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?
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!
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!
Our summertime visitors have been entertaining us here at our country bungalow. I’ll post more photos later in the week.
Time for the Midweek Hodgepodge with thanks to Joyce From This Side of the Pond.
1. The midpoint of summer (believe it or not) is August 7th. Describe a perfect summer day. Have you had one this year?
A nice clear blue sky with fluffy clouds at 78 degrees or less with no mosquitoes, yellow jackets, or wasps to bother me. Have not had one this summer.
2. What’s one thing you wish you knew before starting high school?
It was a waste of time, emotions and regrets to have boyfriends. It would have been good just to keep all relationships at the friend level.
3. What’s something that bothers you if it’s not done perfectly?
I think perfectly is a very high standard that has different opinions attached. I like events that are well planned and that have flexibility if things go wrong.
It does bother me when you arrive to help someone move and nothing is packed or that there aren’t boxes and paper and tape to get the job done.
It bothers me when an event is planned but then there is no one really in charge.
4. What’s the most overrated food you’re convinced people are just pretending to enjoy?
Green Juice.
What’s a trendy food you actually do enjoy and would say is definitely not overrated?
Thai Food
5. Wrapping it up this week with five fun this or thats…
6. Insert your own random thought here.
Our younger summertime visitors from the animal kingdom.
These two were crying for their mother on Monday night when I got home from VBS. A sad cry I had never heard before.
Our church is having Vacation Bible School, Wonder Junction, this week. I’ll be selling t-shirts and hats each evening.
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.
My brother and our nephew traveled to Colville to enjoy a Father/Son time with us. Leonard is the youngest of my siblings being born 6 minutes after his twin, Lana. Andrew has an older sister, Hope. Hope was enjoying some cousin time in California. We stopped at The Master’s Brewpub in Deer Park on the way home from the airport for a meal.
As we continued home, we passed many sunflower fields. Andrew was born in the Ukraine so we pulled off the highway to get a photo of him with the sunflowers. They are Ukraine’s national flower and are associated with peace, the sun, and the warmth of the Ukrainian spirit.
Once home we had a walk about and played some Corn Hole.
On Sunday we met up with our family at church.
After church we enjoyed Greg’s famous Swedish Pancakes.
Sunday dinner was on Bayles Mountain. What a treat we had, lamb gyros with homemade gyros and tzatziki. Homemade Ice Cream with huckleberry sauce was our dessert. Our kids picked all the huckleberries themselves.
Jamie remembered to take the group shots and we are grateful for them. Andrew is our children’s cousin. He is cousin once removed to our grands.
Driving down our kids’ driveway for home we stopped for our traditional spot for a photo.
I’ll share our Monday and Tuesday doings in another post.
We had some intense thunderstorms yesterday and our temps dropped by 20 degrees by the time the storms ceased.
Happy August to you all.
At soccer camp last week we had intermittent showers and winds and a beautiful rainbow!
It was a very full week with soccer camp in the evening and golf camp in the morning, not to mention Irish Dance practice, too!
Our road is being asphalted from highway 395 all the way to highway 25. That’s about 20 miles worth. There are times where we have to wait at our driveway for a pilot car to let us out. We have to plan our trips wisely and also leave plenty of time in advance if we have an appointment. The road is looking real nice and it will be great when it is all done.
We have been enjoying my brother and his son being with us since Saturday afternoon. I will have lots of posts to share soon.
I’ll leave you with some flowers that are blooming in our planters right now.
Enjoy the final days of July!
We are calling the long weekend of July 17th-20th, The Great Exchange. Dan flew west and Laura flew East, exchanging planes.
After the celebration at Yep Kanum Park in Colville we gathered at our country bungalow for some water fun and for dinner.
After cooling off in the water, we enjoyed an Asian noodle dish with chicken that was easy to throw together and a salad. We had a blueberry lemon loaf for dessert with a dollop of ice cream.
Sunday morning we gathered at church filling a row and then came back to our place for Greg’s famous Swedish Pancakes with little smokies and fresh fruit.
Addy and JJ have moved on to enjoying Legos.
