The Mystery of the Bicycle - it appeared across the street one day.... stayed there for a couple months... then as quickly as it appeared, it disappeared. Never saw anyone ride it, we just watched it sit until it was there no more.
We finished our summer and introduction to fall this year with family & dear friend visits in and around Yakima, WA. Our plans were up in the air going into the trip, during the trip and returning from the trip! We pretty much have been living day to day with a general sense of where we want things to go. We must like the flexibility and adventure of it all. Not really knowing what will happen from day to day is a good way to watch and appreciate all the amazing things that just seem to happen.
Things seemed a bit hectic as we prepared ourselves and thoughts for the big 2025 family visit. The summer season is somewhat limited in eastern Idaho, so everyone is trying to fit in all the summer they can before the cold weather arrives. We went from our 30th Wedding Anniversary on July 3rd to 4th of July celebrations and the first camping trips of the season; one of which I took a tumble off of a log and wound up in the hospital for a day with back injuries. August was filled with building the final Eagle View property upgrade with the addition of a final storage building the Fred Shed. We had a few small projects and events in and around Eagle View and by September we were wrapping things up and preparing to depart for destinations north and west and visit with family and friends.
We squeezed in a few hikes in early August, this one up our favorite Palisades creek.
We saw a mama moose on the hike at the first lake.
Paul & Joyce invited us to a pig pit cooking party. It was fabulous. Paul uncovers the pit after 10 hours of underground cooking.
In the pit we see a pan of baked Idaho potatoes and a Boston Butt wrapped in burlap..
Paul hauls out the pig and Jim stands by with the transportation!
Paul opens the package and begins unloading the prize. The pig quarter was perfectly cooked and just fell from the bones. YUM!
Gari, Carol & Jim prepare the potatoes.
Swan Valley had one of the biggest fires in several years when a big livestock tender's winter hay stock went up in flames in the barn. I don't know how much hay was in there, but it burned for a month. The local fire rescue folks were able to keep the fire from spreading into the adjacent grain field that was ready for harvest. Our house is less than a mile from this fire on the same road. This could have been a bigger disaster for the area. Great job Swan Valley Fire & Rescue!
We snuck in a last minute visit with Jeff & Carol, we were concerned that we would miss their house warming party while we were away. It was a great sunset that evening.
The next day the four of us went to Jackson Hole for a fun time. We all took the obligatory picture at the antler arches in the town park. Jeff and Carol.
Steve & Gari.
As a last minute pre-departure event, our garage overhead door guy came a day before we departed and enabled us to lock our new Fred Shed before we left.
On September 20th we departed for Yakima and stopped at our halfway point at a little BLM spot on the Snake River we call Catfish Junction.
Snake River... where we sipped our coffee on the banks thereof!
We arrived in Yakima and swung by the grocery store before we went on the Sam & Sandi's ranch in Wiley City, WA.
We got the the ranch and found Sam & Sandi and crew in the corral doctoring several cows.
Sam catches the next patient in the holding cage.
We even helped with some branding. Sandi held the calf's head and I held the hind legs with a rope. Sam did the branding.
Sam & Sandi took us to the Toppenish Livestock Thursday sale
Lots of cows sold that day!
We even saw Yosemite Sam in the audience! Best mustache ever!
Sam & Sandi bought 7 cows that day and all were pregnant. There they are arriving at their new ranch. They all assimilated very quickly. Sam & Sandi take great care of their livestock.
We had a few showers while we were there and had this brilliant double rainbow one evening.
We enjoyed homemade crumb-cake with ice cream and huckleberry jam. We played lots of Pinochle and all round had a great visit.
We left the ranch and headed for Quirt & Marilyn's place in the mountains around Cle Elum, WA. We stopped for supper at the Twin Pines Burger place and it was very good. I had the fish & chips and Gari had their classic burger.
We camped in their driveway as we are known to do...
Quirt & Marilyn took us to an A-Frame cabin in the middle of the National Forest. It was so interesting. Quirt's family and others built this place 50 or 60 years ago and used it as a staging area for their hunting camp. I think this spot was something like a 160 acre private parcel surrounded by thousands of acres of National Forrest. The trip in was extremely exciting. We had to open locked gates that no one else can use except the NF; plus we had to prune a few limbs blocking the narrow road on our way in. Quirt and family and friends that are associated with this cabin put in a huge amount of work just to keep the access road passable.
The cabin sat on this creek below that we walked down to check out.
Gari caught me taking a picture of her.
This is the road in to the cabin.
The colors were starting to come out; it was incredibly beautiful.
I mean that cabin was waaaaay back in there!
Quirt & Marilyn conspire on a special breakfast for us.
Sausage & Sourdough French Bread! Man was that fantastic!
Later in the visit Quirt treated all of us to a Prime Rib Roast expertly cooked on the Traeger Grill.
It turned out perfect and we got to visit with Rick & Shelby too!
We headed back for home and crossed the bridge over the South Fork of the Snake River back into Swan Valley on October 13th about 3 weeks from the day we left.
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