Monday Miscellany

This pumpkin has gone full circle.

 The Northside School Garden Club gave me the seed when I went to visit one of their gardening meetings in June.

I took it home and planted it in my manure pile garden.

At first, we all thought it was a squash seed, but when the fruit started appearing, it didn't look like any squash I'd ever seen.

I was thrilled to realize it was, indeed, a pumpkin because the pumpkin I had planted one manure pile over went bad on me in August. 
I don't know if it got too cold or if I gave it too much water, but its fruits started shriveling up and the the vines died.

So, to have an extra plant that magically turned pumpkin was a relief.

That plant produced about a dozen pumpkins.

When I was invited to Kootenai School by Master Gardener Michele Murphree to see several Home Depot staffers partner up with the school's student garden club on a major project, I decided to take along one of my pumpkins from that Northside seed.  

I told Michele to do with it whatever she wanted.  She took the pumpkin back to Northside and presented it to the students. 

Many positive lessons sprouted from that seed.  
Seeds tend to do that, whether they go into the ground or inside someone's head.

Anyway, I thank Michele for including me in some of her activities as she gets gardens growing and plants seeds in the minds of many future gardeners at our local schools. 

Now, it will be interesting to learn what the Northside students do with the pumpkin.  

Will there be some tasty pie in its future?

Bill and I took Kiwi and Kea on another hike yesterday.  

This time we headed for Grouse Creek, where the first three miles of the road has been rebuilt.  

It's a smooth ride now, compared to the washboard and potholes of past years.

We drove to the end of the present road and then walked more of the old road, which has been shut down for several years.  

Part of that route is the Hemlock hiking/riding trail leading to Boulder Meadows and other areas.

We stayed on the old road and spent some time in an area overlooking the creek.

Bill said the road would end in another mile or so.  It was getting late in the afternoon so we turned around.

When we arrived back at the pickup, these riders came down the trail just behind us.

They had put in 17 miles, riding the Wiley Knob trail down below us, moving on to Grouse Mountain, Bald Eagle Mountain on the Orville Heath Trail to Pend Oreille Divide and down the Hemlock Trail.

One of those riders (in orange) has it in his genes to be out on a horse/mule, plodding through the back country.

His name is Bill Hawkins, son of Will Hawkins (well-known local photographer who died several years ago).  

Bill's grandfather Dal rode one of his Appaloosa horses named Pend Oreille's Tonkawa for nearly 60 days on the Sundance Fire back in the late '60s.  We eventually owned that mare, and my brother used her as his 4-H project.

His Uncle Ed founded the Pend Oreille Trail Ride decades ago.  The annual event attracted riders in the hundreds who came to drink up the scenery of high mountain trails and dine on Ed's wonderful gourmet cooking.

The Hawkins family, through Ed's leadership, later turned a family salad dressing recipe into one of Sandpoint's best-known businesses:  Litehouse, Inc., the nation's largest refrigerated salad dressing producer. 

Anyway, Bill, who was aboard a mule named Pend Oreille, and his friend from Seattle were really glad that their friend Arnie had agreed to drive their pickup and trailer (parked five more miles down the road) to the trailhead. 

Fun to see them and to visit. 

Miss Kiwi had her usual fun time on yesterday's hike, but she enjoyed an added treat when Arnie came with the horse trailer to pick up the riders. 

Out jumped her litter mate, Mac.  He belongs to Arnie.

I took their photo, but it's too blurry.  He's a tri-colored collie and very friendly. 

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Today may be filled with another adventure.  My friend Kari is coming.  She'll be riding Lily while I take Lefty out for his first road trip under saddle.

My main concern is the screaming that goes on with the one left behind, but we'll deal with that.

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Happy Monday.