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Ahh, the jet skis. They’re invariably the highlight of our friends’ visits here, and our time with the kids was no exception. Alex, Kyra, and Kaitlyn have all been here in previous summers and had their turns with the jet skis, but other than our trip to Cancun, I’m not sure Zack’s been on one. He warmed to it pretty quickly.

Since Flathead Lake is so big, if we want to do more than cruise around Yellow Bay, we need to take the jet skis. The kids and I decided to go cliff-jumping at some rocks across the lake. It’s about seven miles as the crow flies (or the jet ski jets, I guess) so we headed out. Although he was new to driving, Zack did a good job and he and Alex tested some different ways to ride together.

Kyra and I were on the other one:

The cliff jumping was a hoot. It doesn’t look very high from the water, but believe me, when you’re standing at the edge of the rock, fifteen feet feels like fifty. We all did a few “wimpy” jumps and then graduated to some higher spots along the cliff. Here’s Zack about to do twenty feet:

Back at Yellow Bay, we pulled out the tube. By law, if you’re towing someone in a tube behind a boat or jet ski, you’re supposed to have a “spotter” on the back watching whoever’s in the water. Obviously it’s for safety, but our jet skis aren’t very powerful so having two people on them, plus a person being towed, means it’s difficult to maneuver. Smaller kids are fine, but all of us are adults and it just wasn’t very fun. So, we threw safety out the window and went with one driver, one in the tube, and a “chaser” who was on the other jet ski watching for problems. It worked well, and it led to hours upon hours of fun.

Here’s Julian pulling Zack:

And a little while later, here’s Zack getting his revenge on Julian:

After a day on the water, we noticed Trixie (Pepper’s jet ski) was a little sluggish. You’d punch the throttle– as you should always do on these things– but she wouldn’t zip up to speed. On a hunch, back home I peeked at the wear ring and saw that it had been destroyed. At some point we must have sucked up a rock or a twig. Fortunately the wear ring gave way, as it’s designed to do, and didn’t hurt the engine. But it meant some repairs. One morning Julian and I grabbed a socket set and disassembled the jet nozzle area.

We popped a new wear ring into place (always have a spare!) and Trixie was as good as new. We took her out to confirm she worked, and I got a great shot of Julian zipping past:

Time for more tubing! Even Kaitlyn got in on the action, squealing with delight (yes, squealing) as Kyra whipped her across the bay. Julian had his GoPro with him, and managed to capture some awesome footage of the action– including a few glorious wipeouts.

At times I’ve wondered whether jet skis were worth the investment all those years ago, but when we have days like this, I know they were.

The kids all came up to Montana for a summer visit. Their work and school schedules aligned perfectly, and we were excited to see them all together. Zack’s never been here in the summer, other than a few days before we’d actually moved in, so it was an added bonus to finally show him all that Montana offers in the warm months. We also invited our nephew Julian.

We did a lot during their visit, so I’m actually going to break up my blog posts into a few sections. This first one will be dedicated to Ollie. He’s two and a half now, and has the energy and curiosity that all two-and-a-half-year-olds seem to have. I think he enjoyed the lake, but it was hard to tell because he’s kind of a stoic little kid. For example, here he sits with me on the jet ski:

Part of the problem might be that he needs to wear a life vest, and it’s a little big for him so it limits his body and head movement. I can see how that might be frustrating. I even let him drive a bit, but unlike most kids who visit us, he didn’t scream with glee.

Maybe Uncle Zack is more fun than Grandpa? Nope, Ollie still didn’t show much enthusiasm.

Grandma took a run at it, with the same results.

Wow, look at that excitement!

Okay, so maybe riding the jet ski isn’t his cup of tea. How about riding in a tube with Mom while they’re towed by the jet ski?

Ooh, a little smile there!

It turns out what he really enjoyed was running up and down the dock! He’d race Dad and Grandpa to the end of the dock (Grandpa didn’t try very hard)…

We did that for about half an hour, and then he discovered the fun game called Push Dad off the Dock. He’d come roaring down the dock toward Alex, who was standing at the end, and give him a little shove. Alex would dramatically scream and fall into the water. Ollie would laugh and laugh.

Another favorite activity, we learned, was playing with our ancient Fisher-Price village. This is one of those toys our kids played with (in fact, we’ve saved it all these years). And when I was a wee lad, I had the same things: the barn, the house, the cars and school bus and so on.

Fisher-Price also makes a train set with tracks you can customize, and he’d literally play with it for hours.

Alex built a little treasure chest with wheels (long story) and Ollie would load it up with toys and just run around pushing it everywhere. Who knew kids could be entertained with such simple things? Who needs jet skis when you have a box with wheels, right?

During the course of the week, it was great fun to spend time with our only grandson. He may not look excited about much, but when he smiles it just lights up the place.

We treasure our time with him and love seeing him learn to talk, and start figuring out how the world works. Little kids are great.

