Good Fences from Steven’s County

The sign under the horse says Mountain House Stables.

While spending time with our son and daughter in law in Eastern Washington I took some photos on our son’s property and along some back roads close to them. Close is a relative term when you live in the country.

This fawn visited our son’s property with it’s mother the first day we arrived.

I’m linking up with TexWisGirl for Good Fences #127.

We are catching up with the regular things we do in the city at this old house. We have a busy last weekend of August coming up. Our eastern Washington kids are coming on Saturday. Dear and I are going to a Chinese wedding reception Saturday night which will be a first for us. I’ve been reading up on Chinese wedding customs so we don’t do something that would offend. We are looking forward to this new celebration experience. On Sunday our whole family will be attending a Memorial service for our dear friend Dave. Joy and sorrow seem to always go hand in hand. How’s your summer winding down?

While we were in the Country…

…our oldest kids flew to the big city of Los Angeles.

While they were there for a quick weekend with friends to enjoy a special concert together they managed a getaway to see my pop, their Dzeda.

They also managed to get all these cousins together for brunch.

Beautiful girls. Two of my nieces with our dear daughter in love, Laura.

We are all back in our own homes again. Home from the big city and home from the country.

This country scene is from our middle son’s neck of the woods.

On our way home today we stopped at the scenic overlook of the Columbia River just before you get to Vantage. A selfie was in order. This is about halfway in our trip.

It’s good to be home after six days away. Watering was the first thing on my list to do and now I will relax till tomorrow. We are finishing up listening to a Bruno Chief of Police novel. On our trip to the country we finished Louise Penny’s The Cruelest Month.

Hope all is well whether you are in the big city or the quiet country.

Chewelah Murals and Spokane Mosaics

It was hard to get the whole of this mural in one photo. This mural is on the side of a building along highway 395 in downtown Chewelah, Washington. Chewelah is a one traffic signal town in the northeastern corner of the state of Washington.

Dear and I are spending several days between Chewelah and Colville with our son and daughter in law. It’s a nice change to be out in the country, in small towns.

From HistoryLink.org:

The early settlers named the town Chewelah (spelled various ways). According to some sources, this was an Interior Salish Indian word for small, striped snake, which refers either to snakes in the area or to the narrow, serpentine appearance of the river. Alice Sherwood Abrahamson, a member of one of the Indian families still living in the Chewelah area around 1900, offered this explanation in a memoir: “The name Chewelah comes from the Indian word ‘S che wee leh,’ meaning water or garter snake. There was a spring in what is now the southwest end of Chewelah. The old McCreas lived there and their homestead was called ‘S che wee leh ee,’ for the spring that bubbled up there. The motion of the water gave the illusion of snakes moving about in the water”

Another mural on the side of a building that I spotted along highway 395. On this portion of the highway the speed limit is 25 miles per hour so it’s a little easier to spot gems to photograph.

I’m linking up to Monday Mural with Oakland Daily Photo.

This Sunday was a full day for all of us. Dear and our son continued work on the pump house and our daughter in law and I traveled down to Spokane for the Bubble Run on the Spokane Riverfront. In the late afternoon we joined in for a birthday barbecue for our daughter in law’s aunt in Colville.

I’m also linking up to Mosaic Monday with Maggie at Normandy Life.

We have one more full day in the country before we head back home to the city. Hope you all have a great start to your week.

Country Living

Here are some things I’ve learned in the country.

Horses and other animals graze peacefully and make for idyllic photos.

You can use large old tires from farming equipment and add some dirt and wild flower seed and enjoy a wild tire garden.

You can’t take having a store close by for granted in the country. For our kids the closest is just 7 miles away, though. Vegetable gardens are the best for having fresh outside your door produce. So far we’ve enjoyed potatoes, squash, green beans. Zucchini bread is just out of the oven. Later today we’ll have tomatoes and lettuce from the garden on our hamburgers. Cucumbers the size of small baseball bats were picked today.

