Category Archives: Our Country Bunagalow

Survivors

Many of our plants have survived our epic heat wave and for that I’m grateful.

This clematis hasn’t bloomed the last couple of years but this year we’ve gotten two blooms. This is the second bloom.

The daylilies seem to thrive in the heat.

How does your garden grow?

Today I have a follow-up appointment in Spokane so we’ll leave O-dark-thirty to get to the appointment on time. Need anything from Costco while we are there? That’s a standard question we ask our kids and they ask us depending on who is headed to Spokane.

Welcome July

These baby Swallows were around for a few days learning to fly. They stayed relatively safe hanging on to our soccer goal.

A buck came to visit.

The deer that come into our yard have their favorite plants. The Variegated Willow is one of them.

We are headed back to double digits instead of being over 100 degrees which is a relief. We’ll be in the 90’s for several days.

We don’t have big plans for the 4th this year besides going to church. My sister and hubby are stopping for an overnight on Monday the 5th after some time in Idaho. It will be nice to see them. The mayor of Colville has made the decision to not allow fireworks in the city this year. Because our Spring was dryer than usual and we’ve been in an extreme heat wave there is a danger that any little spark could start a wildfire.

Our flags will be waving proudly!

Do you have plans?

Stars and Stripes Hodgepodge

Time to celebrate the Hodgepodge again. Jo From This Side of the Pond asks the questions and we ponder them for answers.

1. It’s been said the best things in life are free…are they?

There has been a price that has been paid for the best things in life like salvation in Jesus Christ.  We didn’t have to pay for that but Christ did and our new life in Him costs us. “Take up your cross daily and follow Him.” When we are faithful and obedient to the Word of God there will be a price to pay.

On a National note there is a cost that has been paid for our freedom. It is good to be free but we can’t forget to be grateful for the sacrifices made for our freedom.

What are some of those things? The Free Things…

*There are good things that are free like hugs, a sunset, smiles, lovely views, etc. etc.

2. Stars or stripes?
Mostly stars but I do enjoy stripes, too.
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Red, white, or blue?
How about all three…
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Apple pie or home made ice cream?
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I do enjoy ice cream but unfortunately it doesn’t like me anymore so I’ll go with apple pie!
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Do you like hotdogs?
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Yes, give me a good Hebrew National Hot Dog, Nathan’s or better yet a Chicago Dog!
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I love a good Chicago dog (see above) and all the things they put on it but can’t get one of those locally, sigh.
If so, what do you like on yours?
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I enjoy hot dog relish on mine. Side note: Hot dog relish has been scarce in my area grocery stores.
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3. One thing on your summer bucket list?
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To make it to the “Coast” for some visits.
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Any plans to make it happen soon?
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No…people are way too busy right now.
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4. What’s your summer anthem? Yes, you need to have one
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A few came to mind like Summer in the City and Schools Out for the Summer but since I don’t live in the city and I’m not in school anymore I’ll go with, You Are My Sunshine.
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5. What’s something you love about America? If you live outside of America, tell us something you love about the place you call home.
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So much to love about America if you ignore the crazy politics going on and the absurd redefinition of basic biology.
I love how you can travel from shore to shore, north and south and see so many different topographies and enjoy small and large towns, seashores and deserts, mountains and plains, regional dishes, amazing architecture, historical sites, iconic landmarks, etc. etc.
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We are in the middle of planning a road trip from Washington State to North Carolina for a wedding in early October. So far some of the diversions along the highways we will travel will be Deadwood, Mt. Rushmore, Wall, Badlands, The Ark Encounter, Kentucky Bourbon Trail, A Shaker Village, Pigeon Forge, and Asheville. After the wedding, Lord willing, we plan to journey to Dallas to visit my brother’s family. We’ll go through Nashville and Memphis on our way to Dallas. From Dallas home we are waiting to see weather patterns before we make those plans.
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6. Insert your own random thought here.
Hope you all have a good 4th of July weekend here in the States and to our Canadian neighbors, Happy Canada Day on the 1st.

Garlic

We are novices when it comes to garlic and harvesting garlic. All the garlic that appeared in our raised planter was put there by someone before we moved in. It was a surprise last year when they popped up and our Daughter in law informed us what they were. This year we were a wee bit more informed and were told if we removed the scapes as soon as they appeared we would get larger bulbs. That advice was timely and good.

