Photos from Montana

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Rylee and friends

Mushroom Scouting in Montana

Shrooms

Let the weeding begin....

I haven't had much time to blog as I am taking every spare minute that the weather is decent to attack the weeds in my flower beds.  Four down, three to go plus the vegetable garden.  That's between moving all the plants in and out of the house every time there is a freeze warning, which seems to be every other night.  We got lucky as Spokane and CDA had record lows a couple of days ago.  We ended up with a cloud cover which kept us from freezing.  

I am looking forward to the weekend, but I hear we are in for several days of rain now.  The garden will eventually come together one way or another.

Time for rest.

Summer or Winter Storm?

A storm came through last night about 10:00 p.m. and of course, two minutes into it, a tree fell across the power line in the driveway!  Next  came the search for flashlights, candles, phone book, calls to Avista..... Jon and Dylan got in the car to see what the damage was and only made it to the end of our circle driveway where a very large pine tree had fallen over the lines.  It certainly made for an exciting end to the day.

The Avista guys showed up around 4:00 a.m. and by 5:00 a.m. had the tree sawed up and the power back on!  I love electricity.  It means hot coffee, hot water, computers, and other good stuff.

We are now back to winter in North Idaho.  Bummer.

A 4.0 Weekend!

 Goodnight moon

I had such a great weekend!  The Hamilton Grandkids!  I am getting my Grandma fix with Collin and Rylee here on Mother's Day and now Dylan and Ben!  I just can't get enough of them.  We read lots of stories and had lots of Grandma hugs and kisses.  Grandpa and I got to take care of Ben all day on Saturday while David and Julie drove to Moscow to move Dylan here from college.  The old people and Ben got along really well for about 8 hours.  Then Ben decided he had enough of Grandma and Grandpa and would really like to see his mom or dad.  We were really relieved when mom and dad showed up!

Dylan will be spending the summer with us while he is working for the Forest Service Fire Crew.  It is going to be an action-packed summer!

Yesterday Dylan got his grade report and he got a 4.0.  I am so proud of him!  He worked hard and met his goal!  Soon he will be off on a new adventure working for the Forest Service.  A wonderful opportunity for a young man.  At the moment he is working for Grandpa helping with the firewood and has two other job offers from neighbors.  He is going to be busy until his new job starts.

It looks to be a nice day so I am heading out to the garden. I have some weeds........

Lost in the 60's

We finally have some nice weather here.  So much to do.  Jon and I got the greenhouse out from under the arbor and then made many trips from the deck carrying all the tomato plants.  Then it was time to move all the peppers and zinnias from the basement to the deck to harden off.  Mow the lawn, rake the grass, till the beds, put up the rain gutters, weed, mulch, plant, transplant, whew!  To heck with it all, the kids will be moving Dylan from college for the summer and I am looking forward to a weekend with them!  Plus we have band practice on Sunday afternoon.  What a great weekend coming up.  I heard it was Lost in the 50's weekend so we will probably get to see some nice cars on their way to Sandpoint.  They are going to have great weather for their car parade and street dance.  Enjoy!

It's the water, and a lot more!

I am still working on my photos from our trip.  On our way to the coast we stopped in Olympia to eat lunch at a place adjacent to the old Olympia Brewing Co.  It sits right on the Deschutes River and it's a very beautiful spot.  After a lunch of pan-fried oysters we took a walk around the river.

Whale Watching

On Wednesday the weather was much better, the ocean had calmed quite a lot and the guys got some rest.  We decided to check out whale watching and found a charter to take us out.  It was really difficult to get a photo, but I did manage one.  This was a very pleasant trip.

This guy gave us a welcome back to the harbor!

I also caught a quick video, but missed him coming out of the water.  Dang! 

It looks so calm and peaceful!

Our trip to the coast was met with gale force winds on the ocean and 16' swells.  Jon and Neil and Conrad went halibut fishing with John Underwood on the Sea Angel.  They needed an angel to protect them and keep them afloat!  There were "crossing the bar" warnings for the harbor.  They did catch halibut and it was quite an adventure. 

They are all happy to be back on shore!

John and Conrad

We stayed at the Chateau Westport in Westport, Washington.  The rooms were very nice and we had a nice view of the ocean.  Westport is small and not as developed as the Ocean Shores side of Grays Harbor.  We ate at the One-Eyed Crab at the marina and the seafood was very good.  The ferry no longer runs from Westport to Ocean Shores so you have to drive all the way around the harbor, which takes an hour.  The ferry would have made it a lot more fun and convenient.  We still had lots of fun and the Oceans Charter people were very nice(whale watching charter).  We may go back and try the King Salmon fishing next year.