Take a close look at this tree. It is hanging upside down from a ledge above the Pend Oreille River. Sometimes, if you hang in there, things come out alright. The last two weeks have been a lot like that. Cheryl and I saw it while paddling a canoe from
Metaline Falls to Boundary Dam on Sunday, September 27th, the day after my birthday. April and Tony were there too in their own canoe. My old friend Meg Decker found a canoe for Cheryl and I and invited us along on an expedition organized by
PORTA, The Pend Oreille River Tourism Alliance. Click on the
Metaline Falls to Boundary Dam link to open the tour page, and be sure to check out the
interactive map and all of the points on it. I have done a lot over the last couple of weeks to make this technology work for me, and spent a good part of the day putting this particular map together.
So what is this "hanging int there" thing all about? Well - there was the spider bite on my... but lets just say it's all better after a trip to the doctor and some strong medicine. Then there is the switch to Verizon Wireless. Yes. Cheryl and I are now logging on to the Internet at faster speeds for less money through an antenna on Bisbee Mt. This means that any of you still using our WildBlue email addresses will need to switch, we still have some work to do before we announce that. We waited almost a month to get the right equipment in place. It happened the day before we took off for our 14th wedding anniversary.
We camped overnight at Pierre Lake, a serene little spot near the Canadian Border between the Kettle and Columbia Rivers. We were the only ones camped there. Scruffy came with us and did alright after shaking in terror during the whole drive up. We ate dinner by the campfire. I watched beavers swimming in the moonlight and did a (very) little swimming myself on one of the hottest days of the month.
But we had a lot to do back home. The wine season is upon us and Thursday Sept. 24th I picked my first grapes, Marechal Foch. Very sweet and after getting them pressed and fermenting on the 25th, they are now almost ready to fill the carboy that will be their home for the next 9 months.
Thursday night at 10 PM, the power company shut off power for the night. They are installing a new line. The Phone Company did it's part by running a generator all night across the street from us to keep the phones working. Except that they didn't turn it off for 5 hours after the power came back on. :-(
April and Tony arrived late Friday night and we went on a rock hounding field trip Saturday to find Dioptase on Sherman Pass. Rushing back from that, we loaded up the van for a trip to Metaline, stopped at a party for Gabriel Cruden, whose birthday is the same as mine, in Colville and dined out at the Cabin Grill near Ione so we could camp at Campbell Park and be ready for the canoe trip Sunday.
Monday Sept. 28th our first firewood for the year arrived. (Thanks to Great Grampa Barreca.
Tuesday I gave a presentation to the Colville Chamber of Commerce of the
River Routes Tour live from the Internet. It is a prototype of internet maps that I hope to make several of in the coming months covering history and recreation on driving loops in Stevens County.
Throw in a few oral history interviews with old timers, and it has been a busy time. Speaking of old timers, my former boss, Blanche Estep, passed away Tuesday. No one knew more about the county than she did. Unfortunately, it was all slipping away from her by the time she left the office of Assessor. The Park Service came through that same day with payment for the first round of oral histories.
Last night we almost had our first frost, even though we had temperatures up to 90 degrees last week. So the seasons keep on changing, and we keep hanging in there.