August 2021 Randoms

The mudslide that happened upriver after a 
rainstorm at the beginning of August trickled
down to our ditch & the water was dirty for a week.

 

This experience in our backyard never gets old! 

Josh and I went to the pig show at the Mud Lake Fair, and I 
got to see lots of my former students. It was SO wonderful for me!

The food at the Mud Lake Fair is incredible! Josh and I had 
a delicious, multi-cultural lunch together!

Idaho's Giant Potato was at BBR, so of course I HAD to 
get a picture with it! Potatoes are my favorite food! I'm
most definitely an Idaho girl now!

My friend Gina, and her daughter Kendra,
brought me my most favorite pie (Strawberry
Rhubarb) for my birthday. It was divine!

Josh made my birthday dinner request:
deer roast and potatoes au gratin. I also
made some creamy corn & rolls to go with it!

One of my favorite scriptures in the D&C is 109:8,
"Organize yourselves...and establish a house...". For
the youth Sunday School class that we teach, I broke
up each "house" into individual sections around the 
room for this lesson, and told the kids if they could
only pick ONE house, which would it be. They then
wrote on their chosen house why it was important 
to them, then I put up all the houses on the board in
the shape of a temple, because they all represent
aspects of God house. 

Ammon gets a newer car

Ammon's car started having problems when he was in Denver, so we decided that we'd help him get a new car on his way back from his internship in August before he headed back to school in Moscow. There was a Chevy Sonic at Myron's car shop for sale that we thought was cute, so we took it for a test drive before Ammon arrived in Salmon. It looks stylish, gets good gas mileage, and has a standard transmission (which Ammon likes). Ammon has amazingly made it through college without having any credit cards or student loans, but as a result, he also needs to build some credit before he becomes independent, and we thought co-signing on a car loan would also help him with that. When he got to Salmon in mid-August, he had his hopes set on getting an SUV, but we told him this was just a small, cheap, commuter car to make it through his last year of college, and that once he graduates and gets a paying job, he could trade it in and purchase whatever car he wanted. He wasn't sure he liked it, but he was willing to test-drive it. At first, he didn't think he wanted it, but after we test drove several other cars, he came back to this one, and said he changed his mind. Myron took his other car as trade-in, then Ammon and I went to the credit union and spent 2 hours doing the paperwork to get the loan while Josh got the license and registration taken care of at the courthouse. We moved everything from his old car to his new car, and then just like that, he was gone back to college for his senior year.

Josh and I test drove it first.

That's his old car to the left of his new one.

He was home for less than 12 hours before he was off again!

Friends

The older we get, the more we realize that friends are the family we choose. We value the relationships we have with our good friends. We may not have a lot of good friends, but we feel blessed with the people who continue to remain in our lives by choice rather than by binding blood. 

My dominoes ladies got together for Lidia's birthday at Val's house.
These ladies enrich my life and I'm blessed to know them. 

Amanda came out and soaked with me early one
morning when she was home in Salmon for her
monthly visit. I love spending time with her!

We were able to go out to dinner with Amanda & Ryan, 
Dallin & Jen, and John at Water's Edge Pizzeria in North Fork 
while the Berube's were visiting. We drove together in the Berube's
van, and had a great time at dinner! We love our friends!

We went to Wyatt Linger's mission farewell at the 28 building. 
Afterwards, it was so nice to see the boys and their friends 
visiting together. We also went to the family/friends meal that
afternoon at the city park. We are so grateful that the boys have
such wonderful friends. It's been a joy watching them all grow up.

Freak Windstorm

There was a major windstorm that blew through Salmon one afternoon in mid-August. The wind gusts blew in the opposite direction than usual, which made the damage worse, too. It was completely evident at the golf course with broken trees, downed trees, and limbs all over. It took Josh and his crew a few days to clean it all up. 

This tree lost its top

This tree lost its weaker half apparently

This tree had a split trunk, and lost half where it split off

This tree blew completely over

Oh Snap!