Having a chicken coop and chickens that lay eggs everyday is a bonus. A rooster can be annoying, though. Yep, that rooster is still alive and cock a doodle doing. You don’t need a rooster to get eggs from the chickens and roosters can get real mean. Even though you think you just purchased birds with no rooster you can be surprised as time goes by. Your days are numbered spotty! The other thing I found out about chickens is that skunks find them to be a delicacy. Our kids don’t put egg shells in their compost pile because they don’t want to attract skunks to their property. A friend of our kids just had several of his chickens killed and eaten by skunks.

There are lots of wasps, hornets, mosquitoes and other flying things in the country. It’s best to get rid of nests in the winter time.

There is plenty of room for dogs in the country. They make for good companions. They do shed just as much in the country as in the city, though.

Birds in numbers like to hang out together. Sometimes they all take off at the same time and that’s a sight.

You have to be extra cautious when driving in the county because you never know what you’ll encounter along the way. These turkeys took to flight as I approached. You need to be aware and watch for deer and other wildlife because car v. animal never goes well for the humans or the animals. We always crack up at the road signs that say “Watch for Deer next 10 miles” How do they know the deer will stay within that 10 mile area?

Are you a city mouse or a country mouse?

Doe and Fawn

This Doe and Fawn have been showing up on our son’s property each afternoon or evening. If you just go about your business and don’t make sudden moves they are content to graze with us in the distance.

If you look carefully through the chicken coop you can see them. The fawn is watching me and the doe is busy grazing. That black and white speckled cock a doodle doer is destined for the cook pot soon! In the meantime we are eating lots of eggs!

An Interlude…

…in the northeastern area of Washington State, where it is hot but no hotter than our western part of Washington right now. Why not sweat in a different location than our own for a few days?

This afternoon doe, a deer, a female deer and her fawn were grazing in our son’s yard. I’ll share those photos soon. We’ll be eating farm fresh eggs the next several days and we might have to put the rooster to rest if it keeps crowing at all hours and then we’ll have chicken and dumplings. Dear has projects to do with our son and I’m going to walk the dog in the cool of the morning. Hopefully I won’t meet up with any bears or cougars, oh my.

Are you having an interlude, an intermission from the regular?

Fort Langley

I’m sharing more photos from our recent trip to Fort Langley. I’ve shared a couple posts on this area already.

Fort Langley Birthplace of British Columbia.

Fort Langley Community Hall.

This sign says: My name is Wallace Walnut, I’ve lived here a long time, I fear for my life.

The historic train station.

The railway velocipide that originated in England in 1885.

I have a confession to make and that is that we did not actually visit the Fort in Fort Langley. We walked a bit along the river and enjoyed some shops and churches and had an enjoyable meal at a new place in town called Trading Post Brewing.

We enjoyed the servers and the food that we were served. I’ve noticed that I use the word enjoy a lot and I’m not going to apologize for that. I will choose to have joy in the simple everyday things and the extraordinary things in my life.

I would visit Fort Langley again to see the things we missed. It’s a pleasant drive to this historic town and there are nice shops, a great local grocer, eating options and lovely places to walk. I still have some fun signs and fences to share in memes in the future. Time will tell if I will link this post with any memes this week.

Linking up to ABC Wednesday, F is for Fort Langley. Thank you Mrs. Nesbitt and the whole Fabulous ABC team!

Meanwhile at this old house we had a good weekend ending with a lunch gathering at Josh and Laura’s (first born son and DIL) and then a winning soccer game with the Sounders. I’ve enjoyed some Olympics, baking, organizing. If you don’t see something new here in the next few days don’t worry. Lord willing, I’ll share some new things that are happening around this old house soon. The Lord be with you and with your loved ones wherever your rails take you this week and in whatever you are experiencing!

InSPIREd Sunday

St. George’s Anglican Church in Fort Langley, B.C.

History of the church can be read by clicking on this link.

Dear and I spent a few hours in Fort Langley British Columbia on July 19th. We spotted this church and walked over to get a closer look.

There was a prayer meeting going on so I didn’t take photos inside the sanctuary. I did zoom in to get a glimpse of the stained glass window. “In 1908, St. George’s was consecrated and in 1912 the Good Shepherd window above the altar was installed.”

Canada new book launch 145

My Refuge and My Fortress Psalm 91: 1-4 (ESV)

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”

For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
    and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his pinions,
    and under his wings you will find refuge;
    his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.

