Saturday Slight

Today begins the wedding bells season. The summer invitations have been stacking up, and today's special occasion features Ty Oliver and Keely Kinzer, both former students. This wedding will take place at the family farm; from all reports it's a laid-back affair in keeping with the young couple's very down-to-earth manner. There will be foresters there, so Bill's looking forward to going, and I have a feeling most of the faces will be familiar.

We've got a wedding next week also. Bill plays his harmonica for that one, which involves our longtime family friends, the Raihas. Dan, the second of three Raiha children, will be marrying his fiancee Tina. Again, it promises to be a fun outside occasion alongside the Pend Oreille River. I think there's a break after that; then, I'll have to check the stack again so I don't forget which one comes next.

Our own wedding took place on a hot June day 33 years ago yesterday. We celebrated the third of a century milestone last night with a nice dinner at Hope's Dock of the Bay. Barney, Carol and the crew always put out a delectable meal; plus sitting and looking out onto the lake ain't bad either.

Before heading off for dinner, we hung around while Tony, the Craftsman fixer-upper extraordinaire, got our fleet all in good repair. A new engine for the red riding mower, which has behaved erratically of late until last week's final blow-out---that would be a rod blow-out which occurred directly after the clouds of blue smoke started billowing from the engine. When I saw the hole in the side of the engine and the piece of shrapnel that had released itself from the engine frame and kindly stayed under the hood, I was glad to be alive.

Tony also finished assembling the lawn groomer we bought about a month ago. Bill got the project started but couldn't figure out how to attach the bag that catches all the lawn garbage. Tony didn't think it was so easy either, but between the two of them, they figured it out. Finally, Tony changed the oil in the most recently purchased Craftsman riding tractor. Thanks to Tony, my lawnmowing woes should be on hold for a while.

My sisters recently purchased one of those Craftsman lawn groomers, had it assembled in-shop for a fee, brought it home, tried it out and instantly turned arrogant. Yesterday morning, while bringing back the potted plants and card tables they had borrowed for a teacher retirement party Thursday night, they inspected all lawns between the Tibbs house and the Love house, noting which ones really needed a lawn groomer. And, ours topped the list---especially with all those ground up Scotch pine comes and that windrow of grass clippings out there in front.

That will change quickly now that my own groomer is fully assembled. They won't have anything over on me in that department. Can't wait to get out there and clean up the grass---and finish that garden fence. My sisters just grinned when I pointed toward the fence; then, Laurie asked, "Is it going to stay up?" I can always count on the painful truth from my sisters.

The strawberries are starting to come on, and the deer don't really care---but the robins do. I've got netting, and the robins aren't happy. They keep congregating over there by the patch, and whenever they see me coming, they feign worm digging, as if I didn't know they're mad cuz they can't get at those berries.

They do have more promising potential with the cherry tree. I've gotten up on a ladder a few times, with a big long piece of plastic pipe and have managed to cover about two thirds of the cherry tree with three different parcels of netting. Is there an easy way to put netting on a tree without ripping half the cherries off the limbs? I think not, but will welcome all suggestions short of renting a hydraulic lift.

Well, with all that equipment begging for use, with that garden fence begging completion and with that fruit begging for human vigilance, I'd better get out of here and get some stuff done before those wedding bells start ringing over there in Samuels.

Have a great Saturday.