjoyed the parade and fair on Saturday the 23rd of August. It was a hot day.

Dan had to work and Greg and I stayed home to livestream John MacArthur’s memorial service.

After the parade on Main street, these 5 walked a short distance to the fair.

In the evening we were together at our place. Everyone was tired from the full sunny day and we ended early with plans to meet up at church on Sunday morning.

We filled a row at church and after the service we took one last photo in the lobby!

Josh and Laura had a long and arduous journey home because of some road work and tire issues and we were all happy to get the text that said home at last!

Thank you to Josh and Laura for all the photos!

Friday Last

The next couple of posts are catch up posts from our family times August 22-24. Friday August 22nd dawned with a trip to the golf course for the guys. After breakfast, Laura made her way to Dan and Jamie’s with some projects for Addy and JJ to enjoy. I stayed home to bake a dessert for Friday’s dinner and our celebration of Josh and Laura’s anniversary.

After golf and craft projects, the rest of the day was spent at Dan and Jamie’s playing, walking and having meals together.

An after dinner walk is always good.

 

After the sun set we enjoyed some table games, Phase 10 and Skyjo.

We are really enjoying this game and recommend it.

We introduced it to our family earlier this year and continue to introduce it to others, too.

Hooray, Laura shared the actual shot of all of us playing Skyjo on this Friday evening on Bayles Mountain. Thank you, Laura, for this photo and all your photos!

Saturday was a full day with the NE Washington Fair  and parade. That will be a full photo post tomorrow.

Fishing for Answers Hodgepodge

Another week and another Hodgepodge. Thank you, Joyce!

1. When someone finds out what you do or where you’re from, what’s a question they always ask? 

When I say Colville (pronounced Call-ville) people get a puzzled look on their face.

It seems most always I need to add…”It’s a small town in the Northeast corner of Washington State about 70 miles north of Spokane and about 35 miles from the Canadian border.

2. Did you participate in ‘Greek Life’ when you were in college, or have children who did? If so what was your experience like? Taking another tack…have you ever been to Greece? If not, is that a destination on your bucket list? 

My answer is no to all the above. Growing up with immigrant parents who escaped communism made my parents and us in turn skeptical of many organizations and we saw them as unnecessary in our lives.

Greece would be a very interesting place to visit, especially for the Biblical history there, but it is not on my bucket list.

3. Do you like Greek food? If so what’s your favorite dish? 
Photo above from a great Greek restaurant in Walla Walla that our family enjoyed a while back.
Yes, I do enjoy Greek food. We just enjoyed home made Gyros at Dan and Jamie’s to celebrate Josh and Laura’s 24th Anniversary. Home made gyro meat, home made pita bread, home made tzatziki. It was all delicious.
4. What incredibly common thing have you never done? 
I don’t believe that I’ve ever fished or if I have I’ve totally forgotten it.
I’ve been to ‘Fishing’ parties and played fishing games.

5. What is a telltale sign that you’re upset? 

My hands will start shaking more than usual or my voice will be shaky.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Here’s another great Summer salad.

Greek Salad
Ingredients:

  • 1 cup cucumber chopped
  • 1 cup tomatoes, chopped
  • 1/2 cup canned chickpeas (garbanzo), drained, rinsed.
  • 1/4 cup Kalamata olives, pitted, sliced
  • 1/4 cup scallions, sliced (you can substitute red onion here)
  • 1/4 cup coarsely chopped parsley
  • 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 1 clove garlic minced
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 2-3 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 3 Tablespoons fresh mint, chopped

Method:

  1. Combine the cucumbers, tomatoes, chickpeas, olives, scallions, and parsley in a large bowl.
  2. Whisk together lemon juice, garlic, sugar, salt, and pepper for the vinaigrette in a bowl.
  3. Drizzle olive oil into lemon juice mixture in a steady stream while whisking, after it emulsifies stir in mint and adjust seasonings to taste.
  4. Pour over the combined ingredients and mix well.

Double the recipe if you are serving this as a main dish. This recipe would serve 2 as a main dish.
As a side it serves 4-6 people.
I used the whole English Cucumber for the salad pictured above which was probably 2 cups or more of the cucumber.

One Day At a Time

Three days of nonstop fun here in Colville. I’ll cover one day at a time. On Thursday morning, Addy, JJ and a friend had the great experience of the local escape room. They managed to escape in 42 minutes. They had to find clues, crack codes, solve puzzles with a time limit. Addy felt she could have cut that time down if she was alone.

Jamie was able to watch them via a computer screen while they worked in the room to escape.

On Thursday evening we met at the fields for Addy and JJ’s soccer games. As per usual, Dan was called on to referee JJ’s game. Josh and Laura had rolled in from the other side of the mountains in time to be able to enjoy seeing both JJ and Addy play and to have other fun at the fields, too. What fun to see all ‘our boys’ on the same field!

JJ was ready to protect the goal.

Addy’s team played their game on a field just beyond JJ’s field and it made it easy to switch between the games at half time. Addy’s game started late because of a referee snafu so we were all able to be on the same field for a good portion of her game.

