Hi everyone! Sorry that it has been awhile since my last post. I just got home from a 10 day Wright Family Reunion in northern Montana. Cory's grandpa has a cabin, on Wildhorse Island, in Flathead Lake just north of Missoula. We try to get together with family every year up there. Cory has a brother in Michigan, one in Georgia, one in Salt Lake, and a sister in Idaho. So, we go for as long as we can and "bond." The island dock is about a mile from the mainland, so everything has to be boated over-clothes, food, drinking water, tents, sleeping bag, etc. Thus, the purchase of the boat with Cory's brother. Grandpa's boat is older and isn't a "fun" boat, if you know what I mean. The cabin is an A frame one with two bedrooms upstairs and living area on the main level. There is running water pumped up from the lake, a shower, toilet, fireplace, but for the much part it is pretty basic. No washer/dryer, so one has to take enough clothes for the time or do wash by hand. Most of us sleep in tents behind the cabin since there is no AC in the cabin and the upstairs gets pretty stuffy at night. The island is home to deer, big horn sheep, coyote and a few wild horses. There is great hiking on the island and fun old buildings to discover! For the most part though, the kids love to play down at the dock. A couple of years ago, the family purchased a small water trampoline and a towable that the kids love to jump on, push themselves out and pull themselves in again. The shore line is made up of flat rocks, so our kids have been taught how to skip rocks. The little ones like to put rocks in buckets and dump them out again. The adults catch up with each other, supervise the kids and play cribbage. Two of the days were wet and cold, so we had a cribbage tourney. I think Cappy, the youngest and only girl of the family won! Way to go! When the sun was out and the wind was calm, we were on the boat playing. We have the water ski professional, Colby. Cory, the champion wakeboarder. Misty, the new water skier-way to go. Clay, let's just say nice try. Tim, Mak, Herbie and Katie, the brave tubers. Kelli, Kenya, and Teddy, the kids who refuse to drown. Amanda, the brave saver of a screaming child in the water. Monica and Dash who like to sleep as soon as the boat starts. And just the boat riders, Judy, Rick, Cappy, Alex, Donna. Let's not forget Grandpa who reigns over all. So, now we are home, catching up on some sleep, doing laundry, and missing the lake like crazy. Hope you enjoy the pictures!
I know, nice tree, but it had to go. Cory tried to cut the thing down with a neighbor's chainsaw, but the "pain-in-the-butt" machine would not do the job. This is Cory trying to get the "thing" running.
Cory was about to give up for the night, but the girls were all lined up, watching and Tim was going for the hand saw out of the trailer. How could a Dad stop now? Here is the tree after it came down.
Then we had the lovely task of cutting it into smaller pieces and getting it out of the way. Remember, the chainsaw was not working, so we cut it up with the hand saw. The kids would grab a limb after Cory had cut one off and drag it to the side of the side where I piled them up. This is what the side of our house looks like now. Anyone want some dead leaves?
And this is what our yard looks like without the tree. A big change and we miss the shade. But better things are to come. I will keep you updated on the progress!