This is what the scapes look like and you remove them before you harvest the bulbs. They are good for eating, too. You can see the curly stem with a single bulb on the plant and you can remove them easily.

Next year we will be even smarter about how to pull up the bulbs and what to avoid. I watched a lot of youtubes on the subject after we pulled the bulbs up. Why not before you might ask? That’s the way I roll.  Hopefully I’ll learn from my mistakes.

Hanging the harvest in the Cold Room that we have in our garage using the deer hanger. It’s dark and dry (hopefully). We’ll check them in about 3 weeks to see how they are doing. When they are good and dry we will cut off the stalks, trim the stringy roots and brush off the dirt. Then we’ll store the bulbs in mesh bags like lemons or oranges come in, something airy. Then we’ll store them in a cool dark spot.

Going into the cold room this morning to take the photo I was hit with that pungent fragrance of garlic. It smells like an Italian or Greek restaurant in there!

On the weather front: Our little digital window thermometer tells us our high yesterday was 107 degrees. Today they are predicting 111. Time will tell. Dear is mowing today very early (6:30 am). Our neighbors aren’t close enough to mind too much. We continue to water in the coolest part of the morning.

On the Cataract front: My eye is doing well and Dear is administrating the 3 different drops 4x a day. Tomorrow we move to only 2 different drops 3x a day. Thank you all for your encouragement!

Thursday Thoughts

This is the view from our desk where I read, study and blog on most days. I really appreciate the view. One of the books I am reading right now in my morning devotions besides the ever constant Bible is One Foundation (Essays on the Sufficiency of Scripture) compiled by Grace to You. This post is for me so I don’t forget what I’ve read and want to remember.

This is a quote from Spurgeon that Steven J. Lawson shared in his essay on The Standard of Sound Words: A Mandate for the Pulpit:

Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. (2 Tim. 1:13)

Spurgeon maintained,

Theology hath nothing new in it except that which is false. The preaching of Paul must be the preaching of the minister today. There is no advancement here. We may advance in our knowledge of it; but it stands the same, for this good reason, that it is perfect, and perfection cannot be any better. The old truth that Calvin preached, that Chrysostom preached, that Paul preached, is the truth that I must preach to-day, or else be a liar to my conscience and my God. I can not shape the truth. I know of no such thing as paring off the rough edges of a doctrine. John Knox’s gospel is my gospel. That which thundered through Scotland must thunder through England again…For wherever there is not the old gospel we shall find “Ichabod” written upon the church walls ere long. The truth of the Covenanters, the old truth of the Puritans, the old truth of the Apostles, is the only truth that will stand the test of time, and never need to be altered to suit a wicked and ungodly generation. Christ Jesus preaches to-day the same as when he preached upon the mount; he hath not changed his doctrines; men may ridicule and laugh, but still they stand the same–semper idem* written upon every one of them. They shall not be removed or altered.

Spurgeon rightly understood the necessity of this theological continuity from one generation to the next. Cultures change. Seasons change. Fashions change. But the truth never changes.

From our house to yours, some views of our Country Bungalow yesterday when the sun was shining and the skies were blue.

And…

…so thankful for these boots that I bought at Goodwill before we moved to Colville. They were a bit pricey for Goodwill at $14.99 but I knew they were quality boots. Keen Dry boots which sell new at $100 or more. They are perfect for snow and temps below freezing. Great for snowshoeing, too.

We had a couple more inches of snow overnight.

Today is our son Dan’s birthday. We are happy and thankful to live in the same zipcode as him and his family. Happy Birthday to you dear son of ours!

We’ll be celebrating both Jamie and Dan’s birthdays tomorrow evening with a dinner here at our country bungalow.

Happy Thursday everyone!

*semper idem: always the same

Shop Progress

From time to time for our own records I’m posting the progress of Dear’s shop.

This past Monday our son came over to help Dear auger the holes for the support beams. Augering 14 holes took the better part of the day and it was muddy work as a short rain shower rolled through during the process.

