Summer and Fall Activities

     Time has flown. Summer has come and gone and we just had our first snow after a very hot and dry summer. Last month Leo went for two days, along with Dave and Gene to help Clint Stumbo install a solar power system on he and Beverly's new motor home in Chubbuck. Clint was the manager who hired Leo at AMI Semiconductor back in 1980 and has been a good friend since then. It must have been what you call the boy’s days to play. I guess you can say that Clint and Bev had three great minds working on the project. If there are any mistakes they'll have to have all three to blame. But it went well and they got the job done. Clint and Bev will have a good system as they travel.
     I did quite a bit of canning. I canned apples from Bonnie and Kirk’s orchard below us. This is the original homestead orchard, now about 90 years old. Then I got some pears from Dave and Laurene that I canned. I also made some pear butter that tasted yummy.
     Matt and Leslie came the weekend of Dillan’s birthday on September 30th. Lance and Abri were also here with Taylor. Dillan's wish was that Grandpa would take him on a long dune buggy ride. Dad made memories for all the boys as they went about forty miles in the buggy for about two and a half hours. Notice that Dillan got first pick of seats.

I began to think that they were lost or something. Dinner was well on the way and no boys to eat. We had dinner and Dillan's party followed by a fun evening playing pegs and jokers.

Then as fast as it started it was all too quiet. The hardest part of having company is the deafening quiet after they all leave.
     On Monday, October first we were getting ready to go do some fall camping when fire trucks rushed up our road. We could see the smoke and dropped everything to investigate. We didn’t know if we would have to evacuate or not. We walked up the canyon to see where the fire was burning. It was less than a half mile above us. There are four houses above us and the fire started near the end of the road. The house near where it started was burned around three sides. The house was saved by quick work of the men working up by it. They were doing road work that started the fire. We watched as a plane dropped fire retardant. It came right over us on one pass and the pilot didn’t shut off the valve soon enough. We were all sprayed with a fine red mist all over everyone standing around as well as the vehicles.

From Our Front Yard...Yikes!

The Neighbor's Home Three Houses Up the Canyon

This is the Yellow VW Seen in the Second Picture Above

Did I mention that I was wearing white Capri's? I had to work real hard but I managed to get our clothes clean. I do have a few spots on my hat still. When it was finally contained over twenty acres had burned. In the excitement we forgot that it was Lance and Abri's anniversary. Congratulations!
     We left Wednesday to go camping at Maple Grove Hot Springs on the Oneida Reservoir north of Preston. The fall colors were just exquisite. They were candy for our eyes. We took a couple of rides to enjoy fall colors to the fullest and soaked in the hot pools a couple of times.

One of the Hot Pools Lakeside



Oneida Reservoir on the Bear River



While in the hot pool we could see all the pretty trees across the reservoir. The nights got cold and we found that our furnace was not working. Thank heavens for the catalytic heater we have. From there we moved to the lower end of the Big Springs road near Lava Hot Springs and stayed another couple nights. While there we took another ride but there the fall colors were almost gone. We drove over to the ghost town of Chesterfield. It was closed for the winter but it was fun just to drive around it. We decided to go see Chesterfield Reservoir. Quite a few were fishing on it. We had no poles or bait but we watched a man catch about a two-pound fish. Dang, I would have loved to have fished. Gene remembered being at nearby Twenty-Four Mile Reservoir when he was younger so we drove over to see it also. It wasn’t as he remembered because it was pretty much dried up. When we got back we decided to head home because another cool night just didn’t sound too fun. Dad was also anxious to find out why the furnace wasn't working. When we got home he found that a can of something sticky, stored inside under the dinette seat over the furnace, had leaked down trough, dripped on a sensor and stuck it open. Thankfully it is all fixed now.
     Shortly after we where pleased to receive a visit from our friends from Preston, Idaho, Dave and Nancy Wanner. We had not seen them all summer. Dave was one of Dad's best friends in his youth and remains so today. Their visit was short but sweet. We then went to Idaho Falls for a day to be with Leslie and Matt's kids while Leslie attended a First Aid/CPR class she was required to take for her part-time work. We had fun with Jaxon while kids were in school and Dad spent the day repairing a trombone case for Travis. We brought Brandyn back with us to stay overnight because he had a soccer game at Marsh Valley Middle School the next day, Saturday afternoon. That afternoon LaRinda, Trevor and their two youngest also came for an overnight visit. Leslie, Matt and remaining boys met us all at church the next morning and after church Lance, Aubri and Taylor came out for us to celebrate Dad's birthday. Leslie and LaRinda made him a campfire cake that looked very convincing.

Ironically, Dad had burned accumulated trash and had his first campfire of the summer the night before as there has been an open burning ban all summer due to fire danger. He loves campfires and we are blessed to be able to "camp out" in our back yard but he had been denied that all summer.