There was some epic tug of war battles under the dining room table! They left our bungalow with more events planned before Auntie left for the airport.
Time with Auntie was coming to a close.
Meanwhile on the other side of the mountains.
Saturday morning started early with a game of golf for our boys and Jamie D. These three have been friends since elementary school.
The brothers weekend was a relaxing hit!
We are so thankful to the LORD for our two beautiful daughters in law.
It was time to say goodbye. Auntie LOLO drove Dan and Jamie’s truck to the airport, parking it for Dan to pick up when he arrived on his flight. He had driven LOLO’s car to Seatac for her to be able to drive it home when she arrived. That was the plan anyway but there was a huge glitch to this great plan.
Both of their flights were part of the huge Alaska Airlines Snafu on Sunday night. All flights were grounded with no hope of them traveling this night. LOLO found a hotel next to the airport to spend the night in and Dan drove back to Josh and Laura’s for the night. They decided the best thing for the two of them to do on Monday morning was for each of them to drive and meet up halfway, exchange cars and continue to their homes. That worked great and they were both back at their own homes in the early afternoon.
Sometimes you just have to go with the flow and find a new plan. Thankful it worked out in a good way for both of them to get home safely. Thank you, LORD!
Today, a week later we are heading to the airport to pick up my brother and his son for a 4 day visit here. We have some events planned and are looking forward to extended time together. I will be scarce on the internet for several days. Enjoy the last days of July, everyone!
A couple of mighty fine looking bucks came to visit our back acres a week or so ago. We were hoping this one wasn’t going to hop onto the deck.
Tom’s comment got me hunting info on this velvet antler stage of life on the buck.
When antlers are in velvet, they are very vulnerable to being injured. Bucks seem to be very aware that they have this fragile treasure on their head and are very careful in their actions throughout antler genesis. Bruises, cuts, or tears to the velvet can all have an impact on the formation of the antler.
The velvet nourishes the growing antler for about five months. During development, antlers are delicate and extremely sensitive to the touch.
Velvet antler is covered in a hairy, velvet-like “skin” known as velvet and its tines are rounded, because the antler has not calcified or finished developing.
Check out the muscles on that Buck! This tree/bush is filled with berries for the first time since we moved in. We think it is a Saskatoon berry. Whatever it is these Bucks were enjoying the berries.
This week I’m still recovering and I’m off my game, as they say.
The fire I wrote about was at 20% containment as of yesterday. It’s a tough terrain to deal with. Hope all is well in your corner.
One of the Hodgepodge questions asked us if we’d been to a Disney Park. This photo is from the end of 1991 just before we attended the 1992 Rose Bowl Game in Pasadena on New Year’s Day 1992, University of Washington v. Michigan. Many college football fans represented their colors at Disneyland before and after the Rose Bowl game.
A fresh week of Wednesday Hodgepodge questions thanks to Joyce From This Side of the Pond.
1. What’s a characteristic you admire in others? Elaborate.
I really admire people who can engage others in conversation by asking good questions. I’d like to develop the art of asking good questions in order to get to know people better.
2. Do you have a favorite mug? Let’s see it. Why is this one your favorite?
The mug on the left is my favorite daily mug. It greets me in the morning with a good 16 ounces of coffee. I bought that mug in Windsor, England at a TKMaxx.
3. July 15th is/was National Give Something Away Day…will you (or did you, depending on what day you answer these questions) give something away? If so what? Do you regularly give away or do you tend to ‘accumulate’?
We will be donating even more stuff from our garage sale to ‘The Bridge’ here in Colville. The back of my vehicle is filled with stuff.
4. You’re planning a trip. Do you prefer exploring big cities or smaller, more off the grid towns? World Atlas lists these 12 ‘off the grid’ towns to see in 2025. How many on the list have you seen? Of those listed which one would you most like to visit? Tell us why?
Boothbay Harbor Maine, Middlebury Vermont, New Hope Pennsylvania, Rehoboth Beach Delaware, Brevard North Carolina, Saugatuck Michigan, Medora North Dakota, Ouray Colorado, Lamoille Nevada, Neah Bay Washington, Hood River Oregon, or Cambria California
We’ve only been to the West Coast areas listed in California, Oregon and Washington states.
We saw Neah Bay on our way to Cape Flattery in Washington State. It is part of the Makah Reservation.
We crossed the Hood River Bridge from Oregon to Washington State to go to Bonneville Hot Springs.
In September of 2009 we were in Cambria. It is a charming little seaside town on the California Coast.
*You can read more about each destination by clicking the link above.
5. Have you ever…ridden a motorcycle? Yes, in high school.
I had a ‘boyfriend’ that gave me a ride.
been to a Disney park? Yes
Collage above is with photos from 1986 and 1991.
Growing up in Southern California and living there until 1988 afforded us lots of trips to Disneyland over the years. Our 9th grade end of year party was at Disneyland. The last time I was there was a family trip to Disneyland in January of 2023.
met a celebrity? Yes, and I have a lot of shameless name dropping to add here. 🙂
In 2013 when Josh, Laura, Greg and I were in London we stopped in at one of Jamie Oliver’s Restaurants and he happened to walk in while we were there. He came to our table to say hi and we got a photo with him.
Greg and I also had the interesting experience of sitting in the VIP box for an Elton John concert at Dodger Stadium for his performance there in 1975. We didn’t meet Elton but we met his mother who was seated there, too. The office manager for Elton was a friend of ours and we were hosting John and Jan and their toddler at our apartment in Los Angeles. We drove John to the concert and he flashed his ID/VIP passes for parking and to get us seats.
In November of 1960 my older sisters and I walked the block and a half to Whittier Boulevard in Montebello to watch John F. Kennedy come by in a convertible and we were able to shake his hand. He was campaigning in the Los Angeles area.
Greg met Peter Falk (Columbo). Greg, his dad and brother painted Columbo’s house in Beverly Hills 1972ish.
One of our favorite famous people who never aspired to fame and who was a humble servant of God, died on Monday, John MacArthur, the pastor of Grace Community church for 56 years. He was our first pastor after we were married. His fame centers on his faith in Jesus Christ and faithful expository preaching of the Word of God. We spent a more intimate time with both him and his father Jack at a Christmas dinner party in the Hollywood Hills in the home of a famous Hollywood set designer, Bob Keene. Bob and Sharon invited us to the dinner while we were still living in Huntington Beach in the 1980’s. We met and became good friends with Bob Keene while singing in the Christian band that Bob’s brother was the leader of. Bob’s brother Tom, an arranger/ composer and musician was also famous in L.A. for his musical skills. Tom Keene has arranged and produced hundreds of albums and played for such artists as Ralph Carmichael, Bill Gaither and Andrae Crouch. But, back to Bob…
This tribute was written about Bob Keene after he died in 2003. His funeral service was held at Grace Community Church.
Bob Keene, one of the most prolific production designers in live television, died recently, according to the Grammy Awards website. He served as the production designer for Grammy telecasts dating back to the mid ’80s, as well as desiging the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. In addition, he worked on several Academy Awards shows, and was the production designer for Magic Johnson’s talk show The Magic Hour.
“To Bob Keene, all the world was not merely a stage but a blank canvas from which he created the figurative and literal backdrop of the Grammy Awards for nearly 20 years,” says Recording Academy president Neil Portnow. “Today, the curtains have closed, the stage is dark, and the theater is hushed, as the entertainment industry has lost a true visionary. We at the Recording Academy are deeply saddened by his loss, and our sympathies go out to his family, friends and all who knew him.”
Bob and Sharon Keene on Bob’s Emmy Award Set – 1997
Oh boy that was a lot of name dropping but you can blame Joyce for asking the question.
won a contest? Yes
The school district our kids were part of had a contest to name a new school. The new school was taking in students from Woodin Elementary and Moorlands Elementary so I came up with Woodmoor for the name of the new school and they chose it over all the other entries.
Woodmoor Elementary School ~ Home of the Dolphins
Tell us something about whatever you answered yes to on this list.
6. Insert your own random thought here.
A beloved pastor who finished his race and is with his Savior (1939-2025).
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 