We have a really tall front porch. The wooden archway reaches at least thirty feet above the concrete, and although it looks cool, it’s impossible for me to maintain. Even if I had a ladder tall enough, I wouldn’t be comfortable climbing it. Well, a few years ago a woodpecker put a hole in the wood, and then an enterprising squirrel realized he could get inside the roof to build a nest. I admired his ingenuity, but didn’t want a squirrel living in our porch. We’d hired a gutter cleaner, and I bought some chicken wire and asked him to staple it over the hole. Since then, it’s proved a good deterrent against future squirrel homes.

Until now. Somehow a squirrel (the same one as three years ago?) managed to pry it up enough to squeeze inside the hole. We’ve seen him running up and down the pillar, carrying nuts and pinecones to stash away for the winter. Again, I’m impressed but need to put a stop to it.

Enter Doug, my friend who happens to own a window-cleaning business. He has a lot of long ladders and isn’t afraid to climb them, so when he was at the house taking care of our windows, I asked him to add some staples to the chicken wire. Let’s seal it off once and for all!

So Doug climbed up thirty feet, armed with my staple gun, and added about fifty staples to the chicken wire. It’s a very thorough job, and that wire isn’t going anywhere. No more squirrel problems!

… But shortly after Doug left, we saw a little squirrel head in the hole, gnawing at the wood from the inside in a frantic effort to get out. Doug had knocked on the wood, hoping to scare out the critter (there was really no way to tell if he was in there when Doug was stapling) and it seemed fine, but we were mistaken. Now we had a squirrel trapped in the porch roof, and although he had plenty of food stashed in there, he didn’t have any water. He really worked on that hole and actually made some impressive progress– much to my chagrin, because the last thing I need is a bigger hole– but the next day he apparently gave up. We didn’t see him again.

I’m guessing he died up there, and at this point we’re hoping he wasn’t able to get into the house before meeting his maker. Otherwise we’re going to have a repeat of October 2021…

Pepper followed this truck down the highway today.

At one point they had to pull over to pick up another deer carcass by the side of the road. Now there’s a job I don’t want…

Our summer thus far has been smoke-free. Although there are wildfires burning in southern Canada and many areas of the West, somehow we’ve escaped the drifting smoke. That came to an end today as a fire across the lake sent towers of smoke into the air.

It’s sad that fires and smoke are just part of life in the West, but that’s where things are today. We often pray for those affected by the fires, and those fighting them.

I had a lot of time in the car this past week, and it gave me an opportunity to invent a new board game. I did something similar a few years ago, and eventually that road-trip spark turned into a full-fledged game. This time around, the game will be much simpler… it’s mostly cards, with some wooden cubes to track a few things.

It has a science-fiction theme, and part of the twist is developing technologies and science-fictiony things but giving them away to the other players. I call it Forward Humanity, a reference to moving forward in a positive and cooperative way. It feels like our world could use a bit of that.

Today I spent some time putting onto paper the ideas that had been fermenting in my head. I grabbed a bunch of wooden cubes from my game development kit, and gave it a go.

The end result? Frankly, not too bad. There were definitely some refinements to make, but at first blush it wasn’t horrible.

Tomorrow I’m meeting up with some friends for pizza (of course) and will be introducing them to the game. It’ll be interesting to see what they think…

A few weeks ago I bought a big bag of Starburst. I’ve been picking through them as I’ve gone on trips (they make a great road trip snack). Today I noticed the proportion of yellow Starburst left in the bag is far above what statistics would predict.

The reason, of course, is that I don’t like yellow Starburst. So when I reach into the bag to grab a couple, I toss back the yellows. Eventually I suppose the bag will contain nothing but yellows, and at that point I’ll just hand it to a friend or something.

The thing is, life is too short to eat yellow Starburst. Or, for that matter, to do things you don’t want to do if you don’t have to do them.

Enjoy the good things. And throw the rest back into the bag.

It’s awesome to be a part of a group of seven friends (the Magnificent Seven, in fact) who have been friends for almost forty years. A few years back, we decided to get together every year to play board games and generally catch up on everything. It’s been a great tradition, and this year our destination was Omaha, where Aron lives.

I figured a road trip would be a ton of fun– I find that I often enjoy the journey as much as the destination. I did the math, and it was roughly a twenty-hour drive from my house to Aron’s. The trip would take me through eastern Montana (which seems endless at times), Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, and finally Nebraska. With stops to eat and charge the car, I was looking at around twenty-four hours. But hey, I have the time, so on a Tuesday morning I set out.

That day I drove a total of sixteen hours. It wasn’t really all that hard; on the interstate the Tesla practically drives itself (I use “autosteer” because I don’t have “full self-driving”, which is a sham anyway). And at each charging stop, I could stretch my legs and take a catnap for the fifteen or so minutes it took. With nothing else to do that day, it was easy to just cruise down the highway jamming to some tunes and watching the scenery roll past. I pulled into a rest area around midnight, inflated the air mattress that fits in the back of the car, and went to sleep. Surprisingly, sleeping in the car wasn’t too bad.

The next day, I found something fun at one of the Tesla charging stations:

It’s a little Hot Wheels Tesla (blue like mine!) with a tag that you can scan to report where this little car has “traveled”. You take the car with you and leave it at the next charging station. What a cool idea.

