A couple of weeks ago we drove to Missoula for a mini family reunion and to attend Jon's 60th class reunion. Jon's sister Linda and her husband, Malcom, flew in from Oklahoma to visit us for a few days and also to attend the reunion since Malcom and Jon were in the same high school class.
We spent a lot of time partying, visiting and eating great food out on David and Julie's deck. The weather was perfect. It wasn't as hot as it normally is in July in Montana.
Julie baked Jon, Malcom and Linda a birthday cake. They all celebrate birthdays in August. 232 is the total of their ages... Old, old, but very young at heart.
David and his Auntie Linda in one of their "I'll get you for that" spats, after he let drops of ice water land on top of her head.
My sister Kathy and her husband Ralph along with my grand niece Bailee. Grandson Dylan, Kelsey and little Jason were also there.
James Paul and family.
Kelsey and Dylan
Great grandson Jason. We had to grab him to stop him long enough to get a photo. We never did catch grandson Ben, but we'll get him next time.
Rylee hamming it up for us.
Lady trying to make friends with Jason. "Do you want to play ball? Please? Please? I'll chase it for you," says Lady.
Linda brought scrapbooks and photos that Grandma Lois had stored in boxes for years. She never threw anything away as you will see from my next post.
Here are a couple of things in the scrapbook. Lucky for us that she didn't throw anything out. What treasures.
This is a telegram sent from Dillon, Montana from Jon and Linda's dad. Jim to his mother, Eula. His parents met while he was recovering from his WWII injuries in a hospital in Utah. They were driving to his home in Butte and stopped to get married in Dillon.
This is a photo of a letter written on birch bark by Jon's Grandpa Coulthard, Nov. 27, 1936 from Hope, Idaho to his parents in Nebraska. There are three pages of the letter, but the 2nd and 3rd pages are very fragile and I didn't even try to unfold them. Most of the first page is very legible though. Beautiful penmanship.
Jon and I have looked at only a small amount of the photos and newspaper clippings Linda left with us. It will be an ongoing project, well into the winter months. I hope to scan everything so it can be share with everyone.
The gardens are spectacular this year.
Jon's dahlias are blooming but I haven't had time to take any photos... Tomorrow. Promises. Promises.
Another Eagles band member has left us. We loved to sing this song at our get-togethers. We sang it with feeling, gusto, and mostly off-key, but we loved every minute of it.
Take It To The Limit - my recommendation for how to live every day.
It's been quite the week here on the mountain, but I'll get to that later.
The sky is bright blue.
The sun is shining.
In the garden, the growth is almost unbelievable. My sweet corn is 5 feet high on the 4th of July! I kid you not!
We are on a full-bore watering schedule every day. So, it's the perfect 4th of July day here in Hope.
Our hummingbird situation is almost out of control though. We've always had lots of hummingbirds here and had to hang up three feeders for several years. Apparently, the babies that are born here remember how to return.
Once again, we have three feeders hanging up, except Jon has had to refill every one of them every day.
That's how many hummingbirds there are.
This evening we will try to get a video of the birds. Since all of our feeders are on the north side of our house, the only time the light is right for photos or video is when the sun is setting. This morning Jon saw a baby hummingbird that was trapped in a crab spider's web. He came in the house holding him cupped in his hand and he wasn't moving but he said he could feel his heart beating. The heartbeat was so fast that it felt like a rapid vibration.
It looked like all of the spider web was off of him, but we really couldn't tell so we put him in a small box on the kitchen table. There was no movement.
Poor little guy...
As I said earlier, there's been a lot going.
I've been out in my garden only once during the past week since I came down with a fever. After several trips to immediate care, I found out I have pneumonia. Who has pneumonia on the the 4th of July? Who gets pneumonia in the middle of the summer? Apparently, me.
I'm taking my meds and on to recovery.
Yes, the turtle is still hanging on.
My begonia is showing off for the 4th.
We have our first forest fire of the season located near Bee Top Mountain on the west side of Lightning Creek. The helicopters with buckets are flying right over us every day. Fortunately, the smoke is blowing a different direction.
Back to the baby hummingbird: After about twenty minutes we heard some fluttering sounds coming from the box on the table. We took the box outside and took the lid off. The baby hummingbird shot straight up out of the box into the sky, just like a rocket. I think that was our "fireworks" for today.
Happy 4th of July!
In honor of the Cougar Creek Band, "The Second Line". I'm sure they were marching in the parade this morning.