The rest of the week while the weather permitted beams were set in the holes with the help of our son’s tractor and ingenious strapping technique using the tractor forks. After the beams were set in they needed to be secured at the right distance from each other and have the right centering at least so many inches from the sides of the holes for optimum strength at the concrete pour. Too much for my brain to handle but Dear worked to get each one right on the money.

 

By the end of Friday (9/27/19) all the posts were set. Concrete will be ordered for next Wednesday. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. The trusses for the roof were suppose to be delivered at 2PM but never made it until almost 7PM. We had given up on him and then the doorbell rang. Dear went out to set up the spot for the trusses to be set on.

Catchy name…The Truss Company.

We were so happy to see that the truck had a crane to unload the trusses. Nightmares of trying to wrestle those heavy huge trusses plagued us. Oh ye of little faith!

It was raining at this point so Dear found all the tarps he could and covered the trusses and then secured the covers since we have been promised blustery weather this weekend and temperatures dipping to freezing. Unusual for September. Our kids had a bit of snow fall today (Saturday) at their home which is higher elevation from us and on the Stevens County page someone posted a photo of a good amount of snow up on Orin Rice Road. That was the road we had a Sunday drive on a couple weeks ago.

Right now as I publish this all we are getting is sideways rain. The tall natural grasses are blowing in the wind. It looks like they are dancing. Those holes that were augered are gathering some water in them and some slough which Dear will have to deal with before the concrete is poured.

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!

Our Country Bungalow

These are a few mosaics/collages of some of the spaces in our country bungalow. The entry above and the living room off the entry area.

The view back to the entry area of our home from the living room. All the Christmas decorations are packed up now.

The view from the entry through the living room to the dining room.

The dining room.

The photo above is from November before our dining area was painted to our satisfaction.

Glimpses from the dining room into the kitchen and from the kitchen to the family room area.

We have lots of upper ledge spaces in our kitchen. We aren’t done with the painting in the kitchen area and in the future I’ll show the finished look that we’ve decided on for our kitchen space.

Here are some photos I have of more of the kitchen with our favorite visitor and Dear busy cooking Swedish Pancakes on Christmas morning.

Looking to the entry from our family room area and looking back to our family room area.

Our area between our entry and family room and our nice wide hallway to our bedrooms.

Our artwork in the photo above is also showing some reflections that aren’t a part of the original work.

Pictures51This photo above is true to the piece. The work was inspired by a small nook in the crypt of the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. It was painted by a friend of ours.

Glimpses into our two guest bedrooms. These rooms along with our Master Bedroom Suite have not been painted yet. I don’t have photos from the master bedroom to share as of yet. I also have not shared the large laundry room area and our office yet. Stay tuned for those areas and then there is our oversized shop/garage that is not oversized enough for our stash. We will be building a new shop for Dear’s stuff come late spring/summer.

This is all for now on the interior of our Country Bungalow. We are settling in nicely and are thankful for God opening the doors for us to purchase this property despite our exhaustion in the process of selling our home of 20 years and trying to find a replacement 6 hours away and moving 20 years of stuff. We are thankful for being on a county road that is flat and plowed when it snows, except for the weekends. We have found out that Stevens County snowplows only work on weekdays. City of Colville works all days. We have a Colville address but are outside city limits.

Thank you Angie for hosting Mosaic Monday. Click over to join in the fun.

Our Satellite internet connection has been painfully slow for about a week now. You will probably be seeing fewer posts from me until things speed up. I do hope we get some speed soon because right now it is very painful…

First Thanksgiving at the Bungalow

Thankfully one of the local groceries had a nice turkey for me to buy. We enjoyed turkey, stuffing, gravy, yams and rolls. It was a beige meal but one we all enjoy.

We all ended up in plaid except for Addy.

Our oldest with job, family and roots in Western Washington.

Second born and our neighbors in Colville. Neighbors by eight miles. Roots and future established in North Eastern Washington.

Our youngest with their shallow roots in Western Washington wondering where life and jobs will take them.

The plaid, courtesy of Wal-Mart and Costco! We had a whirlwind wonderful family time together. All these shots taken in our back yard acreage.

Soon I’ll share photos from the inside of our Country Bungalow. We have many more walls to cover with our art pieces. Before too long Dear will be painting every square inch of our interior. Happy new week to all of you!