Another tree broken in half

Another tree toppled over. Now you see it...

...Now it's gone!

Garden

I stopped weeding the garden at the end of June, but the garden continued to flourish! The raspberries didn't do as well this year; the weather conditions really affected them. The cucumbers and onions struggled this year, too. However, the strawberries and grape cherries did fabulous! The potatoes and corn did well, too. Our experiment of growing the pumpkins in the open grass adjacent to the parking area worked, and it was nice to have the space freed up in our garden. This was also the first time we've not had a tree growing somewhere in the garden, and the plants grew so much without any shade or without the tree soaking up all the water.  

rhubarb, tomatoes, strawberries, & raspberries grow to the right of the path

corn, potatoes, onions, and cucumbers grow to the left of the path

Electricity in the Garage

We've been planning for years to add electricity in the garage. We saved up for it, and it finally happened this summer! We hired a local electrical contractor to come out (after talking to several other electricians, but nothing came of it). He came out multiple times over the course of 6 weeks, and Josh and I (but mostly Josh) helped to install it, too. We hung up some of the wires in the garage and Josh dug up the trench to connect it to the power pole. Overall, with the cost of supplies and paying him for his time, the total bill was $3100. It's been SO nice to have electricity in the garage, and I'm glad it finally happened!

Birthday Present

I told Josh that all I wanted from him for my birthday was two more glass bottle trees. He made four for me a couple years ago for my birthday, and they are in the front of our house. I acquired some more glass bottles this past year, and I wanted them to be put on bottle trees along the backside of our house where I added a new bark-filled spot for them. He made them and gifted them to me after my birthday, and I absolutely love them! The rungs are totally randomly placed, so there's no pattern and I feel that they make such a whimsical design that way! They fill up the new flowerbed perfectly!

Golf Course

One evening, I went to work with Josh when he was fertilizing the greens. I love watching him beautify the course. He's such a dedicated hard worker. There was a beautiful sunset that night, too, which was awesome to behold! Usually, Josh sees all the beautiful sunrises at the course, and I'm lucky enough to see them through his photography, but it was nice to be able to witness the beauty in person, too.

 

Pretty sunrise at the golf course

Sunrise part 2...

Sunrise part 3

Rodeo

Josh and the boys went with me to the rodeo at the Salmon fair. We sat by the Jones family and then the Judy's and Hilton's came and sat by us. It was very packed, but we had a good crowd around us. It was a great show. The bronc riding and bull riding was exciting, and there was even lady performers who did tricks while riding their horses. I was so wowed! It was incredible to see the skills they had! It was an enjoyable night for all of us. 

Family Golf

We have a goal of going golfing as a family 3 times this year. We picked one Sunday in August to go together. The weather was perfect, and it wasn't very busy, so it was an ideal day to go! I decided not to golf this time around; I just prefer to watch the boys and sit in the cart!

We took a selfie, but there was a weird ray of light through the 
photo, so I told Josh we'd take another one...

...but Kanyon photobombed us right when I took the photo
with his golf club...

...which he thought was hilarious, and so did Josh! I laughed
after I got over the shock of what happened so quickly as 
I was clicking the photos!

Electricity

We had some electricity problems in our house in August due to faulty wiring. The power in our bedroom and living room kept flickering and going in and out until finally it went out all together one Sunday evening. We couldn't figure out what was causing it. We checked the fuse box, the light switches and lightbulbs, and several of the outlets. After we couldn't figure it out, we worried about a fire occurring in our sleep, so we shut off the breaker in the fuse box that night that controls this area of our home. An electric company came the next day, and found the problem pretty quickly: our house was "quick wired" rather than "hard wired" and one of the wires got loose in an outlet in the living room. You can see how the loose connection burned part of the wire. They pulled it out for Josh to see and showed him how to fix it. After that, Josh went around and hard wired every outlet and light switch that's connected to this particular line. At some point, we need to do the same for the rest of the house in the future.