Chill in out at the home place. Chris did twenty two chin ups. Ben did well and even I did good.

Sara's taken the kid for a ride on the figure eight looking good and fit. Boy-Girl not sure?
Dave and Jack on the look out for wide game, whoops only Lucky, Chris's dog.

The grass is as tall as the four wheeler now and will get taller later on. the kids like going back there on walks and mom or grandma can watch them from the house.
Catch this!!! I can't figure out what happen to the cloud of dust that was following mom, She must have out run it. Couldn't get her to do it again, oh well. Pretty snazzy huh! Way to go MOM.

Great Father's Day, Love you all.

Back on April 3rd Jake and I bought eight 3 day old chicks. I brought them home and put them in a house rabbit cage. we had them down stairs where we watch TV. I told Savanna that when geese hatch they think the first living object they see is their mother. Savanna took that to heart and adopted those eight chicks. She spent time holding each one and watching TV with them.
They thought she was their mother too. All the kids loved them. Even Afton loved to reach in the cage and pet them. They spent the first month of life in the house and then we moved them to the garage but kept a heat lamp on them since it was so cold. You have to keep heat on them till they get all their feathers which is about eight weeks.
The grand children love to come to the house and play with the chickens. We let them run around outside if the weather was good. Any of the kids can walk up and pick up a chicken which is neat. Their really good to them and the chickens like the kids.

Afton is not at all afraid of them.

The boy's at one time would put them in the big dump trucks and give them a ride.

I built them a nice coop. I had a hard time getting it painted. I built the coop in the garage. The weather was so cold and rainy the paint wouldn't dry. I finally finished it and Jake, Chris, Dave, and I carried it out to the old horse corral. That gives them a large area with lots of grass and weeds and bugs to eat. We hope around the last of Semptember or by the 1st of October they will be laying eggs. There is one that is real cocky so we think it might be the only rooster out of the bunch.

Yes, we left the rainy State of Utah for the rain in Idaho and Oregon. I called Hurshel the day before we left and he told me it had rain every day of the last eleven days a lot. We thought our chances of holding the reunion out at the farm was slim to nothing since it was to rain the day of the reunion and the days after. We stopped at a park in La Grande and eat our lunch to the falling rain.
We woke the next morning to sunshine and blue sky and warm temperatures. What a surprise. The day was warm and clear till about seven when some clouds came over the west mountain and within the next hour there was rain. Prayers were answered that day.

Zoe a great grand nice kissed a horse on her Uncles farm and we had some of the best pizza's for dinner the night before the reunion.

Hurshel has the two old John Deere tractors that I spent a great deal of my life on all restored and painted beautifully. Lincoln and Grampa are taking a ride on the old tractor. Most of the little kids and some of the adults rode the tractor. Since none had ever rode one I got to help them which was really neat for me to spent time on the tractor.

The farm has become a place for weddings and anniversaries and is booked every weekend.

We rode the Sumpter Valley Railroad. The road engine made it's last run the 31st of May and then had to go in for a overhual required after fifteen years of service. This is a Hiesler engine used on the logging roads. It's very slow but very powerfull. When I went in to buy the tickets they had a dispatch board from the Whitney station that had Dad's name on it for the run that day as the brakeman. I told them that was my Father and they put my sister and me in the cab of the engine for the run. That was really neat. It only rained for fifteen minutes of the run. Couldn't have been a better reunion or trip since all went so well.

One thing about riding in the cab, it's always warm. Margaret's in the fireman's seat and I'm behind the engineer. The fireman put a lot of wood in the fire box. We got wood and water at the turn around.

Roy, this one's for you. Wish you'd been there.

On the 3rd of June our family left for a reunion in eastern Oregon. The reunion included all of my Grandfather's decendents that were still alive which many has passed on. We had around a hundred and twenty come. That was a great turn out for our family. My family was excited tobe going. Our first stop on such a long journey was at Shoshone Falls on the out skirts of Twin Falls Idaho. The Snake River was very low since they were putting water into the American Falls Resorvoir. The break was a good one for the little ones.That night in all the rain we stopped at Farewell Bend on the Snake River and set up the tent trailer and Dave and Jack pitched their tent. It is one of the most beautiful camp spot I've ever seen.

Retired

The time came that I should retire. It seemed a harder decision than getting married. Patsy had retired earlier back in February and I worried that I would not keep busy enough and find things to do, but now I don't have time for anything I waited so long to do. I'm Just keeping up with the necessities of life. I should say that I enjoyed work and all those I had contact with through the 21 years of work. It was a great experience that I will always treasure.