New Family History (at least to me)

 

Our grandson Collin, who is one of the librarians at Carroll College in Helena, went to the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Library near Medora N.D.  He was interviewed by the North Dakota Monitor newspaper and his comments appear about a third of the way in the article.

https://northdakotamonitor.com/2026/07/04/theodore-roosevelt-library-opening-recalls-past-calls-for-civic-engagement/ 

After I posted a link to the article, Jon's cousins, Kay Bush and Mary Burkgart Harris, who grew up in the Silver Valley commented about their great-grandfather, who it turns out was one of Roosevelt's Rough Riders.   His name was Fred Herrig and he came to America from Alsace Lorraine.  Along with being one of the Rough Riders, he also worked at Roosevelt's ranch in North Dakota.  

Later, in 1904, he was appointed by Gifford Pinchot (as requested by Roosevelt) to be the first Forest Service Ranger in Montana.  His posting was at the Ant Flat Ranger Station in the Kootenai National Forest.  Jon's Aunt Naomi was born there. 

The Ant Flat Ranger Station is now a historic site.  

 https://historicmt.org/items/show/839 

Theodore Roosevelt presented a rifle to Fred, which is now displayed in the Roosevelt Museum in Medora. 

The ranger station is about 2 miles south of Fortine, Mt. 

This is all so interesting to me.  I would love to take a road trip to visit both the ranger station and the library.  It would require two trips as Fortine is in the very northwest corner of Montana.   It's on my bucket list.

The logging job.

 We lost a lot of trees during the March windstorm and for several months Jon has been cleaning up his woods.  Our friend Bill did a lot of the sawing as it was a huge entanglement.  We hired Wyatt to skid the logs and then Travis had Russell come up the shale pit road to pile brush and deal with all of the stumps.

As you can see, some of the stumps are huge!

We shipped two loads of logs and while it was sad to see them go Jon says they will be part of someone's new house someday.  

We ended up shipping 7000 board feet.

Scott Peaster was our log truck hauler.

Once the logs were skidded, there was a LOT of cleanup to do.  Brush to pile and stumps to clean up.  Travis and Russell helped us out with that project.

Russell dusting off the stumps.  He is quite talented on his machine.

This is Russell, who is an artist with a skidder.  

Lastly, we hired Levi Servis to use the skid-steer to fill and smooth out the stump holes and also the road.   He did a great job!  There's still the final cleanup to be done because Jon is very particular about what his woods look like.  Let's just say that it's park like.

The wind events we keep experiencing seem to get worse every year.  Climate change is upon us. 

Rylee Marie Burkhart...

Jon and I went to Kalispell last weekend for granddaughter Rylee's graduation from Flathead Valley Community College.  We celebrated by going out to dinner and we got to meet some of Rylee's friends.  The graduation ceremony was filled with the normal multiple speeches about accomplishments and the future.

I always love hearing Pomp and Circumstance played as the graduates march for the processional and recessional. 

I had to look this up:

Pomp and Circumstance was written by Sir Edward Elgar in 1901.  In 1905 Yale University awarded Elgar an honorary Doctorate of Music degree and the song was played as the recessional.  It quickly became the standard music for both high school and university graduations.  (I couldn't resist throwing in a little music history)

She is easy to spot in a crowd with her beautiful long red hair!

This was a special moment since her theater professor was the one who read her name off to receive her diploma.  She loved that and so did he. 

A photo with the proud parents!

This fall she will be transferring to the University of Montana.  

Lady enjoyed the trip as well and was spoiled with new toys from Rylee.  She and Rylee's cat, Mona, had a few encounters.  Mona managed to defend herself and we kept the two apart as much as possible. 

We all had a great time and we're so happy for Rylee.  Graduations and weddings - happy times.

Because I said so.

 When I was growing up I think I probably heard that phrase a thousand times.  Then it was my turn to be a mom and "because I said so" was a go-to phrase.  My mom didn't spend a lot of time explaining why something needed to be done and we had better do it.  Or else.

