Holiday Fun ...

Greetings Everyone!

For the past few days we've been having rain and winds -- but the weather did not keep us from celebrating the 4th of July.  Below - Ernie is making his rum cake recipe the day before the July 4th gathering.  He's been making the cake for years and enjoys making his rum cake for special occasions.  He also made sloppy Joe's from scratch -- both were gone by the end of the gathering.

On July 3rd, Kirby showed up with his barge loaded with 'man toys' -- a hot tub and pool table included! He stopped by to say hello and get warmed up.  Kirby's trip across the lake was a bit cold -- light winds were blowing off the glacier up lake and finding their way up the sleeves and down the neck of his rain jacket.

Since we've been having rains off and on -- Ernie rigged up a rain tarp so that folks could use the bar-b-cue grills without getting soaked. We just hoped the winds wouldn't come blowing in and make things difficult. 

For an added precaution - we decided to have guests place their potluck dishes inside the cabin so that if it did rain -- no one would be running around gathering up dishes of food.

As you can imagine -- with all the rain and dampness - the conditions were perfect for the mosquitoes!  And, there were lots of them -- so before the gathering got started -- Peggy's husband, Mike came over and fogged.  It worked -- and made the gathering much more pleasant for everyone.

Although we prepared for rain -- the rain stopped and the winds calmed just in time for the July 4th gathering.  Below - guests gather on our cabin deck -- we had a total of 25 folks.  Some were Islanders and some guests of Islanders.

After the 4th -- the winds and rains returned. The winds came blowing in at 30+ mph!  So we took a break from projects around our cabin and went to visit Kirby at his cabin.  What luck!  It so happened he'd already set up his pool table and invited us to play pool!  Below -- Kirby and Ernie are beginning their game.  I'm not a pool player - I've limited to no skills -- so when I had my turn to play -- all my balls were still on the table at the end of the game.  I lost to Kirby -- but had fun attempting to hit and roll balls into the pockets. 

While Ernie and Kirby played pool - I snapped a photo of Kirby's yellow wheel barrow.  Later he shared that the wheel barrow belonged to his father at one time.  When his father 'passed' -- Kirby brought the wheel barrow up from the Lower 48 -- and out to the island.  So this isn't just any wheel barrow -- it's a traveling wheel barrow with a story.

Yesterday -- we continued to have winds -- and a couple of times -- we had some nice, heavy rains.  The kind of rain that beats down on the roof -- making loud pattering sounds.  I was doing some mending -- and simply had to open the windows to enjoy the symphony.

Later - in the evening - as we were relaxing - we heard a commotion outside of our door and leaped up to see what was going on.  What we saw was a shock!  A Magpie had found our nesting Swallows and was attacking the little birds.  We frightened off the brute -- but we're not sure if the Magpie killed or maimed any of the baby birds.  It was so very disheartening to see the parents flying around helpless -- afraid to return to their nest.

This morning -- the nest is silent -- the parents have returned -- but I'm not certain what is going on inside of the birdhouse.  I don't think its good -- a brutal side of nature. Magpies are now at the bottom of my bird list.

Today, it looks like we will begin to have some sunshine and hopefully the winds will begin to die down.

Take care and thank you for checking on us.