June 2022 Randoms

 TIKI

Tiki got her annual haircut at the beginning of June. She's a Border Collie/Corgie cross, which makes for long, and very thick, hair! Her transformation is always a big one: she goes from looking like a miniature bear with a petticoat, to a small and skinny fox! We noticed after this haircut, that the gray spot on her back was getting larger, proof that she's aging. 

BEFORE

BEFORE

AFTER

AFTER

She loves having Josh rub her belly. 

Our dog and cat get along so well. Sometimes
the cat doesn't like Tiki after her haircut, either
because of the way she looks or her soapy smell
is foreign, but this time, the cat didn't snub her!

GARDEN

We had a little bit of a late start planting our garden this year. Usually, we do it on Memorial Day weekend, but due to weather and a busy schedule, we planted on the evening of Wednesday, June 1 after Josh came home from work instead. We used to always have the boys help us, but now that they're grown and busy, we just do it ourselves. We planted 2 rows of corn, one row of onions, and one row of potatoes.  

The lilac bush behind our carport bloomed so beautifully in June!

The flowerbed behind our house didn't do so well last summer, so I put bark on it to keep the flower seeds protected, and it worked much better this year. I don't plant anything in this area: the flowers just keep returning on their own. There's some tulip bulbs in back and a few crocus bulbs in front that bloom in the spring, and then pansies throughout that grow all summer long. I put some decorations in that garden this spring: the little trike, the little wagon, and the cart with a gnome house, and I liked the look of how the flowers grew up and around the metal/wooden fixtures.

Weeding the garden used to also be a family task, then a task for just Kanyon and I, and now it's only me that does it. I weeded it once really good in June, and it took me a few days. And then Josh helped me whack down all the weed overgrowth again in August. The garden got rather neglected this summer, since we all had summer jobs. 

raspberries MID-WAY through the weeding. I should've taken 
a before shot! The weeds were so tall, so I had to tackle the weeds,
and then trim the raspberries. I usually trim them in spring,
but hadn't gotten around to doing it. It was a large task!

raspberries AFTER

strawberries BEFORE

strawberries AFTER

RIVER FLOODING

Due to the combination of high temperatures and large rainfalls within a few days of each other, the Salmon River rose to flooding level for a few days in mid-June. It's been 10 years since I've seen it that high! It was a welcome sight after the extreme low level it was last summer due to drought conditions. At the same time we experienced flooding conditions in Salmon, Yellowstone National Park also experienced extreme flooding that ripped away homes, bridges, and roadways in its current, and became international news. 

See that white spot in the river? That's a car
that got pulled downstream after going into the
water from a turn on the highway by Elk Bend.

JEEPING

We went for a few evening drives in the Jeep around Salmon, and had some very enjoyable adventures. One afternoon, we drove up Cabin Creek Road near Elk Bend, and witnessed a gorgeous rainbow and overlooks of the surrounding mountains. It was the first time I'd been on that road, and Josh hadn't traveled on it for years, so he recounted a lot of the memories he'd had motorbiking there with the Phillips boys during his teenage years. It was an enjoyable Sunday evening for both of us, admiring the surroundings, and recounting memories from years' past. 

On another evening, we dropped Kanyon off at a youth activity, and while we waited to pick him up, we drove around Discovery Hill on the east bench of Salmon, trying to find where some tar pits were located. We drove around for a couple hours, and finally found them! Shortly after that, Kanyon was done, so we headed back to pick him up. It was a fun adventure to kill some time!

SUMMER JOBS

Jonah worked at Linger Pepsi Distributing again, Micah still worked at Saveway as a stocker as well as assisting some older people with odd jobs, and Kanyon started a summer job at Saveway in the produce department. It would've been hard to coordinate rides daily with everyone's work schedules, so he got a battery-powered scooter to use as transportation, since he didn't have his license yet and the 5-mile long bike path along the highway from town to Shoup Bridge was completed in June. He got into a routine where he went to work at 7am with Josh, and drove the scooter home when he was done. It went as fast as 15 miles an hour, so it would take him about 25 minutes to ride the 7 miles back home. He charged it at night, and it folded up to make it easier for Kanyon to carry it and store it at work. He got into one accident on it, due to a big rock on the bike path left behind by the construction crew. It sent him flying, his glasses flying, and it broke the handle and fender. Thankfully, except for some scabbing from road rash, he was okay, and Josh ordered replacement parts for the scooter.  

I never got a photo of any of the boys at their summer jobs,
I didn't even think of it until now!

I worked 2 summer jobs this year: driving for River Shuttles for the 4th summer in a row, and working concessions at the movie theater in the evenings and on weekends. I mostly drove on the Corn Creek and Boundary Creek routes, rather than the Carey Creek/Riggins route like last summer. I didn't make as much money as a result, but I was home more in the evenings, which was nice. The movie manager worked around my schedule in June, and then after 20 years of running the place, she retired from it at the end of the month. A new manager was hired in July, and she quit a month later, and then a 3rd manager started in August. It was crazy how quickly it changed hands, and procedures kept changing as a result. However, I get to watch free movies as a benefit, which I really like, so I stayed on. 

One of the trucks I drove in June had 
patches all over the ceiling of the cab
of places they'd been, and I thought it 
was such a great idea and so colorful!

One day when I drove the Riggins route for River Shuttles, the vehicle I drove was scheduled to be dropped off in McCall. Everyone else that day was scheduled to drop off in Riggins. Rather than ride the shuttle van to Riggins and back from there, I told the driver I would just hang out in McCall for a few hours, and he could pick me up on the way back. I parked the van in a public parking area, then walked down Main Street to a cute restaurant where I ate lunch and then walked to the pick-up place. I quite enjoyed my solo excursion! 

The restaurant was converted from an autobody shop, so they
converted an old truck into a dining table in their outdoor space,
which I thought was so cool!

In the center of the truck bed was a rock-filled fire pit.

Boundary Creek is past Stanley, and a lot of the scenery on the drive changed as a result of the forest fire they experienced late last summer. I didn't like that part of the drive, but in June, this meadow was filled with flowers, and I loved admiring them!

This was the first summer since moving to Salmon in 2001 that Josh hasn't worked for the golf course. As a result, he finally had weekends off (except for when there was a burial at the cemetery), which was so wonderful, and we took advantage of that and had a lot of weekend excursions. It was nice for him to not be so tied down to his job 7 days a week, but one of the drawbacks was that he didn't have as many opportunities to take sunrise photos, since he didn't have to wake up as early for work anymore. He did get some nice daytime pictures while at the cemetery throughout the season, though!

After he left employment at the golf course, he still spent time training the replacement superintendent, and helping the association with projects on the course since nobody else had the on-site knowledge that Josh did. He asked in return if he could have free golf, which the association denied. It was quite a blow. Then he asked if he could have free cart rental space, in return for lending his personal cart out to the association for tournaments throughout the year whenever they didn't have enough carts available, which is the agreement he's had with them for the past few years. On the very first tournament of the summer, his cart was used, and destroyed. He presented these photos to the board, and explained that he was no longer willing to lend his cart to them, and would be withdrawing his cart from the golf course storage building. This blatant lack of respect had never happened before to our cart while loaning it out, and we were absolutely disgusted! After dedicating 20+ years of his life and sacrificing so many family events and vacations over the years in order to work around the golf course tournament schedule, it was hurtful to Josh to be denied play and to be treated this way. It made him realize that it's good thing that he switched careers when he did.

They left the cart super muddy.

They broke the bumper.

They scratched up the paint job. 

FATHER'S DAY

We waited a few days to celebrate Father's Day, in order for the twins to celebrate with us after they returned home from the boys' trip to the coast. Josh was showered with gifts, and it was so neat for me to see that the boys had each purchased items for their dad totally on their own accord, and were so thoughtful about it, too!

Kanyon bought jerky and Reese's for Josh, 
two things he loves!

Jonah got Josh a new tie, and a golf ball with
Josh's current political logo:

I got him a grill cleaner, some cartoon-designed,
socks, this t-shirt, & a new hat. The hat says
"Mountain Dude" since he always takes photos
 of Mtn. Dews after hiking up mountain peaks.

Micah got him a new sign for the garage (we've
started a collection of signs there) that says 
"Four Wheel Drive" and has a Jeep logo. He also
got Josh a set of gnomes bubbling in a tub, and it
lights up at night. We started a tradition many years
ago of giving Josh yard gnomes for Father's Days
and birthdays, and this one was perfect! We 
placed it by our outdoor hot tub & love it!

SUMMER GET-TOGETHERS

Gina hosted an outdoor BBQ for the graduated seniors in our ward and their families, but also waited until the boys returned from their coastal trip to have it. The weather was perfect! We ate good food, played games, talked, and had a nice time celebrating our children's accomplishments. Neither of the twins had wanted to host a BBQ get-together following their graduation, even though it's the traditional norm in Salmon to do, so I was happy that Gina was willing to host and invite us all to join, too. 

We spent more time with Grandma Parsons this summer than we've been able to the past 2 summers that she's lived here. She enjoys our company, and it's nice that we can see her more often now that she lives in Salmon than when she lived in Great Falls, when we only saw her once every 2 or 3 years.