Thursday, October 19, 2017

TBT and Happy Birthday, Precious





It's Annie aka Precious aka Mia Wallace's special day.  

Both Mom and Dad wish our precious daughter a very Happy Birthday.  

For those who know her better as Mia Wallace, I do not believe she was wearing flipflops in this picture.  

That trend came later.  Flipflops or not, she sure was cute.  Still is, as a matter of fact, as you can see from this recent photo, which I love.  

I'm also betting she's wearing flipflops in this one. 

Hope you have a wonderful day, Flipflop Annie!





The other day when I took a ZAGS poster to our friend Jeannie, memories of this day came up in the conversation.  Jeannie, in the shorts, works in fire control for the Idaho Department of Lands.  Her husband Rik was one of my colleagues for at least a couple of decades at Sandpoint High School. 

One of their three sons, Chase in the photo, was an English student in my classes when I taught out in the portables.  At the time, he was a sophomore.

Later, when Chase was about to graduate, Jeannie sent Bill and me an invitation to come to Chase's "giveaway" party.  I figured it was just a graduation party but soon found out, after Jeannie kept quizzing me if I was coming, that it was much more than a graduation party.

In keeping with a Gros Ventre Indian tribal tradition, Chase invited mentors who, he felt, had made a difference along his educational path.  When we arrived at the party, which included a steak dinner with all the accessories, other special mentors were there too.  They included two other teachers, a soccer coach and a neighbor. 

Each of us received gifts of appreciation from Chase, including individualized star quilts, sweet grass, and, in my case, beaded earrings. 

Each of us was also blown away by the tradition and the spirit of the party. Twas an event I'll never forget and will always appreciate.  

I told Jeannie the other day I'd run across this photo and would post it today on Throwback Thursday.  So, once more, Jeannie, Rik and Chase, thank you for a very meaningful memory. 

And, of course, GO, ZAGS!


 My friend Trish is pretty busy these days as editor of the upcoming issue of Sandpoint Magazine, so I figured I'd give her a quick break back into the past when we all gathered at the Bonner Mall for the Chick-o-Stick eating contest. 

Proceeds benefitted the troops overseas, and we had a few veterans show up to support the event.  

A truly fun and delicious time was had by all. 

Good luck, Trish, as you finish up all that eyeball work on the magazine.  Heck, I'll have to bring you a Chick-o-Stick, and we can celebrate the grand finale of your hard work!





The Train Wreck in old '97.  That's what I call this scene, depicting one of the sights when a train derailed across from our place on Great Northern Road.  

When they needed a place to move all that lumber, the railroad officials asked if they could use our pasture.  So, they tore down the fence, moved the lumber to a large pile and eventually burned it. 

In return, we received a new, well-built fence and our pick of some of the salvageable boards.  We still have a pile of those boards and used some for construction of a new box stall in the barn last summer. 

There were some interesting happenings dealing with covetous souls in the aftermath of that derailment.  Some folks were mighty surprised at times when we'd surprise them from behind the lumber pile as they stood in our field figuring out what they were going to take.  




We experienced a definite weather transition yesterday after the wind storm of the day before.  Rain started to fall in the early afternoon, and it has fallen pretty steadily ever since.  

So along with the falling rain come thousands of falling leaves and soon to be gone are the striking colors of autumn like the one below.  This is my sister's horse off HWY 95, taken yesterday afternoon with the first raindrops. 

At least the rain is warm for now, but we're told it will cool down considerably by the weekend------for some of us, anyway.  More on that tomorrow. 

Happy Thursday. 




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