Today is the day we celebrate moms and I miss mine.  She was a great lady and managed to raise five of us.  It wasn't easy.   

Happy Mother's Day!  

We have a Robin's nest on our front porch.  We're not sure why the mama Robin chose this spot since there's a usually a lot of activity on the front porch.  We have tried to limit going in and out the front door so we don't disturb the babies, etc. 

We're having a very unusual spring this year.  Our temperatures are more like the ones we usually have in late June or July.  The quince bushes are in full bloom, but other flowering bushes and perennials seem like they're on a normal schedule.  My day lilies are up but not as high as they usually are this time of the year.  

I won't complain about this since my back is not quite ready to do the cleanup around my perennial beds this year.  All that bending over is going to have to wait a few more weeks.

 I did figure out that I could get on my lawn mower by using a piece of a 4x4 as a step-stool.  The first lawn mowing of 2026 has happened.

The rhododendron that we planted in a pot last summer has survived the winter.  Now we're trying to decide where to plant it.

Nieman's Floral delivered Mother's Day flowers.  They're lovely and the fragrance is wonderful.  I love to pull the roses out of the bouquet just before they might wilt.  I hang them up to dry so that someday I can use them in a dried wreath. 

Jon found these morels while raking around our cedar tree.  We've never seen mushrooms there before.   We've hunted wild mushrooms for many many years so we shouldn't be surprised that they pop up in unusual places.  

A couple of days later as I was mowing the lawn I saw a few more mushrooms around the cedar tree.  When I finished mowing I went looking for more and sure enough, there they were! 

They weren't quite as fresh as Jon's, but they were still fresh enough to fry and eat.  They were delicious!

I haven't made my trip to the Flower Farm yet, but plan to do that next week.   Here's a few photos from years past. 

 

Miss Lady went to the groomers yesterday and she has her spring "do" now.  

Grandson Ben has a job at the new Lego store in Missoula, Bricks and Minifigs.  Their grand opening will be at the end of May.   It is the perfect job for Ben since he is a Lego expert.

Great-Grandson Jason planting seeds for their garden...

...and taking a break in his new tent swing.

To all the moms out there, enjoy your day!  I'm also thinking of our moms and aunts who have passed.  Great memories of beautiful ladies.   They all shared their wisdom and I grew up along with my dozens of cousins, learning from them. 

The NYT had an interesting article today about momisms.  I will share a few of the ones I remember from our family.

Because I said so.

Don't borrow a jack.

Go outside and play.

As we got older...

Old age ain't for sissies.  

 

The Escape Artist

 I'm thinking of my sister Kathy today who is in St. Pat's Hospital in Missoula recovering from open heart surgery.  She is doing well and hopefully will be going home in a few days. 

I just had to dig up some of my photos of her from her younger days.  She doesn't look too happy in this one, but I'm guessing that it's her birthday and my mom has baked her an angel food cake from scratch.  My mom was really good at that. 

Here she is with her grandson Mitchell in Helmville, Montana.

She's an avid Cornhusker fan and also a Montana Grizzly fan.

Here we are, the trio of trouble.  Yours truly along with my brother Don and Kathy.  I remember my mom telling me that when she would put the three of us to bed at night when Kathy was a baby, she would practically stand on her head to escape from her crib.   I think she's been that way her entire life and it's a good thing.  

Get well soon to my sis!

Tis the season. Is it Christmas or Easter? Maybe both?

 Yes, this is the Christmas tree that was on our front porch.  We finally got around to taking it down and putting everything away.  Things have been pretty delayed around here since I started having major pain issues with my lower back last fall.   After PT, several x-rays, steroid shots and many doctor visits, it was decided that my bone spurs that were pressing on the nerves in my lower back had to be repaired with surgery.   

My surgery was on Feb.17th, which was Fat Tuesday so no chicken gumbo for me. The surgery was at Northwest Specialty Hospital done by Dr. Yakel, assisted by Dr. Pennings and several others.  

