Emily's new dog, a Labra-doodle!

Em has a new dog. It's a labra-doodle. She is a nice little dog, but when Emily is not looking she drinks beer! I think Melissa taught her to do this!

Mel and Ally on the boat

Not sure what they are looking at but they must have spotted something on the shore. It was getting late, around 7:30-8:00 pm and we are heading for home. You can see the sun is just barely on the mountain tops, this is the best time to see bear or deer or herons on the river banks.

Melissa on a kayak with a fish

This is a funny video of Melissa trying to land her fish when she is on the kayak. We, of course, offer very sage advise as she struggles!!

Biggest Fish!

Emily caught the biggest Bass of the day.

Patrick caught the biggest Catfish and biggest overall fish of the day.

Patrick and a Bass

We like to fish from the kayaks just to add a bit of difficulty to the game. Here Patrick shows the bass he landed. Also he did it without spilling his beer!

Playing on the River

All the kids were home this weekend, so we spent the day on the water. We loaded the boat (and I do me LOADED!!) and headed out for a day of fishing, swimming and sunshine. This picture shows all of us girls with a fish on. Ok, they are small but they still count. I caught 34 fish in the first hour and half we were there. They were mostly bluegill and a few crappie. We have quite the competition for first fish, most fish, biggest fish, smallest fish, most variety, last fish. Notice how we are the only ones on the water (or even in sight) back in our favorite fishin' hole.

Fire in the Canyon once again

Picture credit: USDA Forest Service,Bart Singley photo

The canyon is once more on fire. Lightening storms are to blame and we are smoked in. This picture is an aerial view of the canyon which I thought was most impressive. Credit for the photo is listed above.

You can just see the river on the left side of the photo, you can't see us, we are under the layer of smoke hanging above the river. It has grown since this photo was taken on the 14th of July. It is called the Battle Creek Complex an is about 20 river miles from the house, so we are not overly concerned with it getting to us. The Forest Service have been working to set up fire lines in prevention of it coming south.

Ally doing a belly flop off the rock.

We were swimming in our favorite spot and Ally loves to jump from the rock to fetch stuff. It has been hot here, usually getting to 110 degrees in the afternoon, so being on the river is a good thing.

Patrick Graduates from Oregon State

On Fathers Day, June 17th, Patrick, our youngest, graduated from Oregon State Univ. We made a trip over with the relatives. Here is a pic of Pat with his grandmothers cheesing it up. We tailgated and cooked a few dogs before the ceremony. Pat has a couple summer classes to take yet to fill in his minor and has been accepted at Life University in Georgia for chiropractic medicine. He begins Jan 08.

By the way "Go Beavs". CWS National Champions for the 2nd year running!!

Our new truck

We have been wanting to get a new vehicle for sometime now and we ran across a deal we just couldn't refuse. This is a 2006 Nissan Titan LE 4X4 with only 27,000 miles. It has lots of bells and whistles (more than we really need, but we are getting use to them).

Terry was pretty thrilled that his bike matched so well!!

We party'd all day and into the night

Boating in the rain

The kids were all home and we wanted to go boating. The weather was a bit iffy but we launched anyway. Good thing we had our huge orange tarp. We just wrapped the boat in the tarp and stayed semi dry. We played games and huddled until the rain quit. The structure you see in the foreground is the underneath side of the bridge in Oxbow...we are just pulling under it as the picture was taken. We didn't get around to our fishing hole cause the rain was really coming down...so we just drifted down river and enjoyed the day and each other. At least we had the river all to ourselves (everyone else was smart enough to come out of the rain)

30th Anniversary party

Thanks to all the people that came to our 30th anniversary party. The weather was very cooperative and there was lots and lots of food to eat. Special thanks to my children who put it all together and my family for also adding the special touches. We had many friends from out of town that made it over...gracias! Terry is giving his two cents before we eat....Must be very very beleivable, hence the look!!
We had a great day of visiting, playing horseshoes and blongo....and the party even got crashed!! What a special day indeed.

OMG Bikers!

Late Saturday evening I heard a couple of bikes (duo-sports) pull into the drive way. A couple of riders said that they had been up and down the river and couldn't find even a wide spot in the road to camp and could they please pitch their tents in the yard (our lower pasture yard) so I said "Sure, go ahead" Next thing I know there are 15 bikes in the yard! It was an impromtu ride organized over an internet forum and most of the riders didn't even know each other yet. We built a fire and exchanged stories until late in the night. A good group of riders and new friends!! The duo sport is a bike that can drive roads and dirt. Many of the riders told stories of the dirt roads they had traveled all over Oregon and Idaho. Sounds like lots of fun to me!

The view from inside

For many of you who have not been to visit us yet......I thought I would take a picture from inside the tunnel. Homestead Road (the road we live on) is an old rail bed and the trains had to pass through several tunnels in our area as they hauled the ore from the mine. This is the only one of the tunnels left standing and we drive through it to go to my Mom and Grannys house and my sisters house. In the winter the floor gets covered with large ice stalagmites, which is very freaky. In the summer the bats live in there and you can watch them come flying out at dusk.

Oh, Hail!!

