Water and Sun

Tuesday the sun came out! Gary and Louise went to Portage with granddaughter Jessica to spend time with Jon and Erin. It was a beautiful day with boating and swimming and lots of fun in the sun. These pictures show you a bit of what the day was like. Jon and Erin left for Portland this morning, but a great time was shared over the days they were here.

Weekend Adventures

Cloudy weather and showers have not prevented the Coles from having an exciting weekend. Jon and Erin came up to the camp, Matt and Jo, Andy, Ryan and Meghan spent an afternoon and evening cooking out, boating, enjoying games, knitting, and a campfire. These pictures show the highlights of the day. Today we joined Jon and Erin in a Farm Day visit to Knot II Bragg Farm in Wade, where Natilla gave an herb walk and we enjoyed a couple of hours with nature.

From Andy crawling under the wharf to find the lost light to the yummy cheesecake JoAnna made, it was a great time for family.

Matthew's Birthday

Today is Matthew's birthday! This collection of pictures from the past don't begin to show how he has brought smiles into the lives of so many people. We see him here on earlier birthdays, but we couldn't find pictures of the most memorable one - the day the dump truck backed into our yard loaded with sand. He thought we were giving him the dump truck! We have a picture of him going to school for the first time, a picture with his bicycle, his twenty-first birthday, and a birthday at Gallup's Animal Farm. There are pictures with is little brother Jon, and with his own son, Ryan. Matt is a great

son and we want to honor him today and wish him a truly great birthday!

Days at the Lake

Summer weather has been with us for a few days. We spent a day at the lake with Meghan and Ryan, then a few days by ourselves. These pictures tell the story of the boy who loves water so much he pours it over his head and grins in pure pleasure. Also the young lady who loves strawberry short cake and enjoys the water nearly as much as her brother. Gary worked on decorating the wharf, as you can see. Louise knit, read, and sat in the sun. These pictures show what summer should be like!

Rain, rain, go away

The rain continues, interrupted by drizzle and a few moments of no precipitation. Gary has created a new shade garden, building a stone wall to frame it. You can see him here moving in soil for the flowers. Today he went to the berry farm and returned with eight boxes of beautiful berries. By evening four of those boxes had been transformed into strawberry jam. It has been many days since the sun appeared, and tomorrow will not be the next one. The high temperature today was 57, and sweaters and sweatshirts were a necessity. It was good weather for wool socks!

The gardens are suffering from the weather and other pests. Yesterday we got up to see a flock of black birds lined up in our two rows of beans, eating the seeds. We have planted them three times, and have no beans. We are a favorite spot for the black birds. It looked like Alfred Hitchcock's movie yesterday morning as they came in flocks. Sally the cat has decided the raised bed with the carrots in it is her sandbox. She has rolled and dug in it until half a row of carrots have disappeared. And the striped cucumber beetles have taken up residence in the zucchini patch. Gardening has become rather discouraging.

July 4th Family Cook Out

The Coles gathered today at Jim's camp at Drew's Lake. As the picture above shows, several generations attended. Five brothers were together again, along with many of their children and grandchildren. Lots of good food was consumed and they caught up with events in each others lives. The weather was not very good - mist, rain, dampness as we have had for weeks now. The younger children barely noticed as they played and ate. Finally a picture was taken of the crowd that was there.