It was preceded by many trips to Post Falls and Coeur d' Alene, for pre-op tests, but I am happy to say that the surgery went well and the care was excellent.  

My post-op a recovery involved no bending or twisting from my waist for six weeks and of course, no lifting of anything that weighed more than 5 lbs.  Just let me say that no bending and twisting was a difficult restriction, but I followed it to the Tee because that was how my fusion of the two vertebrae in my lower spine was going to heal so that I could move again.

At my six week doctor visit last Friday, I was cleared to drive!  Hallelujah!  Freedom!   My restrictions were also lifted, but I need PT to gain back the strength that I lost over the past 5 months.  I'm on it!

Jon has been an excellent nurse and has been going non-stop during my recovery.  That includes not only taking care of me around the clock, but also picking up doing everything else.  Cooking, cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, and on and on.  He's a much better nurse than I am and the main reason that my healing went so well.  

Life went on around us and unfortunately during our last horrific windstorm, we lost at least 25 trees.  They're big trees and it is very sad to see all of them on the ground.  Over the past month, Jon and our friend Bill have been working on getting them cut up so that Travis can do his thing and get them ready to ship. 

While Jon and I were staying home the rest of the family was not.  Son JP traveled to Santa Rosa for a week for meetings at his company's headquarters in Petaluma.  On the day he was scheduled to fly home, we had the freak snowstorm which included 3 inches of snow in Seattle, so his flight was canceled.  He and his colleagues decided to book a direct flight out of San Francisco, so they rented a car and drove there.  JP got to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge.  

He didn't take a photo of the bridge, but kept sending us photos of all the good food he was eating.  This one was Lobster Mac n' Cheese.  A major comfort food.

Grandson Dylan traveled to Denver for a conference and went to Garden of the Gods. 

The weeks before Easter son David traveled to Lisbon, then Washington D.C. and then spent the weekend in New York City.  He took a tour of the Statue of Liberty.

This is the old torch that had to be replaced due to corrosion.  

We were all texting as he took the tour and that brought about a conversation about our ancestors and where they emigrated from.  The photo below is of my great-grandmother, Sophia, (on the left), who was born on the ship while they sailed from Switzerland.  I think the ship left from a port in Germany.  My grandmother Ella, ( on the right), came over from England when she was 12, with her older sister.  They came into the U.S. via Canada.  

I am not certain that any of our ancestors came through Ellis Island, but maybe there were some on Jon's side of the family.

My Great-Grandpa, Julius and Sophia.  

I do not have many photos from my dad's side of the family or know much of their history.   

This photo is when my dad had recently returned from Grand Island, NE.  He contracted polio when I was only a few months old.  He spent almost a year in Grand Island in an iron lung machine.   I am around a year old.  

This is my great-grandma Webb, on my dad's side of the family.  I do not know where she was from.  

I do know that both the Reinekes' and the Phillips' came over from Germany, but that's about it.  It all makes me sad thinking about what we're doing or not doing about immigration in our country today.  We have kicked the can down the road for so long that we are now in a huge mess tearing our country apart and it's all being handled very poorly right now.  It is a tragedy in how we  are treating immigrants in our country. 

That said, it is time to move on and look for the hope of having new people in government after elections next fall.  There is always room for change and we need it. 

It's also time to enjoy our spring and think of flowers and gardens.  I  do not plan to grow much this year, but I did get out my Red Robin tomato seeds and my dill seeds.  There will be a few plants on the deck.  

Some photos from April - 2024 and 2025. 

We had our hummingbird feeder out in April of last year and I convinced Jon that he should get his out this year.  Yes, it's hanging out there, just waiting for that first little bird to make it all the way back here.  

It's not really green here yet, but the snow-on-the-mountain is sprouting along with a few daffodils and crocus.  

The Flower Farm is open, but I'm not quite ready for that so here's my photos from last year.

A fuchsia for the hummingbirds.  An absolute requirement every year.

Guess what?  There will be music on Thursday...