We had a huge hail storm come through our area last Wednesday. I know that all you from the midwest have seen hail bigger and better, but this, at least for us, was an unusual occurance. I took a very ugly picture of my foot next to some very large hailstones. Good thing I don't have neighbors or else they would have thought I was a looney running around in the yard during a hail storm collecting peices of ice!! (I put them in my freezer so I could show people how big they were. I may use them for my ice tea one of these hot summer days to come!!)

We have Pigs!!

We decided to be small time pig ranchers!! The picture shows three generations in the pig pen feeding the pigs! Me, My Mom and My Grandmother. We had fun feeding the pigs but phewweeee it was stinky!!

Sunrise Service on the Deck

It seems to becoming a tradition at our little Church to have our Easter morning sunrise service on the deck. I think we figured that is must be the 8th or 9th year that we have done this. We skipped one year because it was an early easter and the weather reports said it was going to be cold...but it was a beautiful day so from now on...despite the weather you'll find us all on the deck Easter morning. We had a good crowd of 78 people attend (our record attendance was 89). We have a potluck brunch after
the services. You just can't beat it. One of the best parts
is the fact that we get people from all over who attend. This year
we had a family from Wisconsin who were staying in the area.
We always enjoy seeing our friends from out of town. We have
one couple who comes from LaGrande each year (Hi Cliff and Dorothy). And church friends who have moved away (good to see you Pam and Ryan).
If you are ever in the area this time of year you are welcome to join us!

Easter Preparation

It is amazing that we only have one small boy to hunt eggs this year, yet we colored and decorated over 70 eggs!! I would suspect that maybe we have too much fun! Lisa brought mimosas and we stained our fingers blue!!

The weather was perfect, we did the dirty work out side. We had so many eggs left over that I had to make a jar of pickled eggs. Not actually my favorite but I thought I would give it a try.

March 4-Wheeler Trip up Windy Ridge

We had a wonderful day with some great friends from Boise, as we took our 4 wheelers up Windy Ridge to check out the fantastic view and to hopefully see some wildlife. We took this picture of the Oxbow, and up on top we posed with this old car. We had fun speculating how and why it was up there! We had a picnic overlooking the snake river and even pinked our cheeks from the warm sunshine! We saw lots of deer, sage grouse, an owl and finally on the way back down the hill, we finally spotted a herd of elk across the Indian Creek Drainage. It was the most perfect day!!

The Best of Times!

Mostly this last year we did lots of boating on the river. This picture shows a summer shower in the evening on the river. Patrick is paddling one of the kayaks and is getting wet!! We spend as many evenings on the boat as possible. We have a pontoon party barge we have christened "The Don". (there is a story behind the name).

We fish for bass, crappie, bluegill, perch and catfish and mostly just have fun and relax with family and friends. Count this an your open invitation to go boating!! Come visit!!

Trip to Wyoming

We were able to take a motorcycle trip to meet Terrys sister Carol and her husband Ken in Wyoming in Aug/Sep of this past year. We met in the middle, so to speak, since Carol and Ken live in Des Moines IA. We stayed in Saratoga Wy and toured around that part of the state, then into Colorado by Steamboat then on to S.Dakota Sturgis, Mt Rushmore area, then to Devils Tower. After our tour together we headed home via Yellowstone. Terry and I ran with a herd of buffalo just inside the east entrance of the park. That was quite an experience, riding along eye to eye with the buffalo, you can see their breath as they huff and puff along. It was almost too close if you know what I mean. There isn't much between you and the buffalo when you are on a motorcycle. IT was as great trip and we enjoyed our time with Ken and Carol immensely.

More Fire Pictures

The planes flew over our house and dropped retardant to keep the blaze from reaching the structures. The house, shed, garage, all the outbuilding etc, were covered with red goo. The one picture show a friend who was helping fight fire running down the driveway. The fire crews wanted everyone to evacuate the "hot spot" areas. I evacuated the pets, and valuables and most of the vehicles down the road to the park. Terry and Steve stayed behind to water things down but when it got hot we had to run...The guys ended up on the deck when the planes dumped retardant and that pretty much cooled things down. We spent the night at the house yet, though the pasture was still flaming in spots but mostly downed trees etc that were left to burn. We struggled with this fire for 5 days as it ate it's way down the canyon to my mother's house, my grandmothers house, my sisters house and on down past Homestead where some family friend live. Each of us taking turns with hoses, fire lines and evacuation. Then when the fire passes our home, we breath a sigh of relief and start the process of getting things back up and running. We were without power (some of us) for about 4 days. It kinda plays havoc with your refrigerated and frozen stuff!! We had to replace melted irrigation and water lines and wait for new wooden power poles etc. It was quite the ordeal. But no structures were lost and no one was seriously injured.

Fire in the Canyon

We had such a terrible fire in the Canyon this last July. It was started by lightening strikes and by the time it was contained, it had scorched over 60,000 acres. It was burning right up to our back fences, and the smoke filled the canyon for weeks. You couldn't see down river or even across the river on some days. It was quite a terrifying experience, but the fire crews from BLM, Forrest Service and other Structure crews from all over the state were fantastic! Our daughter Melissa worked for the Northeast Oregon Fire Dispatch out of La Grande, OR during this fire. You could hear her over the radios of the fire crews as info was being passed on and directions given. It was a very anxious time for her as well, since she knows who lives in all these houses that the crews are fighting to protect.

I will post the picture of the B & B with the fire raging in the background.