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This was most of what we'd picked from the Garden Sunday afternoon. Left to Right; various sizes of Summer squash, Yellow Zucchini, pickle cucumbers, regular cucumbers, Italian cucumbers, those orangy ones are 2 acorn squash and a 'Lemon' cucumber and finally some of the three types of corn. Hanging on the front porch are all the bean plants for drying to get the beans inside the pods when dry. Till next time, Tad

Above, Stacy checking out some of the squash and root veggies on display. Below, a 'squash monster' actually almost 3 feet tall stands at the ready. Below is the dunk tank, although this thrower did knock the fireman in once, it wasn't on this throw! I had to take a photo of this sign below! Would you get a free cold drink from a place that was advertising a 'free trip' like this one? I wouldn't!!! Don't know, just kept thinking of "Jone's Town!". I know, a really bad joke.

Last week ending Saturday was our little Counties annual Fair. Back in California I remember the "Orange Show" in San Bernardino was a week, the L.A. County Fair in Pomona was two weeks, our Fair, 4 days, Wednesday to Saturday. This year as in 2007 I decided to enter some photos. I entered six and had five win! Pretty pleased actually, one was first place and "best of class", two second and two third. The winnings really aren't much, small county and all, so I just kept the ribbons and let them keep the money! You always have a choice when you win at the fair to keep the ribbons with any winnings or turn them back in to be 'recycled' for next year as they don't date the ribbons. The winnings for my photos would have been about $4.00 so I donated it back to the fair. They don't charge to enter projects and there's no cost to enter the fair so it's OK with me. When Stacy and I went to see the fair Saturday evening we checked out all there...

It was just coincidence but last Monday the 17th after stopping at the garden as shown in the last post, when we got home we found that the cover of the Solstice had been pulled off. Now its not ever windy where the cars are parked so we wondered what had happened. When we got close enough to see I was stunned!! I could see exactly what had happened, one of the stay cats that live in the area had apparently taken refuge on top of the car from our neighbors terrier. Bad and deep scratches on both doors, left front wheel area and by the right headlight. Both Stacy and I point out where the dog "Andy" had been biting the car! Four little teeth dents! And below the drivers side door scratches. Stacy had wanted me to let it slide, and on Monday that was probably a really good thing for me to do since I was so angry over it. Last night though "Andy" was back in our yard barking at us so that was it! I took copies of these photos and went over to talk to Andy's ...

Top photo was taken on July 17th on the way to work we'd stopped water and check things out. Next photo is Stacy almost in the same spot exactly one month later, August 17th, this time after work to pick some veggies. We luckily have had a lot of rain for a few days but the corn really grew in the month, and still is! This time it was these two of three bags full of veggies, lots of squash! And below, Stacy has the third bag with some carrots and the first ear of corn. At home we have a couple more squash plants and a few tomato plants. It's all good too!!!

Stacy had to go to a meeting today about 4 hours away in Lewiston, up at 4 am off by 5 am. She won't be back until late this evening. The last few days have been some rain with afternoon thunderstorms, today has been pretty steady rain which is great for right now. The garden needed it! The garden is growing so well we've decided we have to set up a garden area at home next year so we can more easily take care of it. Some big thunderstorms came through the area last evening. We listened to the rain and saw some of the flashes but most of the lightning was by sound time, pretty far away. Got some heavy rains though and I was working on the computer at home, and I thought I'd put out my recorder to get some of the rumbling thunder echo off the valley and as I'm standing on the back deck a blinding flash and almost instantaneous explosion. Memories of our recent fried electronics from just such a strike, I told Stacy "one hit in the three years we've been here...

After the fire at the town's only auto dealership last Monday, Stacy thought I'd taken some pretty good photos. Seems like quite a few people in the courthouse and Sheriff's office wanted to see them too so I put the better of them, original size, on a flash drive and Stacy took them over for people to see. Yesterday I find out that the photos are making the rounds all over on-line and are being e-mailed back and form to people that already had them! And I was told that at least one had been used by our oldest weekly newspaper, The Bonners Ferry Herald. So this morning right there on the front page is this photo. I cropped it to look as it is on the paper. This photo was at the height of the fire on the second floor offices. I'd also e-mail four photos to the other paper in town, Boundary County Digest that afternoon since they are a free weekly and on-line edition too. They had their story of the fire and over 150 photos on line first but missed out in this weeks print...

About 12:20 today the only auto dealer in town, Riverside Auto, had an electrical fire start in the attic above the second floor offices. It went from smoke to almost the enitre top floor in flames in less than ten minutes. When Stacy came in and told me about it I got my camera and went up to the roof of the Post Office and got these as well as others of the fire. Last year when I bought my Solsice it was in the showroom which was the bottom floor at the entrance there. There were vehicles inside that if not damaged by the fire were surely damaged by all the water to put it out. Even standing this far away there was a lot of heat from the fire. Power lines were on the ground and the "pot" at the top of the power pole also started arcing. Since it was the only dealer this far North it sold and worked on all the American brands. With the problems GMC has had and as far as GM goes our dealer will be covering them until the end of 2010 then it becomes a Dodge and Chrysler d...