On Wednesday afternoon I rolled into Aron’s driveway and greeted the gang. The first thing he showed me was his amazing custom-built gaming table. This thing is sweet. It’s felt-covered, lighted, has handy cupholders and personal trays (for all your pieces), and even converts into a “regular” table.

He had it made a few years ago, and if I played board games as much as he does, I’d consider getting something similar myself.

Although we spent time at the house, we also had a separate Airbnb rental (long story) and enjoyed hanging out there. We played a lot of games.

I discovered there was a Potbelly sandwich shop just a few miles away, and I insisted on going there for lunch. I loved the one we found in Seattle back in May. Aron’s a good sport so he joined me.

But of course the main reason we get together– and the best part for me– is just spending time together. We laugh about old times (as in, the 1980’s) and catch up on new things. We tell jokes and pick on Dirk and eat great food and taunt each other during games. What I love about this group is that even after almost four decades, we’re still the best of friends.

As always, the days wound down too quickly and we had to part company. I braced for another twenty-four hours back to Montana. This time, I cruised for eighteen hours in a single day! Naturally I stopped at Wall Drug along the way…

… not because it’s amazing (it’s not) but because there’s a Tesla charging station just down the street.

Somewhere in South Dakota I saw a staggering thunderhead rising in the distance. There had been some storm alerts on my phone, but I left it behind as I continued along the highway at 80mph.

Another night in the car at a Montana rest stop, and another few hours the next day, brought me back home. There were plenty of fond memories, and I’m excited to see these guys again next year.

Three years ago, some of our Colorado friends showed up. This year they came back for a second time… although technically now they’re Utah friends. And they were joined by our other Colorado friends, who visited for the first time. These are the yahoos we’ve spent time with on multiple trips around the West over the years, and it was a lot of fun to get the band back together again.

The first order of business was, naturally, Glacier National Park. Even though it’s mid-July, there hasn’t been any wildfire smoke and we could enjoy a brilliant view.

With three years of Glacier experience under our belts, Pepper and I knew what sort of itinerary to suggest for the group. We started at St Mary Lake and went down to the shoreline to enjoy lunch beside the chilly water.

It was only a matter of time before Kurt took the plunge. Fully clothed. Yep, it was really cold… even in mid-July.

We hiked up to Virginia Falls, and I continued practicing my waterfall photography.

Jason did the same, but got a little more creative.

So many waterfalls!

At the top of the trail, Virginia Falls never disappoints.

While I was busy snapping photos, Aaron was doing something he called the “Mario Dance” on a rock below. I’m not sure what that means.

After Kurt and I did some cliff-jumping at St Mary Falls, we snapped a group photo near Logan Pass. What a glorious day in the Park.

Back at the homestead, the next few days were filled with board games, pool, ping-pong tournaments, spikeball, and a lot of good food. Skunk was popular, as always.

The Party House is so great for company– plenty of room for everyone to have space and do their stuff, while we cook and eat and hang out.

Lake days are always a hit, and the kids remembered how much fun the jet skis are. They’re a little older now, and Lexi is a little less crazy (but only a little).

Holland Lake is a frequent destination for us, so we headed there as well. It was a gorgeous day: sunny but not too hot, despite the time of year.

Hey look, more waterfalls!

The end of the trail provides a great view, but the Mission Mountains in the distance were looking a bit hazy. To the south (left, out of the shot) there was a brownish tinge to the sky. We later learned there was a massive wildfire near Seeley Lake, not too far from where we stood.

One evening all of us went outside to admire the sunset. It was absolutely spectacular. I took the following two pictures within a few minutes of each other– it was incredible how the sky went from pink and blue to orange and grey. It’s worth noting I did not adjust the colors in these shots.

We miss so many of our Colorado friends, and it’s always great to have them come up to visit. This was a fabulous week.

This year, the cherries are ripe a few weeks earlier than last year’s harvest. It’s hard to tell from year to year how things will go, but the good news is we can work on the harvest during the two days (!) we have between our family reunion trip and our next guests.

It’s been a hot few days (which is actually good for ripening the fruit) so we took advantage of the cooler mornings. We spent about an hour picking.

Behold, the fruits of our labors! (Hah, bad joke, I know.)

That’s about twenty-five pounds of cherries, the result of cleaning out two trees. Since we have 94 trees, I figure we have at least half a ton of cherries overall. Back at the house, we washed all of them.

Then I bagged everything for my traditional deliveries to friends. This time I made a fun little label for the bags:

Everything went into the refrigerator for the next day’s deliveries.

On that next day, I moved all the bags into a cooler with some ice blocks. Ready to roll!

I made a list of friends who I’d visit with a bag in hand. There were thirty-two of them, scattered all over the Flathead Valley. Off I went. By the end of the day– nearly seven hours later– I’d delivered to twenty-four homes. Several people weren’t home, and I admit I skipped a few others due to time constraints. After all, we still had to get things ready for our upcoming company!

It’s become a fun tradition to package and deliver cherries to friends. Usually we end up chatting a bit. Sometimes it’s just a quick doorstep conversation, and other times I’m invited in for a nice lemonade or something, and we talk for twenty minutes. Good times.