In other news... After our enjoyable June vacation in Canada, we spent a couple of weeks at our cabin in Wisconsin. On the way there, we made a side trip to visit the English Shepherd puppies Kathie had been considering. One of the two females in the litter, Marci, really seemed like a good fit for us, so we let the breeder know she was our preference. While at the cabin, the breeder decided that Marci could be ours, so on the way back home, we picked her up and have now been integrating her into our lives. We have chosen to call her Maddie. She is now 15 weeks old and weighs about 20 pounds—we think she will top out at about 42 pounds. She is beginning to lose her baby teeth (thank goodness!), and is generally well behaved indoors. Maddie is a cutie, and all of the grandkids love her already. She loves playing with them! This is her during her ride to our home and while still with the breeder.
The garage floor at our home in Iowa was not in great condition, having cracks and irregularities in its surface. I decided to take a chance with one of the companies that advertise concrete coatings. In one day's time, they repaired and reinforced cracks, ground the entire surface smooth, and then applied several coatings, including colored chips to dress it up. We are very pleased with the results. The only mishap along the way was a fire in the crew's equipment trailer due to a hot tool placed near an acetone spill. Fortunately, they were able to extinguish the fire with sand, but by that time I'd called our local fire department. They sent a fire truck and a couple of firemen out just to be safe—I had not wanted things to get out of control and threaten our home. So, the day was a bit more exciting than we intended.
Thirty years ago, we vacationed at a beautiful guest ranch in the foothills to the Rocky Mountains in western Montana. The ranch is in the Bob Marshall Wilderness area and not far south of Glacier National Park. When there 30 years ago, Jessica and Travis were only 12 years old. During the first week of this past August, we returned to the ranch, once again with Travis and this time with Jessica and her family.
Travis and I chose not to do any horseback riding, which admittedly can be a big part of the experience at the ranch. Leo and Maia really took to it, and the ranch offered a great children's program. All of the kids at the ranch enjoyed separate rides from those the adults got to do.
Meanwhile, Travis and I did three hikes and enjoyed some beautiful views of the nearby rivers and mountains.
We tried a bit of fly fishing too, including one group outing to a nearby river. Although we didn't catch anything there, I did land (and released) one nice rainbow trout at one of the ponds at the ranch. I should have left the "vegetables" out of this picture!
One of the days that the adults went riding was very hot. Someone captured this fun video of Jessica's horse demonstrating how to handle the heat as they crossed a stream. Watch it!
As of this week, all of the grandkids are back in school. Anders 15th birthday was on Labor Day. We had dinner with him that night. Leo and Maia and all of the parents were able to join us. Meanwhile, Eleanor began her junior year in high school, and Penny began her first year of junior high school.
Clara is in her high school's marching band again this year, and Henry, now a freshman at the University of Iowa, is in the Hawkeye Marching Band (like his grandfather used to be some 61 years ago!). We can see Clara's performances via her high school's online video broadcasts. Last Saturday, when the Hawkeyes began their football season, I got to see Henry march in his first performance. I was right there with him vicariously.
Prior to the game, the band performs/practices all of its music in a building just across from the stadium. Several of us attended. Here is the "Iowa Fight Song" for anyone who needs a musical hit. (I know that some of you who read this earlier saw that I got the title wrong. This is indeed the "Iowa Fight Song" not "On Iowa!")
That's all for now! We're back at the cabin for a few weeks.
