Thursday This and That

A little of this.  A little of that.

That was life for me yesterday with a day that took me several directions and in contact with a lot of fun peeps.

On a trip Yoke's to pick up a couple of items, I visited briefly with longtime Yoke's employee Jerry Schilling. 

Whenever we bump into each other, the subject usually deals with horses. Jerry has an assorted herd of nice horses which he pastures in various places around the Selle Valley.

He said during our visit that he sure hoped I'd take some photos, and I told him I was definitely hoping to do so.  

Well, twice during the day I passed by the herd and snapped a few shots of everything from a baby foal to great big Percherons which Jerry uses for driving and competition. 

Last night the little palomino baby was feeling his oats and generally having a good time disrupting the rest of the herd, so it was fun sitting on the road watching him play. 

On that same trip to town, I stopped by the Co-Op to pick up a pitchfork.  My pitchfork of 21 years bit the dust the day before yesterday, and there was no way additional duct tape was gonna hold those tines to the handle.

So, I decided it was time to buy a new one.  This morning it occurred to me that this could be my last-ever pitchfork purchase.  Every now and then mortality drops little hints that "your time is coming." 

Whenever this reminder hits, I do my best to slough it off.  I have sincere hopes that I'll get a full 21-years of use out of this new model. 

While selecting the pitchfork, I ran into my writing and political friend Nancy and her hubby Tom Renk.  Nancy was buying vinegar to get rid of some weeds on her place, while Tom was checking out gloves. 

We had a nice visit, as we always do and then went our separate ways.

Later, I returned to town to pick up some more of that wonderful bread from the Farmers' Market.  Two times in a week certainly makes up for all those years I'd missed of the local market.  

It is a fun place for me, I've decided, because in addition to the goodies for sale, I've been running into friends and having some nice visits. 

In one case, I was taking pictures of the attractive bags embroidered with "Farmers Market at Sandpoint" when a cyclist examining the goods looked my way.  

Lo and behold, it was Steve Watt, a former student, who's home from Japan visiting his folks for the next month. Steve owns a pizza establishment in Japan. 

I also ran into Robin Roberts.  She's the lady directly responsible for the beauty of the Lovestead yard area. 

Robin told me yesterday it was the biggest landscaping job she'd ever done and that she truly loved working for Gretchen Piper, who owned this place at the time. 

Now, after taking Robin's photo and sending it to Gretchen this morning, I've heard back from Gretchen, who has lived in Minnesota for a number of years.

“Robin was moving and wanted to save her heirloom plants,” Gretchen recalls. “We paid her to make a plan and move them to our house. We were so excited to make an English Garden!!

“When we sold it we paid her to look after them until the new owners moved in,” she said, adding that the new owners did not exactly extend tender loving care to the plants (failing to water them) and that most of them died.  

“. . . but we love that you love them, and the trees, and the porch!” she said.  “You’ve made the dream come true!”

We've done our best to honor both Robin's efforts and Gretchen's dream, and vow to do that as long as we are able.  We appreciate the effort that went into creating our beautiful yard and love learning about its history. 

Back to the "This and That."  I did not have to leave home to meet Hunter Kyler.  He came by a day early to update our Internet to Gen 5.  Within about 15 minutes, we had moved into the next generation of Internet for rurals. 

It's not so much amazingly fast; instead, it allows us to watch videos without the usual "hurry up and wait." 

Hunter also told me that it's likely we exceeded our usage because of the Windows 10 updates, which do last literally for hours.  Why did Windows 10 have to do that, anywho?

Always something that's gonna get you when you least expect it. 

At the Farmers' Market, I also saw my new friend and bread baker Jill Severson, who says she likes to vary her products from one market to another. 

So rather than another loaf of that wonderful bread I bought last Saturday, I brought home forcaccia bread, which provided the perfect complement to pasta and baked asparagus spears.

Talk about "Yum Yum."  

Turned out to be quite the talking day as I drove over to my sisters' home where we spent about an hour catching up on highlights from the past couple of weeks.  They've been gone a lot of horse shows. 

Have I mentioned before that this is really a fun time of the year?

If not, I can assure you that often these days are often filled with a potpourri of good memories and treasured images.  

Yesterday was definitely one such day.

Happy Thursday.