Monday, July 9

 Judy and I have spent the last three days trying to catch up on computer updates, me still fighting my way on the computer learning process.  Sounds like a horrible waste of time, but needs to be done.  Lana, a friend of Lucille, and her rescue dog, Sandy, came over to visit and meet Hank. 

Brought Lucille over to Linda's in time for the family's return from the baseball tournament---VICTORIOUS!  Adam's team, the Spokane Dodgers White, won the Americal Legion Wood Bat Classic championship out of 40 teams.  Way to go Adam!  Way to go team!

Temperatures in the low 100s daily, with thunder and lightening storms.  Beautiful sunsets.  Doug was up on our trailer in a huge wind storm tightening down the tarp on the hay while I was securing the weather/privacy panel on the
back door. 

Been keeping an eye on the forest fire reports in MT & WY.  Hank was sweating just grazing the pasture until he found the sprinklers a welcome relief.  Had to lead and hold him through the first spray, but then he figured it out and was a happy camper.

Ahhhh, cool relief

One day when Linda was bringing Lucille over for the evening, they saw a bale of hay sitting in the road.  Lucille was giving Linda a bad time for not picking it up and bringing it home to me.  When Linda got back from taking Lucille home, she said she had a present for me in the back of her car.  It was funny.....guess you had to be there  :)

Linda wrestled this into her car for her eternally grateful cousin, Sandy :)

Current report from WW Forest Service is road is clear of snow (that was quick considering 12 feet a couple days earlier).  Linda, Judy and I decided to take a road trip in Linda's Expedition and check it out.  Glad we did.  Linda thought it would take a couple hours or so.  Five hours later we made our way, 2 mph, up through Milk Shakes, past Table Rock, down the north side to Dayton.  Horseback we would take a different route past Table Rock heading to Pomeroy.  Only a couple spots of snow off the road, otherwise clear.  The road was very narrow at one point, but the worst were the DEEP ruts in a long section that was hard to maneuver the car on much less a trailer with a 22" wider wheel base.  We would be bottomed out and stuck in a heartbeat. 

We moved a couple of downed trees out of our path and tossed rocks out of the road.  At one point, we came across Derrick Knowles and friends from Spokane axe chopping a downed tree blocking the road.  Derrick is clearing 1500 miles of hiking trails from Spokane to somewhere south, forget just where, in his spare time for Friends of the Inland Northwest Trail (http://www.inwtrail.org/).  I think he said he started this organization. The project has been going on for several years.  

Judy & I working on moving that double trunked tree out of the road.

Linda's taking the picture, but in actuallity, she was helping also,

with Judy calling "Heave, Heave, Heave"

Derrick & Friends

Scenery from the Table Rock area.

Made it home @ 6:00 for spaghetti dinner at Lucille's.