Summer Break!

Ok, now for the summer portion of this blog post. I really enjoyed this summer a lot more than last, yet I even would dare to say that it will be every bit as memorable, though not as interesting to tell people about. This summer consisted of 3 main things: Work, Family, and Amy. First off, as far as working goes, I kept rather busy but didn’t have to work a single 15 hour day. I charged $15 per hour, so I did quite well in the hours I did work. At the beginning of the summer, I worked at the Meadowlark Manor (an assisted living home) in the mornings doing landscaping around the building. There are sidewalks near the building, but there is a gap between the sidewalk and building. My job was to take out what plants remained in the mostly earthy middle ground and to slope the ground slightly away from the building. I then had Erica’s help while putting down the black landscaping fabric. We put two layers down to provide extra protection from the weeds that may grow back. I then put a light layer of river rock onto the fabric and waited for the owner to plant the plants. They took about 3 weeks to do so, but then I started to shovel/wheelbarrow the rest of the rock (about 10 yards) onto the area, making it around 3 inches deep. I only did about 3/8ths of the entire area, but they never planted the remaining plants so dad will have to finish the job later. I also did many small jobs for people and also a LOT of work for some folks west of Whitehall, including but not limited to pulling weeds, digging holes, doing more landscaping, shoveling gravel, shoveling compost, raking grass, transplanting plants (without water woops!), picking rocks, pulling grass, etc. You get the picture, basically I was a landscaper and mowed lawns with my dad as a side Job. In the afternoons, I would help my dad mow lawns when he was going to do them. We had 26 that we regularly did, but regularly in Whitehall only means that we did them more than once during the summer. We had around 10-15 that we mowed at longest every two weeks and several others were even longer between times than that. We have amassed quite the arsenal of lawn mowing equipment to date. Our newest addition is a Stihl (pronounced steel) multi tool. The motor looks like the back half of a week eater, but it can also have other ends, such as a hedge trimmer we have and also a little miniature chainsaw. We even have an extension so we can reach really high branches. During the beginning of the summer we also bought a Core ™ electric weed-eater, but it was not powerful enough for us and the battery life was not exceptional. It was powerful for a battery powered device, and utilized a unique technology. It had a very compact motor, since the wire windings and iron laminations were eliminated from this motor. It was really quiet and had decent power in the turbo mode, but then the battery really did not last long. Anyway, by the end of the summer, there are the tools we had. Walker lawnmower with a 60 inch deck. A Toro push lawnmower with a bagger or side discharge. 4 trimmers, including the new Stihl one and an older Stihl one with a metal blade for tall weeds, a curved handled Echo trimmer for mom or the sisters if they come to help, and my personal favorite, the Echo straight shaft trimmer with a bump feed head. We also have a Stihl blower that we use as a sweeper after we are done, and 2 red rakes to get the extra grass from ones we were either late getting to, or the people like their lawns extra tall. The landscaping job I mentioned west of town was quite the project. I worked out there for 4 hours in the morning as much as I could or felt like. My first project was to clear away all of a large sloped bank or unwanted weeds and plants. I used the garden pitchfork to pry the root-base free and to then shake off as much dirt as I could. I left the shrubs while getting as close to them as I could. Then, I covered the entire area (approximately 50x15 feet) with one layer of landscape fabric, after which I applied a generous layer of mulch. There were several other projects, but pretty much more of the same. I also got to see my family a lot over this break, which was great! In the beginning of the summer, Darcy and I ran together a bit. She did it to get in shape for soccer and I was just doing it to get in shape. I had many great meals with my family and we also went to the mountains and floating several times. We also went on one of Amy’s dad’s tours of Butte. As an architect and previous preservation officer, he knew many things about the old city of Butte and about the houses which made it up. When Dad, Darcy, and Erica were at Spec, I got to be home with just mom. We played cribbage and ate food. We tried out a new recipe for apple cobbler which just had croissants, apples and mountain dew (and flavor adding ingredients). We played pinochle with grandma and grandpa some too. Byron was also around Whitehall this summer. He got a job as a tour guide up at the Lewis and Clark Caverns. He really liked his job up there and he would hike the 2 mile tour 3 times per day normally. As a result, he got in pretty good shape, so we went hiking a couple of times during the summer, up the south Boulder. We hiked to Curly Lake and Lost Cabin Lake. Amy and I had wanted to hike Hollow top this summer, and I planned it and Byron was excited to do it too, but the day before, he jumped into the river and landed right on a rock with his tailbone. OUCH! Needless to say, he was not upto hiking hollowtop the next day. The Nilsens also came out in early July. We had a lot of fun playing pinochle, hiking, boating, and playing in water. It just so happened that Amy’s cousins were in town at the same time as mine, so we did several things with them, such as going to Harrison Lake, hiking Hollowtop, and playing the Salad Bowl game. The salad bowl game is really simple, yet fun. You write down random objects or sayings or anything and then put the papers into a big bowl. Next you divide into 2 teams. There are then 3 rounds. First, you draw words and describe them using anything but the words on the card. Your team must guess the entire phrase successfully for you to move on. Each person gets 1 minute to get as many cards as possible. The next round is charades with the same words as last time, so it is a little easier. For the final round each person may only use one word to describe the phrase. It is really tricky, since if you choose a bad word, your team may never guess it, and the minute will run out. Ok, enough of game descriptions. Hollow top was really fun and intense, since at the end we were running out of water. We had had a nice lunch at the top of the mountain at 10,622 ft, but by the time we were almost down the mountain, the energy and water had run out. The final main part of my summer was Amy She went to Ecuador for a study abroad summer program, so she was gone for 6 weeks towards the beginning of the summer. She had a really great time and her Spanish improved greatly, but it wasn’t too fun for me, since I could only see her on the computer once in a while. Anyway, she finally got back and we had the rest of our summer together (not literally, but quite a bit). In early July, we went to Nicole, her dad’s ladyfriend’s, house to watch the 3rd of July fireworks in Butte. Jim came over too, and we had burgers and home-made FroYo. The fireworks were pretty great too! We also went to the Montana Folk Festival, which was in Butte. There were lots of great artists and even some international ones, which are usually my favorite. We went several afternoons and also hung around with her dad a bit. He designed the bathrooms that were built to accommodate the crowds of the event. The main stage usually had the most popular events and the stage itself was pretty cool, since it is under one of the old mining headframes. Near the end of July, we went to a little of Evil Knievel Days. We watched a lady get shot from a cannon and also one of the famous Wallenda tight rope walkers. Not the one that went across Niagara falls, but it was his cousin. Amy and I and sometimes Willis watched most of the Harry Potter series, this summer. Another interesting thing we did was go to her Uncle Bill and Aunt Tamara’s celebration called Wet Year Dry Year. It was a story of the rain seasons and irrigation and such in Montana and the idea was sparked when they found an old boot in the mountains. It was also the grand opening of her newly finished dance hall, which had been converted from one of their barns. Ok, I really must move on in time now, but basically, this summer was awesome!