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.

The Resurrection and the Life ~ John Newton

The Resurrection And The Life

I Am, saith Christ our glorious head,
(May we attention give)
The resurrection of the dead,
The life of all that live.

By faith in me, the soul receives
New life, though dead before;
And he that in my name believes,
Shall live, to die no more.

The sinner, sleeping in his grave,
Shall at my voice awake;
And when I once begin to save,
My work I ne’er forsake.

Fulfill thy promise, gracious Lord,
On us assembled here,
Put forth thy Spirit with the word,
And cause the dead to hear.

Preserve the pow’r of faith alive,
In those who love thy name;
For sin and Satan daily strive
To quench the sacred flame.

Thy pow’r and mercy first prevailed
From death to set us free;
And often since our life had failed,
If not renewed by thee.

To thee we look, to thee we bow;
To thee, for help, we call;
Our life and resurrection thou,
Our hope, our joy, our all.

John Newton

ht: Olney Hymns

John 11:25-26 (ESV)²⁵Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, ²⁶and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

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?

Abundant Garden…

Our kids have a nice large garden and we’ve been enjoying some of it’s bounty while we are staying with them.

Last night we had potatoes, butternut squash and green beans from their garden for sides with our barbecued pork chops. Delicious.

Some of the squash is escaping the confines of the garden.

Dear and Dan are hard at work today getting ready to install a new pump and build out a new pump house for the well. This old pump house you see in the photo below is now demolished. The new pump and pump house will be twice the size.

I went into town to the Farmer’s Market and did some shopping at a couple other stores. I’ll share more on that another time.

Hope you all have a good weekend.

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?

Wednesday Hodgepodge

I’m joining Wednesday Hodgepodge again this week with Joyce From This Side of the Pond.

1. I read here four creative activities to try this month. They were-calligraphy, make your own cookbook, dance or learn a new type of dance, and letter writing. Which activity on the list appeals to you most? Will you add it to your August?

I’ve already had my hand in a few cookbooks and since we are having a hotter than usual August the only thing that sounds appealing in this list is letter writing.

2. Bertrand Russell is quoted as saying, ‘To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.‘ Agree or disagree? Explain.

Disagree. Having or not having things does not determine my happiness. I think happiness is overrated. Gratitude and contentment are things I’d rather focus on.

3. August 17th is National Thriftshop Day…are you a ‘thrifter’? If so, tell us about one of your best or favorite finds.

I did a lot of thrifting in the past but not as much these days. I’ve found many great treasures over the years. Here are some stand out favorites from years past.

Lomonosov China for $29.95

Oscar de la Renta for $19.97. This dress has ostrich feathers on the trim. We didn’t find a perfect match on their site but the dresses that were similar were in the $3900 dollar range. The dress fit Katie perfectly and she wore it out to her celebration dinner when she completed her studies at the University of Washington.

4. On a scale of 1-10 (with 1= almost none and 10=loads) how would you rate your sense of wanderlust? What kicks your wanderlust into high gear?

I think I’m going to have to go with a 10 on this one. Any thoughts of seeing something new gets my senses into high gear. I love to travel.

5. Has life felt more like a marathon or sprint so far this month? How so?

More of a sprint with several small projects started and finished and many small events that have nothing to do with each other.

6. What do you need to get a jump on before fall officially arrives?

I’d like to do some de-fluffing (dropping some pounds).

7. What’s the last thing you did with friends or family where you lost track of time?

Enjoying a meal and conversation together.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

We are going to be on the road today and I’ll not be able to come around and see posts till later in the evening.

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!

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage