The rest of our summer

The Thursday before my b-day Melissa and her kids (Abby, Ryan and Matt) came over to build a tree house. They stopped by and picked up Lucas (Ben's boy) It was great to see Jim, and the kids build the tree house. Now every time they come over they want to put more up on it.

This is the falls that Julie and her family and us went to this last spring. At that time they were frozen now people slide down them and jump off the rocks that are there and swim all over the place. I didn't know we were going here or I would brought me suite. The water wasn't even very cold. So it would have been fun to jump in because it was also very hot that day.

We went for a drive one day Jim wanted to show me the bridge of flowers. It was so pretty and it smelled wonderful. This bridge was right around where we took Julie and her family when they were here.

We had the some of Jim's grand kids over to camp out. Jim and the boys spend the night in a tent in our backyard. They really had a great time. We went to a lake just around the corner from our home and then went for ice cream. We had the boys several different nights at our home.

The Trek

Here we are getting ready for the trek it was the greatest thing to see all the youth excited to start out and get going. They were ready to take on the world. We didn't have to take on the world just hills, valleys, rivers, and small streams. The wagons weighed about five hundred pounds. We had been put into families. We had two families from our ward because we had so many youth go. By the end of the trek we were tired and ready for a hot shower, but so appreciative for the opportunity to do this trek. We learned so much about ourselves and about our pioneer heritage.

Jim and I were the ma and pa for our family of six youth. It was fun being the ones in charge of the youth. When we started I thought that I would have to push the youth to help out not only each other but the other families on the trek. We were so impressed with how they acted and helped out not only our family but the other families on the trek.

The stake had eighty-five youth and 20 adults. It was so neat to see the youth get together from all over the area.

We had such a great group of young men and women in our group everyone helped out and took their turn in pushing and pulling. It was such a wonderful experience. I will never forget.

This is the bridge that Jim went and cut down the trees and placed them over the river. We were one of the last families across the bridge. They called this the sweet water river bridge.

The last big hill until we are able to make camp for the night.

The day is at a end and it looks like we had gone 100 miles instead of only 13 miles. What a day we got a great respect for the pioneers.

The Ant and the Grasshopper

I am sure you all remember the ant and the grasshopper story that was told to you when you were young. Well, I can say that I am an ant. We heat our home with a wood stove. I am grateful for this considering the price of heating oil now. Since, we have around three acres we have enough wood to do this without buying any. But we have to cut, spit and stack the wood. Here are pictures of Jim and I being the ant. The beginning of the pile of wood to split. Jim through out the fall of last year cut down several trees out in the woods. Now we need to bring them to the wood shed to split and stack. We still had some wood left over from last year so we do have a head start of this next year. The end of day one. I hauled most of this wood, while Jim cut down some more trees. Some of the pieces of trees where to big and Jim had to split them before hauling them out. I had to try my hand at splitting them. Jim started it for me so I could have a better chance at splitting it but still no love. So I will leave the splitting to him and I will do the hauling. The end of day two. We have still about seven more days of hauling and then it will be time to split and stack. It all needs to be done by the middle of July so that it will be dry by next winter. It is a lot of work but I will enjoy being warm when it snows outside. I will keep you posted on our progress and the end result.

Block Island

We went to another island called Block Island. There is a hotel there named the Spring House Hotel, that Jim ran for a season for the bankruptcy court before he auctioned it off and he wanted to show it to me along with the island. We had to take a ferry ride to the island. It is off the cost of Rhode Island near Long Island NY.

This is the down town part of the island. We rented bicycles to ride around the island. It was great fun and I enjoyed seeing the sights and eating at the places that Jim once enjoyed with his children.The buildings with the red roofs are the hotel that he and his children ran for the summer season. Jim loves telling the story about how the staff (about 20 people)were so rude to him when he first came and when he told them to knock it off. They said "what are you going to do fire all of us?" and of course, Jim being Jim, he said Yes!! and did. Each and every one of them. Then he called Melissa, Jimmy and got them with their friends to come and work along with John, Laura, and Ben. Twenty plus people showed up the next day. They all worked and lived in the hotel for the entire summer. This is us outside of the hotel. The chairs are original from the time that the hotel first opened. The inside was so neat with all of the original furniture and bar area. We stayed here for a while before going on to the lighthouse and the beach. Us outside of the light house, the beach is right behind us. It was a beautiful day not to hot and not to cold.This is the light house. About ten years ago they moved it back from the cliffs because of erosion. They didn't take it apart they just jacked it up and moved it. That was really interesting. After riding up lots of hills and feeling like my legs were going to fall off we reached the beach but to get to it you had to descend the stairs. I thought that this is okay but I wasn't sure about coming back up. Jim assured me that it would be worth it to be at the beach. Jim immediately ran into the water diving into the waves and loving every minute of it. He looked like a little kid body surfing. I on the other hand went out to touch the water and found it too cold for my taste and just as a wave hit my feet I turned around and ran. After a long day of bike riding, and swimming in the ocean it was time to go home. While on the ferry we both fell asleep on the bench. We stopped at Jimmy's home for a belated Father's Day dinner. Melissa was there with the kids. It was a great day.

Menagerie

Living out in the rural area you find that you see a menagerie of animals. Starting with the chickens and the dog that is usually around everyday. But lately we have seen several other animals. Ones that we didn't get pictures of are a beaver heading for the river, a family of skunks crossing the on ramp to the freeway, a raccoon just off our road, a pair of vultures, a donkey walking down the street and a snake in the grass that I stepped on with my bare feet. We had a picture of a bald eagle in our tree but I couldn't find it right now. Following are the animals that I did get pictures of. I have yet to see a black bear but Jim promises that I will some day.

We have a dairy down the road that makes the best ice cream and has bunnies, cows and pigs to pet. This is not a real cow but it was fun to be this close without the smell.This is Miss Piggy she wanted my ice cream I wasn't willing to share it with her. She really stinks and I didn't enjoy her touching me at all. In fact I was watching Jim take the picture and she came up and touched my arm it startled me and I screamed.

This is our Humming bird feeder. Jim says that by the end of summer they will be so fat that they can hardly fly. There are two of them a male and female. It is so fun to watch the come and eat. For those of you that would like the recipe for the humming bird juice it is 1 C H2O to 1/3 C of sugar.Every year for the past four years Jim has walked out of his front door and found a female snapping turtle laying her eggs. This year it looks like a different one but still we were walking out of the house and there she was. I loved the spinney tail. Jim tried to move her so she would not lay the eggs in the middle of the driveway she wasn't really happy with him. Notice how her mouth is open and she is ready to bite anything that will come close to it. As we were leaving our home the other day we saw a police car with its lights going and the officer out side of the car. Then we looked a little closer and here came a cow walking down the road. Maybe it was going to fast or slow and the cop was trying to stop it. ;) The last animal that we saw and took a picture of is a baby porcupine. The mom was to fast crossing the road to get her picture but the baby was slow enough to get it just before it went into the woods. I am sure the before the summer is over I will find several more animals. We hear in the woods by our home moose, fisher cats, and bears. It is so fun to be here were nature is so close.

Rest of May

Jim was introduced to how I do Birthdays. He had three the first one was given by his oldest daughter Melissa. It was the Friday before his birthday this was because Jimmy couldn't come to the surprise party on his birthday. So that was the first one and of course he got presents there. He had also received cards in the mail and I wouldn't let him open them until his actual birthday. So then on his birthday I told him I wanted to take him out for his birthday so we went to his favorite Japaniese restruarant. After we were seated his kids and most of the grandkids came walking in. He was so surprised. That was great. He got presents there also and he loved it. Then on the following Sat. we had a party out at the house. We had about 25 people here it was so much fun. We cooked hamburgars and hotdogs. Had salads and chips. All who came had a great time. And he got even more presents what a spoiled man. I think Jim enjoyed all of the attention.

The Saturday before Mother's Day we met Jim's brother George (84 years old) and his wife Jeanne at the nursing home where Jim's mother is. Who by the way is 101 and still as bright as ever. George is a snowbird and had just come back from Florida. It was great to meet him because I have talked to him on the phone several times. When we were leaving Jim's mom didn't want us to go so we told her we would be back on Mother's Day to bring her some Dandylions.(acutually they are weeds but the northerns eat them like spinach) She likes them cooked with vinegar, garlic and butter. She was excited for that.

Here is a picture of Jim and his Mom on Mother's Day. We had such a great visit with her. She wasn't really sure who I was since this was the first time that I had met her. She was very alert and happy to have us there. We spent most of Mother's Day with her. I thought this was a great way to spend the day because you never know how long she is going to be with us. She asked me who I was and then turned to Jim and said why didn't you tell me that you were going to get married. Jim said that he just didn't get around to it. I thought that was so funny.

Here is me opening my Mother's Day gift from Julie. I had a great Mother's Day it was nice to be with Jim and his mom.

I really missed all of you and the grandkids.

Going to Maine to look at a boat

Jim said that we were going to find a boat for us so this is our story of searching for a boat.

We decided to go to the islands off of Maine. This is on a ferry boat that is also the mail boat for the islands. There are several islands up there some are private, some are state parks, and some you can live on. We both love the islands and think that maybe someday we will purchase a home on one of them. But for right now we will just enjoy going up for a day trip.

We caught the ferry in Portland, and it was a two hour ride. It stopped at several different islands, the one that we were going to is called Cliff Island. It has a lot of cliffs verses sandy beaches. The water is more gray than in NC but it is still beautiful. The sun was shining and we both got a sunburn. The wind was blowing just a little to keep it cool.
You might ask is this the boat??? No, this is not the boat that we are looking for. However, it is a very nice boat! There are of course a lot of lobster boats in Maine. Up here they pronounce lobster as lobsta. They don't believe in moving there mouths to talk. I have decided that it is a very efficient way to talk but hard to understand sometimes. As you look over the water you will see a lot of floats telling you where you left your lobster traps so that you can come and find them again, later in the day.



Is this the boat? Well, no this isn't the boat either. However, this was a really nice island that had a lot of great homes on it, but not the right boat. It was great to see what the homes look like on the islands of Maine. There were some very small ones and on one island that is a private island had a house on it the looked like it should have been in Atlanta instead of on an island off the coast of Maine.






We finally made it to Cliff Island it was a great island with lots to see and a good selections of boats. But none of these were them. This is a place where the lobsta boats dock and people of the island come to buy the lobstas right off the boats. It is also where they can repair their cages, boats, or anything else. Jim has purchased many a lobsta here. We started to walk around the island looking at all of the nice homes, planning, wishing and deciding that maybe someday.




Finally after walking for a while we came around a corner and there it was! Jim was so excited that he ran right up to it and got in. Isn't it just lovely. I think we could use it to get back to the main land. :)

About this time the camera died and I could not take anymore pictures of the island. We did however have a great day. Laying on a grassy knoll just above the cliffs and ending up napping, writing in our journal and just enjoying each other. I can hardly wait to go back when it is a little warmer. It is so wonderful to have all of these adventures in a new area. To be able to experience some of the places that Jim has gone for so long and has great memories of.