Tag Archives: Eastern Washington

Before I Retreat…

…here are a few more views from our road trip and overnight news!

I could have screamed “stop” every few minutes as we drove on these country roads in Eastern Washington. I love to see these old barns.

I thought of my friend Judy from Mennonite Girls Can Cook and her beautiful blog “My Front Porch” when we passed this sign.

We had dinner with our son at this Mexican Restaurant in Chewelah and we will return here on future trips to this area.

And now for our breaking overnight news…

Appearances can be deceiving! This is our Kenmore Elite 3 door refrigerator manufactured by LG.

Doesn’t she look like a perfect appliance? Pretty on the outside but we are totally in the dark on the inside!

We had quite a frightening discovery last night before we went to bed. I opened the refrigerator and smelled a very strong odor that smelled like electric wires burning. I called Dear downstairs and we investigated further and realized the lights in the refrigerator were not going off when the doors were closed and had produced an amazing amount of heat that started melting the plastic light compartment. With difficulty Dear disconnected the fixture and removed it totally from the refrigerator. We were so glad that we realized what was going on before we went to bed for the night. It could have easily resulted in a fire. The food items that were close to the light fixture were quite hot to the touch.

I think you can easily see the burn marks on the sockets.

If you look on the inside of this plastic light unit you can see all the melting of the plastic. We are in the process of filing reports with consumer product safety commission and talking with Sears on what our next steps should be. We hear that if Sears doesn’t agree to fix this problem as a product defect it will cost us $500 to fix it. We are not sure we want to invest the $500 for this 6 year old unit. I’ve been out looking at new units. In the meantime we are in the dark and we use a flashlight if we need to. But…my refrigerator woes hold nothing to the other news that we received today.

UPDATE: Bloggy friends are the best! Sam from Eastern Washington emailed me with information and a recall phone # for my refrigerator issue and I called and a new part has been ordered and a technician scheduled to come out and replace the part in our refrigerator. We’ll be asking him some burning questions when he gets here! Thanks Sam from Eastern Washington!!

For those of you that are still reading, life has been tough this week for my loved ones and in turn for me . I realized tonight as I made yet another “comfort meal” how hard things in the body of Christ affect all of us. There is joy in the midst of the sorrow but we suffer none the less with those who are grieving. A young man died unexpectedly and my brother’s church community is coming together to hold each other in their grief. My brother will probably perform the service for this dear friend of his sons.  We know he is with Jesus but the earthly shock still needs to be absorbed. A little baby girl in the womb is struggling to stay alive and we pray for a miracle that she will survive. Another dear one is losing all her hair after her 2nd chemo treatment and staying brave and trusting in her Lord. So many things to pray about. I said today that our prayer lists are heavy but God is good and I am so grateful that Jesus is our advocate at the right hand of God and the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words…

The Mighty Columbia River ~

Starting as a little stream in the Canadian Rockies the Columbia river flows south entering the United States in N.E. Washington close to where our son Dan now lives and works. Its the largest river in the U.S.A. that flows into the Pacific.  It travels 1200 miles curving and finally emptying into the Pacific ocean.

On our way home form eastern Washington we stopped at a scenic exit off I-90 to get a good look at a small part of the Columbia.

After our brief stop at the very hot scenic lookout we continued West across Vantage Bridge over the Columbia river headed for the Cascade Mountain range. The Cascades divide the state of Washington. The east and the west of Washington state are very different in topography and in weather extremes. They are also quite different in political views. Let’s just say it’s the western part of our state and the larger population there that makes us a Blue state instead of a Red state.

Are you watching the Olympics? Tuesday is a soccer watching day for me and I’m happy to have found a channel dedicated to soccer from the Olympics. The U.S. women play again today. Today is the last day of July…

O Beautiful…

for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain;

For purple mountains majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood,

From sea to shining sea.

We did not see any seas but the mighty Columbia River that begins in the Canadian Rockies and flows through the state of Washington empties into the Pacific Ocean between Oregon and Washington…

These are some of the views we saw on our road trip to Eastern Washington to visit our son, Dan. We are home now and I wanted to post something from our trip. Our company survived nicely without us. Don’t know what the plans are for today except for what we are having for dinner. Summer has arrived on this side of the mountains, too, so our guests are finally warming up. Hope all is well with you and yours today…

ht: Words to O Beautiful for Spacious Skies: Katharine L. Bates, 1904.