I’m linking up to InSPIREd Sunday with Beth and Sally.

Cody, Wyoming in Mosaics

We were in Cody, Wyoming the last weekend of June. We stopped at the visitor center first to get our bearings. They were very helpful. Dear bought some boots at Wayne’s Boot Shop. When in the Wild West boots are a great souvenir for kicking around in. If you had any doubts that you were in the wild west there were many signs to confirm it.

Buffalo Bill helped found Cody, Wyoming, in 1895. In 1902, he built an establishment which he called “just the sweetest hotel that ever was” and named it for his youngest daughter, Irma. It was built to appeal to visitors from around the world — as a staging point for sightseers headed for Yellowstone, big game hunters, summers tourists, and businessmen investigating the ranching, mining, and other business opportunities. Buffalo Bill maintained two suites and an office at the hotel for his personal use.

We enjoyed breakfast at the Irma right next to this stone fireplace that Buffalo Bill had built in the hotel.

The fireplace is an assemblage of rock, ores, minerals, and fossils from the Big Horn Basin.

By the turn of the twentieth century, William F. Cody was arguably the most famous American in the world. No one symbolized the West for Americans and Europeans better than Buffalo Bill. Every American president from Ulysses S. Grant to Woodrow Wilson consulted him on matters affecting the American West. He counted among his friends such artists and writers as Frederic Remington and Mark Twain. He was honored by royalty, praised by military leaders, and feted by business tycoons. Cody was America’s ideal man: a courtly, chivalrous, self-made fellow who could shoot a gun and charm a crowd. Yet as Annie Oakley put it, “He was the simplest of men, as comfortable with cowboys as with kings.”

For the first time since her husband’s death a quarter of a century before, Queen Victoria appeared in person at a public performance.

Her attendance at the Wild West show was news everywhere in the English-speaking world, and the fact that she made her appearance in the context of the celebrations that marked the Jubilee Year of her reign only added more weight to the occasion. And what an occasion it was. When the show began and a rider entered the arena carrying the American flag, Queen Victoria stood and bowed. The rest of the audience followed suit, while British soldiers and officers saluted. As Cody described the moment

All present were constrained to feel that here was an outward and visible sign of the extinction of that mutual prejudice, amounting sometimes almost to race hatred, that had severed two nations from the times of Washington and George the Third to the present day. We felt that the hatchet was buried at last and the Wild West had been at the funeral.

HT: Buffalo Bill Center of the West

I’m linking up to Mosaic Monday with it’s new hostess Maggie at Normandy Life.

I’m also linking up to Monday Mural and signs, signs.

We’ve had a nice quiet weekend after all the excitement last weekend with our kids here and Reyna the dog. More excitement during the week with our book launch and dedication in Abbotsford, B.C. It was good to enjoy some Olympics and Netflix binging on Foyle’s War. We had not watched any of this series yet and are enjoying it from the beginning. Hope your weekend was a good one.

Views from Fort Langley, B.C.

An iconic sight in Fort Langley is the Church of the Holy Redeemer situated across the Bedford Channel (Fraser River) on McMillan Island. Most visitors to Fort Langley have seen the picturesque white church sitting eloquently alone across the river on the land of the Kwantlen First Nations.

Looking upstream on the Fraser River.

Holy Redeemer Church was built between 1897 and 1902 by the Kwantlen First Nations under the supervision of the Oblate Fathers from St. Mary’s Mission in Mission, the historic church continues to provide occasional services and is the location of many small marriage ceremonies.

Since the church sits on First Nation Land which is private land we couldn’t get closer to the church. We crossed the Jacob Haldi bridge across the Fraser River and pulled into some soccer field parking to zoom in for shots of the church that weren’t blocked by trees.

Linking up to InSPIREd Sunday hosted by Sally and Beth. Next week I hope to share another church we visited while walking about Fort Langley.

We had a busy week and we are working around this old house this weekend. We cleaned and organized the attic after Dear put more plywood flooring to extend the usable space. We are happy with our progress in the attic. We harvested our pears because the crows were hanging out in the tree and pecking away at them. I’m watching some events from the Olympics in between chores. How’s your weekend going?

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Category Archives: Travel