Let me introduce you

Meet Calvin, my Kabocha Squash.  I sometimes call him the green monster. He has taken over part of our lawn and is moving in all directions towards the veggie garden.  He is invading the tomatoes and green beans. 

It is difficult to get a photo of Calvin because he's growing every direction.  I need a drone shot from above.   It will be interesting to see just how much more of my yard he will overtake before the first frost.

The garden is coming on strong now.  Lots of green beans, zucchini, peppers, beets and carrots.  Sweet Corn soon.

I have ambitious plans to make pepper jelly, salsa and pickled beets.  I started on the dill pickles with two quarts put up so far.   There are also 14 pints of green beans in the root cellar.   There's something very satisfying about stocking the cellar with fruit and veggies for the winter.

Retired Mountain Man's dahlias are in full bloom except for a couple of plants that were chewed on by pocket gophers early on.  It set them back a bit.

Retired Mountain Man finally made it on the surgery schedule to get his rotator cuff tear repaired.  The day before his surgery I unboxed a Polar Care Ice Machine that daughter-in-law Julie used when she had her shoulder surgery.  She said it had helped with her recovery a lot.

I  was watching a video to figure out how to use it when I realized that there was no AC adapter in the box.  That was the beginning of an intense search for adapters in both the Burkhart household in Missoula and ours.  We were looking for one that powered 6v. and 1 amp.  I had no idea just how many of these things I had in my house.  Multiple trips up and down the stairs ensued.  None of them had the right output.  The same was happening in Missoula.  

Due to the magic of cell phones and texting we finally figured out what we needed.  Julie found the adapter, packaged it up and rushed to Fed Ex to ship it overnight.  Thank you Julie!                                                         

We are using the ice machine and Retired Mountain Man is on the mend.  We have had a couple of mis-steps along the way, but everything is improving now.  Thanks to Dr. Cipriano and many nurses and staff at Bonner General.  Everything is twice as complicated as it used to be, including all the ins and outs of having surgery, but the care given to patients is exceptional.

In the meantime, the garden is growing and RMM's dahlias are absolutely gorgeous.   These last days of summer have been really beautiful.  

Bear on the mountain

 Today I'm sharing another video from Retired Mountain Man's game camera.  It's a nice one.

Lots of turkeys this year. 

It's a busy time in the garden now with green beans, zucchini and beets to harvest.  Add to that the blueberries are still going and the plums are ripe.   Our high temperature today is supposed to be 101.   I don't think we have ever recorded 100 degrees here, but this could be a first since the forecast is for 101 tomorrow and 99 the next day.  

We'll see.  

I stopped by at the Peach Man last Thursday and bought some peaches and sweet corn.  Our first corn of the summer since ours is not quite ready yet.   It was time for another peach pie, which I baked today.  

Pie and ice cream for dessert.  

Happy Sunday

The wildlife

Today I am posting some short videos from Retired Mountain Man's game camera.  He hasn't checked his cameras for several months so there are a lot of videos.  Elk with their calves, deer, lots of bears, coyotes, turkeys and a flying squirrel.  The two below are a couple of interesting ones.  The first one is a video of a bear deciding that he really didn't like the camera at all.   He takes a swipe at it and moves the camera.  You can hear him whack it as he moves by.

 

    The second one is of a mama who is very cautious and decides she doesn't want her fawn to walk by the camera.   Due to the fact that the bear altered the camera's position, the fawn only shows up a bit on the video, but it's still fun to watch.  Enjoy. (You can watch the video fullscreen by clicking on the button on the lower right)

 

Have A Little Faith In Me

 Last evening my friend Ellie Lizotte and I took a drive into Sandpoint to go listen to Bruce Bishop and Drew Browne play music at Trinity.   We needed a music fix.  

These days a simple trip like that requires planning.  Should we go together in the same car?  Would it be safe?  We decided that we could if we both wore our masks and drove with the windows down so that we had some air moving in the car.  

Our plan was to take our lawn chairs and sit on the lawn next to deck outside of the restaurant.  It was a beautiful evening with our cooler temperatures.  We enjoyed every minute of the music and we were the only groupies there. 

 During the band breaks we chatted with Drew and Bruce and Drew's wife, Merritt joined us during the last set.  It almost seemed like "normal", but of course, nothing is normal these days.   All I can say is that the conversation with friends and the laughter was good for the soul and you can add to that, the music. 

Which brings to mind thoughts of what used to be normal.  I am posting more photos of people and events today.

The Festival at Sandpoint -Allison Krauss Concert

The music last night - We listened to Suzie Blue, Route 66, Misty, Have a Little Faith in Me, What A Wonderful World and Love's Got a Second Man, to name a few.  Thanks fellas! 

The band at Trinity - Normal Days

I'm hoping you're having a normal weekend, or at least as close as possible to one.

I'm off to the garden this morning to see what veggies need to be harvested.  It's green bean time and add to that zucchini, lettuce and some Sungold tomatoes.   Most exciting - some of my large tomatoes are almost ripe.  

Missing people

August -  Oyster Party month, birthday and anniversary month.  There is always a lot to celebrate this time of the year.  For more than twenty-five years we hosted an event that became known as the Oyster Party.  It began as a family reunion and the first time we had fresh oysters on the BBQ was when Jon's parents brought bags of fresh oysters from the Washington coast.  

The date seemed to always be around the time of either Jon's mom's birthday, August 7th, or Jon or his sister Linda's birthdays, August 18 and 19th.   Flying Fish came into being and we ordered the oysters from them every year.  Twenty dozen oysters.  Everyone brought side dishes and it was a marathon party event that began around 2:00 in the afternoon and ended with music until midnight.

These days I think about all of those fun times as Jon and I do our best to stay home and social distance.  We are missing all the people in our lives.  I have decided to post some photos in my next few blogs of all of the people we are thinking of and missing.  I hope they bring some happy memories to you as they did for me.  

I have hundreds of photos, so bear with me. 

 

The Reineke side of the family

Oyster party photo of the kidlets.  A photo we took every year.

4th of July - Cougar Creek Band and the second line

Singing one of the songs at midnight.

Summer - the gig and the diners at Trinity

Oyster party -  Tyler Long, JP and David

Adam Long and George Rolofson

Lora Long and Oliver

We always had games for the kids.  Daughter-in-law Julie was great at inventing new games each year.  The kids loved it.

Julie, giving the game instructions.

Ellie and Rylee - pick up a penny with your toes.

Ellie and Lyndsie Kiebert, Jens Heisel.

Our last Burkhart family reunion in Missoula.

New Year's Eve:

The song they are all singing is either, "If I Were A Rich Man", or "The House of the Rising Sun".   I think they were having fun.
 More tomorrow...

If We Only Had A Brain

  I hope you are enjoying your Sunday.  It's going to be another hot one.  I am sharing a poem written by one of my friends on Facebook.   Gary has given me permission to post it here.   

Gary Crooks:

“If We Only Had a Brain”

We could while away the hours,

drinking whiskey sours

in a summer of restrain.

Masks for a pittance

as we kept our social distance

If we only had a brain.

If our thumbs we didn’t twiddle,

while thinking individdle

or other thoughts insane.

Champagne we’d be drinkin

as the toll continued shrinkin.

If we only had brain.

If the science we weren’t dumpin,

replaced with all that Trumpin.

So sorry Herman Cain.

We could open all the schools

and reteach The Golden Rule.

If we only had a brain.