February 5 - Ice Breakup

Okay so I'm finally getting around to updating the blog again. I am going to just jump ahead, so that y'all are more updated in recent happenings. This post is still a little bit behind, but it sure was a big deal around here. This winter was very unusual for this area, and was very cold. The snow pack was much larger, and the river was totally iced over super thick. In fact Zach had walked out on it the day it all broke up and it held him. Anyway, our horse pen is on high ground, but it's still near the river so we could bring water up for them. On a Sunday morning, Zach was down there doing chores and he went down to the river to get water. He chopped through the ice and everything looked totally normal. Then he headed back over to the pen. He said he heard what sounded like a gunshot, which at that time of year isn't all that unusual. While he was in the horse pen pouring water, all of a sudden the ground got really mushy and then he could visibly see the water rise under his feet. He was just getting ready to move animals, when it went down again. He called home and we all came down to see the river ice move down.

It lasted for about an hour, the river rose to an amazing height. Under the bridge, which usually is ankle deep in the summer, the water had raised to the height of over 7' high.

  Many of the chunks were massive, some as big as cars. When the water receded it left a wall of ice chunks high up in both banks of the river.
It was amazing to get to watch the power of this river in action!

August 2 - Digging out the South Pump

As the summer has worn on, the river has gone down a bunch. Dad rented a track hoe to dig trenches for some of the pipes we are putting in for the new irrigation system, so we took this afternoon to dig a hole under the South Pump. This involves driving in the river and digging under the floating screen that we use to suck water out of the river into the irrigation system. In the winter, this beach is totally underwater, but right now it is about 6" deep. It was a good excuse to play in the river.

July 23-24 - Cousin sleepover

We had a fantastic weekend with some of the younger cousins! The beauty of it all was our family doubled in size for a weekend and half of them were all the same age. We had a picnic by the river, swam ourselves into exhaustion, made a cheesy movie, and just made a million memories!

Missi is showing everyone the new song she learned with Janessa.

For lunch on the 24th we all went down to the river and had a bon fire and roasted hot dogs with daddy.

Daddy is showing Amy the proper way to make hot dog sticks.

Missi and her first of many hot dogs.

Kacy and two of her little buddies taking turns at making hot dogs. 

Shea and Royal finally arrive to eat, seeing as Shea is still in a cast, these two went to go get the kayak, so Shea could play with us. 

The taxi service hauling it's first load down river. On this section of the North John Day river fork the deep spots are pretty hard to get to from the bank, so we either walk down river or take the kayak. 

Both of our families stay very busy so getting play days are pretty rare and cherished1

July 4 - Happy Independence day!!

The day of memorial for the greatest time in the history of our country is one of celebration all over. Way out here in the boonies is no exception. Both years we have been here, we seem to pack as much into this day as we possible can. These little towns around here sure know how to celebrate! There even was a huge bluegrass festival in Fossil, OR that we went to last year. 

This year we went over to Monument, OR where they host a community day, with a parade, lots of fun games, booths, contests, and in the evening an amazing firework display.  Janessa took so many fun pictures with her camera of the day.

Our astronomer wore this around all day, and had it stained on his face for 3 more. 

The bumper ball challenge was pretty intense between these two!

A very popular part of the day!

 Later in the day we went to Spray, Oregon to have a pot luck down at the river with our friends from church!

Then back to Monument for fireworks, Janessa got some amazing pictures!

June 30 - Putting in the River Screen

 Our orchard has two pump stations, the north pump and the south pump, and in the summer when the river starts getting low we change the pump in the river from a foot valve to a floating screen that pulls off the top of the water. This year we had a picnic and made it a family event. After the adventure of getting it in, the boys got their kayak and we spend the very hot afternoon playing in the river.  

The water from the river gets pumped into this tank, often used as a swimming pool, as it is several degrees warmer than the river.

Here is the screen coming in on the front end loader.

Even Shea gets to play with this toy, as you can see he has a plastic bag duct taped around his arm.