So today I thought I would share a little bit of family history I just learned a very short time ago. My moms dad. Who died when she was a little girl. Came out of a family with 16 boys and 3 girls. All 16 boys fought in world war 2. All 15 of his brothers were killed fighting. He was the only one to come home. I don't know yet what side they were fighting on but that little tidbit was in the obituary. He was buried in Mitchel South Dakota.
    Dad told me once that he was a third cousin to Keizer Wilhelm and could speak several languages. I can neither verify or disclaim any of this but when I have things caught up I want to find out more. I think Keiser Wilhelm was run out of town by the nazi's but even that is a guess from something I remember studying in high school. If I had known some of this back then I may have had much more interest in what I was learning.

   When I first saw this little guy a few days earlier his mom was still cleaning him. Hard to believe he has grown so much in just a few days. This was in front yard in Thompson Falls, Mt.

   Took barbacue with me to Thompson Falls, Mt. I used it a good part of the winter. I never did actually see anyone else out in the snow drinking beer, listening to music and burning chicken :-) Well someone had to do it.

Front of house I was caretaking last winter. You just would not believe how huge this place was. I never measured the living space but I was in on building enough homes to make a guess that this would have been between 4 and 5000 ft. Thompson Falls has a Winchester mansion. Rogers dad built what he needed. It had a huge shop in the back. Everyone who was shown the house was overwhelmed the first time through.

  Rogers 1978 Bronco I used last winter. It has a new engine but we are unsure what it is. It was bought at auction as a project vehicle and it does have the heavy duty version of the 390 in it. That however is just the block. It had new pistons that were stamped 40 thousanths over and the guy was an old ford guy who was building this for pulling heavy trailers. A 410 mercury crank would have made this a 428 ci. Well whatever it is. In 4 wheel drive and low range it would be hard to stop. I owned several fords with 390's that had 4:11 gears and they never had the snort this thing does. Of course in low range you could watch the gas gauge drop as you drove it :-)

This is looking down on Thompson Falls from about the 5000ft. level on one of the many forest service trails in the area. I notice digital pictures tend to wash out at distance on sunny days, but I tried.  I notice that most of the people who had moved to the mountains from the big cities feel like they are really living the life but in actuallity they are doing exactly what they did when living in the city. Work, home, bar?, grocery store.
    They sit and stare at the mountains because they are afraid of the evil things that most certainly must be out there and will never realise that what made the natives the way they were was being close to nature. Not just reading a book about it and pretending to know. If you have ever spent a lot of quiet time out in the woods just observing wildlife/nature then you know what I am talking about. I kind of feel sorry for them.  In the old days people lived in town and the surrounding woods were open for all to enjoy. Now they want to own estates and put up no tresspassing signs. So they sit in the house overseeing their property and nobody is out enjoying that anymore.
  A friend told me they do that because they think it makes them safe to be away from people. Just the opposite. If someone is going to rob someone. They would most certainly go to the secluded places first where they are least likely to be seen and have a better chance of getting away with it.

  OK....that is my bitch. I love the mountains and having been born and raised in them I don't like seeing what is happening to them.  It bothers me to see people flocking in and not having any appreciation for what they see. All they want to do is stare at it from the safety of a house or figure out how to get rich with it.  I doubt I will ever move back to the mountains. The time and place I grew up in has changed more than I can take.
   I think the boating world will be a very good change for me. I know there are going to be teething pains but I am most willing to put up with them to be out here doing what I want to do. I have wanted to do this for a very long time and it is now right in front of me.  Guess who took a day off to rest and is getting anxious to get going again. :-) :-) :-)