Summer 2008

The summer of 2008 saw the highest prices for gasoline and diesel fuel in history. I know that, because on our trip to Powers Lake we fueled up and for the first time in my life it cost over $100 to put fuel in the pickup. That is one reason we decided to stay close to home for the summer of 2008. The other reason was that we had some maintenance work to do on our house before winter. We have steel siding on our house and it was yellow in color. Karen liked to call it a gold color. We wanted to have it more in the grey tone so I looked into the best way to paint it. The first step was to wash and scrub the whole house with a solution of TSP. Next came a coat of a high quality bonding agent and then the final two coats of paint. It seemed like quite a task for a couple of old timers like ourselves, but like Karen says, "How do you eat an elephant?... One bite at a time." So we took one section or one wall at a time and sure enough--before you knew it, the job was done.

The shingles on the gables are actually made of fibreglass so they didn't need as much prep work. All that was needed was a good cleaning and the paint job. Does the siding look gold or yellow?

The first coat of paint over the bonding agent. We are just about all the way around the house now. What a job! Can we go camping again now?

Catch-up

At this writing, it is April of 2009. However, there is a lot of catch-up to do since our camping trip of June, 2008 (our last entry in this blog). It was supposed to be a winter project to get caught up but obviously that didn't happen. So bear with us. We will get caught up on our ADVENTURES UP NORTH.

Home again

Dear Family and Friends,

Usually when we leave Powers Lake for home we go through Stanley and back on Highway 2. This time we went east on Highway 50 which connects with 52 through Donnybrook, Carpio and on to Minot. I believe this route is much more scenic and with the weather we have been having, the clouds have been spectacular. We both love the big white fluffy clouds and the deep blue sky of the Northern Plains. Karen has quite a file of cloud photos assembled already.

We arrived in Minot and spent a good part of the day doing our monthly shopping. We don't get to Minot as often as we once did because of gas prices so when we are there we spend the day. When we left for home, a major rain storm began. We probably should have stayed and waited it out but not knowing how long it would last we headed to Butte since it was getting late. We drove in the rain the whole way and as soon as we pulled into Butte, it quit and the sun was shining. We did, however, pull up to our house as a beautiful rainbow was forming over our yard and a river of water was still running down our street.

We hope you enjoy our journeys with us. However, if you want to be excluded from all of our excursions, just let us know.

Love, Keith and Karen

To Powers Lake, Keith's hometown

Dear Family and Friends,

When we left Kenmare, we followed the Des Lacs river out of town and took in the beauty of the valley. Everything was so clean and crisp after the rains and spring time here is always so colourful. The Des Lacs National Wildlife Refuge is probably the best of many birding areas in the whole country. The following week there were a group of young "birders" here from all over the country. These were teenagers and they had all gathered here to view birds that many of them had only heard or read about. One comment from a young boy was, "(This bird) is very shy. Usually you can only hear it out there but I ACTUALLY SAW it!" When a girl was asked what was different here from where she lived, she said, "There are no cars on the highways!"

The drive to Powers Lake was good and it is always nice to go back and visit my "hometown". Yes, Powers Lake will be celebrating their Centennial next year. I remember being there for the 50th ! ! ! UFFDA. And we alway enjoy going back to visit the only uncle I have left, Uncle Freddie and Aunt Carol. They moved off the farm about four years ago and really enjoy being in town now. They both have their health issues but they are always so quick to give thanks to God for all that they do have and for the life that God has blessed them with. Probably the one thing that keeps them going is their sense of humour. They are always laughing and joking despite some of the obstacles they face. A good lesson to learn. Every time we are there we learn something new. This time Uncle Freddie took time to give me a little history lesson of his side of the family. He has been gathering old photos of his family and writing up some history.

We brought sandwich stuff with us in the RV so between games of Rummikub we set everything on their table and sat around making sandwiches and talking and eating. Rummikub? Yes, they are experts (they taught us how to play several years ago) and they play almost every day. Carol always treats us too with her homemade desserts and coffee.

We camped at our favourite spot at the Lake campground. We had to dig pretty deep this time too to come up with the $3.00 camping fee here.

Next...........

Love, Keith and Karen

Who likes malts?

We continue with our travels of this past June. To recap: we had sent e-mails of these travels and now that we have started this blog, we are posting them again here so they will be archived. Following is the original e-mail and photos plus one or two more.


Dear Family and Friends,

When we were in downtown Kenmare, we noticed a sign on the drugstore that said, "Soda Fountain". Right away in our minds we envisioned the sight of an "old fashioned" soda fountain. But it's only 10 o'clock in the morning. Why would we want to go to a soda fountain at that time of the day? We looked at each other and said, "this just might turn into another one of those adventures for us". So in we went to investigate. Sure enough, it was a turn-of-the-century soda fountain in all its original glory. And I'm not talking about the turn of THIS LAST century either. It was in use up until the late 50s or early 60s when it was dismantled and stored in the basement of the drugstore. Then in the late 80s or early 90s it was brought back up during a remodel and is back in full use again. We just love to see something this spectacular being brought back to life again. And being used again. Especially for malts.

Now who likes malted milks? Who likes malted milks at 10am? Who likes REAL malted milks? I have been known to be a real malted milk connoisseur for most of my life. I know very few people who like malts like I do. There is one person I remember giving a taste of my malt to when he was two or three years old. This little boy grabbed onto my malt and I couldn't get the straw out of his mouth. This little boy turned into a malt aficionado too.......... But I digress. Since I could see that they use the REAL malt powder, not the liquid or an imitation, we ordered one to share. Yep, we'll be back ! ! !

Stay tuned, there's more,

Love, Keith and Karen

The Mill

Dear Family and Friends,

Karen and I continue our little outing in Kenmare, ND by taking a little drive around the area and stopping at the Old Danish Mill. It was a beautiful day after the rain storm so it was nice to get out and stretch our legs a bit. The sign on the mill pretty much explains its history.

Love, Keith and Karen

On to Kenmare

Dear Family and Friends,

The morning we left Mohall the rain started. It was a steady soaking rain too. The kind that the farmers really like. And it was well needed too as North Dakota, especially in the northwest part of the state, has been in somewhat of a drought condition for some time now. I'm sure it is well appreciated.

We set up camp in the Kenmare City Campground, right across the way from the Pioneer Village and Museum. Many of the campers in the park were oil field workers. This is the part of the state where there has been oil development for close to 50 years now and also where the new reserves have recently been discovered. So there is a lot of new drilling going on along with all the associated activities.

Kenmare is home to the world reknowned Goosefest that takes place in the fall of the year. It is also on the Des Lacs River and surrounded by the Des Lacs National Wildlife Refuge. We wanted to tour this refuge as well but since it ended up raining all day long, we simply stayed in our trailer all day and took the oportunity to just relax. I'm sure we will be up that way again in the future so we can check it out then. Besides, we took advantage of our "inside" time to polish up on our game of Rummikub.

More later...........Love, Keith and Karen