Republic Cemetery

I enjoy older cemeteries where there are still grave markers/monuments that are above ground. We found this cemetery on our travels to Eastern Washington in the city of Republic.

Republic, Washington is a city with an early 1900s look and a heritage based in the mining and logging industries. Originally named Eureka Gulch, Republic had a population of 954 in 2000. Noted for its fossils, natural beauty and recreational possibilities, it is nestled in a valley between Wauconda and Sherman Passes at the intersection of Washington State Routes 20 and 21 in the north central part of the state.

In 1898 a woman on horse back rode the hills around Republic, Washington looking for a suitable burial place for a man who’d recently died. At the time, Republic was a rough and tumble gold rush town filled to the brim with miners, and as yet hadn’t established a cemetery. That all changed when a man named Patrick Callahan died in Republic’s first mining-related accident.

 

The woman was Mrs. John Stack, and she selected a grassy hillside to the north of town for Callahan’s grave site In 1915, the Republic Cemetery Association was formed, and the location on Klondike Road became the town’s official cemetery. The Republic Cemetery Association’s records now report 1500 burial sites, with 900 more available.

 

Unfortunately a number of early wooden grave markers were lost when well-intentioned citizens attempted to use a controlled burn to remove weeds that had grown up around the edges of the cemetery. The fire burned out of control. Fred Bremnar of the Republic Cemetery Association described it as “…a good deed, gone bad.” Sadly, there are no written records of those grave sites.

The panoramic view of the San Poil River and Curlew Lake valleys and the Kettle Range beyond can only be described as mesmerizing.

 

 

 

 

Dear went back to work this week and I’m trying to get things organized around here before we fly off to a wedding in California this weekend. Today I’m going to mow the weeds! If I didn’t have weeds I wouldn’t have to mow since my grass isn’t growing. We are having another sunny warmer spell here but it still feels like Fall in the air. Blessings!

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

It’s Saturday…

What are you doing?

 

I walked out to the garage this morning and I got a very distinct feel of fall in the air. Yikes is summer coming to a close so soon? I think I’ve decided that I am a lot fonder of the beginning of a season then the end of a season…

Since Dear has been on vacation this week I really haven’t made any plans. I just wait to see what he’s up to. We had an overnight at the beginning of his vacation to Eastern Washington but for the rest of the time we’ve just been hanging around the homestead. We spotted these animals in the East. I’m glad this guy was of the carved variety…

Have a wonderful day wherever you are and whatever you are doing!

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

FFF ~ From the East…

Susanne has flown the coop but she didn’t leave the nest without getting Friday’s Fave Five ready for all of us. Dear is on vacation this week so we headed to Eastern Washington for an overnight on Monday. Our goal was to check out the area our middle son will be moving to later this year. We had a traffic free journey driving through many small towns. Here are five favorite shots from our trip.

 

Coming East on Highway 20 from Republic to Colville. I love seeing the layers of mountains.

 

Looking back at Colville sitting next to the Colville National Forest.

 

Roosevelt Lake area near Rice, Wa. fed by the Columbia River.

 

One of the many one store towns we drove through.

 

We crossed rivers, drove by lakes and saw at least 4 dams on this trip. It was really hot so just seeing the water was a nice relief to the heat. I’d like to do the trip again when it’s cooler and when getting out of the car to walk around and take photos would be more pleasant. Here’s a post with some of the churches we saw.

We’ve had a nice cool down here in Western Washington with some rain expected on Sunday. How are things in your neck of the woods?

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Wood or Stone…

…there were a lot of great old churches in Eastern Washington.

Tonasket, Washington

 

Republic, Washington

 

Colville, Washington

 

In The Middle of Nowhere, Washington

I’m happy to see that the symbol of the Cross of Christ can still be displayed on our houses of worship!

Galatians 6:14 ~ But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Jude 1:20-21 (The Message)

But you, dear friends, carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying right at the center of God’s love, keeping your arms open and outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master, Jesus Christ. This is the unending life, the real life!

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Eastern Washington Yard Art!

Dear and I took an overnight trip to Eastern Washington and I enjoyed the very different terrain. Another bonus driving around little sleepy towns was the YARD ART! We found enough to last for a few weeks. To see more Yard Art please visit Mary at Work of the Poet.

For the first Best of the East I offer you the washing machine from Tonasket, Washington!

 

So what do you think?

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.