What a special treat to have Uncle Joshie and Auntie LoLo at the games.

Jimbo’s Ice Cream truck knows just where to come for nonstop business. We ended the evening with ice cream treats.

That was Thursday August 21st. We still had a few more days to fill with fun while Uncle and Auntie were visiting. Those posts will appear later this week.

Here we are in the last week of August. For summer lovers it’s a hard pill to swallow. Hope whoever you are you can take each new day and all it has to offer you in stride and in peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

2 a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
3 a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.

This and That

We have had some rainfall that gave me a break from watering.

The little toddler quail are hard to see but are so much fun to watch. We are inundated with quail, babies, toddlers, and teens. They grow fast.

If they didn’t blend in so nicely with their environment they’d be easier for predators like this next one who flew in on Monday.

Today is mowing day. What’s up where you live?

News in the Neighborhood

Another year of swimming lessons are in the books!

Our museum unveiled a new mural that was recreated from a black and white photo taken 100 years ago of Kettle Falls area on the Columbia River as it was before the Grand Coulee Dam was completed downstream in 1941. This area is now under water.

In other news Greg replaced our aged and failing gate this past week.

As usual he does great work!

The 2025 soccer season is on full kick ahead. Addy and JJ are busy on the pitch.

It’s a ‘kick’ to see their dad referring, too.

Hope y’all have a great Friday!

Oh Deer

We’ve had many visits from bucks, does and fawns lately.

A regular stag party on this evening.

This little one tried to crash the party but was called away quickly by it’s mother.

On another day there was another gathering.

Then we had several visits from the fawns and their mother.

We also had a visit from our hawk.

On to our humans!

Our Grands had a great week of Vacation Bible School.

Jamie worked hard as a leader all week! Marvel at Jesus, Live for His Glory!

The weekend ended with a birthday dinner party for our Grands Granny. Our Grands are blessed with lots of adult love.

Things are heating up around here again this week. I’ll have to resume some watering. What’s going on in your corner!

Of Boats and Birthdays…

Tuesday July 29th was my brother and sister’s birthday. They are twins. It was fun to have one of the ‘twins’ with us to celebrate his birthday this year. Our Colville kids own a boat and the plan for this Tuesday was for them to treat their uncle and cousin to a day on the water. Their boat is not a yacht so Greg and I stayed home for boat time.

While the crew were boating I baked a cake and prepared our taco dinner. The candle on the cake had a small explosion of edible confetti that was fun. Note to self: read the directions before you light the candle. For the first candle I didn’t read the fact that I was supposed to put in the edible sprinkles ahead of lighting the candle. Thankfully there were two candles in the package and Jamie loaded up the second candle and Dan lit it for a successful ‘second take’ on singing and lighting and exploding!

The evening was capped off with a game of SkyJo which has become our ‘go to’ card game this year.

Wednesday morning was pack up day with a trip to the airport for our visitors. We stopped for breakfast at Frank’s Diner and another stop at Spokane Falls for a quick view before we continued on to the airport.

The Spokane International airport was a short ten minute drive from here. We dropped off my brother and nephew with hugs and good wishes. ‘God be with you till we meet again’.

We still had to make a couple shopping stops on the way back to Colville for supplies for our Vacation Bible School. After stopping at the Chef’s Store and Costco we drove the rest of our 70 mile trip to Colville with views of clouds that warned of Thunderstorms that were ready to burst at any minute.

We are thankful for the time we could all spend with my brother and nephew in our corner of the world.

Tee Time and Museum Time

While my brother and nephew were visiting a week ago we had a few activities planned. On Monday the 28th of July we had a Tee Time of 8:30 am. Greg, Leonard and Andrew golfed and I drove one of the golf carts. Dominion Meadows Golf Course in Colville is a great resource for our county. We enjoyed our time. The scores would have been real good if they were for 18 holes instead of 9.

After golf we enjoyed lunch at Rancho Grande Mexican Restaurant. After lunch we made a last minute decision to visit the Colville Museum run by the Steven’s County Historical Society.

We had a great introduction to the history of our area by a volunteer before strolling through the museum.

I have a more thorough post about the museum from another visit we made in 2020. You can see it here.

This time we took a tour of the lookout tower.

It was a good uphill trek to get to the tower and then a couple sets of stairs that showed me how out of shape I am from my sedentary time with Plantar Fasciitis.

The views were worth the huffing and puffing. It was nice to see these views of Colville.

The volunteer who took us up in the tower was a great resource of information about the history of the tower. You can read the information here.

The museum had some resident deer that we call city deer. They are less concerned by humans than the deer out in our part of the country.

It was a good full day and with the heat we were beat and stayed in for the evening.

This week we are supposed to have lower temperatures than last week which is fortunate since we are having Vacation Bible School this week. I’ll be busy selling t-shirts each evening again this year. It’s always fun to see the kids arrive each evening.

What’s new in your neck of the woods?